Chapter 5: Fat Men and Wastelanders

Date: October 9, 3657
Location: Port Sector

Jak looked at the ruined zoomer bike as she came to a stop at the Hip Hog Saloon. She'd been chased through the entire industrial sector with Daxter screaming in her ear at which way was the best way to the bar. Rubbing her ear she glared at her best friend who was now on the ground. Daxter gave her a sheepish looking look and sighed as the ringing in her ear slowly ebbed away. The two walked into the bar and came to a dead stop when an intense smell hit them like a runaway zoomer and both grimaced at it. The bar had booths on either side of the building and a large assed boxing ring in the dead center along with a striper pole inside the ring. The floor was caked with soot, grime, and something neither wanted to think about. The walls have every type of trophy animal on it, including a particularly large metal head's head near the front of the place.

It was then they both saw a man dressed in armor made out of metal heads and as Daxter walked between said man's legs Jak couldn't help but feel this strange man sizing her up. Jak had, had abput enough with men and their eyes wondering around her body. It was damn uncomfortable and left her feeling dirty. It had been bad enough when Erol would try to take advantage of her after each of her treatments. She was lucky she'd had just enough energy after them to fight off the lunatic of a commander each time, but once she'd almost lost and had resorted in biting the man's neck, after that particular incident Erol hadn't tried to take advantage of her in that way, but he did love cutting her, only to watch the eco heal her wounds.

Having not paid attention to Daxter or who he was talking to Jak suddenly heard a large hovercraft go over her head and turned around just in time to see a large and obese man in the floating contraption and her first thought was By the ancients, how is it possible to get that fat?

Gawking was something Jak had never done in her life as either a boy or the woman she was now, but by the Precursors she was doing it now. The man in metal head armor had gone around the ring and was now behind the odalisque of a man and gave a cough, which knocked her out of her shock. "You Krew?" she asked.

"Depends on who's a asking?" the being replied with a slight growl.

Jak simply extended her arms, showing the carefully wrapped package of Eco ore. Krew's one eye, the other one was a milky white color for some reason, took on a greedy look, and he hovered over towards Jak, and swiftly deprived her of the package.

"This is good, ey, as a bag of rare Eco ore, is worth more than ten of your lives! And of course, I'd be forced to collect…slowly." he said with a sinister chuckle which almost caused Daxter to faint, but instead the ottsel gave a loud gulp.

"Well, I do hope you're satisfied," Daxter growled, "'cause we had to deep-six half a dozen Krimzon Guards to get it to ya!"

"Is that so, well…I must say, that takes some skill, ey?" the bar owner mused, rubbing his several chins. "Sig, why don't you el' captain here, a little something extra for her trouble?"

The big elf nodded and walked over to them slowly. Jak stared intently at the eyes of the brute of a man, and Daxter backed up nervously. However, once the man got up close he reached behind him, and pulled out a strange looking weapon. He extended it, butt first, to Jak. The young woman gripped the weapon carefully. It was lightweight, and she could see that it was fed by bottom loaded power packs, however, the gun was also a tad heavy on the barrel end of it. She continued to examine the weapon, and thinking back, could seem to recall observing such a thing being used amongst the Underground, mostly the veteran members, but she'd never shot such a weapon herself, having stayed with her Tashi sword, which seemed to do just as of a fine job.

"What is it?" she ventured to ask the brute, who'd been watching her carefully with his good eye, though she was sure the mechanical one was watching her too.

"It's called a morph-gun." Sig told him in a baritone voice that sounded bored out of his mind. "That baby is the final word in military infantry technology. The gun's outfitted with several devices that allow for it to have mods installed on it, which lets you change it to a different weapon with the push of a button. They're state of the art, and far superior to that standard issue pea-shooter." Jak's mouth suddenly lifted into what was becoming her signature half smirk, half smile that always meant trouble. "Wanna give it for a test run?"

Jak looked down at Daxter who was rubbing his paws together that meant anything but innocent intent. "Sure." She replied to the brute.

"Follow me." Sig said as he led them out the back way of the bar and down several alleyways until they came to a gun course. "This is a city open gun course, unfortuneately that means that a guard can pop in at any time. So let's get this done before such a thing occurs."

Jak nodded, stepped forward, and grabbed an ammo belt and a double handful of power packs. She slid one in, and smiled at the satisfying click it made, also noting how the weapon was now balanced. He felt it hum, and saw the readout near the handgrip showed her that the weapon was at full ammo. Sig went over to a computer station and started typing in commands.

"Okay, kiddies, here's your first course. Step inside."

The door slid closed as Jak stepped inside carefully, Daxter still perched on her shoulder. The dup could see the tracks on which the targets would spring up and move. Further staring revealed the place was built like a cityscape.

"Okay, boys," came Sig's voice over the speakers. "the rules of the game are simple: shoot the Metal Head targets, the faster you shoot, and the more you kill overall, the more points you get. You will, however, be deducted and penalized for shooting civilians, you copy?"

"Loud and clear." Jak responded as she tightened her grip upon her weapon.

A single target popped up. Jak took aim, and squeezed the trigger. The first thing that the dark elf noted was that this magnum had significantly higher recoil than anything she'd seen before. As Daxter yelped from the unexpected amount of racket, the bolt of Eco slammed home, reducing the Metal Head to a few shards of cardboard.

"Not bad, rookie, not bad at all." Sig mused.

"Yeah, nice shooting, Jak." Daxter exclaimed, recovering his composure and jumping up and down on his friend's shoulder. The words had scarcely left Daxter's mouth when a new target zipped in from them from the side. This type of Metal Head cutout was different from the others, a type that Jak had never seen before. Also, this one had armor, apparently taken from some hapless guard and reworked to resemble that which the Metal Heads wore. She then shot holding down the trigger a bit longer as she felt her gun shift into a new mod of the magnum mod and suddenly a red charge appeared at the end and the gun began to shake violently after a couple of seconds. The dark elf then released the trigger.

The gun flew up from the power of the shot, and a bolt larger around than the elf's fist leapt from the barrel. It smashed into its target, punched through the armor on it, and kept going until it blew a good sized hole in the course walls.

Another such target came out, and met with a similar fate. As Daxter whistled, Jak felt the gun pulse faintly, as she fired again and again when she heard a beep she took out one of the power packs and refilled it and continued on through the gun course. Suddenly, a Metal Head popped up to her right, she twisted, and fired, the three shot burst tore it to pieces. She heard the sound of another one popping up, behind her and turned, and shot at a trio of metal heads, a high-pitched discharge testified to their demise as well. Onward she continued with Daxter getting antsier at not getting one of these wonderful weapons and just stayed on the shoulder watching Jak destroy her artificial enemies. Once or twice, she had gotten overly-eager and accidentally shot down a helpless elf that popped up. But she was rapidly improving, and Sig whistled to himself as he monitored the girl's progress. The rookie has talent. He thought as he watched another cardboard cutout be destroyed. Of course these aren't real, I'd like to see how she reacts in the thick. He continued to watch them until they came out of the course at the other end and was slightly impressed to see the score board readout a new top score of 15000 in red and then a credit chit popped out. Flicking it towards the duo Sig smirked as the girl caught it in mid-air.

"Not bad rookies." He nodded

"How'd I do?" Jak inquired, as she slid the new weapon into her pack, the simple shift allowed Sig to notice the sword on her back that was hidden by the thick trench coat that she was wearing and his mechanical eye zoomed in on the weapon before it vanished as she moved the coat back into place.

"Weeeeelllll," Sig told her with a smile, "Your point total was in excess of fifteen thousand."

"And what's a normal score?" the dark elf asked, cocking her head slightly.

"Usually somewhere in the three to four thousand area, you're a natural at this, kid." Sig told her, and let it be known that he did not hand out such compliments unless they were earned by how loud his voice had gotten. "As a matter of fact, I think Krew would like to have a little chat with you." Sig continued "Load back up and head back, we'll talk there."

Jak headed over to the ammo rack, and picked up another handful of energy packs, sliding them home in her belt and pack as ran to get to the bar room. When she arrived she saw Sig and Krew engaged in a hushed conversation. They looked up as she entered, and Krew smiled, baring his unsightly teeth. "Sig was just telling me about your performance, excellent work, Jak. Tell me, have you ever considered becoming a Wastelander?" the fat man inquired, rubbing his hands together.

"Can't say that I have." She replied with a somewhat truthful answer and yet was now curious.

"Wastelanders are people who find artifacts and weapons for me outside the city walls, ey. Any weapon worth having comes through my hands. If you cosider working for me, I'll toss a few of the sweeter items your way." Krew proposed as he floated closer to the woman.

"Kill Metal Heads, get toys, sounds good to me." Jak answered her voice chilled.

"Slow down Jak and the fat man," Daxter yelled out as he jumped back up onto Jak's shoulder and glared at her. "You better run that by me again."

The miniature blimp chuckled, "I'll let Sig explain the rest to you."

" I'm not doing anything until you tell me why the Baron's forces are giving Eco to the Metal Heads." Jak growled as she remembered that they were suppose to ask about this for Torn.

Krew growled, but after weighing out the pros and cons in his calculating mind, could see no harm in telling the boy. Besides, if it would gain the loyalty of this young warrioress, it would be all for the better. "All I know, is that the Baron struck a desperate deal with the Metal Head leader. Those monsters need Eco, so the Baron provides them with regular shipments, and in return, they attack the city just enough to ensure that Praxis stays in power." the bar owner growled to Jak, who detected a slight bit of grudging admiration in Krew's voice. "He needs this war to stay in power, otherwise the city would put the true ruler on the throne, wherever that little brat is."

Jak frown at the last part and turned to face Sig, who had an eager gleam to his eye.

Location: Haven Forest

As it turned out Sig was going to meet the duo that evening in the deepest area in Haven Forest. Jak having never been there before decided to check the area out before the hunting expedition and with Daxter's help they snagged a pass into the sector where the forest entrance was. However once there Jak's eyes widened at the chasm that she came in contact with, the canyon was huge and gapping.

Daxter jumped off of his buddy's shoulder and moved a bushes leaves and whistled at Jak, who turned towards him and walked over to the ottsel. Upon seeing the golden metal ring with a swirling blue pool in the center she smiled. The warp gate was active and they both jumped through it. On the other side they appeared on a cliff that overlooked Haven City and Jak suddenly realized how easy it would be to just keep walking away from the place. All she'd have to do it tell Daxter that she wanted to leave and they'd been gone, but she couldn't leave Samos and Keira behind. Sighing sadly she looked down at Daxter who's paws had grabbed her pant leg and climbed upon her shoulder.

"I know." He said. "It'd be so very easy to leave right now." she nodded. "But you don't wanna?" he asked.

"Not yet." She said, her voice quivered as she turned towards the forest and began to look around. As they turned the corner away from the warp gate they came to an upside down Precursorean floating platform. Jak pulled out her gun and smiled at Daxter who wiggled his eye brows up and down. Upon shooting the platform it flipped around and allowed them to cross the chasm only to flip back as soon as they had jumped to the other side.

"Gotta remember to be fast with those things when we cross over 'em." Daxter muttered as he continued to walk next to Jak, who gave a nod in agreement. The two stepped onto the Precursorean elevator, which went downward. "Whaddya think we'll find in these ruins?" Jak shrugged. "You're doing it again!" he complained. "You talk now babe, so use yer words." Sighing she looked down at Daxter who groaned. "Yea, yea." He said as he waved her look away and then paused when he saw two grunts in their path. "Oi." He groaned. "Remind me to talk to Taryn about getting a smaller version of your gun babe." He said as he jumped onto her shoulder as Jak took out her sword and charged the metal heads.

Meanwhile at the entrance of Haven Forest Sig had arrived to the forest hours early in order to scout for the crab head metal heads that Krew wanted for the new apolestry for the seats of the barstools around the bar. After he'd gone through the warp gate he was about to go forward towards the deeper end of the forest when he heard gun shots heading into the old ruins. So shooting the floating platform he made his way towards the elevator and the lower parts of the ruins. Upon seeing dead bodies of lesser metal heads he decided to keep his staff weapon out just in case whatever killed these things was still around.

The wounds on the grunts showed that it was made by a gun. The animals insides looked like they'd been blasted to bits. His normal eye widened at the realization. Naw, the rookies aren't that stupid. he thought as he remembered Jak and Daxter. Upon first glance the woman and animal seemed to be just that, but when he had watched the woman fight in the gun course he'd seen the animal yell out warning to her, which gave her an advantage and when the animal wasn't yelling out something he'd seen her ear twitch just as one of the cutouts went to pop up. She'd been fast, inhumanly fast. He'd only seen one other warrior fight like her and he was his King back home and the reason he was here in Haven, this blasted city had been stupid enough to let Praxis take control; he believed that the fates were giving these traitors their due.

Entering the old temple building he found a dozen bug like metal heads. Many of which were writhing in pain as they gave their last gasps. Turning right he followed the death and destruction. He came crossed a centurion metal head, its weapons gone, including its shielding unit. Then he came to a lake a dark eco and crossed it using an impromptu bridge of a precursor piece of metal. Once acrossed he found another bridge, this one floating on the dark substance and followed it to a round uplifted piece of precursor metal. He then heard a voice coming out of the building next to the uplifted piece of metal that was the size of a nice transport train. Looking towards the building he saw a dead metal head beast, one he'd never seen before when hunting. It looked like a breed of land animal from the wasteland with two horns on his nose and a long ridged body and small tail. One inside the building he saw Jak standing there laughing at Daxter who's found a vibrating crystal and was holding it to his chest. The little bundle of fur looked like he found bliss and wasn't going to let it go. His eyes were cross and his tongue was sticking out of his mouth.

"Okay Dax," Jak said, "let's…" as she turn around she spotted the brute Sig. "Sig!" she shouted in surprise.

"Hello chilipeppers." He approached the young woman and looked down at Daxter, who still was wearing a very happy look upon his face, even as he relinquished the crystal to Jak who's hand vibrated as the crystal was placed in it. Upon tipping the crystal upside down Jak found an engery source and proceeded to turn it off and plopped the crystal into her pack. "So what are you two doing here?"

"Uh…" Daxter began as his eyes finally focused on the big guy. "explorin'?" he asked as he looked at Jak who smirked.

"Exploring?" Sig asked astonished at the simple answer.

Jak's ear suddenly twitched and even though Sig hadn't heard anything she had. Spinning around with sword in one hand and gun in the other Sig was witness to the deaths of two wasp metal heads and one juice goon that hadn't been as quiet as they'd thought. Sig whistled. "Nice shootin' Cherry!" Jak turned and gave him a smile and cocked her head at Daxter towards the left and the rodent took off into a dead run towards the entrance of the building and peeked outside.

Daxter's eyes widened as he counted the metal heads heading their way. A dozen juice goons, centurian, three crab heads and two dozen of those damn scorpion metal head stingers. "We're in trouble." He muttered as he turned and looked at Jak and Sig.

Sig flipped the staff weapon so that the pointed end would be facing the enemy and pressed a button. Jak and Daxter turned in time to watch Sigs staff weapon change from a staff to a weapon with a hole at the end and two prongs pointing towards the end. They then watched as it began to light up and charge. Sig strutted towards the entrance and pointed his weapon towards the dead center of the group of metal heads where the crab heads were and fired his weapon. The electric charge flew from the end and into the group of metal heads and exploded with energy. Two of the three crab heads were dead in an instant.

Running forward Jak took off after the man. With her right hand she threw her sword at the juice goons like it was a boomerang. The weapon spun with a bright and purple energy and sliced legs out from under six of twelve goons, and came flying back at Jak, who caught it with ease. Shooting the stingers was the easy part. These lesser metal heads were the easiest to kill, but in a swarm; which is what they were trying to be as they advanced the dark elf and her companions, was a bit harder. Deciding that she was tired of this particular weapon she threw it to the side and in her hands called forth the dark eco in her viens and it came in the form of lightning and began to race across the stingers, who screeched and cried out as their lives were ended in a fantastic display of lightning.

Sig on the other hand looked at the woman with one wide eye and cursed silently before looking at Daxter. "Eh, I told her she needed to get that electric static looked at." He joked and looked back just in time for the transformation of his best friend.

The she demon lifted her head after taking control and gave a toothy grin at her soon to be victims. Flicking her right hand out it revealed that she now had the Tachi sword in her palm. The woman wasn't the only one who'd had a bit of a transformation. The sword was now at a full three feet in length, was not only glowing; but the hilt had changed from a golden color to a pure black with dark tendrils stretching outwards and touching its host, which magnified the dark creatures own senses. The crystals were glowing a bright purple and instead of looking like crystals that they were they seemed to have taken on the look of unseeing eyes. As the tendrils finished wrapping around the creatures arm, it then solidified into a pure dark eco crystal and was not attached to the beings arm, as if it was an extension of the creatures natural arm. In the dark creatures other hand was three small balls of dark eco that were floating above the left hand. With a flick of the wrist they were released upon the metal heads and chaos ensued.

The weaker minded metal heads only cared about saving their own lives and left the goons and crab head by themselves. The first of the last three goons lost its life as its head was taken off by the sword, another was gutted as a dagger infested left hand grabbed it's chest and ripped the goons armor and skin off in one swiping motion. The last goon shot at the creature, but even as it did so the demonized she-elf healed and continued her sprint towards the goon and brought her weapon down upon its head and cut the beat in half. The two halves separated just as the elf took off towards the crab head who used its twin blaster canons and shot wildly at the monstrous woman. It was in vain. For in a blink of an eye the crab heads arms were cut from its body in on swooping motion and then as the woman jumped into the air she landed on the crab heads shoulders and with only one hand grabbed, twisted and yanked the metal heads head right off its body and as it fell to the ground she jumped back onto the raised platform where Sig and Daxter had been watching, both of their jaws had dropped.

The battle had lasted thirty seconds, but that was all the demon seemed to need. The sword returned to its normal form as the being turned towards the wastelander and ottsel and in a blink of an eye she jumped right onto Sig, causing the brute to fall backwards and lose his weapon that flew about two or three feet away from him. Sig landed with an ooff and a thud and suddenly he was getting too much of a look at the being.

The cark creature lean forward and sniffed before snorting and backing off. Still in a crouched position it looked towards Daxter. "Mrr?" she said.

Daxter started laughing as Sig sat up. "What the hell!?" Sig yelled at the ottsel, thinking he'd lost his marbles.

The she demon smirked at Sig and looked back at Daxter to explain. "Let's…put it…this way big guy." Daxter said in between fits of laughter. "If she didn't like you…you'd look like that." He said the last part as he pointed towards the mess of metal head body parts. "You just passed Dark's test of approval." The creature hissed at Daxter at the use of that name. "What, it's not like you got a name." and then it hit him. "Unless…err..ya do?" the creature's ear twitched once, but she turned her attention back towards her host's friends and decided to turn control back over.

As Jak groaned and fell onto her ass she took note that once again she was covered in blood and upon looking behind her she saw the bodies of metal heads. Standing she sighed. "At least it wasn't people this time." she looked at the wastelander who was picking up his weapon. "You okay Sig?"

"Peachy Cherry." He then looked at her. "Alright, I'm not one to pry, but I need and answer to…that." He said as he pointed at the dead metal head bodies and towards Jak.

Jak's ears fell a bit and she looked away a bit ashamed. "You'd have a better chance at getting the answers from the computers at the prison than from me." she said. "Prisoners aren't exactly told what they're being experimented with or why."

"Praxis?" he asked and got a nod from the young woman. "Why were you imprisoned? Were you outspoken?"

"No." she said as she thought back towards that day. "Guess coming out of Rift Gates in the city is illegal." She looked down at Daxter who nodded.

"Wait, a what?" Sig asked his good eye wide.

Jak sighed and gave a short version of how she and Daxter got to Haven City from their small village, which she left nameless. She didn't think he'd believe her if she told him she'd come from Sandover. She was surprised that he'd listened. "Uh…" Daxter began. "Tell him the other?" he asked her.

"Other what?" Sig inquired as he was processing the intel he'd just been told.

"Uh…" Daxter looked at Jak who nodded. "Jak here." He pointed at Jak. "Use ta be a dude." Sig went stock still. "When the Baron pumped him full of eco, instant sex change!" Daxter looked at Jak who flushed. "Now he's a she and the dude junk ain't there no more."

Sig shook his head. "Unbelievable."

"Believe it!" Daxter said as he leapt from the ground to Jak's shoulder.

Sig looked at Jak for confirmation and she nodded. "It's true." She said. "I use to be freaked by it, now it's either live with it or go nuts." She gave a weak smile. "I think I'm doing good considering."

"Precursors." Sig cursed. "Praxis is going to far." He shook his head and started off towards the metal head bodies. "Head back, I'll take care of this." He pointed towards the mess. However instead of doing what Sig said the duo decided to check out the other two paths and see where they lead.

Deep in the depths of a hidden tomb a single light turned on near a statue, a small gleaming glowing green gem that was embedded into the statue of the founder of Haven's chest began to emit a tiny vibrating noise that could only be heard by a select few. The noise, at first, was sent out in sound waves, before these sound waves increased in frequency and changed into a high pitched noise that ran at a constant interval.

As the duo returned to the underground Jak suddenly grabbed her head and cried out in pain and fell against the door to the underground, which opened to reveal Jinx, who grabbed the stricken woman. Looking down at the ottsel he yelled. "What happened?"

"I don't know, it just started!" he yelled back as Jinx picked Jak up and took her downstairs and laid her on one of the bunks.

Torn looked up from his maps to the sounds of Jak screaming in pain. "What the hell!?" he half yelled half demanded an answer.

"Don't know." Jinx replied as he watched Jak writhe on the bed. When suddenly the dark she demon appeared and jumped away from them , at the same time Jinx and Torn jumped away from the creature both pulling out their weapons and pointing it at the creature, who hissed at them.

"Don't!" Daxter yelled as he put himself in front of Jak's face and the weapon's. "She ain't a gonna attack, are ya babe?" he asked looking at the dark female.

The creature blinked at Daxter who had thrown his tiny body in front her and these men. "Mrr?" it said.

"See!" he said just as the creature suddenly began whimpering as the noise picked up speed. "Something's wrong?" he said when suddenly the creature grabbed him and threw him on her shoulder and went barreling through the door. As she passed the two men she grabbed her sword which began to give off sparks of dark eco as soon as she touched it. When the two men emerged through the door they saw the dark creature vanish into the darkness of the night.

M-Angel: *snickers* Dark Jak just had a cavewoman moment by throwing Daxter over her shoulder.

xoxoangii: I think it would be funny to make Jak talk like a cavewoman.. haha

M-Angel: *still laughing* I love writing this story. hehehe

xoxoangii: See you guys at the next chapter! :)