I'm in Spargus –dances- thanks to every one who reviewed: The Dude (can I call you the dude?) firecat1991, Krin, WRTD, Scarab and Relly…that's every one right? I had so mush fun writing this chapter!!!!!! Yet again, the chapie wrote itself and more random ppl who have nothing to do with the story appear. Oh just so nobody gets confused Tylo is the name of a gang I made up in the spur of the moment….not that important but its there so tough. Did I spell Kleiver right? So any way on with the chapter, it's long
Clue: word to the wise: do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup! –Dances around the room with a scotch bottle cause he's completely smashed-
:(Stupid chain smoking alcoholic! Its not even x-mass eve yet…sigh… go read!
---Get Your Freak On---Ch 8---
Jak looked the leaper over while grinning like a maniac; he was going to like this place.
Right at this moment, he really didn't care if he was banished from haven or if he owed his life to the people of Spargus, all he cared about was one fact. Dangerous is useful. He had never been more nervous and more relieved than during those words.
'At least Damos has more sense than those council bastards.' He though bitterly.
"Looks kinda like a flut flut," Dax said tilting his head at the odd dinosaur like lizard. Jak shrugged not paying attention, he took the dark green leaper by the reins and turned toward the city.
The city sprawled out before him, one building heaped on top of another, like some insane giant's building blocks had spilled across the ground. The air was hot and muggy but most importantly fresh. The city was unorganized and buildings were placed in a more natural way than Haven's.
This was his new start, a new city, a new employer, a new gun, and a new haircut.
Sure, Kleiver was a smaller tougher version of krew in a diaper, but at least it was a job, and he even got a new morph gun.
He would have emboweled the stupid guard who took his old one but unfortunately, his cuffs had prevented that course of action.
Jak mounted the leaper; he wondered how it would take the stairs. He urged it forward with his heels, and to his complete delight, it tore down the steps and into the city.
The first thing he noticed was the people, harden gun toting people walked the streets here. The people here where proud.
He steered the leaper into the market, its heavy but agile feet pounding a steady pace.
"There's one of those rat things!" Daxter shouted, he really had no right to call anything a rat thing considering his fury disposition.
Jak focused in on the cute red hoping rodent and charged his leaper at it, he wasn't quite sure what he'd do when he caught up to it, maybe he'd stomp it to death. He grinned as the thing took of and he tore after it swerving around people and elevated porches.
Jak dug his heels into the leaper's side, and true to its name, it leaped. The creature squealed with pleasure as it flapped its little wings in vain. Jak landed heavily behind the rat, the leaper never paused after its landing and caught up to the rat, then suddenly to his surprise, his mount lounged.
The kanga rat squealed as the leaper scooped it up. The leaper slide to a stop and Jak watched as it threw its head back and let the kanga rat slither down its throat, the tail squirmed and thrashed till the end.
"Jak…It ate it! alive!" Daxter yelled slightly disturbed, mostly because the kanga rat had vaguely resembled himself. Jak on the other hand, laughed, finding the leapers diner manners very amusing.
Jak took his time rounding up the rest of the rats, thoroughly enjoying riding the leaper. He watched the leaper slurp down the last rat and phoned Kleiver. The conversation was uninteresting and short.
Now left to his own devices, Jak wondered the city, exploring to his hearts content.
Suddenly a leaper dashed in front of him, cutting him off. His stead shied away and squealed unhappily. Another leaper sailed over his head and pounded after the first. Two rounds of Vulcan furry shots were fired from the pursuing leaper's rider.
A scream rang out and the first leaper toppled over with a violent wail. A scruffy purple haired kid rolled away from the dying animal. He kneeled and fire a loud yellow shot back at his attacker.
Jak watched most of the people present quickly clear out; there was no mass hysteria, just a mild fear of being shot. Jak stayed were he was and watched the drama play out.
A tall man with a scraggly stubble and oily brown slicked back hair jumped off the leaper, gun blazing. The kid rolled behind the leaper's corpse for cover, as the man's semi automatic gun let lose another burst of fire.
The older man advanced quickly holding his fire, as he neared the leaper he paused. Suddenly the lavender haired shooter stood up and fired. Jak winced, his aim was atrocious.
The shots bounced off everything but the roguish man before him. The man grinned and aimed at the boy and fired a single shot.
The yellow blasts ceased and the boy dropped to the ground with a thud. The man chuckled evilly and approached the dead child.
A surge of unwanted guilt built up in Jak, 'He was just a kid!' he thought angrily. And worst of all no one seemed to care. He should of done something, he told himself, but wasn't his fight and he only had a scatter gun he reminded himself.
"Tough break…" Dax said in a sympathetic way.
The man kicked the corpse sadistically, and chuckled again. Jak turned the leaper to leave.
His attention was drawn back to the scene of the crime by the familiar sound of a gun being cocked, the man abruptly stopped laughing. The purpled haired corpse's arm was raised and pointing a blaster at the man. The man stared in surprise.
The gun fired and blew a hole through his head, blood splattered across the street in small crimson droplets. The man's imploded head arched back and the body collapsed onto its back with a thump.
The kid hauled himself up; blood flecked his face and hair. He wiped a forehand across his eyes making a very smudgy red mask for himself. He put his gun back on its holster and sighed.
"Stupid, Tylo lackey," he said adjusting the overly large round goggles, which were shattered and now had a Vulcan bullet lodged in the frame. He fingered them thoughtfully.
A group of yelling teenagers ran around the corner guns drawn, the mob surrounded the young shooter yelling and cheering. Someone shot three shots towards the sky.
"Well Neko, your half a man now, just got to find yourself a lady now." A deep voice bellowed over the general cheering of the group.
Jak grinned as he turned his leaper around, the last thing he heard from the mob was loud laughter and shouts.
"He was tricky bastard eh Jak? Almost as crazy as you" Daxtersaid after a couple blocks. Jak nodded. "At least in Haven this crap happened at the stroke of midnight in a back ally!" Dax shouted exasperatedly, sounding a bit like a neighbor hood watch obsessed housewife. "Gun totting psychos!" he said insultingly. Jak gave no response but grinned evilly.
"OH NO!" Dax cried on loudly, "You like it here don't ya? You gun crazed psycho freak!"
Daxter was one of the only people alive who get away with calling him something like that; Jak Just grinned more evilly at the truth of the statement and scanned the harbor area they had just entered.
"Hey what's that?" Jak asked pointing at a menacingly pointed metallic thing on the side of the road, surrounded by several people.
"Huh?" Daxter spun his head quickly to look and completely forgot about his rant of how crazy his friend was.
Jak rode up to the strangely dressed white-faced people. Jak dismounted and swaggered over. Daxter paid attention to the conversation long enough to figure out that the person before them with the coloring book for a face was a precursor monk. Daxter's attention began to drift as he tried to figure out if the monk before him was a man or a woman, sure it sounded like a chick but with all that spandex and rubber on, he couldn't be sure.
The monk was lecturing Jak about being evil and dark powers and such and generally being really pissy, or at least that's what Dax thought.
Dax stared up at the sky and fanned himself, "Damn its hot," he murmured.
Jak made a violent hand gesture to emphasize the end of his argument with the monk and the dark precursor artifact activated and an interface screen popped down.
"OOH!" Daxter said excitedly as Jak held his hand almost embarrassedly, "S'got the touch!"
"Be right back," he told the monk as he approached the artifact, the monk immediately warned him not to touch it. Jak ignored her and started to trace the pattern that flashed across the screen.
Daxter watched till the flashing blinking lights where to much for his eyes, Jak had always been good at that kind of thing. He turned his attention to the bright faced coloring book colored monk, He watched as Seem paced nervously and directed a few fellow monks agitatedly.
Jak took a sudden step back, Seem raced over to the screen. Dax watched it blink and flash symbols. Suddenly it shot up into the air and beeped loudly.
"JAK IT'S GONA BLOW!!" Dax yelled.
The probe exploded with a boom and shrapnel showered back down to earth.
Jak brushed a few small pieces of metal off his tunic, helooked a little unbelieving of what seem was telling him, something about coordinates or something. Dax was trying to pay attention. Really, he was but the women in Spargus were just so much hotter than Haven chicks.
Jak stomped off angrily toward his leaper, "preach to me about evil…" he muttered.
As Jak mounted the leaper and ruined Dax's perfect view down a waste lander's shirt, he snapped back to reality.
"So where we going now?" he asked in a lazy way as he reclined on Jak shoulder, putting his paws up on his head.
Jak brushed his feet off his ears, "I don't have the slightest Dax." He said annoyed.
His communicator chirped suddenly, he reached into his pocket and pulled it out, "What?" he asked it edgily.
"Kleiver here, if you can get your ass her before this storm comes I might have a job for ya…" the COM went dead.
"Damn! He's about as vague as Krew!" Dax said sarcastically.
He gave his stead's rein a pull and started off at a slow trot as he returned the COM to his pocket. The leaper cheeped as it bumped into something and stopped.
"Hey! Watch where the hell your going! Forget about your stupid COM and watch were your going!" a low feminine voice yelled irately.
Jak looked around in confusion looking for the owner of the voice.
"You listening!" a charging whirling noise started, "Yo, Down here,"
Jak looked down and to the left, a brown pair of spite fire filled eyes stared up at him, he backed his leaper up a step or two.
"You just gona stare at me? Yeah I'm short, you wanna go?" she held a steely gray hammer in front of her hazardously. Jak thought it was a strange choice of weaponry. It had a small hammerhead and a very long shaft.
She twisted the handle angrily, the whirring noise increased, and the hammerhead increased three times in size with a fluid motion.
"Whoa sweet cheeks…. no harm meant, now put your pretty little toy away. Dumbo here just ain't figured out how to drive yet." Daxter said with a winning smile.
Jak glared.
"Well just watch where the hell you're going. And don't call me sweet cheeks!" She said as she wrenched the hammer's handle again and it shrank to its original size. She pushed a strand of strawberry blonde hair out of her face and under her yellow hat. She smiled brightly at Jak, "have a good one," she chirped as she shoulder her hammer and walked away.
"That...was weird." Dax said once she had disappeared into the crowd, "are you sure you like it here, cause these people are psycho…" Jak kicked the leaper into a run, as Dax continued to rant. "…You got rubber monks, hot chicks with mental disorders, and rampaging homicidal preschoolers!"
"Was just me or did she look familiar," Jak asked deep in thought as he steered the leaper toward the place Kleiver had told him his car port was.
"No," Dax said not really caring.
"I've seen her before…." he muttered as he jumped over a porch and a small child eating a blue, orange like fruit.
He was starting to get a headache now, and just wanted to go see Kleiver and see if there was any place to stay the night at, a place with a shower would be nice. He couldn't believe how hot it was, it wasn't even noon.
Jak slide the leaper to a stop in front of a large door. This was just about where Kleiver had told him he would find his garage earlier. He jumped off the leaper and tethered it to a large pole.
A sign hung on it, it read: Kleiver's Garage. Steal leapers at own risk.
"Guess this is the right place," Dax said optimistically ignoring the vague threat on the sign.
Jak wondered if Kleiver expected the leaper back as he approached the large door. Just as in Haven, the door took a moment to hiss open and he entered.
He walked in just in time to see a small dune buggy with blue siding and a large turret on top fish tail out of the huge mechanical door and out into the desert. The gate slammed shut leaving only a veil of dust hanging in the air.
Daxter coughed melodramatically.
"YOU!" Kleiver bellowed, his yellow slug of a mustache trembling with anger, "I need a driver!"
"Wait, wait, wait big guy what the hell are you talking about?" Dax asked laying on a smooth and in control sounding voice.
"That Bastard!" He pointed a brawny finger at the shut gate, "Ain't been holding up to his end of the bargain and now he's out there scoring all the artifacts!"
"Artifacts," Jak asked interested in the opportunity the situation might hold.
"There's a storm coming, and the winds turn up precursor artifacts… I need a driver. If you can bring back even some of them you got a job." Kleiver said angrily, distress edging on his voice.
Jak turned to the dune buggies, but stopped.
"Take that one!" Kleiver pointed at a vehicle with a yellow chain gun on top, "I don't expect much, that freak out there is good, he killed my last driver."
Jak grinned evilly and dashed over to the vehicle and slide into it through the roll cage. If there was one thing he could do, it was drive.
"Hey buddy aren't you just a little worried? Hey?Jak?" Dax asked nervously as the engine roared to life.
Jak eyed the controls and the trigger button on the dash completely ignoring his furry friend in the other seat. He flicked a switch experimentally and a small screen lit up on the dash, showing a map of the desert. His eyes fell on a large switched marked turbo, his eyes danced with evil glee.
"I think I'm going to like it here…" Jak shouted over the engine as he slammed his foot on the accelerator and tore out of the garage through the swiftly opening mechanical gates and into the desert storm.