Authors Note: Amaria here, back with yet another chapter! Oohhhh, I just finished Tera's redesign for Book3 and it looks awesome and… cough er, I mean, book3? Who's thinking about book3/horribleliar Anyways, to my lovely reviewers!
Empty Tranquility: Lol, me to. And awww, glad you think she's cool XD And you saw the redesign lol. Thanks for the review!
Nostalgic Beauty: Lol, good to know someone thinks I am! And I didn't change the oracles message blink that's what it said in the script I'm using. Tera is only a blue channeler sooo, the light thing would have to be a no. Thanks for the review!
Miracle Mar: Erm, bad choice of words on my part there, hehe… And yup, they go to the palace in this chapter, lol. Thanks for the review!
Light-Eco-Freak: Lmao, yes, I thought that would be funny. As we all know that Jak is a crazy driver XD Thanks for the review!
xoxReneeOrionxox: I'm glad you're liking it, and thank you! I worked very hard on making Tera. Thanks for the review!
And now, on with the chapter peoples!
Through Another's Eyes: Book Two
Chapter Seven: Another Day in Hell
Entering the power station, the trio weren't surprised to find Vin hard at work on his control consoles, messing with every switch and button he could reach. Sharing a look, Tera and Jak approached him slowly, the male thinking of how best to word what he wanted to say.
"Vin buddy, we need a favor."
The technician paused, looking at them while rubbing the back of his neck, "I-I can't help you with your eco bill."
"We need you to switch on the access elevator in one of the Palace's support towers," Tera cut in, stepping up beside Jak.
"Sheesh!" Vin exclaimed, "That's part of the old B-Zone power grid. It hasn't worked for years!"
The Underground operatives grinned at each other, turning away from the jittery male.
"Well, if it's too hard for you, we understand," he paused, sending Tera a wink, "power stuff can be tricky."
"Tricky? Hmph!" Vin scoffed, rushing back over to his panel, "I could route the B-Zone conduit lines through the bypass grid, shunting past the eco rings to connect the inductor tubes in series, then back through the outer wall insulator helix and across the resonant flux routes into the number five capacitor array," the trio watched him rush around the room, hitting switches and buttons as he went, jumping on his hover platform and continuing to swoop around the room, "Assuming the circuits in the GX75B can handle the surge, I could link the phase loop lines into the primary coils, and presto!" he landed in front of them with a BANG, "you've got instant lift juice!"
"Vin," Jak grinned, "You're a genius!"
"Eh," Vin rubbed the back of his head again, "actually, Mar was the genius," he motioned around the room, "People say he made most of this stuff long ago- the shield wall system, the eco grid…" he trailed off, then snapped back to the present, waving his hands in front of him, "Anyway, to get that elevator moving, you gotta find and turn on all the old B-Zone power boxes located in the city. There are five of 'em!"
"That doesn't sound so tough!" Daxter grinned.
"No," Vin agreed, then began motioning wildly, "Except those power boxes are guarded by motion-sensing turbo cannons!"
"Shoulda known," Tera muttered, the technician continuing.
"But if you can destroy the cannons, and switch the boxes on, I can do the rest!" the three nodded to each other, heading for the doors, the technician shouting after them, "J-Just don't tell the baron I ever saw yah!"
"Paranoid much?" Tera muttered, motioning back towards the doors as they exited. Her friends just grinned, "So, how are we going to work this?"
"It'll probably be best to grab a zoomer and shoot them from the air," Jak reasoned, Tera nodding.
"If we grab either a two or three seater, I could drive and you could shoot down the cannons, Jak," she offered, the male nodding.
"That should work; lets find a zoomer," they walked to the edge of the metal walkway, looking down at the stream of traffic below them. Spotting a two-seater, Jak jumped down, knocking the driver out so that Tera could slide down into the seat, taking off almost immediately. She followed the blinking green dot on her com unit, lowering the zoomer to the lower hover zone just out of the first cannons reach.
Jak loaded the blaster, Tera inching the zoomer forwards the cannon until it popped out of the ground, immediately pulling back to once more evade it's reach. Jak began firing immediately, his partner punching the gas once it exploded, the renegade hopping out and activating the switch when they neared it, jumping back into the zoomer so Tera could speed off towards the next cannon. She followed the next dot, cursing when the city's alarms went off halfway to the next cannon. They took care of the next cannon in the same way they had the first, grabbing a new zoomer when theirs began to smoke. The third and fourth followed quickly, Tera steering them off towards the final cannon before any KG's could get near them.
The final cannon fell to Jak's blaster, the renegade jumping out and activating the last of the power switches then jumping back in the zoomer, Tera raising it to the higher level just as the guards came running.
"G-good work!" Vin's voice came from Jak's comm. as it popped out of his pack and began to hover around the two, "the B-Zone power is back online! G-Good luck with whatever it is you guys are planning!"
"Shall we go pay the Baron a visit?" Tera grinned, glancing at Jak as she turned the zoomer towards the location of the elevator.
The male gave a wicked grin, nodding, "Lets go." The girl punched the gas, the zoomer speeding off towards the elevator. They reached the location fairly quickly, jumping off the vehicle and heading inside, taking the elevator up. It was a fairly long ride, and they waited silently, Tera tapping her foot impatiently.
Finally, it reached the top, the three exiting onto the high platform, the city laid out in front of them. From where they stood, they could easily see that it would be no walk in the park getting across the coil to the palace. Nodding to each other, Jak and Tera hopped down onto the first platform and walked forwards towards the first gap, watching the set of charged blue-eco coils that spun around every few seconds.
They jumped just after one had passed, then repeated the process for the next set, approaching a long double row of sparking, red platforms. It was obvious that they couldn't touch them without getting hurt, and so quickly dropped to the small platform on the left, jumping off almost immediately to the next as the platform gave way under their weight. They continued down the next platforms, swinging on the poles there and vaulting to the other side.
Jak watched in worry as Tera vaulted over the poles after him, terrified that she would fall and die. The girl proved him wrong, raising an eyebrow at his relieved look when she landed smoothly on the solid platform. They continued on without many problems, hopping back up to the main cable and then back down to the right when more heating coils appeared, jumping across the sets of platforms and then yet again back up to the cable.
Tera cursed when a sentry gun began to shoot at them from up ahead, reminding her way to much of the turrets in the sewers. The two took off running, jumping over the shots when needed. Jak bashed the cannon in when they reached it, the three sighing in relief. Daxter mumbled something about 'damn paranoid bastards needing too many damned guns' as they continued on, jumping across the five sections of rotating spiked areas in sequence and hopping to the solid platform beyond it. Tera let out a loud curse when yet another sentry gun went off in front of them, the two repeating the same process as before so that Jak could destroy the gun.
Tera's ears lowered in annoyance when rain began to fall, the blond about ready to let yet another string of curses fly. Jak noticed this, but pretended to ignore it, still surprised by the curse she'd let out just minutes before. They continued down another set of platforms to the right, avoiding two more eco-charged circuits and swinging over another pole, heading up another few platforms and landing back on the main cable again. The rain was getting harder now, worsening the groups moods further.
They pressed on anyways, passing another set of heating coils and another turret gun, jumping behind it and giving sighs of relief when they reached the wall of the palace. They jumped up the platforms that followed the wall, climbing the nearby ramp. They approached the sky light ahead of them cautiously, they climbed onto it and gazed down, having apparently stumbled across a conversation between the Metal Head leaders holographic head, the baron and Errol.
"I've told you, I'll have more eco by week's end," the Baron growled, "We'll transport it directly to your nest, as promised."
"A deal is of no value if you can't deliver, my dear Baron," the Metal Head Leader's voice turned impatient, "I grow impatient with your puny gestures. Give me the agreed upon eco soon, or the deal is off, and your precious city will pay the price!"
The creatures head disappeared, Errol growling and whirling on the Baron, "He's toying with us! Let me lead an assault on the Nest before it's too late! I can take him!"
"Patience, commander," the Baron stared out the window, raising a hand to the metal half of his head, "No one has ever penetrated the Metal Head nest, you know that. I've seen what comes of such foolish plans," he paused, then turned back to Errol, "No! Strength is their weakness… we play helpless, train them to eat from our hands, and then…" his voice grew louder, "Move forward with the plan! Tell Ashelin to up her patrols. I want that tomb found!"
"But your daughter has not been…" Errol paused, "Agreeable."
"Aggg, I'll see to that problem," the Baron muttered, "one way or another."
"Ashelin is the Baron's daughter?" Jak whispered in surprise, noting the shocked look on Tera's face as well. She hadn't known either. Their attention was drawn back to the Baron when he started speaking again.
"And find that child! If you'd spend half as much time looking for that little brat as you spend flirting with that mechanic girl, we would have pinned his royal ass to a wall long ago!"
Daxter rubbed his nose, feeling it itch.
"As you wish," Errol began, Daxter beginning to take varied breaths, on the edge of sneezing. Both Jak and Tera moved to grab him, but pulled back when he seemed to be fine, "With enough persuasion, I'm sure our spy will," the ottsel let out a loud sneeze, both of his friends grabbing him and diving away from the glass when Errol whipped towards the ceiling, "What was that?!"
Daxter inched away from the death glares both his friends were sending them, simply hopping back onto Jak's shoulder once the cost was clear and they could stand up again.
"We should probably find a way off the roof," Tera muttered, glancing around the roof. Jak nodded, leading the shorter girl around to the left and dropping down the sloped roof there, continuing forwards, an electrical gate blocking there way through.
Suddenly, the Baron flew up beside the roof in some sort of giant mech, sneering down at the trio, "So, we have a rat in the walls, do we? A rat and his keepers, it seems! Back for a few more Dark Eco treatments?! Well, allow me to put you all out of your misery!"
"Shit," Tera muttered, diving away from the sudden barrage of machine gun fire that the mech launched, she and Jak firing back as soon as they got the chance. They slowly whittled away the mech's health, the Baron finally spinning out of control and crashing through the electric force field, disappearing into the next section of the roof. The three nodded to each other, loading up on ammo before following after him.
"Watch out!" Jak tackled Tera out of the sudden field of missile targets, barely escaping the resulting blasts. Yet again they were forced to fire when they could, dodging missiles left and right, rewarded when the mech once more spun out of control and smashed through the next barrier, the trio following once more.
"Oh come on!" they immediately had to jump out of the way of a barrage of mini fire tornados, then dodged again when the baron suddenly attempted to ram them with the mech itself.
"Screw this," Tera switched her pistols to Vulcan temporarily, yanking out the ammo and switching them back to blaster.
"What're you-" Jak was cut off when they had to dodge around more tornados, but he caught sight of a flash of blue and then a resulting streak, Tera no where in sight. The Baron went to ram him again, but cursed and spun when he was suddenly attacked from behind, unable to keep up with the blue streak that ran around and around him, firing off rounds of yellow ammo.
Jak began firing as well, taking advantage of the situation. The Baron's mech rose shakily into the air, the outer parts exploding. Jak cursed when he saw that the main pod had survived, and that the Baron was undamaged.
"The dark powers I have you can't protect you forever!" he shouted, "Since I made you, I can destroy you! We'll meet again soon!" he flew away down beside the palace, Jak moving to look over the edge.
"Yeah, whatever," Daxter rolled his eyes, "Bye bye."
Jak smirked, then frowned, noticing the lack of a certain blond, "Tera?"
"You rang?" he turned at the amused voice, staring at the girl who stood perched up by the final electrical gate, hands on her hips, "What are you looking at?"
"Tera?" he repeated, still staring as he jogged over to her. The girl's skin was littered with randomized blue streaks, her hair completely blue and her eyes more deeply saturated then normal, "What happened?"
"I told you I got into the Underground because of my channeling abilities," she grinned, flashing a fanged smile at her friend, "I can channel a lot better then I used to now, so it comes in handy from time to time."
"So I see," he forced a chuckle, "Are the changes temporary?"
She nodded, "They'll fade in a couple of hours, as they always do. Now come on," she glanced at her comm., "Torn's calling us again, so we'd better get over there."
Jak nodded, heading into the elevator after the girl and then following her out again, snagging another zoomer in order to get to the hideout more quickly. Heading down, it was easy to spot Torn standing behind the table yet again, though this time, Kor was standing next to him and the kid was sitting on the table between them.
The commander looked up at them when they entered, frown deepening, "The city is on high alert. What the hell did you three do?!" he growled.
"Us?!" Daxter hopped onto the table, "uhh… nothing. We've been… ah… sightseeing, right guys?"
"Really? Then why are the Krimzon Guard looking for…" he paused, looking down at the paper in front of him, "a 'dangerous young man with light hair, blue tunic, an eco channeler'," he paused to pin a look at Tera, "and a 'rabid orange RAT on his shoulder'?!" the kid pointed to Daxter on the last line, not knowing what was going on.
Daxter paused in gnawing his nails, "Ahh… could be anyone! Orange is the new black this season!"
"Look," Jak sighed, "we climbed up to the Baron's palace … and… we tripped a few alarms.
"Oh right… that too," Daxter agreed.
"What?!" Torn growled, "I didn't authorize a strike on the-"
"Hey! We kicked the Baron's ass! Unfortunately, he escaped." Tera watched the child while Jak explained things, eyes narrowed slightly. He seemed oddly familiar…
"And we overheard a secret meeting with the leader of the Metal Heads!" Daxter added, Torn and Kor sharing a look, the kid covering his mouth in surprise.
"You saw the Metal Head leader?" Kor questioned, the three shaking their heads.
"No, he was on some communicator," Tera cut in, "but we heard him talking with Baron Praxis."
"The Baron is bribing the Metal Heads with eco!" Daxter piped up again.
"Hmph," Kor scoffed, "it will never be enough."
"But the Baron's gonna double cross 'em!" the ottsel apparently hadn't finished.
"Is that so?" Kor stroked his chin in thought, not paying attention to the kid who had now hidden behind him, "Well, our good Baron's wonderful 'charm' must have angered someone, because there's word from the Wasteland that Metal Head armies are on the move again!"
Jak ignored the old man, turning to Torn again, "Why didn't you tell me Ashelin was Praxis's daughter? What's your connection with her?"
"That's none of your business!" the tattooed man snapped, "Since you've stirred up the wumpbee's nest, you two and whiskers here need to get four of our people to new safe houses. Shuttle each agent to a location they specify. Move all of them WITHOUT any casualties. Don't screw this up, Jak!"
"Don't screw this up, Jak!" the blond mimicked once they were out of Torn's hearing range, earning snickers from both Daxter and Tera. They approached the two double seater's that sat outside the hideout, Tera pausing before them.
"Lets split up and each take two agents, it'll go quicker that way since," she pointed at the black sky, "we should probably try and get some sleep tonight."
Jak nodded, "Alright, we'll meet you back at the apartment." Tera nodded and hopped into one of the zoomer's, immediately taking off in the direction of her first agent. Jak followed suit, heading after his own.
The mission wasn't hard, but it was annoying and tiresome. The Krimzon Guard's were after them almost immediately, as they now recognized and were after Jak due to his escapade on the rood. He wondered if Tera was having similar problems, but doubted it; unless they could see the small blue marks on her skin in the dark, then she would probably be fine.
Dropping the last agent off, Jak punched the gas and quickly lost the KG's that had been chasing them, giving a sigh of relief.
"Good work Jak, you and Blue Eco got all the agents to safety," Torn's voice came from the comm., "Eco finished about five minutes ago; you three are done for the night, but I expect you back at the hideout first thing in the morning. Torn out."
Jak was glad to be done, turning the zoomer and speeding off towards their apartment. The silence that met them when they entered the apartment unnerved the renegade; had Tera not gotten back yet?
"Ter's probably sleepin' already," Daxter answered Jak's unspoken question, hopping down from his shoulder and heading for his own 'bed', "Using eco always wears her out. Night, Jak."
"Night, Dax," the blond waited until Daxter had tucked himself in before quietly moving to Tera's room, giving a wry grin at the sight that met him. Tera was indeed passed out on her bed, the girl having not even bothered to remove her boots or goggles. The blue was just beginning to fade from her skin and hair, her breathing steady.
Feeling zapped of energy himself, Jak didn't bother to remove his own boots or goggles, simply climbing on the bed behind his best friend and closed his eyes, drifting off quickly.
XX
Begin Introspection. Serial Code: Jak
XX
To tell the truth, I had forgotten about Tera's channeling abilities. In Sandover, she could absorb one, maybe two, small clusters of blue eco and run semi-fast for a few seconds or so. It was never a big factor; she still left all the activating and problem solving to me, as generally it took more then a few seconds of eco power to complete said tasks. She really only used it when we needed to escape quick and she needed that little extra boost to out run a lurker. As I said, I never thought much of it; it was just one of those little things that made her 'Tera'.
From what I can tell, today she used the equivalent of a full eco charge, not even thinking about it before she was off, a blue streak rushing around and firing at the Baron. Before we came here, she would've been put into a coma from that much eco. Guess now I know why her code names 'Blue Eco'. Heh. The changes it left her with worried me a bit, I'll admit; I never used to change when I took in a full charge of blue, yellow or red eco. It makes me wonder how saturated she is; not as much as Mazior, the old blue sage, obviously. Her skin isn't blue, after all.
Tera's changed a lot in the two years since we came here, we all have. But she still treats me the same, and so I'll treat her the same. Well, mostly. I don't think I should piss her off anytime soon.
Mar that girl can swear now.
XX
End Introspection.
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