Apologies for the long wait, but my life has drastically changed as of late, for the better I can assure you. None the less, I will continue this story to its end, there is so much yet to come, and I hope you all will be patient with me, none the less, Happy New Year everyone! Here is chapter 14!
Ch14: Back to Torn
The city-lock door fully opened, exposing the group to the atmosphere of Haven port, pungent, rancid nearly to the sewers, and heavily battle scarred from the war that had plagued the city. The group stepped out and found themselves on a wide stoned sidewalk, with many of them broken or obliterated. To the right was the exit to the Haven boardwalk, large and littered, though they were surprised to see a large column collapsed over the side of an inner wall. Then they turned to the left, where they saw in horror, the body of the palace completely collapsed over, blocking the way into the inner part of the city.
"By the ancestors," gasped Spyro, "the devastation is just as bad here as anywhere."
"Yeah, well that's war bro," replied Sparx, "we should know, we've seen it ourselves."
"Any idea where we are supposed to go from here?" Calidan asked Jak, "because all I'm seeing here is a pile of rubble."
"Locate the Freedom League," said Jak, "then we can find transport to HQ."
"HEY!" a yell immediately caught their attention, and they turned toward the boardwalk, where they saw a blue armored guard pointing at them. "Freeze all of you!"
"Well that was quick," said Daxter dryly.
"Should we run now?" stuttered Sparx.
"No, we came here to find them, and we've found them, just leave me to this," said Jak. He stepped forward ahead of them, just as the guard was joined by two others and walked toward the whole group. The first stood in front of Jak while the other two walked around him toward the others.
"You certainly look familiar, though last I heard you were banished from here," the guard told him.
"Yeah, well sorry, didn't sit well with me, and from what I can gather I'm needed here, so happy to disappoint you," said Jak.
"You've got some nerve talking to authority like that, I see nothing has changed with you," the guard sneered.
"Hey bucko," said Daxter, "we've been through the fire and we're still standing, so don't count us out by a long shot!"
"He's here because of us!" yelled Spyro.
"Spyro," Jak tried to intervene.
"We came here because we persuaded him it was for the best," the purple dragon continued, "and believe me it is, we've been warned…"
"Shut up freak!" yelled one of the guards in front of him, pointing his gun at his head. "You have no business here much less trying to explain yourself!" His comment and threat toward Spyro made Cynder growl and tense up. She prepared to strike, until Jak's interrogator spoke again.
"Wait a sec, I know you all," said the guard catching everyone's attention, "You're those aliens Praxis took a long time ago." His comment stunned everyone.
"Uh, yes we are," replied Spyro, quite stunned that one of the guards would know him that well.
"First the exile, now the aliens, this is anything but a coincidence," said the guard.
"Do we even care Captain Striker?" said the other guard in front of the group. "Last I heard from the council, this lot wasn't welcome back in our city walls, after everything went to hell."
"Well from where I'm standing," said Striker, "things have only been getting worse since then, so we all are on our way into hell if not yet, and I've heard the commander's monologue on all this. If things are going to get better, we will need this lots help, regardless of the council, otherwise there won't be a city to govern."
"I'm taking this as an acceptance back?" asked Jak.
"The boss will be the one to veto that vote, otherwise it's my badge, but at this rate the battles to come will be our last one, so you and your crew follow me, and no funny business from any of you, otherwise, you'll be shot from where you stand."
Striker turned around and led the way out onto the boardwalk. Jak followed right behind him, with Spyro, Cynder, and Calidan bringing up the rear with the other two guards escorting them from behind. Sparx kept close to Spyro, for obvious reasons. They walked up onto the boardwalk where they saw the port pond, with all the floating cargo barges still occupying it. In the distance were the two towers that overlooked both ends of the port, connected by the multi-linked bridge that span across from one end of the port to the other.
During their trek toward the west side, they continued to observe their surroundings, the two towers and the bridges that stretched across to the other ends of the boardwalk seemed to be littered with debris. The league was cleaning up most of it, though some were akin to wonder why should they since the war continued to litter the streets. Though as leadership pointed out it was for the best, for they didn't want either opposing faction to regain what was lost and rebuild or regrow. They had just reached the first bend, and within sights they could see Daxter's bar, the Naughty Ottsel, and the enormous float above it.
"What the heck is that freaky thing?!" shouted Sparx.
"Watch it glowboy!" yelled Daxter shooting him a look.
"Daxter," said Cynder, "you couldn't have a bigger head." Everyone laughed, even the guards.
"Yeah, that thing makes for good target practice once in a while," said Striker.
"HEY!" yelled the ottsel.
"Any particular reason we are heading to the bar?" Jak asked, "are you guys stationed there?"
"You could say that, but no more questions, we'll leave that to the commander." Everyone silenced themselves as they continued on their walk toward the Naughty Ottsel. They observed their surroundings and saw that some patrolmen were still out on the port boardwalks surrounding the towers. They could even see some at work atop the right tower, apparently at work on some sort of communication device.
They reached the front of the Naughty Ottsel and upon approaching, the door opened. Captain Striker went first, followed by Jak, Daxter, Spyro, Cynder, Sparx, Calidan, and then the other two guards. Upon entering, they saw that the interior had changed. The dragons and their dragonfly friend noticed that the metalhead trophies that had once aligned the walls were gone, and there were pictures up along the wall of Daxter. That shot dead Cynder's earlier comment about the orange ottsel. On the other hand, there were weapons everywhere along the floor, and city maps aligned the walls next to the bar seats and tables. In the center of the room, was a portable holographic generator nearly 20 feet in diameter. The company in back by the bar caught their attention soon after, and they could clearly see who the commander was they were talking about as he was discussing some battle plans with two other troopers.
"Commander Torn!" Striker called with a salute.
"What?" he said turning his attention to the group.
"We found someone exiting from the sewers, albeit unexpected," he told Torn before stepping aside to reveal everyone, shocking Torn apparently.
"Jak! Hehe, well I never thought I'd see you again," he said with a grin walking over toward them.
"Well happy to disappoint you," Jak said extending his hand for his old friend to shake, which he happily accepted.
"Hasn't been the same without you man," said Torn.
"Oh Torn," Daxter interrupted, "would you please tell me what you are doing to my humble abode?"
"We needed a southern HQ for the war, we're currently…" Torn stopped when he saw who was behind Jak.
"Spyro? Cynder?"
"Hey Torn! Great to see you again," said Spyro walking up to him with Cynder in tow.
"Jak is one thing, but you guys too? Man this city just keeps getting more and more dangerous," Torn jabbed in good humor.
"Well, you can never have too many allies, and from what we've seen you are gonna need all you can get," said Cynder.
"Ain't that the truth, and I can't believe we had to lose our best one," Torn said saddened turning toward Jak. "I'm sorry we couldn't stop Count Veger, we all are."
"We know Torn, and don't worry about it, that's why we are here, he's been giving information that's viable to our planets survival, and so have we," explained Jak.
"What?!" said Striker, "our planets? You're not serious?"
"I'm afraid so, we've been warned about an upcoming invasion, and the key to stopping it lies at the bottom of the catacombs," said Spyro.
"The catacombs?" asked Torn.
"They've been blocked off since the war began," said Guard 1, "and the metalhead and KG factions are picking us apart from both ends, we are not really in a situation to go out on an expedition, if we were even able to make one."
"Then we just might have to cause an upset then," said Calidan shouldering his gun. "Let them come to us and we beat them on our turf."
"Hey! No one said you could talk wastelander!" Guard 2 yelled as he got in front of him aiming his gun. The other was preparing his, and everyone got defensive, this looked like it was on the breaking point to an ugly fight.
"Woah,woah,woah," said Calidan slightly backing away, "No need for aggression, was just making a suggestion."
"A foolish one at that," said Guard 2, "another reason to kick you out wastelander, so by my authority I…"
"ENOUGH!" shouted Torn, capturing everyone's stunned expressions.
"I'm in charge here and any sudden declarations come to me first," said Torn.
"But sir," said Guard 2, "he's a wastelander, and they are…"
"Banished? At this point I don't care about the councils decisions, all they are going to do is engage in bureaucracy and somehow preserve their own power at our expense, so screw them!" Torn yelled.
His venting ceased, and everyone was silent for a moment trying to collect their thoughts. As the commander approached the young warrior, he spoke again.
"So kid, you looking to join in on the fight? I should tell you that there is going to be plenty of heavy fighting to go around, and we don't allow any into our roust if the only defense he can bring is a gun and a bad shot," said Torn.
"Bad shot?! Hardly, and I've managed to work well with what I've got," Calidan replied.
"Okay then cocky, answer me," said Torn, "who are you?"
"Names Calidan, Cal for short, and yes, I'm a wastelander."
"Why would a wastelander come back to the city they were banished from?" asked Torn.
"As I've said before, I was never banished! I was born and raised out there, lived my whole life there until I found myself crossing paths with these guys," Calidan finished.
"So you picked him up eh?" Torn asked Jak.
"An unexpected encounter if there ever was one," replied Jak.
Torn continued looking towards Calidan, "new faces are nervous enough, but I'm lenient in this case since I've had my fair share of good eggs, but you have to prove you're willing to fight for our cause if you even want to think about sticking around."
"Oh I don't plan on sticking around," said Cal, "just long enough so that the impending threat is neutralized and I can go home back to my buddy and live in peace."
"Your buddy?" asked Torn.
"Are you talking about that wildcat?" Jak asked him.
"Yeah," replied Cal, "you have your friends to care for, and I have mine."
"You tell me all your fighting for is a cat?!" asked Torn angrily.
"Hey! That cat is the most loyal companion I've ever had in a long time!" replied Calidan, "he's worth it, as much as any of your men are to you." His response silenced Torn, and the whole group.
"Ha, out of everyone in the world, the wastelander is worried about a cat, what a lowly life," said Guard 2. His statement drew everyone's attention, and not in a good way, that was a true low blow, insulting someones' life based on their circumstances was inexcusable.
Calidan was seething, "You just…"
SMACK! Suddenly everyone was shocked right where they stood. In an instant the guard was hit face flat on the ground, and above him was Captain Striker. "That was absolutely intolerable soldier! You've been taught and trained better than that, we all have!"
The guard attempted to pick himself up, "but sir, I"
"Silence, I won't hear any more from you," said Striker as he turned to Guard 1, "take him outside, I'll deal with him soon enough." He nodded in response and approached the fallen guard as he retrieved his gun. Submitting to the captain, he walked out of the bar with his escort. Striker walked past the group to follow.
"Captain," said Calidan, stalling him as he exited, "Thanks." Striker nodded and walked out. Once the guards had escaped from view Torn turned toward the other guards at the bar he was previously speaking to. "You two, head back out on patrol, we'll continue later." The guards saluted and walked toward the door, once they had exited, Torn spoke again.
"Apologies for that, he'll be reprimanded for that later I assure you."
"He didn't have to do that," said Cal, "I was about to do it myself."
"I'm sure," said Jak, "but we didn't come here to fight our own men, we came to fight the enemy."
"Agreed," added Spyro, "letting our differences get between us won't solve anything."
"He was still way out of line Spyro," stated Cynder.
"Regardless," cut in Torn as he approached the holograph generator, "Spyro is right, we have bigger problems to deal with, and making it through to HQ is at the top of the list."
"You can't get back from here?" asked Jak.
"Afraid so, Veger sent us on a suicide attack to hold off the port and we ended up cut off by the KG, now our way to HQ is blocked off," said Torn putting his hands on the console.
"Just another one of his despicable actions," seethed Cynder, "it seems the only one he's interested in helping is himself!"
"Yeah, I know, broken record," said Torn.
"Samos said the only way we can get into the catacombs is by regrouping, we have to find a way to smash down the blockade!" stated Jak.
"You guys are the ones with the armaments," said Calidan, "don't you have something in your arsenal that can break it down?"
"Plenty, but there's more than one defense unfortunately, and they have to be eliminated before…" Torn was interrupted before he could continue.
BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!
"What's that?!" yelped Sparx.
"Proximity alert," replied Torn pushing a flashing button on the console, suddenly the holographic generator came to life, showing an unwelcome virtual picture of an old nuisance. "Incoming blastbots are entering from the KG city section and are heading this way, can you guys handle this?"
"Busting robots?" said Jak while fist smashing, "anytime."
"Well you guys said there was a heavy front coming, best face it head on," said Calidan.
"We'll help you out, count on it," added Spyro, which Cynder followed with a nod.
"There are three total, split into teams to cover them all, and take them out before they bust our squads, move now!" said Torn. They all nodded and headed for the door. As soon as they exited, they were met with an unwelcome sight, KG deathbots were taking up half the boardwalk in the distance. Roboguards and spydroids were crawling up the left side of the boardwalk, and opening fire at the Freedom league guards to the right. One of the blastbots was approaching them with its laser armed to fire. Jak quickly looked around and noticed a lone A-wing zoomer next to the Naughty Ottsel. He clasped Calidan's shoulder.
"Come on!" he ran towards it, and picking up on his notion, Calidan followed while the dragons took flight. Jak jumped up on the zoomer with Daxter on his shoulder as usual, and Calidan jumped right behind him. Jak flipped the switch and started the engines, elevating the zoomer. He accelerated and lurched through the air toward the towers, nearly knocking Calidan off as he steadied himself on the back seat brace. The dragons flew right behind them, just barely able to keep up with the zoomers speed. The zoomer finally reached the boardwalk and they were hovering above the battle. Jak called to Spyro and Cynder,
"I'll handle this one, you guys head toward the north side and find one of the other two, Calidan, take the zoomer and find the last, we'll regroup back at the Naughty Ottsel! Alright?!"
The dragons nodded and turned around to fly the other way, with Sparx right behind them. Jak leapt from the zoomer and landed on the walkway, just behind the Freedom league barricade. Calidan took control of the zoomer and after a quick study of its handling, pressed the switch which propelled it forward and turned around toward the sewer lock. Jak made his way through the Freedom barricade, catching some attention from the guards who were in shock that he was back. He didn't have time to go into details, the blastbot was in front of him, and it fired its laser before Jak could reach his gun!
BOOMM!
Jak had just rolled to the side to avoid the blast just in time. The Freedom League had opened fired on it, pelting its armor with their lasers. Jak finally unholstered his weapon and turned on the blaster mod. He began pelting it with blaster fire. The blastbot appeared to not feel any of the assault, though Jak's blaster was generally more powerful than the Freedom League lasers. Instead in response, the blastbot opened up some compartments on its main body, and out popped 3 small timed bombs landing just in front of his feet.
"Quick Jak! Kick the bombs right back at him!" yelled Daxter. Jak heeded his friends advice and kicked the nearest bomb right back at the blastbot, it hit right at its main body, collapsing one of the legs.
"Yeah! Do it again!" cheered Daxter
Jak retaliated with another kick, this one blowing the leg off completely. The guards behind cheered on at the winning duo. But there was one bomb left, and Jak had a different idea to use this one for. He adjusted his vector from the blastbot to the KG armada behind it, and with one swift kick, the bomb flew and detonated on impact, blowing away half the armada. They had won this one, and to mark it Jak unholstered his blaster again and took aim at the blastbots eye, and fired.
BOOOMM! The blastbot's eye fragmented and it became inoperable.
"Oh yeah! The trouble twins are back, and ready to rock!" cheered Daxter.
"Daxter," scolded Jak.
"What we've won right? Can't we move on to the celebration?" the ottsel asked.
"The celebration is on hold until the city is completely free, and that isn't for a long while so best keep the momentum going!" replied Jak.
"We can handle these clankers," one of the guards said to Jak as the rest of the barricade was attacking the remaining KG forces. "You on the other hand have somewhere else to be, and it ain't here."
"Right," said Jak, and with his blaster drawn, and Daxter on his shoulder, they both took off down the boardwalk in the opposite direction.
Spyro and Cynder had just engaged their blastbot by the port entrance. Its laser had fired two shots at them, both near misses. Their agility continued to serve them well as Spyro and Cynder flew in to attack head on, Spyro with an electric bolt and Cynder with a poison wheel attack. The bolt shorted out its systems while the poison wheel covered the entire right side of its body. The poison was melting the legs it stood on, nearly incapacitating it. But before the machine became inoperable, the bot turned its head and fired one more shot at Cynder. She wasn't looking in its direction and took a shot to the back of the thigh.
"Aagh!"
"Cynder!" Spyro cried, fearing for her health. She dropped out of the sky and luckily landed on one of the port cargo barges. Seeing that she wasn't at least drowning, Spyro immediately turned towards the deathbot in rage. He tensed his jaw, and activated his earth powers, encasing himself in a ball of earth energy. He fell right out of the sky, and landed right on top of the blastbot, crushing it like a can. The impact upsetted the bombs inside the bot, and caused them to detonate as well...
BOOOOMMMM!
The detonation blew machine parts everywhere, as well as the orb Spyro had encased himself in. It propelled him over 100 feet in the air, before falling back down under gravity's pull. There was a CRUNCH upon impact, leaving a crater in the boardwalk a good 3 feet deep. Spyro deactivated the shield, and shook off the stars that were dancing in his head.
"Oohh, I forgot about that, why they call them blastbots," he said, "wait, oh no! Cynder!"
The black dragoness was the only thing on his mind now, as he rushed back over to the side of the boardwalk, to his relief she was still sitting on the cargo barge. She was also moving, but was in inevitable pain. He quickly flew down to her.
"Cyn, are you ok? Please?!"
"Spyro, relax," she soothed him, "I'm okay, just a lucky shot, it scratched me nothing more."
"Can you move it?" asked Spyro. She attempted to move her leg, only to feel a stinging pain shoot through her leg.
"Agghh! I hate to say it but no," she said, "darn it, my first day back to Haven and I end up with one bruised leg."
"Just be glad were not in jail again," joked Spyro.
"Funny, real funny," she dryly replied.
"Here Cynder," said Spyro squatting down next to her and gripping her from underneath her front arms and pulling her to her feet. "I'll fly us back to the bar, I'll make sure to stay low to avoid any gunfire."
"I'll take care of them, you do the flying," said Cynder. So Spyro started flapping his wings, beginning his ascent with Cynder in his arms. With a little bit of extra effort, Spyro was able to pull Cynder into the air. Suddenly Sparx buzzed right in front of them looking like he had seen a ghost.
"There is no open path up there! Robots and lasers everywhere!"
'Where to now?' wondered Spyro since the path on the boardwalk was too hazardous.
"Spyro," said Cynder, she caught his attention, "how about that bridge?" She was referring to the bridge that linked the towers. There was a gap where the barges passed back and forth, and were concealed enough to hide something, like how the gang hid their zoomers from the Krimzon Guard a long time ago.
"We'll be taking the long way back, but it's a way none the less," said Spyro.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" yelled Sparx.
Calidan had located the final blastbot and had abandoned the zoomer to take it on foot, though it was a bit more of a challenge then he expected. Calidan engaged the blastbot by the sewer lock as heavy as he could, though his Omega Fire rapid fire setting was doing nothing but apparently denting it. The gunfire of the two guards that were with him was just as effective, not slowing down the bot at all as it advanced toward them. Calidan was really wishing he could swap out his armaments for some of Jak's weapons, specifically the Arc Wielder that had done in the Precursor robot earlier. The blastbots laser honed in on Cal's position and prepared to fire.
"Heads up!" the wastelander yelled.
The laser fired just after Calidan lunged to the side just barely avoiding it. He continued to fire even from the ground, but the bot refused to stall. "Were gonna need more firepower if we want to even try and disable it!" said one of the guards.
"This might deplete my supply, but it's now or never," Calidan said to himself before he turned to the guards, "I think I have something to disable it, but were gonna have to fall back to avoid the shockwave! Be ready to take cover!"
The guards were hesitant to take advice from a newcomer, much less a wastelander, but considering the bot seemed to be gaining ground on them, they weren't in much of a position to argue. Calidan changed his gun back to its bomb setting and got back to his feet. He took aim at the front left leg of the blastbot and pressed the trigger. The bomb propelled out and hit the leg just above its linking point.
The guards were flabbergasted as to what he was doing, to them it looked like he just shot a blank. Calidan turned and started to re-aim at the other leg. The blastbot continued to advance on him as he continued to trek back in response. It started to readjust its laser to him, but just before it could hone in, Calidan fired again and another bomb hit the blastbots other leg nearly right on the link this time.
"Are you really shooting blanks at this thing?!" yelled Guard 4.
"No, Bombs! and like I said take cover!" Calidan said before retreating on the boardwalk. The guards finally gained sense upon hearing his explanation and followed right behind him. The blastbot had adjusted its laser to their original position and was about to fire until they moved, so it halted its laser and continued to follow them. Calidan ran until the pathway angled down and dropped to a lower level, giving him perfect cover. So he dove down and turned on the communications link on his gauntlet. He was soon joined by the guards who dove down right next to him.
"If you're going to blow it, I would suggest now," said Guard 3.
"Hold on, I'm waiting for the link to respond," said Calidan, as he saw on his gauntlet the connection was 80% complete, and the blastbot was getting closer, "Come on, come on."
The blastbot had almost reached the walkway drop, when Calidan saw that the connection was complete and pinged at him, "Keep down!" he yelled as he pressed the ignition button.
BOOOMMM!
The shockwave rattled them slightly, but after a minute, they peeked over and saw the aftermath. The blastbot had been blown completely over, toppled by the loss of its front legs. They slowly approached it, eager to inspect and verify that it was busted. However, their approach was halted by a beeping sound coming from the robot. The beeping frequency appeared to increase, which raised Calidan's suspicion.
"That sound, don't tell me that's…"
"The main internal bomb is active! It's gonna blow! DUCK!" yelled Guard 3 finishing his sentence. They all retreated again to below the walkway and ducked down.
Beep…Beep…BEEP…BEEP…KABLAAAMMMM!
An even heavier explosion rocked them, fortunately they had their heads covered to minimize the damage. The sound of falling debris around them caused them to peek out again. Once the impact of the blast subsided, they picked themselves up to turn back to the source. There was nothing left but blastbot pieces, and the walkway had been heavily cracked due to the force of the blast.
"One more for the junk heap," said Guard 3.
"And one more mess to clean up," said Guard 4.
"Better the walkway then your base, right?" said Calidan.
"Yeah," said Guard 3, who paused for a moment before continuing, "look, I still don't know if you being here is legit or not, but none the less, you did good." Calidan nodded to him accepting the compliment.
"Hey Cal!" He turned to see Jak and Daxter approach from behind, having run all the way around the boardwalk.
"Successful?" he asked rhetorically seeing the blastbots remnants on the walkway.
"More or less," Calidan said.
"Squad 2 reporting sir," Guard 4 had his hand up to his helmet, activating his comlink, "blastbot threat neutralized Commander Torn."
"Excellent work, have Jak and his crew meet me back at base we have some battle plans to go over. You and your fellow squads continue your patrol, clean up any remnants from the attack."
"Affirmative sir," he pulled his hand away from his helmet and turned toward Jak and Calidan. "The commander wants you both back at the Naughty Ottsel, there's intel to share."
"Jak!" the party of soldiers turned to see the dragons and Sparx return from their successful blastbot bust. They were concerned however to see that Spyro was carrying Cynder in his arms.
"Cynder," said Jak, "what happened?"
"A robot hit her in the leg," explained Spyro.
"Don't worry," assured Cynder, "it's just a bruise."
"But we did it! The other soldiers are chasing what's left of the robots out of the port," said Spyro.
"Alright! This gang is on a roll!" added Calidan.
"Let's continue the momentum, Torn wants us back at the Naughty Ottsel, this war is far from over," said Jak.
Stay vigil, there's more to come!
