A/N: First off I'm not entirely happy with the opening portions of this chapter. I tried my best to make Jak and Sake sound ginuinely worried and distraught about what happened to Spargas, without making them come off as overly worried parents like you see in a clinic every time their kid gets a scrape on their knee. Despite my best efforts, they still came off as slightly 'whiney'. My apologies.
I do like the ending of this chapter though! Chapter six will be out in a few weeks. As always, PLEASE Read and Review! Comments are greatly appreciated!
Cole regarded his glass of water thoughtfully, taking another long swig. It tingled going down, a strange sensation that he could never quite describe if asked. Water normally burned or killed him, yet he still required it to survive, like any other human being. He had long since assumed that drinking it didn't quite yield the same painful effects, just the unusual feeling that tickled his insides.
He had been in this palatial room for a while now, a grand space with waterfalls and exotic plants. A large glass window looking out over the rest of the world had been badly damaged by a sandstorm, or so the 'Sand King' told him.
Jak was an intriguing man. Cole had pinged time and again but no matter how many times he did, the little nodules of yellow always formed within the ghostly blue frame of his abdomen then faded as the ping's energy dispersed. The glow of the Conduit gene seemed stronger within the woman, Sake, pooling in two distinct spots. He'd seen this a few times in New Marais after John had granted him the ability to perceive the world in an entirely new way but he never quite figured out what it meant.
"So what does this mean for our world." Jak's voice carried inside the hollow chamber, bouncing off the walls like an omnipresent deity.
"It means unless I find the RFI, the Beast will destroy everything." Cole now stared at the empty cup. He'd already drank three fills worth but was still inescapably thirsty. Water could never hope to sate his needs at the moment however.
"The RFI.. The device you said that could kill the Beast." The woman, Sake, added, as if repeating what he'd told them just a short while ago would somehow make more sense.
Cole grunted. The headache from starvation was starting to crawl up the back of his head- not the kind caused by lack of eating, but the kind caused by a lack of electrical energy. Between the fight with the Beast in New Marais, the fight here in 'Spargas' as they called it- He was completely drained. He could barely muster an arc in his palms and make it dance without it fizzling with an unceremonious pop. To make it worse, He'd been struggling to explain where he came from, and why there was a two-hundred foot tall molten creature now hiding somewhere within their beloved desert refuge.
He wasn't sure if the couple was just not that smart, or if they just didn't want to accept the destruction that befell their city. It was most certainly the latter, if he put any amount of effort into processing the possibilities.
"The RFI is my only hope for killing the Beast." Cole grunted again, cupping his forehead in his palms. He'd done well enough up until now staving off the piercing pain but it was starting to win.
"And you said you're a Conduit." Jak interjected. Cole winced as the man's words echoed in his head, amplified by the headache and a loud ringing.
"-Before I answer that, there's something I need."
'Strange' didn't quite define what this man had asked for. Electricity. Thankfully it was something they had on hand since Spargas had gone mostly electric several years prior. Massive wind powered turbines and water turbines along the rivers in the desert provided plenty of power, as well as thermo-generators deep within the belly of the volcano. Spargas now had power, where it did not just a decade before.
Sake and Jak weren't entirely willing to comply to the man's requests- It was an odd request but she assumed it had something to do with whatever a "conduit" was. Back home a conduit was something that helped protect electrical wiring. She also wasn't a stranger to the unbelievable- She and Jak could transform into dark creatures, so it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that this man could control electricity. So, seeing the man's sad state, and the fact that his skin seemed to pale by the second, She and Jak agreed that perhaps helping Cole was for the best- Since without the 'RFI', they'd all be dead soon anyways according to him and they'd need his help to defeat the 'Beast'.
He explained through gritted teeth that any form of electrical current would work, as long as it was constant. They guided him into the tunnels dug beneath the city to house their own 'conduits', massive tubes which channeled the energy all throughout the city. They watched as he eagerly bent forward to reach the pipes, placed his hands on the surface, and began to perform the amazing.
Spears of blue leaped from the pipes and into his arms, crawling up his body like living, sentient organisms. The already dim lights overhead flickered then went out with a pop and for a moment they were standing in darkness, save for the blight blue flashes of electricity as the cords of power danced.
Finally Cole withdrew his hands from the pipe and the blue flashes winked out of existence. Seconds later the lights overhead winked back on.
"Good thing blackouts are nothing new here." Sake commented, only mildly amazed. Sure, what he was doing should've killed him. Electricity wasn't Blue Eco- It couldn't be safely channeled like it, and it was certainly much more difficult to harness effectively, causing blackouts on a regular basis, but at the end of the day, when most of her time in this world was spent witnessing otherwise impossible things, seeing a man play with lightning quickly lost its luster.
Jak watched as Cole turned to them. Even in the poor lighting, they could already see that color had returned to his skin and the dark rings around his eyes had faded entirely. All in all the man looked as if he was ready to run a marathon.
On their way back to the surface, Sake delved further into what Conduits really were. Cole seemed willing enough to oblige, now that his strength had returned.
It was a lot to take in, Sake thought while listening to Cole explain his situation for the better part of an hour. Jak was quietly thoughtful as well as he worked to make sense of all of the new information coming in so quickly.
Cole said it had something to do with inheriting a specific gene in the womb, the Conduit gene. And that over time those with the gene would develop unique powers. He said he obtained his powers unnaturally however, when he unknowingly detonated a special kind of bomb. He went on to explain that he had been a bike messenger by career, and that one day, 'a package found him'- A device called the Ray Sphere. It destroyed six square blocks and killed hundreds of people. Everyone, except him.
Sake found the part about him waking up in the middle of a crater wildly ironic.
"To top it all off, the Beast was once a friend of mine, named John. He was caught in the Ray Sphere's blast when it detonated again, and it vaporized him. I didn't know it was him until much later- There's one thing I don't get though." Cole said as he followed the Royal couple up the narrow stone passage. Jak paused briefly to look at the man, wordlessly asking him to continue. "You two were caught in the Beast's blast."
"What about it?" Sake muttered before taking a few more steps while urging the others to follow.
"The Beast's attacks act like a Ray Sphere. He's using his powers to convert the electrical energy from living creatures in the blast radius to activate a Conduit- Or, make existing ones stronger."
"What are you saying?" Jak stopped, turning sharply. Cole found himself transfixed by the almost wild dim violet glow in the King's eyes.
"You're not dead because you're Conduits. I can see the gene, you both have it. If anything the blast should have activated you both, if you weren't already."
Once out of the underground passageways and back on the surface, they made their way back toward the throne room while Cole told more of his story. They wound through the city streets, civilians watching them curiously. But with Jak and Sake at either side of the strange-eared man, no one dared approach. The smoke from the crater still rose in brackish plumes in the distance.
He went on to explain that after the blast, he'd awoken with powers and used them to fight the chaos that had overtaken his city. They had been locked down in quarantine by the military, left to their own devices and the tyrannical rule of gangs and thugs. In time he became a hero to the people, and a fugitive of the law. He met a man named Kessler who warned him about the Beast, said that it was coming but when that day arrived, he wasn't strong enough to defeat it. So he fled. The next time he fought the Beast, he came close to winning except things went very wrong.
"And you woke up here." Sake finished his train of thoughts. Cole nodded wordlessly. Back at the top of the Palace, he could see the crater the Beast had left behind and listened Jak breathed in and sighed deeply, voice carrying a sense of profound loss. He grieved for his people. Sake rested a hand on his shoulder, which he took in both hands. The look on his face was filled with pain, masked by a strong conviction to avenge the fallen.
"I just hope I can find the Beast before it flattens this city or takes any more lives." Cole pursed his lips and flexed his hands subconsciously. Arcs danced like feelers, and it was then he felt the weight of not one, but two worlds relying on him. Things only got worse, because within he was fighting an impossible battle. He knew the real reason the Beast killed- It was saving the handful of people immune to the Plague, a virulent disease that afflicted only those who weren't ascended Conduits like himself, or the pair before him. The question arose- What if this world had only a handful of conduits, or even those able to survive being in the blast? He hoped like hell that Jak and Sake weren't the only two.
The call arrived around sunup the next morning. As they typically did, both Jak's and Sake's communicators chimed simultaneously to signal an incoming feed. It seemed that far out into the desert, another 'strange eared' man had been found amidst the ruins of Old Spargas by a team of scouts, just after the Marauders blew their buggy to Hell.
Cole nearly jumped out of his skin when the voice on the other end of the line described a portly fellow with dark hair and strange clothes.
"We're on our way, hold him until we get there." Jak closed the device, pocketing it before approaching his throne and picking up his weapons that he had set down earlier. Sake retrieved her own then the pair led Cole down to the city's garage by leaper. Several miles later, a large metal door stood between them and the garage, Cole eagerly climbing from the strange lizard and shaking the saddle-aches from his legs. The gate groaned opened when Jak held up a small metal cylinder with rounded ends.
The garage was filled with all manners of all-terrain vehicles, their solid frames plated with ornate or battered armor while huge tires supported the weight. Every buggy, minus a few, had some kind of firepower, whether it was an RPG, a rocket launcher, machine guns, or some other kind of heavy artillery.
"Going out?" A voice said, young but firm. Cole turned to see a boy, easily no older than twelve standing in the doorway to the actual garage where a buggy sat atop a lift, its engine in hundreds of pieces while a heavy set man cursed loudly from below it as oil spattered all over his bald head.
"Ah Damas. I'd like you to meet someone." Jak said, reaching out and patting the boy on the shoulder as he approached. "Cole, this is my son, Damas. Damas, Cole is the man your mother rescued from the desert."
"A pleasure to meet you." Damas was a wiry boy with sun-kissed skin and eyes so violet that they almost took Cole by surprise. His short hair was a shock of yellow and green that must've matched Jak's when he was younger, mostly combed back but sticking up in places from sweat and dirt. His clothing was caked in oil and grease, gloved hands stained black while various tools hung from a belt around his waist. A quick ping and Cole confirmed that the boy was a conduit- the gene doubly strong since both parents were one. This kid would make one hell of a Conduit if he ever ascended.
"Damas are the buggies ready to go?" Sake arrived moments later, giving the boy a fond smile with her hands on her hips.
"Yes, Mother. Kleiver and I just finished topping all the fluids and refilling the guns with ammo. I loaded yours with explosive rounds this time. I gave Dad armor piercing. Figured it might help with the Marauders." Damas grinned ear to ear as the Sand King tousled the boy's short hair.
"Very good. Go get Daxter, could you?" Jak smiled warmly and watched as the boy sprinted off, tools clanging as he disappeared into the garage, only for a small orange creature to emerge moments later, looking a little displeased and exhausted. "Just up from a nap Dax?"
"Tess and I were up all night trying to calm the kits down. I tell ya, I don't know how you cope with this 'parenting' thing. What I wouldn't give to go back to the old days." The animal groaned, rubbing his neck stiffly before leaping effortlessly onto Jak's shoulder pad. Huh, so that's what that thing was for.
"Then why not come along. Sake and I have to make an errand out into the desert." Jak offered, approaching his buggy which was plated with sheets of metal that curved and accented the body well enough. "Besides I could use you on the gun."
"Cole you're with me." Sake ordered, climbing into her own buggy from the top as it lacked doors. He stared at it nervously.
"I can't ride in cars." He said bluntly. "They tend to explode when I sit in them."
"Then get on the gun." She pointed with a thumb to a massive machine gun set into a pivot. Looking at the rounds, he easily wagered they were forty five or fifty cal. Why they needed such heavy weaponry in a desert was beyond him. Cautiously he placed one hand on the frame, and when nothing exploded, he used the other to heft himself up into the seat on the gun, buckling himself in once settled. Suddenly he felt someone tapping his thigh. Glancing down, he saw Damas.
"You're going to want these. I'm guessing you've never been in the middle of a sandstorm before." Cole took a pair of goggles and a scarf from him, only hesitating for a moment before putting them on. It was then that he noticed everyone else had scarves and goggles too, even the talking animal. Guess it was for the better.
Jak pulled open a hatch, sliding into his buggy before closing it and flicking a switch. His engine roared to life, just as Sake turned the keys to start her buggy. Cole subconsciously winced, waiting for the thing to burst into flames beneath him but it didn't, the engine rolling over and sputtering with an even lope. That was a saving grace.
"Before we go," Cole interjected before they got rolling, "When you found me out in the desert, did I have a double pronged device with me?" Sake nodded. "Could I have that back?" Damas had been standing in the doorway again, watching as the vehicles idled in place.
"Damas, Kleiver still has it right?" She asked after standing and crossing her arms on the frame. Cole took a moment to appreciate her figure, though she wasn't making any attempt to appear attractive at all. He had a thing about strong, independent women- Maybe that was why he loved Trish so much. God he missed that girl..
"Yeah. I'll go get it. He's been trying to figure out what it was for." Damas said, vanishing then seemingly re-materializing from thin air. Cole smiled at the sight of his Amp. "WhatIS this for anyways?"
"I use it to channel my powers." Cole reached down, taking the Amp from Damas before sliding it into its holster. "My buddy Z made it. Calls it the Amp."
"Oh cool, So you're a Channeler?" This Damas kid sure seemed smart, though he had no clue what in the hell a 'Channeler' was.. Cole couldn't help but smile- he was going to like this kid. "Mom and Dad have been teaching me. Not really all that good yet though."
"We're heading out now. You know the drill if the City is attacked, Damas. Don't give Kleiver a hard time!" Sake shouted over her engine while creeping her vehicle closer to the outer gate. Jak followed, revving his engine. Once the gate opened, the pair gunned it and were off, peeling through the desert.
Almost instantly, Cole was thankful for the scarf and goggles. Stiff winds blew the harsh sands around in dense pockets that stung his skin as they sped along, screaming across the dunes and even getting air more than a few times. If it weren't for the five point safety harness, Cole was sure he would've gone flying early on and the thought of getting lost in the desert was an unpleasant one.
"Eyes sharp, Marauders to the North. Dax, show em how Wastelanders say 'Hello!'" Came Jak's voice over Sake's dash radio.
"Got it partner!" And like that, the barrels atop Jak's buggy spun up before spewing a stream of bullets in the direction of a group of fast approaching car-shaped blurry smudges.. Half a second later, rounds pelted their own vehicles as the Marauders returned fire.
"Cole, what are you waiting for?! Take out those vehicles before they rip through our armor!" Sake ordered, like he was somehow the only person standing between them and a painful fiery death. So, he took hold of the controls and mashed in the buttons. The sound was enough to make him almost deaf, but the intense heat the barrels gave off was stifling. A fraction of a second later, the volleys of machine gun fire hammered into the group of Marauder vehicles as they jogged to the west, hoping to outrun their fire. However as each bullet made impact, it burst into a miniature fireball, the rounds that hit the cars causing them to catch fire.
In total there were four vehicles. Each was small, nimble and lightly plated. They were agile, able to dodge most of his fire despite the sand having the consistency of snot. A scouting party, most likely.
"Concentrate fire on the rear car." Jak directed. The rear-most car had been the one that Cole managed to catch on fire. As if they had planned it, both he and Daxter hammered the controls and doused the Marauder's buggy in bullets. The armor piercing rounds made short work of the flimsy rusted sheets of armor, ripping it away like paper mache while the explosive rounds hammered into the now-exposed interior. The gas tank caught fire moments later, the explosion sending the wreckage sky high in a glorious black and orange plume of smoke and flames. Cole grinned through the numbness in his arms because when it got down to it, he had to admit that.. he was having a lot of fun, even if he... really had no idea why they were attacking these 'Marauders'.
After all, Jak and Sake were the good guys... Right? Then that meant that the Marauders would have to be the bad guys.
Cole quickly realized that now was the worst time to have a morality crisis, their buggies suddenly pelted with a steady stream of enemy fire. He flinched as he felt a round whiz by his arm, crimson drooling from the cut moments later before it healed and vanished. Another car was in range, and after a silent affirmation with the orange rat, they opened up the barrels and laid into the Marauder, their hard work rewarded with another impressive black and orange fireball.
The last two cars suddenly diverged, Daxter aiming for one while Cole took the other. Daxter was the first to disable his target, armor piercing rounds slicing through the Marauder's flimsy armor and into the cockpit. The driver died instantly from the high caliber gunshot wounds, the vehicle swerving out of control before rolling wildly and skidding to a stop upside down against a rock.
For Cole, time lurched as he felt the energy surge through his body. All at once he was amazingly aware of his surroundings, the feel of the triggers under his thumbs, the annoying sting of the sand, the bead of sweat rolling down his neck and soaking into his already damp shirt as V's of moisture formed on the front, back and armpits. He could see the driver of the last Marauder car as it sped toward them from the left, head on- a burly individual with marred dark skin and armor that bespoke nothing but primal aggression.
He depressed the triggers, already glowing-hot barrels spinning up before showering the oncoming car in fiery death. The explosion set the vehicle airborne, flying end over end on a direct collision course with their buggy. In the blink of an eye, he unbuckled himself, bracing himself against the frame before focusing an orb of electricity in his hands. With a fraction of a thought, he hurled the orb toward the oncoming wreckage, the orb flattening into a transparent disc then a cone as the Shockwave smashed into the Marauder's undercarriage. The move did the trick, redirecting the burning husk of metal as Sake and Jak laid on their accelerators.
It was bad enough that the fight had gone to shit, and it was even worse, since now that he was stuck in some desert with a bunch of well armed long eared dudes with their thumbs up their asses.
Prior to his imprisonment with these goons, Zeke had found himself dumped into the too-warm waters of an ocean bordering a vast sea of sand. The only distinguishable landmark was a mountain top that must've been some thirty or forty miles in the distance. Where this place was though was a total mystery, since nothing seemed to fit his limited knowledge of world geography. Plus, he didn't recall Earth having a green sun.
Maybe 'imprisonment' was a bit harsh. He wasn't chained, or in a cage. Instead he was just sitting on a boulder in the shade of a rocky outcropping. They had given him water, which seemed nice enough except for the fact that it tasted like piss. Then again, he'd be lying if he said he preferred his previous situation to this- At least these men, and two women, it seemed, didn't point guns at him- unlike the bunch that had tried to haul him away earlier that day whose smell alone threatened to knock him out cold.
The warm wind blew into shaded cove, carrying with the distant sound of rumbling engines. One of his 'hosts' was on a communicator, and minutes later the source of the throaty sound pulled to a stop. The first thing he noticed was Cole sitting atop a machine gun looking far too pleased with himself, wearing a pair of doofy goggles and a scarf.
"Holy shit, Cole- That you brother?!" Zeke hefted himself up off the rock, running out into the sun as Cole unbuckled the restraints to the gun and hopped down. The two met in the middle, clapping hands together before sharing a brotherly hug.
"Damn Z, you look like hell." Cole grinned. Others looked on while Sake watched from her buggy, sitting atop the frame with one leg up and her arms crossed. This day was just getting weirder.
"Boy do I feel like it. Now uh.. Can someone explain just where the hell we are?" Zeke said through a wet cough as he adjusted his sunglasses, shielding his eyes still with a hand. He could feel his skin practically frying under the intense heat, though it seemed Cole hadn't been spared, his almost clean-shaven head shimmering.
"I'll be happy to tell you on the ride back to Spargas. For now we need to get moving." Zeke turned when he heard a woman speak up, standing on top of her buggy before jumping off. She approached the other individuals who had remained quiet up until then.
"Sorry we had to call Your Highness. Damn Marauders shot up me damned buggy. She's a pile o' shrapnel, probably swallowed by the desert by now I imagine.." said one as he approached her, scratching his head. He was a sandy blond haired fellow, scrawny with plenty of scars and exotic 'tribal' tattoos.
"Load everyone into our buggies then. It'll be a tight fit, but we should make it back." She turned to face a stern faced yellow-green haired man who was staring at the horizon to the north. It was growing dark quickly.
"We better be fast to. Looks like another sandstorm is brewing." The man reached out toward a small orange creature sitting on a big gun, who jumped and cleared the gap easily, landing on the blond's shoulder while one of the Wastelanders climbed onto the back. Zeke was hesitant to climb into either vehicle- Bullet holes were never a good sign. When it came down to it though, he preferred to ride next to a pretty woman than a grizzly guy with his hair in dreadlocks, though the weird spikes on their heads were a bit strange. It kind of resembled a crown. His thoughts were interrupted when Cole slid into a space between the gunner's position and the forward cab while another Wastelander took the gun.
Just then, the woman turned her attention to the sky, arm up with her palm open. "What the hell? Its.. snow..."
"That's impossible. We're in the middle of a desert." Said the scrawny Wastelander on the gun until a crystalline white flake landed on his palm and melted. "Well I'll be damned. Ye don't see that every day.."
"No you don't. Sake, double time it to Spargas. We don't stop for anything. That storm's on a track for Spargas. I'll radio ahead and issue the lock-down." Zeke felt the snow pelting him now too, little pricks of cold amidst the suffocating heat, which by all accounts was physically impossible, unless the snow wasn't made under normal circumstances. He turned to share a silent look with Cole who nodded while stared at the horizon.
Finally, with everyone strapped in, the Jak and Sake threw their buggies into drive and peeled off back toward Spargas, completely unaware of the displaced individual the sandstorm had hurdled to the ground off in the distance.
A/N: Hope you liked it! Remember to Comment and follow for more updates in the future!