"You should know better." Jak said. Shortly after Kaida walked out, her hair damp, but put up in a pony tail and fully dressed, minus her boots.
"Ready to go see Torn about that ammo dump thing?" Jak asked. Kaida nods and they head out into the front room. After getting their boots, of course.
A few minutes later, Jak sauntered into Torn's office, followed by Kaida. Torn looked up with a frown.
"So, you finally decided to get your ass' up and out here huh?" Torn asked gruffly. Daxter rolled his eyes, but swallowed a retort, for once, thinking before he spoke. Torn stands and looks at some papers quickly before giving them the low down.
"So, like I said, I want you to take care of an ammo dump we've ID'd in the fortress. Lots of crimson guards, constant patrols." Torn thumps his fist on the table. "WE know it's vulnerable, and the underground needs YOU to blow up all the ammo you find inside. Get all of it, and we'll deal a body blow to the Baron." Daxter perks up and gives Torn a serious glare.
"You're sending us in tough guy, so what's with this 'we'll deal a body blow' stuff?" Torn again matches Daxter's glare. Kaida watches the exchange and decides that the 'game' of insults and glares that they give one-another is just one of those things that is more fun to watch in real life. Before Torn can respond Jak speaks up with just a tinge of thirst for revenge in his voice.
"That's fine. I want the Baron to know it's ME who's hurting him." Torn gives a slight nod of mild acknowledgment, and the trio of Jak, Dax and Kaida turned for the door.
"Hang on a second," Torn's voice stops them and they turn to face him, "you, get going." he points to Jak, "but you, get back here I have a different assignment for you." he looks to Kaida. Kaida glanced quickly, sideways at Jak to see what his reaction was, and stepped back to standing in front of Torn's desk. When she didn't hear Jak move she turned and gave him a smile and a quick thumbs up to say that she would be ok. He gave a small nod to her and exited the hideout. Kaida stood in front of the desk, waiting for Torn to speak. He studied her critically for a moment before speaking.
"Tell me your name, I haven't heard anyone say it, and I have to know." he spoke gruffly and demandingly. Kaida paused, and remained silent for a long moment, she wasn't sure if she could bring herself to speak. She wasn't sure why, but she found her self struggling to call up her voice and the courage to speak, though the desire was definitely there. Torn raised an eyebrow as he studied her face with impatience. When she still didn't speak, he did.
"Come on, I haven't got all day. What are you, mute? I know you're not, so hurry up, this is a simple question. If you don't answer you can go back to the street and stay there." he demanded loudly. She swallowed and forced her will to speak.
"Kaida. My name is Kaida." her voice was a bit scratchy and hoarse, though she didn't know why, as she had been talking to Jak recently. Torn's expression didn't physically change much, however the aura around the two in the room was altered with those few words. Torn didn't radiate relief or happiness by any means, however there seemed to be some slight personal satisfaction, or relief that he didn't have to turn her out of the hideout.
"That's better. Kaida?" he asked as if questioning his pronunciation. She nodded vaguely then he continued. "Right, I have a mission for you. Whatever is wrong with your voice, you had better fix. I want you to go into the water slums, and find an underground member who is waiting with some special information." he flipped through some papers quickly and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
"Here is a map with the safe house marked. Whatever you do, do not let anyone but your self see or get their hands on that map. Rip it up, drown it, eat it; I don't care. That has the location of an important safe house. Ask him for the information, show him the map and tell him that I sent you and show him this," he pulled out his dagger in its sheath and handed it to her. "And that'll prove it. Normally I wouldn't trust a new person with this kind of important mission but I am a little short handed at the moment, so don't mess up." Kaida nods and, after looking the map over quickly, put it safely into the pouch on her belt and turned to leave.
"There is a zoomer out side for you to use." Torn mentions after her. Again Kaida just nodded and hurried out of the hide-out. She stepped quickly from behind the door and into the alley way, hearing the door slide shut behind her. She looked around and sure enough, there was a zoomer waiting for whomever needed the ride.
She swallowed her nervousness and climbed onto the machine. Kaida felt the uncertainty build up again as she got herself situated on the floating craft and looked at the ignition. She very much wanted to learn how to drive this by being instructed, and would rather have ran to her destination instead of using this vehicle, but she knew that would take a good part, if not all, of the day and she wanted to get this mission over with. She wanted to prove that even though she didn't really belong in this world she could be just as good at it as when she had played the game... or fair enough to receive some recognition in any case.
She took a deep breath and pushed the ignition, held the brake and kicked the gas pedal. The engine sputtered, and kicked some smoke like it normally did as the engine turned over, and fired up. It was now hovering slightly higher off the ground and she had to take another deep breath as she flipped the lever on the left handle bar and the zoomer jumped to the second level for driving. She made sure that her feet were firmly in place on the pedals, though she was sightly wary about the driving position of leaning so far forward. She patted the pouch on her belt to make sure the map was still there(as a nervous habit), then pressed the gas and off she went.
At first she went slow, only tapping the gas to keep her speed, being careful about steering too much or too little, however she quickly managed to get the hang of the machine very quickly and no body seemed to notice when she had made mistakes. As long as she didn't hit them they didn't seem to care about anything else, not even the KG. She noticed there seemed to be a sort of assumed flight path that most of the divers followed, and once her confidence was up high enough she found herself moving to fast for the flight traffic. She gassed the zoomer and sped around the others in the line up.
Soon she spotted a traffic jam. It was one of those few places in the slums that was basically a one lane pass, and two citizens had decided to try to make it through at the same time. When she usually played the game she would slam her craft into the jam, thus unblocking it and then she would hop to another zoomer before her fatally damaged one exploded.
However, here, she wasn't sure if she was ready to try that kind of a maneuver, plus she wasn't quite sure how the people would react in real life. She let up on the gas and began to press the other pedal, in order to break, but quickly realized that if she waited, the jam might take hours to fix. Instead she gassed it and flipped the switch on her handle bar and dropped to ground level.
The sudden change at that speed made her stomach jump into her throat, but she kept the speed and once passed the traffic, she brought herself back up to the normal level. Her heart was beating a bit quicker and she had to swallow to allow herself to breathe again. She soon arrived in the water slums. She turned off to the side and floated over the water, close to the wall of a building, covered in its shadow. She pulled the map out of her pocket and looked for her current position on the map. She turned the map over until its paths lined up with the ones she could see. She quickly found her position and the safe house she was supposed to get to. She glanced up and saw a few KG floating around in the midst of the regular citizens. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted the flash of bright red of other guards farther away. The ones she could see seemed to be looking for something and she didn't like it.
Kaida carefully tapped the gas, her hand holding the lever down so the zoomer moved in reverse. Once she was slightly farther away she stuffed the map back into her pouch and dropped to water level. She figured once the guards had their backs to her she could head out again. Some where in the back of her mind a voice was telling her that she was being paranoid, but the stronger voice argued that she really didn't want to mess up this mission and/or get killed inside some video game, even if for now it seemed real. She held her nerve and inconspicuously jumped back up to regular flying level and headed off with the flow of traffic towards her destination. She was tempted several times to pull over and double check her map, but she felt that it might be too risky.
Eventually she came upon the house that she had a feeling was the right one. A quick mental flashback assured her that it was the right one. However she didn't just drop down and hurry in, she parked the zoomer on a dock connected to the pathways and walked non-chalantly towards the building. She quickly rapped on the door and it slid open with a whoosh. She blinked but before she could move a figure appeared in the doorway. He looked like an average guy but his face held a serious, steeled look to it. He was taller then her and obviously older. He had a few tattoos on one ear and on his neck but no where near as many as Torn nor any member of the KG. He had one hand on the door frame and the other at his side, and though Kaida couldn't see a weapon she was sure that he had one somewhere close at hand.
"Can I help you?" his voice was gruff and gritty as if he didn't talk a lot but yelled most often.
"Er..." for what seemed like the millionth time that day she swallowed and willed herself to speak, though her voice was nearly as scratchy as his from lack of use. "Yeah, Torn sent me." She reached into her pouch and swiftly removed the dagger-in-sheath, just long enough for the man to identify it, then returned it safely to its hiding place. The man nodded quickly and stepped back and inside the building. Kaida followed suit and entered the dark/dim building. The metal door slid shut behind her and she had to blink to get her vision used to the darker place.
The lights were all on in the main room and she could tell that more then one person lived here, though they didn't seem too much in the way of cleaning. There was a hallway leading of from this large front room. Many doors lined that hallway, linking to small rooms, some with occupants but most without. The man she had met at the door way had stepped back to a large beaten table, around which sat many mismatched, uncomfortable looking chairs. He studied her with a serious face.
"Who are you? I know your from the Underground, on account of you have Torn's dagger." Now Kaida could hear the city accent leaking into his voice. "But I haven't seen you around before. You new?" Kaida simply nodded in response to the question."Seems kinda strange to me that Torn would send a newbie on a mission like this, but he's the boss, so he knows best. Either way, new or not, you betray us and you'll end up dead."
Kaida swallowed lightly, wishing slightly that he had just left out that last sentence. The man turned around and seemed to be looking for something on the table. She waited quietly, taking in the look of the place, quietly urging the man to find whatever he was looking for soon. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, the man turned around with a small slip of paper. He handed it to Kaida and she looked at it. Strangely there were just a set of numbers written on it.
Her eyes glanced up and down the small scrap of paper. None of it seemed to make any sense to her but whatever it was seemed important to the underground so what did it matter if she could understand it or not? She took the paper and slid it into her pouch that also contained her map.
"Take good care of that message! Its more important then your life, so don't lose it or worse, let the KG get their hands on it. And like I said before, you betray us, and you'll end up dead."
"Yes." Kaida managed to croak out to the man, before she turned and exited the hideout. Once out in the fresh air she inhaled deeply, trying to relax the tension she had suppressed in the building. She stood in the sunlight and took one last breath before heading down the boardwalk to her vehicle. Once aboard and again in the air she started off, and quickly noticed the stepped up security in the area.
The place was dotted red, with bulky Krimson Guards both on the ground, and in the air. Kaida's worried thoughts constantly floated back to the pouch which held two peices of information that she was told to guard with her life. A prickling sensation crawled up the back of her neck as she heard the distinct hum of a KG zoomer coming closer. She fought the urge to look and see if he was heading for her, but everyone else was so calm that she decided it might make her suspicious, and it seemed that they were on the look for something.
She heard the Guard come up along side her, and she could feel his eyes on her. She attempted to look as non-chalant as possibal and carefully merged with the traffic around her.
"Stop your vehicle so that you can be questioned." the guard told her in a gruff voice. Kaida quickly swallowed a lump that, she suspected it was her heart, had jumped into her throat. She turned to look at him with as much disinterested anger, as if he was making her late for some appointment. She really didn't want to stop, but she new that there was no way she could run just yet. Just a little farther and she would be in the slums, then she could dodge the guards in narrow passages but she was still too far away to make a break. She tried to stall as long as she could, pretending to nearly hit another vehicle, thus allowing her to go forward more.
"Pull over now." the guard demanded in a rougher tone.
'Damn, I am going to be in so much trouble if I stop now.' she thought to herself. She saw the end of the water slums that connected to the normal slums just ahead of her. 'Just a little farther, and I'll be able to outrun this loser.' she stared at the gap in the buildings. 'Just a little more...' Suddenly a Krimson guard appeared heading out of the normal slums, effectively and inadvertently blocking her path.
'Damn!' she screamed in her mind. She was forced to make a gentle turn to the right. In a split second everything went through her head. There was a man on a zoomer in front of her, a mere four feet in front of her. Below was water. If she crashed she might be able to escape the guards. She wasn't sure if they actually suspected her, but she didn't need to be caught with the papers she had on her.
"Yes sir." she spoke in a condescending manner and reached for the switch that would drop her to ground level. She was sure that he saw her movement as he also went for his lever. Suddenly she let her foot slip and kicked the peddle. She fell forwards and clung to the body of the zoomer as it lurched forward, easily crossing the short distance between her and another zoomer.
She let out a shriek as the two vehicles collided to make it seem more like an accident. There was an explosion as both drivers fell to the water below. Kaida felt a hot burning in her arm as some part of the two crafts slashed open her skin. The moment she hit the water she grabbed for something heavy, and allowed herself to sink to the bottom of the dirty water.
It was disgusting. She felt slimy, even in the water. Her cut burned and the dark blood only clouded the water further. On the surface the other driver splashed and fought to get out of the slum water, though the Krimson guards basically ignoring him. They watched as a blood cloud could be seen floating to the surface as well as some bubbles.
"No doubt the girl's dead." grunted the KG who had been following her.
"Too bad we didn't get to question her then kill her." a second KG joined in.
"Either way, she's no good rebel now." Both guards laughed gruffly and turned their zoomers leaving the scene. Kaida watched the fuzzy shadows as best as she could. When she was sure they were gone she pushed herself away from the clump of hot twisted wreckage she had held onto. Once she managed to swim to a spot under a low board walk, she pushed off the ground and rose to the surface, gulping air.
She tried to rub the dirty water from her eyes as she looked under the boards and through the cracks to see what she could see. The Guards that had been watching her had moved on and the number of red suits in the area had diminished.
'Damn.' she yelled in her mind, 'I got stuck right when the guards decided to visit this part of town. Great luck I had.' She looked towards the merge of the two slums and swam quietly towards it under the wood. When she was sure no guards were around, she hauled herself out of the water and onto the pavement. She had a second of rest before she was nearly kicked in the face by a passer-by. No one seemed to notice her, as if it was common for people to climb out of the slums.
Kaida frowned angrily and began to lift herself up, but as she did and her muscles pulled her skin tighter her wounded arm seared with pain. She nearly collapsed but managed to push up on her knees. She placed a hand on the bloody wound and cringed.
"Great..." she mumbled, "just great. My first mission is totally easy and I get torn up just from getting around. Man I suck at this." She stood, her hand still holding her arm and began walking through the slums back to the hideout. She had only taken ten steps when she stopped dead and her hand dove into her pouch frantically and only stopped when she yanked out the papers to see that they were more or less ok. She stuffed them away and continued her long walk.
She didn't want to take a zoomer for fear that she might pass out or something, and really hurt herself. It was going to take her at least an hour to make it back there in this condition. She was severally shaken from the crash and long swim. Her wound was rapidly losing blood, and it would only get colder and with her damp clothing, that wasn't going to help.
"Damn. I cant let anyone find out about this. What the hell am I going to do?"
cries sorry it took me so long! I am so very sorry! I will be updating faster now, and I have all of spring break to work! So please forgive me! Also, I hope you don't mind but this chapter is all Kaida. Don't worry, its still a Jak story after all, I just need a little on what Kaida does.
PS: let me know if you think I am over doing Kaida, I am trying very hard to make Kaida a good OC. Thanks!