Yay. Another chapter! ; The title of this chapter is from when Krew meets Jak and says 'The Ungerground will take anyone with a pulse these days'. Anyways. I want mroe reviews. ;-;
Upon reaching the stadium, Jak walked to the small area that was Keira's workshop. Lightly, he knocked on the door frame as he stepped inside. "Keira, are you here?" There was a clattering noise as something was dropped. Then, the green haired she elf crawled out from under a zoomer. "Jak!" She walked over to him and smiled happily. "I was worried about you after I heard about the monster attack." Daxter scowled. "What am I? Chopper liver?" Both Jak and Keira ignored the ottsel's ranting. To Jak, whenever he was with Keira, all his problems seemed distant, the pain was less, and he was…Happier. Happiness…It was a word that had been ruthlessly snatched away from him two years ago.
"I'm alright. Just a flesh wound." He gave a rare, genuine smile. Even though he was joking, there was no mirth in the smile. It was a sad smile, the smile of a young man who had seen and had been through too much. Keira was about to say something when Daxter had to open his big mouth and ruined the moment. "HEY! What about me! I was there too y'know!" The she elf got an uncomfortable look on her face and what almost looked like a slight blush formed on her face. Rather quickly, in Jak's opinion, she changed the subject to something else. "Well, I'm glad you're alright. So, why are you here? Going to practice for the next race?" A thumb was pointed at the racing zoomer, and then she sent the ottsel a mildly annoyed look. Daxter was currently examining himself in the reflection of one of her machines. "Shiiiney…" He breathed. Moving over to him, Keira lightly thwaped him on the head just as he was reaching to touch it. "Don't…Touch." She hissed. Daxter pouted.
Jak shook his head. "No, I was wanting you to look at my hover board. It's been making a slight rattling noise." In actuality, he had wanted to talk to her about what had happened during the fight and how Dark Jak had felt about the creature. However, he decided that it probably wasn't a good idea at this time, all thanks to Daxter. He handed Keira the hover board and she quickly turned it on then listened to it. "I don't hear anything, but I'll check it over anyway." After a few moments, she had done a few tests and some mild tuning, and then she handed it back to him. "I didn't find anything wrong with it." Jak frowned, and then he gave a slight shrug. "Maybe it was my imagination." Keira gave him a gentle smile. "You've been busy and you have a lot on your shoulders. Don't worry though; I honestly needed the break from working on the zoomer."
After grabbing Daxter, Jak left the workshop and headed for the farming district. Maybe spending some time in the forest would help to clear his mind. Unfortunately, his Talk box activated. It was none other than Torn. Jak suppressed a groan. "Jak, get back to the hideout. I've got a new recruit that I want you to show around." Then the box clicked off. Daxter scowled. "What are we? The babysitting service?" Jak couldn't help but to agree.
A little bit later, the two arrived back at the hideout, there; Torn was waiting with the new recruit. The new kid was short, very short, had shoulder length red hair, a couple of pricings in each ear, was wearing dark pants with knee guards, a shirt that had the sleeves torn off, arm bracers, and the standard gun. Glancing over the new guy, Jak decided that he was probably about five foot and no doubt thought he could take on the world. Probably a bit aggressive due to his small size. Jak couldn't help but to mentally roll his eyes. Great. Just great. He had to baby sit some kid that was a punk, bad ass wannabe. Torn was saying a few things and the boy simply nodded in acknowledgement. The always angry one glanced up and nodded at Jak. "Here's Jak. Jak, this is Aryn." Then boy glanced over…Her shoulder? That's wasn't a boy, that was a girl!
The first thing he noticed was her pale skin. No doubt from the dark clothing and being a red head. The next thing he noticed were the vividly green eyes, that were hauntingly familiar for some odd reason. He was shaken out of his musings as Daxter leapt off his shoulder and walked over to the new girl. "Hallo there sweet stuff. You look like you're new to this joint. I can show you all the hot spots and then some." The ottsel waggled his eyebrows suggestively. Aryn simply shook her head. "Sorry, I don't go for animals," A thin, almost predatory grin, "I suggest trying the local sewers: the rats might like you." Jak couldn't help but grin. He liked her biting sense of humor. "Oo, buurrn." He commented to Daxter who scowled and climbed back up to his shoulder to pout.
Torn glanced at the trio with mild annoyance on his face, as always. "Looks like you'll get along fine. Jak, I want you to do a simple mission at the water pumping station. Supposedly, the Baron is going to have the water turned off, again. Take Aryn with you and take out any guards and techs that are there." Jak nodded and motioned for Aryn to follow him. After they left the hideout, he glanced over at her. "You know how to work a morph gun?" She gave a curt nod. Jak gave a slow nod. "Are you good at anything else, combat wise? Again, the girl gave a nod. "I'm also fairly good with hand to hand combat and using knives." Jak grinned. "Handy." In the back of his mind, his dark side stirred. It was mildly curious about the person he was traveling with. Then, Dark Jak said one, simple word. Strange. Jak blinked, and then silently replied. What's strange? Her. What's so strange about her? Dark Jak never replied. This left Jak wondering about what the other being had meant. Maybe he was meaning her small size. That was certainly something strange. Most of the people here, excluding the children, were fairly tall. Some how, he doubted that she was a child.
"How old are you?" He asked suddenly, surprising himself with the abruptness. She glanced up at him with a look of mild surprise on her face. "17. Why?" Jak shrugged. "I'm just curious, that's all." She was about the same age he was. Odd, she didn't look it. Oh well. It didn't really matter. "Are you familiar with the city?" Again, she gave another nod. Well, that just made his job a hell of a lot easier. "Well, let's go kick some ass then." Aryn gave a wide grin. "Sounds like fun to me." Daxter gave a loud groan. "Great! I'm stuck with two lunatics!"
The trio got to the pumping station soon enough and it seemed that Torn's contacts were right on the money. Sure enough, there was a small group of guards and two techs working on the pumping station. Silently, Jak peered around the corner and watched the group for a moment, and then he looked back to Aryn. "I'm guessing that there's about six guards and two techs. You deal with the techs; I'll take care of the guards." A look of distaste crossed her face at the thought of being given the easy job. It looked as if she was going to protest, then she thought better of it. "Alright then I'll turn the water back on if it's been turned off."
The two elves split up, with Jak distracting the guards. However, they all didn't go after him like he expected. Two stayed with the techs, while the other four went after him. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Aryn perched precariously on a small ledge above the small group. How the hell did she get up there? While Jak was dealing with the four guards, Aryn dropped down behind a tech and quickly broke his neck with a sickening snap. The two guards spun around and leveled their rifles at her. She raised her hands in innocence.
Jak had quickly taken care of the four and he looked back up. "Damn it! First mission and she gets herself in trouble." He hissed to himself as he sprinted up to where Aryn and the guards were. When he reached the level, he about froze when he heard what the guard said. "You! The Baron's been looking for you." The red head gave a coy smile. "I'm sure he has…" Then, she suddenly did a spin kick to the left guard's head, sending him off the ledge. Almost immediately, she tackled the other guard, however, the guard managed to squeeze off a shot. Luckily for her, the bullet only grazed her arm. Perched on the guard's chest, she delivered a punch with the palm of her hand to his chin. The force of the blow was strong enough to snap his neck.
Jak watched all this, fairly impressed. Glancing towards the tech, he frowned. "Get out of here." Yelping, the tech scurried away, back towards the city. Looking back to Aryn his frown deepened. "Are you alright?" She simply nodded. "I'll live." He gave her a pat on the back. "Nice moves, kid. I got a question though. What was the guard talking about?" For a brief moment, a dark look clouded her face, but it quickly went away. "I got out of the good Baron's prison a bit ago. Rather, escaped would be a better word I suppose. I was put in there because I stole stuff to survive and...Well, obviously I got caught."
Mentally, he blanched at the thought of the Baron's prison. There were too many bad memories of that place. Thankfully, Daxter interrupted the recollection as he hopped off of Jak's shoulder and on to the girl's. "Hey Toots. Dig the moves ya did. How 'bout we go to my place and I'll show you some of my moves?" Again with the suggesting eyebrow waggling. Aryn simply shook her head but tolerated the ottsel being on her shoulder. Jak simply shook his head. "Dax, you need a girlfriend." The orange rodent gave a smug grin. "Who said that I don't?" He hopped onto the male elf's shoulder and quickly changed the subject. "I bet tattooed wonder will want to hear about this." A low chuckle came from Aryn. "Nice nick name. Personally, I like to call him Mr. Stick-Up-His-Ass Torn." Daxter gave a low whistle. "I like that…" Jak just groaned and shook his head.
Once back at the hideout, Aryn retired to the room that had been deemed hers, leaving Torn and Jak alone. The older elf leaned against the desk. "So. How'd she do?" Jak gave a shrug of obvious indifference. "She's a pretty good fighter when it comes to hand to hand combat. Not sure how she does with a gun. Seems the Baron doesn't like her." Jak commented, reviewing the events of the earlier fight. Torn grunted. "Great. Just what I need: another person with a death wish vendetta against the Baron." Jak just grinned. "She's not as bad as me, so don't worry." With a snort, Torn moved some papers on his desk. "I'm going to assign her to you for awhile. I figure she can learn some things off you."
At this, Daxter let out a purring growl. "Oh yeah. Maybe I can work my moves on her." Torn gave the ottsel a side long look. "Dream on rodent. I don't think she's into annoying talking animals." Seemingly, Torn was in a fairly good mood. How long would that last? Probably not long.
