Hello once again people, and I hope you are having a good time. My trip was rather interesting, we went around to the southern area of Florida, checking out places and looking at future universities. However, we also got to drop by Medieval Times, which was awesome. You have to have reservations ahead of time, but you go in, and the serve you dinner in a middle ages fashion, while out in the arena you have a tournament for your entertainment. The knights perform everything from javilen throwing contest to jousts to sword combat, and it was also interesting to see the guy playing the king chug a entire mug of 'ale.'

At any rate, I apologize for the delay. I didn't get as much writing done as I would have liked, and then school kicked up, with my teachers trying to make up for lost time. Not to mention that I burned the living daylights out of my fingers the other day, and let me tell you, you never miss the middle and the ring finger of your left hand until you can't use em on the keyboard, as writing is a little difficult to say the least.

At any rate, thank you once again to everyone who reviewed (especially to those of you who reviewed anonymously and to whom I cannot reply due to the strange antics of our administrators.

Lawyers: I own nothing, back off!

That said, here is the twenty second chapter, may it hopefully be worth your while.

&

Linking Up

The sewers were dark, dank, and smelled just as bad as they always had, which meant that at least one thing hadn't changed in all the time that Jak and Daxter had been away from Haven City. Only now, though, instead of swarming with Metal Heads, mutants, and the like, it was packed slam full of battle droids that could have been lurking around any corner, just waiting to ambush them.

The trip was a dangerous one, they knew that from the start. Trying to sneak more than three hundred men through a crowded area like this was bound to have some problems. However, Jak, who was up on point beside his wife, found it a little unnerving that they hadn't encountered any evidence of Death Bot patrols yet, save for a few shattered chassis and the like, which Keira quickly deduced were from the same mysterious auto turrets that shredded the patrol that she had come across. Apparently, the battle droids had gotten tired of losing forces to these strange weapons and had simply stopped attempting to patrol these areas of the sewers. However, Jak was still skeptical, and wondered if they might be walking into one of the traps that these killing machines were so well noted for being able to pull off.

His visor was set to its thermal viewing mode, and he kept his eyes roaming over his HUD, always glancing at the other helmet monitors and the motion sensor, lest something get the drop on them. Keira was doing much the same, though she had her own viewing mode set to its electronic detection mode, that way there was a chance that if something was missed by her husband's visor, that hers would pick it up. Cody rounded out the trio, having a light amplification built into his own helmet.

The Revenant was beside them as well, his morph gun braced against his shoulder as he constantly looked about, making use of his black ops skills and attempting to look for any potential ambush spots. He'd already been led into one trap, and he had no desire to repeat the experience, especially with the group behind him being a little shaky as it was.

Due to the sheer number of troopers that they were attempting to move, the going was slow, as many sported nasty wounds and had to be helped along by their comrades. It was clear that all of them were nervous, and they had good reason to be, considering all that was going on around them. Still, as Cody had predicted, they took faith in the return of Jak, that this strange hero who had come to save them in the darkest of times before would once again save their bacon.

They had been traveling in this agonizingly slow manner for nearly an hour, and Jak, taking a look at his compass, figured they had to be getting close to where the Harbor Sector was, and he began looking about, searching for a manhole cover or a service elevator of some sort. Instead, what he heard was a rhythmic stamping noise, and he immediately stiffened, bringing his left hand up into a fist, a signal for everyone behind him to stop.

HE motioned for Cody to join him, and with a thought, tapped into his cloaking ability. The gray armored soldier apparently realized the dark elf's intent a moment alter, as he activated his own active camouflage system and moved off after him.

Both moved slowly, and were ever cautious about their noise level, lest they do something that might alert whatever it was that was ahead of them, and bring them down on the soldiers. They had gone about a hundred or so feet up ahead when they noticed that the path they were taking narrowed significantly, the walls of the sewers closing in around them as they drew nearer to source of the noise.

When they finally reached the source, they stopped short, neither of them daring to move and scarcely daring to breathe. The tunnel that they were in opened up into a circular junction that was about fifty feet in diameter, give or take. They were about ten or so feet off of the floor, and as Jak looked about, he deduced that this must have been some sort of maintenance tunnel that he and Cody were standing in. However, that thought was only in his mind for the briefest of moments, as it was what was in the junction that truly held his attention.

His first thought was that these must have been the Hunter Killers that Keira had told him about, for he could scarcely think of anything else that could fit such a term. They were far larger than any battle droid that he had ever before seen. There were for of them all together, two that were sleek and looked to be fast, and two others that appeared to be large, lumbering, and had weapons literally sprouting from almost every conceivable place.

The two larger ones stood stock still, their heads slowly moving back and forth, scanning the area around them, while the two smaller ones were pacing around the chamber. Jak frowned, uncertain of how to proceed, when the decision was abruptly taken out of his hands. He would never know how they were seen, if some noise gave them away, or if these machines had some sort of heat sensing apparatus on them, but one of them abruptly jerked in their direction. He and Cody didn't' wait to see if it had spotted them, they took the liberty of bugging out then and there, practically racing back up the tunnel to where the others were.

"What is it?" Keira asked, her hand going to her weapon as she noted the speed with which her soul mate and Cody returned.

"We got company," the lieutenant said, looking back over shi should, as if he expected the machines to come charging down the tunnel any second.

"Four Death Bots," Jak said, crossing his arms and frowning beneath his helmet. "I think they're those Hunter Killers you told me about."

"Describe them," his wife said, before Cody cut her off.

"It's a pair of Vipers with some Firestorms backing 'em up," he said.

Instantly, hushed whispers and a few whimpers broke out among the soldiers behind them, and Jak briefly wondered what experiences they must have had, what horrors they must have witnessed, to make them react like that a t the mere mention of the names of the machines.

"Tell me about them," he said, looking intently at the Revenant.

"The Vipers were the smaller ones," he said, never taking his eyes off the distant tunnel. "We call them that because their fast, and they've got a nasty bite if they get up close to you, what with those bloody plasma claws they've got on their left arm. They've also got a nasty blaster, missile launchers, an energy cannon, and some kind of grenade launcher on their shoulders."

"And the big ones?" Jak ventured.

"Those are the Firestorms."

"Who came up with that name?" Daxter asked, rolling his eyes at something that sounded like it came from a bad comic book.

"Sergeant Davis," Cody informed the ottsel, "and we figured it rather appropriate, seeing as how they've got a flamethrower mounted on their left arm. Their other equipment includes that cannon they've got on their hands, more missiles, a shoulder mounted machine gun, and some other weapon on their back, which we've never seen them use," he paused for a moment, remembering when the one he'd faced on the day of the ill fated assault nearly shot said weapon at him. "And frankly, Sir, seeing as to the size of it, I'd rather not ever see it used."

Jak paused for a moment, looking out over the ranks of the Freedom League troopers. Once again, they were looking to him to pull them out of the fire this time, to save them from a foe they could not match, not in their current state at any rate.

"Keep your men and women here, lieutenant," he said, after a moment or two, "Keira and I will deal with these Hunter Killers."

The dark elf then looked over to his wife, and she nodded, before following him up to where the junction was, the two of them steeling themselves for the battle that was coming. Jak had never faced these machines before, but from everything that he had been told about them, he knew they were extremely deadly adversaries that he would have to treat with caution if he wished to walk away from this scrap without any serious injury.

Slowly, ever so slowly, they approached the junction, not wishing for the slightest hint of their presence to be given away, just in case that Viper had gotten a look at him and Cody earlier. When then arrived, the two of them carefully scoped the area out one final time, before they decided on a battle plan. The machines were still in place, and if they had noticed the earlier scouting attempt, they were staying put, perhaps because they though that Jak and Cody had been bait to lure them away from the area they were supposed to guard.

"We need to split them in half," Keira said over a private channel, her voice grim and determined. "We should try and take out the Firestorms first, but keep your eye open for those Vipers, you don't want to get blind sided by them, believe me."

'Yes indeed,' Kage mused, a smile of bizarre amusement on his face, 'with them having as much firepower as they do and this being a rather enclosed area, it could get a little hot under the collar for us if we don't take care of them.'

Jak remained silent, but he concurred with his alter ego, bad pun and all. Then he glanced over to Keira one last time, and the two of them prepared for battle. He quietly drew Kitetsu, and decided that using up some more of its dwindling Dark Eco reserves was a necessary risk under the given circumstances, and so he summoned a phantom blade as well. Then, with the two dark katanas ready, he concentrated, putting the image in his mind of the area right in front of one of the Firestorms. A moment later, a crack split the air, and naught remained of him but dispelling vapors of Dark Eco.

Keira followed through with a trick of her own. For a second, she seemed to waver and her form distorted slightly, until she was semi transparent, her form resembling that of a ghostly figure. The angelic Channeler then leapt out, leaving behind her an after image that was similar to Kage's as she moved far faster than she ever had before.

Another crack split the air, and her husband appeared right in front of the first Firestorm, both of his blades already hissing as they moved in to pierce metal and circuitry. However, the Firestorms' might have been large and slow on the move, but their reaction times were certainly above par and the three ton machine leapt back with speed that was beyond what any normal elf could have hoped to match. It took it all of a nanosecond to figure out what was going on, and it and its comrades quickly moved in to battle, raising their weapons and firing in quick, calculated bursts.

Jak found himself unable to pursue his target, as he was forced to turn and deal with the shoulder mounted machine gun on the shoulder of the other Firestorm. He worked both Kitetsu and its shadowy copy back and forth in a perfect defensive unison, both blades whirling as they formed a Vibrium and Dark Eco shield to protect him from the bolts of the weapon. Shots of Eco pinged and ricocheted off of the blades as they blurred through the air, and with a little effort, he was even able to send a few back at the attackers. However, he then discovered first hand why the Hunter Killers were so lethal: they could take it as well as dish it out. The Eco bolts impacted upon the chassis of the Firestorm, but did little other than scratch its paint job.

He saw movement in one of his peripheral viewing screens, and he instinctively threw himself to one side. It was a good thing that he did, as not a second later he felt the heat backwash from a small missile that passed through the area that he'd been occupying. The missile exploded against a far wall, and he looked up to see that the Death Bot, one the one he'd initially tried to skewer, was already reorienting its side mounted launchers.

However, there was precious little that he could do about it, as a Viper came charging into battle, its plasma claws cocked back and its overdrive boosters shooting it forward at frightening speed. The dark elf threw himself backwards, letting himself hit the ground and roll back as the thing shot past him. However, while single minded in its determination to destroy any and all opposition to its cause, the Viper was anything but stupid, and it immediately pivoted around, and fired off a six shot burst from its submachine gun.

Jak, down on the ground with no way to move, took the rounds in the side. Much to his relief, though, his armor was up to the task of protecting him, and he only felt a little bit of impact from the Eco bolts as they smashed into the region covering his ribs.

Not wishing to give his mechanized foe another shot at him, the Ascended Channeler was back on his feet in an instant, charging towards the Hunter Killer, his blades weaving around in a dizzying pattern as he tried to confuse the machine. He met it blade for claw a second later, and found himself with a bit of a surprise. The machine blocked his first two strikes, then leveled its blaster at his gut and opened fire. He instinctively twisted to the right, putting a bit of jump into his motion to try and throw it off, and then the irony of the situation struck him. The thing was fighting with both plasma claw and gun simultaneously, using both its long and short ranged weapons at the same time to try and keep him off balance and on the defensive, just as he had once done before his Channeling powers had reawakened.

Well, it looked as if he was going to have to be able to conquer his past self, something that while certainly not an easy feat, he felt confident he could do.

However, move movement in his peripheral visor caught his attention and he found his eyes widening as a jet of oily flames came flying in at him. He immediately hit the deck, rolling around on the ground to dodge the attack. Making a mental note to not forget about the Firestorm as he rolled once again to avoid being skewered by the Viper's plasma claws, the dark elf prepared himself for his next move. A moment passed and he jumped up, both of his blades extended outward as he twirled around like a ballerina. The Viper shot backwards, but not quite fast enough. Kitetsu hit home upon its torso, and there was the shriek of splitting metal as the Precursor forged weapon sliced through its armor.

Unfortunately, the two ton killing machine had been fast enough to avoid any major damage to its circuits, and after a quick self diagnostic and initiation of its self repair systems, it charged back into the fight, its gun blazing until it closed the distance between it and its adversary.

Keira, meanwhile, was faring slightly better than her soul mate when it came to fighting these dangerous machines. After all, she had faced them in combat before, and first hand experience, the knowledge of how your foe would react under a given circumstance, was among the greatest advantage one could have, and it was an edge that her opponents did not possess, and she knew that.

She charged towards her Firestorm knowing that while it might have been packing enough weaponry to level a city block, that most of those weapons were geared towards long range, and that up close, she would hold all the cards as long as she kept an eye on the flamethrower.

As she came in, that was exactly what her adversary attempted to do, raising its arm and sending a burst of fire at her. In response, the angelic Channeler merely extended her hand, and a second or so later, the ever familiar whitish blue shield sprang to life. The flames impacted, but the lethal blaze could not penetrate the barrier, and the girl smirked behind her helmet, her gaze narrowing as she continued to push forward.

Realizing its target's intent, the Firestorm immediately called for a Viper to come to its aid. The one that was not involved with Jak immediately answered the call of its comrade in arms, is jet boosters carrying over to the fight, its weapon spitting Eco bolts out on full automatic as it attempted to distract its target. However, Keira had great faith in the armor that had been crafted for her, and she let the protective gear take the shots while she got to within striking distance of the Firestorm, and thrust her naginata forward with all of her might, attempting to run it through.

The machine tried to doge, but its armor slowed its movements. It was able to dodge to a degree, making the strike that Keira nailed home the equivalent of a minor gash along what would have been the ribcage of an organic creature, but its processor brain immeidiatly realized the trouble that it was going to be in if it couldn't find a way to back off and bring its heavier weapons to bear upon the angelic Channeler. Apparently, while its armor was heavy enough to thwart all but the heaviest of elven weaponry, weapons of Vibrium make had not been though of during its planning process.

Keira then put Masamune into a deft spin, and she felt a minor bit of resistance as the blade end of the polearm struck home once more. The Firestorm let out an electronic wail, and its left arm fell to the ground, twitching as electricity sparked along severed wires and hydraulic fluid leaked out of it.

Her foe was now crippled, but unlike an elf or a Metal head, who would have been on the ground, screaming in pain at the loss of a limb, droids felt no agony, and it was still in this fight. However, before she could capitalize upon the damaged Hunter Killer and try to rectify that small problem, the Viper had gotten into melee distance, and she was forced to give it the greater part of her attention while it tried to buy time for its comrade to fall back and get its shoulder mounted weaponry up and running.

Keira met her lightning fast opponent slash for slash, thrust for thrust. She, unlike Jak, was not the least bit surprised when the Viper began to employ the use of both its gun and its claws at the same time. Instead, as the Hunter Killer went to do that, it found itself dealing with a target that was darting and ducking around, trying to be everywhere at once. However, it was skilled in its job, and no amount of flashy blade work could cause it to be intimidated or to lose heart in its cause.

As she dove to one side, intending to come up from behind and rip its back wide open, she found that her foe had anticipated the maneuver, and she was forced to perform a hasty back flip to put herself out of harms way as the plasma claws slashed down at her.

Now that had caught her off guard, and she mentally scolded herself as a lull came in the fight, both waiting for the other to make the first move. At the same time, she couldn't help but how in the name of the Ancients that the killing machine had known what she was about to do, and she decided to try an experiment.

She rushed the machine, Masamune cocked back for a mighty swing, which she aimed for its head. But then, at the last possible second, she changed the course of her swing, and instead went after its legs. To her mild surprise, the machine jumped over the attack, landing with a loud 'crunch' as its feet hit the dura-crete floor with enough force to leave a good number of cracks. Again the question blared in her mind: how had it known what she was about to do? The feint had been simple enough, one of the first things that Ariki had had her polish up while they had been sparring. However, the speed at which she had changed her attacks would have caught all but the most alert and observant off guard, one would have practically had to have known the attack was coming to anticipate it. While that might not have been very difficult for a Precursor, since their warriors were literally trained from birth to fight, these things, while powerful in their own right, were nowhere near that level of skill, especially on an individual level and when in areas that were not quite so cramped.

That left one disturbing conclusion in her mind as she thought about it. The way that these Hunter Killers seemed almost overpowered and unnecessary, given the amount of forces that the robotic army already had at its disposal, and their abnormally high artificial intelligence, comboed up with the fact that she knew that the Death Bots were some how being controlled the by the Fallen Ones…

Could it be, she wondered, that these machines had been originally intended to be used against the Precursors themselves, that the elves were merely a testing ground, a proving field to determine their effectiveness against real opponents before moving on to their true task? The idea was a chilling one, as while she knew that an ordinary Precursor, even the young children that were being trained, would likely be more than a match for several of these things, Hunter Killers could be mass produced off an assembly line, something the Ancients couldn't claim.

She was suddenly aware of the Viper leaping back up into the air once more, only this time with a strange pulsing shriek coming from behind it. Instinctively, she looked up to follow it, and almost missed the large flash of light coming form behind it. She had just enough time to realize that the Firestorm, which had maneuvered itself to where it was behind its speedier comrade, had taken a shot at her, and she tapped into her powers, her form becoming wraith like and ghostly and she dodged out of the way, shouting a warning to her husband at the same time.

She watched on her peripheral screens as he saw the attack coming, and both he and the Viper he was tangled up with made haste to get out of the way in time. Both did so, but Keira had decided that enough was enough, and that it was more than time to end this. As the Viper was landing, she extended her hand, and a ball of white fire formed in the palm. One effort of will later, it was on its merry little way, and it smashed dead on into the Firestorm, enveloping it in a pyre of what would have passed for divine wrath. However, the angelic Channeler entertained nary a delusion about that being the end of the machine, and she charged forward, focusing all of her fury into the next blow, knowing that she would have to make it count.

As the fires dissipated, they revealed the heavier Hunter Killer, which was battered, but still 'alive,' and that it was leveling the massive, bazooka styled gun in its right hand to once more try to shoot her. She then, with a masterful display of acrobatics, proceeded to finish the job. She stuck Masamune out in front of her at a horizontal angle, and as she approached the Firestorm, quickly spun it around. Once again, metal shrieked and fell to the ground a moment later, as the large cannon was sliced in half. She then planted the blade end of the naginata into the ground, before using it like a pole vault, leaping up off the ground and lashing out with both of her feet, planting them right into its cranium. The machine staggered backwards, and Keira could tell that even now, it was trying to bring one of its shoulder mounted weapons into the fight, apparently not caring if it destroyed itself in the process so long as she went down with it.

Fortunately, she knew better than to give it such an opportunity, quickly whipping her Precursor forged blade out of the ground and striking. The attack was true, and the next thing that the Firestorm knew, it had just been cut off at the waist. Once again though, unlike a living being, such a devastating blow was not necessarily fatal to a machine, particularly one of Hunter Killer tenacity and fortitude, and she had to make certain that it was dead for good.

A moment later, the Viper once again tried to intercede on the behalf of its partner. Deep down, Keira couldn't help but hope that somewhere, deep beneath the protocols and combat programming, that there might be something more too these things than mindless killing machines, it just seemed so sad, when one thought about it, that their sole purpose was to destroy until they themselves were destroyed.

It was a situation she found hauntingly similar to the origins of her own kind. After all, she could hardly forget that the Channelers themselves were created in much the same fashion.

Still, whether or not there was something more than cold, unfeeling logic coming from the battle droids, they were adversaries that were keeping them from getting to where Torn and the others were and doubtlessly needed any reinforcements that they could get their hands upon.

As the Hunter Killer lunged at her, its plasma claws thrust forward and its gun firing, she once again did what she had termed a 'phase' and quickly moving in behind the machine. It reacted quickly, but it wasn't fast enough to stop her from getting a good thrust in on it, piercing through the back of its armor and out through the front. Knowing, once again, that the thing was still very much kicking, she quickly retreated as it whipped itself around.

While flipping out of the way, she took care to lash out with Masamune, and she succeeded in decapitating the Firestorm. Now, without having to worry about that thing shooting her in the back, she could hurry up and dispatch its speedier comrade. Without a second thought, she lunged at the Viper, her naginata spinning around so quickly as to be nothing more than a circular blur. She feinted high, before making it look like she was heading for an attack at the legs once again. However, the moment the Death Bot leaped into the air, she once more reversed direction, bringing the Vibrium blade up towards its mid section.

As the blade tore through the armored chassis, she twisted her grip and sent it upwards, tearing through everything in its path until it finally exited the head of the machine. With a thundering crash, the Viper fell to the ground, where it twitched out the last few moments of its life.

On the other side of the junction, Jak heard the commotion, and quickly figured out what must have happened. Having never fought these mechanized nightmares before, he wasn't faring quite as well as Keira had, but he was rapidly beginning to understand the nature of their fighting styles, which relied very heavily upon teamwork and intense coordination. The easiest way to bring them down, therefore, seemed to be to sever that link. Seeing as how they had a private comm. system, from what his wife had told him, that meant he was going to have to take one of them out for good.

'I'd like to cast my vote for the one trying to carve us up!' Kage snarled as his host leapt backwards away from a blow that was aimed at bisecting him.

Jak didn't respond, but he knew that the oni was right, however dangerous the Firestorm was, with its arsenal of firepower, it was not as dangerous as the Viper at the moment, which was slashing at him with rapid, expertly time chops and thrusts, and it was almost always taking potshots at him with that blasted submachine gun it was carrying.

For several more moments, they battled amongst each other, as Vibrium and superheated plasma connected with each other, the wielder of each vying for dominance. Jak blocked the plasma claws, and then lashed out with the copy of Kitetsu, his blow intended for the head of the Viper, a blow that would have decapitated the two ton killing machine had landed. However, with agility that one would not expect from something of that bulk, it ducked and twisted about, bringing its gun to bear once again as it tried to take down its superhuman foe.

However, Jak had had quite enough of that, and he basically hoped that the Armor of Mar truly was all that it was cracked up to be. He let the shots impact upon the chestplate of the armor, and breathed a mental sigh of relief that was probably unnecessary as the Vibrium held up. Without a moment's hesitation, he stabbed the shadow blade forward. The Dark Eco blade punched through with only the barest hint of resistance, and he then twisted the blade, creating a rather sizeable hole in the machine. At the same time, he ducked, breaking the blade lock that he had with the Hunter Killer, and cutting its legs out from under it before it could react.

However, as Keira and the others had discovered in their somewhat ill fated attempt to seal off the tunnels from the Death Bot forces, he soon found out that such a maneuver did not immediately guarantee that a Viper would be rendered helpless. As soon as it lost its connection with its legs, it activated its jets, buying it another minute or so in which it hoped to take down its enigmatic foe. Jak, caught off guard by this sudden change of events, threw himself to the side as the Hunter Killer tried to take another swipe at him.

Fortunately, he did react fast enough to avoid the blow and he and Kage were left to take a careful reevaluation of the situation that they were in.

'Where's the other one?' The Dark Eco demon asked abruptly, causing Jak to suddenly glance about his peripheral screens to see if he could spot the lumbering Firestorm, though he was careful not to allow himself to become too distracted that the Viper could jump him.

What he found, much to his amazement, was Keira shooting past him, Masamune lighting up the darkness of the junction as she twirled it around, on a collision course with the Firestorm. As she had before, she created a shield around herself, protecting her from the firepower that the large battle droid sent flying at her. Up close, and without the aid of a Viper, it was no match for her, and she quickly reduced it to a pile of sparking circuitry. She then placed her naginata gently against the ground, butt side first, and watched her husband as he tried to hurry and wrap up his scrap.

He very rapidly did so. Deciding that he had had quite enough of this mechanized menace in front of him and realizing that its movement was somewhat limited with only its jet boosters to keep it aloft, he tapped into the full offensive powers of the Juyo fighting style. Anyone watching then would finally understand why Mar had opted to name the style 'blade storm' for that was indeed what the dark elf became.

As fast at the Viper's CPU and servos were, it suddenly found itself to be no match for the whirling vortex that seemed to have appeared in front of it. Within two seconds, Jak had knocked its plasma claws out wide, and then performed a forward summersault, bringing both Kitetsu and its phantom twin down from above and tearing a massive 'X' shaped gash in its torso. However, the machine remained combat capable, despite the damage, and he and Kage both growled at its stubbornness.

Not letting up, he leapt into the air once more, spinning around and extending both blades outward in an attempt to get the machine once and for all. Unfortunately, it was able to use its claws to block the attack, and it then proceeded to bring its gun up, leveling it right at Jak's face. The Ascended Channeler twisted as he hit the ground, a split second before the weapon fired, letting the Eco bolts sail harmlessly past his head. He brought both blades up after that, deciding to try and take a leaf out of the book of that doppelganger that he had faced back in Mar's Tomb, if slightly modified. He thrust both katanas forward, a feint that the Hunter Killer bought, as he brought its claws down to try and block both at once.

At the last second though, he twisted the shadow blade out of the path, and lashing out, was rewarded with the sight of the submachine gun that it carried falling in half. Without a moment of hesitation, he reversed the direction of the attack, bringing the weapon up and cleaving into the chassis of the Viper.

The blow severed the primary power generator from the rest of it, and with a quite moan, its jets shut down and it dropped to the floor.

As it did, he smiled grimly, before looking over to his wife. The way she was standing and the manner in which she had her head cocked let him know that even though he couldn't see her face, she was smirking at her.

"Don't give me that look," he grumbled, pointing Kitetsu at her and shaking it slightly, "you've fought these things before, I haven't!"

"Like that ever stopped you from showing off before," she responded matter of factly with a slightly teasing undertone.

Before their little argument could continue, both caught sight of something on their peripheral monitors: Cody and the rest of the Freedom League soldiers were standing at the entrance to the junction, apparently having been drawn by curiosity, their orders notwithstanding. For a moment, Jak felt like scolding them for needlessly risking themselves, but then something happened that made him change the way in which he thought about it.

"Holy…" Sergeant Davis said, his tone the definition of awe, before turning to another sergeant, who had a black box camera attached to his helmet. "Please tell me you got that on tape."

The response that he got was a slow nod, as if the other trooper was still trying to compute what he had just witnessed.

"Nice bit of film work, there, soldier," Cody replied, patting the trooper on the back. "We get this bit of footage back to HQ, put it up on the news, and the whole town gets to watch the enemies greatest killing machines get ripped apart like it was child's play."

Though it hadn't quite been that easy, both of the Ascended Channelers instantly understood what the Revenant was on about. With all that had gone wrong, morale was probably in something of a slump, and soldiers who were depressed generally didn't fight quite as well as they might have otherwise. That bit of film would, when combined with Jak's return, and the knowledge of yet another Ascended Channeler amongst them, would provide a boost that was no doubt badly needed.

"Well, now that we've turned those things into slag, can we get moving?" came the voice of Daxter, his arms crossed and his famous 'I really want to get the heck out of here' look on his face.

Wordlessly, the troops formed up behind Jak and Keira, and they were once more on their way.

The rest of the trip was without incident. Apparently, with the majority of their forces either pounding the living daylights out of the Lockdown force fields or dealing with the maverick forces, whoever had been put in charge of the Death Bots apparently figured that four Hunter Killers would be more than enough to hold off any attempts for the elves to move their forces around. Under normal circumstances, they likely would have been right, but Jak figured that he and Keira hadn't been put into the equation yet. However, if things continued like they traditionally did for him and everyone around him, that advantage wouldn't be theirs for much longer, as their foes had a nasty habit of putting two and two together very quickly.

Still, he would take any reprieve, however brief, that he could get his hands on.

As they approached a large cargo lift, the dark elf couldn't help but wonder why the Death Bots had never attempted to punch through this way. However, as they rounded the final corner, they found the remains of another mechanized battle group. What made this one different was that in addition to the wreckage of Rollers and Hawks, were what were unmistakably the remains of what had once been Hunter Killers.

Almost before he could process that little revelation, there came a whirring sound, and he looked up, ready to throw himself to one side in the event that the source of the noise proved hostile.

Indeed, it certainly looked that way at first, as the source turned out to be no less than a dozen autoguns that were certainly not of elven origins. Keira immeidiatly recognized them as the same kind that she'd seen rip apart that patrol group on her way out of the city to find Jak. She held her breath, unsure of how they would react to their presence, and suddenly very much aware of just how much she and her soul mate resembled machines while wearing their armor.

However, the guns did not fire, and instead seemed to twist and turn about, almost as if they were studying the two of them. Finally, after several anxious moments, the guns retracted back up to the ceiling, leaving the way to the lift clear.

The lift could only hold about twenty five people at a time, so several shifts would be necessary to get everyone out of the sewers. But after all that they had been through, the survivors could have cared less about that. Jak and Keira, with Daxter and Pecker upon their respective shoulders, were on the first group up, just in case there was trouble in the Harbor.

As they approached the top, and the doors began to open, letting light spill into the compartment that they were in, the dark elf smiled. For once, it looked as though things might actually turn out okay for the good guys.

The construct paused for just a nanosecond, contemplating what this change of events could mean. Jak had returned, and he had apparently brought a friend with him, though it couldn't tell who exactly. However, the A.I. was well aware that if the other being was anywhere near the Ascended Channeler as far as its powers were concerned, then a turning of the tide might just be in their near future.

Its own situation was somewhat grim. Since declaring open war, and revealing that it had managed to commandeer quite a few of the Death Bot forces, they had been ruthlessly attacked, fighting off nearly overwhelming odds. Still, its own forces fought just as tenaciously as those of the enemy, and they had the advantage of being the defenders. Besides, it knew that every day it managed to keep the Death Bots and their own commander distracted, was one more day that the elves had to get their act together and marshall their forces in preparation for the assault that was coming.

It once more turned the situation around in its mind, thinking of what it might do, now that Jak was back.

After another bit of thinking, it decided on a hesitant, and rather cautious approach of them through their comm. systems. Normally such contact from the outside would be jammed, but as a self aware computer, it was infinitely more capable than the jamming systems. Furthermore, its regular system monitoring indicated that the elves in the Harbor Sector had managed to get a splicing job on the cables in the sewers, and were in contact with the main HQ. Such a connection should work both ways, which would make it all the easier.

Less than a millisecond after it had initially began the current thought process, the construct reached a decision.

Off in a far distant base, surrounded by his comrades as they frantically rushed around, gathering supplies, weapons, and vehicles, Tarath Shien thought about what was coming, and once again, his thoughts began to travel backwards to a time in which he had found peace and solace for one of the few times in his millennia long life.

&

Okay, calling it there.

The next chapter will probably be another Tarath flashback, this time of when he's observing the early elves, and actually sets in motion the events that will lead to the Channeler project (and hopefully I'll be able to throw in the first appearance of the Metal Heads.)

At any rate, I want to thank you all for taking the time to read this, and if you have any comments, ideas, constructive criticisms, or even want to flame me because I screwed up royally, feel free to do so.

Thanks, and have a great week. I'll leave you with the usual clichés.

Cliché 85

Dungeon Design 301
All "puzzles" in RPG dungeons can be sorted into one of the following types:

finding some small item and sticking it into a slot;

pushing blocks (rocks, statues) onto switches;

pulling switches or levers to open and close doors;

learning the correct order/position of a group of objects;

entering a certain combination of doors;

something involving a clock or elevator;

something that is unsolvable because a vital clue in the dialogue was mistranslated out of Japanese.

Cliché 86

Wait! That Was A Load-Bearing Boss!
Defeating a dungeon's boss creature will frequently cause the dungeon to collapse, which is nonsensical but does make for thrilling escape scenes.

Cliché 91

Wherever You Go, There They Are
Wherever the characters go, the villains can always find them. Chances are they're asking the guy in the street (see above). But don't worry -- despite being able to find the characters with ease anytime they want to, the bad guys never get rid of them by simply blowing up the tent or hotel they're spending the night in. (Just think of it: the screen dims, the peaceful going-to-sleep-now music plays, then BOOM! Game Over!)

Cliché 121

Child Protection Act (Rydia/Janus Rule)
Children 12 and under are exempt from death. They will emerge alive from cataclysms that slaughter hundreds of sturdily-built adults, often with barely a scratch. Further protection is afforded if the catastrophe will orphan the child.

Cliché 124

Gojira Axiom
Giant monsters capable of leveling cities all have the following traits:

Low intelligence

Enormous strength

Projectile attacks

Gigantic teeth and claws, designed, presumably, to eat other giant monsters

Vulnerable to weapons 1/10,000th its size

Ecologically sensitive

Cliché 133

Last Rule of Politics
Kingdoms are good. Empires are evil.

Cliché 139

The Ominous Ring of Land
The classic Ominous Ring of Land is a popular terrain feature that frequently doesn't show up on your world map. Just when you think things are going really well and you've got the Forces of Evil on the run, monsters, demons and mad gods will pour out of the center of the ring and the situation will get ten times worse. The main villain also usually hangs out in one of these after attaining godhood. If there are several Ominous Rings of Land or the entire world map is one big ring, you are just screwed.

Cliché 140 (anyone who plays Chrono Trigger is familiar with this one)

Law of NPC Relativity (Magus/Janus Rule)
Characters can accomplish superhuman physical feats, defeat enemies with one hand tied behind their back and use incredible abilities -- until they join your party and you can control them. Then these wonderful powers all vanish, along with most of their hit points.