Chapter XXXII: Prison Break

Let's just say that Jak wasn't a very happy camper when he stomped into the Underground Hideout. He was still pissed that Praxis had escaped him by the skin of his teeth. Several people tried to stop him in the hallway, but Jak roughly shoved them aside.

"Bastard!" One brave man called after Jak.

"Fuck you!" Jak shot back before continuing on his way.

He was on a warpath. Jak was itching to kill someone, and that someone's name was Torn. Jak stormed into the main office. Torn was in there, and Jak knew in his heart that someone was going to die today. Jak walked up to the desk and slammed his fist on the table, jarring Torn. "Torn, you better start talking and talking fast."

"What?" Torn asked.

"Come on, Jak's actually giving you the chance to explain yourself!" Daxter said. "Get to talkin'! Jak never lets anyone explain themselves!"

"What are you talking about?" Torn asked.

"Don't play stupid!" Jak hissed. "I know that you've been passing information to Praxis! What the hell were you thinking?"

Torn looked down at the table in shame. "You don't understand."

"Yes, I don't understand; but I want to understand before I kill you." Jak said.

"Praxis… he said he was going to kill Ashelin for spying, his own daughter!" Torn said, shaking his head. "I—I couldn't risk that… even for the Underground."

"Right, good thinking, except Praxis has the Precursor Stone now, which, by the way, Jak nearly died to get! So Praxis can do what ever he wants now!"

"Not whatever he wants." Jak said suddenly. "Only one that is pure of heart, one who is untainted by pain, could use the Stone to its full potential. Praxis definitely is not pure of heart."

"But… doesn't that rule you out?" Daxter asked.

"I know. But still, that Stone belongs to me, and I will not stand to have that Bastard use it for his ends."

"There may be a way to get the Precursor Stone back, and maybe our friends too." Torn said.

"What?"

"Our safe houses were raided simultaneously. Half the Underground is now in the fortress." Torn explained.

Daxter trembled slightly. "Tess?"

"Captured." Torn answered. "The Shadow too. Kor and the Kid are missing and unaccounted for. You could rescue them. Go to the fortress. I'll contact Vin and he'll turn off the force fields and the automated defense system. I'll call you at the Fortress."

"And why should I trust you?" Jak demanded. "I'm not one to trust traitors and double-agents."

"You must trust me because you and I both know that the Baron would've killed Ashelin without blinking!" Jak lowered his eyes as he saw the truth in these words. "It'll be a tough fight through the fortress… possibly suicide."

"You just get those doors open." Jak hissed. "I'll be there." With that, Jak spun around and walked out of Torn's office.

Jak couldn't believe that he was walking back into the Fortress after what happened last time he went in there, and the two years before that. Just the memory about the torture, and flying through the window and hitting that pipe made him hurt.

"Okay." The TalkBox activated as Torn called. "The shields and the defense system should be off-line. We can't do anything about the guard patrols, though."

"You've got to feel sorry for those Guards. Jak's been itching to kill someone all day." Daxter said. "Jak's gonna have some fun with those Guards." Jak couldn't help an evil grin.

"You bet I am!"

"Oh brother…" Torn sighed.

Five minutes of endless corridors later, and Jak had not come across a single guard. It was quite unusual. "Hey, don't worry about that." Daxter said. "I'm sure they are… all just getting coffee… at the same time…"

"Dax…" Jak rolled his eyes.

"Or maybe Guard causalities are so high that the surviving guards quit."

"Dax…"

"Or maybe…" Then Daxter's rant was cut short. They had walked into a new room, one that contained a single yellow-armored Krimzon Guard.

The Guard and the Dark elf faced off for a second before the Guard raised his weapon. Jak recognized it immediately… the number of times it had been used on him before… "Shit!" Jak swore as he ducked out of the way.

It was an electro-net blaster. One of the last weapons the Baron had used as 'Freak Control' in the Prison. Each shot blasted out a net that shocked the person inside if they struggled. Jak remembered the net well, for a good shock can teach loads.

The net sailed over his shoulder… his left shoulder. Jak spun around to see that Daxter had been caught in the net. "Jak, what?" The net shocked Daxter as he moved to escape the confines of the net. The shock wiped away any Elvin instincts, leaving only animal ones. The Ottsel tried madly to escape, but only succeeded in making the situation much worse.

Jak instantly pulled out the Blaster and shot the offending Guard through the head. No matter how much he wanted to kill in gruesome ways, his friend was in danger right now. He ran over to where Daxter struggled vainly against the net.

"Dax! Stop it!" Jak ordered, holding the Ottsel still until he calmed down enough to listen. "Dax, stay still and listen to me. This net will shock you if you move or struggle. Stay still, I'll get it off. I won't hurt you." Jak carefully extracted Daxter from the net.

Finally, a few minutes later, he was free. "Ow! That hurt!" Daxter glared at the net, which now lay innocently on the ground. "What was that thing?"

"Freak Control." Jak said sourly. "One of the many devices of control that they used on me in prison. They only started using it after I became too strong for them to handle."

"Man, I never thought we'd see an Elite Krimzon Guard!" Daxter said.

"Elite?" Jak asked.

"The best." Daxter said. "They wear yellow armor instead of regular red. Black armor means that you are dealing with an assassin. But those guys don't exactly walk around in their black armor… draws too much attention."

"Shit!" Jak swore again. "If I get caught in those nets, then I'm done for!"

"Well, let's make sure you don't get caught in those nets, shall we?" Daxter said.

Jak soon found himself in a highly familiar room, familiar… but hated more than anything else on this earth. "Looks like we've come in a full circle." Daxter commented. It was the very room where Jak had endured two years of torturous genetic experiments at the hands of the Baron and Erol. The Dark Eco machine still gleamed eerily in the green light.

"How I hate this place. And that machine." Jak hissed, glaring at the machine in question.

"So, where do you think they are?" Daxter asked.

"Holding cells." Jak said automatically. "This way." Jak walked down the familiar path from the room to his cell block.

Soon Jak came to his old cell and found that several of the cells were filled to the brim with captured Underground agents, dozens to a cell. It seemed that Praxis still had a habit of over-stuffing his cells.

"Jak!" Some of them breathed a sigh of relief. "Mar, are we glad to see you. We thought we were stuck in here!"

Tess walked to the front of Jak's old cell. "Daxxie?" She asked.

"That's right, baby, the Metal-Head-masher has saved the day! Oh… and I let Jak tag along too…" Daxter said.

"My little hero!" Tess squealed. Jak pulled out the blaster and shot the lock off the cell. The door opened without complaint and Tess leapt straight at Jak. At first, Jak was taken aback by this behavior, but her true aim was to grab Daxter off his shoulder and darn near squeeze him to death against her cleavage. Daxter wasn't too upset about this.

Jak continued doing this until all the doors were opened. The last one contained Samos. "Samos, are you alright?" Jak asked.

Suddenly, Samos appeared next to Samos, except this was the Samos that Jak remembered. "What took you so long?" Samos demanded. "I've added six rings to my truck just waiting for you two to get me out of here!" Jak stared opened-mouthed between the two Samos'. The older Samos' eyes fell on Jak. "Great Yakkow horns! What happened to you, Jak?" But Jak was too confused and shocked to answer.

"Wait!" Daxter called when he extracted himself from Tess. "You're you! I mean the other you! I mean… you know what I mean."

"Yes, it appears that I have an older time twin." The Shadow said.

"Time twin?" Jak asked, completely confused.

"Great grass grubs…" The Shadow continued, poking Samos in the chest. "I can't believe what a cranky old log I've become!"

"Two Samos the Sages?" Daxter demanded, then he screamed and took cover behind his larger friend. "AUGH! Jak, they're multiplying!"

Jak ignored his friend. He glanced around the hallway, but someone was missing from the assembled number. "Where's the Kid?" He asked.

Samos, it appeared, had already taken this fact into stride. "We need to find the Kid, pronto!"

"What are you talking about, old growth? The Kid already opened the Tomb!" The Shadow said. "Our top priority should be to disrupt the Baron's forces!"

"Oh, look who thinks they've sprouted?" Samos said. "Look, if you were half as wise as I am, you'd know that the proper course of action would be to FIND THE KID!"

"Listen, you old dried up leaf!" The Shadow spat. "I run this outfit, and I say that we should go after the Baron's forces!"

"Well, if you had taken better care of yourself, I wouldn't be in the state I am now!"

"Do we have to separate you two?" Daxter asked.

"There was a Warp gate, an active one back in the Machine room." Jak said with a frown at the merest mention of the room and the pain it forced him to remember. It brought back the memories of the pain, but more than the physical pain, but the pain that one feels when their soul dies. "The less time we spend in this hellhole, the better."

Everyone agreed with Jak's statement, so Jak led them down the equally familiar path to the machine room. Sure enough, there was an active Warp gate there. Jak stood back and watched as everyone jumped through the Warp gate. Samos paused before taking the jump. "Jak…"

"Not now, Samos." Jak said. "Later." Samos jumped in, followed closely by the duo themselves.

LES: Next chapter is another one that I've waited a long time to get posted, so expect it soon if I didn't manage to post it now.