The ABC's of Perfect Mistakes

Chapter Seven: G is for Gifts

Parker wasn't surprised when Torn phone and told the boys that the Shadow wanted to see them; although she was surprised when he refused to speak with Parker. She sighed and sat outside on a stack of boxes. Considering her track record she should've known he'd refuse to speak with her or knowledge the fact she had changed sides. She did try to kill him before. She tapped her boots and waited like a good agent –she was hoping that Torn would send her on a different mission, something to prove her worth and her new-found loyalty. She knew, sadly, she'd be paired with Jak and Daxter again until Lena returned from her visit to Kras –something about whole owned Kras, Krew or Mizo.

She jumped when the doors opened. Jak walked past her, she got to her feet and raced after him. "So how'd it go?"

"What do you know about the Shadow?" Jak asked quickly.

She blinked, taken back by the question. "Um, he's annoying, selfish and very cranky in the mornings. Why?"

"We know him."

"Ahh, no you don't." Parker said walking past him. "You spent your first two years in Haven in a prison," She pointed to herself. "And I know who visited your cell and who didn't."

Jak crossed his arms. "You didn't do a very good job."

"You weren't my responsibility twenty-four seven."

"We're going to Haven Forest." Jak brushed past her.

"We're scouting out some Metal Heads!" Daxter shouted back to her. "Wanna come and watch the master at work?"

She sighed and rubbed her temple. "I only go to the forest when I need to."

"I think you need to come to the forest and watch us work."

She glared at Daxter as Jak grabbed the first unmanned zoomer he found. "Can we at least take a car?"

Jak chuckled. "Scared, Lieutenant?" He offered her his hand, she stared at it before taking it and jumping on behind him.

Parker only used Keira's jet board briefly –until she crashed the Mock One Jet Board into the Port and the blue-haired girl didn't speak to her for a week or so. Parker enjoyed the silence but missed the board, she begged Lena for one until she was blue in the face. Lena promised something but was swamped with work orders and projects for the Baron. She did feel a pang of jealousy as she watched Jak and Daxter zip around the forest on Keira's jet board, she gave it to the boys without a second thought because the Shadow told her too. I bet if I apologize to Samos he'll order her to give me a board, Parker thought briefly but pushed the thought away. She rather stick her head in Krew's armpit folds then beg Keira for anything.

There were five Metal Heads in the Forest, all flyers Parker had never seen before. She tried to chase one down but fell flat on her face when it flew upwards and she missed it by inches. The boys laughed behind her and told her they could take care of the rest, she ignored them as her face heated and they floated by her.

She spent the last fifteen minutes picking grass out of her teeth and scrubbing the dirt off her face. She glanced up to the Tree of Life before heading back to the spot she promised to meet the boys at. On her way she picked flowers like she and the Kid did before the Shadow took him from her. She picked the lilacs first, it was her family's flower after all. The purple flower smelled sweet with a hint of old rain. She picked the last of the white dandelions and blew on one of them, making a silent wish for peace and a new gun. She paused at the withering roses, she touched the petal and sighed. She hadn't seen wild roses for years and now that she could see one, they were dying. The petal crumbled under her touch, falling away from its host. She took the rose that looked the most alive, its edges weren't as black as the others but it was still curling.

"There you are!" Daxter shouted as the boys came up, Jak jumped off his jet board with a swoosh of air that blew several of the dying petals off the bush. "Did you get sidetracked?" He jumped off Jak's shoulder and walked up to her. "Picking daisies?"

"No," She motioned the flowers. "Lilacs, dandelions and what's left of the roses."

Jak shrugged. "Why bother?"

"I like flowers," She said holding one of the dandelions to Daxter. "Here, blow on this and make a wish."

Daxter pondered it for a second. "I wish for a pool of chocolate and twenty, or so, girls!" He blew on it and the seeds flew away.

Parker sighed. "It was supposed to be a silent wish."

"And a realistic one." Jak put in.

She held one out to him. "You're turn."

Jak chuckled. "Not likely."

She got up. "Oh come on, it's easy! First you hold it in between your thumb and forefinger, think of your wish as hard as you can and then," She took a deep breath but caught in her throat as a breeze picked up and blew the white seeds away. She felt her world slip out under her as she heard the voices. Soft voices that whispered to her on the wind as Jak laughed.

"I guess that wish won't come true." He said in a smug voice.

She dropped her hand and looked towards the trees, but she could see past them to the Tree of Life. It was calling to her, just like the time it called to Ramsay during a picnic. She took another deep breath and dropped the empty stem, she moved towards it, the crying and sobbing of the-

"Parker!" Jak shouted snapping her out of her own head space. She turned to him and stared.

"What?" She asked.

"Krew wants to see us. He wants us to take out the cargo in the Port."

"He wants you to take out the cargo in the Port," She crossed her arms. "Although, Lena's asked for me to pick something up from Krew so I'll be tagging along." She followed the boys to the platform that took them back to the wrap gate, she went first landing perfectly on both feet and waved up to the boys to hurry up. The second they left the air lock, Jak was on his jet board doing tricks off the ramp and exploding vegetables in the farmer's gardens. Parker rolled her eyes and walked towards the nearest zoomer, she rode ahead of them, glancing back every so often to check if they were still behind her or arrested for riding a hover vehicle in a low zone. A couple of guards did harass them but they didn't raise the sirens or try to shot them off of it.

When they made it to the Port, Parker went straight to the saloon and spotted Krew in a screaming match with a couple of guards. He waved a couple of sheets of papers at them and the guards held out their own sheets, most likely their own copies, and shouted back. Parker rolled her eyes, this was going to be a long–

Someone grabbed her around her waist and yanked her into the farthest booth. Her head slammed against the table before her back smashed against the wall. She let out a gasp when she felt the barrel of a gun pressed against her stomach, Erol loaded it with a sharp click and chuckled. "Well hello there my Scandalous Delinquent." He pressed a finger against her collarbone and traced its outline. "You're causing a lot of trouble for me."

She swallowed. "Am I supposed to apologize?" She felt the gun pop against her stomach but didn't feel the burn off a bullet, he loaded it again and chuckled.

"So sassy today," He pushed the gun harder into her stomach. He leaned against her neck and kissed it, she shuddered and tried to move away from him but he pulled her closer with his other arm. "Are you having fun playing a rebel?"

"I'm not playing," She whispered.

"Commander," Flint said at the front of the booth, Erol gave low growl but didn't say anything. Flint stepped into Parker's view and glared at her. "It's time to go." Erol bit at Parker's neck, she gave a yelp as he moved away from her. He quickly pulled out his pistol and fired at her. She gasped covering her mouth but looked at the bullet hole next to her head.

"Erol!" Krew shouted. "Don't put holes in my damn walls!"

"Bye love," Erol said following Flint out. It took a couple of minutes for the rest of the guards to leave, the last one bumping into Jak. They both glared at each other as Krew floated down to them.

"Where's Parker?" Jak snapped even before the man could speak.

"Over here," She shouted sliding out of the booth. "Just hanging-"

"The Baron sent his goons to harass me!" Krew whined, cutting off Parker. "Health violations, back taxes! Everyone wants a piece of me! Aaaah well."

"Lucky for you there's plenty to go around." Daxter commented.

"Destroying that cargo in the Port was more important than you know, ey." He flew to the bar. "I've got a new project going, and I don't need anyone snooping around my shipments. Let's just say, if everything goes according the planned, I'm going to corner the market on Metal Head trophies." He chuckled returning to the boys. "Anyways, I've got another job for you. An associate of mine, Brutter, works with me in the forced labour trade."

"You mean the slave trade." Jak snapped.

"I prefer, freedom challenged." Krew chuckled. "Lurkers are the city's low class labour. Brutter pays me handsomely to help him free Lurkers and get them out of the city." He sighed. "It lifts my spirits to help those in need… and I need his money!"

"Lurkers!" Daxter shouted. "We don't like Lurkers!"

"But you do like gun upgrades, ey?" He said tossing Jak an upgrade, Parker stood on her tip toes to check it out.

"There are three Krimzon Guard transports carrying Lurkers to a project the Baron has outside the city. Take out the transports and take out the freed Lurkers to Brutter's trinket in the Bazaar." Jak and Daxter nodded leaving without a second thought, Parker looked to Krew as he tossed her a package. "This came for Lena from Kras, she's been waiting for this and she's paid me handsomely to bring it to Haven safely, eh."

Parker turned the package around in hands. "What is it?"

Krew chuckled. "You should ask your friend that. I bet it's a sex toy."

"Please tell me this isn't a sex toy." Parker said dropping the brown package on Lena's worktable. Lena spun around in her lift chair, hanging upside down from the cars that she was working on. Parker was surprised to see they weren't zoomers but actual cars with wheels. Lena pushed a button and lowered herself, she snatched up the package and rose back to her vehicle.

"It's not a sex toy."

"Then what is it?" Parker asked picking up a broken wrench.

"Something I've been looking for, for a while," She dropped down. "Granted, Amberly declared it was very important just in case."

"Just in case of what?"

Lena shrugged. "I dunno, but she's been begging for it for the last six months. She's the one who put the order in through Amanda Hold's account." Lena dropped down and pushed her goggles back. "For all I know it's a bomb and she's planning on cleansing the city."

"I can't see her with a bomb, she dropped my tenth birthday cake."

"Yes I remember, and FYI that was our tenth birthday cake." Lena paused and walked to the door. "Lots of Krimzon Guards hanging around, do anything bad lately?"

Parker chuckled and leaned against the door frame. There were a lot of guards walking around the Bazaar, too many to count and way too many for comfort. Parker placed a hand on her gun and watched as they passed by Lucky Lena's, slowing to look at the two women before walking on.

"Maybe they're just checkin' you out."

"Maybe," Lena pondered. "Or maybe it has to do with another Eco Tanker coming in. Olivia told me they've come in through this Bazaar." She turned to Parker. "Erol doesn't want any Underground agents sniffing around them so he moved them here."

"We know the Baron's giving Eco to the Metal Heads, why is he trying to-"

"Ashelin!" Lena shouted. "Hey Ashelin!" Lena ran out of her shop waving crazily to the red head. Parker followed glaring to the guards that tried to stop her. Lena jumped on Ashelin and nuzzled her shoulder. "Oh Ashelin, my Ashelin. I've missed you so much!"

"Don't you have better things to do then cling to me?" Ashelin snapped.

"But I love my red temptress!" Lena giggled. "I wish you came to visit me more."

"You work for the Underground."

"I work for myself, but I could kill someone for you if that'll help."

Ashelin sighed. "Don't kill anyone."

"Ma'm," One of the guards said turning to her. "We've got trouble." Parker turned, so used to the phrase but she quickly realized he wasn't talk to her but to Ashelin –and of course the trouble was a blonde with his orange rat.

"How's it riding in the hood, red?" Daxter asked.

"Get out of the area!" Ashelin shouted. "This is Krimzon Guard business. One of Vin's Eco Tankers is coming in from the Wasteland but the clearance transmission sounded fishy. We're going to check it out, just in case."

"How can we help?" Jak asked quickly.

"Yah," Lena said walking past the boys back towards her shop. "Ashelin doesn't really do 'help'."

"I've got it handled." Ashelin snapped back.

"Watch out!" Parker shouted as the red tanker came crashing into the open space, Parker rolled as a couple of barrels fell off the tanker and hit Ashelin's guards. Parker scrambled to her feet when she heard Lena shout, the girl was knocked over by one of the barrels but was starting to get up when Daxter screamed.

"It's a Metal Head sneak attack!"

"Damn!" Ashelin cursed looking around. "It's just us, help me take out these Metal Heads!" Parker nodded and grabbed two knives, she threw one at one of the Grunts jumping out of the tanker. It slumped to the ground and its Skull Gem popped out a second later.

"Jak! Duck!" Parker shouted as a Grunt swung at him, the blonde ducked but not before the Grunt caught his shoulder. The blade sunk into its chest and she fired once more, the Grunt fell to the ground and disappeared into four blobs of Dark Eco and one Skull Gem. She ran to Jak but stopped dead in tracks when Jak moved away from her, the Dark Eco blobs following after him and absorbing into his body. She blinked a couple times, did she imagine that or did it really happen?

Ashelin kicked a barrel and looked around. "Nice shooting. We got 'em all! The Metal Heads are getting bolder every day. It's almost like they're testing our defenses, like probing attacks…" She turned away from them. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Yah," Jak called after her. "You're welcome."

Parker shrugged. "She's right you now. They're testing us…"

"I just hope we pass." Jak mumbled.

TBC…