Chapter 23: Sylence's Challenges Weren't Really Meant For ME, Right?
Music: F.T.W.W.W by Mad Gear and the Missile Kid

'She said come on, come on, kiss my battery,
Come on, come on, I'll be your android girl,
She said come on, come on, kiss my battery,
Come on, come on and fuck this whole wide world

Turn up the fakes and lies, just answer me,
You stare me down and take my only guise
They need the ones you got,
And laugh for me,
Destroy the council while your mother cries'

Mood: Frustrated (I'm stuck on the game I'm playing :C)
Disclaimer: Writers lie, just like your parents.

I felt myself being pulled along down the path to the water, so I followed it, rather than resisting. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get to Jak, no matter how hard I tried, it just wasn't aloud.

I walked down to the water, and I could see where the shield interrupted the water as well, and I knew that I wouldn't see Jak for a long time, so I looked at the screen one more time, watching as Jak made his way across the water, next to me, but not. He looked at me, blinked sadly, tried to say something that I couldn't hear. I pointed to my ear and made and x with two fingers, and he nodded, growling at the screen.

I knew it was cheesy, but I made a heart with my fingers, looking at him. He smirked, but made the symbol back. He opened his mouth saying something that I still couldn't understand, but before I could even attempt to read what he was saying, the screen started to fade to black, cutting off all view of him.

I snarled in frustration as the screen went black, turning away and shooting a Water Lurker that was encroaching on me. I JET boarded away, over to the solid ground across the lake, over to the big door under the two founders' hands.

It was locked, and wouldn't budge, but I could see how opening could be a problem when there is a big black shield cutting through the middle.

I sighed, turning to my left and seeing the door there with another statue of Sylence standing next to it. That's where I had to go.

The first set of doors opened up to reveal a whole bunch of steps, which a climbed up, and then another set of doors with a giant S on them. Those doors opened to an empty room with 4 doors, including the one I just came from, and a button in the middle.

I pressed the button, and let out a tiny shriek when about fifteen bugs flew down from the ceiling. I regained my bearings a second later when I realized the bugs weren't attacking me, and the oracle was talking.

"Weapons are for the weak." It said. I looked around at all the bugs lying on their backs; there were three that had red dots on their tummys, and I took note of those as the bugs flipped back over and started crawling around, keeping my eyes on the three.

I walked up to the first one, and it didn't react, so I kind of awkwardly poked it, and it didn't do anything but flutter its wings, so I punched it. That made it react. It flew away, onto the door directly ahead of me, attaching itself.

Oh.

I went up to one of the other marked bugs, and punched it, watching it fly to the door along with the other one.

I walked up to the last bug, and punched it, but turns out, it wasn't the bug with the mark. How do I know? It exploded in a blast of magenta guts. Gross.

I went to the one to the right of it, punching it, and hoping it wouldn't explode. Luckily, I got the right one, and it flew away to the door.

The rest of the bugs flew away when the last one landed on the door, and then the ones on the door went away as the doors opened, showing another room that had a blue glow to it.

I hesitantly walked to the door, looking inside, but all I saw was a blue gate. Upon looking down, though, I noticed that there was a small lake of electrified water, stretching under the gate.

The electricity turned off for a few seconds before turning back on, then turning back off after. I took my chance and dove under the water, hoping the electricity was only at the surface. I held my breath and swam to the bottom of the pool as the electricity came on. Nothing happened.

I made my way up slightly, and swam all the way to the other side. The electricity turned off, so I rocketed up to the surface, vaulting over the edge onto dry land just as more electricity filled the water.

I took at deep breath and wrung out my hair, but I could already feel myself drying and my hair starting to spike.

Soon I was fully dry and ready to continue. So I did, and I was met with spider. Gahh. Why did I get the buggy room?

I knocked out the three spiders that were approaching with one Scatter arrow, my nose wrinkling the whole time. I hated spiders.

The next room showed a huge gap to the other side, with nothing in the middle. There was a platform in front of me, across the gap, and to the left of that, across another gap, was another set of doors. There was a button at my feet, so I stepped on it, and the room was filled with coloured tiles. One of them flashed, a red one, and I didn't know if that was a warning to get onto it or get off.

I took a chance and jumped onto it, feeling it bounce a little. I held my breath, but nothing happened except a green one two rows ahead and a tile to the right flashed. I jumped to it, waiting for the next one to flash. It was a yellow one a row up and three tiles over, almost directly in front of the next ledge.

Upon jumping on the last one, a small bump on top of the platform opened up to reveal another square button.

I jumped on it, and a bridge to the set of doors was made out of more tiles. The first one to flash was a blue one, and then a red one, and then another red one that I almost missed by not turning around fast enough.

I caught it, though, and jumped to it, waiting for the next flash. A green one flashed, so I jumped to it, and then a yellow one.

The last yellow one caused the doors to open, so I rolled through them, seeing more spiders. I took them all out before I could look at them. The room was filled with cages of what seemed like bones, and that was pretty cool.

Down a hall and to the right was another electrified water pool. I made it through again, almost getting shocked, but instead of going down, I clung to the bottom of the gate, which actually might have been the Oracle's nose, wrapping my feet around it and holding myself until the electricity went away, dropping and swimming down to the other side and jumping up when it stopped again.

The set of doors on the other opened with a stony grind to show me that I was back in the bug room.

Stepping on the button produced the same result as last time; lots of bugs dropping from the ceiling.

I punched the marked ones, sending them to the only door that I hadn't been through yet, which opened upon the last bug landing.

The doors opened and there was another electric lake on the other side. I made it across differently this time, JET boarding across when the electricity was gone.

I flipped the red board out of the water, and safely landed on the other side, silently cheering myself for my success.

Through the door was another empty room without a floor and a button at my feet. This time, though, the door was directly across the gap, with two platforms to the left and right a little off the middle, closer to the door than me.

The flashing light tiles led me to the left ledge after four tiles, opening the next button. I hit it, and five more tiles later, I was on the right ledge, the button opening.

I pushed the button and followed the tiles – 6 this time – until the doors opened.

There was yet another electrified water pond that I had to make it across, this time with a gate so I couldn't JET board along it.

So I did it the long was, swimming as far as a could underwater, hopping onto the small raised circle when the water wasn't electrified, and swimming some more before jumping out and feeling myself almost automatically dry off.

The next room was what appeared to be a cemetery. I didn't see how it could solve some sort of puzzle here, so I turned around, only to discover that the door slammed shut on me.

Well then.

I hesitantly went up to the first small tombstone, and pressed it. It started shaking and emitted a small tune. I blinked, hitting it again; it made the same noise.

I hit the one directly next to it, and it let out an altered version of the tune. I went to the one in front of it, which released yet another different song. The one to the right of it made the exact same noise, and both the tombstones sunk into the ground.

That's when it dawned on me that I was playing a big game of memory. I looked around the room, counting the tombstones left, there were ten. I just had to find five remaining matches.

I went around the room, matching the music, and when I got the last two matched, both sets of doors opened. I walked through the one I hadn't been through. I looked around and I noticed I was in the main tomb room, with the lake and the Water Lurkers.

There was a button at my feet, so I stepped on it, and a huge beam of blue light came from over by the main door, shooting through the whole hall, and landing directly on the statue of Sylence. I froze, hoping I didn't break anything, looking around, noticing I could see the other side of the hall now. I looked for Jak, wanting to find him, but apparently, he wasn't out of his tests yet.

There was a floating platform waiting for me, so jumped on it, letting it take me down to the water. Jak wasn't there either.

I JET boarded across the water, towards the big door in the middle that still wasn't open.

What I wasn't expecting to see though, was Daxter milling around in front of the door. "Daxter?!" I asked. "Where's Jak."

"Somewhere in the tomb still." He responded, waving his hand nonchalantly.

"Okay…" I trailed off. "Why are you in here?"

"Oh. Well..." He told me about how he heroically pushed a rock out of the way to save it from hitting Jak, and ended up getting chased by it down a hall filled to the brim with many torturous devices by a giant stone, and when he finally got away from the rock, he distracted a humongous spider from eating a small helpless child, and ended up finding a hole, and waiting here.

I had a feeling he was lying. Just a little bit.

Another blue light shot across the room, while he was talking, mirror to the one I had set off, and I froze. Like literally, some sort of force was holding me in place so I couldn't move as the beams met up, shooting into the stone into the middle of the Founders' entwined hands, triggering the door to start slowly opening.

I watched in awe, still unable to move, until I heard a splash on the water behind us. I whipped around so fast that Daxter wobbled on my shoulder, looking for Jak.

And there he was JET boarding across the water, and I felt so much better, all the bad feelings draining away.

He walked up to me, and pulled me into a quick but tight hug, kissing me roughly, before he turned and greeted Daxter.

"Daxter, there you are!" He sounded almost relieved. It was hard to read under his voice, but it was there. "What happened to you?" Jak didn't let his emotions into his voice very often… I hadn't noticed that; he was hard to read, now that I thought about it, but I usually didn't have much trouble.

"I had a hairy experience." The otzel replied, sparing the details this time. "No thanks to you."

"Welcome young warriors." The Oracle interrupted before Daxter could say any more. "Many eons have passed since our hope burned so brightly. Today you have proven yourself to receive Mar's legacy," The Oracle said, obviously talking to Jak.

"He's talking about me!" Daxter excalimed. Or not that obviously. "Thanks, your holy-statueness." He bowed to the statue, I rolled my eyes as the Oracle directed its attention to me.

"And you; Sylence has seen fit to grant you with her legacy." Brilliant.

"This tomb wasn't so tough!" Daxter said. I hushed him."

"What you are about to receive contains grave power, and with it comes grave responsibility." The Oracle warned. "Eons ago, the Precursors waged a terrible war with the Hora-quan, those dark creatures you refer to as 'Metal Heads'. Driven by their dark leader, the Metal Head legions destroyed our great civilization, and now they swarm the universe unopposed, looking for the last relics of our power. Mar and Sylence decided to try to hide the Precursor Stone deep inside the depths of their conjoined tomb, to protect it from them. It is our last hope, and you together were chosen to keep it alive." We all walked forward, over the bridge and almost up to the statues.

That sounded great and all, but I think they've got the wrong people here, Jak and I couldn't run a city… The Oracle was putting his faith in the wrong place.

"I think you've got us confused with some other people." Jak said. "We're just here for the Stone."

"It is time to fulfill your destinies! Behold!" All eyes turned towards the two statues in front of us. They were facing one another, rather than us, their foreheads touching, hands in the middle, wrapped around a glowing green stone.

"Wow! Let's get the goods!" Daxter said enthusiastically, starting to walk over the second bridge.

He was interrupted by a red flying spider mech flying in from behind us, landing directly in between the two statues, bracing itself on top of the stone hands and arms.

"You fools!" Praxis yelled, and I took a deep breath not to scream in frustration. "You brought me right to the Stone! Your pitiful Underground friends were no match for my guards above!" Wait he took over the Underground? Aww man! "Now I will gain the power I need to crush my enemies!"

He shot a small bomb at the bridge between us and the statues, and it caused a small explosion, shattering the bridge. Daxter jumped back, almost caught in the blast.

"And after claiming the Stone, I'll begin with you!" Well wasn't that sweet?

The Baron took the mech suit and started pulling at the stone. The Oracle didn't like that, though. "Abomination!" It practically screamed. "The Precursor Stone was not meant for you!" But it was meant for us? Yeah right.

Emergency lockdown kicked in, or something, and the doors slammed shut, leaving nothing left to do but battle the Baron for the Stone.

As if my life wasn't exciting enough.

A/N:I liked this chapter :D

xMonster