Chapter XXVI: The Life Seed
LES: Holy Cow! I just went over the last missions; deciding if they should have their own chapters or if they should share a chapter, and I discovered that this story will be about forty-five chapters long! This will easily be the longest story I've ever written! I tell you what… I'm likely going to kill myself!
Immediately after Erol disappeared, Jak's TalkBox activated. "Jak, this is Samos." It was the older Samos that Jak remembered from his childhood. "I need you to go out to my old hut in Dead Town. It is time to retrieve something that was hidden there long ago."
"Sure thing." Jak said rather sarcastically. "It's not like I have anything better to do with my last months then chase down crap for you."
"Jak! That is nothing to joke about!" Samos spat, sounding very much like an angry parent. "Yes, this is a terrible situation, but we are doing all we can to save you. And right now, in order to do that, you'll need the Life Seed!"
"Life Seed?" Jak said, he had never heard of such a thing. "What's that?"
"You'll find out… in due time." Samos said. "Now, Dead Town's taken a real beating from recent Metal-Head attacks. Even with your enhanced abilities, it is impossible for you to get to the hut on your own power. For this reason, I had one of the men leave the Titan Suit in Dead Town. It is waiting for you just to the left of the entrance. You can use the Titan Suit to reach the hut. Oh, and Jak?"
"What?"
"Be careful. You may think that all is lost, but it is not. It is not too late to save you from your fate." Samos said. "Don't get yourself killed, no matter what."
Jak rolled his eyes away from the TalkBox. There is no hope for me. He thought to himself. There's nothing that can be done for me. The only thing left to do is to make sure Praxis and Erol go down with me! "Sure, I'll get the Life Seed for you."
Jak entered Dead Town a short while later. He walked a short distance into the ruined city and looked to the left. Sure enough, there was a machine-type thing that could only be the Titan Suit.
"Whoa! Look at that thing!" Daxter said. "It looks like it could do some serious damage!"
"Good." Jak said. He walked up to it and climbed into the large cockpit, a protective, reinforced glass shield slid down to protect it's pilot.
Jak was surprised to see the Titan Suit operated much like the zoomers of Haven City. There was a foot pedal to move forward, there were handlebars to control what direction you were going. There was a button with 'boost' written on it. Jak pressed it experimentally and the Titan Suit launched itself into a low, boost-powered jump. It wasn't as high a jump as Jak could jump, but it wasn't to be laughed at either.
Jak looked forward and was surprised to see a large red arrow right on the glass. Jak turned the large machine, and the arrow turned, so it continued to point at the same stretch of wall. Suddenly, Torn's voice came over the speaker. "What are you waiting for, soldier? Get going!"
"What is this?" Jak asked.
"The arrow?"
"Yeah."
"It's an environmentally intelligent interactive computer." Torn said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "The way to the hut has been programmed into the computers. It will show you the way. Just follow the arrow… idiot-proof."
"I don't think so." Jak said, staring at the wall that the dumb computer wanted him to go through. Jak doubted the Titan Suit had ghosting powers. "It wants me to go through a wall."
"A wall? No problem. The Titan Suit has a wicked punch; it can pack several tons into a hit. Its punch will be more than enough to take out a crumbling wall. Works great on Metal-Heads, too. It's sort of like squashing a bug."
"Torn!" Jak yelled, cutting off Torn's ranting. "Which button is the punch button?"
"Oh, it's the red ones on the handlebars. The right one is for a right-handed punch, the left for a left-handed." Torn explained. "Get to it, soldier." He disconnected.
"Yessir!" Jak saluted sarcastically before his attention was turned back to the wall. "Okay, let's see what this baby can do!"
"Jak… take it easy!" Daxter warned.
But Jak wasn't listening, (Big surprise) and rushed the wall. The Titan Suit moved surprisingly quick for all its mass. Jak pressed the right button and the Suit raised its right 'fist' and delivered a several ton punch into he brick wall. This nothing short of obliterated the wall. "Wow!" Jak yelled, his eyes alive with excitement for the first time since his fight-to-the-death with Praxis in Mar's Tomb. "I've got to get me one of these!"
"Eight-hundred pound Tigorrilla coming through!" Daxter exclaimed.
Jak followed the arrow to the next wall and promptly smashed it in a single punch. In this next area was a single Metal-Head Grunt, which jumped at Jak's explosive arrival. You had to feel sorry for it.
"Let's see if Metal-Heads are as fun to squish as Torn says." Jak said.
The Metal-Head recovered from its initial shock and drew near its attacker. Jak used the Titan's punch again. It didn't take a scientist to figure out from the results that Metal-Head Grunts are not built to withstand a punch that packs tons of force into a single hit. The Metal-Head, for lack of a better word, exploded.
"Haha!" Jak laughed insanely. "It's like squishing a Wumpbee! A freakin' huge Wumpbee!"
Daxter gulped. Now even he felt sorry for the Metal-Heads on some level. Jak hated Wumpbees with a burning passion that maybe even surpassed his hatred for the Erol, and maybe the Baron. If Jak was now comparing the Metal-Heads to Wumpbees… they didn't have that much longer to live. Jak, Daxter recalled from his memory, had suffered from a rare lapse of stupidity on his ninth birthday and got too close to a Wumpbee nest. The poor boy was still pulling stingers out a week later. And Daxter and Keira got caught in the crossfire also, though they didn't get it as bad as Jak. Still, all three of them needed to be healed by old Log-in-the-Head.
From that moment on, Jak hated the bugs with a passion that the even-tempered young man had for nothing else. Normally very well tempered, Jak would go into a taciturn sulk at the slightest mention of Wumpbees until the subject was dropped.
The people of Sandover village quickly learned that Wumpbees were an 'off-limits' subject with Jak. This also went with Samos' 'The-Birds-and-the-Wumpbees' lecture. And that one wasn't about birds or Wumpbees at all! Daxter still had nightmares over that one. Even Jak had been shaken at the end of that one.
Anyway… the point is… the Metal-Heads were going to die horribly painful deaths.
The way to the next area was to jump up to the next level, but the walkway was up too high for the boost jump. "Great… now what?" Jak asked.
Jak turned the Titan suit around, searching for any helpful hints, when the computer highlighted a block on the ground. Jak moved over and new instructions appeared on the screen. Torn was right, it was idiot-proof. A three-year old could have followed them.
Jak pressed a button and the Titan Suit easily picked up the block that even Jak would have had trouble lifting, let alone moving from point A to point B. Jak moved the machine back over to the wall and dropped the block next to the wall. This made a stepping-stone for the mech to use. Two boost jumps later, and Jak was on his way again.
Then the computer activated again. This time, it was highlighting a pillar. Jak could see now why Samos said it was impossible for him to make it alone. The next gap was well over thirty feet wide. The farthest that Jak had ever attempted to jump was slightly over twenty feet, over ten feet farther than he had ever jumped. However, the pillar was just the right length.
Jak maneuvered the machine into position and used the Suit's punch to knock the pillar down, bridging the gap. Jak crossed easily.
The next gap had a column on the other side. So he just picked up a nearby stone with the mech's strength and chucked it at the base of the pillar. This caused the pillar to fall, allowing the Titan Suit to cross in safety. Now, only one pillar stood between Jak and the old hut. "Doesn't it worry you that there are no Metal-Heads?" Daxter asked suddenly.
"Of course it does." Jak hissed. "Damn them! Disappearing right when I have a whole lot of new toys to use against them! I'm armed to the teeth, and they're gone!"
"Okay… Jak, I think you've finally gone psycho, you've gone off the deep end, you've got a one-way ticket to the funny farm, you're getting measured for a strait jacket, you're going to the nut house, you've gone insane, mad, crazy, loco…" Daxter ranted.
"Okay, I get it." Jak said. "Now shut up." Jak used the Titan Suit's mega-punch one last time to knock down the last pillar that lead to Samos' old hut, the one that Jak remembered from his childhood growing up in Sandover, the one that was now decimated. The pillar crumbled instantly and fell over, landing on the ramp that lead to the second level of Samos' hut.
Jak backed the mech up and opened the cockpit again, so he could climb out. Daxter climbed onto his usual spot, on his larger friend's shoulder. The Dark Elf walked over the makeshift bridge. "Are you ready, Dax?"
"As ready as I'll ever be." Daxter replied. "You know, I spent many a day cleaning up this place for Old Greenie."
Jak entered the once familiar hut. "Oh my God!" He gasped. He thought he had prepared himself, but obviously, he hadn't adequately prepared himself for what he would find inside the hut. He had forgotten that it had been five hundred years since they left Sandover in the claws of the Metal-Heads. The monsters had ravaged everything. Shelves were up-heaved, machines were broken beyond repair and had rusted, and the Warp Gate had fallen over and was broken down the middle. But, worst of all were the signs of a struggle. Bloodstains that were centuries old stained the wooden floor, and the skeleton of an unknown elf lay in the corner. It looked like had had been ripped apart.
"Who do you think that is?" Daxter asked nervously.
"I don't know… and I don't want to know." Jak said. The elf, on a sudden whim, turned around and walked out the door. He dropped down to the ground level, Keira's workshop and room. Keira's workshop had been salvaged too. The A-Gav Zoomer was simply gone and the transport pad had a deep crack in it. Everything in general was in shambles.
Something on the ground caught Jak's eye. He walked over, knelt down and picked it up. It was Keira's old rag, the dirty, oil-covered one that she used. Jak laughed sourly as the memory from the night before this big mess surfaced from his mind. Back when he was a young mute hero and she was… the young innocent girl he remembered. Back when they were still good friends.
Jak set down the rag in its original position and looked at the door that led to Keira's room. But he didn't have the heart to go in there.
So he returned to the upper level, where he found Daxter going through piles of junk. "What are you doing?" The elf asked.
"Looking for that stupid Life Seed thing." Daxter replied, sending some valuable-looking notes flying.
"You mean that?" Jak asked, pointing up toward that ceiling. Daxter looked up and saw a glowing seed hanging in a basket near the roof.
"Not a very good hiding place, is it?" Daxter commented.
"You couldn't find it." Jak pointed out.
"Okay, smarty-pants, so how did you find it?" Daxter demanded.
"I felt it." Jak said simply. Daxter didn't question him. Jak had become super weird since that whole 'Dark Eco' thing affected him. Jak jumped up and grabbed the basket that contained the Life Seed.
The TalkBox activated almost instantly. "Well done, Jak!" The voice, Samos', praised. "And… Daxter, I suppose…" As Samos spoke those last words, Daxter mouthed them sarcastically behind the TalkBox's 'back'. "Before we came through the Rift long ago, I was nurturing that Life Seed from the Great Tree. Take the seed to Onin now, she will prepare it for Samos."
"You—you mean 'you'." Daxter corrected.
"No! The other me, Daxter!" Samos shouted. "My younger self needs the seed's power to become… 'Sagely'."
"So, let me get this straight!" Daxter hissed. "It's fair to say that by bring your younger self the Life Seed now, we helped you become the Sage you are today! We helped you get your powers in the first place! AND YOU NEVER THANKED US?"
"Thank you, Daxter. Now go do it!" Samos ordered. He then disconnected.
Jak sighed. "Must you always pick fights with him?"
Daxter huffed angrily, crossing his furry arms over his chest. "Well, he started it."
Sometime later, Jak walked into Onin's tent. "Ah, hello, Jak." Pecker said with his usual Spanish accent, and then he exploded. "What took you so long? We had to skip lunch waiting for you two!" Then Onin slapped her hands together, creating a miniature fireworks display, possibly to get Pecker's attention. "Okay, okay, Onin says 'Thank you for saving the Life Seed.' But I wouldn't say that if I were her! Give Onin the Seed now, she will prepare it for Samos." Jak gave Onin the Life Seed and she began to perform strange rituals over it. "Mmm… bird seed." Pecker said quietly as they watched.
"Back off, feather-weight!" Daxter yelled at Pecker.
The moncaw wheeled on Daxter. "Listen, Tiny Tail, I was leading my hundredth flock south before you had fur one between your legs!" Pecker paused. "Not that your fur means anything."
Ever so Daxter-like, he had an insult ready. "At least I'm not some over-stuffed, over-yappin', feather-dustin' mouthpiece for the world's oldest professional!" Daxter began to flap his arms, comically impersonating Pecker. "Jak says 'Have a nice day.' Jak says 'I can't think on my own.' Jak says 'Go bite yourself'!"
Pecker squawked angrily. "Hey! This is my job, okay! And now you've really pissed me off!" Both Pecker and Daxter got into martial arts fighting stances, ready to kick each other's butts when…
Jak rolled his eyes. "Knock it off! Both of you!" He added the last part when Daxter slumped, but Pecker attempted to strangle him, pretending that he thought Jak was only speaking to Daxter.
Pecker stopped, for even he knew what Jak was like when he was stressed and upset. "You're lucky I haven't had lunch yet." Pecker said, poking Daxter in his furry little chest. "Onin says that the Life Seed is now ready for young Samos. Take it to him now in Haven Forest. That Seed will allow Samos to finally communicate with the plants of the forest. Go, quickly."
Jak took the Life Seed and walked out of the hut.
Jak had been looking all over the forest for twenty minutes when he finally found Samos sitting under the biggest tree in the forest.
Jak walked over. "Samos told me to… I mean you told me to… your older self… ah… whatever." Jak finished, giving up on making sense of the situation. "We heard you needed the Life Seed." Jak lightly tossed the seed to young Samos, who caught it.
"Yes, its power will help me speak to the plants." Samos said. "Just give me a few minutes." Samos then began to mediate in the way that Jak had seen thousands of times back in Sandover.
The elf sat down on the grass with a sigh. There was not telling how long this was going to take. "Don't go too far away." He said to Daxter, who was busy chasing stray butterflies in an almost feline way. "You never know when Metal-Heads might attack." Jak absentmindedly started to pick at the grass, but stopped when he saw Samos grimace. Oops. Jak thought. He had forgotten how touchy Samos was with mutilating plants. Jak almost laughed. Samos was almost okay with the fact that he was a murderous demon, as long as he didn't harm any plants.
Jak sighed again and did his best to settle down, which was hard. Jak was a man who craved action like a drug. Sitting around like this was murder.
After several minutes of watching Daxter chase butterflies, and stopping Daxter from almost eating one, Samos finally came out of his trance.
"By the Precursors!" Samos gasped as the plants released him. "Jak! The Life Seed gave me a terrible vision! The Baron plans to destroy the Precursor Stone! He aims to crack it open somehow. If he does this, the energy released will be beyond comprehension! It will destroy the world, and more, ending all life! The plants are crying out for protection! You must stop the Baron, Jak! Stop him, however you can!"
"You really are Samos." Daxter grumbled. "Once the plants are in danger, then things become top priority! The plants? What about the rest of us?"
"Dax, shut up." Jak said as he walked away.
Jak walked into Torn's office twenty minutes later and found Torn. "Torn, we've got a big problem." Jak said. He then proceeded to tell the ex-Krimzon Guard what Samos had told him. Torn's face grew graver and graver with every word.
"This is all my fault." Torn said when Jak had finished. "If I had kept my nerve, Praxis would've never gotten the Stone from us."
"Don't worry about it." Jak said quietly. "I understand why you did it. If it were me, I would have done the same exact thing."
Torn looked up in surprise. Jak must've figured out how he felt about Ashelin, but… "Are you saying you've got someone… special?"
Daxter looked over at Jak to see what he would say. He remembered how Jak had confessed his 'love' for Keira. "I did… once." Jak said finally. "A long time ago." And he left it at that.
LES: And I'll leave it at that! After this, we are going to skip quite a chunk of time. But, you know what I've just realized?
Muse: (hoping it's something intelligent) What?
LES: 'Plant' is a really weird word.
Muse: (facepaw)
LES: Plant, plant, plant, plant. See, doesn't it sound weird. 'Fork' is weird too. And so is 'Barbie'.