The Jak and Spyro hero party now make their way to Freedom League HQ across the city, its time to finish the reunions!


Ch27: Freedom League HQ

The hero party exited the bar and approached the flyer Jak had commandeered upon their return. Jak took the driver's seat again with Calidan in the passenger, while keeping a firm hold of Robin as he sat in between them. Daxter made sure to hide as much out of the visual range of the wildcat as he could on Jak's opposite arm. The flyer took to the skies, with the dragons and Sparx right behind them. In the past, the dragons would have normally rode in one of the zoomers while making a trek across the city, but that was back when they were trying to keep themselves concealed from the sight of a certain tyrannical baron who once ruled the city. Although now with Praxis gone and the city now at full war, keeping themselves hidden was redundant now, which was all the better for them. Spyro never enjoyed riding in the vehicles of Elorin, no matter where they were on the planet. Cynder shared his discomfort, if not aloud, but she was also tired of trying to hide herself from people she was trying to help. This was also a way of making sure the dragons would establish good relations with more of this planet's inhabitants, to make the new alliance move forward.

Jak flew through the KG city section, with the dragons in tow. They saw the remains of the last assault, as remaining deathbots were dealt with by the Freedom League. Litters of robot parts were piled up, while other patrols were gathering up their injured or fallen comrades. Unfortunately, they had no time to mourn, and kept flying around the next bend to the KG city center. Jak led the party down the alley and under the fallen support tower, while Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx followed him by flying over it. They regrouped again and passed the remains of the destroyed barrier and exited the KG city area into the Haven Slums. The slums, much to the dragons shock and horror, looked even worse then they remembered, numerous shacks had been destroyed or set on fire, rendering them more unlivable than they already were. Calidan observed the layout and structures of the slums as Jak piloted through an alley and down the slums main flyway. Their ramshackle appearance somewhat reminded him of living in the wasteland, though he knew from what he had learned that unlike him, these people were living this way because they had no choice. People having their freedom stripped made him sick, especially when power hungry tyrants were the reason why.

Soon, the flyer made its way around a slum pillar in the middle of the flyway, and on the other side came a shocking, yet pleasant surprise. Jak had turned into the section of New Haven, which had been the result of the reconstruction effort put into Haven City after the fall of the metalhead leader. Jak piloted the flyer down a bend and into New Haven's main area. Spyro, Cynder, Sparx, and Calidan were in awe of the architecture around them. Calidan had never seen such a modern style setting before, and the dragons looked around and were reminded of Main Town, only this section was much cleaner and streamlined than its predecessor, and was not currently in ruins.

Cynder flew closer to Spyro and said, "What do you know? It really is a silver lining."

Spyro chuckled remembering her earlier comment from learning about this place. He also smiled at a lone healthy tree on a walkway below, which was surrounded by clean filtered water. Unlike the rest of the city, there appeared to be regular citizens here, and were looking up at the flying party with astonishment as they passed by overhead. Since the rest of the city was war torn, most of the citizens had been evacuated from the other sections to here, and the rest had been relocated to refugee camps away from the city as Torn explained earlier. Spyro and Cynder did their best to give encouraging nods to the citizens, while Jak just kept his eyes on the sky ahead. He flew around another structure and the tallest New Haven structure came into view. They had finally arrived at Freedom HQ, the building mimicking a miniature skyscraper. There was also a fountain in the plaza in front of the headquarters, and was soothing to the eyes of everyone in the hero party. Jak flew around it and brought the flyer to land in front of the HQ entrance, hovering in the water adjacent to the walkway to keep the entrance clear.

"Here we are guys," Jak said as he climbed out of the flyer onto the walkway. Calidan followed in suit with Robin, and the dragons landed right beside them.

"I have to admit," Calidan spoke as he looked around, "this whole section is an engineering marvel."

"Not to mention a major improvement over the slums that were here before!" added Cynder, "both in appearance and smell."

"I hear that!" commented Daxter.

"As pleasing it is to see all these changes, I suggest we not keep everyone else waiting any longer," finished Spyro. Jak nodded and motioned everyone to follow him to the large square door. It opened top and bottom upon approach, revealing an elevator. They all climbed aboard, and the door closed behind them as the elevator lifted. The ride lasted for about ten seconds, and then it halted and another door opened for them. The newcomers, both native and alien, reacted in different ways.

At first glance inside Freedom HQ, the dragons saw machinery more advanced than anything they had ever remembered seeing in Haven before. Computers, radars, and other equipment were all mounted across the room, and in the center they saw the main hub. It was another holographic generator even more advanced than the one in the Naughty Ottsel, with glowing red geometric shapes swirling around in a virtual globe. The dragons' shock matched their confusion on how everything operated. Calidan on the other hand, looked like he had died and gone to heaven. Despite this city being a war torn wasteland itself, the engineering and technological advancements he was seeing was beyond anything he ever imagined in his desert upbringing. He felt he could spend a lifetime learning and playing with everything he saw in here.

Breaking out of their shock, the dragons looked ahead and wore looks of joy in seeing all of their old Haven friends stationed around the Main Hub. Ashelin, Samos, Keira, Packer, and Onin noticed all of them, and could only smile at the reunion. Jak, Daxter, Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx all walked up to them, and upon reaching the hub Daxter was first to act as he jumped onto the hub console.

"Hello fellow peeps and cronies!" he said getting in Packer's face, "that's right, the Daxternator is back in the building!"

"Jak! Daxter! You did it!" cheered Keira clapping, before turning toward the dragons, "And Spyro! Cynder! Sparx! So glad you made it too! We were worried about all of you!" She bent down to give the dragons a hug, which both of them mutually returned to her.

"Great to be back," said Spyro smiling.

"Thanks Keira," said Cynder feeling emotional while still hugging the mechanic girl. They broke the hug before she spoke again "it's great seeing you in the flesh again, all of you!"

She turned toward the others, including Ashelin, who was standing right next to her. Remembering how they originally got off on the wrong foot, Cynder hoped to right past wrongs now. Fortunately for her, as well as everyone else, Ashelin was feeling the same.

"The feeling's mutual," Ashelin said warmly, and noticing the dragon's new growth spurt she continued, "though I must admit, both of you have grown much since we all saw you last."

"Hehe, yeah we've been getting that a lot," replied Spyro.

Sparx cut in, "Yeah, soon they'll be so big they won't be able to do nothing but throw their own...OWW!" before he finished his insult, Sparx was swatted away by Cynder's tail. Everyone could only chuckle with a shake of the head.

"Well I must say," cut in Packer, "you sure took your sweet time in coming here since I flew ahead, I've molted nearly five times!"

"Oh stuff it beaky!" Daxter yelled while putting up two fingers, "we haven't been gone more than two days! And trust me, we've been all over the place since then, while you've been doing nothing but preening!"

"Why you hairy little cretin! I'm gonna…"

"Enough you two!" Samos yelled silencing them, then turned to face the party himself, "despite Packer's apparent attitude, he does have a point, you all took a lot longer then I expected you to get here."

"Well sorry, we only had a war in the way," said Jak shrugging.

"Yes, we have heard you have had much to deal with, including some new faces," said Ashelin turning around to face Calidan and Robin, with everyone else following her gaze.

"Care to introduce yourself kid?" Ashelin asked with a hint of declaration.

"Hmph, with that attitude miss, I don't see why I should," scoffed Calidan crossing his arms, "you Haven inhabitants all seem to have a real attitude problem when it comes to newcomers."

"You are aware there is a war going on right?" asked Keira, raising an eyebrow to him.

"I'm not blind so yes! But I'm also not foolish enough to turn away anyone who is willing to lend a hand, which is what I have been doing since I got here! The least you guys can do is stop greeting me with the cold shoulder, I've had enough of that lately," stated Calidan looking away.

Ashelin seethed for a moment, this guy clearly did have the attitude Torn had warned her about. Though rather than provoke him further, she decided to humor him, "Fine, would you please care to introduce yourself to everyone present?"

"Thank you, was that so hard?" said Calidan, drawing sighs from his new friends.

"I'd be glad to, my name is Calidan, though you can call me Cal, and this is my buddy Robin, also called Rob. We are wasteland survivalists who have made our living hiding, scavenging, and fighting against any opposition we have come across in the desert. We've lived there for 18 years, until we met Jak and Spyro in a chance encounter, and we've stuck with them since then."

"Well Cal," said Ashelin, "keep in mind this isn't the wasteland anymore, this is a metropolis with its own governing laws meant for one purpose, protection of our city and its citizens, including any corruption that would undermine that purpose."

"Yeah, I've met your guy Veger," Calidan spat out, "and from what I've seen he's every definition of the word corrupt."

"Mrowr" Robin agreed.

"Tell us something we don't know," replied Keira.

"Well, did you all know he has ties with the wasteland as well?" asked Cynder, catching everyone's attention now, "he said the precursor monks there are working for him, but we know them better so we are aware he's just boasting lies."

"The Precursor monks?" asked Samos with fascination.

"Yes," answered Spyro, "they are the reason we managed to find a way back here, and how we know about the newfound threat."

"Veger will be dealt with soon enough," declared Ashelin, "but we have more important things to be concerned about. First, I would like to apologize to all of you, especially you Jak for the treatment of the city. Truthfully, I was hoping for more of a generous appeal in light of the new reconstruction, but I was wrong."

"Forget about it, we have our own interests in this now, so we best move forward," answered Jak. Jak and Ashelin then turned toward the holograph with Spyro, Cynder, Keira, and a recovered Sparx doing the same.

"Well what we know right now is," Samos began looking at the holographic view, "there's a huge dark planet builder bearing down on us all, how much time we have no one can guess. If it is rogue precursor technology, then the only way to destroy it is with more precursor technology, and that lies at the bottom of the catacombs."

"Also, the large number of eco crystals being moved around can mean only one thing, someone is trying to awaken vast precursor technology," Keira said as she interpreted some readings from the hub.

"Veger or Errol could behind all of it, or both for all we know," said Jak.

"There is one other who might also be involved," Cynder dismally reminded.

"Who else is there?" Ashelin asked.

"To give you all a full recap, the reason for our delay in coming here is because yesterday, we had to travel back to the wasteland again after aiding Torn. We went because we heard from Sig that the monks found a way to activate the portal from this side and send us back home," said Cynder, making everyone else feel surprised.

"They succeeded in opening it for us, and Jak, Daxter, Sparx and I ended up traveling to my planet for a day," finished Spyro. The Haven group went wide-eyed as they gasped.

"Are you serious?" Packer asked with astonishment.

"Is that true Jak? Did you really travel to their planet?" Samos asked, feeling intrigued.

"Yes I did," answered Jak.

"What was it like?" asked the sage, with everyone else listening in with avid interest.

"You would have loved it Samos, at least the isle we explored, nothing but lush forests all over, with little to no harmless wildlife," Jak answered him.

'Harmless wildlife my tail' Daxter thought to himself, remembering the danger he and Jak faced at the temple when gathering the artifacts.

"Must have been quite a trek, but why did you need to go to their world in the first place?" asked Ashelin.

"To find the means of activating the portal's master control function, and to bring more of Spyro's allies here," Jak answered her.

"You brought more dragons here?" gasped Keira, before she turned toward the two with them feeling more excited than normal, "That's great! Where are they?! Can we meet them?!"

Cynder laughed at her enthusiasm, "Easy Keira, and don't worry, you'll meet them all in time I assure you."

All of them, including Onin were smiling with excitement at the news of more dragons, though Samos had to ask the dragons one thing, "Not to sound inhospitable or anything, but why would you need to bring more of your kin here?"

"That's where the good news ends unfortunately," Spyro said dismally, causing the group's excited expressions to vanish.

"It's because the issue surrounding these dark precursors is stretched more than just your planet. We found out that they just recently invaded ours, and freed the most dangerous creature on our planet from his prison," Spyro finished explaining.

The whole Haven group looked at him with shock, while the rest of the hero party could only give concerned looks. The Haven group were all wondering what this dangerous creature was, until something flashed in Samos' mind. He suddenly remembered something from the dragons first visit to Haven City, he remembered how his younger self lectured him on the life story Spyro told when they were all in the Underground hideout.

"Young Spyro, you aren't referring to the monster you told us about before are you?" the sage asked the purple dragon.

"Unfortunately Samos, I am, these Dark Makers have freed Malefor, the Dark Master," replied Spyro. The whole Haven group gasped in horror, realizing that two dark forces had now joined together, and one of them was the enemy of their dragon friends!

"The one who was a purple dragon before you?" asked Ashelin.

"Who betrayed your entire race and plunged your planet to near apocalypse?" followed a terrified Packer.

"The one who...brainwashed Cynder?" finished Keira, giving Cynder a concerned look. The black dragoness' face fell upon hearing her question.

"...yes," muttered Cynder. Her tone of voice sounded like she was about to break, causing Spyro to put a wing over her back in comfort.

Samos shook his head lightly before speaking, "then the situation has now become more dire then before."

"You don't know the half of it Samos," Spyro interrupted, "I may have told you all the story about our fight with the Dark Master, but none of you have seen first hand what he is truly capable of. I have, and Cynder has had more experience with his dark powers than any of us."

Cynder still kept her eyes closed and head low, trying not to break. Everyone else looked at her sympathetically with their own thoughts. Ashelin thought she had it bad being raised by her father, one thing she noticed Cynder and her had in common was they had both been raised by tyrants. It was probably the reason the two of them had similar attitudes and mannerisms. Although the baron at least allowed his daughter to act of her free will, to a degree, unlike this Malefor who stripped Cynder of her own mind and personality from birth.

Onin may have been blind but she was no stranger to feeling anyone's emotions. She had felt them many times throughout her years in exploring timelines through her visions, and in an unfortunate few she saw the ill effects such brainwashing evil could cause. Packer knew this as well from being her interpreter for so long, but was more frightened by it than sad.

Samos and Keira were greatly sorrowed by Cynder's history as well. They had seen what happened to those who went down the dark path before of their own choosing. However, someone going down that path against their will sounded even worse! Samos may have been stern with Keira at times and even more so at Jak growing up, but he knew the importance of giving freedom to the youth so they could forge their own path for the sake of good.

Samos broke the silence stomping his staff, and then declaring, "all the more reason to get to those catacombs sooner than later!"

Jak was flabbergasted at his mentor's rashness, "Samos, didn't you hear?"

"I heard perfectly Jak! While at first thought it's a terrible turn of events, we may be able to work it in our favor," he began as everyone gave him their full attention before he continued, "if this Malefor truly has joined with the Dark Makers, then it's most likely he is now aboard the ship orbiting our planet. If we can activate the planetary defense system without any of them knowing…"

"We could destroy the ship, and Malefor at the same time taking both of them out! Of course!" Cynder exclaimed. The outlanders' faces all changed to bear wide smiles.

"Two birds with one stone, always liked that saying," Calidan remarked. The entire group felt there spirits lifted, they still had a chance to end this threat despite their enemies joining forces. After all, the dragons and the Elorians had joined forces themselves, so it made it even from a certain perspective, provided they acted in time.

"Mrowr" Robin broke the silence.

"Rob's right, what are we waiting for? Let's get into these catacombs and activate this planet gun!" Calidan declared.

"Unfortunately young one, getting to the catacombs is not that simple, we still have an army of metalheads and KG robots to get through before even attempting a trip through them," Samos reminded them.

Ashelin backed up the sages claim, "we have to be able to weaken their defenses to the minimum to even stand a chance, and we've barely been able to survive so far with everything we have left."

She paused before turning to Jak and the dragons to her right, "though now that you all are here, our fighting chances have significantly improved."

"Yeah, well that's what we're known for maam," Sparx cut in, "when it comes to defending cities against overwhelming numbers, were the experts."

Everyone just gave him blank stares, like he was speaking nonsense as usual. Spyro and Cynder just sighed, predicting that Sparx was about to go off on a tangent again. The dragonfly noticed their expressions and proved the prediction true in a second.

"What? I'm serious!" said Sparx, before going into a monologue that made Daxter and Packer cringe with irritation, "Didn't Spyro ever tell you how we defended Warfang? Well let me tell you, we had never seen such a massive invasion force before, there were these hordes of orcs, giant wall breaking machines, and a mighty ugly golem so repulsive he could kill just by breathing…"

BLARRR...BLARRR

Sparx's story rant was interrupted by the whole headquarters shaking and an alarm going off. Everyone steadied themselves as the shaking subsided. Robin tried to break from Cal's grip, forcing him to keep a tighter hold to calm him down.

"MRRROOOWR!"

"Uh oh," Packer said, balancing himself with Daxter doing the same next to him.

"What was that?" asked Spyro, as he and Cynder looked to Ashelin for an answer.

"It looks like a large scale assault," said Ashelin looking at the HQ radar in front of her, where three approaching blips were now visible, "3 weaponized targets in bound, you up for some action Jak?"

"Look who you're talking to," Jak replied with a self gesture, "Come on Dax, let's rock and roll." His ottsel sidekick jumped back onto his shoulder, once again ready for action.

"You're not leaving us out, you know that right?" said Cynder.

"I was just about to ask if you all were going to help too," replied Ashelin turning to her.

"Sure you were, hehe, but first," Cynder said as she turned her paw to reach down to her satchel. She unzipped it and brought out a familiar glowing gem. The Haven group all gasped and went wide-eyed at the sight of the mystic gem they remembered.

"I remember that glow like I saw it yesterday," said Samos.

"Time for a recharge, Spyro?" Cynder said as she held out the gem to him, which he gratefully accepted. As they both grabbed a hold of it, the shine from the gem enveloped them. The Haven group all watched as their bodies glowed with the gem for a few seconds. Soon the familiar shine evaded, and the dragon's energy was fully replenished.

"That's better," said Spyro feeling refreshed.

"That gets cooler every time," Daxter whispered to Jak.

"Alright boys, let's go bust some bots," Cynder said aloud while putting the gem away again. Her choice of words stunned the rest of them, which Jak questioned.

"Where did you learn how to talk like that?"

"Been hanging you too long," she answered as they all chuckled heading for the elevator. Jak was in lead, with Cynder and Spyro behind him, with the sidekicks beside them. Before following them, Calidan crouched down to Robin and looked him right in the eye.

"I'll be right back, you stay here and keep out of trouble, understood?"

"Mrowr"

"Ok I'll take that," Calidan said to his pet before getting up to follow the hero party to the elevator. Robin was left with the rest of the Haven group who could only look at the wildcat in nervous silence. Robin returned their gaze inquisitively with wide green cat eyes. One could only wonder what would happen now?


Spyro and Cynder have now reunited with all of their old Haven friends, and Cal has now been introduced to the full group. Now its a matter of building up from here, like it was with the dragons before him. Stay vigil, because another action scene is right around the corner, JakSpyro vs KG deathbots Round 2!