Chapter 2. Ash & Daxter
"What should we do with him?"
"I don't know. He just fell out of the sky in the middle of Haven City?"
"Yeah, he just appeared from nowhere."
"It may be a one of Errol's attempts to distract us from guarding our dark eco reserves." Ash was awakened from his tortured slumber by the sound of voices. "The Precursors know he doesn't need anymore, and know that he's controlling the metal heads, our resources are being rapidly lost to his army."
"Well, I say we find out for sure and feed him to the metal heads." that was the voice of the talking ferret.
"Take it easy, Dax. We'll start by talking to him when he wakes up." Just then the sound of frantic footsteps made their way toward the three voices.
"The metal heads are coming!" a female voice yelled.
"Let's roll Dax." the sound of four pairs of footsteps echoed down the hall, away from Ash, who had just forced himself to open his eyes. His jaw ached and his head throbbed.
"I feel like I got hit in the face by a gun." Ash groaned as he staggered to his feet. "Oh, yeah, I did." he rubbed his jaw and looked around at his small jail cell. He walked toward the cell door and peered out between the bars. Across the hall on a table, he discovered his gun and chainsaw.
"Well, at least they're still in one piece." He turned sharply at the sound of gunfire. "I'm glad I'm in here. As much as I like to kick ass, I'm gonna sit this one out." Just then, the concrete wall of his cell opposite the door exploded inward when two hulking, black beasts burst through. Ash squinted through the settling dust and vaguely made out the shape of two animals, he thought they were animals, walking on four legs, with dark purple eyes and very sharp teeth.
"Let me guess," Ash said. "You two intend to eat me." One of the beasts lunged at him. Ash quickly ducked and the animal crashed through the cell door. Ash raised his left hand and made a fist, preparing to fight the remaining beast.
"Uh... no." Ash said before he darted out the open door and grabbed his shotgun. He turned and pointed the gun directly in the face of the black animal.
"Hungry fella?" Ash asked the animal. "Eat up." he pulled the trigger and sent pieces of black and purple flesh and liquid spewing back into the cell. Ash strapped on his chainsaw and fired it up. He raised it above his head and impaled the first animal through the chest.
"So," Ash said to himself. "These must be metal heads. I like 'em better as wall art." Ash looked around at the black and purple stained walls before making his way outside. He gazed around and surveyed his surroundings. He was in a war torn city full of flying vehicles, black monsters and people with extremely long ears. Looking into the chaos, Ash noticed the being that had hit him in the face upon his arrival. Ash rubbed his still aching jaw as he started out of his cell intending on returning the favor. As he made his first step outside, a stray gun blast struck right next to him, sending him sailing through the air. He landed hard on a steel ramp, gazing up at the smoke filled sky.
"Maybe I'll introduce myself later. Yeah, that's what I'll do." Ash quickly stood up and fired a shot into a stampeding metal head. He then swung his saw around, lopping off another's head and cutting through a second's front legs. "Watch your face." he said as the metal heads jaw slammed into the steel. Ash jumped off of the platform and noticed a crashed, but still running, dune buggy-looking vehicle. He ran over to it, lifted the driver's dead body out and sped into a herd of metal heads. Ash was nearly thrown through the windshield upon the impact with the massive creatures.
"Jak, look!" a female voice rang out. Jak turned his head at the fleeing Ash.
"Yeah baby!" Ash yelled after greasing another metal head. He turned to the left and locked eyes with Jak. "Hey!" he yelled. "I've got something for ya!" Ash produced his middle finger and drove off into the desert surrounding the city.
"Well, that was rude." the orange animal said as it jumped onto Jak's shoulder.
"Yeah Dax." Jak replied as he looked around the ravaged city. Ash had taken out enough metal heads to persuade the rest to retreat. "Keira, you alright?"
"I guess so." she replied. "It looks like we were wrong about him."
"It appears so." Jak said. "I suppose we'd better go get him before he dies in the wasteland."
"Why should we risk our necks for his?" Daxter yelled into Jak's ear. "Did you not see the insulting gesture he directed toward you? You'd have to be blind not to see that bird."
"Dax." Jak warned. "You don't have to go if you don't want."
"Of coarse I'm goin'." Dax said as he looked at Keira and raised his left eyebrow. "As long as angel face here is joining us." Kiera giggled as the three boarded a dune vehicle and took off after Ash.
Several miles into the desert, Ash's vehicle had just sputtered to a stop.
"Apparently, bad gas mileage is a universal problem." Ash said to himself as he grabbed his shotgun and chainsaw. He began walking up a large hill as a hard, dry, wasteland wind began to blow. When Ash reached the top he was amazed to see a city that had been erected in the middle of this harsh terrain.
"This is convenient." Ash said as he wiped sweat off of his brow. "Perhaps to convenient." Ash continued the last mile until reaching the heavy wooden doors of the wall surrounding the city. Ash looked around for a knob or a latch of some sort, but to no avail. He then knocked hard on the thick oak door and after a few moments, a small slot slid open.
"Who goes there?" A gruff voice asked from behind the door.
"The name's Ash. I could use some shade and a tall, cool glass of water."
"I don't like the way you look. No admittance." The voice said before slamming the little slot shut.
"Sent away because of my devilish good looks. There's a first time for everything." Ash strapped on his chainsaw and began to cut through the door. A large section fell inward when Ash had finished.
"Knock, knock." Ash looked over at the cowering gate keeper. "You want some too?"
"No, please. Leave me alone." The long eared man yelled as he ran off. Ash began to walk down a dirt street. Looking around he saw houses made of stone and people quickly running indoors when he looked their way.
"Friendly place." Ash said as he continued walking. "Evolution must have forgotten this dump."
"Halt!" A voice yelled from behind Ash. He turned sharply to see two long eared men walking toward him followed by three guards bearing very large swords. One of the men was about Ash's size, while the other was much bigger. "You are not welcome here."
"Here now, don't get your panties in a bunch." Ash replied. "I just thought I'd play tourist to your charming little town here. Oh, and I needed a break from all my metal head slaying"
"Metal heads huh?" The bigger one said. "You don't look like you'd last two seconds against one."
"Hey, I don't want any trouble, but if you do, step on up." The bigger one laughed as he took a step towards Ash.
"Kliever." the other one said. "He may be telling the truth." he turned to Ash. "I am King Damas. If you are a destroyer of metal heads, I will allow you to live. If you can survive the arena."
"Okay." Ash replied. "I'm a pro at battles to the death."
"Show him to the palace."
"Yes, your majesty." Kliever said. He then slapped Ash on the back, hard. "We're gonna have fun with you."
"Touch me again, and I'll slap you with this." Ash raised his chainsaw into Kliever's face.
"Yeah, yeah." Kliever said as they all walked toward the palace, led by Damas.
An hour or so later, Ash was standing behind a slowly rising door. Ash had finally been given some water in a very poorly made clay cup.
"Huh." He said to himself. "Tastes lake pee." The door finally opened and Ash strutted out into a packed arena. Hundreds of people were sitting around a blood stained, sand covered, battle ground.
"This man wishes to become a citizen of Spargus City." Damas yelled to the crowd. "If he is able to survive the challenge, he shall be allowed to join us. If not, his death will be an honorable one."
"He's a real positive role model for today's youth." Ash muttered to himself. "At least they let me keep my saw." A door at the other end of the arena began to open.
"If you can withstand the attack of six convicted criminals," Damas said. "You will become one of us."
"Hey King Dumbass, this isn't a fair fight." Ash yelled. "There's only six of them." Ash fired up his chainsaw and prepared to fight. The door opened and Ash's opponents revealed themselves.
"Good thing this ain't a beauty pageant." Ash said as he beheld the biggest, ugliest and toughest looking beings he had ever seen. Each of the wearing only pants and boots, two were missing an eye and all of them were covered in scars and tattoos. The all were also each clutching a huge sword in one hand.
"Time to go to work baby." Ash said as he revved up his saw. The six opponents charged at once, holding up their weapons and screaming as they ran. Ash skillfully dodged four sword swipes and swung his saw around, catching the last two attackers, both in the stomach. Blood and entrails poured out of the abdomens as they collapsed, dead. Ash picked up a sword, blocked a slash with it, and ran his saw directly into his attackers knee. When his opponent collapsed, Ash buried the sword into his fallen foe's back. Ash was then knocked to the ground by a shoulder to his side. He quickly rolled out of the way of a sword strike, thrust his saw up and impaled his attacker in the heart. The last two charged toward him as he revved up his saw and reeled back. The two were almost on him when two yellow projectiles came from behind Ash and struck them both in the head. Their knees buckled and they fell to the ground.
"Jak!" Damas yelled as Ash turned to see the guy that hit him in the face, his orange ferret, a hot slice of woman and a short green guy with a log on his head.
"What do you think you are doing?" Damas asked upon making his way down into the arena.
"Helping out a friend." Jak replied. "Looked like you could use a hand." He said when he reached Ash.
"You're right." Ash said right before punching Jak with his left hand. "There, now we're even." Jak staggered back a step or two. He then grabbed his jaw and nodded.
"Agreed." Jak said. "Any one who's an enemy of Errol is a friend of mine."
"Errol?" Ash asked.
"A half man, half robot. He is a lunatic using the metal heads to try and control the world."
"A robot named Errol, metal heads and a talking ferret. This is one screwy world you've got here."
"Hey!" the orange animal yelled. "I'm not a ferret, I'm an offsel and the name's Daxter. Got it tough guy."
"Yeah, whatever." Ash said turning to Jak. "Who's your friend here?"
"I'm Samos the sage." said the green man. "I am a master of green eco and..."
"Not you." Ash said, his eyes diverting to Keira. "Her."
"My name's Keira." She said as she blushed. By now Damas had made it down to the group.
"Jak, what's going on?" He asked upon arrival.
"When this man escaped from us, he killed over a dozen metal heads on his own." Jak replied.
"Really." Damas said as he produced Ash's shotgun. "What's your name son?"
"The name's Ash."
"How did you get here."
"A dark magic swept me into your world, which, now that I look at it." He glanced at Keira. "Ain't so bad."
"Dark magic?" Samos said. "That must be what Errol is using to control the metal heads along with dark eco." Ash grabbed his shotgun.
"So let's go." Ash said.
"We've been working on a small infiltration mission to try to stop him." Jak said. "You in?"
"Does that little orange guy smell like old ass?" Ash said. "Of course I'm in."
"Listen, no-ears." Dax said. "I crap stuff that smells sweeter than you."
"Hey don't do it now." Ash said. "Unless Jak has a spare shirt." Ash and Daxter glared at each other.
"That's enough you two." Samos said. "We have plans to make."
"Are we all clear on what to do?" Jak asked ash he piloted an aircraft directly towards Errol's flying base of operations.
"First these guys draw the fire from his defenses," Ash said gesturing toward the fleet of small warships around them. "Then Jak, Daxter and I go after Errol, while Keira shuts down his base. I think we got it." Errol's base began to open fire on them. Jak did some skillful flying, eluding the blasts, as they made their way to the entrance. Ash looked back to see two of their allies' ships explode, spiraling to the ground in a blaze.
"Let's get the bastard." Jak said as he launched a rocket and blew opened the entrance door. Jak dodged a couple more shots before landing in the fortress. Two heavy backup doors immediately slammed shut behind them.
"Let's go." Ash said. "Good luck, Keira."
"Take care of yourself." she said before planting a kiss on Ash's cheek and running of to find the main computer.
"I still got it." Ash, Jak and Daxter preceded cautiously down a long hallway. Suddenly, a small hatch opened up on the wall and several dog sized metal heads scurried out. They looked like insects and the crawled toward the trio. Ash quickly took two out with a shotgun blast and three more with a second shot. Jak rapidly fired off several shots from his morphgun to handle the rest.
"That's a hell of a gun." Ash said.
"It gets the job done. See these?" Jak said pointing to two small rockets on the side of his gun. "These were made special for Errol. Upon impact, they'll cause his circuitry to short out. You're on Dax."
"You got it." Dax leapt off of Jak's shoulder and scurried through the hatch. Ash and Jak continued down the hall. They stopped when they heard a clanking noise. It sounded like gears moving. Just then the floor dropped open, and the two slid down a long chute before landing on top of each other on the cold steel floor.
"Jak, it's so kind of you to visit." a menacing voice said. "And you brought a friend, how nice."
"Not as nice as kicking your metal ass pal." Ash said as he looked at Errol. His entire body was a blood red machine. The only organic part appeared to be the left side of his face. Everything else was made up of steel and wiring, and in the center of it all, fastened securely, the Necronomicon.
"Hey, Carol." Ash said. "That's my book."
"It's Errol! If you want your precious book, come and get it."
"You heard him, Ash." The two pointed their guns at Errol. Just then, Errol fired two rockets that exploded in front of the two knocking them back. When the smoke cleared, they saw that the entire room had filled with metal heads of all shapes and sizes. The two stood up and began to madly shoot into the metal head herd. Metal heads were falling left and right under the shooting melee. Ash began to slash his chainsaw side to side, splattering black and purple blood everywhere.
"Jak!" Ash yelled. "Take your shot!" Jak loaded a rocket and took aim. Just as he pulled the trigger, a metal head knocked him down, causing the rocket to miss. Jak's gun flew across the room as he was attacked by several metal heads. Ash saw what was happening but was unable to help due to the onslaught that he was having to hold off. Suddenly, several metal heads were thrown to all sides by a dark purple explosion, it was Dark Jak.
"Remind me never to piss you off." Ash said as Dark Jak, with amazing speed, slashed apart dozens of metal heads in just seconds. He then leapt into the air and landed hard, causing a dark purple wave that liquefied each metal head it touched. Ash was thrown back by the wave and landed right in front of Errol. Ash got to his feet. He looked at Jak, who was continuing to take apart metal heads. Ash turned back to Errol.
"Time to dance." Ash buzzed his saw around but his attack was blocked. Errol pulled his mechanical arm back to throw a punch. Ash raised his shotgun and blasted Errol in the right shoulder. Sparks flew from his injury as Erroll staggered backward. Ash pointed the gun at Errol's face, only to have it knocked out of his hand by a metal head. Ash quickly cut the beast in two and slashed at Errol once again. His attack was once again blocked, but what Ash did not see, was that Errol had extended a blade from his right hand. He thrust it upward, stabbing Ash deep in the abdomen. Ash pulled away from the blade and fell to the ground.
"I'll make your death quick." Errol said as Ash looked at the blood gushing wound.
"Not quick enough." Ash said as he grabbed his gun and shot Errol in the right side, barely missing the book. With sparks flying, Errol approached Ash again and kicked away his gun. He raised his hand with the blade above his head, ready to deliver the death blow. Just as he was about to strike, a huge metal head crashed into him sending them both flying into the wall.
"Ash," Jak said after returning to regular Jak. "Are you alright?"
"You know, I got a strange feeling. It feels like I'm dying."
"Not for long." Jak closed his eyes. When he opened them they had turned bright white and his body began to glow a light blue. Jak put his hand on the wound and it healed instantly. Ash looked in amazement before Jak was struck in the face by Errol's metallic hand. Jak flew across the room and hit the floor, unconscious.
"Hey big fella'." Ash said as he rose from the ground. "Ding, ding. Round two." Ash punched Errol in his organic eye and cut into his left side with his saw. Errol staggered back as Ash stepped toward him.
"Head's up Mr. Roboto." Daxter fell from an air duct and landed on Errol's head. Daxter was holding a metal rod that he rammed into Errol's back. Errol began to twitch uncontrollably and Daxter was thrown to the ground. "Ash, use the gun." Ash grabbed the morphgun and loaded a rocket.
"Smile, you son of a bitch." Ash launched the last rocket. It struck Errol in the chest, dislodging the book and knocking Errol to the ground. Errol's body immediately stopped moving as he was shut down.
"Come on guys!" Keira said. "I've shut everything down. This place is gonna crash." Daxter grabbed the book and jumped on her shoulder while Ash picked up Jak, slung him over his shoulder and ran off.
"This is not over!" An immobile Errol yelled. "You haven't seen the last of me."
"What a terrible cliche." Ash said as he and the others boarded an aircraft and flew away. Ash looked behind them to see Errol's warship crash and burn.
"Thanks for the help." Jak said. "We could not have done it without you."
"It was my pleasure." Ash replied. "But if I ever come here again, don't hit me with a gun." Ash turned to Daxter. "You're not so bad for a fur ball."
"You're not so bad yourself there, tough guy. See ya 'round." Daxter replied.
"And you," Ash said to Keira. "Gimmie some sugar baby." Ash grabbed her around the waist, pulled her close and gave her a famous Ash kiss. When he finished she hugged him around the neck before pulling a small brown bag out of her pocket.
"It's green eco." She said. "It has healing powers and may be usefull someday." Samos approached and handed Ash the book. The blue vortex appeared again as Ash prepared for his journey.
"Take care of yourself." Ash said to Keira before he was whisked away by the vortex.
Ash landed with a loud splash if three foot deep water. He looked into his left hand to see the book was missing once more.
"Were the hell does that God damn thing go?" Ash asked himself before looking around. He was on the outskirts of a city. Not one with flying cars, but a normal human city. "Finally, something familiar." Ash turned around and looked behind him. "That's not normal." he said as he beheld a giant building in the shape of a "T".