Chapter 12: Onin's Relics
Music: Chunksong by The Bouncing Soul
'I don't know what it is I'm looking for
Can't find it anywhere, never felt like this before
I got no idea what it is I try to find
I've got a strange feeling I'm lost in my own mind'
Mood: Really really tired
Disclaimer: Writers lie, just like your parents.
"Cool! Check out all the dead stuff!" Daxter said, poking a dead monkey-parrot, which apparently wasn't dead. It automatically woke up and bit at Daxter's finger. "Owwww!"
"Touch the goods again, rat boy, and you'll be, arrrk, counting with your toes!" I said, swaying for a second, then flew off and spun on it's tail, landing on the hat of a mystic looking woman at the other side of the tent. "I am Pecker!" Pecker excalimer, flinging his arms out. Pecker? Really? I had to turn my face into Jak's shaking shoulders to supress my laughter. "Yes, yes, I know, my mother, she was…" He put his feathered hands together in a thoughtful gesture. "very vindictive." He decided. I saw Daxter elbow Jak with a huge grin, as Jak hid his laughter into his hand. "I am Onin's interpreter." HE finished with a flourishing bow.
The woman, who I assumed was Onin, gave out various hand gestures and magical blue auras around her, which Pecker translated into, "Onin welcomes you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... the usual boring salutations. She says it is good to see you two again." He said questioningly.
"But we've…" I began, crossing my arms over my chest, trailing off into my thoughts. I don't recall ever seeing this woman before.
"We've never met before." Jak finished for me, copying my stance.
"Before... after... it is all the same." Pecker said quickly, fluttering the feathers on his right wing. "Onin says that she's glad you two are together. She says your powers balance each other."
"But how does she-" I began, but Daxter cut me off
"Oh! Oh! Let me try! Aaah... she wants a... She wants a yakow bone! A yakow bladder! No... no... I got it! For many moons... she has... waited for... a juice pop? A jewel shop? Oh... oh... I know! She's got a hairball? A hair lip? A hairy chest?"
Pecker interrupted him with an irritated glare. "Close... but NO! Onin says you seek answers... arrrkkk, about the Tomb of Mar." Onin twirled her hands around the floating blue particles, making two symbols, two shapes that vaguely resembled a nine and a six, and combining them at the two small circles. The result was a shimmering blue version of Mar's symbol.
" So what do we need to know?" Jak asked. I nodded.
"She's going on and on about mystical energy channels, evil curses, stupid 'ooooooo'" Pecker fluttered his feathers fingers up in the air ostentatiously, "crap. Forget all that, I'm gonna sum this up quickly, because now you're cutting into my siesta time." I looked at Jak questioningly, and saw him giving me the same look. Daxter put his finger to his head and swirled it, sticking his tongue out, calling Pecker crazy. "Onin wants you to recover three artifacts from the Precursor Mountain Temple. Not two! Not four! Three! Use the Warp Gate at the northwest side of the city, and bring back the three items you find!" He finished, flying back to Onin's hat, closing his wings over himself and bowing his head. It was obvious neither were going to say more.
I sighed. "Great. Another mission." I threw my hand up in the air irritably and walked out the door. "When do we get a break?"
xMx
We made our way to a part of town we hadn't been to before, a secluded area with a few gardens and Eco wells. There was a big metal door directly at the back of the garden. That's where we were supposed to be going.
The door was an automatic one, which opened up to reveal a grassy cliff side that dropped off into an inky blackness. We veered to the right and jumped through the Teleporter Ring, reappearing at an area across the gap and up a good fifty yards.
We walked ahead, and again, we were greeted by another drop to nothing. To the right was what looked like an old Precursor temple with floating platforms and strange symbols everywhere. It looked vaguely familiar, but nothing specific came to mind.
We jumped across the platform and stepped onto the elevator that plummeted us to the ground. From there, I could see two paths, both of which were blocked by Metal Heads. Jak and I easily took out the two Metal Head dogs that ran towards us when we jumped off the platform.
"Hang on," I said, stopping and pulling out the mini map. I turned it on, and it shows us are whole area, with three blinking lights, two straight ahead, and one to the left. I looked to Jak. He pointed to the one on the left. The left it is.
We followed the left path down until we reached some frog like Metal Heads that were easily taken out with the Scatter Weapons. We climbed the few levels there was, and continued walking. We reached a flowing water fall with three mossy looking stepping stone across it.
We jumped across them, but I paused on the third on, cautiously leaning over to see where the water fall went to. It simply cascaded down into the blackness at the bottom, disappearing with distance. I shuddered. I'd never been one for heights.
I jumped over the two stones and ran to catch up with Jak and Daxter, who were waiting on another ledge. There was a grassy flooring about three feet down with a huge button in the middle and a cave with a huge rock blocking it off.
I followed Jak over, and the second our feet hit the ground, the rock in front of the cave exploded, and a screeching Rhino Metal Head came running out, wielding its horn around in dangerous patterns. The thing spotted us and barreled at us full speed. Jak and I both dove to the ground in opposite directions, and like we were in sync, we both flipped to our back and started shooting at the things head with our Blaster Weapons.
Neither of us seemed to be doing any damage though, so I rolled over and stood up, running a full circle around the thing to meet Jak. It looked confused for a second and reared up on its hind legs, screeching all the while. Jak automatically started shooting at the soft flesh of its tummy, unguarded by armor. That seemed to do the trick, but also made it madder. It landed on four feet again and charged at me. I dodged to the right, and it skidded to a stop, back feet scrambling at the edge of the drop off. It made it forward again, though, and reared up on its legs again, and Jak and I both got two shots in each before it dropped back down and charged again, this time at Jak.
He ran a full circle around the rocky edge, running it until it got mad and stood up on its legs again. We both got our shots in and the thing disintegrated in a poof of purple smoke, leaving only a skull and a few Dark Eco specs.
I picked them up as Jak jumped on the button in the middle of the clearing, causing a ledge to shoot out of the wall with a pop. We climbed up it, high fiving for the epic bull Metal Head battle before continuing on, climbing up more rocks.
At the top was another shield Metal Head. These were definitely my least favourite type of Metal Head, not that I had a favourite. It lowered its shield, shooting three consecutive shots at Jak, who jumped them. I shot it while its shield was lowered, hitting it. It lifted the shield back up in defense before shooting three more shots at me, lowering it again. I jumped and Jak shot, and then the thing died and we continued on, walking over three brown circular platforms that were too embedded in the dirt to do anything, and reaching a small circular clearing with three boxes.
The boxes just held ammo, but right when Jak opened the last box, the dirt around the three platforms gave away, leaving the three platforms suspended in air. They started moving around, one moving left and right, another moving front and back, and another moving up and down. All together they led up to a ledge that was previously inaccessible, which was pretty cool.
We followed it down, shooting a platform to make it flip, and reaching a thin piece of Precursor Metal that was moving back and forth in front of the wall, acting as a little bridge. Across it was another pod, but this time six little froggy Metal Heads jumped out at the same time. They were easily taken out, though, and we continued through the pond, over a platform that was submerging and reemerging from the water continually.
At the other side, about six Dog Metal Heads jumped down from a ledge, attacking us. One bit me, and I shot it through its mouth and out the back of its head, the arrow sticking in a space in between two rocks on the wall behind it. I looked to see if Jak had seen how cool that was, but he was too busy taking out the last Metal Head. I frowned. I wished someone had seen that.
I looked down at my arm, pushing my glove down from my elbow to my wrist. Those were teeth marks alright, but they were glowing a suspicious yellow colour. I looked at it, trying to will the Green Eco inside me to rise and heal it, but turns out I didn't have enough left. Maybe I could go Dark and see if that would heal it…?
"What's up, Maddy?" Jak asked.
"Got bit," I replied vaguely, still searching myself for hidden Eco stores. I was continually injected with it for two years! I had to have some left… Right?
"Let me see," Jak said worriedly, taking my arm and inspecting it. "Think it's poisonous?"
"Dunno," I responded, not really knowing what to do, still staring at the glowing teeth marks.
"I think I saw a box up there, let me go see if it has a health pack. He walked around the corner, leaving Daxter with me.
"Can I poke it?" He asked, already reaching his hand out to poke it.
I shrugged. He poked it. A sharp jolt of pain shot through me, spreading through my whole arm. "Motherfucker!" I cursed loudly. But, just as fast as it had came, the pain was gone. "Don't do that again."
Daxter nodded, running up my arm, reaching my face. He stared into my eyes completely calm for a total of 1.2 seconds before grabbing my face and yelling, "Don't step into the light, Maddy, don't step into the light!" before busting up in a fit of laughter.
I laughed with him. "I'm not gunna die, Dax."
Jak came back around the corner, clutching a health box and a few arrows. He tucked the arrows into my quiver, handing me the box. I held it in the hand of my injured arm, and the box broke open into particles that I absorbed.
I watched as the deep bites faded to a normal colour before healing, leaving nothing but a thin scar. "Cool," I said.
"You really gotta stop hurting youself," Jak said, holding back laughter. "You have at least one near death experience every day."
"Hah Hah," I deadpanned, examining the scar.
"Come on, I think I found the first relic." Jak said, running down the path. I followed after him, jumping up the ledges on the cliff and stopped at the edge of a pond with a building in the middle.
"There," Jak said, pointing to the brilliant white light inside the building. We made it across and slowly approached it, because, most likely, it was booby trapped.
The blinding light was actually a lens that light was shooting through to a small point on a platform. I hesitantly stepped onto the platform after Jak and Daxter, fully expecting something to fall down, blow up, and shatter.
"That's some peeper, huh?" Daxter said, walking to the middle and looking up to get a better look. Daxter started sniffing, and I just waited, holding back laughter. "Something's cooking? Hmm, kinda smells like..." he wafted the smell to his nose, freezing and turning around to stare at his tail behind him. "Burnt Ottsel? Aggggghhhhh!" He ran off the platform and around the room in circles, trying to run away from his burning tail or something.
As he stepped off, the platform started revolving in a slow circle, something descending from the ceiling.
"Eww, whoa, hot hot hot hot hotoo oo oo hot hot hot hot hot oh oh hot..." Daxter yelled in pain, still running.
The lens floated down and Jak reached up to grab it, inspecting it. It was just a really big lens. At that moment, Daxter fell down between my and Jak's feet, sighing in relief that the flame was gone.
Jak tucked the lens inside my backpack, and we walked out the opposite way we came in, coming to a ledge on the other edge of the pond with a floating platform. I silently pointed to the contraption directly across the way, knowing that's where we had to end up.
We stepped on the platform, and I was completely expecting it to take us straight to the machine directly across from us, but that would be too easy. It went down and to the right to an open hall with a few Frog Metal Heads. It was the same hall that had been blocked off by the Dog Metal Heads before.
We chose a random door out of the four, one of the two that we didn't know where it headed. It would take us to one of the relics.
Outside of the door was three shoot-to-flip platforms that were going up and down, creating a set of stairs. We followed them down, and landed in a clearing with a large button to the right and a blocked off cave. Déjà vu…
And, just like last time, a Bull Metal Head came barreling through the rock clocking off the cave door, rearing its head at us.
The Bull was easy to take care of now that we knew what we were doing and had a kind of system going, so we quickly took it out, pressed the button and climbed the ledges that came out of the wall.
Passed the ledges was a few more Dog Metal Heads that we took out. We walked over a crest in the hill, and I almost got hit by a rolling boulder. "The hell?" I question, following after Jak, who had already taken off up the broken up hill with the falling stones.
I reached the top just after Jak, panting. "A little warning next time?" I wheezed, clutching my sides.
He just grinned, not being able to talk through his heavy breathing. Daxter stood up on Jak's shoulder before falling back wards, his fur ruffled and windswept.
After catching our breath we followed the path up, no more obstacles in the way, until we reached the platform with the revolving bits and the weird structures that I had pointed out earlier. I let Jak and Daxter walk up to it, hanging back this time. This thing was going to do something weird, I could tell, probably explode, and I didn't want to be that near it.
"I bet that's the prize! They won't miss that one tiny gear." He took a small star shaped gear from the middle of the globe like statue. Jak seemed to have the same idea and we hung back, waiting. "Like candy from a baby!" He said turning away,
"Wait for it…" Jak said, grabbing my hand and threading out fingers together.
As Daxter scampered away with a huge grin on his face, the whole machine came to a stop and crumbled apart
The otzel paused. "No one will ever know we were here!"
Jak put his hands behind his head, watching the animal in a distressed way before shaking his head and pulling me towards the platform that was back. It took us back to the same hall as before, and we took the only door we hadn't been through yet.
We easily took the Dog Metal Heads out from afar continuing on. There was a ledge that we climbed up, it was under and archway, and the second we stepped under it, froggy Metal Heads started pouring from the ceilings in an endless streams.
They were really overwhelming, but we took them all out in the end. Right past them was another shield Metal Head with some steps behind it.
Over the ledge was another thin moving piece of Precursor Metal, but this time, under it was a lake of Dark Eco. I could just imagine falling in that… Jeez.
I followed after Jak, inching along, being careful not to fall in. There were a few more rocks to jump down, and then we were at the base of the lake. There was a small tin cube floating on the Dark Eco.
I hesitantly smacked the cube, and it unrolled one square forward.
"Mind games." Jak said simply. "You should do it. I don't want to mess up." I just shrugged. "No pressure." He grinned, shoving me gently, where I stumbled onto the tin. Thank Precursors that it floated. I smacked his shoulder before planning out my next few moves.
I pushed the box forward and made a flat path to the next cube, where I did the same thing again and again, and then one last time that connected us to the flat land.
I let out a sigh, "Well that was terrifying."
Jak laughed before jumping up the rocks onto the Precursor Platform where we could see a Bull Metal Head waiting.
We took up our system for a third time, him running, me shooting, then me running, him shooting. In no time, the thing was just a skull. When I picked up the skull, a gate connecting a building to the platform opened.
We walked through it, and entered a practically empty room, with a small, blue glowing shard in the middle up on a ledge.
Of course, Daxter started climbing towards it, so Jak and I just waited. He stared at the crystal suspiciously before poking it, then picking it up, where it immediately started shaking in his hand, moving him with it. "Wooooow. This puppy's got some vibraaaattioonn in it. This baby will put a smile on your face!" He said, still bouncing around.
I giggled at the innuendo, glancing at Jak who was already staring at me. I looked down. I heard him chuckle.
"Aaaarck," We heard through the transmitter, signaling Pecker was talking. "I can't believe you actually did this thing. Onin says she will search the time lines for answers about the sacred relics. I will find you later."
"You're kidding me," I said. "She doesn't even know what these are."
"Crazy old bat." Jak said.
A/N: Okay, I'm going to apologise for this chapter, because it's really boring. Long, but boring. I would go back and fix it, but it's 4:27 am and I really should be going to sleep soon, I have to wake up in 3 hours.
I always really liked this mission a lot. Those falling rocks are fucking brutal, though. The whole mission kinda reminded me of the Precursor Legacy with all the Precursor things. Just me? Okay…
Since I already know how lame this chapter is, why don't you tell me what was your favourite and least favourite mission on Jak II just cuz im kinda curious.
Obvious filler chapter is obvious.
xMonster