Chapter 3: Shopping and a Meeting

Date: October 2, 3657

Location: Water Slums

Daxter yawned as he stretched and was about to go back to sleep when his bed suddenly flipped on him and threw him onto the other side of the bed. Eyes wide open he turned in time to see the body he'd fallen asleep on had flipped again, this time towards the other way. Jak was back….sortta. He looked at the lithe form of his former childhood friend and mentally cursed Praxis for doing this to Jak. His best friend was now a girl. As Jak flipped back towards Daxter he saw her brow was creased into a frown and then heard a slight whimper escape her lips followed by his name.

"Dax..ter." she whimpered again. "Run…don't…" her breathing increased to the point that Daxter suddenly realized that she was having a nightmare.

Jumping to his feet he jumped onto her stomach and proceeded to yelled at her. "Jak! Wake up!" he yelled and shook her.

Jak's eyes shot open and she threw herself into the nearest corner. Eyes wide as she looked around herself and memories of the previous day suddenly came back. "It…was real." She breathed out a sigh of relief. "I'm free."

"Daxter's ears fell back against his skull at seeing the fear and then the relief that spread into his friends eyes. "Yeah buddy, it was real." He walked over to Jak and touched his arm. "This okay?" he asked not wanting to scare him…err her. Gotta remember he's a she now. he thought as he watched his friend look down at him.

"Yeah, that's fine." She sighed. "Never thought I'd feel so…insecure in my life before coming here."

"Eh, ya get use ta it." Daxter said scratching the back of his neck. He was about to ask something when there was a knock at the front door. Jak pushed himself further into the wall behind her and grabbed a wooden board, that was nailed into the wall to keep the cold out, for balance. "Easy babe, let the Daxanator get it." he waddled away and down the ladder. He then went into Jaks backpack were he'd stashed his bug gear and walked over to the door and opened it only to reveal a blonde haired man in green overalls and a white t-shirt that had Kridder Ridder Extermination Company logo on it.

"Dude!" the guy said as he bent down to Daxter's level and slammed fists with the little guy.

"Dude!" Daxter replied as he fist bumped Zimon's hand. "Whacha doin' in this sector."

"Heh." was his reply. "Found something of yers." He said this as he held up a jar with a bouncing bug inside of it.

"Tik!" he yelled happily. "How'd ya know I had 'im?" he asked as he lit the little bug out of the jar.

"Dude, you scratched all the time." Zimon replied as he walked into the house. "Wow, Taryn set ya up with a sweet pad man." Zimon suddenly heard something up in the loft. "Dude is that yer friend?" he asked

This caused Daxter to rush over to the ladder. "Dude, Jak's not…err…up to company."

"That's cool." Zimon said as he looked up. "Yo, I'm Zimon. Daxter's friend ya need help any time just call." He looked down at Daxter. "I mean it man. I'm there."

"Sweet." Daxter smiled not too innocently.

"Oh, so Dad's being forced to close down temporarily until the place is fixed up." He scratched the back of his neck. "So don't expect to get your next pay in probably eight to twelve weeks."

"WHAT!" Daxter screeched causing even Jak to wince at the volume his voice had suddenly taken and decided to look down at his friend and this Zimon guy.

"Chillax little dude." He said with a smile. "I'd never leave ya high and dry." He paused as he pulled out a silver metal card with a black outer edge. "This credit chit has your last month's worth of creds on it. It should last you until you can find another source of income." He paused as Daxter grabbed the credit chit and saw Daxter's ears were flat against his head. "Ya know I could talk to Taryn and get her to talk to her friends and see if there's some small job you and your friend Jak could do."

"Really?" Daxter asked as his ears suddenly perked up a bit. "Yer not pullin' my leg are ya?" he asked as he eyed Zimon.

"Nope." He shook his head as he pulled his cap out of the back pocket and put it on his head. "Well, gotta go. "Hope yer friend is up to visitors later little Dude."

"Yeah, yeah…" Daxter said as he waved Zimon away as the door shut behind him. Looking down at the credit chit he pressed the small button on the side and some number lit up on the chit. His eyes widened slightly. Thirty-nine hundred credits! A smiled appeared on Daxters mind. "Jak babe, get up! We're goin' a shoppin' fer yer clothes and at least a hand me down couch." He said looking around the empty room he was standing in. "Jeesh, the only thing down here is the wood burner.

"Are you sure?" Jak asked as she climbed down the ladder.

"Absolutely babe." He said as he jumped up to her shoulder pad. "Would I lie to you?" Jak gave him a look. "Okay, besides the wumpbee incident." Jak smiled as she put on the boots she'd taken off the night before. " 'sides we've gotta go grocery shoppin'."

As the two left the house they went down through the water slums without bumping into any guards. Once they got to the slums market place Daxter was surprised to see how abandoned it was. He then spotted a lurker with blue fur standing next to a stand grunting as people walked by. Around its neck was a collar that indicated that it was a slave to somebody. "Slave lurkers are pretty obedient." he told Jak as he pointed the big lug out. "They also give ya good deals."

Jumping from Jak's shoulder Daxter ran over to the stand with the lurker and began picking different fruits from the stand and putting them into a basket. The lurker watched out of the corner of his eye. When Daxter had filled the basket he began to barter with the lurker, who would grunt for a lesser and growl if Daxter asked for too little of a price. In the end Daxter got a week worth of food for half the price he would've had to pay if it'd been an Elf waiting on this stand.

So with food paid for the two headed off towards the clothing stores that were on the other side of town in the bazaar. Daxter poked his body between two slabs of metal and held the metal back to allow Jak to pass into the industrial sector and the two made their way to the bazaar. Once they got to the security check point Daxter spotted a hole the side of Jak's entire body and the two squeezed through the brick walls. Once through there they began the clothing shopping. A lot of the clothes were way too…sexy in Daxter's opinion and being that he in no way wanted to see his best friend in those immediately left the store with Jak in tow. It took them most of the afternoon to find one good store that had modest women's clothing. Jak ended up with four outfits which Daxter deemed appropriate. This of course included under garments which Daxter promptly hid his eyes when the store clerk had showed them to Jak.

Jak for the whole trip enjoyed herself, especially when it came to embarrassing Daxter by asking his opinion and the only thing he'd say was "Whatever makes ya feel good babe." Jak couldn't help but enjoy herself, but when Daxter acted that way it made her pause and wonder why. Then there was Daxter calling her babe all the time. Why'd he do that?

Next was what Daxter called the black market, it was near the farming sector. Here Jak spotted slaves, both Elf and Lurker alike, being sold, Eco crystals being traded for something more valuable and weapons, lots and lots of weapons all of which, Jak could guess were very illegal. Daxter walked up behind a vendor, Jak right behind him when they spotted a woman bent over looking under a table. The woman wore a red leather jacket faded black pants and combat boot. She also had a pistol strapped to her back and a bowie dagger on her left thigh leg.

"Taryn baby," Daxter said spooking the young woman and causing her to hit her head on the table above her. "what's shakin'?" he asked this seeming to be oblivious of her cursing.

"Daxter." she groaned as she rubbed her head. Jak picked up her accent immediately and raised an eyebrow. "Impeccable timing, as always." She grumbled as she turned and looked at the duo.

"Who are you?" she asked upon seeing Jak, who looked as if she'd slept in the shirt she was wearing; which she had.

"Jak." was her reply as she looked at this Taryn woman. She looked tough and bit of a wise ass too. Jak smiled and suddenly she liked this chick.

"Jak." Taryn repeated and backed up a bit to take a good look at her before looking down at Daxter. "I thought you said your friend was a guy."

Both suddenly looked away from each other and rubbed the back of their necks. "Well ya see…" Daxter began but Jak interrupted.

"I was." She responded. "Praxis shot me up with dark eco over the course of two years and I got turned into a woman." as she said this Taryn's eyebrows shot up.

"Interesting." She said as she paced back and forth and then grabbed Jak by the face and inspected her. "Well, for a once long ago boy, you're not bad looking once you've been turned a girl." She winked at Jak causing Daxter's jaw to drop.

"Woe, easy there." Jak said as he backed away from Taryn. "I don't think…"

"Easy big guy." She said and then looked down at Daxter. "So what can I do for you Daxter?"

"Jak here needs some weapons to keep herself safe and all from the Baron's goons." He said as he pointed to Jak. "Now Jakkie here," he sarted as he pointed to Jak. "use to be a channeler of all eco, but now seems to only channel the dark stuff. Think ya have anythang good that ah she could use?"

Taryn looked at Jak for a moment. "Well," she began as she walked behind the table and began to rummage through a box. "I've got this new sword that I found out in the precursor ruins in Haven Forest. It gives off a dark eco aura and it makes me believe that it has some hidden talents of its own." She held up the sword. It was about two and half feet long, a greater taper from hilt to point than the swords he'd seen that were wielded by the villagers of Rock Village, was more curved with a smaller pointed area edge than the katana he'd seen the hero of Rock Village. "It's called a Tachi. It's a very old sword, but it's made out of a metal I've never seen. It's golden like Precursor metal, but energy can be conducted through it way better. I had it analyzed by Vin from the Power Plant and Research Station on the edge of the town." She handed it to Jak. "It's the only weapon that I have that, from what I've been told, is made for a dark channeler."

Jak nodded as she pulled the sword from the scrapboard and smiled as the blade seemed to give off an eerie purple glow and as Jak smiled she heard a single word in the back of her mind. Mine. That one word gave Jak a chill that went down her spine. The voice was definitely feminine, but was in no way a gentle voice. The light from the street light above them caught the blade and gave off a gleam. Jak smiled, she liked it. "How much?"

Daxter snorted. "It don't work that way babe." he said as he walked up to Taryn. "Where's the heaviest and nastiest infestations?" he asked causing the woman to smile at his brazen way of actually asking the right question for a change and for once he wasn't flirting with her.

"In dead town." she said "Plus, if you're looking for a real challenge I may have one for you, if you come back alive."

"Deal!" Daxter all but jumped for joy at having a job to do and from his fourth favorite person in Haven City.

Location: Dead Town

After stopping off at the house in the Water Slums they headed towards the jobsite where Jak got her first good look at what was referred as Dead Town and stared around and grimaced; the place well named. Crumbling and decayed buildings ran almost as far as her eyes could see, and a disgusting, semi-toxic sludge covered most of the ground, and a smell that reminded him of Daxter's room back in Sandover.

The young elf started out, heading towards the large, almost destroyed tower that could be seen even from here. However, she had taken only a few steps when she felt something. It was like nothing she could really describe, or anything she had felt before. It started out almost as an itching sensation in the back of her mind, a subtle beckoning to her soul and at that moment she wasn't there in that place but in another place in her mind. There she saw a pale being sitting crossed legged and its claws were digging into the ground. The being looked up at her, its dark onyx black eyes barring into her crystal blue ones. Pale while hair went waist length and black horns curled backwards against its skull. It looked at her and suddenly was on its feet, but before either could say something that place faded from her mind and she was back in dead town.

Looking down at the Tachi sword she saw that it was glowing even brighter. "Let's do this."

Daxter smiled and pulled out his weapons from her backpack and put it on his body. "I'll go right, you go left babe." He threw her a new communicator. "My number is pre-programmed into it." he said as he took off towards the tower.

Jak sighed as she put the unit into her back pocket and took off in a dead sprint, she soon came across the local residents, however hostile they may have been, they relied on instincts, and thus were no match for Jak, with her intuitive brain, and eco enhanced reflexes. What truly worried her was the condition of the area that she was in. Several times as she drew close to her newest destination she had felt the stone and rebar shift underneath her weight, and knew one wrong move would send her plummeting into the ooze below.

Now after an hour she was about three stories above the ooze and sludge and found herself killing larger and larger creatures with the dark blade and suddenly one large creature with a glowing yellow stone came at her. It had a feline outline and as it jumped at her it opened its mouth. Spinning mid-air she blade slashed the creature from mouth to gut, innards and other miscellaneous organs fell from the creatures wound, but what was most interesting was when the she looked at the sword and watched the blood of the creature be pulled towards the blade and the eerie glow would brighten causing the young woman's eyes to widen and that was when she noticed that the creature she'd just killed was infected with dark eco. Could it be that the blade fed off of the eco in its victims? No that was impossible. she thought, because for that to be possible the sword had to be sentient of sort and inanimate objects couldn't have sentience.

Near the base of the tower, was where disaster first struck for Daxter as he was walking across a bridge that connected the shell of one building to the tower. At about the halfway point, he felt the stone begin to move and amidst his own terrified screams, he leap towards the crumbling edge.

During Daxter's own frightening experience that had nothing to do with the mutant creatures attacking him every so often, Jak suddenly had to jump to save her own life when the slabs of the walkway suddenly gave out from under her feet. The jump should have been impossible, as it was more than twenty feet, however once again, she'd been saved by what had been done to her and as she leaned back against leaned back against the building, she was forced to fight down a flood of revulsion that filled her. Her anger rose, and for a moment, she felt that animalistic presence rise with it, before she forcefully, perhaps excessively so, shoved back into whatever dark corner of her mind had spawned it.

It was then that she heard a shrill ahead of herself and walked towards it, the blade in her hand at the ready. She ran forward and saw two more of the feline creatures with glowing skull gems and ran at them. The first threw a ball of purple electricity and Jak smiled. Dark eco no longer had an effect on her. The ball landed behind her and she threw herself at the creature and caught it by its neck and snapped it with little effort. The second saw what had been done to its companion by the rogue elf and swatted at Jak with its claws. Jak, having seen this jumped backwards; though her shirt did suddenly have three new scratch mark rips in it. Bringing her weapon up she slashed the neck of the creature and then slashed downwards and the creatures inside fell out.

Upon continuing towards the edge Jak saw a large hut on an island in front of her and gasped at what she saw. Reaching into her pocket she called Daxter's comm. line. "Daxter," she said as she refused to take her eyes off of the building in from of her.

"What?" came a breathless reply followed by a blast, scream and then turning around Jak turned in time to see the tower fall. Daxter's screams could be heard over the comm. line, followed by an oomff sound. "I'm okay." he announced. "Whaddya need babe?" he inquired as he stood and looked into the comm. units camera.

"Look." She said as she turned the comm. unit towards the hut in front of her.

"Is that…no…no, that can't be…that's…that's…" Daxter stuttered horriblely.

"It's Samos' hut Daxter." she gave a sad sigh. "This horrible place…it's home….We're in the future Dax." Her eyes were wide as she took in her surroundings and suddenly a deep weeping feeling spread throughout her entire being. We've been home this whole time! her thoughts cried.

Once Jak had found Daxter the two walked in silence back to their house, both too busy with their own thoughts. Jak lifted her head and watched as people sped away in the flying zoomers above her and Daxter's heads. Oh, how I'd love to drive one of those. she thought as they continued their way home. It was once they got near the water slums that something in the back of her mind yelled that something wasn't right, that they were being followed. Turning her head sharply she didn't spot anything or anybody. Daxter looked up at Jak. "What's wrong buddy?" he asked as he noticed how stiff she'd gone. Jak was about to answer when a gun went off not too far from their position. Jak dove into an alley with Daxter right next to her.

Peering around the corner she watched as a blonde man came running around the corner. His blonde hair was pulled back into a pony tail and he had a red bandana around his face. His face had tattoos on them that looked eerily like K.G. markings. Jak felt the dark eco move in his veins at the thought of a K.G. in civilian clothes shooting at innocents. It was then that he saw armored guards come after the man and begin shooting at him. Jak's eyes widened as she realized that something else entirely was going on and that she'd almost attacked this man when it was quite possible that he really was a civilian.

The guy suddenly had something shot into the center of his back and fell to the ground. Jak cursed silently. I shouldn't get involved. she thought as she watched the K.G. close in. The dirty blonde male gave a gasp as he looked up and spotted Jak. Shit. she thought and suddenly hated herself and ran out. Standing over the guy she brought out her sword and suddenly the K.G. paused in their movements and then realized that the person that was standing in front of them was the escapee from the day before.

"GET HER!" yelled one as he lept forward with his men behind him.

"Ya know," Daxter began as he looked up at Jak. "Ya would think they'd learn from yesterday."

Jak sighed and in one hand channeled a ball of dark eco into her fist and lifted it above her head and then released its energy upon the advancing group of six soldiers. The blast sent a shockwave that she absorbed with her body. When the mist from the blast vaporized it revealed that the group had not only been killed, but was also vaporized.

"Holy shit!" the guy yelled out. "Ya ain't bad blondie." He walked up to the woman. Her orange rodent suddenly jumped up on her shoulder.

"Cute pet." He said as he sized her up.

"Hey!" Daxter yelled. "Face is up here buddy!" Daxter's yell caused the man to blink in surprise at the rodents ability to speak. Daxter on the other hand was getting annoyed with every whistle and gaping look that ever man was giving his best friend and couldn't figure out why he didn't like this. After all it wasn't his problem, it was Jak's and she could deck any man she wanted and stop 'em from staring, if she wanted to.

"Who are you and why were they after you?" Jak asked causing the man to raise an eyebrow at her.

"Damn, with that voice you could be a porn star." He grinned, but Jak just gave him the scariest look she could. "I may have blown something up sweet cheeks." He began to walk away and then paused as he remembered what he'd seen on that video the night before when he and Torn had met Ashelin. "But it ain't me with a fifty thousand credit wanted sign above my head." He sized her up once more and gave a whistle. "Now I know why the Baron wants you back so badly." He pulled the bandana away from his lips and held out his hand. "Name's Jinx."

Looking at Daxter who shrugged she turned back towards Jinx. "Jak." She said taking his hand and shaking it.

"I know some people who could use…"

"…a fighter like me?" she finished for him.

"Yeah." Jinx said as he stuck a cigar in his mouth. "Heard that one blondie?"

"Yeah," she began to walk away. "I'll think about it."

Jinx's eyes widened in surprise as he watched the woman and her pet walk away and down the boardwalk towards the Water Slums. A moment later he was on a stolen zoomer and opened a link. "What?" came the gruff voice.

"Job done." He said as he maneuvered the zoomer bike through traffic. "Found the girl."

"Is she with you?" came the response, though Jinx could hear some curiosity in the voice.

"Nope, she said I'll think about it and walked away." He paused when he heard something break. "She seems to live in the Water Slums, not sure where. Lost her in the crowds and yes I tried to follow her."

"Damn it!"

"Easy Torn, yer gonna give yourself a stroke." The pyro joked.

"Not funny." was Torn's reply. "Anything else?"

"She's hot." Jinx stated which resulted in a snort from Torn.

"Head back to base."

"Gotcha." Jinx muttered as he shut the comm. unit off and continued to drive through the poorest section of the slums and silently wondered if life was ever going to get better for any of them.

M-Angel: Hehe...I thought long and hard about this when writing this chapter. You don't see Jinx or any of the characters from the Daxter game in any of the Jak stories online, so I decided to make sure these characters get their chance to shine a bit. I always liked Jinx; I think he had so much potential, but you rarely see him in the two games he appeared in.

xoxoangii: That was always something that bummed me out... seeing characters that have so much potential but not getting a lot of screen time :(

M-Angel: I'm so dancing to Shakira's She Wolf while writing this chapter. hehe... I can't help it, I like songs with an actual beat and not the mindless techno beat; though I do like those songs too, but only in a club. ;) Err...I better get back to writing... ^_^

xoxoangii: I loved Shakira on The Voice! She was a great coach and I love her music :D See you guys next time!