A/N: Hey its 12! things are starting to really get nitty gritty. Hope you guys are as excited to read this story as I am writing it! Get that imagination workin'!
Sirens, the smell of oxygen.
She was moving and there were sirens, like an ambulance.
"Female, fifteen. Injured by shrapnel from an exploding electrical appliance. Mother called it in."
Beeping, sirens.
"She's flat lining, defib!... Clear!"
A flash of white and everything hurts and tingles.
"Damnit, again! … Clear!"
Another flash. The tingle spreads. She wants to scream but can't.
Suddenly everything lurches to a stop. There's cold all around her then lights pass over her in waves.
"Stay with us, just keep breathing!"
…...
"Sake?"
She stared out over the water, watching as the waves below lapped gently at the stoney shores. The sun was sinking down below the horizon for the day, painting the ocean a myriad of reds, yellows and purples.
"Sake, are you listening?"
"Huh? Oh sorry. Just.. thinking about the past." She said. The voice behind her was comforting, deep and somehow familiar. She felt rough but firm hands on her shoulder and she turned only slightly until her gaze met another.
The light from the sun did little to mar the vivid blue of his eyes, round and filled with compassion. His carved face was softened by a smile, faded dark green hair tied back in dread locks. She leaned in as he wrapped his arms around her.
"Are you feeling Okay?" He said, voice against her ear, Then a kiss on her neck- tender and loving.
"Yeah.." She muttered, closing her eyes and smiling. She folded her arms over his, and something shifted along her wrist. She glanced down to see an ornate bracelet hanging loosely.
"You know I love you, right Sakana?" She felt him squeeze her gently and she inhaled his scent slowly. The ocean, salt, sand.
She turned to face him and they shared a brief kiss before he walked away.
Turning back to face the sky, the ocean's breeze played gently with her hair and caressed her skin. With a smile, she watched as the last sliver of sunlight dipped below the horizon, bathing the sky in a fiery red.
Light was the first time to come into focus, rays of streaming in from what looked to be a window as more blobs coalesced into discernible shapes. Slowly Sake rose and glanced down to find herself asleep in a bed. From the looks of it, this was Tess' room. She was in the underground hideout.
A set of clothes had been folded on a nearby desk, with a letter which Sake assumed had her name on it. She knew very little of the Precursor alphabet, the primary language of Jak's world, despite her once rampaging obsession with the world and all its lore.
Finding herself laying in bed, wearing nothing more than a loose fitting wife-beater, she blushed inwardly and went to work getting dressed. The outfit was, surprise surprise, identical to her previous one. Or maybe it was the same outfit. That couldn't have been right, that one had been torn and covered in blood and.. Oh dear.
The memories returned and she froze mid-sleeve. Then she felt a piercing pain in her right shoulder and as she looked at a mirror on the backside of the closed door, she noticed the bandages wrapped around her shoulder. A circle of red had blossomed. Through the pain, she finished getting dressed and opened the door slowly, peeking out cautiously. She could hear voices dancing down the hallway from the main room. Torn was angry and yelling at someone.
Once at the end of the hall, she decided to listen before introducing herself into an obviously heated situation.
"You mind telling me what the hell happened out there?!" Torn's fist slammed into the table and a coffee cup tipped over, rolled, then fell off and broke. The red haired man's angry glare didn't move at all and she saw that he was hounding Jak. "And when the hell did you plan on telling me that you and the girl were freaks?!"
Sake watched Jak visibly bristle at that word and Torn seemed to notice that the young man went stiff as a board.
"Wrong choice of words." the Walking Fence Post said. That was as good as an apology as they were going to get, Sake supposed. She remained hidden, still listening.
"That isn't exactly something I can just blurt out, Torn." Jak countered, obviously still reeling from the unintentional insult. "The Baron did this to us. You think we had a chose in this?"
"A warning would have been nice. Three civilians and two of our members are dead because of you two. They died pulling your sorry asses out of the frying pan." Torn and Jak locked gazes and Sake could almost see the sparks fly. She figured now was the best time to make her presence known.
"You think I don't regret what I-.. It did?" Torn, Jak, and Daxter all turned to face Sake. "You think that if I had the choice to go back and fix that mistake, I wouldn't? I'm sorry about what happened. I really am." She said, trying not to let the shake in her voice show too much. It was hard fighting back the urge to cry. The memories were starting to come back. The crying boy's face filled her thoughts and she clapped a hand over her mouth, muffling a whimper as the tears won.
Torn sighed, hung his head, then sat down in his seat. He almost sounded defeated. "What I wouldn't give to just throw your asses back to the Guard, but you're both already too valuable to this fight."
"I'm touched." Jak said, words dripping with acid. He watched Sake closely as she quickly regained her composure. Good, she was hardening up.
"Cut the shit." Torn's usual charm returned as he looked up from the piles of maps and papers. He began sorting through them until he found a map of an area Jak didn't recognize. Sake had come closer and was looking at the map too, just as curious as to where it led to. "One of the Baron's mining operations is under attack by Metal heads."
Torn rose from his desk now, running his hand along the edge while setting the map aside. "That's not our problem." Jak snapped and Daxter cringed.
"It is now. Especially when the Foreman is one of the Underground's best informants." Torn closed the gap and once again invaded Jak's personal space, jabbing a finger into his chest. Jak resisted the urge to 'reach out and touch somebody', namely the Ex KG throwing a tantrum. Of course he felt awful for what had transpired. But this wasn't the time or the place to let it get to him. Torn finally backed off, folding his arms.
"His name is Vin and he's just valuable enough to save. Find the warp gate at the Power Station in the Industrial Section and use it to get to the Strip Mine so you can rescue Vin's pathetic hide." Torn was about to turn and leave when Daxter climbed onto the table.
"Hey, Tattooed Wonder, Why do we keep getting all the crappy missions?!" Now it was his turn to have his space invaded as Torn jammed a finger into the Ottsel's yellow belly.
"Because I. Don't. Like. You." He gritted out, Daxter stepping away until he slipped from the table and fell flat on the floor with a thud.
"Fair enough.." Daxter whimpered out with a sheepish half-grin and a thumbs up.
Now torn looked defeated once again. "Whatever deal the Baron made with the Metal Heads, the city's eco is almost gone and time is running out. If we don't get the kid back on the throne soon.." He paused, taking in a breath sharply before sighing heavily and leaning over his desk on both arms. "There may not be a city left to defend."
Jak, Daxter and Sake certainly understood the implications, and the stakes at hand. Without another word, they suited up and made their way out of the Hideout. Sake was just happy to have the weight of her armor back, though the strap holding it down to her right shoulder aggravated the already sore bullet wound.
The Industrial section wasn't nearly as far away as the Stadium Section, but that didn't make the drive any shorter. Traffic was tightly packed and Jak had to be careful to avoid being seen by Guard patrols. After all it seemed there were Wanted posters for all three of them on nearly every corner, though the civilians paid no mind.
"Jak..?" Sake began after being quiet for a good while. She clung to him as he maneuvered their Zoomer through the traffic.
"Ya?" He said, not turning back.
"How long was I out?" She whispered.
"Four days."
"Jak, for what its worth... I'm sorry.."
He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it. He'd told her once before that she had to learn to control it. It seemed she was far from it.
"Are.. Are you mad at me?"
Jak was silent still, but his mind was obviously churning with a million different responses as he sorted through for the right one. Then he suddenly threw the zoomer into Low hover mode and pulled off into an alley away from the traffic.
"I'm scared. Not of you, but for you." He turned a little to face her as she straightened up on the seat behind him. Daxter sat quietly on his shoulder, tail around his ankles.
"I'm scared too, Jak. I swear I'm trying to control it. How many more people have to die before I finally get a hold on myself?" Sake wrung her hands absentmindedly. "Everytime I fight it, it wins." Again her voice shook and she saw the face of that terrified boy. Jak nodded with a heavy sigh then raised the Zoomer again before inching his way back into traffic.
The rest of the ride was spent in complete silence, and eventually they came upon the ramp leading to the Power Station Torn had indicated. Ditching the Zoomer, the teens made their way inside and immediately found themselves surrounded by all sorts of computers and machines, some documenting geological findings at various dig sites while others had read-outs of the City's power and Eco supplies.
Jak located the Warp Gate controls and set the destination to the Strip Mine then approached the ring as the portal within warbled and flexed like water.
"Have you ever used a warp gate before?" Jak asked as he was just about to step through. Sake shook her head. "Well, the first time will feel very weird, like you're not all there. Just relax, and hold your breath. The trip is instant, so you won't suffocate."
Sake watched as Jak went through, and she stood in the almost-silence of the Power Station. It wasn't that she was scared of the portal, no, In fact the prospect of instant transport intrigued her. Instead it was more that she wasn't quite ready for the sensation if it was at all like what Jak described. With a stiff swallow, she took a deep breath and climbed through.
A mere blip of existence later, she found herself standing inside of a concrete building, with Jak waiting for her. Immediately she stood and shook the tingling out of her arms and legs.
"That.. was one of the weirdest things I've ever felt." She said while looking back at the ring. It was certainly no worse for wear, simply beckoning to them. Jak let a tiny smile part his lips before un-holstering his weapon and making his way to the metal door that separated them from the outside.
"Something doesn't seem right." He said, peering through a nearby window on the outer wall.
"What do you mean?" Sake looked as well. All she could see was a handfull Eco wells, drilling equipment and large buckets carrying dirt from a fresh dig site to a processing building on the far side of the facility.
"Torn said this place was under attack, but I don't see a single Metal Head." Jak switched his weapon from the Blaster to his Scatter mod, anticipating an ambush, then suggested that Sake do the same.
"No Metal Heads? That's a good thing." Daxter chimed in. "Sure makes our jobs easier." Jak was indifferent to the Ottsel's suggestion as he opened the heavy door and led them outside. The air immediately stank of too much Eco, metal, and Oil. "I smell explosives." Daxter added. Sake figured his nose was far more powerful at picking up fine scents than theirs, plus she didn't know what explosives smelled like, though she'd take his word for it.
The Mine was a mess. Equipment was scattered everywhere and there wasn't a sign of life whatsoever. No bodies, no workers- it was unnerving.
As they trekked deeper into the Mine, they approached two pools of raw Dark Eco. This had been the first time Sake had ever seen one up close and personal, glistening and shifting like a thick sentient ooze. Occasionally a spark would fly free, swirl around aimlessly, then fizzle out of existence. Further back into one of the pools, a collection of weird plants had taken root but as Sake looked further, she could see small lifeforms moving within the yellow bulbs at the top of each spiked stalk.
"Metal Head eggs.. I'd say we're definitely in the right place.."
They explored further, leaving the pools of Eco behind. Even still, things were entirely too quiet for Jak's taste. Something caught Sake's attention.
"A blood stain." She knelt next to a patch of red that had seeped into the dirt. It couldn't have been much older than a day or so. The area up ahead was completely open- the perfect place for an ambush.
The renegades stepped out into the open and as if on cue, Metal Heads appeared from nearly every direction, but none were any type that Jak or Sake recognized. One type flew and flung orbs of energy from its abdomen, while the other type was almost scorpion like with a high arching tail tipped with a lethal stinger. None of the Metal heads seemed at all that strong, each falling to Scatter gun fire without much trouble. Jak finally took a moment to breathe once the battlefield was cleared of hostiles. Sake was already well on her way to prying the gems from their skulls.
"That seemed too easy." Jak set his weapon down only long enough to pry a few gems of his own free, tucking them away in a pouch before rearming himself. The trio pressed on, finding themselves within a confined channel between two massive mounds of dirt. Daxter nearly jumped out of his fur when some rocks slid down the slope.
"I think I saw somethin' big up there!"
"Not surprised. Stay sharp." Jak cocked his weapon, then surveyed the horizon. "Lets get up onto that platform. Looks like we can get to the Foreman's hut from there."
The closer they got to the stair well leading up, the more on edge Jak became. The ground below them suddenly burst up as more Scorpion like Metal Heads appeared in a shower of dirt and gravel, hissing and screeching as they were instantly blown into little indistinguishable piles of guts and Eco. Everything around them became hectic as more of the grunt-like Metal Heads they'd encountered in the sewers burst from the dirt slopes, growling as they pounced. Sake narrowly avoided one, unloading several rounds into the beast as it flew by. It slumped, dead. Three more remained, only made worse by another dozen of the scorpion kind.
"Get up onto the platform, use the stairs to channel them!" Jak and Sake turned their backs to the stairs, backing away until they were close enough to dash and climb. Once up at the top, the first of their pursuers reached the apex and found itself full of Red Eco charged rounds. A growl from their right alerted them to a Grunt that had taken another route to them.
"So much for that idea!" Sake said, blasting away at another that had climbed up from the left. Jak took care of the first, and all that remained was one last grunt and a hand full of the Scorpions but they too fell.
"Getting low on ammo." Sake said as she reached for another clip of ammo. Thankfully they wouldn't need much more. The Foreman's hut was just across a metal catwalk that spanned the distance adjacent to the bucket tram way. She took point while Jak covered the rear in case any more Metal Heads opted to storm from behind. Only one Metal Head dared attack, a wasp kind that lobbed a single round before it was perforated like fine cheese.
The Foreman's hut seemed reasonably safe, with thick walls and a door to prevent unwanted entry that doubled as protection during blast mining. Jak could see another warp gate roughly fifty feet to the left, tucked away into the shadows of a deep overhang. Why this Vin guy couldn't just make a mad dash for the gate was a mystery to him.
As they approached the hut, they could see a panel to open the door. With the press of a button, the door slid open and a hail of frenzied gunfire erupted out, followed by frantic screams.
"Ahh! Stay back!" Sake caught a fraction of a second's glance at an older man inside, tucked behind large crates for protection as he pelted the air with untrained shots.
"Do somethin' Jak, This guy's CRAZY!" Daxter barked over the noise.
"Hey, are you Vin?!" Jak turned to say into the room, ducking almost instantly as a round whizzed past his ear, nearly clipping it. "We're here to help! Torn sent us!"
"Stay back!" Vin screamed back, still shooting like a scared child.
"If we were here to kill you, you wouldn't be talking right now!" Sake said finally from the other side of the doorway, weapon in hand and ready to beat some sense into the man. The gunfire came to a stop and Vin flopped onto one of the crates, exasperated.
"Oh, Friendlies, thank goodness..- So w-wh-where's the army?" He sputtered and straightened up, offended at the presence of only three people, well, two people and a talking orange rat.
"Uh, We're it." Daxter quipped.
"What?! Just you three?!" Vin was on the verge of having a stroke, tapping the barrel of his pistol against his head. "What do they think I'm worth?!"
"I'm beginning to wonder that myself.." Jak rubbed idly at his chin as he glanced to the side. He could see Metal Heads regrouping off in the distance. "if you want, you can stay here and be Metal Meat, but Daxter, Sake, and I are leaving before those monsters get here."
Vin half jumped, half dove out of the Foreman's hut, shaking like a leaf as he held his firearm up defensively. The trio immediately darted for the warp gate, diving through before the Metal Heads arrived.
Once through, Vin immediately killed the connection to the Strip Mine gates to prevent any unwanted company from coming through. Then he was instantly back to work, monitoring everything and typing things into the computers faster than Sake could make sense of it all.
"Hey, I wanna thank you guys for savin' my butt out there at the Strip Mine." Vin typed away still as Daxter jumped down from Jak's shoulder.
"And we'd like to thank you for bein' such a bad shot!" The Ottsel said with an annoyed grin.
"Ah, yeah- Sorry about that guys." Vin faced them as he spoke while still typing away with his right hand, not even looking at the keyboard. "I'm a bit jumpy these days." He folded his hands behind his back and grinned innocently.
"Jumpy? We hadn't noticed." Daxter mock admired his nails. "AHH, A METAL HEAD BEHIND YOU!"
Vin shrieked, spun around and just about had a heart attack. "Whoda-Whatchya..." His knees buckled and he slid down the console, hitting the ground hard. Daxter strolled by, grinning from ear to ear.
"Just kidding, Nice reaction time though!"
"Not. FUNNY." Vin growled, looking about as angry as a wet Muse. Jak stifled a laugh by fake whistling as Sake chuckled. Sure it was mean, but totally worth it. "Those Metal Heads have been attacking our mining operations and we're runnin' outta Eco! Eco power keeps the city's Shield Walls up and if the shield drops, we can all kiss our butts goodbye!"
"I've got a few surprises for those Metal heads." The blond hero grinned, hands on his hips.
"You've gotta keep the Shield Walls up until the Shadow figures out what to do." Vin went on to explain that the Eco flow coming from one of their drilling rigs recently dropped, something about Metal Head eggs. He needed the teens to make their way out there through the warp gate and clean up the mess. Just as they were about to climb through and take care of business, both Jak's and Sake's communicators went off. Jak didn't answer his but Sake answered hers.
"Sake here." She said. Of course it had to be Krewe.
"Sake my dear, come by the Saloon, I have a job for you two." Was all he said before hanging up. Sake sighed.
"Krewe has a job for us."
"We can't be in two places at once Sake." Jak was poised at the ring, ready to go, and almost itching to climb through.
"...You're kidding right?" She scowled, looking to herself then Jak and he resisted the urge to facepalm ad the obviousness of it all. "I'll take care of Krewe's job, you finish up the platform."
"Dax, go with her. She might need your help." Jak said and Daxter easily cleared the gap between their shoulders. Sake took a moment to adjust to the weight, and Daxter was quietly thankfull her shoulder plates were sufficient enough for him to hang onto.
"You sure 'bout that?" Sake watched as Daxter crossed his arms and cocked his head to the side.
"Its either that, or come fight Metal Heads with me." Jak grinned, knowing full and well what option the Ottsel would take.
"Fine, you win!" With a wide grin, he hunched down on her shoulder and gave a thumbs up. "Not to worry, I'll keep her nice and safe." Sake narrowed her eyes at him and scowled as if to question the Ottsel's motives.
The trio said their goodbyes to each other and Vin and parted ways, Jak climbing through the Warp Gate while Sake and Daxter made their way back outside to the Zoomer they had acquired prior to their arrival. With a press of a switch, the Zoomer came to life and the unlikely pair were on their way, speeding through traffic and weaving around corners.
"So, Sake. What's the deal?" Daxter finally said, unable to resist the urge to talk any longer.
"What do you mean?"
"With you? I mean, you might have Jak fooled, but somethin's really off about you." The Ottsel said, seeming strangely observant. Perhaps she had never given him enough credit. "What's your story?"
She looked away, formulating an answer. "Grew up in a small village, like you guys." She said. "Why do you ask?"
"Who told you we grew up in a village?" Daxter said, eyebrow raised with his ears laid back, trying to find anything in her story he could mine for information.
"Does it really matter? You wanted my story, there it is. Not much to say." She snapped and he curled his lips.
"But you came from the sky, like us. I saw you that day." It was weird to Sake how serious he was being. She'd never known Daxter to be so down to Earth and focused, not that this was Earth or anything. Damn those sayings, none of them applied here, wherever she was.
"I think we're done talking about this." She said, tightening her grip on the accelerator and causing the Zoomer to speed up a little more as they sailed through the streets.
"Aha! So you ARE hiding something! C'mon, tell me!" Daxter insisted, his usual charm returning to his voice as he grinned.
"Not happening. You'd better hold on!" The Ottsel's persistence and nosy attitude were annoying, but hardly a surprise. She remembered bits and pieces of her old life, sitting in front of the television playing games. Daxter was obnoxious then, too, even before he was an Ottsel. So it was time to give the animal a taste of what it was like dealing with his constant curiosity.
Sake gunned it down the roads, taking the Zoomer eventually onto one of the main freeways that helped funnel traffic through the city. It was the best place to open up the throttle and really see what the Zoomer was made of, only slowing down briefly to avoid traffic as it piled up on the off-ramp to the Port Sector, all the while Daxter shrieking like an infant.
Sake was enjoying tormenting the Ottsel perhaps a little too much.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed! 13 and 14 will come after an update to C/C and MIB. See you ladies and gents there!
Be sure to R&R! I see all you lurkers! For some awesome art and concept drawings of our demolition trio, be sure to check out my da at night-eco . deviantart . com! minus the spaces!