Chapter 24: Torn Actually Does Have Feelings!
Music: I Just Want To Run by Downtown Fiction
'I just wanna run, hide it away
Run because they're chasing me down
I just wanna run, throw it away
Run before they're finding me out
I just wanna run, I just wanna run
Mood: Hungry :3
Disclaimer: Writers lie, just like your parents.
Question: Do people actually watch the Olympics? Like, I'm not even watching it right now even though my country is winning (Not China, America) I just don't get the thrill of it, it just lowers my self esteem. I'm like there's no way I could do that gahh im so fat. And the opening ceremony wasn't all that great, and the queen looked bored.
Praxis lowered the Mech's claws and started drilling at the stone, despite the Oracle's protests, shooting out a set of electrified Spider Mech's to distract us.
They weren't hard to kill, nor very time consuming, Jak and I splitting up to take different sides and meeting up back in the middle of the half circle.
Praxis shot bombs next, still drilling, yelling pointless things that no one was listening to. I'd noticed that the Baron liked to talk a lot.
The bombs were easy to backfire on Praxis; a simple kick and they'd shoot back to the Spider Mech and blow up, knocking down his health.
Four bombs later, Praxis was getting angry. He shot out another line of Spider Mech's, but this time, he pulled away from the stone to shoot at us periodically, but when we took out all the electrodes, he went back to drilling, shooting more bombs at us, obviously not having learnt from his mistakes.
I kicked three bombs at him, missing one, and hoped that Jak had at least hit two, too.
"He's got the Precursor Stone!" Daxter exclaimed in distress, and my head snapped up, looking, and hi, Praxis had the stone in the Mech's hands. Great.
He took the stone and attached it to the heart of the machine, and flew over to where Jak and I were standing. He used the stone to generate some sort of green electricity that flowed from it and zapped the half circle bridge that we were on, a little piece of it collapsing.
He shot off more bombs, and started shooting, before stopping to talk again. I kicked a bomb and it exploded in his face, and he flew off it a huff, ready to electrocute more parts of the bridge. Jak got one in just before Praxis got too far away.
The Baron moved to another section of the bridge, and blasted it, sending out more bombs. Two more kicks to bombs, and Praxis was done for, the Spider Mech spinning away and crashing to the floor. I couldn't help but let my hopes rise a little bit; we may have actually done him in. Those hopes were crushed when a pod rose out of the ashes, Praxis and the Stone within its depth.
I cursed loudly, kicking a piece of rubble and sending it soaring until it crashed into the wall as Praxis said, "Nice try, but the Stone is still mine! Don't worry... I will use the Stone to its full potential. Soon, all who oppose me will be destroyed by its power!" He flew off, through the middle of where Jak and I were standing, watching him, and we both had to dive to opposite sides to avoid getting hit. I almost barreled over the edge into the abyss below, but caught myself on the ledge, pulling back up, standing next to Jak who was staring in the direction the Baron went, glaring fiercely.
xMx
The map was suspiciously blank, none of the usual people on it. Either they were all on a mission, or something very bad had happened. I was leaning towards to latter.
Torn was the only one left, from the Underground, no Tess, no Katie, no Shadow. I couldn't even see Ashelin anywhere. Or Kor, or either of the kids.
We headed towards the Hideout, and were met with a very distressed looking Torn. He looked… utterly broken.
"How did the Baron know we were making a close move to the Stone?" Jak asked him. I didn't know what to do. Torn was sitting on a bench, eyes down, head in his hands.
"It's my fault." He said, his voice wrecked. My eyes widened as I glanced at Jak, who looked just as surprised as me, his brows scrunched in as he glared at Torn suspiciously. "The Baron… He took Katie… he threatened to kill Ashelin for spying." He ran his hands through his hair nervously. "His own daughter! I couldn't risk either of them, even for the Underground." I stared at the ground, not wanting to look up. I didn't know what my feelings were right now.
"Right!" Daxter dragged out the word scornfully. "Very good thinking... except Praxis has the Precursor Stone now, so he can do whatever he wants!" He watched Torn reproachfully. I watched on in worry, I felt bad for Torn, but he had betrayed us.
"There is still a way to get our friends back and maybe the Precursor Stone as well." Torn said, standing up to his full height, crossing his arms over his chest. It hit me then how short I was compared to Jak and Torn. I was like a midget. Kind of intimidating. I mean, I was only four or five inches shorter than Jak, but Jak was three or four inches shorter than Torn, and the numbers kind of just added up. "I'll find Vin. Go to the fortress, and we'll call you."
"And why should we trust you?" I asked quietly, not looking up from the ground.
"Because you and I both know the Baron would have killed Ashelin!" Torn said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Katie, too." I looked up at his face, then back down. I felt tiny and helpless as I just stood there nodding.
"It'll be a tough ride through the fortress, probably suicide." Torn warned, turning to talk to Jak. I turned around and walked away, head still hanging, running my hand through my hair, heading towards the door, my thoughts heavy in my head.
"You just get that door open!" Jak snapped. "We'll be there!"
xMx
I stopped to regain my composure before Jak saw me, and within seconds, my careful mask of anger was back up and we were heading off to the Fortress door, to rescue our friends. We were pretty much going back to the place that all of this started.
The inside looked pretty much the same as it had last time, except this time, there was no tank, and the door we had used was blocked off by fallen debris. The only way forward was through the gate that had been electrified before, but wasn't now.
As Jak and I approached, I could hear the guards talking to one another. Jak and I moved together soundlessly, taking out the guard before he could sound the alarm for the other guards.
Our attempt at stealth was unnecessary, though, because to the left was another one that alerted all the others before we could get him out. A swarm of KGs came at us then, flying Mechs and KGs on foot, all in one wave.
As we were taking out the guards, I took note of the buttons that the KGs had been guarding originally, knowing we'd probably need it later.
I almost got hit by a flying Mech's bullets, and Jak almost fell from jumping to one of the platforms, and Daxter just about lost his balance and fell off Jak's shoulder, but other than that, we made it through the KGs relatively safely, reaching a second room with an electrified gate.
We went back and pressed to buttons that were in the other room before returning to the room and hitting the button in there. The gate turned off, and we proceeded through.
There were red lasers on the floor, and I would have stepped through one if Jak hadn't pulled me back in time. I was pretty sure that the lasers were sensors for Tracking Turrets, so it was probably a good idea to stay out of them.
There was two on the main floor, one on the ground and one about a foot back and up a little past head height.
Another one was scanning over a gap between two floors, but we jumped over it just fine, vaulting into the little canyon below. There were straight electrical pulses going over the gaps, but they were easy to jump over, and we made if up to the other side.
There were more lasers, this time touching together to form an X over the rail in the middle, then scanning out in opposite directions. I took advantage of that, JET board grinding over the rail when the gap was available, hearing Jak get the hint and follow after me.
The next room was some sort of training room, with a grate on the top and all sorts of obstacles to run around. The KGs shot down from above, seeing us, but not really having means to stop us, so we just ran through, dodging the shots, until we reached the other edge, a little singed, but otherwise unhurt.
A few KGs were hiding behind a barrier ahead of us, along with two or three red KGs in mech suits, and I went for the flying ones while Jak took out the hiding ones.
More lasers were scanning the floor past the barriers, they were easy to get over by jumping over the X they created in the middle of the floor.
The next room was the torture room. Our torture room. I felt myself getting angry, but I swallowed it down, staring at the mangled remains of two chairs that were sitting in the middle of the floor, broken and shattered and obviously unwanted.
I followed behind Jak as he went to the prison cells, pressing the big red unlock button.
"Hey there sweetheart!" Daxter greeted, leaning casually against the wall as the door opened, revealing her and Katie standing there. "The Metal Head masher has saved the day! Oh, and I let Jak and Maddy tag along too." He hooked his thumb behind him to where Jak and I were standing. I was still staring at the chairs, flooded with two years worth of bad memories.
"Oh, my little hero!" I heard her say, excitedly.
Jak tugged on my hand, pulling me towards the second cell. The door opened revealing the Shadow. "Samos," Jak asked hesitantly, seeing the irritated look on the leader's face, "are you alright?"
Another person hooked around the corner, looking at the two of us standing at the door, I felt my eyes widen and my mouth drop open as my gaze flicked between the two.
"What took you so long?" Samos griped. Older Samos, that is. "I added six rings to my trunk waiting for you two to get me outta here!" Fuck. It hadn't been six years. There was no way.
The old sage only then got a really good look at us, his face turning to shock. I realized this was his first time seeing us. Now we had to go through this all again. "Great Yakow horns! What happened to you Jak? And who's this?" He looked to me, blinking. I gave a false salute. "Maddy?" He asked, fixing his glasses. Did I really look that different? I mean, my hair was a different colour, and my eyes were too, I had big ears now, and I was taller and wearing different clothes… Oh. "What did they do to you two?"
"Wait a minute!" Daxter exclaimed, his eyes bugging out as he jumped out of Tess's grip to point at young Samos. "You're you!" He pointed to old Samos. "I mean the other you!" He pointed back at young Samos. "I mean... you know what I mean." He hooked his fingers back over, stumbling backwards, untangling the confused X his hands had made.
"Yes, it appears I have an older time twin." Young Samos acknowledged, turning to his older self. "Great grass grubs. I can't believe what a cranky old log I've become!"
"Two Samos the Sages?!" Daxter yelled, running around in nervous circles. "Aaack, Jak, they're multiplying!" He finally settled behind Jak's legs, clutching them.
"We need to find the kid, pronto!" Older Samos said.
"What are you talking about, old growth?" I sighed. "The kid already opened the tomb. Our top priority should be to disrupt the Baron's forces!"
'Ol Green Stuff got offended by his younger self. "Oh, look who thinks they sprouted." This can't go over well. If you were half as wise as I am, you'd know that the proper cause of action is to find the kid!" He smacked his stick on the ground. I noticed everyone watching them with irritated eyes flicking back and forth as the fight progressed. I was no different.
"Listen, you old dried up leaf." The younger version said. I heard a small noise coming from behind us, and turned to see that Torn had contacted Vin safely and the Warp Gate was back online. I turned to tell Jak, but saw he had seen it too. "I run this outfit, and I say we go after the Baron's forces."
"Do we have to separate you two?" Daxter deadpanned, shoving his way between the two.
"Vin's activating the Warp Gate." I said, interrupting the ongoing battle, pointing to the gate. Tess and Katie were already heading to it.
"We need to get out of here now!" Jak finished, with a grimace as we both walked over to the Teleporter Ring, diving through, ignoring everyone else.
Nothing good could come from more than one Samos the Sage.
Just.
No.
A/N: I love the little battle between the Sages lol, theyre great.
LadyAmazon: It's this old game PS2 game I found in the back of my drawer called Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy. I think it was made in 2003, but it's a super rad game. I would suggest it to anyone that can get their hands on it. But it's one of those games that when you die you go back to your previous save, and im stuck on a boss and last time I saved I had 2 health (Out of like 10) And there's no way to get any more health and it's a total bummer cuz I totally can't beat it.
xMonster