Chapter 22: Where Kids Don't Die, but We Might…
Music: Don't Leave Me by Blink-182
'Don't leave me all alone
Just drop me off at home
I'll be find, it's not the first
Just like the last time,
but a little worse'
Mood: Sweaty (It's 103 degrees here. Grossss . I miss winter)
Disclaimer: Writers lie, just like your parents.
There were five new Hellkats to take out, and they created quite an explosion when hit, which I discovered when the first one blew up, sending a shrapnel between Jak and my heads. It would have stabbed one of us if I hadn't jerked the Zoomer off to the side.
I had to drive because my weapons wouldn't do near as much damage to the vehicle as Jak's did, and I really didn't feel like using a gun again. Jak was using the Vulcan rifle, and the whole mission would have been so much easier if we hadn't had every Krimzon Guard in the city after us as well.
The map was flashing when we left the underground, but the cops weren't after us, so they must have been alerted that someone was after their vehicles, but they just didn't know who.
So all the guards were on high alert, and the second Jak pressed the trigger to shoot the cruiser, we were swarmed by the KGs, which was a bit of a hindrance.
The first explosion, while almost killing us, did knock out quite a few of the guards surrounding us, and gave us a little bit of time to regain bearings and to search out the next one.
We decided to take on the cruiser flying over by the Water Slums, and it wasn't that hard to take out, minus the turrets on the back of the vehicle itself, because most of the KGs were over in the Slums and Sector 3, protecting the other three cruisers.
With two down, we made our way through the Slums, attracting the guards attention, but they didn't do anything, to find another Hellkat.
The third one was flying around almost to Sector 4, but still in the Slums, and of course, there was a whole bunch of KGs wandering around under it. Jak shot at it anyways, and the thing took off, so I put the pedal to the floor, racing after it.
The guards apparently couldn't keep up with us, which was good, but the turrets on the back of the Hellkat kept shooting at us, making me have to swerve to avoid us getting hit, making Jak lose his focus a little bit.
In the end we brought it down, and conveniently, the cruiser took us almost directly to the next one. It didn't seem to realize that it was us attacking the others, and it was just flying along. Jak took aim and fired the Vulcan directly at its engine. It lit fire almost immediately, and went down significantly faster than the other one had, leaving us with only one more.
The last one was a bit harder to find, because the KGs had caught up to us, and were proving to be quite the hindrance in getting in our way, but we found it making its way to Sector 5, just a obliviously as the last one.
Jak shot at it, and the thing took off, turning around and flying back into Sector 4, or back into where the KGs were. The morph gun clicked on empty, though, and Jak had to shoot at the cruiser with the Blaster gun, which took a whole lot longer than it should have, which kind of sucked.
The last one went down in a pile of flaming Zoomer bits, killing the rest of the guards around us.
"I think the missions are getting easier." Jak said.
"Either that or the Krimzon Guards are getting stupider." Daxter responded.
"Probably both," I affirmed, turning the wheel and driving us to the Bazaar, because the map had a light blue K there, along with the ghastly blue O and scarlet P. I wanted to know why Kor was there, I didn't trust him. At all. There was something funny about him.
"…Expecting those little kids to save us is folly! At their age, neither of them is any match for the Metal Head leader." We heard Kor say loudly to Onin.
He noticed us stepping in, and stopped talking, his eyes widening. "Oh… We were just talking about Samos's plan…"
I raised my eye brow skeptically, shifting my weight to my other foot, looking at Kor searchingly. He looked away, back to Onin and Pecker.
"Onin says your voice sounds very familiar." Pecker said, rubbing his feathered hand on his chin. I saw Kor's eyes widen. "I'll bet you two golden oldies go way way back, huh?" I saw Onin glaring at Kor through squinted eyes, as if trying to see something that no one else saw. That didn't help my skepticism one bit. "Onin needs you both need to prove yourselves, prove how well you can work together." Well that'd be easy. Jak and I work amazingly together. "You've shown your brass, and your brawn. Now you must use your brains as well." The monkey-bird continued. "Frankly, I think she's pushing it, but I'm not the boss. Beat this test, and the third piece to the Seal will be revealed."He fluttered his hands to Onin, who twirled her hands in the air.
Four button-like things generated from her blue sparks, two settling in front of me, the other two settling in front of Jak. "Sit down." Pecker instructed, gesturing to the two pillows on the floor. I sat on the red one on the right, Jak on the blue one. We both sat cross-legged, matching Onin.
The button like things settled in front of us, and Pecker gave us the instructions, "Onin will make shapes, you press the right button," He fluttered his fingers at the symbols on the buttons. They were simple, mine being an x and a triangle, Jak's being a circle and a square. "Do not press the button any more than necessary, or you will lose points, work together to not let the shapes drop, and to get the winning score." He paused looking down at Onin, she waved her hands around a little bit, stirring up the colourful dust. "Okay, good luck. Go!"
Onin twirled her hands around, making the shapes fly up in the air and drop down. I hit the button when I saw my shape, Jak hitting his. I didn't really understand how this was a test of brains, but whatever. I could see how it was a teamwork thing, but was teamwork something that Jak and I had to prove? Together, Jak and I worked better than a well oiled Hellkat with a top KG driving.
The shapes kept coming, and we kept hitting buttons. I kept an eye on the counter on the wall, watching it go up steadily, only stopping when one of us, usually me, accidentally hit one too many, or let on drop.
We easily reached the end, though, and Pecker said, "Behold!" As the last piece of the key was unlocked, the backing piece, flying up towards us. I reached into my backpack, pulling out the other two pieces, Mar and Sylence's pieces, feeling them float away, up to complete the symbol. "Mar and Sylence would be so happy. Their symbol is complete at last!" The bird exclaimed.
The symbol floated back down to us, and Jak grabbed it. I touched it, just to see, and the thing lit up in both of our hands. I quickly withdrew my hands at Kor's sinisterly interested gaze. The light went away. Jak handed it to me when Kor looked away. I noticed how confused my boyfriend looked, as when I touched it again, it lit up, but the light went away when he took his hands away from it, leaving it in my grip. I shook my head confusedly, tucking it away into my pack, and turning back to Pecker, who was still talking.
"Onin says the three artifacts you've retrieved from the Mountain Temple," A loud squawk interrupted his sentence, "are relics from an ancient Light Tower. Old songs tell how this light tower once shined down on the actual site of Mar's tomb! I sing one of these songs for you." The he started singing, so out of tune, I wanted to cover my ears. "From the mists of time, Mar's light would shine" Kor dropped his walking stick, and we all cringed at the particularly high note, "with Sylence there to guide him..."
"Whoa there iron lungs!" Jak interrupted, putting his hands out. "Just tell us what we need to do."
"Cretins with no taste, huh?" The bird spit in disgust. "You must take the three artifacts to Mar's gate. Only then will the Light Tower rise and reveal the tomb." He turned away, obviously not going to say anymore.
We walked out before Kor could say anything, going to the Mountain Temple, where apparently Mar's light would shine with Sylence's guidance. What the hell did that even mean?
The entrance was a Precursor Door that I hadn't noticed before, off to the right, not quite into the Mountain Temple. Jak held up the key to it, and a light from the left side of the door struck the symbol, I think on Mar's side. Thinking of what happened back in the tent with the lights on the symbol, I stuck my right hand out and put in on the other half of the symbol, the unlit half, or Sylence's half. A light from the right side of the door struck the symbol on my side, and the whole key started flashing a subtle yellow light. I could feel it pulling away, so I unlocked my fingers from it, and Jak did the same, and the little circle floated away from us and to the door, landing in the middle.
The door opened, leaving the key floating in mid-air, still glowing. I went to grab it, but it wouldn't budge, so I gestured Jak over, not letting go of it, even if I wanted to, I couldn't, I think it had me locked there. He came over and put his hand on the other half of it, and it unlocked, losing all the tension, dropping the rest of the way into our hands. This key was weird. It needed two people to use it. Strange.
I tucked it away into my pack, and we continued on, down a small rocky path, until we were met with the first obstacle. There was a huge gap with a glowing, lighted rail, connecting the two ledges together. Jak got on his JET board before I could even think about it, and was already grinding down it.
I got on mine and followed after him, not too closely, though, flipping over the big lights in the middle, and having to spin to turn, but I made it safely to the other side, where Jak was waiting. We went down the path, and through another open door, down a couple of ledges, across another path, down another ledge, and through a rocky archway before we reached the destination.
It was a big stone ravine like thing, with pieces of rock littered across the ground, which was now a smooth stone, and three big weird contraptions scattered around.
It was obvious what to do, and Jak saw that too, as I looked up to see him handing the gear to Daxter, and the lens to me. He took the blue crystal for himself, nodding to me and Dax. We all took off at the same time, running towards the fitting structure.
I kept the lens cradled to my chest, not wanting to drop it or anything, and approached the structure. It was a statue of Sylence, her hands raised up towards to sky, but nothing in them, I tossed the lens into her hands, where it fit like a charm, heading back to Jak and Daxter, who were watching the scene unfold.
The crystal and the gear had worked together to set off some sort of blue light coming from Mar's statue, that shot up through the lens in Sylence's hand, that spun, guiding the light back to the city. From here, we could see the beam shoot out and straight through the Baron's statue, breaking it open, shattering it. Of course the Baron built Haven Square directly on top of their tomb.
"Arrrrk!" Pecker came through the communicator. "I be a Yakkow's uncle!" The bird exclaimed. "The Light Tower actually does exist. The beam of light it shining somewhere in the city! The Tomb of Mar and Sylence was under our noses the whole time." I blame Praxis. "And thanks to me… you found it!" Pecker said contemptuously, shutting off the communicator. I rolled my eyes, following after Jak, who was retreating back the way we came.
The exit was just past the second door, up an outcrop and down a path that led us to an edge that was just across from the Warp Gate and door back into Haven.
"Decontamination complete." The female voice in the door confirmed, opening it up and letting us back into the city, where we made our way over to Haven Square. All the KGs were on high alert, so we couldn't JET board there, so we stole a Zoomer and went to the Tomb.
Inside the door was another elevator that took us down to a big room where Samos, Kor, and both the little kids were. I looked on in disgust, pulling the little girl to me when she walked up to me, holding her to me by keeping my hands over her shoulder. She was about as high as my waist, and quaking in fear.
I saw her holding the little boys hand, who was actually mirror to my position to the little girl, but with Jak. I grabbed Jak's hand, just to finish the picture, listening intently as the wizened talked.
"You did it!" Samos said in awe. "You actually found both Mar and Sylence's tombs! I don't know why we never thought they'd be together…" I was disgusted with him. Was he actually missing the big picture?
"Great!" Jak said harshly. "Now what? We send these poor kids into a meat grinder?" I tightened my grip on the little girl, and she squeezed my fingers, backing up into me.
"This is the day I've long awaited!" Kor said excitedly. "To finally hold the fabled Precursor Stone in my hands." I glared at him. There was something way to sketchy about him for my liking.
"You must be cautious, children." Samos warned, and I snorted in disdain again. I couldn't believe they were actually going to send these kids into that death trap. "The tests are sure to be fraught with peril and the separate heirs must face them alone." Okay, so not only were they sending two children in, but they were separating them. I was starting to like Mar and Sylence – and everyone else, actually - a little less.
"It's okay, kids." Daxter said, walking between the two and ruffling the little blond kid's hair. "You can do it. It's just a deep, pitch-black, 'sure to be filled to the brim with painful death' old tomb." He stopped talking at Jak's hand telling him to cut it out, before turning and whispering into the little girl's ear. "I wouldn't go in there."
"Way to give a pep talk Dax," I said, shaking my head. "You'r-" I was cut off by a sound of rock grinding against rock, and looked up as the Oracle started talking, doing that weird thing that made it sound like it was talking directly into both ears at once. I felt the little girl clamp her hands over her ears, so I rubbed her back in a hopefully soothing way.
"Welcome, heirs of Mar and Sylence. Finally, the chosen ones stand before me. Enter and prove yourself worthy to claim the ancient birthright." The door started to rise, and I saw both of the kids cringe. I felt myself getting pulled forward towards to door, and I walked around the kid, and I could see Jak out of the corner of my eye walking forward. I couldn't stop walking, it was like there was a string pulling me.
But, the door stopped rising at about halfway, stopping the strange connection I was feeling, and I came to a halt next to Jak, just in front of the kids. "No," The Oracle declined. "Both of these children are too young to face the test." The door started slowly shutting again
"What?! No!" Kor protested, sticking his hands out.
"Do something!" Samos said, but I was already looking at Jak. He nodded, and we both ran towards the closing door.
"Jak, remember the 'sure to be filled to the brim with painful death' part!? Maddy?!" Daxter yelled, running after us.
Both Jak and I barrel rolled under the door at the same time, ducking under just before it closed. Jak reached back under and dragged Daxter in, just as the door shut.
I looked at Jak, opening my mouth to say something, just as an almost invisible, glowing purple wall slammed down between us, sufficiently trapping us apart.
I put my hand up on the thing, seeing Jak's mouth move, but I couldn't hear him. The wall continued all the way down the tomb, only stopping when it reached the door, cutting through the middle of Mar and Sylence's hands, which were holding each other's directly above the middle of the door, Sylence on the left, Mar on the right.
Great.
I had to face Sylence's challenges.
Alone.
A/N: Dun Dun Dun!
Haha I hoped you guys liked the chapter, this one was actually pretty fun to write :D I'm excited about the next chapter. The Tomb's challenges up next!
Review with your thoughts.
Cheers!
xMonster