"But I should have told. I am also sorry." There was another silence between them, however this time it was calmer and felt that the heavy steam of their fight was slowly cooling and seeping from the wedge between them.
After a rather awkward set of days, things seemed to return fairly to normal. Neither Jak nor Kaida spoke of her capture and escape. It was just understood. Even Daxter had the sense to keep his mouth closed on the issue. It wasn't that either felt that it was embarrassing or anything of the sort, they just felt that the whole incident was best left behind them, and they were sure that Errol would do just the same.
Kaida awoke the next morning with only slightly sore shoulders. She ran her fingers up her ear where the bullet had grazed it. She felt a small scab where the hot metal had skimmed away the skin. She was lucky to have escaped with only that.
Because she had managed to get hold of the KG health pack of eco, the wound in her leg had healed perfectly and, there was only a minor bruise on the area. All in all, she was fine. However, she felt the need to thank her dark side. As much as it bothered her in her mind, she knew that she should do it. She felt the growing displeasure turn her mouth sour and a feeling of deep resentment pricked along her insides.
She continued to cultivate these feelings as well as attempt to come up with something. Abruptly, a single thought crept across in the back of her head. Not a hint of gratitude but a hint of a sort of 'You're welcome'.
Her frown deepened, knowing that response came from the Darkness. Not that she was upset at the action, more that she was upset that her darkness had said you're welcome before she had gotten up the gall to say thank you. This idea brought to mind the subtle image of her darkness smirking at the displeasure she had caused. She let her mind stay on this for only a moment before she turned her attention to other things.
Torn frowned heavily as he stared at his piles of papers. Despite the fact that he constantly looked agitated, he wasn't really always that upset. Yet recently, more specifically, today, his feelings matched his bitter face. It wasn't that there was suddenly a lot to do, it was just that these were missions that needed a it more finesse then most soldiers would be able to put into them. He stuck his fingers into his dread locks quickly and gave a small sound of irritation.
The Baron was planning up to something, but he couldn't quite put all of the pieces together. But that was the big problem, and he was currently being prevented from solving that problem by a group of smaller problems that kept popping up. Right now? It was Vin. Damn it, if Vin wasn't so useful...if he wasn't always right... But that wasn't the point. The point was... Torn growled quietly before getting to his feet. The point was that there were a handful of good soldiers sleeping in the underground at this very moment and they needed to get off their hind ends and work for their keep.
He marched down through the halls to the back bunk room, thankful to get a chance to walk around. He hated that desk, he really did...
His cold blue eyes surveyed the quiet area. There were a few bunks taken up by sleeping forms of soldiers, though the place was not as full as it was on a bad day. Torn's eyes eventually landed on the only thing moving inside the room besides the slow breathing of those asleep. He recognized the figure as Kaida, one of the few women that worked directly through the underground hideout as a soldier. She was pulling most of her hair back into a pony tail and was dressed for the most part. He hadn't given her a job in a while, he remembered, because she had been sick at one point, and then seemed to disappear into thin air the next.
With is mind made up, Torn took a few long strides over to Kaida. She looked up, her odd colored eyes held a slight tint of surprise as she observed his irked expression.
"Wake up Jak. Its time you get your butt in gear. Vin's got a little problem for you, and you guys seem about right. He'll be in the city, on the second level. There's a locator on your communicator." He turned without waiting for a reply.
"Oh, and its also marked on that map you took off my desk." He didn't need to look at her to know that Kaida's face showed plain shock, and fear that she would be in trouble. "Yeah, I know. Don't worry about, it but don't do it again." Torn smirked in a satisfied manner, and stalked off out of the bunk area. Kaida stood and turned to wake Jak.
She should have known that he would notice the map she had taken. She was only surprised that he hadn't been extremely angry with her about doing so. She looked over the edge of the top bunk of the bed and couldn't help but smile slightly at the sight of Jak sleeping. When he was sleeping deeply like this, he didn't show a single shred of the anger or hurt that he did in public. He didn't have on a face to cover up everything and intimidate people. Kaida had never before known anyone who had ever needed to hide things like he did, nor people who were hurt like he was. It was very interesting. In any case, she reached over and shook his arm.
"Wake up." she pushed herself to speak. Jak let out a small groan as he slowly opened his eyes. He was like a kid who didn't want to go to school, as he rolled over and away from her. Kaida rolled her eyes and shook him with both hands and spoke louder.
"Wake up!" He let out another disoriented grumble before he finally forced himself to sit up.
"What... what's up?" He looked at her, his blue eyes still fogy with sleep.
"Another mission. Courtesy of Torn." She spoke firmly and saw Jak's sleepiness vanish nearly instantly.
"Alright lets go." he yanked on his boots and snatched up his gun and grabbed Daxter off the bed. The half asleep animal didn't wake up until they were speeding along on a zoomer, upon which time he thoroughly freaked out.
The first thing one noticed about the industrial section of the city, was that it was mainly red and grey, the Baron's colors. It was an easy place to find as it was nearly the center of the city. At this time of the morning the sector was busy. The traffic was slow moving, but dangerous and there were pedestrians everywhere. Kaida put it akin to New York, only...different.
As the group pulled up in the city they dismounted their vehicles and made their way up onto the overpasses that served as a sort of sidewalk. Above the flight levels of the zoomers, the pedestrians were, for the most part, out of danger's reach. Kaida took her time and sort of people watched as they made their way towards Vin's place. A few of the people walking took a sort of passing recognition of Jak, he had not yet made a big splash in the city.
There was little disturbance made as they arrived and the thick metal door of Vin's constant hang out flew open for them. Vin was the only person inside the large room, and didn't even seem to notice the party entering. The vast screens flitted through words and numbers that were all gibberish to both Jak and Kaida. Vin tapped frantically at the keys and he flitted from panel to panel.
"Hey, I want to thank you guys for saving my butt out there, at the strip mine." his fairly high pitched voice sounded as if it was constantly tinted with worry. He didn't even look at the visitors though he knew it was them. Daxter took the opportunity to make a retort.
"And we'd like to thank you for being such a bad shot." he spoke with indignity in his voice, but anyone who knew Daxter, knew he was fairly over it. Finally Vin looked over his shoulder to speak.
"Ah yeah," his worried voice carried a hint of sheepishness. "Sorry about that guys. Ah, I'm a bit jumpy these days." Daxter chose sarcasm, again, as his words.
"Jumpy? We hadn't noticed." Of course he couldn't help playing a joke. "Ahhh! A Metal head behind you!" Vin instantly spun around and backed against the console, his eyes darting around the room in a frantic attempt to escape the 'metal head'. As Jak and Daxter began chuckling and Vin realized he was safe he grasped at his heart and took a deep breath in an attempt to regain his composure.
"Just kidding, nice reaction time though." Kaida too, had laughed at poor Vin, though she knew somewhere that it was kind of mean.
"Not funny!" Vin declared, then turned back to the consoles and began his frantic typing once again. "Those metal heads have been attacking our mining operations, and we're running out of eco! Eco power keeps the city shield walls up, and if the shield drops..." Vin flicked lightning fast through the screens as he spoke. "Well, we can all kiss our butts goodbye."
"I've got a few surprises for those metal heads." Jak spoke with gusto and a lot of confidence. Dax grinned in agreement and Kaida shook her head slightly, though she couldn't help grinning as well. Vin, however, wasn't so convinced. He shook his head, and hands as he turned to look at them again.
"You've got to keep the shield walls up until the Shadow figures out what to do." he turned back around and flicked through the screens. "My readings show a drop in the eco flow at the drill platform. Probably some metal head eggs suckin' away power. So, use the warp gate to go to the platform and destroy every metal head egg you can find." Vin pointed to the circular gate. He typed a few more keys on the console and the blue ring lit up.
Kaida was a little wary but she assured herself it was unneeded. Jak took a last look at Vin before heading over the warp gate. Kaida followed and he glanced back at her quickly before jumping into the portal. Kaida followed suit and in the blink of an eye she found her feet on steel walk ways. A cold breeze pushed her hair and chilled her a bit. The group could smell the heavy scent of exhaust from the machinery along with the earthy taste of the dust and mud. Jak stepped forward, as far as he dared, towards the edge of the platform. They all looked over the edge and could see the enormous drill spiraling downward into the dirt.
She looked out over the large, seemingly suspended, platform and into the darkened area. It was quiet at the moment, and she could see, from here, the gun turrets that they would need to take out all of the eggs. The eggs could be seen clinging to walls all over the area. They pulsed and twitched as the young inside moved around. They varied in size and some of the biggest were frighteningly so. The yellow soft shells seemed to glow against the black goo that stuck them all in place.
Kaida instinctively pulled out her gun, as did Jak and both selected the mod that they though would best fit the situation. Kaida pointed to the turret guns, situated on the corners of various platforms.
"There, the turrets."
"Yeah, we need to get to those." Jak too, had seen them. They headed off across the platform, and once they had jumped down from their slight step up, a sudden swarm of bladed metal heads sprung their attack. Kaida's weapon reset quickly and took out the creatures as they approached, Jak's larger, slower weapon did not fare so well, and eventually he was forced to kick down some of the metal heads that got too close. Bad choice. The blades that they were attached to their bodies sliced into Jak's leg. He cussed loudly and jumped back before unloading his gun neatly into the rest of the metal heads.
There was a momentary pause in the action as they quickly collected the metal head gems, before the continued on their way. They ran into a few other clusters of these bladed metal heads, before the found the platform elevator. The metal platform shook and jerked slightly as their weight set off the delicate mechanisms, and began to rise into the air. There was another cold gust of wind from across the mine once they reached the top. The turret gun sat calmly at the edge of the platform and Kaida stepped towards it.
From this vantage point on the platform, they could see the other turret gun, off a ways and sort of around a corner. Jak looked along the path and planned out his path quickly in his mind. He looked up as did Kaida and they could see the enormous eggs all over the buildings.
"Alright," Jak turned and stepped back to the elevator. "You take care of the eggs from here, and I'll go take out the rest from that gun over there." He pointed even though Kaida already knew where he was talking about.
"You sure?" Kaida asked carefully. Jak nodded as the elevator dropped him down two levels to where he needed to go. Kaida swallowed and walked back towards the turret. She didn't want to get in to the gun seat, because that was when the metal heads would show up in the game, but...how much of this was really like the game?
Jak ran along his path as fast as he dared. He didn't like that there were so many places that metal heads could be hiding. He jumped up off a platform as fast as he could and nearly fell back as he heard a gunshot and saw a metal head falling dead just a few feet from where he was. He whipped around and looked for the source of the shot. It took him a moment and he had to squint a little but he could see the figure of Kaida facing his direction. He waved his thanks and she returned the gesture.
She was sitting on the edge of the plat form with her legs hanging over the edge. That last shot had been pure luck. There was no using the gun sight for this, as it was not a long range weapon. She was lucky she had been able to snipe that metal head from where she was. She followed him as best as she could, sometimes losing sight of him but knowing he was ok. When the larger groups of metal heads swarmed she took aim as best as she could, but did as little as possible, afraid she might hit Jak. She continued to watch him with careful aim when suddenly the gun was knocked painfully out of her hands.
It landed, smoking about 15 ft behind her and she whipped around to see what did it. One of the flying metal heads that guard the place, had set its sights on her. She kicked herself for not paying attention and made a dash for the gun turret. Sitting in the gun seat she glanced at the displays that appeared on the glass before her. Her eyes flitted over the writings she checked the gauges and looked through the glass for her targets. She swung the turret gun around with surprising ease and aimed as best as she could at the metal heads that had shot her.
The gun mount shook with the power of the gun. Once her sights were clear of all the metal heads she whipped around and fired at the metal head eggs. She watched the seemingly soft eggs break under the gunfire. Suddenly the gun seat shook violently and she was knocked forwards, she looked up and saw a flashing red marker on the screen. The whipped wildly around and saw the enormous flying metal head only feet from her. She spun the gun and attempted to shoot, but as she tried to move the machine, the metal head took the chance to blast her again. The metal compartment shook more violently, and she watched as best as she could as the gauge measured the time left before the metal head broke down the hull and blasted her shit-less. She continued to attempt to move the pivot around, but she knew there was no way she could.
Suddenly there was a break in the shuddering and the metal head fire, along with the unmistakable loud deep groan of a metal head in pain. She opened her eyes fully but didn't bother to take the time to wonder and attempt to register what had happened, she just fired until the metal head was gone. Only now, did Kaida swing the slowly repairing gun turret around to see Jak taking care of all of the metal heads that he could. She didn't need a minute to take a guess at what had happened, but she didn't bother to look grateful, she just turned back to what she had been doing.
"Thanks." She said aloud, mostly to herself. She focused her attention back to the task at hand and jumped nearly a foot in the air when a voice crackled over a speaker.
"You're welcome." It was Jak's voice, cracking over the speakers. Kaida had had no idea that there were communicators with in the gun turrets but now that she knew, it made a sort of sense.
"You scared me. I didn't know there were speakers." She responded casually as if she hadn't jumped so badly.
"Yeah, I guess its to keep contact with incase of a battle...kind of like this one."
"Yeah." Kaida remained silent, as did Jak. It was a calm quiet, save the violent crashes of the turret guns hitting their mark and then some.
"So," there was the sudden feeling as if someone had dropped a bucket of tension and nervousness over them, as Jak's words came through the communicators. "Your world, what was it like?" For a long moment, Kaida wasn't sure how to respond to that, and Jak wasn't sure if he had asked a reasonable question. He wanted to know, but he was unsure of whether or not it was something she could answer at the moment. He could sense her reluctance and began to frantically search his mind for a way to change the subject so she wouldn't feel the need to answer.
"Green." Was, finally, the response."There were trees and plants, not like this city, where I lived." Jak was surprised and let his tension drain as he listened to her honest response. "There were houses and many people. But, it was a town. Not so much dirt, not so much grime. It was not a city like this." Kaida fell silent, wondering how much she could say before she told him too much, or before the homesickness got to her. Jak sensed that she was done talking and decided to pick up the conversation for conversation's sake.
"My world was like that too." Kaida bit her tongue as she nearly said 'I know'. Jak continued, however. "It was green and I lived by the ocean. But its wasn't polluted like the water is here. It was beautiful and there were so many things to see. I...do miss it. A lot. This city is just, so, different." Kaida felt a pang as her mind went back to playing this 'game', she thought back to when Jak found Samos's hut within the ruins of Dead Town. This was his world. It had only been just a passing moment in the game but here, in real life, it just seemed more important. Kaida swallowed and tossed around the idea of telling Jak. Finally she began;
"Jak.." her voice was just over a whisper and barely audible to even herself. She opened her mouth to continue but the sound of shattering metal and the crash of something heavy interrupted her.
"Woo!" came Jak's loud, excited voice over the speakers. "That was the last of the eggs, but those metal heads are still coming. I think we had better ditch this place before things get any uglier." For the first time in the past, five or ten minutes, Kaida looked over her shoulder at the gun that had been knocked from her reach. She hadn't even given it so much as a passing thought while she had been engaged but now that she knew they would be running for the warp gate and Jak would not be providing cover fire, she would really have appreciated that gun. She took out all of the metal heads close enough to shoot then took a last look at Jak.
Jak jumped out of the turret gun seat and took off. The metal tower that had been knocked down provided him with a shorter means of getting back to the warp gate. He threw all he had into running full out across that precariously placed metal frame. Daxter clung viciously to his shoulder and kept himself tucked as close to Jak for personal protection.
"Jak, you might wanna hurry!" he whined shakily in Jak's ear. His eyes followed the dark forms of the metal heads that continued to come and were carefully closing in.
"Don't worry Dax, we'll be fine." Jak comforted gruffly and with minor irritation at the insinuation that he wasn't already doing everything in his power to keep them from becoming metal food. He didn't dare let his mind stray from the task at hand but he could not keep himself from feeling a slight happiness in hearing about Kaida's world. She had said it was green, like his home. Though they were both from different worlds, the distance that he had felt from everyone, besides Daxter, slipped a little when it came to Kaida. There was a loneliness that he felt, even with Daxter around, that he just couldn't get rid of no matter how much he steeled himself, or attempted to push it out of his mind. And it gave a sort of hope, that maybe, they would leave this place and get to go home.
Kaida took a last shot and a last look before she threw herself from the seat and tore across the platform. If anyone else had been there she might have played it more cooly but right now she just felt like she was running from a monster. She ran with fear keeping her at top speed. She reached out and snatched her gun without losing any momentum and continued to run she made it to the elevator and as it dropped she vaulted the edge and landed on the platform below before the elevator did. She took of at a run again and sprinted up the ramps towards the exit.
In the game the metal heads would just stop coming, but not here, that just wasn't how life worked. Out of habit she hastily stowed away her gun, without even looking at it to see if it was even useful now. As she reached the final platform and made her last dash for the gate, she could hear the hum and the low growl of the meat heads right on her heels. She turned and looked slightly to her left and saw Jak, about in the same situation.
He was sprinting up the metal frame with the dark forms of a metal head not far behind. Though they were still far enough ahead that the metal heads wouldn't use their short range weapons, the didn't really want to test how short that range was. Jak reached the gate first but he paused for Kaida to catch up. It seemed like the longest few seconds to both of them, as Kaida tried to push herself to over the top when she saw Jak waiting for her.
"Come on!" He yelled and as she reached the gate he put a hand on her back and pushed her into it. In her last seconds before she was transported she heard the frighteningly close hum of the metal heads weapons. Kaida had been thrown into the vortex with such force that she landed on the other side and stumbled awkwardly before tripping and falling onto her hands and knees. With the adrenaline still pumping wildly through her body she twisted around and waited a few painful seconds with her breath held. Luckily it was only a moment before Jak jumped from the warp gate and landed panting on the metal floor. Kaida breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn't known she was holding and all of a sudden all of the adrenaline left her and she began to gasp for air and her legs began to ache.
She didn't bother to stand and act as if she hadn't fallen, she just attempted to regain herself. Jak too, was leaning against the railing and frantically trying to get back his composure. At last they both had breathed deeply and the ache had worn off. Jak offered his hand to Kaida how took it and thanked him as she pulled herself up.
They all said their good byes and left as Vin flitted from one console to the next like a frantic skinny bird. They took their time heading back to the hideout, even though it was drizzling and threatening more. Using the stadium pass, they headed into the more residential district and bought some food. It wasn't a lot but it was good and they were hungry, even though they were almost guaranteed at least some food at the hideout.
They ate some sort of fried meat, and Kaida chose not to ask what kind of meat this happened to be. It sort of reminded her of a corn dog and she sort of chuckled at the idea of there being a carnival in this city. They bought a couple of different small sorts of vender fast foods and ate them like they were starving. They finally got thirsty and attempted to find a place that sold drinks that did not contain alcohol. It was difficult, not knowing where anything was, but they eventually found a place and took their time.
"Hey," Daxter, who had also been enjoying himself was the first to break up the relaxation. "Its getting late, and wet, don't you guys think its about time we head back to the hideout?" Kaida and Jak looked at each other and silently came to agreement with Daxter. The paid and left. Kaida had made a mental tab, however of what kind of shops they had here. She was sure that they would have better stuff, and cheaper, in the bazar, but she had enjoyed herself and wasn't about to push her luck.
They stole some zoomers and took off through the city, as best as they could as the rain became heavy and soaked their vision. When they reached the hideout they were both thoroughly soaked and rather cold. Torn didn't even look up as they entered, and Jak figured Vin probably called him when they got back from the drill site. The vague thought wandered through his mind of when exactly Torn slept but he didn't bother himself too long with that. Kaida didn't even bother with a shower, she just grabbed some dry loose clothes and went off to change. When she came back she curled up under her covers and warmed up. Jak, however, went off to take a shower, leaving Daxter to dry off and curl up on the bunk bed. He ended up lying on the bottom bunk next to Kaida as she provided warmth for his, still wet, body.
Kaida began to nod off, but even as she began to drift away to the hush of running water, she felt a tug on her mind. It was a familiar feeling now, and she knew what it meant. It felt like someone had placed a fishing line in her brain and was gently pulling her along. She swallowed, hoping it would be good news she would receive from the Oracle, but nonetheless, fell to sleep quickly and silently.
AH! Don't kill me! Sorry for the delay, hope you are all doing well. I really sort of got sidetracked by Kingdom Hearts II. Yeah so, anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. And to those of you who helped me out by giving me the act one script, I am nearly at the end of the script and it would be a serious help if you would donate to my cause and send me the act two script. Thanx to you all!