Chapter 16: City of the Ancients

Date: April 15, 3658
Location: Spargus City

Dark armor reflected the hot heat of the Wasteland sun keeping the wearer cool as the sensors inside scanned the person's body heat and began to send cooling sensations over the person. The old Precursorean armor had been found, repaired and then given to the young Princess Mar as a present from her cousin Ashelin and for once she was thankful for the expenses that were spent in the repairing of her father's old armor. Once she'd placed it on her person the gears and sensors began to form fit her body until the armor was tight and like a second skin to her. Most days she never left her home without it. Today was like that and now after meeting with Mar she was still pissed off on the things he had said. He's like everybody else,' she thought as she stomped out of the temple with Daxter close behind. She'd heard what Daxter had said and it warmed her heart to think he didn't think she was a monster, because in all honesty she didn't know anymore. Some days she couldn't see the thin line between herself and Adriana. It was getting harder and harder to determine who was who and what was what; but to voice these thoughts out loud would be admitting that everybody was right, and that couldn't happen.

She looked at the mountain path ahead of herself and found one of Kliever's mercenary men standing there smoking a cigar, waiting for her. "Did the King send you?" She questioned the man as she approached him.

The blonde one eyed man looked towards the pretty green haired woman and her red haired male companion. "Aye," he muttered sounding slightly like a pirate rather than a mercenary or wastelander. He watched her expertly jump into his vehicle along with the young man. Both looking at the gears and mechanics that went into this strange vehicle.

"Hang onto your asses," he stated as he jumped in and put the petal to the metal. Pulling a lever, he smiled as the vehicle fell low to the ground, the wheels were pushed forward and the back went backwards. Releasing another lever, the vehicle flew into the air.

Daxter gave a surprised outcry, while Jak's eyes sparked with dark lightning at the prospect of some excitement and smiled broadly. 'So this is the machine Kliever has been tinkering with,' she thought as they landed and sped off towards the islands that were in between the temple and the wasteland. As they went airborne over and over again Daxter cries of fright turned into cries of whooping. When they landed on the mainland Jak was smiling so much that her cheeks hurt.

The blonde haired man moved his goggles over his eyes and smirked at the youths next to him. Chuckling he spoke. "Like the hopper?" He asked.

Jak gave him a cocked grin. "After this you may never see this vehicle again."

The man laughed. "I'll tell Kliever to hide it then!" They sped off through the wastes passing through ruins of failed settlements that had been destroyed by metal heads or marauders or worse; not protected by a shield system were destroyed by the over barring wasteland storms.

As they began the final approach to the desert city Jak finally asked what was on her mind. "So," she began, eyes darkening as she got serious. "What is it that my old man wants?"

Daxter could feel the tension in the air even as he pulled his scarf tighter around his mouth and nose, trying to keep the sand out of those two openings. He looked at the strangely silent man waiting for his reply.

A heavy sigh was heard. "This morning something big was seen floating over the water towards Spargus," the man stated his thick pirate accent not being masked. "We tried approaching it with our boats but it raised higher into the sky and we don't own anything like a sky car or sky plane; so we went back." He eyed her. "However, the structure is bigger than Spargus itself. It's made completely out of Precursorean metal. It's glowing with the four main eco colors and the engines seems to be outputting a white substance that we've discovered is Light eco." The city began to come into view as the smokestacks from the arena could be seen.

Jak closed her eyes for a moment. Daxter touched his chin through his scarf. "Are there any spinning round mechanisms working their way around it in either a slow languid pace or so fast your eyes can barely make them out?" He asked gaining a raised brow from Jak. "And does the body of the structure in an oblong look to it of is it oval, like an egg?"

"Like an egg and both on the first thing you asked," the man replied.

"Dax?" Jak asked her friend.

Looking at Jak the boy smiled. "You remember my folks were like yer uncle back home and went about everywhere and every place in this ole world of ours, right?" Jak nodded. "My pops once gave me a book with images he'd drawn up of places they'd visited, 'cause I hated readin' and all." She nodded again as the city gate suddenly opened. "I think I know what it is, I want to see it first to be sure." He smiled. "And if it's what I think it is, we've hit the motherlode of adventures."

Jak could see the excitement in the eyes of the people around her. Usually these wastelander a were never excited to see her, after all most still considered her a Havenite and not a true Spargian because she still lived in Haven while most had been thrown out by Praxis. She silently wondered if had Daxter not found her if she too would've ended up here and never known who she truly was or could've been. Would she have been so full of hate that she wouldn't have recognized friend from foe? She shivered at that thought.

Her feet came to a stop as she spotted the object in the distance floating in the harbor as if it belonged there. Truthfully, it looked like it did. The orange yellow glow of Precursor metal looked well against the natural rock that the city was etched out of. Next to her she heard Daxter whistle.

"Yeah," he said with wide eyes. "It's what I thought it was." She raised her brow for an explanation. Daxter smiled at her. "It's a freakin' Precursor City!" He exclaimed with excitement as he ran down to the shoreline where she could easily see both Sig and her father waiting for them.

M-Angel: Hope everybody enjoyed their holidays. Hope nothing too exciting happened. Been working on my other stories and updating my old ones. Cleaning out ones that I no longer liked. Hope you guys liked this chapter.

xoxoangii: Can't believe it's already July... Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend :)