She's Worth Defending

Chapter Seven: Tanks and Tantrums, Part Two

Like it was nothing, Jak went back to a stand and looked over to the area where Cara and Daxter were. He signaled for them to come over.

"Coooommminnn'," Daxter sang as he hopped over all of the platforms with ease.

Cara, on the other hand, just watched the platforms go by.

"Yeesh, I dun know, Jak, we may hav'ta tell Torn this one's defective." Daxter smirked as he crossed his arms.

Jak just rolled his eyes and began to walk away.

"One, two, three, jump, one, two, three, JUMP! Like this," Daxter held his arms out and hopped, "Like that! See, you just missed that one! That was your opportunity!" Daxter became a little frazzled.

"I'm sorry! I just hate jumping over large," Cara looked down, "deep, chasms."

"Chasms? Pffft, hun, it's no biggie. Just. Jump. Over. Just get a runnin' head start, put ya arms in front of ya, push ya tush out, AND- oh! Hey." Daxter turned to see that Cara was standing right next to him, legs shaking. "See? That wasn't so bad, right?"

Cara just continued to walk, looking back over her shoulder towards the 'chasm' she just conquered, but almost flipped a shit when she ran into someone's backside.

Jak turned to Cara, "Are you kidding me?"

Cara's eyes widened, "What?'

"Can you just pretend for a second that you know what you're doing?" If anyone could aggressively whisper, it was Jak.

Jak turned back around and peered around another corner. "There's more guards."

Daxter, then, waltzed up to them, "Alright, guys, if we could go ahead-…"

"Shhh!" Both Jak and Cara turned to Daxter with their finger to their lips.

Daxter just brushed it off, rolled his eyes, and jumped back onto Jak's shoulder.

Cara attempted to peer around Jak's shoulder to see, "How many?"

Jak's eyes shifted around, "Five," he then whipped his head around towards Cara, "Can you fight?"

Cara shrugged, "I mean, yeah, I gue-…"

"No, of course you can't. Why did I even ask?" Jak responded in a drawn out manner.

Cara nudged him, "I can fight. I just, I don't know, the thought of going up against well-trained guards with weapons while having no weapon myself is a little nerve-racking."

Jak chuckled, "Well-trained. Good one."

Cara just looked at the back of Jak's head with a glare. If she was using the 'three strikes you're out method', this guy would have been gone a long time ago.

Out of no where, Jak left the corner and went out into the open.

Cara protested, "Wait! Oh, my god!"

What do I do? Shit. Well, here goes nothing.

Cara ran out to follow, but saw more platforms with chasms. Nothing like jumping over dark pits with guards after you. Cara held her breath and hopped over each platform, only to get to the first area, which Jak already cleaned out. She got there just in time to see Jak deck a guard in the face with a 'mmh!' that really emphasized on the fact Jak loved what he was doing.

Next area. The last three guards.

The leaping over chasms wasn't so bad at this point. Cara got there on time, for once, and saw Daxter hiding behind a box with his fur pointed up on his back and his ears down.

"Wanna go, little shit?"

Cara quickly turned around just in time to see Jak hit the ground.

WHAT?

A guard withdrew a knife from his belt and ran towards Jak.

Cara was then grabbed around the waist and mouth by that one last guard that she forgot about. He chuckled, "You sure seem familiar."

"Get off of me!" Cara yelled, muffled under the guard's glove.

"I'm sure Erol will burst with joy when he finds out that you're back." The guard unclipped his walkie-talkie from his belt, causing Cara to grunt with desperation with her eyes enlarged.

Then, something came over her. It was a lot like back in the corridor when she first escaped. She ripped her arm out of the guard's grasp, which he wasn't ready for: her strength wasn't something the guard thought he had to worry about. Cara knocked the walkie-talkie out of the guard's hand and then proceeded to kick him straight in the gut, causing him to fall back against a wall.

Jak strained as he fought against the sharp end of the blade right over his face. He managed to bring it farther away, but the guard kept finding the strength to bring it closer.

Daxter's nails were almost nonexistent now due to his nervousness. He wanted to help Jak, he needed to, but what should, rather, could, he do? He then puffed up his chest and smirked.

"Live in prison," The guard pushed the blade down harder, "Die in prison." He smirked and couldn't help but laugh when he watched Jak's face contort in pain; the blade starting to make contact with his forehead.

"DUN DA DA DAAAA!" The once hidden ottsel proclaimed as he ran full speed, on all fours, towards the guard and Jak. "AHHH!" He jumped and landed on the guard's face, digging his nails and teeth into the guard's helmet. He thrashed around, somehow managing to knock the guard's helmet off completely.

Jak, as you should have guessed, was now sitting up. He looked around, knowing that his friend couldn't stall things for much longer. Something shiny caught his eye: some brass knuckles, that a guard had kindly dropped when he got laid out, sat comfortably, and invitingly, on the floor.

Jak leaned over and grabbed him, slipping them on his right-hand fingers.

"Take that! Don't mess with'da ottsel OR his friends!" Daxter said as he jumped from the unshielded guard's head to a stacked set of boxes.

"Hey," Jak said, which caused the guard to look over.

Lights out.

Jak threw his hardest punch and made contact right in the middle of the guard's face. Jak smirked when he made out the sound of the guard's nose breaking and cheekbones shattering. The guard fell limply onto the floor and Daxter and Jak looked over him.

"…Yeah, he's dead." Daxter pointed out nonchalantly.

"Come back here, you little bitch!"

This caused Jak and Daxter to look over towards Cara and the last guard. Hm, Jak completely forgot she was there.

Jak ran over, pushed Cara aside, and decked him in the face. Sadly, it wasn't the hand with brass knuckles, but it did enough damage to daze him.

Cara then pushed Jak aside, which surprised him, honestly, and made her way towards the guard.

Cara punched him in the face while he was still dazed, causing him to stumble over. She didn't say a word, just followed him in the direction he fell.

She punched him again, which made the guard fall to his back.

Jak just watched, completely puzzled over everything. This girl was destroying this guard, granted he helped a little, but she's afraid of heights? Who is this girl, really?

By now, Cara was sitting on top of the guard's chest, smacking him around left and right. Cara then removed the man's helmet to see a busted lip and nose, despite the fact that he was wearing his helmet during the entire brawl. She set it aside and watched him heave for a moment.

Ruthless. Be...ruthless.

She punched him again: the guard's head was thrown to the right.

Again: the guard's head was thrown to the left.

She continued, over and over, her face completely expressionless. Cara knew what she was doing, but didn't know what had come over her. This wasn't her; this had to be someone else. Or, it could have been this guard's threat; the threat to turn her into Erol. The thought of it made her want to put an extra dent or two in his skull.

After it looked like the guard wasn't a member of the living anymore, Cara stood up and backed off. She turned to Jak, who didn't even know how to respond.

Her chest was heaving and there were beads of sweat rolling down her face, "So?"

"So?" Jak asked in return.

"Let's go," she said as she walked past him and Daxter.

Jak looked to Daxter, who shrugged. "Ya know, bitches be crazy."

Cara looked around, yet, another corner.

What do you know? More fucking guards.

She sighed and turned around, resting herself against the wall.

"What?" Jak asked.

"There's more." Cara laid her head back against the wall.

"Ya, but there's spikes!" Daxter said as he peered around the corner.

"Spikes?" Jak looked down to Daxter before looking around the corner to see for himself.

"Ya, like, pointy, sharp, your-gonna-poke-your-eye-out spikes," Daxter said happily.

"I don't know, guys, I feel really wiped out." Cara said between heavy breaths.

Daxter looked back at her, "Well ya, ya did go completely nuclear back there, sweetheart!"

"I don't know what happened. I feel awful."

"There's no time for that now. I need you to tell me for where the ammo is." Jak looked at Cara momentarily before looking around the corner to come up with a plan.

Cara didn't even have it in her to argue or beg for a break, she could barely muster up the strength to speak.

Jak looked back just in time to see Cara lower her head in exhaustion. He stepped over to her and pulled out a square, Green Eco kit. "Here," he said as he slapped it in her hand, "Take it."

Cara looked up into Jak's eyes. He looked so mad. Once Jak realized they had been holding eye contact for awhile, he blinked, looked away, and stepped back to where he was before. Cara looked down and opened the kit, pulling out a simple syringe of Green Eco. She didn't even hesitate to stick it into her forearm. She exhaled when she felt the eco course through her veins. She dropped all of the empty contents on the floor and stood straight, "Thanks, I feel a little better."

Jak looked back and raised his eyebrows and nodded. Apparently, saying 'thank you' or 'you're welcome' is too unbearable for him.

...

After deciding that throwing the guards into the spikes was a great idea, they made a go for it. For the most part, everything went according to plan: Jak and Cara were only tasered a total of three times, so it wasn't so bad. Daxter was labeled the designated tripper, Cara the antagonizer, and Jak the pusher. Sure, they had to switch positions a few times, but it worked.

"Well," Jak brushed his hands together, "Looks like we're done here."

Cara wore the most disgusted look on her face. Blood. Blood everywhere. Oh, and this wasn't like the guard she beat to a pulp earlier. No, this was like 'blood still spurting from bodies as they walked by' situation.

"What's your deal?" Jak asked, absolutely unfazed.

"Look at me! Look at you!" Cara said as she looked at Jak. Not only were her clothes soaked in blood, but so was Jak's. He also wore a streak of KG blood across his right cheek. What the hell does he mean 'what's your deal?'

Daxter, who pulled something chunky out of his fur, grimaced before he threw it, "Oh, yuck, what was that? What waaas thaaaat? Ya know what, I dun even wanna know."

Cara held the bridge of her nose with her pointer finger and thumb, "You know what? We're almost there; we're almost out of here. The faster we get out of here, the faster I can take a shower and completely get rid of the evidence of what I have gone through today." Once again, she walked past Jak.

...

Finally, the trio made it to the room that's been waiting to get to: the ammo dump. They walked in and looked around. It's almost comical when it comes to their mannerisms: at first they walked in with caution, now they were waltzing around, waiting for someone, or something, to come at them. Funny how a hectic day of bullshit can really get the adrenaline going.

Jak looked down at a barrel that had a small card on it. He snatched it up and looked at it for a moment.

Daxter looked up at him, "Cool, that's a security pass! We need those to get through city checkpoints!"

There was a sudden bang, that sounded like it came from below, that caused them all to cower. Both Cara and Jak looked to Daxter and shushed him before he even had the opportunity to make any noise. They all looked to a vent and laid down to look through it comfortably. That's when Cara saw something that surprised her almost to the point of gasping.

The KG, Dark Eco, and a couple of Metal Heads.

"There barrels are the latest shipment of eco. The Baron says to take them and get out." One of the guard's said to the Metal Heads.

The Metal Heads growled and took an offensive stance, causing the KG members to draw their weapons.

Jak looked to Cara, "Metal Heads in the city? Why are the guards giving them eco?" At first Cara thought Jak was kindly asking, but when she looked at him, she realized that in no way was it a kind question. Did he think she had something to do with this?

Cara opened her mouth to speak, even though she wasn't really sure what to say. She really had no idea, "Uh…"

Suddenly, a hissing sound, followed by a sound that they were all too familiar with, echoed throughout the ammo dump. The trio all looked at each other with wide eyes before quickly jumping up to a stand.

Another tank.

Obviously, team bonding hadn't paid off because Cara and Jak ran in different directions. Or, actually, given the tank's targeting system, maybe it was a good idea. There wasn't an exact plan; the trio, so far, improvised when it came to every situation. For a moment, no one even remembered what they came in there to do.

Cara, who was hiding behind a steel barrier, was trying to remember everything Torn had told them to do, which was a lot harder when there's a tank involved.

"Destroy the dump," Cara mumbled to herself, "Damn it, how?" She then was jolted upward when the tank finally started to do some damage to her barrier. She looked at the chip in the corner and then the brilliant idea came. She crawled to opposite side of the barrier and peered around it, "Jak?"

Jak, who had been trying to find a way to set off some sort of explosion by pressing random buttons, looked her way.

"The tank! Use it to blow up the dump!" Cara yelled, but then covered her ears and bowed her head when her barrier took another hit, "There's pure gasoline in there! That tank leads down into the garage!"

Daxter peered around Jak's head, "Ya! But won't we die?!"

Cara yelled back, "No! When there's a risk of an explosion, or even overheating, the system will start an automatic countdown! It won't be long, but it should be long enough for us to get out!"

Jak ran over to the corner of the garage system and waved his hands like he did earlier, "Hey!" The tank immediately turned and tried to lock on to Jak, but, by now, Jak was an expert at evaded the tank's fire. This also gave Cara the chance to sneak out of hiding.

"No, over here!" Cara began to wave her arms, which made the tank's cannon swivel over to her. Both Jak and Cara started to run around the highly-flammable system that sat in the center of the room. The tank attempted to lock on from the other side and fired, but ended up destroying a quarter of the system.

...

This tactic proved to work, since they continued to use it for the rest of the system. They only had one pump left.

Jak decided he'd take this one. He ran around the side of the system to get the tank's attention and then ran back around, but something didn't go right this time.

The floor they were running on was grated; it had decent sized holes in it; decent sized holes that were perfect for catching ankles.

Jak fell to his hands and knees and turned to look back at his foot.

No fucking way this is happening.

He tried to yank his foot out, but it didn't work. He even got desperate enough to sit and try to pull his foot out. Daxter even tried to pull it out, which is honestly a step backwards, but it was appreciated. Jak watched as the tank started to make its way around.

"Pull harder, Jak!" Daxter practically screamed as he continued to tug. Daxter turned around right when the red target casted over both of them. He gasped and covered his eyes while Jak winced.

Jak heard the impact of the tank's fire, but he felt super disoriented and, surprisingly, not dead. He moved his legs and realized that he wasn't trapped anymore and, in fact, was laying on his back. He opened his eyes and happened to see Cara getting up.

She saved his life.

During all of that, the tank did happen to hit the last pump, which initiated the countdown.

'System critically damaged. Initiating countdown. Ten, nine, eight-…'

"We have to get out of here!" Cara yelled over the rustling of the system and the loud countdown.

Jak didn't say a word. He just stood up and ran towards the exit with Cara and Daxter.

The trio ran for the exit, the echoing of the countdown chimed throughout the Fortress, and the explosion finally went off. This hurled all three of them out of the door and back into Haven City.

Of course, not without banging knees, nuts, and tails on building fixtures on the way down.

After the dust cloud around them faded away, Cara opened her eyes to see that she was, straight up, on top of Jak with Daxter no where to be found.

Jak balled a fist up to his mouth as he coughed and tried to move, unaware that a human being was on top of him. That was until he realized a horrible, very distinguishable, pain. He painfully groaned, which caused Cara to look to him with concern.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Cara didn't move.

"Get off," he whispered in a raspy voice.

"What?" Cara asked.

"I said get off!" Jak almost pleaded.

Cara looked down to see that her knee was digging right into his groin. She quickly got up and struggled to make it to a stand. Despite everything that happened today, she wore a smile, but that mainly had to do with the fact that they were back in the city.

Jak sighed and went to lay back down for a moment or two, but a poking in his back made him reconsider.

Daxter poked his head out from beneath Jak's back and was panting heavily, "This place has too much excitement…we need to move back to tha country."

Jak stood up, dusted himself off, and stretched. He didn't even look at Cara; it's like she didn't even exist. Not even one 'thank you'? She had just saved his life again! Cara just watched him, hoping that he'd turned her way and, at least, remember that she was there. Maybe then he'd properly thank her and also apologize for being such an asshole. A girl can dream, I suppose.

After Daxter hopped back onto Jak's shoulder, he just began to walk.

You can't be serious!

"You're absolutely unbelievable, you know that?" Cara made sure Jak could hear her clearly.

He just ignored her.

"You know, you're a huge piece of shit. I've saved your life how many times?" Cara made a bee-line straight to Jak. She'd get his attention: a woman has her ways. A sharp tongue and persistence has never failed her. "And I haven't got one thank you, not even one! If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even be alive-…"

Cara was then pushed up against the side of the building, which caused her to gasp.

"I don't know who you think you are, but my life would have been just as great, if not, better, without you-…" Jak, once again, was in her face, along with hand that pointed angrily at her.

Except, this time, Cara didn't back down. She swatted Jak's hand aside, "Are you kidding?" She let out a single chuckle, "What? You think that just because your orange, little monkey-…"

Daxter lifted his pointer finger, "Ottsel!"

"-came and saved you that everything would have worked out? If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have even been someone who could have been saved!"

"I was fine!"

"No, you weren't! You were dying! You died multiple times right in front of me, on my table, you idiot!"

Great, name calling.

"Oh, I'm the idiot, because I was the one working for someone liked the Baron!"

With every battling sentence, the two yelled louder and got even closer to each other.

Daxter was getting a bit worried. "Jak, calm it down. Girl. She's a girl. Pink things and frilly tutus. Girl. She has tits!"

"WAS! I left because I knew I was better than that!"

"And it took you how long to leave?"

"Seriously? You think it was easy? I wanted to leave! I wanted to leave the moment I got there! Stop acting like you even have the right to blister the choices I've made!"

"Right, because you looked so unhappy when you were there! You looked so unhappy when you worked on people; on prisoners like me! I'm not fucking stupid! It must be nice to sleep at night, knowing that you make good orb off of destroying lives just so you can better your own!"

"WHAT?" Cara was the one to get in Jak's face now. It immediately got quieter, and she spoke sternly, yet softly. Almost like she was on the verge of tears. "You're a fucking ignorant person."

Jak just glared down at her.

"I worked hard to get to where I got. I didn't know things were going to get out of control. And for your information, dickhead, I never worked on people in any way to harm them. I was a medic, I still am a medic; I've only ever tried to help people. If you look down at your arm right now, and take a look at every small dot, you'd see that."

Jak stiffened his jaw.

Daxter swore they weren't even blinking.

Cara continued, "I've done things I'm not proud of: I've killed enemies, yes, but it ate away at me from the inside out every time. I've never killed a civilian and when working under someone like Erol, that should say a lot. I've had to watch what comes out of my mouth for years."

"Yeah, and when working under someone like Erol, did you ever watch what came in your mouth?" Jak didn't even think, he just said it, and he partially regretted it after.

Jak knew he had it coming, but he didn't even try to counter it.

A slap to the face.

And it stung. It stung real good.

His first slap in the face out of prison, and by a woman, sad to say. Ever since he started talking, his mouth has been his downfall. Almost every bruise and scar on his body, from prison, had been because of his mouth.

Cara was quick to leave the situation. She couldn't believe it. She thought today went so well, granted it was shit storm, but that was because of the mission itself. She saw potential, but obviously it wasn't real. She thought she could have actually had a partner, but, boy, was she wrong.

Then, Jak received his second slap out of his prison: a gentle paw-slap from Daxter.

"Jak, I'm disappointed in you," The ottsel looked down at Jak with hands on his furry hips, "You're gunna pin a hottie up against a wall jus ta yell at her? And that blowjob reference? Yikes! I mean, you coulda at least sealed the deal and leaned in for some mackin' …or felt her up a little. To say sorry! Ya know, some girls are in to that. Oh, and by the way, you totally deserved that. She got ya gooood!" Daxter laughed and then continued to babble.

Jak watched Cara walk down the road. A part of him felt sorry, but there's no way he'd ever apologize to her. He needed to ask Torn to reassign him; he couldn't have her as a partner. Today wasn't that bad, but it could have been easier, that's for sure.

"One second they're like 'oh, I hate ya 'n I wanna kill ya' and then they're like 'I love the way ya yell at me, keep doin' it, yes!'" Daxter was still going and, just like always, Jak was tuning him out.

Jak poked at the inside of his reddened cheek with his tongue.

Well, forget all of that. Time to see Torn and get down to business. I'm one step closer to meeting The Shadow. It's on Cara if she doesn't show up at the Underground: no skin off my back.

A/N: Yes, Jak is an asshole, but let's be realistic here, lol. I tried pretty hard to not make some scenes too dark and serious, since I was going for a fun feel for the Fortress, but had to have some action, obviously. Yes, this chapter is very long, but I felt like Jak, Daxter, and Cara's first mission was important; I really wanted to work hard on it. Thanks for reading!