Chapter 11: Scrambling Eggs and Saving a Krimzon Guard Hag
Music: Let's Kill Tonight by Panic! At the Disco
'If I retreat,
Words, wars, and symphonies,
Make room, we're taking over here,
and you're the galantine.
Cold and alone, it suits you well.
Won't fine me perching here again.'
Mood: Headache-ey
Disclaimer: Writers lie, just like your parents.
The Platform was similar to the Strip Mine in the way that it was dark, and there were Metal heads everywhere. It was kind of creepy, the amount of Metal Head scissor scorpions there were, just kind of floating around, attacking anything in sight, but I guess that's what we get when we walk right into the middle of a Metal Head breeding ground.
The Scissor Scorpions swarmed the first moving target they saw, and got really close, so my arrows were no use, unless I jabbed the damn thing in the eye with a Scatter arrow. I couldn't really punch them either, without getting my hand sawed off my hundreds of tiny blades. You know, whatever.
So, I was kind of no use. I just hid behind Jak and took out the Metal Heads that I could see in the distance with the Blaster Bow.
"Precursors, there are eggs everywhere." I said in a type of horrified disgust. They were like little glowing bulbs, ready to be popped. I didn't even want to get near them, but curiosity got the best of me, and I noticed, upon closer inspection, that I could see tiny Metal Heads inside the egg, wiggling around. I wanted to burn it.
So we made our way around the side, through swarms of Metal Heads, and up an elevator to where there was a turret. Jak went straight towards it, sitting down and pulling his goggles on. I pulled mine on as well, because, really, who wants dead Metal Head guts in their face, and climbed to the top of the turret to shoot down the flying Metal Heads, which started attacking when Jak shot at the eggs.
There were about four colonies in this section, and I was right about wanting to watch for flying debris – that stuff got everywhere.
Once the eggs were sufficiently destroyed, we moved on, down some moving tracks, and through a broken down wall where there was a Metal Head walking back and forth with a shield. A shield. Why do Metal Heads get shields?
The thing had to lower its shield to shoot at us with some sort of Dark Eco laser, so I took advantage of that, and an arrow landed home right between its eyes. The thing disintegrated, leaving a skull for us to pick up.
We continued on to another room full of Scissor Scorpions, where I just hung back and let Jak blast them to bits with the Scatter Gun.
"Are those Red Eco barrels?" I asked, pointing to the red barrels lying around.
"Probably not," Jak said, jumping on top of one.
"Would you be able to tell?" Daxter asked curiously. "Like, absorb it through the barrel of something?"
"Huh," I thought about it. "I don't know. Maybe."
I put my hand on the barrel, concentrating on the substance inside, trying to make it do something. I stared harder. Nothing. "Nope. Either it's not Eco, or I can't."
"Well let's open it!" Daxter said, jumping off Jak's shoulder and onto a barrel.
"No, let's not." Jak said automatically.
"Eco is highly explosive, Dax, and unless you feel like getting your face blown off, I wouldn't suggest it. Have you not noticed we're in a room of fire?" I asked.
I jumped up on the barrel and started following Jak, who was already running along the grate, dodging bursts of fire.
I hit the switch that made another platform rise, and jumped across it. On the other side, there was a track moving in the wrong direction, and Metal Heads flying up it. Jak Scatter Gunned them, and we continued on, hitting another switch, killing more Metal Heads, dodging more fire, until we reached another turret.
Jak jumped in it, and I pulled on my goggled, the world taking on a blue hue. I perched myself at the top of the turret on one knee, shooting at the flying Metal Heads. Jak went about smashing the eggs, and wasn't paying attention to the Metal Heads, so he couldn't point out when one came in from the opposite direction of where I was shooting. The thing knocked me off the turret, and I smacked the ground hard enough so that I lost my breath.
I took heavy breaths, making that awkward choking sound you make when you can't breathe. While I was still immobilized in shock, a Metal Head came flying out of the sky, heading right towards me. I scratched my hand on the ground frantically, searching for my discarded bow, but I couldn't find it.
The thing came flying at me, claws out, but before it could get any closer, Jak's turret took the thing out. I heaved out a broken sigh, sitting up as Jak got out of the turret, offering his hand to me, chuckling all the while. I held my hand out, took a deep breath, before wheezing out a pathetic, "Shut the hell up."
Jak and Daxter both fell down in a fit of laughter. "I almost died, stop laughing!" I protested vaguely, trying not to laugh. "Just- Ugh shut up. We all have near death situations."
"I'm sorry," Jak said, still shaking with laughter.
"We do!"
"Yeah, yeah I know." Jak said, grabbing me and pulling me towards the elevator.
We went down, killed some more Scissor Scorpion Metal Heads, climbed some more barrels, shot another shield Metal Head, jumped across a few collapsing platforms, spun on a couple bars, killed some more Metal Heads, and rode another elevator before we finally found the last turret.
"Think you can shoot them without dying?" Daxter asked.
"Shut up, Daxter." I replied before jumping to the top and pulling my goggles down. I payed more attention to my blind spots this time, making sure I didn't get hit. Jak shot at a small colony of eggs, and when it was gone, the building it was on collapsed, leaving just a few faintly smoking remains.
Jak took out the rest of the eggs and climbed out of the turret with a satisfied grin. I hopped down after him. He reached his hand up and brushed a glowing green thing out of my hair. "You, uhh, have a little dead Metal Head egg on you."
"Okay, eww. Gross." I said, shuttering.
"You destroyed the last of the Metal Head eggs!" Vin said enthusiastically through the transmitter. "That should give us a little more Eco for the city. Good work!"
Turns out that the fallen building had collapsed onto both sides of The Platform, creating a convenient bridge back to the Teleporter Ring. We crossed it and jumped through the Teleporter, reappearing at the Power Station. Vin didn't have anything more to say than another vague "Good job," as he rapidly pressed buttons, so we left.
"So where to now?" Daxter asked, so I opened the mini map, pointing to the small sword insignia, telling us to go to the Underground. The otzel sighed. "Him again."
"Him again," I affirmed. Jak grabbed a Zoomer, pulling me up with him, and headed towards the Underground.
xMx
"One of my old Guard comrades was sent to the Pumping Station," Torn said immediately when we walked in. He was pacing around the table, running his hand over the maps and artifacts there. Katie was in the back of the room, reading an old map of some sort. Wasn't she supposed to be at Krew's?
Daxter was already goofing off, pulling faces every time the swinging lamp light hit his face. "There's been no word from her patrol, and after what you guys ran into out there, I'm afraid she may need some help."
"Did you say 'she'?" Jak asked curiously.
"Yes. KG's can be girls too." Katie snapped from the back of the room. Everyone grew silent looking at her.
Torn suddenly pulled away, and caught the lamp, shining the light in Daxter's face, leaning towards him angrily. "Stop that!" He yelled, "This is serious, you moron."
Jak held up his hand threateningly in Daxter's direction, and Daxter pulled out a karate move. "WHAA! That's right! Don't mess with the sugar!"Jak rolled his eyes, and I dropped my face into my hands, shaking my head at him.
"This friend of mine has helped the Underground many times before." Torn said as Daxter walked across the maps on the table, looking up, and snapping a salute a Torn. Go back to the Pumping Station and take a look around. Render assistance if needed." He paused looking at Daxter, before poking him in the chest roughly. "Now get your squirrelly ass outta here!" He growled.
Daxter pulled a raspberry in Torn's direction, and Jak, fed up, reached out and grabbed him by the neck, dragging him outside to the waiting Zoomer.
I laughed, following them outside, shaking my head at them before hopping on the Zoomer and opening the Mini Map. Jak took off in the direction of the Pumping Station's symbol.
He swerved around KG's and civilians, trying not to hit them. "I've got suspicious activity in this Sector." I heard a KG bark.
"I'll give you suspicious activity." I threatened emptily.
"You know," Jak said, adopting a thoughtful face and stopping the Zoomer in the middle of traffic. "I don't think we've caused near enough mayhem recently. The KG's are gunna get bored." He grinned wickedly at me.
"Oh, yeah?" I asked, grinning just as menacingly.
"Guys. GUYS. This does not sound like a good idea." Daxter said nervously. I just took out an arrow and shot at one of the driving KG's. Almost immediately, the rest of the Guards were on us, shooting at us, trying to get us out of the car.
So we did. Jak and I jumped down from the Zoomer and started wrecking shop on KGs and civilians alike. It was exhilarating.
'Go dark.' I heard a voice say, and I jumped, letting an arrow go prematurely. I'd forgotten Jak could still talk to me in my head. I looked over at him and saw him glance at me and nod, grinning all the while.
'What the hell?' I thought. "Why not?" I searched through my head for a second, looking for the button to trigger that all consuming evil. I was kind of growing to like it. That couldn't be good.
I felt my finger nails begin to lengthen, and my hair begin to rise and my eyes begin to darken as a fog took over my mind, leaving me with conscious thought, but nothing to distract me. Jak was already in Dark Mode, clawing KGs in bursts of purple electricity, and I joined him, clawing with my own blue electricity.
It was weird, if felt better this way. I could feel the Eco coursing through me, and it made the sick feeling I didn't know I had go away. I felt more refreshed than I had in months.
I eventually felt the burst of power go begin to wean, so I jumped and did that Dark Bomb thing, sending out a cloud of Blue Eco that zapped all of the KG's. Jak did his directly after mine, taking out the remaining Guards.
"That felt nice," I sighed wistfully.
"Yeah," He replied, pulling me up into a Zoomer. We took off, the Guards forgetting about us, and reached the Pumping Station in one piece.
"Leaving city safe zone," The mechanical female voice reminded us as we walked out. Her statement was proven true as we were attacked by a giant Metal Head. It was easy to take out, though. We followed along the same path we had taken last time we were here, killing Metal Heads and collecting their Eco.
I noticed that every time my body absorbed the Dark Eco, I began to feel more powerful, healthier and more alert. It was kinda cool.
We followed along the familiar path, and in no time, we were in a clearing at the top of the station, standing next to a seemingly broken down Police Zoomer.
"Ehhh, what the heck are we doing risking our lives to rescue some old Krimzon Guard hag anyway? She's probably got more facial hair than me!" Daxter said, scratching his ear with his hind foot.
"Shut up you misogynist." I said, smacking his head.
"Misogy-waaa?" Daxter said.
Then, out of nowhere, a girl wearing red, blue and black clothes, with ginger hair and similar markings to Torn came down, grabbing me around the neck, holding a knife to it "Who the hell are you three?"
"The fuck?" I choked out, holding my hands up, eyes wide and mouth gaping in surprise. Jak had already pulled out his gun and had it pointed at her.
"Let her go," he said in a low voice, "Or I'll bl-" He was cut off by Daxter.
" Mmm, I do love a woman in uniform! Wanna bark some orders at me... woof... woof." Dax said. Then he jumped on my chest, balancing between my chest and her arms. "I'm your soldier on the front lines of looooove!" He jumped off. "Waiter, foxhole for two..." she tightened her grip on me, drawing blood on my neck.
"Keep talking, and I'll raise your voice a couple of octaves." She threw me off, and I stumbled forward, where Jak caught me, wrapping his arms around me.
He turned me around to the front, keeping on arm around my waist, holding the other one up in a defensive manner. "Easy... Torn asked us to help you."
"I don't need help... but you might. We've got company." She said, taking off in the direction of the swarming Metal Heads. I rubbed at my bleeding neck for a second, but pulled out the Blaster Bow, following after her, already letting off arrows at the Metal Heads.
Jak was close behind me, and between the three of us, we easily dusted all the monsters. "Nice shooting," The girl said, walking over to her Zoomer.
" Watching me take care of those Metal Heads was, ahh... pretty... exciting... wasn't it sugar?" Daxter said smoothly, resting his hand on the side of the Zoomer.
She started up her ship, and the gust sent Daxter back a couple of feet, leaving him running in the wind. I laughed faintly. "Hey, sweet stripes, gimme them digits so I can look you up sometime. We'll party hard, big city style!"
" Tell Torn Baron Praxis is planning something big. I think it has to do with that symbol." She said, ignoring Daxter and pointin at a stump with a circular symbol with two circles, and a set of curving lines. I felt like I'd seen it before somewhere…
"What is it?" Jak asked.
"I've seen it before…" I trailed off vaguely.
"You've seen those two kids? Yeah they got it." I paused, thinking back. Oh yeah, I remembered now. The necklaces."It's the Seal of the House of Mar. The founder of Haven City. We're being sent out on 'suicide missions' to locate artifacts from the time of his rule." She jumped down into the main seat. "If curiosity's worth dying for, you can ask the blind old soothsayer in the bazaar named Onin. She might know something about all this. Here's my bazaar access security pass." She tossed a little red thing. I caught it out of the air, flipping it open.
"Your name's Ashelin, huh?" I asked loudly over the roar of the Zoomer's engine.
"We're even now." Ashelin said, before taking off and flying back to the city.
"Wow! What a woman! Arrggh!" Daxter barked again.
Jak and I both reached down and smacked him at the same time.
A/N: Honestly, I really hated both of these missions, and the fact that they were in a row kind of made me want to die inside.
Just my thoughts. Hope you liked the chapter.
xMonster