Chapter 33: Deepest Nightmares…
Music: God Hates Us by Avenged Sevenfold
'Nothing to heal, no one to wreck
Feel sad or roll now, there is nothing to tell
Nothing drawn, no on to face
You'll find out sooner that it's just best if we know our place
Mood: Sad :C
Disclaimer: Writers lie, just like your parents…
"The shield wall is down!" Vin's panicked voice told me over the communicator as I was waiting for the elevator to take me back to the Port. "I repeat, the shield wall is down!" I felt my eyes widen. How did it crash? "Sabotaged! Kor did it!"
"Wait, Vin! What-" I tried to interrupt, but he kept talking, his voice frantic and an unexplainable shuffling in the background was creating a lot of feedback, making it harder to hear.
"I knew that Metal Heads would be the end of me... oh no!" The transmission shorted for a second and I stared at the comm, waiting for Vin to talk again. "Metal Heads at the door! Help! Aaaarrgh!" I heard his loud yell and then the scuffling got louder, filling the small elevator room before the transmitter shut off, leaving me staring at it.
I didn't have time to think about Vin's transmission, because just then, the elevator doors opened and I was almost mauled by a Metal Head. I kicked it into the water of the Port, pulling my bow out and already having an arrow aimed, but another Metal Head came at me from the side so I shot at it, leaving the one in the water to float.
The whole city was in mayhem. I couldn't believe that that was Haven. There were KGs zapping Metal Heads and Metal Heads attacking anything that moved, pedestrians in terror, and me.
I sprinted back to the Hip Hog, forgetting about all worries about Sig and Vin and focusing on the matter at hand; find Jak.
I made it to the doors of the saloon, taking out quite a few more Metal Heads that were prowling the streets. "Fucken Metal Heads in the city!" I yelled, bursting through the saloon doors, getting everyone's attention.
There were varying degrees of "What?!" throughout the room, but I threw myself at Jak, hugging him fiercely, ignoring them. Katie and Tess went to the door to check, and Tess almost got stung by a scorpion Metal Head, so they slammed the doors shut, staring out the windows at the city with disbelieving eyes.
"Where's the big guy?" Daxter asked from Jak's shoulder, looking around like I might be hiding him.
I tensed up, letting my head fall forward on Jak's chest. "Sig's dead." I mumbled quietly, and I felt the room go silent. "Metalpede."
Tess squeaked quietly, clamping a hand over her mouth, and I felt Jak exhale a long breath, but that was the only reaction I got.
"He said…" I started, getting my composure back along with everyone else in the room. "Jak, he said that we should storm the Metal Head nest. Use the Precursor Stone to activate the gun and just go for it." I said, staring up at him.
Jak nodded, gripping my hand tighter but extracting himself from me as his thinking face took over his features. We all stood in silence, Daxter twirling a small precursor artifact in his hands, spinning it in the air before I snatched it out of his hands so he wouldn't break it.
Jak nodded again, decisively, grabbing my hand and pulling me out the door. Once we were outside, we grabbed a Zoomer so we wouldn't have to deal with the Metal Heads, and I listened as he described his plan as to where the gun and the nest was.
Before he and I could put the plan in action, Keira contacted us on the comm, telling us to meet her in front of the race garage and to bring the artifacts.
"The Rift Rider's finished!" Keira greeted. "But if my father's right, and the Ring is somewhere in the Metal Head nest, how are we going to get the Rift Rider to use it?" She flicked her eyes frustratedly to the Rift Rider.
Suddenly, Brutter popped out from behind the machine, pointing at the sky. "Look!" He exclaimed happily. "Brutter just knew friends would help if Metal Headers attacked!" We all looked to the sky to see a Lurker Balloon descending towards us. I grinned at Brutter and Jak patted the Lurkers shoulder.
"Brutter, you're the man!" Daxter said from our feet.
"Lurker balloons are finest lifters in the world," Brutter said grandly. "but they is easy target."
"Right. You guys get the Rift Rider to the nest." Jak ordered, pointing to Keira, Brutter and the two Samos's. "We'll stay and defend your take-off and get away." He gestured to himself, me and Daxter.
"Once again, being your friend sucks!" Daxter pouted, crossing his arms and turning away. "I wanna go on the balloon!" He wined, looking up at it longingly.
"You keep stadium safe while we prep balloon for lift away." Brutter said, nodding before gasping dramatically. "Uh-oh! Here they come! Metal Headers!" He pointed to the incoming creatures, and I grabbed my bow, spreading my legs slightly and standing shoulder to shoulder with Jak to protect them until they started moving.
Turns out, it wasn't that long until the two Sages had the balloon in the air, moving it in a green bubble of sagely power.
We followed close to them, Jak in the front and me in the back, attacking Metal Heads as they came in from all sides.
Whenever a Metal Head slipped by one of us and got to the Sages, it would attack and send whichever one it attacked sprawling to the ground, stopping all progress until either Jak or I could detanch ourselves enough from the attackers to get them. We had to be relatively quick, though, because Metal Heads didn't just give up after attacking, they kept going.
It proved to be slow goings, sending arrows flying while still watching the Sages for signs that they were hurt or about to be attacked, and trying to keep an eye on Jak at the same time. Every time one of the Samos's was attacked, we started going slower, and that made all five of us easier to attack.
I thanked Mar that we were almost at the balloon as I knocked the arch of my bow into a Metal Head's skull when it got too close to me, sending it to the ground.
We finally made it to the end of the courtyard, and the two started lifting the Rift Rider higher to position it on the balloon, Keira and Brutter finishing preps on the balloon before getting it ready for lift off.
"Up! Up! And away!" Brutter called from the balloon as it began to rapidly lift away.
Daxter sighed woefully, watching them fly away with sad eyes. "Must be nice floating away while we die down here!" The otzel looked at me and Jak reproachfully.
"We'll meet near the nest!" Keira yelled down, waving. "See you soon, Jak! Be careful!"
"Yeah, Jak, be careful!" I mocked, grinning as we turned away. He just stuck his tongue out at me.
Before we got any further, we got another transmission. "Kor... Construction Site..." Vin mumbled in a weak voice, sounding strained before the comm shut off. Jak and Daxter stared in confusion, and I remembered I hadn't told them about the transmission I had received earlier, so I told them.
"Do you…" Daxter asked. "Do you think he's going to be okay?"
I shook my head minutely in response. The otzel's shoulders drooped as we made our way to the construction site.
xMx
There were no challenges to get to the Site itself. We only had to find the door in the back of the city and make our way through. When we did, we both ran down the stairs to where Praxis and a few guards were standing.
Just as we reached the bottom, Kor jumped down in between us and the guards, confusing everyone in the yard.
"Kor?" Jak asked, skidding to a stop, me behind him. "What's going on?"
"I'm sure you know..." Kor responded scornfully, getting up with an agility I had never seen before. I growled at him quietly, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck, giving me a bad feeling. "Deep down in your darkest nightmares." He snarled the last word, walking towards us rapidly as Jak and I backed away just as quickly, his face morphing into a twisted look, teeth lengthening into barred fangs, snapping at us, and eyes shrinking and glaring darkly before his face turned back to normal and faced the guards. I stared, my mouth hanging open in shock.
"We've met before, remember?" He hissed back at us, looking again. My mind flashed to Sandover and the Metal Head leader coming out of it, declaring the last Warp Gate as open and flooding the world with his evil spawn. Everything clicked. "Everything's going exactly as planned." He sneered at the guards, laughing mockingly as his back sprouted wings, flapping and making the rest of us look tiny. A tail grew out, along with long clawed arms, and Kor's face morphed again as he snarled so loudly I wanted to cover my ears and faced the sky, exuding a bright blue light and bursting into a huge Metal Head. The Metal Head leader, with all sorts of limbs and wings and teeth.
"It's the Metal Head leader!" Daxter yelled as, as if we hadn't noticed.
"Now you see!" The Metal Head leader said contemptuously, looking down at all of us. "Without the shield wall disrupting my powers inside the city, I am my full potential now! So for the last time, give me the Precursor Stone!" He yelled, his voice morphing into something darker and more powerful, filling the whole area and leaving echos.
"If the city must die, then we all die! AAAGGGHHH!" Praxis exclaimed, he and the guards bravely charging for the leader. Said leader only looked at them in disgust before sending out a large blast that blew his opponents across the Site. The Guards scattered around, but Praxis crashed into a wall or Eco barrels and wooden scaffolding that collapsed on top of him, probably crushing him. I couldn't find it in me to be satisfied.
"I will find that Stone if I have to crush this city one brick at a time!: Kor proclaimed in that hollow, terrifying voice before flying away from the scene.
Jak and I rushed over to where the guards were scattered, and Jak lifted the big piece of wood that was crushing Praxis. I couldn't help but feel sympathetic for my greatest enemy, or what I thought was my greatest enemy, started speaking weakly, bracing himself on the ground, staring at it rather than us. "You are the supreme weapon, both of you. And I made you." He rolled onto his back, clenching his stomach with one arm and holding out a remote with a big red button with the other. "Still," the Baron went on. "any leader worth his salt always has his backup plan..." He pressed the button, causing an exact replica of the Piercer Bomb to rise from the ground slowly as the leader's head dropped. "Remember, the first rule in making a bomb... is to always make two!" He closed his eyes, seizing up for a second before falling motionless.
Jak and I both faced Praxis for a moment, and I felt conflicted, but we both turned away, deciding the bomb took more precedence.
We both stared at Daxter when we reached the bomb. "Oooooh, okay!" He exclaimed painstakingly. "I'm going in!" He climbed up the bomb and dove in, babbling relentlessly the whole time.
Man, what a mess a junk in here! All jumbled coils and switches! Should I unhook the blue wire? Wait a minute! Are ottsels color blind!? Let me just break a few more things and see if anything pops loose..." Before he could say anything else, the Precursor Stone popped out, Daxter following close behind, grabbing it and running down to us. "BOOM!" He laughed. "Gotcha! Like candy from a baby!"
As we left, we passed Praxis's lifeless body, all of us staring for a split second before continuing on deeper into the Construction Site.
A/N: Hi! Well, this is almost it! After this there's going to be two, maybe three chapters and then I'm done till the third :C
So sad!
xMonster