Chapter 11

I giggled. I simply couldn't help it. It was Jak, it was really him. He was safe and on Spargus, and fighting for his right to stay in the city. And quite frankly, he was kicking ass!

He kicked one of the men away, the spun in time to shoot one with the scatter gun. He kept distance between himself and his enemies, taking advantage of the open space and the fiery death that await all who took a grave misstep. He kicked another in the chest, sending him flying away into the shallow lava. The crowd screamed louder as the dying man wailed as his body was charred and mangled. Oh, what a barbarically entertaining competition.

I watched from the stand myself, with Vi beside me. She was cheering and screaming as loud as the rest of them. She always got excited about the new people. Couldn't really blame her when you're her age and single. Every new guy is an opportunity.

Nearing the end of the fight, but before Jak went dark, Zel popped in next to us, whispering into my ear so he didn't have to yell. "Problem in the Waste, big sucker attackin' a mine off to the east. We need a few more of our pilots."

I nodded and tugged at Vi's arm. Looking at me, then her brother, she nodded. We left as the crowd screamed the loudest it had and I knew the fight was practically over. But we were already gone from the arena by then.

/-/-/

Zel wasn't kidding when he said they were big, for big was an understatement. I've seen some of the dinos and am somewhat good at taking them down. But this guy was massive! He looked like a part of the mountain at first but then he opened his eyes.

The mine below him was crushed, and eco was leaking from the indent in the wall, staining the sand red. I knew some of it must have been from some of the workers, but I didn't really want to think about that. We circled the thing, humanoid in shape and redish-brown. It looked like a walking rock and could be mistaken for a mountain.

It swatted at us with a massive stone hand and swung it's egg shaped head around and around. We flew around, delivering our payload, sticker bomb strapped to bottoms of our glider, upon it's shoulders. We went around like this for at least an hour, and finally, one of our bombs blew off it's shoulder.

Eco and what appeared to be smaller metal heads fell from the gaping wound as the thing screeched and swung it's remaining arm around. It seemed to waver on it's massive feet, then the whole thing collapsed. In a wave of dark eco and metal head, the rocks crumbled and revealed it was really a million metal heads, all linked claws and the like. They were mostly scorpions, like the ones you find in Haven, except a whole lot bigger. There wasn't any stillness on the ground. As soon the scorpions hit the sand, they were all flurried to dig themselves holes and get away.

Everyone was in such awe at the whole display that we didn't even get a chance to reload and drop more bombs on them, aside from the people that still had some, and so only a couple hundred dead bugs littered the dunes. The eco had congealed in pools and stained the sand.

Black flags started waving from the lad station on the ground, telling us not to land and go back to the city. "Lets call it a day, people," I heard through the headset that pilots all wore.

It was funny about those headsets. They only worked if you were on the same plain. So we could get transmissions from Central Tower (CT) and other pilots, but not from people in cars or on the ground transports or loading stations. Only long range equipment but it was too high tech and the sand ate at a lot of it. So only Haven and the Temple complex had long range antennas.

Back on the ground inside the city, we were greeted by the ground crew, and in light that no one was hurt and we got rid of the current threat, we all went to the local pub for some drink.

/-/-/

I laughed as Vi danced around, singing some old song she learned in school. It was a rather happy tune but I had no idea what she was saying or what language it was in. It was nice listening to her, though, so I didn't ask.

Drinking night is always a blast, though I'm not the one that usually get's smashed. Vi does, and Zel on occasion. Everyone else seems to like the buzz but not the taste. Most of my fellow flyers young, being small enough to fit on the gliders, and most of them can't hold their liquor for shit.

It's funny, watching them all dance and sing, with in the lead and everyone trying to follow clumsily along. Vi was a good dancer, they way she perched herself on the outcrops and kept her grace and balance, even as drunk as she was.

Zel came up behind me and lifted me sheer off the ground. Zel was the biggest of us, being almost six feet, but he was skinny, so that made up for it. He lifted my minimal weight up onto his shoulder, slurring that heroes shouldn't be allowed to walk or all the heroism will leek into the rocks, and rock don't make good heroes. His rambling made me laugh harder, and as several people started chanting 'bumbles' and 'bubbles' over and over, I was snorting in laughter and glad I have to walk.

Okay, so maybe I was a little drunk, but it's all good!

"Whesh the sun comes up," Vi had stopped her dancing to look at the sky. "I'ma gunna be sheeping dem sheep over the horizon." She snorted and broke into half hysterical laugher.

"Sheep dem sheep!" Someone yelled.

"Alright, alright." I wiggled on Zel's shoulders, trying to get off. "I'ma gunna sheep dem sheep now." Zel let me down with a soft grunt, but then he hugged me. I squeaked in his embrace, both because he was squeezing me and, well, Zel was hugging me. And he was drunk, and I was drunk, and… stuff like that…

I tried to break away from our flyer group, but it was really a futile attempt. We all felt high and mighty and we were just having too much fun. So went around some more, bypassing the apartment and of into the streets.

I heard my name and looked over to a leaper port near the market. Familiar blonde with green roots, sticking straight up, and an orange rodent on his shoulder. "Jak!" I called, waving. I knew I was drunk, but clear enough to at least say 'hi'. Zel noticed I had stopped and stumbled back for me, slinging his arm across my shoulders. I giggled as Vi started singing in the Arian voice of hers and Zel steered me back to the little group.

"Tox?" I looked back at the blonde, who looked torn between coming and joining our little group or being repelled by the ruckus flyers.

I waved my finger at him, feeling bold. "Come on, Handsome. Get that sweet ass over here!"

I bust up laughing as his expression changed from revulsion to looking completely blown out of the water. I could here Daxter snorting with laughter, but didn't see him until he was climbing up Zel's body armor.

"Hey sugar, where the stuff?"

Neeken, who had the biggest liquor bottle there, waved the half empty container so the liquid inside sloshed around. "Here ya go, little dude." Neek slurred. "Jus save some fer the rest of us."

I seemed to have lost Jak by that time, and I decided that I've really had too much to drink…

Oh, well. The more the merrier!

XXX

A/N: That was a lame Jak appearance, but he'll have a better interaction with Tox later. Leave a note.

Broken Wolf/D.R.M.