Hope everyone had a great Memorial day, here's the next chapter for your entertainment
Ch12: Count Veger
KABLAAAAMMMM!
The shockwave from the blast caused the dragons in the air to recoil a little bit. Fortunately no debris was blown their way so they escaped unharmed. The door on the other hand was completely blown open, revealing another turntable style setting. The dragons flew down to the catwalk where the two wastelanders and the ottsel stood still stunned from the explosion.
"Awesome, I guess that's one way to open a door," said Calidan.
"A bit extreme, but for a heavily fortified door it was needed," replied Jak.
"Important thing is no one was hurt," said Daxter, "mainly me"
"Glad to hear it Daxter," Cynder said dryly as she flew down to sit on the catwalk, with Spyro landing right by her.
"Well, we've opened the door, but to where exactly?" asked Spyro.
"Hopefully the surface, without any more unexpected shortcuts," answered Jak.
"Lead the way, fearless," remarked Calidan. Jak sneered at the taunt, but then put his gun away. Jak then walked over to the other end of the catwalk, which was blocked off by a vertical drop bridge. Although it proved no trouble as Jak simply kicked it down so it collapsed to the other side. However trouble immediately came again from the sound of piercing screeches, followed by their source from flying mantis metalheads jumping down to intercept them.
"Metalheads!" yelled Calidan.
"Oh great, more of these vermin!" Cynder spat out.
"Just give them their usual treatment," Jak added, pulling his gun out again. He equipped his blaster mod and started shooting as they jumped and flew around to avoid his shots. Calidan brought out his Omega Fire and took aim. The dragons took flight again and flew after two mantis metalheads that were jumping off the cliffs. Jak immediately shot two dead in the head, dropping them and their skull gems in unison. Calidan had one in his sights, and pulled the trigger. The gun fired, and spat out a small ammo shell out of the barrel. It hit the metalhead in the chest, driving him back, and…that was it. It could still stand and attack! Calidan's shot caused Jak and Daxter to turn toward him in annoyance.
"This isn't the time to be shooting blanks! I thought you were one who comes prepared!" yelled Daxter.
"Blanks on metalheads, is that all you've managed to scavenge?!" asked Jak.
"Wait for it," Calidan said with a smirk. Suddenly, a beeping noise was catching everyone's attention, and they all followed the tone toward the metalhead he had shot. The ammo didn't penetrate the metalhead, it had latched itself to it, and it was slowly beeping.
"Are you about to do what I think your about to do?" asked Jak with a smirk recognizing the sound.
"Yup," he pulled up a guard on top of his left gauntlet, there was a screen with a multitude of miniature contact points for specific signals, the perfect way to send a detonation signal to a close proximity bomb. That aside, another metalhead jumped down to intercept them, and attacked Jak before he could align and shoot. His gun fell to the side though the metalhead had rung his own bell and was seeing stars. Seeing the advantage, Jak reached and grabbed his gun again and pointed it toward the dazed one.
"Wait!"
"What?!" asked Jak harshly.
"I said wait for the right opportunity," answered Calidan.
The metalhead he had tagged was hissing at the wastelanders, ignorant of the bomb that had been placed on him, he approached Jak from behind who was still frozen in place above the other metalhead holding his gun. It lurked slowly, slowly, until, it jumped! It gave out a loud screech as it flew toward Jak.
"Roll now!" ordered Calidan. Jak didn't hesitate, and rolled away from the downed metalhead, causing the flying one to impact them in a dogpile. Both were motionless from the impact, but Jak on the other hand was rising to his feet. As the two metalheads, including the bomb tagged one were currently immobile, they knew the time was right.
"Two heads," said Jak.
"One bomb," finished Calidan pressing the trigger on his gauntlet.
BOOOOMMMM!
Everyone shielded themselves with their hands or paws, in the dragon's case. Sparx had taken cover and Daxter had ducked behind Jak, but they both eventually peeked out to see what the others saw, a small smoldering crater where the metalheads once were. The outlanders were flabbergasted at what they just saw, although Jak was intrigued.
"Heh, not bad, not bad at all, those come standard issue?" he asked Calidan.
"Afraid not, pulled them out of a Marauder camp, they are the only ones I know of that have any ammunition for this thing," said Cal shaking his Omega Fire.
"What are you gonna do when you run out then?" asked Jak.
"My thoughts exactly" added Daxter.
"I have more back home, I know how to make do with what I've got," he answered.
"I certainly hope you know how to handle it well," said Cynder looking at the crater. "If it did this much damage as you planned, I hate to see what will happen if it doesn't."
"I've practiced with weapons all my life, you have nothing to worry about from me," Calidan reassured her.
"Yeah, we'll see about that, dirt boy," she said smirking.
"DIRT BOY! Who are you calling dirt boy?!" He yelled while everyone laughed at his expense, it was no surprise Cynder would give a nickname to their newest recruit.
"Haha, guess we know what Cynder will refer to as now," Jak chuckled.
"Don't forget blue boy, that goes for you too," said Cynder, "don't think because your attire has changed is going to make a difference." She of course was referring to Jak's wasteland attire, the same blue shirt with the sleeves cut off and armor pieces over various sets of his body including his arms and legs, and a desert rag around his waist.
"Some things never change huh?" Jak asked Spyro.
"Around her they do," said Spyro, who locked eyes with the dragoness in a loving gaze, "and its usually for the better."
"If this informal conversation is over, can we finally go through the door?" asked Calidan, who had already stepped forward toward the open door. The others shrugged their shoulders, and moved forward, they entered the turntable chamber passing by the rubble the bomb car had left. The chamber was about the same size as the last one they were in, but there were three locked doors in back. Jak and Calidan moved toward two of them, the ones in the middle and to the right. They knocked on the locks, but it seemed they would respond to some sort of transponder signal, which they did not have.
"I don't think your seal is going to open these," said Cal.
"Maybe you can blow them with those Omega bombs," said Jak.
"I've tested it on scrap metal, but never anything this high grade," replied Cal.
"Perhaps there's another path," said Spyro right behind them, and he stood by a lever junction box. Everyone walked over to it and analyzed the levers, it was a junction box of three, two small ones and one long one.
"Anybody up for rock paper scissors to decide?" Daxter asked. His question silenced the group, and he was forced to answere his question, "Yeah, figured not."
"I say pull the long one, it looks like the primary," said Jak.
"I agree, the rest of us will remain vigil, go ahead," said Cal. The dragons and Calidan stood side by side on the platform adjacent to the junction box. Jak gripped the lever in his hands, and pulled.
Huummm…A humming noise filled the chamber, causing the platform Calidan, Spyro, and Cynder were standing on to spin. They were slightly startled, until it stopped all of a sudden. Jak walked onto the platform and then it started to drop. They weren't sure what to expect at the bottom of the elevator, but whatever it was they believed it was set on the path. It dropped for another 10 seconds before another tunnel was open to their view. It appeared to be some sort of underground sanctum, and they could see more Precursor structures on the wall at the very back of the chamber. They walked ahead across the bridge over to the platform that took up the full space of the sanctum. The gate behind them closed quickly as soon as they made it to the platform. They also noticed there was scaffolding in the back, with a door fastened into it.
"Cozy accommodations, considering we're underground again," said Sparx.
"Just keep moving forward," added Jak as he turned around to face the party.
"We've all come this far from the wasteland so let's go all the way…" He was interrupted by the sound of an opening door behind him, and all faces turned to the other side of the chamber with the fastened door. It was now lifting up, revealing a male figure standing behind it. He was dressed in a fancy suit, and holding what appeared to be a cane in his hand. As the figure stepped through the door, most of the party didn't recognize him at all because they never saw him before, that is except for Jak and Daxter who sneered.
"Well well, the desert drop-offs are here, and welcome as much as a rat," said Count Veger.
"Hey! I resent that remark!" exclaimed Daxter.
"Who's the fancy suited stick?" asked Sparx.
"Silence your tongue you bug!" yelled Veger.
"Who are you calling a bug?!" Sparx shot back.
"Jak, who is he?" asked Spyro, who now remembered the man as the one who was talking with Seem before.
"The reason I'm in the wasteland," said Jak lowly.
"What?!" exclaimed the dragons.
"So what the monks said is true, the dragons are back, just when the neighborhood was becoming much less of a headache," said Veger with disgust.
"Hey! You better watch your mouth you stiff!" shouted Cynder, "or else I'll…"
"You'll what scaly?" interrupted Veger, "throw some fire in my face?"
"Don't tempt me," steamed Cynder.
"Easy Cynder, don't let him provoke you," consoled Spyro.
"Though I guess introductions are in order, I am Count Veger, and yes the reason Jak and his little rat are in exile, though they had it coming."
"Right, anything just to get yourself ahead," remarked Jak.
"How could you banish Jak?!" yelled Spyro, "He saved the city and your lives!"
"It was his fault we were in peril in the first place, he shouldn't have gotten involved with the wrong people, including you scaly lizards," Veger sneered.
"Keep talking like that and I'll give you something to really be afraid of," Cynder threatened with malice.
"Cynder," consoled Jak, "He's not worth it."
"I'm actually with her on this one," said Calidan, "I don't like this guy's attitude one bit."
Veger's contempt grew from the new wastelander who had just spoken against him, "And I can't stand wastelanders who don't know their place! You shouldn't be here cast off! You were banished for a reason now go back!" he pointed his cane at Calidan to exercise his point.
"Hey! You don't know me! You have no right to tell me what I can or can't do!" shouted Calidan.
"Easy Cal," said Jak.
"Have the right? I have the right to do more and know more than you do, thanks to the monks.," Veger bragged.
"The monks work for you?" asked an astonished Spyro.
"In a manner of speaking, and their knowledge archives are unquestionable, do you fools have any idea where you came from? The Precursor subrails are treacherous, and very few can actually pilot through, they were once used by the Precursors themselves to build this very world. They stretch through this world's very body connecting to places one could say unreachable, as the texts proclaim," Veger spoke enthusiastically, making the whole groups expressions turn into intrigue, at least momentarily.
"Your point being?" asked Jak.
"There are untold secrets within these very paths, and could bring light to the coming darkness, and cleansing this world just as Mar did ages ago," said Veger.
"Yeah, you've done a great job so far, letting the metalheads destroy the palace!" exclaimed Jak.
"Oh you couldn't be more mistaken dear boy, we're on a time clock Jak! That light in the sky, do you know what it is?" Veger asked Jak while pointing in the distance.
"As a matter of fact we do," said Spyro, "why do you bring it up?"
"Then you know what's coming," continued Veger, "the eventual end of life as we know, and the only way to stop it is within the catacombs themselves. Unfortunately, they have been cut-off from access, so I was forced to attack the palace myself, it will be our little secret." His revelation shocked the group.
"You? It was you!?" sputtered Spyro.
"Well you're full of surprises," added Jak dryly.
"AND YOUR FULL OF DARK ECO!" stammered Veger, "You and your little gang are an abomination, and I will cleanse this world of it soon enough." The gang sneered at him giving his twisted declaration.
"Pure light will eventually reveal itself, and I will be the bright light that shines to every corner of the world, and destroy all shadows!" he declared with an overly dramatic tone.
Daxter interrupted his monologue, "Uh excuse me Count Vulgar."
"It's Veger!" he yelled at the ottsel while the rest of the group chuckled.
"Yeah, whatever," he said as he jumped down from Jak's shoulder. "Isn't it kinda nice just to curl up in the shade sometimes? Just chillin and watching the hot babes dance in their little bikinis…" The rest of his conversation drooled on, bringing apprehensive looks on the rest of the groups faces, except for…
"ENOUGH!" yelled Veger, "We will start the cleansing of the world with your demise!" He turned around holding his staff high, and the orb fixed at the top appeared to glow. He faced toward what appeared to be a tall Precursor statue carved into the rock above the doorway he had entered.
"Behold, for I now command the very power of the ancient one!" he declared. To their shock, the statue appeared to be shaking, rocks were cracking all around it. The very cave felt like it was shaking with it, and then all of a sudden…
BOOOMMM!
The secret of the statue revealed itself as a large precursor robot! Everyone was shocked at the revelation at what Veger had just done, for through some ancient precursor mysticism he had awakened this mechanical marvel. Even though it was a robot, it didn't appear friendly at all. Veger just snickered at their expressions, "Hehehe, surprised much?"
"What is that?!" asked a shocked Spyro.
"A precursor robot," said Jak justas astonished, "how he brought it alive, I have no idea."
"This time Jak," said Veger as he exited through the door he had entered from, "the precursors will not have mercy on you." The door closed, leaving the group to deal with the robot. It broke its feet free from the wall and used what appeared to be jet boots to propel itself into the air.
"I think we may have a fight on our hands," said Calidan pulling out his Omega Fire.
"How do we beat it?" Spyro asked Jak.
"It's still a robot," he said, "so pick it apart piece by piece!"
"Sounds good to me!" said Calidan. The robot opened up a compartment on its arm, and a long rod extended from it and lit up with energy. It gripped it like a sword.
"Okay, this kinda work is out of my league," stammered Sparx, "so I'll leave to you guys to it, ciao!" And he buzzed all the way back to the entrance.
"Yeah, there's a real hero for ya," said Daxter.
"You can't blame him," said Spyro, "he's actually doing the smart thing for him." The robot flew closer to them drawing back his sword to swing. It swung it forcing the group to split to both sides to avoid the swing.
"We'll hit it high!" said Cynder as she and Spyro took flight.
"We'll keep it occupied!" exclaimed Jak pulling out his blaster. In response, Calidan pulled out the Omega Fire from behind his back.
"Let's see how it likes the rapid fire setting!" said Calidan, turning a knob on the side of the gun. He aimed and fired at the robot at its chest. The gun shot numerous blasts out of its barrel like an automatic. Despite an accurate shot, the robot seemed to be brushing them off! Jak even shot a few rounds with his blaster, but it was brushing them off too!
"We're gonna need something a lot heavier!" yelled Jak. Spyro and Cynder flew around the robot and attacked it from behind. Spyro fired an electric stream breath and Cynder a poison bomb. They both actually seemed effective, the robot seemed to flinch from the electric attack, and the poison stuck to its back. It swung its sword in retaliation, trying to knock the dragons out of the air. They just barely avoided it. Calidan took an interest in their respective attacks.
"Wow, that's it!" he said to himself before calling to the dragons, "Hey Spyro! You in purple! Fire another one of those streams, robots can't take electrical overloads, go for the head! Cynder! Aim for the joints, that's the best way to pick it apart!" The dragons both nodded and stabilized their air position, and focused on their targets. However, their fire was postponed as the robot fired its own weapon, the shoulder pads opened up and let loose a barrage of bombs!
They zoomed and whistled through the air, narrowly missing the dragons, and even Sparx. As they hit ground, Jak and Cal jumped agile away from the impacts, they left little craters where they impacted. The robot took aim toward Calidan, and raised its sword again, catching Cal's attention in the nick of time. It swung and missed Cal as he jumped away again, but the impact threw him to the side of the platform causing him to drop his gun.
Seeing Cal's predicament, Jak switched over to his newest morph gun upgrade he had received from Spargus, the Vulcan Mod 2 Arc Wielder. He fired from it a blue electrical arc stream, similar to Spyro's electric breath but with a wider radius. The stream caused the robot to shake in the air, its circuits apparently getting crossed.
"Pick yourself up man! Can't keep him occupied forever!" Jak shouted to Calidan
Calidan nodded and immediately jumped back on his feet, and ran for his gun. To avoid losing all of his ammo, Jak cut out the stream, hoping he had fried most of the robots primary circuits. The robot however was tough, restabilizing its jet boots, and even the mark Cynder left in back hadn't melted through the robots whole chassis. The dragons took aim once again and fired their respective breaths at it. Electric hit the head and caused it to drop its sword onto the platform below. Cynder's poison blast hit the shoulder of the right arm, it appeared to have stalled movement.
"Yes that's it! It can't take too much more now," proclaimed Calidan.
"I wouldn't be surprised if it could, I've seen these things in action before, and it takes more than a few effective shots to ground it permanently," said Jak.
"Well, seeing as how you're the expert, care to share on how to accomplish that?" asked Calidan.
"We need one final target with one final blow!" exclaimed Jak, "We're going to need the Omega bombs."
"Check that, anything else?" Calidan asked again causing Jak to turn toward the robot, who was trying to grab the dragons from the air with its free arm. Spyro kept out of his reach, however Cynder got caught by her tail!
"HEY! Let me go you junkhead!" She spit out another poison bomb at the hand, causing it to freeze up as well, it couldn't open or close leaving Cynder's tail trapped. She groaned realizing her mistake had left her stuck.
"Cynder!" cried Spyro flying in to attack.
"Spyro wait!" called Jak, halting his advance. "We have a plan don't worry, we'll get her out." He turned his attention to Calidan beside him. "Almost ready yet?" Calidan locked and loaded his Omega Fire, so the question was given an impromptu nod.
"Good, now Spyro, this is where you come in," said Jak
"What?" the purple dragon asked.
"Uh boys," said Cynder getting their attention, "my tail is trapped and the robot is still moving…" Indeed it was , and it appeared ready to open its shoulder pads again.
"Hang on Cynder, we're coming," said Spyro.
"Hehehehe, hang! Hoho! That couldn't have been any better!" Sparx spoke out of gasps of laughter.
"When I get out of this," hissed Cynder, "I'm going to take his wings and…" she didn't finish as the robot fired more bombshells. The attack caused everyone on the platform to scatter again. But that was the moment they had waited for, now that the robot had attacked it was briefly defenseless, as Calidan took aim with his Omega bombs and fired at his tactical targets. One on the chest, one on each shoulder, two at the waist, and one more for the head. The robot couldn't do a thing as the ticking bombs were adhesive to its body.
"EVERYONE GET DOWN! CYNDER! BRACE YOURSELF!" yelled Calidan.
Everyone save for Cynder ducked their heads down to the ground, while Calidan reached for his wrist mounted controller. It took a few seconds for the bombs to send a ping back but he soon had them all awaiting input on the same channel. The robot flew up in its boot jets again, trying to gain advantage before bringing a final aerial assault.
The robot prepared to dive bomb until…ping…ping…ping…an array of pings were sent off down the bomb puzzle glued to the chassis. The robot appeared to freeze, as if it knew his end had come.
"And, goodbye," added Cynder.
BOOOMMMM!BOOOOOMMMM!BOOOOOMMMM!BOOOOOMMMM! BOOOOOMMMM!
The robot broke into several pieces, its arms becoming disattached from its main body freeing Cynder. The head blew itself off and the legs fell into the abyss below. The main body fell down in front of them, completely powerless now. As the shock from the collapse subsided, they peeked out to see the remains smoldering in front of them.
"Nice job rogue," said Jak.
"Another day on the job," replied Calidan.
"OH YEAH!" cheered Daxter, "the boys are back in town!"
"Uh guys," said Spyro catching their attention, "can you help get Cynder out?" He was already by her side while she was still held in the nonsensical grip of the robot hand.
"On it," replied Jak. They walked over to her side and with a little bit of leverage provided by some fallen debris, they were able to pry her out.
"Thank you both," she thanked.
"Anytime, so any other surprises you guys care to tell me? Because the stiff with the magic stick was enough to tell me that we're not welcome in Haven," said Calidan.
"Don't let him intimidate you, he'll get his own soon enough," replied Jak.
"But what he said earlier, about attacking the palace," Cynder cut in, "did he really attack it? Destroy it?"
Jak just frowned and slowly nodded his head, Daxter following his lead, she even saw Spyro hang his head and close his eyes in silence. Cynder seethed, she couldn't believe someone who lived within the city would have it destroyed just for his own twisted desires. She knew the city was rough, but apparently there were more demented mongers then Praxis, Krew and Kor to deal with.
"Well," interrupted Calidan, "if this palace is destroyed, what exactly are we going back to save?"
"Whatever and whoever is left, let's go," ordered Jak. They all turned toward the cliff where the door the Count had exited from. Jak stunned the party again with his Light Flight powers, activating his wings and taking flight over the chasm toward the door. The dragons took flight and Spyro allowed Calidan to grab his paws as they flew over toward it. They touched base and Jak deactivated his wings as Calidan and the dragons approached the door. It opened for them all, and the dragons, the warriors and the two amusing sidekicks found themselves in another hall that led to another door, though it was familiar to most of them.
"That looks like a door that's used for the city locks," Cynder recalled.
"Then we've arrived," said Jak. The locking mechanism on the doors began to turn and shift in their housings, and the center lock in front has just fallen into its locking bin and made the final turn. The door opened for them and they entered what appeared to be an elevator shaft. They all managed to fit on the platform evenly, and as soon as they did, they started to rise. The ride lasted about a minute and they found themselves at another door, preparing to unlock itself. As soon as it finished opening, they were open to the city, and it anything but welcoming.
"Oh my Gosh," gasped Spyro.
The area they had entered was the city section of Main Town, however, the buildings were completely collapsed. Rubble lay scattered all over the streets, even the entrance to the west side of Main Town had been completely cutoff by the fallen palace structure. Above the elevator they had exited from lay a fallen support tower that stretched across the river toward the entrance of Haven stadium. Cynder was staring at it in disbelief.
"This can't be," she said sadly, "its all destroyed."
"Woah," added Calidan, "from one wasteland into another."
"Place looks as bad as my old bedroom back home," finished Daxter. Sparx was neutral as he buzzed all around the ruined buildings in front of them. He was making sure to keep his distance from disattached wires, for one zap and he was a fried dragonfly. He remembered before how the city was in rough shape when he Spyro and Cynder came the last time, now it was like roaming around ruins.
"This place is more of a dump than I remember," said Sparx.
"Do you think it can be rebuilt?" Spyro asked Jak who was neutral upon exiting the elevator.
"Given time, maybe, but there's a war going on and no sense to rebuild while everything is still getting blown up," he said as he turned to his left and started walking off.
"Where are you going?" asked Calidan.
"The exit from this part of town is this way, and the section beyond it hasn't been ruined by the collapse," explained Jak. Everyone nodded in understanding and followed him. The walkway had been warped by the fallen debris around them, so the trek across was like walking over a hill, once they reached the turn in front of them however, they had reached the edge by which the collapse had not damaged their surroundings.
"I know you said Samos, Torn and the others were still fighting," begun Spyro, "but who is fighting with them? The Underground?"
"The Underground and part of the KG had merged together into a new faction right after you guys left," explained Jak, "they are called the Freedom League, and their Haven's last line of defense."
"What sections of the city do you still have control of?" asked Cynder.
"As much as I remember, we were holding the port, slums, and the region of New Haven," said Jak.
"New Haven?" asked Spyro.
"The city finally made some improvements after you guys left, they rebuilt the whole Water Slums and cleaned the whole area including the water and sewage."
"Sounds like a silver lining if I ever heard one," said Cynder. As she spoke, Sparx zoomed ahead to reach the next corner in front of them which led to the right.
"I never knew a city beyond the wasteland," said Calidan, "its all sand and rock out there, and this," he said stamping the ground, "all this metal for one area, it's a new experience to say the least."
"Yeah, well don't think you can relax rogue," said Jak, "all your survivalist training is going to be put to the test here."
"Hmm, caverns, metalheads, robots, you guys are sure an interesting group if not safe," said Cal.
"I guess we'll take that as a compliment," replied Jak.
"GUYS!" they halted their advance, Sparx catching their attention as he zipped right toward them.
"You are not going to believe whose here!" he spat out.
"Who?" asked Spyro.
"Come on! Come on!" he said again zipping back the way we came. Their newfound interest in what got Sparx so excited caused them to break out into a run. They ran toward the final corner ahead, and came across the exit from Main Town, though it appeared to have some sort of static wall closing it off. However, what caught Sparx's attention was on the other side, or rather who was on the other side!
"Jak!" yelled Samos, who was standing next to his daughter Keira on the other side of the gate, waving them over "everyone! Over here!"
"Samos! Keira!" replied Jak joyfully running over toward them with everyone following behind him.
"Samos!" said Spyro, "It's great to see you again, both of you!"
"You as well young dragons, welcome back," said the sage.
"When we saw Sparx we couldn't believe it at first, but we're overjoyed none the less," added Keira, "we wish the accommodations could be better."
"As do we," consoled Cynder. Jak walked up as close to the gate as he could and looked into Keira's eyes.
"Hey you," she greeted him.
"Hey" he replied with them reuniting with each other warmly, however their moment was quickly interrupted by their newest recruit.
Calidan cleared his throat, "Ahem, sorry to cut in, but I'm the odd guy out here, and would appreciate if I could be acquainted here?"
"sure," Jak said with irritation, "Samos this is Calidan, a wastelander who tagged along with us. Cal, this is Samos and his daughter Keira, my oldest friends."
Calidan was never comfortable with meeting new people. His meeting with Jak and the others was uncomfortable enough, and these were people from the city who had had his family banished. He didn't know what to make of them, though they didn't seem all bad from first look, and decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.
"Uh, hello there, and greetings from the wasteland," he said trying to give a good impression.
"Pleasure as well young one, you've come a long way, and with a great group of resourceful people I assure you," said Samos.
"You better not be looking to con anyone," Keira cut in with suspicion, "people we've met through odd circumstances don't necessarily mean well, you better make sure to watch where you tread."
"Con?" asked a baffled Calidan, "I assure you sweetheart I'm no con, I'm a survivalist, and I only look to rise over what plans to step on me. I may not know much about this city, but I'll face it nevertheless, though there's not much choice in the matter."
"Fighting is all that will keep you alive here I'm afraid, and it's become even more critical than ever," Samos explained before turning to Jak, "Jak, those passageways below the palace, they must be terribly important, the metalheads and KG robots are advancing toward them, and we can't hold out forever."
"We know, we've been shown what's coming, and we need to brief everyone back at HQ, if we could," said Jak putting a hand up to the forcefield in front of him.
"Yes, I'm afraid Veger has turned on the forcefields here," said Samos.
"Veger again?" spat Cynder.
"Veger's the one who attacked the palace!" Jak revealed, "he said he was looking for an entrance below into the catacombs, where the only means of defense for our planet could be found."
"Well your just going to have to make your way down into it before he does," added Samos, "but first, you must find another way into this section of the city, you and your friends take the sewers into the port, and then find a way north to reach us."
"Sewers? Oh great," said a dismal Sparx.
"Yup, welcome back to Haven bug boy," added Daxter.
"Oh, and Jak?" Samos cut in sorrowfully, "we're sorry for what happened, we should have stopped Veger." Everyone gave Jak apologetic glances as he tensed his fists.
"I'll stop him myself!" he declared.
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