Rebel: I hope you like chapter three! Like Haven City in this story, Spargus City is relatively the same as in the game. Oh, also, I'm sorry about not doing last minute editing to the last chapter or two. Hopefully, I'll remember to add in the bars that split up sections in the other chapters.
3. Spargus City
"What do you mean we can't see Sig!" Kara shouted. The teenagers had arrived in Spargus around noon, and Kara had agreed to help them get into the palace to see Sig. Now a large guard stood in the way.
"I told you. He's busy with very important matters, and is not to be disturbed. Now move along." The guard said gruffly. Kara stalked off cursing under her breath. She walked up to the others who were waiting across the street.
"I'm guessing we aren't talking to Sig any time soon." Derek said with one look at Kara's face.
Kara held back some retorts and slowly calmed down. "That's right, but Sig has always had open court. I'm going to find out what's going on."
"How?" Grace asked.
"A lot of the people who work in the palace are out and about in the market place at this time of day. I have some connections that might be able to fill us in on the situation. Come on." Kara ran off down a street. The others followed her, weaving in and out of small crowds of people. Kara soon came to the bay.
"Why don't you guys look around a bit? I'm going to go chat with a few friends of mine." Kara said and disappeared into the mass of people wandering aimlessly through the small marketplace.
Derek resigned himself to chatting about the history of Spargus City with an old man sitting by the side of the road. Grace and Max went down to the water's edge and began skipping stones. At one point Grace began digging her toe into the sand, and ran into something metallic. She got down on her knees and began wiping away the sand. Max noticed what Grace was doing.
"What is it, Grace?" he asked curiously.
"I think it's an old eco pipe." Grace said, moving so Max could see. "The founder of Spargus must have used this pipe to create the entire city!"
Max made a face. "Why is one little eco pipe such a big deal?" he asked.
"Just think about it. He must have tapped into the eco and used it to power all the machines he needed. Water pumps, irrigation devices, a temporary shield against the storms."
"Wow." Max replied, picturing the work it must have taken. "So where's it go now?"
"It looks like it leads up toward that silo…" Grace's voice faded away as she looked up at the silo for the first time.
"What is it? Grace?" Max shook her shoulder a bit. In reply, Grace pointed weakly up at the top of the silo. Derek who had noticed Grace's strange behavior also looked in the direction she pointed. An enormous Metalhead egg was attached, pulsing unpleasantly as it slowly absorbed eco from the silo.
"Hey, guys!" Kara shouted as she ran up to her friends. "I figured out what's wrong with Sig!"
"So did we." Derek said gesturing toward the egg.
"Ugh. That thing's gross. That's not all, though. A large metal wasp flew overhead yesterday. The archers on the wall shot it down, but not before it was able to place that "thing" up there. Sig is worried because it's absorbing a great deal of the city's much needed eco, and when it hatches, it'll be huge!"
"It's probably part of the Metalheads' invasion plan. It'll be easy to defeat Spargus with Metalheads on both sides of the walls." Grace said as she looked up at the horrid egg.
"What's the problem though?" Derek asked. "Can't they just shoot it down or something? It doesn't seem that hard."
"It's harder than you think, Derek." Kara said grimly. "An egg that size will absorb any fire from handheld weapons, and they can't just go firing turrets at it, or they could puncture the silo. The worst part is where it was attached. The egg's almost impossible to reach." she finished.
Max had been looking around as Kara explained he situation. Now he turned back to her.
"I could make it up there. I just need to know how to kill it." he stated.
Kara gave Max a puzzled look, but answered. "If you use a plasma grenade, it'll take out the Metalhead and the silo should survive the blast."
"Thanks." Max said. "Now I just need a plasma grenade. Where the heck am I supposed to find one of those?"
"I got one!" the old man Derek had been chatting with earlier said. "A Wastelander is always ready for a fight, even an old one like me." he said, pulling out the grenade. "Go blow that Metalhead to Kingdom Come!"
Max nodded as he took the weapon. "Grace, come with me." he said. Grace followed as Max headed up to a building farther up the hill. "I need you as a counterbalance for what I'm about to do. Is that alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, that's fine." Grace said. They climbed a ladder up to the roof of the building. When they reached the top, Grace saw what Max had spotted earlier: a system of pipes along the rooftops in the direction of the silo.
"Hope you're ready for this." Max said. He took out his jet board and began flipping some clasps on the bottom. Suddenly, the jet board extended to allow two people. Max hopped on in front, and steadied the board as Grace got on behind. She wrapped her arms around his waist and held on as Max took off.
Max grinded along the first pipe. Grace saw that they'd have to do a flip at the end in order to reach the next pipe. She closed her eyes and focused on moving her body in sync with Max's. She felt them leave the pipe, and for a split second Grace felt like she was floating. Then the board hit the next pipe hard, jolting Grace. Max put out his foot to stop as they landed on the new rooftop.
"Are you okay?" He asked Grace. She nodded. "Good because that was the warm-up. Now comes the hard part so I suggest you hold on." Max said. Grace tightened her grip as Max took off again.
Heslid along yet another pipe before jumping onto a small section of roof, then onto another one. 'It's like hopscotch.' Grace mused as they landed the second time. Then they grinded along a small section of pipe and jumped.
As the board made contact with piping along the top of the silo, everything seemed to slow down. Grace watched as Max reached into his pocket and pulled out the grenade. She saw him activate it, and then watched horrified as the handheld bomb slipped from Max's grip. Reflexively, Grace reached out and caught it. As the board grinded by the Metalhead, Grace felt her body leaning out toward the egg. Moving with her body, Grace reached out and shoved the grenade into the slimy, repulsive egg adhesive that bonded it to the silo.
Then everything seemed to speed up again. Grace and Max were flying off the end of the pipe, the wind whipping through their hair. The board jolted as it hit the rooftop below. Grace got off the hoverboard shakilysoMax could putit away. Then, the grenade detonated. The egg exploded, wisps of green gas flying up into the air and dissipating.
Max smiled with satisfaction as he reslung his hoverboard. He had only a moment to enjoy his victory when Grace spontaneously hugged him. Then she let go, with an embarrassed grin.
"S-sorry. I guess I got carried away." she said.
"No problem." Max said, blushing.
"You two lovebirds coming down?" Derek shouted up at them. Max got ready to snap at Derek when he leaned over the edge of the roof and saw who was down there. "It seems someone would like to speak with us." Derek called up.
Max and Grace climbed down to where Derek and Kara were waiting. Sig was waiting as well.
Hewrapped his arm around Max's shouldersand gave Grace a wink. "Hello, cherries. I'm sorry I wasn't able to speak with you earlier, but now you have my undivided attention." he said with a little grin. "I believe you had a message for me?"
"Yes sir." Derek said. "It's about the Metalheads."
"Well, it looks like you took care of that problem." Sig said with a chuckle as he glanced up at the now egg-free silo.
"No sir, that's not what the message was about." Grace said solemnly.
Sig looked at her face, and stopped leaning on Max which Max was secretly grateful for since Sig was starting to crush him under his weight.
"What's wrong?" Sig asked.
"I'm sure Ashelin told you about the Metalhead situation already." Grace said. Sig nodded. "Well, we happen to know that the Metalheads aren't going to wait for you to come and exterminate them. They have an army, and they're bringing the fight to you." Grace said.
At first Grace was worried Sig didn't believe her, but then she saw that he respected her opinion and was merely trying to sort everything out. "They have an army, huh? Do you know who their leader is?" Sig asked.
Grace hadn't really thought about it, but now that she did, the original message from Misty Island came to mind. "They have a queen, and I think the conversation we overheard was between her and her general."
"So, we don't know our enemy too well." Sig muttered. "Well," He said in a louder, more confident voice, "We'll just have to be ready for anything. When should they be here?"
Grace ticked off the days on her fingers. "They should move out tomorrow night or the next day,and they're fast, so they should be here maybe half a day after they start out." she said.
"Good job, rookies. That means we'll have at least a day to make sure everyone's armed to the teeth, and all our weaponry is in working order. I'll talk to Kliever about vehicles. You guys did real well." Sig said.
"As long as we stop the Metalheads." Grace said.
Sig gave Grace a long hard look. "You look like a friend of mine. You wouldn't be related to Jak would you?"
"Yes. I'm his daughter. We live up at the Citadel now. That's whydefeating the Metalheadsis so important."
"I'm afraid I'm not following. You don't seem to have told me the entire story." Sig said, turning to face Grace.
"The Metalheads are heading toward the Citadel, and they plan on crushing everything in the way, including Spargus City." Grace explained.
A pause followed. "We'll just have to make sure they never get past us." Sig said, understanding the danger involved. "Tomorrow," Sig said so the people behind him could hear, "I will have jobs for all of you. Those Metalheads aren't going to win. We stop them here. But until then," he said softer, "You should all get some rest. You will all have dinner with me, and then we'll find you some accommodations."
With that, Sig walked off. Everyone stood still until they realized that the conversation was done, and they rushed after Sig.
Rebel: I hope that was cool. I enjoyed playing with time concept…and blowing up stuff. Next chapter will be a little dry since it's all about preparing for battle, but it is essential if you want to know the whole story plot. Oh, and I decided that since I brought out all the other old characters, everyone would enjoy seeing Jinx again! Yup, he's in the next chapter, but don't expect it for a while. I'm lazy.
P.S. My birthday is tomorrow! (that's Tuesday)