The Underground
Part2- "Calling of the Champions"
Haven city bank ,
The midnight moon shone on haven city's towering bank its gleam sparkled in the glass of the windows. On the side of the building a small figure abseiled down via a large rope connected with the top of the building , The man looked like a ninja assassin in his full black body suit and matching balaclava , he had a belt that held many gadgets and in a holster on his back was a large gold Hook on a staff. His name was Sly , he knew the volts of haven bank held more than one hundred million dollars and being a professional thief …he knew he could get his hands on every cent . Sly stopped when he reached the thirty first floor, he reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a small device that looked like a small cell phone, he pointed it at the glass and pushed a button on it, a green laser beam shot out the end , sly cut a perfect circle in the glass and without a pause he lifted up the bottom of his balaclava and licked his right glove holding on to the rope with his left , he placed his hand on the glass ring that stuck to the glove, sly slowly pulled back his hand removing the glass as a result. When the ring was completely out he dropped it to the ground below hoping that too many people wouldn't be alerted to its loud crash and smashing sound, silent as a whisper: Sly slid through the ring.
Sly stood in the ring several feet off the ground , he scanned the area with his sharp, yellow eyes that were as sly as his name suggested , he noticed that the floor between him and the vault was laser-alarmed and that there were several rotating cameras in the three rafters in the roof , sly chuckled "Cake…" before the first camera could film him he jumped up like a cat after a bird and landed in a upside down position on the first rafter. Sly waited for the camera to turn to a safe position then somersaulted through the air landing on a bar in the second rafter just above the gaze of the cameras. Sly grabbed this opportunity, he ripped the hook off his back and swung it down destroying the camera that began to fall rapidly sly lent back and caught the falling camera sly pulled himself back up and placed the camera in a holster on his belt , Sly turned to the first camera , he hurled his hook at the camera it twirled in the air before making contact with the camera that flew out the window and exploded, the hook changed direction like a boomerang and came back towards sly who outstretched his arm and caught the hook without so-much as breaking a sweat or breathing hard. Sly placed the hook back in its holder and leapt to the next rafter he grabbed the camera, his hands covering the lense and ripped it from its place , sparks flew out in a electrical explosion, Sly managed to matain his balance from a blast that would have sent a normal man flying to the floor, Sly smiled and noticed that the floor in front of the vault was not laser alarmed , he leapt from his perch barrel rolling in the air as he jumped majestically over the laser floor and landed in front of the vault.
The only thing that stood between Sly and HIS money was an electrical barrier. Sly slowly approached the vault removing his mask , slys face was not that of a man but it was grey and fuzzy, his eyes were yellow and silted he had all the features of a rodent, Sly was a Racoon (And a handsome one at that ).
Sly removed the hook from his back and turned it the other way round and jabbed at the force field with the staff like end of it, the blue electricity sent a shock through the hook and to slys hand
"Ah!" sly dropped the hook on the floor , he rubbed his hand clenching in pain
"Damn it!" he cursed he then started to look around for a way to shut off the force filed. He looked up and saw a large shiny power box just above the volt ,Sly smiled and jumped onto the wall , using claws to hang on he began to climb the wall , when he reached the power box he took something from his belt and pressed a button it began to bleep loudly he placed it on the power box and jumped down to the floor
"Fire in the hole.." he chuckled to himself the beeping became faster and louder until there was a small electric explosion above his head, the force field disintegrated. Grabbing his hook sly rushed towards the vault door he placed a large square device on the locking mechanism he typed something on it a second later there was a small explosion and sly moved out the way as the vault door fell down.
Knowing that the crimson guard would be here soon sly rushed into the vault and ripped two large black duffels from holsters on his legs and franticly began to fill them with money. Once he had collect over Five hundred thousand dollars he decided to get the hell out of there .Wasting no time he raced across the laser floor, High pitched alarm bells rang out as sly raced to get out of the building sly jumped up at the window and dove through the ring he'd created Sly smirked "Catch me if you can!"
Sly allowed himself to freefall until he hit a lower rooftop, wasted no-time in getting straight back on his feet and racing along, he leapt to another roof and then to another, he continued to hop rooftops until he was so far away the crimson guard couldn't catch him if he wanted them to. Sly took a moment to take in some well needed breaths, he smiled at what he had pulled off tonight, he knew it wouldn't be the last stunt he pulled off either, suddenly slys ear twitched as he sensed he was not alone on the rooftop. Sly span round to see Jak standing before him arms crossed. Sly leapt backwards and ripped the hook from its holster
"Who the hell are you?!" he snarled, his voice didn't reflect his good looks it was Gruff almost cold. Jak smiled as sly began to circle him Jak chuckled
"Y'know I'm astonished! With all your talents and assets, that you have become just a common thief" Sly glared at Jak, Sly knew that Jak was right but he tried hard not to let on that he knew
"I Like doing this Man!" Sly explained " This is what I do!"
"Yeah.." Jak said shrugging "But wouldn't you like to be more. There are people like you. People who are less than what they're." Jak smiled "Come with me you can meet those people"
"Oh yeah? How do I know that your not crimson guard and this whole thing is a trap!!!?" Sly hissed momentarily thinking of diving backwards off the rooftop and running like hell
Jak shrugged "Ya don't! Your just gonna have to trust me"
Eco Strip mine,
On a rocky cliff face just north of haven city there was a large mine , huge wells populated the tree-less area , rivers of eco replaced water in the desert type landscape. A figure dropped down from a large crane and hit the floor hard though he didn't even stagger back ,The creature looked like a yellow rabbit , the fur on its face and ears had stripes of golden brown running along it , the figure was wearing a blue and black space-looking suit he had a steel chest plate with a glowing blue gem in it , his gloves , boots , shoulder and knee covers were the same colour , he wore a small helmet that didn't obstruct his facial features or ears. His name was ratchet he was a member of an endangered Species called a Lombax.
He ran towards an eco well and stood before it , he leant down and pressed a button on his boots and continued to walk towards the well he put his boot on the well and began to walk up the vertical surface, when he reached the top of the well he saw the cap that sealed in the eco was locked up , ratchet raised a communicator on his wrist to his mouth "Telsa Claw!" he stated clearly , a blue light en-gulfed Ratchets hand then the blue light exploded and a huge claw mechanism was in its place ratchet pointed the "Telsa Claw" at the cap and clenched his fist , a blue bolt of electricity shot out the telsa claws end and blew the cap into the river of eco, ratchet peered inside the well to see the Dark purple substance , Dark Eco it was very rare and very valuable ratchet was only taking the eco to get funding for a special project Codenamed: R.Y.N.O.
Ratchet opened a compartment in his carbonox alloy gloves, inside were seventeen small black balls he picked one up, he flicked a small switch on the ball and it grew to the size of a Mellon, ratchet un-screwed a cap in the top of the ball and slowly lowered it into the eco, ratchet marinated the ball in the eco until it was full . As ratchet withdrew the ball from the eco he heard a soft growling he turned round and inspected the area behind him "Hello?" he asked…silence ratchet shrugged when he turned round he was suddenly sent flying backwards by a punch to his face ratchet span round in the air before hitting hard on the ground face first , he glass on his helmet shattered and he began to bleed from the nose and mouth , Ratchet turned over from where he lay in the sand , though his blurred vision a metal head materialised on top of the eco well, it raised its head and let loose a Ear-splitting howl, at the end of the howl metal heads began to close in from all sides Ratchet panicked , wide-eyed he raised the communicator to his mouth "Pyrocit-ahhh!" Ratchet was swarmed by the metal heads they pinned him to the ground and began to bite his back and legs "No! No! No!".
Suddenly Yellow bullets made contact with metal head skin black blood sprayed across the sand, the attacking metal heads scattered like roaches , Ratchet looked up to see Jak holding his smoking blaster triumphantly in his hands, resting his leg on the dead metal head.
"Oh my god! Thanks dude you saved my life!" Ratchet yelled smiling yet rather shaken from the ordeal , Jak offered his hand to ratchet , ratchet took it and Jak lifted him off the floor , parts of ratchets costume was torn and he had cuts all over his body , his nose was bleeding and his helmet was completely destroyed (He basically looked and smelled like Shit!" ). Ratchet took his helmet off and rubbed his forehead "Whoa! " He exclaimed stepping back a bit "I'm so gonna feel that in the morning!" Ratchet smiled
Jak raised an eyebrow "How old are you?" he asked
"Uh…" Ratchet hesitated "Twenty six?" he lied smiling
"Bullshit! How old are you really!?" Jak asked
Ratchet sighed "sixteen!"
Jak placed his hand on ratchets shoulder "Kid…Why are you out here stealing eco in metal head territory ?" Jak asked
" I need money for a new project." Ratchet sighed
"I'm a big-time inventor dude! I've built Ships , weapons I get exclusive fundings from Gagetron ! " Ratchet told Jak , his hands were part of his speech he waved them around while he was talking . Jak listend intently
"So why steal the eco?" Jak asked
"They won't fund my R.Y.N.O project" ratchet glared at the ground clenching his fist
Jak looked puzzled "Uh…R.Y.N.O?!"
"Oh…" Ratchet smiled "It's a extremely powerful rocket launcher, fires four missiles at once destroys everything in its path. The ryno bit stands for Rip You a New One."
Jak smiled devishly "Sounds great why'd they pull your funding?" he asked curiously
"They said in was 'potentially dangerous' all the weapons I've made in the past are! Gimme a frickin' break!" Ratchet yelled doing air quotes
"Well… I think I may have proposition for ya kid!" Jak looked behind ratchet and saw metal heads in the distance "But we better get outta here before the Metal Scum come back !"
Android Research and development centre, planet Quartu
A large circular frame with a blue ripplely wave in the centre stood as the lone object in a completely grey room , waiting outside was a scientist and two humanoid looking androids, the scientist was a short man he had ginger hair and a matching beard he had a large bald spot and wore distinctive round spectacles.
"Oh…God" the scientist sighed pacing up and down in front of the warp-gate "There not commin' I know it. Ye can never trust these earthlings. They don't-" there was a bright blue flash and samos appeared out of the warp gate , in another flash Jak appeared accompanied by Daxter who was perched on his shoulder. The scientist walked over to samos and offered his hand "Samos! It's a great honour to meet ye." He shook Jaks hand then pointed to the door "If you would please come with me".
Samos , Jak and Daxter followed the scientist down corridors that were crowed with other scientists and robots, was practically shaking with excitement "Ooohhh Jak! Were getting a robot ! can you believe that!! A ro-Freakin'-bot!!!!" Jak shook his head "Nut" he thought as Daxter continued "Maybe well get one of them killer mechs!-No!-one of those walking tanks that shoots up everyone and everything-No!-Yes!-Maybe!...Oh God! I'm soo excited" Daxter laughed . The group reached a large set of double doors at the end of the corridors "This is it." The scientist said entering his authorisation code "This is it!" Daxter laughed as the door opened, he was as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning the doors slid open , Daxter smile dropped when he saw a 2ft little robot reading Shakespeare "Serial Number 85429671 codename: Clank!" The scientist proclaimed Proudly everyone was silent they couldn't believe it, they had been promised an intelligent fighting machine and they had got this! "Your shitting us right?!" Daxter asked the scientist shook his head "C'mon doc he's smaller than me for gods sake!" Daxter yelled
"I'll have you know! That what I lack in size I make up for in my massive brain power !" The little robot said in a voice that sounded both Robotic and human its accent was British
"Believe me samos" the scientist said turning to the sage "The wee guys forgot more than all 'o ye know" He chuckled "We spent 3 years perfecting his intelligence." He said proudly smiling warmly at the tiny android who gazed curiously on the group with his giant green eyes, "I'm not denying that you've got a beautiful robot Sir. But the size and lack of fire-power is something I-" Samos began
"Ah! But it doesn't end there! If you'd like to follow me this way I'll happily give ye an example. Come on clank!"
The group stood behind pane of bullet proof glass in a huge indoor testing area ,in the centre of the room was clank. The scientist sat behind a huge hi-tech computer console typing in codes to run a program "Ready clank?" he said into a microphone that came up on the speaker system in the testing area, clank nodded the scientist sat back in his chair and smiled at the group "Run attack simulation 215!" the scientist commanded. The group noticed a door in the wall open clank turned round to face the door, there was a booming like thunder that came from the door Jaks eyes widened when he saw what came out , A giant scorpion-like creature was a least five hundred times the size of clank , Jak walked over to the scientist his fists clenched "The hell are you doin'! your gonna kill him!" He yelled the scientist just smirked "Clank show these nice gents what Ye can do eh?" clank nodded and glared at the attacking Alien. Clank swept his hands to the side and his arms and hands suddenly got bigger , Jak watched wondering what the hell was going on… Clanks legs the elevated him to a much higher size then his body grew and finally his head , clank clenched his fist and it glew a bright shade of neon pink , Clank was now taller than the creature and towered over it, clank smashed his fist really hard into The aliens skull ,Killing it instantly clank turned towards the glass and began to grow back to normal size.
The scientist turned to face the dumbfounded group "He is also fully equipped with Heli pack, Thrusters pack and hydro pack upgrades. Any questions?" He asked
"I have one" Daxter said raising his hand
"Oh aye. What have ye t' say?" the scientist asked
"Do you charge for delivery ?"
Haven forest
The water flowed freely through the river and into a large lagoon. The surrounding area was lush and green littered with towering trees, meandering rivers, small rock formations and large boulders, the air was so crisp and moist that anybody breathing it couldn't help but to be happy.
But sitting on one of the boulders was the figure of a creature that wasn't happy to be alive, the creature in question looked like a large blue hedgehog, he was wearing army pants like there wore in all those Vietnam movies, he wasn't wearing a shirt and was barefooted, He had long hair that was spiked up slightly some of his fringe fell over his face. His name was Sonic. He was gifted (or as he thought cursed) with the power to run at supersonic speeds. But his power was given to him in a terrible lab accident , a sadistic scientist known as Robotnik and a team of vivisectionists turned him and a group of animals into super humans (or rather animals) however a day after creation all but one where scheduled for termination , to test the firing capability of the new "KG" series robot. Sonics family was massacred. Only sonic and his best friend tails escaped but tails was killed by a pack of forest metal heads within less than four hours of escaped time.
Sonic heard a foot break a branch behind him , he turned his head swiftly ready to run if it was a metal head looking for meat. Jak stood behind Sonic his blaster resting in his hands he smiled at the cautious sonic who looked at him like he was an alien from another planet.
"Hey" Jak said smiling , Sonic gave no reply
"Um… Yeah" Jak continued "My name is Jak. I represent the haven city defence group know as the underground and-"
"Shut up!" Sonic said loudly turning his head around again looking at the water flowing gently across the rocks. Jak began to move closer to sonic, Jak climbed up the boulder and sat right next to sonic
" As I was saying. I have a proposition for you , if you would be willing to come to haven city and discuss it with my boss." Jak said smiling Sonic turned to Jak glaring at him with his shappire coloured eyes , Jak turned away and shook his head " This organisation is full of tortured mind just like you , frightened , alone , no one to turn to when the going gets tough, these people will understand what its like t-"
"NO THEY WONT!!!!" Sonic yelled out suddenly Jumping up
"You say they understand and sure they will under stand but they don't know what its like. NOBODY FREAKIN' KNOWS WHAT IT'S LIKE!!!!!" sonic screamed his eyes full of tears , Jak looked at him with pity as sonic slowly sat back down. Jak placed his hand on Sonics shoulder
"Give us a chance. Just…Hear us out" Jak said softly , Sonic looked distant staring at the water, Sonic turned to Jak looking puzzled "No shit this time , What is this?"
Underground Southern HQ
They all entered the briefing room , a large room that was deep in the sub-basement of the headquarters, with a holographic globe on a table in centre it was filled with expensive and complex looking technology, They all took there first steps into room , there foot steps echoing around . Samos , Jak , Daxter , Sig , Torn , Vin and Kor stood in front of the Holo-globe looking at their soldiers after a week of recruiting this was the super human team. They stood in formation , Sonic in front of the others looking like the leader , Sly and Ratchet stood to the left of sonic and clank stood to his right. Sly was wearing a dark black full body outfit with orange Elbow and Shin pads. Ratchet was wearing a grey and black leather suit his gloves and shin pads had glowing orange bits on them , he held his helmet under his armpit like an astronaut about to go into space. Sonic was wearing army pants and a green sleeveless shrit his hands placed firmly in his pockets.
Slowly the group moved closer to the underground members and stopped just in front of samos.
"Welcome!" Samos said warmly smiling proudly at his newly recruited heroes "For those of you who do not know me I am known as the shadow , But you may call me samos"
The group listend to the old green skinned sage intently whilst also eying the other members of the underground Samos' smile dropped and he said quite seriously " People I'm gonna be frank: The survival of the entire planet could depend on you saying yes to this proposition. The Baron of this city is mad with power , he is playing with forces he doesn't understand and when the shit hits the fan (And believe me its coming) then this city's gonna someone to pick up the pieces"
"Oh? So were just a clean up crew?" Sonic said raising an eyebrow angrily
"No! No ! No! You are black ops agents. You'll be sent on missions that are either to dangerous for regular agents or missions that could uncover information as to what the baron is up to" Samos explained. The group looked unconvinced and blank , they did not like the idea of being the undergrounds "Errand Boys"
Samos shook his head " If you say no: That's fine we will not pressure you into doing anything you do not want to do. But each one of you was hand-picked because of the talents you possess. And looking at you now, you are an Army that mar himself would be damn proud of! Now what do you say?" Samos said . The group members looked at each other and then back at samos each one contemplating their decision. Clank spoke up "Well you know Im in sir" the little robot smiled giving the thumbs up to samos
"Dude I got your back. I'm in!" ratchet said Loudly smiling widely
"If da planet needs me I'm der amigo." Sly said in his usual deep voice
"Ah what the hell! I'M IN!" Sonic yelled slamming his fist into his palm.
Samos smiled "Excellent!" he gestured his staff to Jak and said "Jak here may not possess any superhuman attributes, but he is our best agent . And as such he will be your field leader"
Jak gave a nod to the team Daxter clutching tightly to his steel shoulder pad. Samos moved closer to the team , leaning on his staff for support "Each of you is an expert in his own field. Sly : Stealth , Ratchet: Weaponry , Sonic: Hand to hand combat , Clank : Intelligence and Jak: leadership." Samos said pointing to each team member with his staff. "Now proceed to your quarters and rest up! Tomorrow your training begins. Dismissed!" Samos commanded approaching Vin
" You have good ideas piondexter" Samos smiled "Not often but you do have them"
Elsewhere…
Screams of the red sage echoed for miles around as he was flung out of his hut window and plummeted to the lava below. The red sage was overweight bad ways he had a white moustache and red skin , he was wearing body armour ,not that body armour would protect him from the liquid hot magma he was rocketing towards. There was a moment of peace and possibilities before every nerve end in his body cried out in pain has his body slowly sank into the lava. Back at his obliterated hut a figure stood in the smashed window frame , the figure had long red hair that covered its face completely , it was wearing a brown leather jacket and matching pants . he was wearing white gloves that had two large spikes on them. The figure chuckled to him self and before leaving he turned to lava where he had thrown the red sage
"That be a lesson to ya!" He said in a deep rough sounding voice
"No one crosses the eggman."
To be continued…