As they stepped through the gate, the three of them were taken aback by the scenery. The forest was bleak, if there were any plants, they were wilted and dying. What may have been a river, was now boiling with steaming hot dark eco. Jak shook his head," Man, what a dump!" Daxter shouted,"You'd've thought those Precursors would've helped fix up the mess those darn Dark Makers did. Not only that, but it feels like we should've been on top of this a long time ago!" he walked up to a plant and sprayed the white eco on a dying bush.
"Well, Keira did say she and Samos had to travel pretty far to get this concentrate." Jak sprayed another plant, as it began to slowy turn green.
"We're going to need a lot more then if we're going to restore this entire forest..." Raven frowned. She glanced around,"Where are all the Metal Heads? I thought she said this place was teeming?"
"You've got to be careful in this forest. Some metal heads have camouflaging abilities, so they can be hard to spot right away. I'm sure they're further in, since we're still near the entrance." Jak put the eco gun away, as he pulled out his Vulcan Fury.
Raven began to levitate, and flew up to heal a tree, whose leaves were yellow and purple. As she sprayed the tree, a purple energy bullet exploded right next to her. She let out a surprised gasp, "Metal Heads!" she quickly scanned the area.
"There!" Jak spotted a strange outline, and fired towards it. Screams came from the invisible enemy, as its camouflage wore off, and it collapsed. Suddenly without warning there were hundreds of bullets flyng towards them.
"AHH!" screamed Daxter," They're everywhere!" he dove behind Jaks leg.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Ravens eyes began to glow a ghostly white, as she shot out dark energy towards the area bullets were coming from. Several Metal Heads collapsed, and gems popped out. She lowered herself to the ground beside Jak.
Daxter was cowering behind Jak, as the barrage of bullets rained upon them. Jak grunted as a bullet pierced his shoulder. "Are you alright?!" shouted Raven
"Yeah, fine. I just gotta switch mods really quick. Can you cover me?"
"Sure." Raven stood in front of them, as she created a shield.
"Alright, keep that shield up. I'm going to fire a Peace Maker shot towards that group. If we're lucky, it should kill them all."
"Okay, tell me before you shoot, I'll create a small opening from which you can shoot."
"Now!"
Raven quickly opened a small hole, as the bright purple bullet found its target. In a matter of seconds, cries could be heard, as a bolt of electricity jumped from metal head to metal head.
The barrage of bullets stopped, and Raven slowly shrank the shield. "That was close."
"We should probably be more careful. Let's try and secure small parts of the forest bit by bit. We don't want to run into too many."
"Right. It'd be a lot safer that way. With each section we secure, we can heal the plants and water in the same area." Raven nodded.
"Well, we better get started then! Hopefully Keira supplied us with enough eco!" Daxter hopped onto Ravens shoulder.
"Only one way to find out..." Raven looked towards Jak, who made the notion to press foward.
"This whole area needs to be scouted out. See that small cave like entrance?" he pointed at an opening ontop of a small hill," That leads deeper into the forest. When we reach that opening, we'll deem this place safe, and work on healing the plants and trees."
"I think I see a vent up ahead too. We did manage to take out quite a few back there, hopefully there aren't to many left here." Raven kept her eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. She suddenly felt her innder demon shift. She whispered under her breath,"This dark eco must be affecting me. I've got to keep it under control." She pointed to a red metal head, its yellow gem brightly contrasted. "There's one!"
Jak shot towards it, immediately killing it. Daxter turned to look at him," Maybe you should switch mods again Jak. It'd be better to save those peace maker bullets in case we get over run again."
He nodded," Yeah, you're right." He quickly switched over to his blaster rifle, a laser emmitting from it.
"You've got quite a gun collection don't you?" teased Raven.
"Well, technically, its just one. It morphs depending which mod I use. Its called a morph gun." he shot at a nearby metal head.
"Yeah, Krew gave it to us when we first got to this place. We had to do a lot of dirty jobs for the guy to get all the parts for it." added Daxter.
"Who's Krew?"
"He was a crime lord, smuggler, gun merchant, etc... We worked for him back when the Baron was in charge, and Torn was the leader of the Underground."
"Old Krew meister got too greedy and ended up dying in a big explosion."
Raven spotted a few more metal heads, and used her powers to snap their necks instantly. Daxter grimaced, and clutched his throat. "Do you think its possible to save the whole forest in a day?" she asked.
Jak scratched his head," Yeah but... Like Dax said, we might not have enough eco to heal the whole place. But, we can try and destroy the metal heads that have taken over."
"Yeah with them gone, the forest can work on healing itself while Keira and gramps gather more eco."
More bullets shot towards them, and a red lurking metal head ran towards them. Raven began to chant, as Jak fired his gun towards the metal heads charging for them.
Raven encased the shooting metal heads in a bubble of energy, their bullets ricocheting on the inside. The energy bubble began to slowly shrink, as the metal heads began to scream and shout. Their breath leaving their lungs.
A large metal head began to run away, while Jak whipped out his hoverboard," I gotta catch that one. They're non-combative, but it'll just attract more this way. Can you handle it?"
Raven smiled," Of couse. Happy hunting." she flew off towards the spyder gunners and mountain grunts.
Jak quickly hopped on board and sped off after the scout metal head. The scout was fast, and very evasive. It consistently switched which way it was going, changing its path, and leading Jak over various terrains. Raven had to admit, it felt good to be back in battle, and part of a team. She'd never been one to walk alone, so she felt glad that she was able to fit in. The spyder gunner shot bullets towards Raven, as she quickly chanted up a small shield. She reversed the bullets, as they pierced the gunners chest. The grunt charged for Raven, "Raven to the left!" shouted Daxter who was still on her shoulder. She gasped, and quickly flew upwards, the metal head barely missing them. She did a sumersault in the air, and quickly and forefully kicked the metal head square in the back, with her powers giving her an extra bit of attack force.
"Girlie, you are amazing!" Daxter grinned.
"Thanks." Raven smiled,"Where's Jak?"
Jak growled," That's enough!" tired of chasing the scout, he leaned further in, speeding up the hover board. He finally managed to get himself close enough to the scout, jumping off the board and on to the metal heads back. He grabbed its head, and slammed it into the ground. He sighed,"Finally."
Raven spotted him near a river, and she smiled flying over," I think that may be the last of the metal heads in this area." She noticed his arm was slightly bleeding," Oh, you're arm..." she frowned.
"Yeah, its alright."
"Here, let me heal it for you." she grabbed his arm, and Jak felt his heart race. His buff arms felt warm to Ravens touch, and Ravens touch felt cool to Jak. Her hands began to glow a bright baby blue.
"How's it feel now Jak?" Daxter asked.
He felt his cheeks burn with a tinge of embarrassment,"It feels alot better now. Thanks Raven"
Raven smiled, and looked around," You're welcome. We should probably try and heal this area before we push on."
Daxter hopped off," This is a pretty big area itself, so we'd better get started." He walked up to flowers, that were wilted and sprayed the eco. Slowly, pink began to color the petals, and the stems returned to a healthy green.
"This might take a while." Raven frowned as she attempted to heal a tree that was slowly changing from the roots.
"There's got to be an easier way..."
Raven walked over to a vent containing white eco," I've got an idea. I can use my powers to gather the white eco. If I gather enough, I can fly above this area, and release the eco. It should evenly spread over the plants and trees, including the river."
Jak nodded," Its worth a shot."
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos," chanted Raven. The vent opened, and white eco began to collect in front of Raven. The mass grew larger and larger, when Jak stopped her," That should be good. Give it a go!"
She flew above them, above the tallest trees, and looked down,"Here goes..." she released the eco as it rained down on the plants and trees. The river was coated, and the small bit of forest looked like it was covered in snow. Jak grinned," You did it!"
"Way to go Raven!"
The eco began to dissolve, and underneath was lush green grass, clean blue water, and bright bustling plants and flowers. The trees began to turn dark green, shade covering parts of the forest as the bright morning sun bore down upon them.
"So this is what the forest used to look like."Raven landed next to Jak.
"Yeah," Jak said, remembering his first adventures up and down the forest. The boulders began to turn back to a gray brown color, moss and vines wrapping around them.
"Jak, Raven, how is the operation coming along?" Keiras voice rang out from the flying communicator.
"So far so good. Quite a few metal heads were lurking around this small area we cleared." Jak explained.
"The white eco is working like a charm!" exclaimed Daxter.
"Wonderful! Hopefully you guys have enough eco to clear the forest. Vin is working on a new warp gate so we can travel to and from the source location much faster, should you guys run out of eco to use"
"You should see the place now!" Daxter exclaimed.
"We've still got a ways to go..." Jak sighed.
"I suggest you three keep going. Daddy and I will be out there as soon as we can! Good luck" the communicator vanished.
"Well, where to next?" asked Raven.
"Through that crevice I showed you. It will lead us to a bigger portion of the forest, and beyond that there's an area Dax and I explored during our first visit here. I haven't been that way in a really long time. I'd like to see if its been affected at all."
"That the area where I nearly burned my tail off getting that stupid precursor artifact?"
"Thats the one." Jak smiled.
Raven smiled as she glanced over her shoulder,"Hopefully this place stays this way..."
"It 'll make sure of it."
They worked their way through the crevice, and followed the light at the end of the tunnel. As they neared the exit, the forest was still sick. Metal heads hopped around merrily in their eco infested wonderland, while egg sacks hung on the walls of the mountains and the water bubbling with dark eco.
"Woah...".
Jak sighed,"Yeah I had a feeling this was going to be pretty bad..." he reloaded his guns.
"Well, how shall we go about this then? What's the probability of those eggs hatching?" asked Raven.
"Not high. I'd rather deal with the metal heads on foot before dealing with the eggs. The water can be treated the way it was last time. There's a lot more metal heads here though, so we're going to have to be a little more cautious."
"I see. Well, whats that blue ring?"
"Oh, thats a Warp Gate. You haven't traveled through one yet have you? Once we're done here, we'll use it to go further up the mountain."
"Jak, we need to figure out how to deal with this group of metal heads." Daxter scratched his head,"Should we split up again?"
"Daxter is right. I think splitting up with continue to give us the advantage. There's a lot here, so staying in one large group will leave us open to attack."
"Hm, alright. I'll take out the group on the left, and you can take out the ones on the right."
"You got it chief," Raven winked, and began to levitate.
Jak smiled,"On the count of 3, we'll charge."
Daxter hopped onto Jaks shoulder, and Jak began the countdown," 3...2...1..."
Jak began shooting his vulcan fury bullets into the group of metal heads, as Raven chanted grabbing the monsters and raising them up and slamming down into the hard ground, gems falling out left and right.
The cloaked metal heads began to fire off towards both Raven and Jak, while smaller ones came up from beneath the dirt, trying their hardest to sting Jak.
"Behind you Jak!" shouted Daxter.
As he jumped out of the way, quickly switching gun mods, he blasted the smaller metal heads away in one go, while he continued to dodge the bursts of energy bullets. "Can you see them Dax?"
"Uh, hello! They're invisible Jak!"
"Yeah, but not completely. Their camouflage doesn't blend in all the way."
Daxter scanned the area while Jak shot the metal heads charging for him," There's one!"
"Nice job Dax," Jak fired a peacemaker shot, as the electricity jumped to its nearby comrade, killing both.
Raven easily handled the metal heads that came for her, blocking the bullet blasts with her energy, or reversing the bullets back towards the metal heads. She then focused her energy into sharp spikes, and sent them hurdling towards the egg sacks on the walls.
Jak fired his last round into the last camouflaged metal head, as he wiped the sweat from his brow. He looked up, searching the sky for Raven. "Hey, she already took out half the eggs!" exclaimed Daxter.
"Better help her take out the rest." Jak shot a few blaster bullets towards some eggs, and Raven turned towards Jak on the ground. She smiled, and lowered herself next to him. "Well, that wasn't half as bad as I thought it was going to be."
"Jak!" the flying communicator shouted.
"Samos, is everthing alright?" asked Jak.
"Yes, everything is fine. I was just checking up on you 3. How is it going?"
"Well, half the forest is clear..."
"Wonderful news! Keira and I are working on prototypes for the gas masks, so by the time you come back, they should be ready. Do us proud Jak."
"Seems like everyone relies on you here." Raven began to look for the vent in the ground.
"Yeah, I mean... I did have to save the world oh... 3 times... "
"I found the vent." Raven ignored his comment, not wanting to think that it was she who practically destroyed her own world back in Jump. It still haunted her, even in her sleep. She knew the Titans forgave her, but deep down she never really came to terms with how easily she gave up and submitted to the darkness.
"Great. You know what to do."
Raven nodded," Right. Azarath Metrion Zinthos." The eco rised into her bubble, and continued to collect. "Okay, here goes." She flew high above the trees and the bubble faded. The eco slowly rained on everything. Once again, everything resembled snow, until the eco melted into the ground. The water began to turn blue, lily pads emerging from thin air, as if magically.
Daxter took a deep breath,"Ah! Fresh mountain air! I can't wait to bring Tess back here, once the place is back to normal!"
"It really does look lovely." Raven looked around, the trees in full bloom once more, the grass bright green.
"Well, guess its time you try the warp gate." Jak headed towards the blue glowing ring.
"What exactly is it?" Raven asked while staring into the mystic blue haze.
"It's a teleporter that can help reach places we can't get to, or to get from other places in the city quicker." explained Jak," I'll go first."
"Okay." Raven watched as Jak hopped through the warp gate with ease. Raven approached it, and stuck her finger in it, as a child does to something they're curious about. She sighed," Here goes..." Raven jumped in. She felt her stomach rise up and she let out an amused giggle and part scream. It was a fun method of travel, as the light around her was a brilliant swirling blue. In an instant, the light changed and she flew out.
Jak and Daxter were waiting on the other side, the upper part of the mountain. It had been a long time since they explored this part of the forest. Jak stood at the gate, waiting for Raven. As history repeats itself, Raven flew out of the portal crashing into Jak. Raven felt her cheeks burn with embarassment, 'Jeez, what is it with me and crashing into him?' Jak tumbled backwards, Raven atop him. After a few quick rolls and tumbles, Jak ended up on top of her, his cheeks also bright red. Daxter grinned," Oh ho ho, whats going on here?" he teased.
Jak quickly hopped off and offered his hand to her,"Sorry about that." He smiled shyly.
"No no," Raven averted her eyes with a slight laugh," I don't know what happened, I must've lost my balance. It's still a new method of travel for me." she smiled and looked back up at him, her cheeks still bright red.
Jak felt his heart skip a beat, somehow she manages to take him by surprise everytime they let their guard down. She probably doesn't even realize how cute she can be without even trying.
Daxter laughed," Well, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were falling for ol Jaky boy here!"
Jak shot him an irritated look, as Daxter hopped back a bit," What? Hmm...maybe its the other way around?"
Raven shook her head, rolling her eyes" Shall we continue?"
"Yeah, we should finish up here. Once we're done here we'll look for that artifact that's supposed to be here. We can drop it off at Vins place while we figure out what to do about the sewers. I don't think one piece is going to do much, so we have to wait until Sig contacts us to get the other half of the artifact."
They walked up to a large cliff and a floating upside down platform, the area, though covered in dark eco, was still the same as it had been 2 years ago. Jak shot a blaster bullet into the platform turning it rightside up, as he hopped on and over to the next side of the cliff while Raven simply floated over.
The platform began to lower slowly into the next area of eco infested land, as they gazed into the purple haze. "This is the last area. Figures it would be pretty bad." Jak frowned.
"Should we split up one more time?" Raven asked, as she searched the area for stray metalheads.
"No, we should stick together on this one. This area is pretty big and has a lot of twists and turns. You could end up getting lost."
"Even if I got confused, I could just always hover above, and look for you... but I get what you're saying. Which way first?"
"We'll head this way first." Jak led the way, heading left towards a small area that needed to be climbed to get to the top. Jak hopped up, while Daxter stood on Ravens shoulder as she levitated to the top. Before them, a small creek flowed gently down the mountains cliff, yet it wasn't water.
"Looks like we have to find the main lake on this here mountain, before all the water and creeks can go back to normal." said Daxter as he hopped off Ravens shoulder, and stared into the small creek that small tadpoles had once called home.
They continued up the path, surprised that no metal heads were around the area, just dark eco puddles and gases. Raven and Jak took turns healing plants, trees, and various shrubbery back to normal as they came to a large crevice. Jak quickly glanced to the wall, remembering that a large armored metal head lived behind a wall of rocks, but sighed as he saw the wall was still crumbled from his first trip through "You look relieved" Raven glanced over.
"Yeah, last time there was a large armored Metal Head that came bursting through here. It wasn't half as bad as that centipede we took down in Spargus, but it was a little more tricky to beat, since its only weak spot was on its stomach."
"I'm still surprised there aren't any metal heads up this way. Its just the plants and water that seem to be affected up here."
"Maybe the metal heads took this place over first, then moved on down to the forest area. Seeing as there's more room down there than up here." Daxter peered over a cliff edge.
"It's possible, but we shouldn't let our guard down."
They reached the end of the path, and turned around after healing the small area. They reached the entrance and headed straight, while 3 metal heads resembling frogs hopped towards them, as Jak fired a vulcan shot into each one, slowly killing them.
"That was easy enough" Daxter picked up the gems and handed them over to Jak.
"Yeah, here's hoping nothing else is up here besides those things."
Raven looked over the edge," That's quite a ways down..." She looked at the moving platfoms, amazed at how bravely Jak was easily shooting and hopping down one by one. She floated down towards the bottom, watching him manuever his way towards her.
"Piece of cake for ol' Jaky boy and me. We've done this hundreds of times!" gloated Daxter.
Again, Jak looked at the wall behind Raven, which was still in a cracked heap,"Looks like this one is gone too. Lets keep moving guys."
As they climbed their way up, the earth began to vibrate, as large booms erupted into the air. Ravens eyes grew large,"What the heck is that?"
Jak turned,"This area is actually really dangerous. There's a constant landslide of rocks going on. Don't know where they come from exactly, but its been this way for years."
Raven tried to look for an opening, thinking she could fly through them," I could teleport us past them. It's not that big of a deal for me."
Jak tucked his gun behind him,"Sure, if you think you're up for it."
Quickly enveloping the group, they flew past the ocean of falling boulders, and into the small dark cave," Whats at the end?"
Jak recalled,"Well, there used to be a huge natural pond here for dark eco. We have to make sure everything is maintained and balanced. Then we got once more place, and believe or not, we actually managed to clear the entire forest in a day." he smiled.
"Who would've thought ey? I thought we'd be stuck out here for at least a month fixing all the crap the dark makers did."
"Well, we owe a lot of our progress to Raven. If you hadn't used your powers to spread out the eco, we'd probably still be back there at the entrance fixing all the plants."
Raven smiled," Glad to be of service. We should finish up."
Jak nodded,"Yeah, follow me."
As the light at the end of the tunnel shone bright, the group found themselves at the edge of a large resevoir of eco. Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary, and the eco was at the same level it had always been. There wasn't any more or any less , and the boxes that once helped Jak make a path, were still there floating atop the ferocious lava of dark eco.
"Guess the metal heads didn't make it this far. We should head back, and finish this place up." Jak turned, making his way back into the tunnel with Raven and Jak behind him. After a good hour of hiking back to the entrance, they began their last path. A few Slinger metal heads were blocking the path, as Jak quickly pierced their thick skin with his bullets.
After a few patches of eco here and there, they finally found a new area that was void of any eco or metal heads. A top a platform, something caught Jaks eye,"Oh no..."
Raven glanced over,"What is it? What's wrong?"
"That..." Jak pointed to the large Ram Head metalhead that was casually sleeping in the sunlight.
"Aw, shouldn't be too hard right Jak?" Daxter shrugged.
"Maybe not, but they can be pretty tricky trying to get them to expose that soft underbelly. The rest of it is covered in an armor like skin, so my bullets don't do much damage."
"Maybe if we just leave it there, it'll just stay asleep. Who knows how the damn thing got up there." Daxter shrugged.
"It'd probably be for the best if we take it out... It could attract more metal heads back to the forest." Raven studied the large sleeping beast.
"She's right. It might take a few tries before we can get it to expose its belly, but now that someone is helping me, it might be easier to piss it off and raise its body." Jak cocked his weapon.
Jak lead the way, with Raven behind him. The ram head just slept in the sun, its armored body glistening, as its back rose up and down with each breath it took. Daxter nervously began to chew on his nails, as they were getting a little too close for Daxters comfort, despite him being atop Jaks shoulders. As Jak and Raven attempted to move closer to the beast, and make their way to the beasts head, Jaks foot came in contact with a small rock, causing both Raven and Jak to freeze in place.
The metal heads ears twitched, and its golden eyes slowly opened, scanning the area for the source of the noise. Its eyes locked on Jak, anger coursing through its veins.
"Shit, look out!" Jak ran to the opposite side of the platform, while Raven flew upwards, as the ram head stood and let out a large howl.
"Now ya did it! It's deja vu Jak!" Daxter yelled, as the metal head stomped his feet and began to charge for the two.
"Jak, look out!" Raven watched from above, as he narrowly avoided being rammed. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" she chanted, her energy focused into sharp entities. The energy bullets, bounced off its hard rocked body, as it angrily looked upwards at the unreachable target.
Jak took the opportunity to fire shots at the metal head, who only turned his head back to Jak and snorted, digging its feet into the ground, preparing for another charge.
Raven used her chant one more time, as the metal head turned and used its thick hind leg to richochet the energy back towards her. Ravens eyes widened as she was hit with her own power, causing her to lose her levitation and plummet back towards the ground, yet the ground was a very long way down.
"Raven!" Jak yelled, as Raven let out a scream, she reached her hand out, barely managing to catch the edge of the platform, her heart pounding away in her chest, as fear coursed through her. Her powers were rendered useless, as she clung to the edge.
"Hold on Raven, we got ya!" said Daxter as Jak leaned over, his hand clasping Ravens wrist.
Raven glanced down at the forest floor that was at least 1000 feet down, her heart was uncontrollable with panic, as she quietly nodded. She felt Jaks strong grip around her frail wrist, and when she looked up, she saw the metal head had its belly exposed, meaning its large heavy feet were in the air, ready to crush Jak, as he was distracted.
"J- Jak, l-look out!" Raven cried out.
Jak looked behind him, his eyes widened...
Authors Note: Hi everyone. I have been away from some time haven't I? :( Well, I am happy to say that I am back in the saddle to continue this story along with many others.
All I ask of any of my readers and followers is, PLEASE leave me reviews. :) They let me know that people like my story, and are actually reading it lol when I get email alerts about a review, I get really happy. So, just keep in mind that your reviews help fuel your authors!
Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for Chapter 9!