Chapter 3: Found…Kind Of

Location: Unknown

The morning rays beamed down through the tall jungle foliage to the jungle floor where tiny animals squeaked and scurried about their daily doings. A clan of lurker apes nearby were grooming each other and taking care of the young, who fed from their mothers. Nearby a quiet and quaint little village by the sea was just waking from its nightly ritual, its residents were unaware that only minutes ago it's hero and his friends had vanished through what had been referred as the Rift Gate and now their village was being overrun by the nightmare known as metal heads. At the same time that this occurred a male elf in his late twenties was traveling through the jungles surrounding the village and headed towards the village when suddenly a booming noise from above the tree line was heard, followed by a second loud boom.

The male took off towards where the sounds had occurred and saw flames and smoke covering the area followed by people coughing. He turned to his left towards a strange machine wreckage and saw a mountain of a man crawl out from under his machine and went to assist him. "You okay?" he asked the man whose skin was a dark tan color than his own

"I'm fine." The man said as he looked at the unknown male his good eye looking at him while the red mechanical scanned to see if this guy was a danger to him.

The other male backed away a bit at the sight of the other man. His eyes wide at the sight of the man, he raised his hands to show he meant no harm. "I heard a noise and came to help whoever was in trouble is all." he explained. "I'm Mar."

"Sig." the man replied as he snorted at the name of the man in front of him. Suddenly hacking and coughing nearby got Sig's attention, as it did for the other man as well as they turned towards the second wreckage. Jak pulled himself out from under his vehicle that was now on fire and backed away from it and felt somebody grab his shoulder and saw Sig. "You okay Cherry?" he asked as he scanned for the third person of their party until his eyes landed on Daxter's gear on the jungle ground but didn't see the red head anywhere.

"Dax!" he yelled as he went to go back to the vehicle, but was stopped by Sig.

"Whoa!" Sig yelled, "If he's in there he's gone Chillipepper."

Jak suddenly felt his dark side try to come out but forced Dark back down as for the first time in years he felt himself begin to break down and cry. "NO!" Jak yelled as his legs gave out from beneath him and he fell into a heap.

Sig sighed, This isn't good. he thought as he spotted the man who claimed to be Mar look towards them as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked down to give the men a bit of privacy. "Right, there's nothing we can do Jak." He saw the man's head lift slowly at the boy's name.

"Jak?" he asked, causing Jak to turn and looked at the man and couldn't help the widening of his eyes. He'd seen this guy before, sure it was a younger version of the statue he'd seen of him, but it was without a doubt the same guy.

"Mar?" Jak asked which caused the man to cock an eyebrow upwards and nod.

"You know him?" Sig asked with uncertainty.

"I…sortta." at that Jak watched the man's lip lift in a smirk before being hidden. It was then that the screams from the nearby village reached the three men's ears. Turning towards the noise and then looking at Sig he continued. "We'll continue this later." Which earned a nod from Mar as the three men ran off towards the noise, Jak and Sig grabbing their weapons that thankfully hadn't been destroyed by the accident and had landed on the ground near their crashed vehicles. With one last look at the vehicle that he and Daxter had shared Jak felt his chest constricted and ran off after Mar and Sig.

Meanwhile had either man gone further than the wreckage and gone down the hill where there was a stream they'd had seen the unconscious form of a red hair elf laying there dead to the world. However fate was not mean to this young man any longer and had not forgotten the deeds he'd done or the deeds he'd do and sent another being to find him. The being turned out to be an older female lurker ape and as she looked down at the fiery red and yellow hair she decided he needed her, thus she grabbed the young male Elf and threw him onto her back and began to run through the jungle back to her clan where she would care for him like he was her own child.

While this occurred Jak, Mar and Sig emerged through the thick jungle and came to a village that Jak knew very well; for this had once been his home and would very soon become known as Haven; but that wouldn't be for many more years. Right. he thought as he felt the power of dark eco begin to surge forth as he spotted the metal heads attacking the tiny huts and the villagers. In both of his hands two orbs of darkness formed before he threw them at two crab heads that were using their canons to blast open the mayor's door to his home.

The lard of a mayor gave a cry of fright as he spotted the creatures that were about to kill him when suddenly a channeled blast of dark eco struck the two monsters and went right through the center of their bodies and killed them instantly. The mayor turned and looked and suddenly frowned when he saw the green/blonde hero; but noticed that the young man that he thought he knew kinda looked older, when suddenly a strange man with a mechanical eye grabbed him.

"Git yer lard ole ass moving man!" Sig yelled at the lump on the ground. "Get to the hills now!"

The mayor was about to do as this scary man told him to do when hero turned towards them, his hands glowing a purple and dark eerie color. "No!" he yelled. "Get everybody to Samos' hut! It's safe there!" he yelled.

Now the mayor knew this had to be a dream or something because the last time he'd seen Jak he'd never spoken a word to him or anyone, not since the incident years ago. "J-Jak?"

"I'll…" he began as he threw a blast at an advancing metal head and then looked at the mayor. "I'll explain later. But get everybody there safely, including my uncle." The mayor nodded and wobbled off. Turned towards Jak and gave him an expression that demanded he'd explain. "You remember when I told you of Sandover?" this earned a single nod. "This is it! The portal must've sent us here. I don't know why, but…"

"I get it Cherry." Sig said as he took off towards where Jak was certain was the sound of yakow's being torn apart.

Turning back at the task at hand Jak ran off towards the stone sculptor, Reggies place. The building was streaming with scorpion metal heads and one juice goon. As he used the lighting ability he watched as the dark lightning struck through the metal heads bodies, tear them apart and turn them into burn crisps. It was then Jak realized that this was too easy and suddenly noticed that these creatures had virtually no armor on them. His eyes widened as he realized that this meant that these metal heads weren't expecting much trouble from the villagers and had expected to kill everybody here with no problems. Snarling he began to search the hut and found the sculptor up in the rafters.

"Dude!" Reggie yelled out. "That was radical!" he smiled and as he looked at Jak and noticed that something was missing. "Dude, where your orange furry friend?"

Jak's eyes looked away as he sighed sadly. "I-" he looked behind him and frowned. "You need to get to the Green Sage's home asap! It's safe there."

Reggie's eyes widened as he heard Jak speak for the first time in years. "You got it Dude." He grabbed a bat and stopped before leaving. "Dude, sorry about Daxter. He'll be missed man." He shook his head and then ran off.

Jak sighed as he remembered how well Reggie could read him, almost as good as… Jak shook his head and went back outside and began killing more metal heads, anything to get rid of the pain in his heart at losing not just a friend, but his brother.

Location: Wasteland Temple

Seem had received a call from Haven City hours ago from the Green Sage Samos who'd asked her take King Damas in the more reclusive area in the temple where the story of Sandover's destruction and how Mar and two men helped save the people the village and to show the king the images of the two men and the statues of them as well.

So here she was waiting for the king of the wastes in the early hours of the morning. Lifting her head slightly and squaring her shoulders she watched as the temple doors opened automatically and Damas and his people walked through the doors. "Greetings your majesty." She bowed at the king.

"Where is my son Jak?" he asked trying to be calm.

Seems eyes widened as now knew why the sage had asked her to talk to the king. "Follow me." she said as they walked into the temple and down a narrow corridor until they came to a spacious area. Walking over to a painting with red marking on it she removed it and revealed a hidden passageway. The group followed the monk as she led them through a series of tunnels until they came to a large dark room. Turning to the railing she took a flint and snapped it against the stone and a fire started and raced downwards on the railing and soon spread throughout the room on every railing and near the stone walls, but it wasn't the beauty of the room, nor was it the fact that there were writings on the walls that caught people's attention. No, it was the series of dormant rings that were floating in the room that caught people's; especially Keira's, attention.

Stepping forward the writings on the right hand of the wall she began to tell the tale. "During the beginning of the war of with the metal heads the first battle fought was for the village of Sandover, a place with a little over forty souls within it. The attack came suddenly during the first morning hours. The creatures attacked viciously and the residents feared that they'd be overwhelmed and killed off. It almost occurred as such, but as fate would have it Mar heard their cries for help. He and two other men helped defeat the monsters." She pointed towards the statues nearby, which depicted four men. "Can you recognize any of the men in these statues your majesty?"

Damas leaning over the stone railing, the one that was not lighting the room with fire. "One is Mar." he began as his eyes looked at the other three men, his eyes widened as he spotted the one with a mechanical eye and looked over at the monk, before looking at the other two, who had their backs to each other. One bared an bow and arrow which was drawn and pointing at an unknown enemy and the other, he felt his heart constrict, was undoubtablely his son Jak, whose fists were draw and two dark orbs of eco floated above his hands ready to throw them at his enemy.

Upon hearing Keira's gasp the king turned towards the young girl and then turned to the monk. "How is this possible?" he asked feeling as if the Precursors enjoyed playing with his son's life.

"Nobody knows how Mar became acquainted with the three unknown men, only that two helped save Sandover, and the third didn't appear until much later and saved Mar's life by killing a dozen metal heads within a only a few moments with his bow and arrows." The monk paused as she read more and smirked. "It does however say that because of Orange Lightning, Mar was able to create a treaty with the Lurker ape clans, that is to this day very strong amongst the clans."

"Daxter…" Keira groaned as she recognized the nickname her best friend and cousin called himself.

"Does the scripts," Damas began as he pointed to the walls. "tell how my son will get home."

"Yes." she nodded as she pointed to the rings. "The script says that the day that ring activate is the day the Hero Prince and his companions shall return to their own time, either stronger and wiser or as defeated men. It goes on to say that the Prince Hero shall also be the one to destroy the Dark Maker's and ensure the feature for not only his line; but also the entire world." She frowned and looked at the king. "You're son has a very hard journey ahead of him; but if he is anything like his father, he shall return victorious and wiser for the effort."

Damas sighed. "Just as I get him back this occurs." He pointed towards the walls. "Why him?"

Keira suddenly stepped forward. "I always asked the same thing."She said as the king looked towards her. "Years ago there was a incident that took away Jak's ability to speak and I asked Daddy why did all the bad things have to happen to Jak." She paused. "He told me it was because Jak was special. The Precursors chose him to be their champion and a champion couldn't be a champion unless he was tested. So when bad things happen to Jak, it's not because he's unlucky, but because he comes back with a fighter's spirit and passes whatever test the Precursors have set before him."

"Their Champion?" Damas asked which got a nod from Keira.

"Precursorean Champions are said to be the strongest, wisest, and most unique amongst our kind." Seem said with awe in her voice. "If your son was chosen then it's because he is most special indeed. Something about him that draws people to him; whether it's for the good of this world or bad."

"So I'm once again left waiting for my son to be returned to me." Damas looked at the dormant rings as if trying to force them to come alive with his mind and sheer will of his heart.

"I shall personally ensure that somebody is in this room at all times." Seem said as she turned to leave before pausing next to her king. "And once it activates, you shall be the first to know." with that last note she left her king and his people to their own thoughts.

Location: Sandover – Young Jak's time

Jak and Daxter both peered around their parents legs as they watched a huge ship with sails come into the cove. Daxter looked at Jak and smiled. "This is gonna be so cool!" he whispered to his brother, who nodded. Jak had never seen a ship that big before, yes the fisherman, Jim, had a boat of his own; but it wasn't a big ship kind of boat. He was excited because not only were they going to meet whoever was on the mystery ship, but also because Mama and Papa had said that they were gaining a new friend. A girl, named Keira was onboard and that Samos and her Mama; which was Daxter and his third cousin once removed; whatever that meant, and that they were staying here at Sandover.

So Jak was nervous, not only because Keira was a girl, but because he hoped she'd like him and Daxter because he really would like another friend. Daxter was an awesome friend, but the two of them got bored sometimes and a third person in the friend circle would be cool.

"Look!" Daxter yelled as he pointed towards the tiny row boat that was coming ashore. It had lots of people in it and that made both boys a bit nervous. "I wonder how many people are in that boat." Daxter wondered absentmindedly.

His mother having heard him giggled at her youngest wonderment. "Haven't you learned how to count from Samos?" she asked him causing two sets of blue eyes to look up at her. "Count them boys."

Jak pointed his fingers at each person, as did Daxter. "Twelve! Ten!" they both said at the same time, which caused the boys to frown at each other and make faces.

Teresa laughed. "Let's see when they come ashore." She said and as soon as the boat rested safely on the beach one man got out and began to help the passengers out of the row boat.

Both boys counted once again and Daxter laughed as they came to ten and nobody else was pulled out of the boat. Jak crossed his arms over his chest and pouted, but then a woman pulled out a tiny little girl with aqua colored hair and a man pulled out a bright yellow haired boy from the boat and Jak's frown became a full on grin, while Daxter's jaw dropped. "No fair!" he complained causing Teresa to chuckle as her husband went to greet their cousin and possibility new friend.

M-Angel: There, everybody knows where everybody is now...kind of. LoL! This was fun to write because now we're really going to have some fun. Hmm...What should I make happen next? *taps finger on chin*