Chapter 5: The Lost Precursor City

The platform continued to go down until it stopped at the bottom. After that, Lidelle got off and looked around. There were windows that showed the deep waters, and Lidelle was in awe.

Lidelle: "This place looks so pretty...!"

Lidelle then walked over to the door and it automatically opened. She was surprised by this, but went through the doorway to see the path before her. There were pipes that looked hot, and there was green water. Lidelle figured that both of these things would hurt her upon contact, so she didn't bother with trying to touch them. Instead, she walked to the next door, and it opened to reveal a decently big room with floating platforms going up and down. This room had obstacles in the form of those hot pipes… and it had water that alternated between normal and green. Also, lurkers roaming about in this room. Lidelle saw them, and shuddered…

Lidelle: "Oh no… It looks like I'll have to fight my way through those lurkers."

Lidelle decided to jump on the nearest floating platform that went down from where she was at. This platform took her to a small structure that had the aforementioned hot pipe, as well as some Precursor orbs that were going in an arc over the hot pipe. She carefully jumped over it and spun around to stay in the air for a bit. Lidelle was able to collect the Precursor orbs that were there and stepped on another floating platform that took her to one of the bottom parts of the room.

This part had a button on it and she pressed it, which caused platforms from the water to temporarily rise up above it. From there, Lidelle heard a ticking sound and she knew that she had to hurry. She hopped over each of the platforms, grabbing orbs along the way. Lidelle got a cluster of blue eco, and thanks to the speed boost it gave to her, she was able to make it to another button. And so, the platforms went down, and she noticed that there was a scout fly on a bigger platform in front of her.

Lidelle: "There are scout flies here, too…?"

As she said that, Lidelle spin jumped to the larger platform and a duo of lurkers suddenly jumped to where she was. Out of fear, she quickly smacked the lurkers with her sweater's sleeves and they were taken out. This allowed her to free the first scout fly of the area. And then, Lidelle started to make her way back to where that first floating platform took her from. Along the way, she took in a cluster of blue eco and activated a Precursor device that came from the floor that the first button was on. Lidelle quickly snatched the Precursor orbs that were made visible and made it back to the floating platform

From that point, she went on another floating platform that took her upward. And soon enough, she cleared the rest of the room of any orbs and lurkers. After that, she went to the highest part of the room and moved onward. Lidelle went through the next hallway by spin jumping over the green water, and collecting a few Precursor orbs in the process. Then, she came to the next room, which was much smaller than the previous one. There were a few more orbs, as well as lurkers, and a second scout fly. So… Lidelle collected the orbs, took down the lurkers, and freed the scout fly. And with that, she progressed to the next hallway by using a really weird set of platforms. It took Lidelle a bit of time to understand how they worked, but she eventually got used to them.

She went through the next hallway by jumping over more hot pipes, and got to another decently large room that had alternating water. This room also had lurkers, a couple of clusters of blue eco, and a third and fourth scout fly. Plus, there were those weird platforms again. Lidelle jumped on the weird platforms to make her way across the room to get to where the third scout fly, as well as another small Precursor device, were at. A lurker was flying around the scout fly and it noticed Lidelle. It puffed up and went in to attack her.

Lidelle: "That lurker looks like a pufferfish right now… Maybe I should wait for it to deflate, because those spikes look like they can hurt."

Lidelle backed off until the lurker deflated. Then, she attacked and it went down in one hit. From there, she spin jumped over some alternating water and freed the third scout fly. And then, she decided to hop down to the bottom of the room and collect the Precursor orbs that were there. She eventually spin jumped to the middle of the bottom area, where a structure made of hot pipes rested. There, Lidelle collected a few more orbs, as well as green eco. Then, she spin jumped over to another section that allowed her to get back up to where the weird platforms were reset to. She jumped on them, and maneuvered them in a way where she got to some more Precursor orbs, green eco, and took in two clusters of blue eco at the same time.

And then Lidelle remembered there being that small Precursor device over by where the third scout fly was. So, she zipped over to the device... and she was barely able to activate it before her charge of blue eco ran out. She took the orbs that were inside, and went back to where those platforms reset themselves to. Then, Lidelle used them to get the fourth scout fly… and she freed it. Then, she noticed three colored pipes off in the distance… One of them contained a power cell, and the other two held the fifth and sixth scout flies.

Lidelle: "I wonder what those colored containers are about… Either way, it looks like there are things inside them; I should take a look."

And so, Lidelle fidangled with the platforms for a good bit before reaching the colored pipes. She got a closer look at them and was surprised.

Lidelle: "Goodness… I didn't think there would be a power cell AND two scout flies in here. … How do I get them out?"

Lidelle then saw three buttons next to her feet and realized that they must have been for those pipes. She pressed the button on the right first to see if it did anything. And yes, it did. The scout fly that was in front of that button was sent over to Lidelle's right. And then… Lidelle started to hear a ticking noise.

Lidelle: "Oh no, I think I need to hurry…!"

She scrambled to the weird platforms to try and get to where this new scout fly was sent to. Thankfully, Lidelle got to the scout fly in time and grabbed it. At this point, she figured that she had to do this for the other two pipes. So, she got back on the weird platforms and repeated that process to get what was now the sixth scout fly. Then, she returned to the colored pipes and pressed the button that released the power cell from the far left pipe. In order to get to that power cell, Lidelle had to jump on retracting platforms and reach the highest point of the room while under a strict time limit. She ended up not getting to the power cell in time and it went back through the colored pipe.

Lidelle: "*sigh* Oh well, I guess I can always try again…"

And she tried it again… This time, she was successful and managed to beat the clock. Lidelle grabbed the power cell, twirled around, and smiled before pocketing it. *power cell no. 45*

Lidelle: "Geez, I didn't think it would take so long for me to get the first power cell around here... but at least it seems that I have cleared this room out."

With that, Lidelle hopped down to the bottom of the room and saw a pathway that she didn't notice before. This small path led to a room that had platforms that rotated to the side, and below them was a pool of dark eco. In the middle of those things… was a floating platform that held a power cell. Lidelle saw the power cell and smiled again.

Lidelle: "Oh-! There's another power cell…"

But when she walked over to the gap that was between her and the power cell, she shuddered from what was below the platforms.

Lidelle: "Th-that must be dark eco… Raffina mentioned that she saw a pool of it on Misty Island when she was explaining to Klug what happened to us. I-I don't want to turn into whatever Daxter is…"

Lidelle stood completely still… She was too scared to cross the gap, knowing what the risks were. Her legs shook uncontrollably… Lidelle was considering turning back, and leaving the underwater city altogether. But then… she remembered what Keira said about the blue sage trying to raise up one of this place's chambers to the surface. Within that moment, she realized that she couldn't turn back. Lidelle knew that this wouldn't be what the blue sage wanted. She felt like she had an obligation to raise up one of the chambers for the blue sage… especially since he was nowhere to be seen in Rock Village. So, she breathed in and…

Lidelle: "*breathes in* *sigh* Okay, Mr. Blue Sage… If what you wanted was to have one of the chambers here be raised to the surface… then I'll do it for you. Me and my friends may not know where you're at right now, but I'll still do this for you; it's what you would have wanted."

With this sudden resolve backing her up: Lidelle stopped shaking and she jumped on each of the rotating platforms when they were right side up. From there, she bravely spin jumped to the power cell and grabbed it. Lidelle couldn't contain herself, she was so happy to have made it to the middle of the room all by herself. She made such a wide smile, then pocketed the power cell. *power cell no. 46* After doing that, she looked over to her right and saw another room to explore. Lidelle then hopped across the rotating platforms to get there. When she went across the gap, she saw some spinning lurkers. These lurkers spun around in these spiky things that wore.

Lidelle: "Those lurkers will hurt me if I use my regular attack on them… but maybe a dive attack can stop them, since I don't see any spikes on the top."

Lidelle tried this out on one of these lurkers, and it worked!

Lidelle: "G-great! I figured that would do the trick. I'm surprisingly good at taking out lurkers. *awkwardly giggles*"

She then took out the other spinning lurkers and looked at her surroundings.

Lidelle: "Hmm… … It looks like I have a choice going into one of two areas. … Both paths leading to them have the water that changes… … I'll go this way."

Lidelle decided to go through the path that led to an area with two lurkers that were stacked on top of each other.

Lidelle: "The bigger lurker seems to be supporting the smaller on top of it… I should knock the little one off and then deal with the bigger one."

She did just that, and it worked. And again, she was surprised with how well she was doing with fighting against lurkers. Either way, Lidelle saw another power cell that was perched on a structure above alternating water. Then, she noticed that there was a button on the floor, near her. She pressed it and platforms emerged from the pool of alternating water that was between her and the power cell. And then, Lidelle heard that ticking sound again.

Lidelle: "N-not again…!"

She scrambled on top of each of the platforms and as she spin jumped from the last one, they went back down. Thankfully, Lidelle was able to cling to the edge of the structure and pick herself up to safety.

Lidelle: "*sigh* That was close... but I made it."

Lidelle then walked up to the power cell, grabbed it, and pocketed it. *power cell no. 47* After doing that, she pressed a large button that was to the left where the power cell was. This made those platforms rise up from the water again and Lidelle hurried down the platforms and made it back to that first button. From there, she saw a slide of sorts… but she decided to go back to the room where she found those spinning lurkers. Why? Well, Lidelle wanted to go and see that the other path had in store. She waited for the alternating water to turn blue, and jumped in it to swim to the other side. Unfortunately for her, the water quickly changed back to green and it stung.

Lidelle: "Kyah-!"

Lidelle felt the pain of touching that green water and she zipped to the other side. And so, she shook the water off her body... and squeezed it out of her sweater. After that, she walked into the next room. In front of her was a hot pipe, and a long platform was floating about just below it. When Lidelle got to the edge of this side of the room, she saw another pool of dark eco below the long platform.

Her legs shook, but she was determined to find a chamber in the underwater city and raise it to the surface. So... she steeled herself and went across the gap, collecting some Precursor orbs in the process. And then, Lidelle was staring down more alternating water, a flying lurker, and a door that was closed. She took care of the lurker first, then hopped on one of the platforms. The platform lit up and she noticed this.

Lidelle: "Huh?"

Lidelle jumped on another platform, then hopped back to the first platform. The second one lit up, and the first one blanked out. She thought about what she just saw, and realized something.

Lidelle: "Oooh, I get it…! I think I need to jump on these and have all of them be lit up at the same time to make the door open!"

Lidelle jumped on each and every one of the platforms in a way that made them all be lit up at one time. And then... the door in front of her opened.

Lidelle: "I-I did it! *gasp* And there's a power cell in that room…"

Lidelle hopped down to the room from the platform that was closest to the doorway. From there... she picked up the power cell, smiled, and pocketed it. *power cell no. 48* After that, she left the room and went aaaall the way back to where she found that slide. Lidelle looked at the top of the glass ceiling of the slide and she saw fish of all kinds swimming around from the outside.

Lidelle: "Geez… it looks so pretty out there… … Hey, I see some Precursor orbs that are going in a trail down this slide. I should follow them…"

Lidelle made a solid stance as she started to go down the slide.

Lidelle: "W-woah! This slide is slippery…!"

She followed the trail of Precursor orbs and immediately noticed that there were hot pipes here.

Lidelle: "Oh no…"

Lidelle prepared herself for some pain as she followed the orbs. She jumped over the first hot pipe in her way, and barely stayed standing on the slide. Then, she slammed into a couple of crates that contained more orbs. After that, she went right and smacked in a hot pipe.

Lidelle: "Kyah!"

Lidelle felt a burning sensation as she hurried to get herself to the other side of the slide. When she felt safe, she let herself continue sliding down. She slammed into a single wooden chest and picked up some green eco that was in it. And as it turned out, that bit of green eco was enough to restore Lidelle's health.

Lidelle: "Ah, that feels a little better…"

After she said that, she jumped over a couple more hot pipes. Then, she slammed into three more crates that contained Precursor orbs… and got to the end of the slide. This led Lidelle to a room that had a blue eco vent, as well as these strange devices. And around them… were a bunch of spinning lurkers. Lidelle quickly took care of them and went over the blue eco vent. She took in a full charge of the stuff and paced to the closest strange device. It began to gyrate and Lidelle acted quickly to trigger the rest of the devices. Once she got the last one, a door opened at the lowest part of the room. It was only then that she realized what this was.

Lidelle: "*gasp* This must be it; one of this place's chambers!"

Lidelle went into the chamber and pressed the button inside. This caused the door behind her to close, and then she felt the entire thing moving on her. She soon discovered that she was heading to the surface with this. Then, the chamber got up to the surface of the water… and the door opened. After that happened the communicator went over to Lidelle and Keira's voice came to her

Keira: "Wow! You raised a piece of the underwater ruins to the surface! It seems you can use eco in ways we've never seen before. A power cell came to the surface along with the room. Lidelle, climb on top of the room and get it!"

The communicator went away and Lidelle jumped out of the chamber. She landed in the water and swam to a nearby rock formation. She jumped out of the water and climbed up to the top of the rock formation, so that she could get to the top of the chamber. From there, she grabbed the power cell and twirled around before pocketing it. *power cell no. 49* After doing that, Lidelle leapt back into the water… then returned to the chamber and pressed the button again. This caused the chamber to close its door and sink back down to where it was before.

The door opened after the chamber landed and Lidelle made her way over to the room beyond the chamber. This room had alternating water, and it also contained the last scout fly. Lidelle used platforms that were raised by steam to reach the scout fly, and she freed it. This made another power cell appear in her hands, which she then pocketed. *power cell no. 50* And so, Lidelle looked around the room to see if there was anything else… and there was. Next to another slide was what looked to be a narrow passageway. When Lidelle noticed it, she went over to see what it was about.

Lidelle: "Hmm… I think I can fit in this little space… If I crawl through this, I might be able to see what's on the other end of it."

Lidelle got on her sweater sleeves and knees, then began to crawl through the narrow space. As she was crawling through it, she got several Precursor orbs. And at the end of the passageway… was a small room that had a power cell. Lidelle saw it, and she was pleasantly surprised.

Lidelle: "A-another power cell!"

Lidelle got out of the narrow space and stood up. From there, she picked up the power cell and happily pocketed it. *power cell no. 51* And then, she started crawling back through the passageway and returned to the room she was in before. After standing up again, she went down the second slide and jumped over all of the hot pipes. As she did that, she collected stray Precursor orbs... and slammed into crates that contained more of them. When Lidelle got to the bottom of this slide, she saw a power cell on a platform in front of her. And beyond the platform was a blue eco vent. She spin jumped to the power cell and pocketed it. *power cell no. 52* She was happy with how things were going, but that feeling didn't stay for long. Right after Lidelle put that power cell away... the platform jerked a little, and the slide behind her was sealed off.

Lidelle: "Wh-what's going on…?"

Lidelle looked around, as if she knew something bad was about to happen. She looked below, and she gasped.

Lidelle: "*gasp* More dark eco, and it's rising! I-I need to run!"

Lidelle spin jumped to where the blue eco vent was. She took in a full charge of blue eco and began to run away by going to what was a strange pad to her. Before this point, Lidelle had never seen a blue eco launcher… but she had no time to think; she had to escape! On instinct, she used the blue eco launcher to fly to a spiraling ramp that went upward. She landed on it and started running like the wind. Lurkers and Precursor orbs were spread out on this spiral ramp. She smacked the former, and collected the latter. She also had to jump over hot pipes and this was all very stressful for poor Lidelle.

Eventually, she had to jump on and past retracting platforms in order to continue running. There were a few orbs on them as well, so she hurried and resumed her mad dash through the spiral ramp. She smacked away a lurker, hopped over a hot pipe, and got a few more orbs in the process. Then, Lidelle encountered another blue eco vent, and a second blue eco launcher. She went through the vent, and used the launcher to go to a higher point of the spiral ramp. But then, she immediately had to jump on a retracting platform and make her way past it, wasting a bit of time. And then right after doing that, she had to smack away another lurker.

From there, Lidelle continued and nearby Precursor orbs were attracted to her, thanks to the blue eco she was channeling. Then, she jumped over a couple more hot plates and attracted more orbs to her with the last bit of that blue eco charge. And finally, she got to the end of the gauntlet and grabbed the last few Precursor orbs. Upon collecting them, a power cell landed in Lidelle's sweater sleeves, which she immediately pocketed. *power cell no. 53*

Lidelle saw another blue eco vent in front of her and passed through it. The dark eco was rising very fast at this point and it was quickly catching up. This made Lidelle spin jump to a nearby blue eco launcher... and she shot herself out of that insanity! She landed in a room that looked very safe compared to what she just experienced. Poor Lidelle's heart was pounding hard... She was also exhausted.

Lidelle: "*continuous panting* … Ooough… That was really scary… *sigh* At least I'm still me… … Hmm?"

Lidelle looked at herself before she noticed something from the corner of her eye. She turned to see what it was… and it was another power cell. And behind the power cell, was another door.

Lidelle: "A-a power cell…"

She slowly stepped up to the power cell. From there, she grabbed it… and embraced it, as though it was a relief to see it. Then, she pocketed it… and went through the door. *power cell no. 54* This door led Lidelle back to the room that had the first slide. She noticed this and decided to go down the first slide again. From there, she made her way back to where that chamber was and rode it to the surface. She then exited the chamber and quickly swam back to the village. After that, she returned to the blue sage's lab and ran up to Amitie and Raffina in tears. They saw her come in with that sad look, and Klug watched in surprise.

Klug: "...?!"

Lidelle: "Waaaah! Amitie, Raffina! The end of that underwater city was very scary! I had to run from dark eco that was continuously rising from below by going up a spiral ramp! *sniffle* There were gaps in the ramp... and lurkers were there, too! I was barely able to get out of there with everything I got while exploring; I thought I was going to die! *sob*"

Raffina: "Lidelle…"

Amitie: "Poor Lidelle…"

Amitie and Raffina embraced Lidelle in their arms as she continued to cry. Klug was also sympathizing with Lidelle. To him, she was clearly scared out of her mind… and he felt sorry for her.

Raffina: "Don't worry, Lidelle… you're safe now. Nothing can hurt you here… nothing at all."

Amitie: "Yeah… you're with us now. And friends stick together 'til the end…"

Klug: "Lidelle… I'll support you now, too. And with that said… nothing will keep the four of us separated from each other until we return to Primp Town. We'll all come back to our home alive and well… this, I promise."

Klug started to hug Lidelle as well after he said that.

Lidelle: "*sniffle* Th-thanks guys…"

And so, they all stood there in the warmth of companionship. And from that point on… they were all friends…


Author's Notes: Holy CRAP, guys… this chapter took a lot of work to put together. I didn't think that it would take so much time, but then I saw how intricate the Lost Precursor City's layout was and I groaned. Nevertheless, I persevered because this chapter covered my favorite-looking location in the actual game. So… why did I ultimately decide that it would be Lidelle who goes through the Lost Precursor City? Well… I thought that this was good for her character. I wanted Lidelle to be both charmed by the Lost Precursor City… and scared of it. I did that, not because I'm sadistic, oh no. I did that because I wanted Lidelle to be brave. I mean, you guys saw that one part where Lidelle put aside her fears so that she could successfully find the chamber, and raise it up to the surface; that was character growth right there.

So yeah, Raffina and Klug had good development in the previous chapter… and now we have great development for Lidelle's character as well. I'm sure that the Puyo Puyo fans reading this crossover story are REALLY happy to see that. Speaking of fans: I'm sorry if any of you guys are purely Jak fans and you have no idea what Puyo Puyo is. A lot of this crossover story is built around the characters from Puyo Puyo, and that series isn't super popular in the West. I mean, it's become more known thanks to Puyo Puyo Tetris, and its sequel… but it's still not popular among many gamers. However, there IS a reason why I made this crossover in the first place, and I've already stated it in the Author's Notes section of Chapter 1.

Anyway, we got to see Lidelle utilize an ability of hers here, and it had to do with her smaller body. Yep, she's able to go through narrow passageways that Jak, Amitie, and Raffina can't. And rest assured: This ability WILL see use in other areas later on. For now though, I think Lidelle has had her time to shine. Besides, we have to follow two other characters in the next chapter. So, how about I get to the total amount of collectibles thus far? Our heroes have so far collected a total of 54 power cells, 56 scout flies, and 1100 Precursor orbs. With that in mind… let's see what happens to Jak and Daxter as they do things in the Precursor Basin. Will they be successful with completing their most recent objectives? Only time can tell… Next chapter, Chapter 6: The Precursor Basin.