The heroes have infiltrated the War Factory, I've made my own spin on this part, so Daxter won't be taking as big a role as he did in the game, but hey, what's the point of making an epic crossover if there aren't at least some significant differences? Don't worry though, he will still play a critical part, along with everyone else, so I encourage you to read on and witness for yourself...


Ch31: War Factory Infiltration

The hero party found themselves right in front of another elevator. The factory entrance door had closed behind them, sealing them in. That was no matter, because their objective was forward. They all stepped onto the floor plated elevator, causing its guardrails to rise and to descend to its Main level. They noticed that all the metal walls and floors of the factory were colored in the trademark KG red and silver. It wouldn't surprise them if the whole factory had the same appearance all over. At the Main level, they received their welcoming invitation, a small armada of KG roboguards, with their weapons trained at the ready.

"I see the welcoming party is here, let's give them our invitation," Jak stated, with all of his allies grinning at the soon to be scrap bots. He quickly unholstered his gun and equipped the Arc Wielder while Calidan followed suit with his blaster. The dragons were first to leap at the KG roboguards as they fired upon them, only to evade them by leaping. Spyro and Cynder each tackled a guard at once, before Spyro noticed the area was open to the city atmosphere below. Seeing a stray deathbot, he fired an Earth shot blowing it back and over the edge. Cynder noticed the same and fired a wind blast at another deathbot for it to meet the same fate. There were four more remaining, including the ones the dragon's originally tackled, but were met with enemy fire from Jak and Calidan before the deathbots could target them. Jak's Arc Wielder did three of them in, while Calidan finished the last with his blaster.

"Well, I say Jak won that little exchange out of all of you!" Daxter gloated.

"This isn't the time to be keeping score Daxter," scolded Cynder.

"Why not? Helps keep things interesting rather than dwelling on fighting for our lives!" Daxter threw back.

"That's why we need to stay focused, so we all come out of here unscathed," replied Spyro.

"They're right Dax, so let's keep moving," Jak added.

"Well I say the path is pretty clear," said Calidan, getting their attention. He was standing by a moving escalator which angled up deeper into the factory. He turned to face them before gesturing to the escalator, "going up."

He stepped backward to set foot on the walkway to let it take him up to the next level. Jak ran up to it and followed him in suit, while the dragons and Sparx took flight. Up at the next level, there were more roboguards plus a couple of spydroids added to their battalion. Calidan immediately shot at a few spydroids with his blaster shattering them. Jak meanwhile still had his Arc Wielder equipped, and upon reaching the top of the escalator, brought it up to the head and released its energy. In a full sweeping motion, he ran it through every deathbot in the hallway, shocking them to explode. It was almost like he swept them all up with a broom.

"I really need to get one of those," stated Calidan.

"Maybe Torn has one lying around, get on his good side again, maybe he'll lend it to you," Jak replied.

"Hah, when pigs fly," scoffed Calidan.

"Enough," Cynder said from behind, "Not the time for that now, let's keep proceeding."

They complied with a sigh of breath and moved further down the walkway. At the end of it, they saw a barred wall sealing off what appeared to be another elevator. To their right, they saw another grate, which looked like it could be broken with a hand smash or horn dive. The dragons turned to Jak for directions.

"Which way?" Spyro asked Jak.

"According to the data Torn acquired, the Main hub of the factory is at the top level, that elevator would probably take us there. Unfortunately we won't be able to get through those bars," said Jak.

"Have you forgotten I can just shadow in through them?" Cynder asked.

"No I haven't, but what about the rest of us? We would all need to get through, and there aren't any doors to open, we need to knock it down," said Jak.

"I could probably do that, but I might expel all my energy in the attempt to, same with Cynder," said Spyro.

"Don't do it then, there has to be another way, let's make our way in deeper and find a different means," said Jak. They all nodded as he led the way toward the grate. He thought to himself looking at it, 'this I've got.'

With a hand smash, he plowed through the grate down to another level. The rest of the hero party followed him down in suit. They were in an enclosed space that led to another walkway around a corner. Around the corner, they saw their next blockade, a metal wall with a large spinning fan moving at high speeds to block their advance, right next to a metal pipe that seemed to stretch up to the ceiling.

"I think now is the time to try a new trick I've learned," said Jak.

"What trick?" Daxter asked.

"In a second," Jak told him before turning to Spyro, "care to join me in getting to the other side?"

Spyro looked at the spinning blades for a moment, thinking Jak had gone crazy, "and how do you plan on getting past them? They are moving too fast too…" he suddenly had an epiphany, and noticing the look on Jak's face made him realize he knew all along.

"Ohhh, I see where you're going with this," Spyro said grinning.

"Welcome to the table, we saved you a seat," Jak wise cracked back.

Taking a line from Jak's book, Spyro replied, "Alright, let's do it."

Their banter made Cynder sweatdrop behind them, whispering to herself and Calidan, "oh great, now they're starting to sound like each other."

Calidan just shook his head at the situation and watched as the two heroes walked up in front of the spinning blades. They stood still for a moment, before Jak extended his hands out from his body. Daxter gripped his shoulder blade tighter, realizing what Jak was doing now. Jak kept his eyes closed tight, concentrating on the newfound light eco abilities he had been given, and then immediately opened his eyes again, that were now shining with white light. He crouched down and with a mighty clap, disappeared from everyone's normal sight along with Daxter as he activated his Light Flash Freeze. Seeing Jak vanish, Spyro took his cue, and tapped into ancient powers he hadn't used since the Well of Souls. Dragon Time activated, and Spyro vanished from normal vision as well. Calidan, Cynder and Sparx watched them all disappear, and only Calidan had anything to say.

"It's official, hanging around you guys is the strangest thing that's ever happened to me," he said, causing the dragon and dragonfly to look at him exhaustively.

In the newfound force that Jak and Spyro found themselves, their surrounding environment seemed to be blanketed by a blue-colored aura. Also as intended, the speed of everything around them had been significantly decreased, as was clear by the slow moving blades now in front of them. Giving each other a quick nod, they ran toward the blades, and through one gap in their rotation, they jumped through to the other side. As they came out on the other side, they deactivated both of their time manipulating abilities.

The party on the other side saw Jak and Spyro appear out of thin air, along with Daxter who was still clenching Jak's shoulder blade, but then released it when he realized they were through and turned to face them, "well if you're done showing off, let's clear the way for the others and get moving!"

Jak just grinned with a shrug and walked over to the lever that was embedded on the adjacent step. With a quick pull, the blades lost power and slowed down to a halt. With the path now clear as Daxter stated, the remaining three went through the now frozen blades to meet up with the lead heroes.

"Alright everyone, going up," Jak said to them pointing to the higher level accessible by an open ledge.

"Well, looks like we'll be having another unwelcome party up there," Calidan said, noticing the Krimzon deathbot hover-guards that were floating on the upper level.

"Leave them to us," said Spyro, who turned to Cynder and gave mutual nods of understanding before taking flight. The dragons engaged the four hover-guards who tried firing their lasers at the dragons to shoot them out of the air. The dragons proved their superior natural flight skills in evading the fire before they each hit one with a melee attack and destroyed the other with an elemental burst of electricity and fear.

Jak, Daxter, and Calidan climbed up the ledge to meet up with them, and saw that numerous spydroids were also stationed here, and had begun advancing toward them upon their arrival. They immediately unholstered their blasters, and fired one shot at each spydroid they aimed at, shattering it. The outlander dragons in the air destroyed the remaining two hover-guards with one final melee hit, while the native humans eliminated the rest of the spydroids on the ground. Soon, all the deathbots were eliminated, and the Elorians gave smiles of satisfaction, until receiving an unfortunate surprise at the sight of the nearby ground dome next to them opening and letting loose two more hover-guards!

"Oh great," said Daxter blankly.

"We've gotta destroy that dome, Spyro we need you!" Jak shouted aloud.

"I've got it!" Spyro said flying toward the dome.

"And I've got them!" Cynder said engaging the hover-guard newcomers. Spyro positioned himself over the dome, and with an instinctive activation of his Earth powers, plummeted down toward it with an Earth boulder smash.

SMASH!

As Spyro shattered the dome, Cynder attacked the hover-guards with a fear sonic blast, freezing them before they could even shoot. Jak and Calidan finished them with a shot to their rear mounted packs, dropping them to explode on impact. With that the level was clear.

"Alright! Let's keep moving," Jak ordered and led the way around the next bend. A conveyor that was moving the opposite way angled down to an elevated hover block that led to another section of the factory, where more deathbots were waiting. Seeing this, Sparx could only say one thing to himself, while breaking the fourth wall again, "I swear this was all laid out for us by some crazy designer or something."

Jak, Daxter and Calidan made their way running down the conveyor to the hover block, their pace lessened by the opposing direction. Spyro and Cynder merely flew over to the other section while keeping watch for their friends. Upon approaching the section, the dragons bombarded the deathbots in a creative sense, with Spyro blowing away half of them with Earth shots, and Cynder wrapping the rest of them up with a wind twister before sending them toppling over the open edge to the ruins below. Jak and his fellow natives made the jump to the hover block, and rode it all the way over to the next section, only to see that all the deathbots had been dealt with.

"Couldn't leave any for us?" Jak jested.

"Save your ammo for where it counts blue boy, after all we're far from done here yet," Cynder reminded, albeit with a grin.

"Well then what are you all waiting for?!" Sparx shouted, getting their attention. He had flown right in front of all of them and was buzzing in the air while pointing to the adjacent path behind him. "This way, crazy hero party!"

They could only shake their heads at him before making their way to follow him. The path was heading up a pair of ramps to a higher section of the current factory level. At the top, the hero party saw another pipe embedded in a holed wall next to a stationary hover block which floated above an open fall to the city. From where they stood, they couldn't see around the bend to see what was there, though they had a similar idea.

"We need that hover block activated, and if I were a gambler, I'd bet the lever that activates is somewhere over there," said Calidan.

"Fair bet, so to save time, can you natural flyers check over there for us?" Jak asked the dragons.

"No problem," said Spyro.

"Ahem, what's the magic word?" Cynder teased.

Jak could only huff at her timing with this, "Ugh, please?"

"Much better," said Cynder, "one would think being with Keira wouldn't make you forget your manners."

"Our whole worlds' at war and you're worried about this?" Calidan asked skeptically.

"Speaking from personal experience dirt boy, war may change a great deal of things, including yourself, but you should never forget what separates us from the instigators," Cynder spoke her mind before taking flight ahead of Spyro, who could only shrug his shoulders at his Elorian friends before following her.

"She really is tenacious," Calidan commented.

"Heh, would think you know that already," Jak added, with Daxter snickering at his expense. Calidan just raised his eye at the situation, who knew saving the world could be this...uncommon?

Spyro and Cynder had landed at another section around the bend, where another stationary hover block was, and an open gate was in front, with barred walls on both sides of it. More importantly now, next to the hover block was a lever, which Spyro activated with a simple pull. The hover blocks came to life, and started moving back and forth. Seeing the dragons had succeeded, Jak and Calidan waited for their block to come back and jumped onto it as it approached. Sparx flew past them and toward the dragons as the Elorians jumped onto the next block as it approached. They rode it all the way before jumping off to set foot in the next section with the dragons.

"Uh guys," Sparx got their attention, as he was floating toward the open gate, peeking into it from behind the barred wall, "You might wanna see this."

They all walked up and saw yet another KG blockade, spydroids and robogoons were spread out along the walkway in front of them, which was split in half by a laser wall, of which its primary generator was mounted on an embedded section that housed another hover-guard dome. The dome and generator was of course guarded by three hover-guards.

"Well isn't that a pleasing sight," Daxter said sarcastically.

"Just another mess that needs to be cleaned up," Jak said while bringing out the Arc Wielder again. He turned toward the dragons to ask the usual plan, "you take care of the dome and flyers while we handle the rest?"

"You got it," Spyro replied with determination, spreading his wings yet again. Cynder mirrored him, and Calidan brought out his blaster to take aim once again. As soon as the dragons entered the chamber, the hover-guards immediately opened fire at them. Once they evaded, they attacked them in their usual fashion, with Spyro's electrical stream short-circuiting their packs before they detonated and Cynder's wind breath blowing them into the wall, exploding them. Jak and Calidan jumped in and fired at the deathbots on the ground. All the robogoons on the first side of the laser wall received the full brunt of the Arc Wielder shock while all the spydroids were shattered by Calidan's near dead aim blaster fire.

Spyro positioned himself over the hover-guard dome, and once again smashed it with an Earth boulder smash. At the same time, Cynder had the laser wall generator in her sights and fired a poison bomb at it. The poison slime covered it and ate away at its structural integrity, but not before the laser wall shut down. Their way now open again, Jak and Calidan advanced and attacked the second wave of deathbots in the same way they destroyed the first. Once the gunfire had stopped and all the deathbots were scrap metal on the ground, Jak gestured for them to move forward. They followed him around another corner, where another grate was embedded in the floor. Jak knew just what to do and jumped up to break it with another hand smash.

Breaking through to the way below, he was momentarily surprised to see three robogoons stationed at the ready. They immediately engaged him, causing him to duck and roll out of the way. Jak then fought back with a melee spinning kick, knocking all three goons away. The others dropped down behind him to join up, and saw Jak run toward the goons again to give them another spin kick, one which knocked them over the edge and to the city ruins below. Jak let out a satisfied breath while Daxter had one thing to say, "now that's what I call putting your foot down."

Jak just gave him a 'whatever' glance and turned around to the rest of the hero party, giving another hand gesture to move ahead. As they regrouped, Jak looked ahead to see another hover block heading toward him. He jumped on, by himself this time as Calidan was too far back. He rode on it to the adjacent hovering platform ahead and jumped off. He waited for the next hover block to approach and jumped onto it. Meanwhile, the dragons and Sparx took flight again to follow Jak while Calidan finally jumped onto the first hover block to ride it across. Jak reached the end of his block's path and jumped onto the adjacent moving ramp which led up to another higher section of the factory. His aerial friends followed him while Calidan waited to make the next jump for the returning hover block. Jak reached the top of the ramp to set foot on a solid floor again, and the dragons came to land next to him.

"We've come deeper in than I thought we would, and still haven't found anything that can take us to the upper level," said Spyro.

"We're not done yet, just a little further, once Cal gets here we keep moving," Jak replied.

"Then I guess we're moving now, he's here," commented Cynder. They followed her gaze toward the ramp Jak had come from, and saw that Calidan had finally made his way up.

"Thanks for waiting on me this time," he said. Jak nodded back and the dragons gave him a grin, before they all turned forward to proceed up the next ramp. As they ran up toward it, they passed another barred wall, where to their shock saw two roboguard deathbots on the other side!

"Leave em," Jak said, "they're no threat behind that wall."

He went and proceeded up the last ramp, while the others followed giving the roboguards an uneasy glance as they moved past them. Jak reached the top of the ramp, where he saw a familiar sight, another pipe embedded into a holed wall. Calidan and the outlanders rejoined him to see it themselves.

"Okay, this is becoming ridiculous," Cynder said, seeing the pipe.

"Well if it were easy, this factory would have been disabled a long time ago," explained Jak.

"Difficulty doesn't bother me, the repetition however is getting annoying, it's almost as bad as listening to Sparx complain," Cynder replied.

They had a light chuckle at the jab, until Calidan looked around noticing someone was missing, "hey, where is the fly?"

"Oh guys!" cried a familiar voice.

They all looked up next to the ceiling where the wall was anchored. Sparx was buzzing up at another embedded platform in the wall, where another lever could be seen. He let out a wave before flying over to the lever, and pulling it with all the might his little body could muster. Fortunately he succeeded in pulling it the full way, and the neighboring twin blades that were blocking their advance shut down.

"Now, can we keep going, or do you want to sit around and complain? Hmm?" Sparx's smart mouth was directed at one particular individual who had delivered an earlier insult to him.

Cynder merely gave him a glare and kept silent. Spyro could only roll his eyes, wondering if these two would ever get along. Before he could continue contemplating, Daxter spoke out…

"Okay! That's it! You've all had your chance at showboating, I've got dibs on the next one, got it?!"

"Whatever floats your boat rat," said Calidan with his arms crossed.

Daxter growled at him, before Jak stepped away to avoid another heated argument between them. He led the way through the deactivated blades, with the dragons, Sparx, and Calidan following behind him. On the other side, there was a two way junction, though one was blocked by a holed wall so they went with the open one on the left. It was then Daxter got his wish, another pipe was fastened to the floor, and appeared to angle up to the ceiling. Holed grates were fastened up top the walls, and apparently led to another platform where hopefully the final lever was located.

"Alright Dax, like you said, this one is yours," Jak said while turning to his shoulder laden buddy. Daxter gave a grin before jumping off to the ground and walking over to enter the pipe. They could hear his scampering feet on the pipe walls as he climbed all the way through it. Upon reaching the other end, Daxter jumped up to grab a hold of the grate path that was just above him. The ottsel immediately started moving forward following the grate path in front of him.

"While he's taking care of that, let's scout ahead to see what this lever will open for us," Calidan suggested.

"Alright then," Jak nodded before he led the way around the bend, only to run into more roboguard deathbots!

"Should have seen that coming," he said before ducking behind the corner piping to avoid their blaster fire. Spyro and Cynder jumped at the ready while Jak and Calidan brought out their guns again. As the heroes attacked the deathbots, Sparx decided to follow the other sidekick, much to the apparent irony that he was now following the loudmouthed ottsel whose presence he couldn't stand!

Daxter had just made his way through an electric trap surrounding the first section of the grate and was maneuvering to the next section. Unfortunately this one was no less safe, as dual floating heaters were moving back and forth along the next stretch of the grate, ready to burn the fur right off Daxter, if not burn him alive. Daxter thought to himself, 'sheesh, this factory has both its bases, and its ceilings covered! Paranoid much?'

He waited for the heaters to move past him before making his way forward along the grate. Up ahead he could see the next stretch, but looking back he saw the heaters returning and picked up the pace as much as he could. He made his way to a grate clearing and got out of their way just in time! He caught his breath for a moment before looking ahead to see another stretch of grate which had another pair of heaters covering it, much to his frustration. That aside, he waited for the heaters to make their way towards him, and once they stopped and reversed their direction, he followed them as swiftly as he could. As he saw the heaters reach their end, he made his way over to another side section which led to the lever's embedded platform. He cleared the heaters just in time once again and kept moving along the final stretch. In a few seconds he was above the platform and dropped down in front of the lever.

"What took you so long fuzzball?" Sparx buzzed with mockery, appearing right next to the lever just as Daxter dropped down.

His sudden appearance made Daxter seeth, "back off glowboy! Like I said this one's mine! You had yours!"

"Be my guest," Sparx gestured to the lever while floating slightly aside. Daxter kept a glare at him while walking up to the lever. With a quick kick he activated it, though unbeknownst to all of them, the hovering platforms in motion at the far end of their current section suddenly slowed down and came to a halt in line with each other. This ensured a smooth path for all of them without the risk of falling. Back with the dragonfly and the ottsel…

"Has anyone ever told you that you have a serious temperament issue? Really, you could even give Cynder a run for her money!" Sparx said to Daxter.

"Has anyone ever told you your mouth is bigger than your body? There have been times you sounded louder than Packer! Or even your yellow guardian pal Volteer!" Daxter threw back before walking over to the platform's edge.

"Okay now that's stretching it too far," Sparx argued.

"Truth hurts, doesn't it?" Daxter finished before jumping over the side back down to the pipe level. Sparx just scoffed and slowly followed him down back to the hero party. All of them had just made short work of the deathbots, and were standing right next to the longest conveyor in the factory they had seen yet. Not to mention that parked next to it, was a red factory buggy, even smaller than the Tough Puppy Jak remembered in the Spargus vehicle pen. All of them were looking at it for a few seconds before rejoined by their smallest companions.

"Hello mi amigos! I'm back!" Daxter shouted, getting their attention.

"Me too!" Sparx added, appearing off to his left, irritating the ottsel even further.

"Between the two of you, I presume you succeeded in your task?" questioned Cynder.

"Without a hitch!" said Daxter.

"So you confirmed the way is now clear for us?" she questioned again.

"Uh...well," Daxter stammered, he had never verified that given his recent argument with the dragonfly. His stuttering earned him stern glares, which he promptly retorted at. "Hey don't blame me! I wouldn't have forgotten that if he hadn't shown up and interrupted!"

Daxter pointed to Sparx who retaliated, "don't pin this on me fuzzball! You're just as guilty and you know it!"

"Says you! I told you I had the whole thing taken care of, and you just waltzed in and…"

"AHEM" Daxter and Sparx's argument was interrupted by the looming presence of their respective friends. Jak and Spyro towered over them with angry looks, giving them a clear message. Sparx recomposed himself and spoke first…

"Look point is, lever's pulled which means the way is clear, don't believe me? I'll check," with that he buzzed away from them and around the bend. With one quick glance he shouted back to them, "What do you know? It's a straight path now! Come on over, but don't forget your guns!"

Jak let out a sigh before turning to the rest, "Dax, Cal, come with me, it's time to take one last ride through here." He finished while walking over to the buggy. Daxter merely grinned before running over to join him while Calidan turned to the dragons.

"We'll clear the rest, and given your track record, I don't believe you'll have a problem keeping up?" he asked.

"Heh, I wouldn't try outdriving us when we are miles above the city right now," Spyro retorted.

"Point taken," Calidan said before walking over to the buggy and mounting up. Jak started the engines, and the dragons took flight again. He drove the buggy up onto the conveyor and moved right along with it to the stationed hover block line where a group of roboguards were stationed. Using the vehicle to his advantage, Jak performed a skid, slamming into all three of them and breaking them to bits. The first leg successful, he gunned it again up the next ramp in front of him, with the dragons and dragonfly following right behind him. The buggy drove right up the ramp and through the deathbots at the top, and upon reaching the top and seeing the barred wall, Jak hit the turbo boost button and plowed the buggy through the wall. They ended back at the start of the junction, driving through the dual stationary blades and down the ramp to the next barred wall where the roboguards from before were still trapped. Jak smirked, hitting the booster and plowing through the wall and guards. He skidded around the perimeter of the laser wall chamber and toward another barred wall. He boosted and plowed through it, and then another one, while running down some deathbots at the same time.

The outlanders maintained their pace in following him, but kept their distance in case Jak's driving did more damage than anticipated. Jak drove along another section and over a small ramp which led back to the first hover-guard area where he drove over the dome Spyro had crushed. He boosted toward another barred wall breaking through it and more deathbots on the other side. Rounding the corner, he drove over an edge and the vehicle dropped down onto the primary junction the heroes had entered from, with the first conveyor right in front of him. He drove up it, and upon reaching the top, hit the booster one last time while driving straight at the final barred wall.

"JUMP!" Jak yelled to Cal, who obliged by jumping out of the speeding buggy at the same time.

SMASH!

The buggy's drive was brought to a halt as it was stopped by the solid wall on the other side of the barrier, just off to the left of the elevator. The buggy smoked as its engine overheated, but it had done its job. Calidan lifted himself back to his feet along with Jak, they stood on opposite sides of the hallway, while looking at the busted wall with satisfaction. Soon enough the dragons and Sparx caught up with them and landed right next to the Elorians.

"See? I knew we would find a way to break it down," Jak told Spyro.

"Never doubted you for a minute," Spyro replied smiling, before turning serious again, "alright, let's see what's at the top of this metal monster."

Jak nodded back and led the way to the elevator. Calidan, Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx followed right behind. As they stood on the floor plates elevator platform together, the guardrails popped up and the elevator started to ascend. Their sabotaging infiltration was nearly complete, now all that's left was to take care of whoever, or whatever was waiting at the top.


One elevator up, to a showdown inevitable to happen, and one you all have unassumingly waited for.