Chapter 8: Crazy Idea's

Location: Haven City

Tess looked over at the clock on the wall. The digital settings telling her that it was almost noon and that it'd been a week since she'd seen her little snookums. She missed Daxter so much. He always knew what to say to make her gloomy days turn happy or how to make her laugh or how to make most of the liquor vanish. Sighing she went back to cleaning the new tables for that night's patrons. She then heard the swoosh of the doors open and close turning she went to tell whoever it was that they were closed but stopped in her tracks at seeing King Damas in the bar. He wasn't alone either. The King wore a cloak over himself that had a thick hood over his face. Upon seeing that it was only her in the bar he took off his hood and approached her.

"Tess," he greeted the young woman solemnly.

Dread built up in her stomach and suddenly she had a very bad feeling. "What's happened?" she asked fear making it's ugly way through her voice.

Location: Hidden Chamber in the Precursor Temple.

Daxter let his arrow loose and it lodged itself right into the joints above Jak's head and the red and dark eco inside the tip of the arrow set off and exploded. Dark howled in pain as he fell from the Precursorean weapon and onto the ground. Dark groaned and looked at his arm which was bleeding profusely.

Mar ran over to his fallen comrade and kneeled down next to the dark creature. Daxter on the other hand strode over to them, a bit proud that it was he that saved somebody for once and not him that needed the savin'. Kneeling down next to Dark and Mar he began to examine the wounds on Dark's arm. "Uh, sorry big guy, but there wasn't any other way ta get ya down from there."

Dark's ears were plastered to the back of his head as he pulled himself up into a sitting position and then pulled his arm to his chest. Mar pulled his back next to himself and grabbed another eco crystal out; this one holding the healing power of green eco within it. Daxter looked up just in time to see Mar about to channel the stuff into Dark.

"NO!" he yelled causing Dark to lift his head and look over towards Mar, at the same time Mar looked up a bit surprised. "Dark can't have that stuff; it drives 'im nuts!" Daxter rolled his eyes at the disaster that could've been. "Ya gotta wait 'til Jak returns." Looking back at the dark creature Daxter returned his focus on him. "Ya gotta let go now Dark, we're safe and the psycho AI is semi destroyed." Daxter looked at the ceiling and saw all the wires sparking above them and smirked. "So bring my brother back and ya can sleep fer awhile."

Mar watched as the creature took a deep shuddering breath and watched as color returned to Jak's skin, the horns receded and talons turned back to normal fingernails. Jak groaned in pain, at which Mar began to channel green eco into the youth. Jak fell forward, his head falling onto Daxter's shoulder. Jak sighed as he felt the healing powers of green eco enter into his body and begin healing his newest wounds.

Jak lifted his head away from Daxter's shoulder and grabbed Daxter and pulled him into a bone breaking hug. Daxter groaned as he swore he heard his spine crack. "Easy big guy," he coughed. "Ease up, I can't breathe."

Jak released him almost immediately and glared at the red haired youth. "Never scare me like that again!" he yelled. "Damn it Daxter I thought you were dead!"

Daxter's ears fell back a bit. "Yeah, sorry." He shrugged. "A lurker grabbed me and-" he was cut off by Mar clearing his throat.

"Guys, as much as I'm enjoying this…" Mar nodded off to what had just appeared in the wall. The two brother's looked just in time to see a metal head Crabhead appear in the hole, which more than likely meant lots of grunts and scorpions were nearby.

"Betcha I can get ten more than you." Daxter muttered to Jak who smirked and pulled out his peacemaker.

"You sure about that Dax?" Jak gave a cocky look towards the red head who pouted.

"No fair!" Daxter cried out. "You got the good gun."

Mar shook his head at the two next to him and switched the green gem for both the red and yellow eco crystals and lit up with both eco powers swirling around him, which got the attention of both men. "Bet I can get more!" he yelled as he took off into a dead run towards the metal head.

However before Mar even got close to the crabhead there was a loud roar echoing from behind the metal head, which turned its head towards the noise only to see something barreling down towards it and in a flash the metal head was trampled upon by a large female lurker who proceeded to pound the metal head into the ground and throw pieces of the metal head's body every which way. Once done it turned its gaze towards the elves.

Jak and Mar tensed up ready for a fight, but Daxter recognized this female as the one that had brought him back to his home. The female lowered her head and raced pasted Jak and Mar and nabbed Daxter and pulled the red head into her arms and began to rub her face against his head. Daxter gave Jak a look that said you-dare-speak-of-this-and-yer-dead. Jak turned away and began to quietly laugh, while Mar stared in awe.

Location: Sandover – Little Jak

Jak decided that ninth birthdays were awesome. He had friends, he had parents and now he had cake. The green haired boy looked at the chocolate covered cake that had cherries and strawberries all over it. Just looking at the beautiful desert made him want to eat every last drop, but knew he had to wait until everybody was ready. He did, however like Daxter's reasoning to begin eating it though. It was his birthday and it was his birthday cake. Suddenly his stomach rumbled. Looking down at it he cursed the thing, only to get another rumble a second later.

"Jak." Teresa spoke the little boy's name so lovingly.

Jak froze and slowly turned around towards his adoptive mother. In her hands was a tiny cupcake that was made to look like a mini cake. "I had a few leftover ingredients. Would you like to have this?" Opening his mouth to answer when his stomach rumbled with its answer, this caused his cheeks light up with a blush and he just nodded instead. "Good." she said as she handed him the tiny cake.

Jak took off outside with his prize and looked around for Daxter, which was easy. He found the red haired boy standing on his hands upside down in front of Keira. The young aqua haired girl was giggling and laughing as Daxter walked around on his hands, his red hair trailing on the ground.

"Hey Jak!" Daxter yelled as he tried to balance on one hand and found out; the hard way, that he couldn't. Jak winced as Daxter crashed to the ground and took in a mouthful of sand. Daxter spit out the sand and made a face at it. "Damn, almost!" he groaned and then realized he'd just cursed, his ears falling a bit towards his shoulders and he began to look around for any adult who would eventually scold him and found nobody. Sighing he looked back at Jak who was now sitting next to Keira.

Jak tore his cupcake into three ways and handed a piece to each of his friends. Keira smiled happily as she took a bite of the chocolate and moaned that it was good. Both boys soon followed her in eating their pieces and moaned as they ate the pieces. Afterwards the three made their way down to the beach and washed their hands.

"Hey Jak, ya wanna go down towards the farmer's place and see if we can snag a honeycomb from the wumpbees?" Daxter asked excitedly. Suddenly something about wumpbees and his ninth birthday seemed…familiar?

Jak thought for a moment and then remembered that blonde haired man from the scary place. Hadn't he said something about staying away from wumpbees on his ninth birthday?

"How about this," Daxter began. "if ya get too scared ya can stay back from 'em and I'll get the honeycombs."

That sounded reasonable. Jak looked at Keira. "You coming Keira?" he asked shyly.

The little girl nodded; which caused her aqua colored hair to bounce. "Sure." with that the trio ran off towards the farmer's home.

Teresa felt two strong arms pull her towards them and she smiled as she caught the smell of her husband's scent. "Having fun?" he asked.

"Yes." she sighed as she turned her face slightly towards him and caught a kiss from his lips. They were enjoying their alone time when they heard the thump, thump sound of Samos's log shoes on their porch as he walked up to their home.

Turning around Daniel smiled at the sage. "Afternoon Samos." he greeted the sage with a handshake.

"Afternoon." Samos replied and began to look around.

"Looking for something Samos?" Teresa asked as she laid out the lunch for the children.
"Yes," he began. "I'm looking for Jak. I wanted to give him something." he continued to look around for the young boy.

"I believe I saw them over by Harem's hut. Daxter loves the old fisherman." As Daniel spoke this all three heard screams coming from down near the farmer's home. The three adults ran down towards the farmer's hut in time to see Jak throw himself onto Daxter and hundreds of wumpbees cover them.

Teresa gave a short cry as she watched helplessly as the swarm covered the two boys. Daniel, on the other hand ran towards the boys, quickly picked them up and ran towards the ocean and dove down into the deeper regions of the water. When he came up Daxter was sputtering and coughing water up and swam over to the docks. Jak on the other hand wasn't moving.

"Samos!" Daniel yelled out for the sage, who was running down the docks where Jak was laid out. "He's not moving."

"Stay back." Samos calmly said as he glowed a healthy strong green color and channeled the green eco he'd gathered into the young boy's body.

Jak suddenly gave a croak of a gasp. "D-D…ax." He said only to fall silent once again his eyes closing.

Daxter's eyes were wide. "He-He saved my life." He stated as tears began to flow down his cheeks. Daxter wrapped his arms around his mother's waist. "Mamma…" Daxter began to cry.

"Pick the boy up." Samos told Daniel. "We'll keep him at my home until he's fully healed."

"How long will that be?" Daniel inquired.

Shaking his head Samos replied, "I don't know."

M-Angel: I know, I'm evil to leave you with this cliffhanger. LoL! I'll hopefully get a second chapter out this month because it's my birthday month and I want to... ^_^