Chapter 29: Aeropa

Date: April 20, 3658
Location: The Brink

Jak yawned as she watched the endless sea finally give way to small islands that began to dot its surface. Beautiful green jungle-like islands every so often would pop up, but the scanner told him that Far Drop was another hour ahead of them. She was about to put the autopilot on when the scanner picked up a rather large city sized floating ship being attacked by pirates.

"Somebody help us. We're being attacked by pirates!" a voice came over the comm system.

"Dax, wake up!" she yelled behind her.

Daxter's snores suddenly stopped. "Huh," his voice sounded groggy. "Whatdya say babe?" Daxter wiped the sleep out of his eyes.

"Pirates are attacking that floating city," she told him as she began to prep the ship's plasma canons. "Get on those turrets!" she ordered him.

Daxter felt a shiver of excitement go through his body. "Yes Ma'am!" he said with a wide grin. Grasping the double triggers, he waited until the first ship was in line before letting loose a torrent of bullets that pelleted the wings of the ship. Daxter began to laugh. "Bye, bye now!" he yelled. "Don't let the ground miss ya!" he said to another.

Jak shook her head at his antics.'He's having way too much fun,' she thought as she lined the plasma canons up with two planes. The blast of super heated plasma went right through the elvain technology like a hot knife through butter. The planes fell dead in the water. Jak's jaw dropped, Daxter went silent and suddenly the comms went off with expletives from the pirates.

"What the hell was that?!"

"Holy Precursors in heaven!"

"Fuck!"

"Ignore Skyheed, take that plane out!"

Finally, Daxter spoke. "Whoa! I've gotta get me one of those in a miniaturized version!" He smiled like a Cheshire cat.

Jak suddenly got a devilish look upon her face. 'Oh boy!' Adriana voiced in her mind with glee.

"Let's go get 'em Dax," she said darkly, causing a second shiver to run up Daxter's spine.

Suddenly all of the planes turned on them. Flying the ship like a mad person, Jak flipped it upside down, spun it in a corkscrew style downwards towards three ships. One got blasted out of the sky by her plasma canon, whilst the other two got shot up by Daxter's turret. Another corkscrew upwards and four more planes met their demise.

Daxter gave a groan before voicing his discomfort. "If ya don't want chunks flyin' around toots, ya best be stoppin' that corkscrew shit for awhile." he warned her, feeling a bit green.

"You blow chucks, yer cleanin' them up!" she shot back at him as she found a new button and pressed it. Suddenly their ship was transported behind six planes. The two got a huh moment before they realized that the ship could teleport. Jak's smile broadened.

"Retreat!" a voice yelled over the comms. "Retreat! Return to the Phantom Blade!"

"Hey, Jak?" Daxter questioned her. "Ya don't think ya just pissed off the head pirate or somethin' do ya?"

Jak sighed. "We'll worry about that later Daxter." She began to scan the city like ship and frowned at the readings she was getting from the place. "Be careful when we land, there's a lot of dark eco everywhere in that place. Don't let people fool you."

Daxter groaned. "When are folks gonna learn, that stuff ain't fer playin' around with." He watched as one of the hanger bay doors opened for them. 'This is going to be a rip,' he thought, never realizing how right he was. It wasn't even a second after they got out of their ship that they were met by the palest person Daxter had ever met, next to Adriana that is. "Jaaak..." he warned her.

Jak could sense it too. Something wasn't right with this man. He was too proper looking to be living out here. "Thank you for saving us from those vagabonds. They've been harassing us ever since we've began out journey in search for the eco core. I'm surprised to find anybody out here flying solo."

"The eco core?" Jak mumbled. Something about this didn't sit well with her.

"Yes, where myth says that all eco flows from," the man explained. "We hope to find it to renew the charge within, for our homeland has become depleted and we believe this could help."

'Something doesn't smell right about this,' Adriana spoke to Jak. Her form was clouded in darkness in Jak's mind. 'Do not trust him.'

'I agree,' Jak said mentally to her counterpart. 'If his homeland has been depleted we'd be feeling the effects in the wastes and in Haven. Something more is going on here.'

"Make yourselves comfortable here, for enemies of the sky pirates are surely our allies." He gave them a friendly smile. "I notice your ship looks a bit damaged. Come and look around our city of Aeropa. Perhaps you can find something to repair your ship."

"Jak," Daxter whispered to her. "The ship ain't damaged." He eyed the dock workers who seemed to be eyeing their plane.

"Don't worry Dax," she assured him. "The plane can't fly or open without my or your genetic imprint anyway." She dismissed his worry for nothing.

'I hope you're right,' he thought as he followed her into the city.

Daxter yawned as he stretched himself out. After arriving they'd been given a place to stay. Jak was already up and showering by the sound of it. Standing up, he sniffed his armpits to see if he should join her. Deciding he didn't stink, Daxter walked over to his new clothes he'd been given. A red silk shirt to go with some black jeans that hugged his hips just right. Snapping on his belt with bullets attached to it, he pulled on the black vest that went with the silk shirt. Taking a brush out, he brushed his long hair before tying it back once more. Deciding he looked good, he slipped his combat boots on just as Jak exited the show.

"Ready to-" Daxter's mind froze when he saw the dark blue tank top she was wearing. It showed her bare belly and gave him a sight of her curves. He gave her a whistle. "Nice," he wiggled his eye brows.

"Thanks." She put on the red scarf around her neck and finished putting on her skinny jeans before slipping on her boots. "Let's go."

They were met outside the hotel by the guy from the day before whom they had learned was called Duke Skyheed and another guy that looked to be a noble of some sort. Skyheed they had found out, was the last heir to the Aeropan empire or what was left of the empire. "I hope your stay has been satisfactory," he told them.

"More or less," Daxter said to him with a grin.

"I've still got questions about this place," Jak said causing the second man to chuckle.

"And we have questions about you as well," he said, sounding very much like a certain count that both Jak and Daxter really did not like. "Like why are you two our here on the Brink?"

The two shared a look. "We're out here looking for channelers," Jak lied, partly.

"Yeah, ya see there's this big Dark Precursor ship coming from the edge of our system ta annihilate us and we with a few other cities are gearin' up for a big bad fight that may determine whether we live as a species or die off like we never existed in the first place!" Daxter said in one long breath.

"Relax Dax," Jak said to him with a chuckle.

"But channelers..." Skyheed began looking nervous for some reason.

"Are rare and were mostly killed off by the metal heads, we know," she reasoned with him. "But we found a couple Precursors who are on our side who have told us that a few still exist." She gave a shrug. "If they don't want to fight, we won't make them; but we will emphasize that this could determine the fate of everyone in our world."

"Suddenly trying to find a new eco source sounds, insignificant, to what you two are doing," Skyheed said, trying to sound like he cared.

"Look, if we succeed, then finding that source will be very important," Jak said, sounding excited about the eco core. "We still have a long ways to go, but if you want we could help you. I've had my fair share of eco tampering, hell I can activate most Precursor artifacts. If this core was built by the Precursors, you may need me."

"Chancellor Ruskin, show them it," the duke commanded the second man who pulled out a sphere from his jacket. "Its called an Eco Seeker and it points out any eco source. We were hoping it would point us to the eco core, but alas we are unable to make it work."

Jak held out her hands. "Let me try then," she told him. The duke gave his chancellor a nod. As soon as her fingers touched the device, Jak could hear Adriana screaming in her head. Eco began to shoot out of the device, as if it was trying to force her to release it. Suddenly feeling drained, Jak fell to her knees as Daxter grasped the thing out of her hands when suddenly his own hand began to glow a red color.

"Uh...Jak, baby?" he questioned it before the glow simply vanished.

"I can't, it seems to try and drain me of all strength," she told him weakly, never having seen his hand glow. "There's darkness everywhere when I touch that thing."

'Keep it away!' Adriana hissed, her lips pulled back to reveal her fangs. Jak couldn't help but agree.

Daxter examined it for a second. "Ya know who could help? Keira," he said with a wide grin. "We could use the comms on our ship ta send images and whatnot to her back in Haven."

"Your ship can do that?" Skyheed inquired, sounding amazed, as he touched his chin with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"It can," Jak announced. "If you'll let us."

"Very well, I'll grant your request on one condition," he said, sounding everything like a high and mighty duke. "That you share everything you discover from the eco seeker."

"You'll only have a week to discover anything with it," Ruskin said sounding arrogant.

"I hope with this you'll be able to find the warm fair light eco that will light our way to a new happy beginning," Skyheed told them when suddenly an explosion occurs behind them.

"My duke! Sky pirates!" the chancellor yelled, but something seemed off with his voice.

'Behind you!' Adriana warned just as a pirate came swinging from the rafters and grasped the seeker out of Daxter's hand.

"Hey!" Daxter exclaimed in surprise.

"Thank you for your kind assistance," the pirate said with a snarky tone that just made Jak want to punch the guy as he jumped into an awaiting plane.

Rushing forward Jak jumped from the tower that the hotel courtyard was on and onto the wing of the plane the guy was trying to escape on. "Jak!" Daxter screamed as the pirate grabbed her arm and yanked her into the plane.

"You my dear, are going to help me," were the last words Daxter heard before the plane flew off with his best friend and girlfriend in it.

M-Angel: Yay! I got another chapter out this month. I'm on a roll! Hope everybody's New Year's was good. I'm thinking I may actually finish this story this year...hopefully.

xoxoangii: Woo! I sense some major buttkicking in the near future!