After all of that, we eventually got to the slums proper and got to the wall with the Underground, where I saw that Tess was there and she looked at us angrily as well as Torn... but I also saw that my little sister was there, hiding behind Tess. And when she saw me?
"Dory! You're okay!" Jilly smiled as she rushed for me and gave me a big hug, me hugging her back, which Jak then spoke up.
"We're looking for a guy named Torn. Kor sent us... are you... Torn?" Jak asked the tattooed man, which Daxter frowned at.
"Maybe this guy's a mute, like you used to be," Daxter frowned. And Torn then spoke.
"New faces make me nervous, even if it's a little girl saying she's looking for her older sister and somehow knew where our hideout was," Torn frowned, me looking at her with confusion. And then Tess spoke.
"I actually let her in when she said she was looking for safety," Tess spoke, her sounding angry in this tone for good reason. She needed to keep up the tough girl act to newbies.
"I've heard that your group is wanting to join the fight for the city. You know, picking the wrong side could be... unhealthy!" Torn frowned.
"We want to see the Shadow," Jak frowned.
"Hehehe! Not likely. If you wanna join something, why don't you, your pet, and your midget go join the circus?" Torn asked, me frowning at him as I then grabbed some of the Blue eco from the wet ground and gave him a small dose of electricty to his finger, him gawking at that. "OW! What was that?" he asked.
"Blue eco from the rain, that's what," I frowned at him, which he looked at me in shock.
"You know how to gather Eco from the elements?" he asked in surprise.
"Only for green, blue, and yellow Eco. Still training on Red and, after being put in that stupid chair, I'm now going to need help from the Oracle for Dark Eco," I said with a frown, which Tess gasped at.
"You were... experiments?" Tess asked, losing the tough girl act in that moment.
"Jak moreso than me. Daxter got turned from human to Ottsel after a dip in Dark Eco, but according to someone we know who's an expert on the stuff, the Dark Eco didn't change him, but something else did," I said, which Torn frowned at.
"An expert on Dark Eco, huh? Was it Errol or Praxis?" he frowned.
"Neither," said a voice I gasped at. And then, from above the rooftops, appeared Maia, me seeing she'd changed her clothes since the escape of the palace and she tried to put some makeup on to mask her dark skin... it didn't work. It did not work. "They learned it from me," she frowned.
"Maia! There you are! I was starting to worry about you," I smirked at her.
"A-A Dark Eco Sage?" Torn gawked.
"From the same place these blokes come from, yes," she frowned. "I heard from some freaky fatass that the Underground was hoping to dethrone Baron Praxis, who was about to kill me before I flew away... I'm glad that you and Jilly got out okay... but what about you, Jak and Daxter?" Maia asked them.
"It was... bad on my end," Jak frowned, which Maia gawked at.
"You're... talking..." Maia asked. "You've lost your link with the Precursors, then... only the pure hearted are absolutely mute, being blessed by the Precursors... what happened to... uh... you..." she frowned before then seeing that he was bleeding... and it was purple blood. "Purple... no... Dark Eco..." she gawked.
"I knew it. Should we really trust them, Torn? Who knows how nasty they are?" Tess asked, me frowning at her.
"Listen toots with tits, I'm not going to be told I'm untrustworthy by a girl who looks like a hooker," I frowned, her gasping at me and smacking me in the face.
"Whoa! Not even I would say something like that..." Daxter admitted.
"You have some fire in your body, I can tell," Torn smirked. "You're in, but the other three will need to prove their fur with a tough task," Torn said as he pulled out his dagger. "Steal the Baron's banner from the top of the Ruined Tower in Dead Town and bring it back to me. And then, maybe we'll talk about you joining the Underground," Torn smirked as Maia then frowned and nodded to go with Jak, me looking at Tess with a frown.
"I'll go make sure they complete the task from afar. I'd recommend staying as far away from me as possible, midge," Tess frowned at me. I then frowned and did the same with her as I did to Torn and gave her a zap of blue eco right before she got to the vehicle, but in her case, I did it up her butt. "EEP! Don't do that!" she squealed in surprise, me smirking at how Jilly snickered at how she grabbed her butt in response and even Torn cracked a smirk.
"So, what do you want to do?" Torn asked as I checked my phone from my old world and saw that the time I'd set on it since disembarking with Errol was 40 minutes ago.
"I uh, have to let you and only you know of something. I'm going to be acting as a Double Agent for the Underground, as I've been offered to be a member of the KG by Errol himself," I said, Jilly gawking at that.
"Hmph. So you're going to be right next to the commander, then?" he asked.
"Whenever he asks for my assistance, yes. And any information I receive in there will be sent directly to the Underground," I said, him nodding.
"Should I at least tell the Shadow?" he asked.
"Only him, tell nobody else. Not even Kor knows, got it?" I asked, him nodding.
"Very well, I'll keep that in mind. So why tell me this?" he asked.
"Because I need to meet him at the Fortress to get my gear in... 3 minutes from now. Keep my sister safe, okay?" I smiled at him.
"Be careful, Dory, I don't like the sounds of that," she frowned, me nodding at her.
"I'll be safer than a Wumpbee queen in the summer," I smiled at her.
"Don't remind me, those dang things hurt when they stung me back then!" she complained. She was referring to when I accidentally disturbed a Wumpbee nest during our trek to bring the Rift Gate back to Sandover. And as for what they looked like? Imagine if a bee was about the size of a rat and had a face that looked like a beagle. And imagine the stinger being the same size as a yellow jacket with super itchy and slightly painful stings, but they could also shoot their poison at you from afar and it'd seep into your skin. That's what Wumpbees were like. Thank the Precursors that they weren't seen in game, because those things are painful if you disturb their nests!
Regardless, I then proceeded to run my way over to the Fortress and, by the time I reached the entrance, it was 1 minute until I was supposed to get there, which I also saw Errol was there and waiting with a smile.
"Fashionably early as promised, I see," he smirked.
"Yep. And I found my sister already. She's staying with a nice woman," I smirked.
"And her name?" he asked, me frowning. Had to lie.
"Maia is her name. You know, the one Baron wanted you to kill when we first met? The one with dark skin?" I asked, Errol frowning and nodding.
"Indeed. Tell me, is there a reason for her skin to be so gray and dark?" We proceeded to continue our conversation as we entered the Fortress, where he showed me to the room due east that led to the guards' quarters.
"She was exposed to Dark Eco in its liquid and vapor forms for a good chunk of time from where we came from. It's because her brother was corrupted by it when he was a Dark Eco sage," I explained.
"So she could also be considered as a Dark Warrior?"
"Not likely. She almost lost her mind from the Dark Eco exposure and only by me combining the different colored eco into Light Eco and injecting it into her bloodstream was she able to get her mind back in place, but still pissed off at everyone," I explained as I showed my badge to the scanner and the computer spoke.
"Novice Krimzon Guard authorization complete. Welcome to the program: Adora Plorex," the computer said, me frowning at that.
"Okay, hate that name, hate it bad," I frowned at him.
"It's either we give you a fake name or Praxis would instantly recognize you. If the plan is to succeed, we need to make sure he doesn't know about you being a Dark Warrior," Errol frowned.
"Okay... why are we keeping it secret from the big man?" I asked him. Because it was a question that needed answered, since Errol was second in command, pretty much.
"Because he's a bit crazy in the head, even I can admit that much. The war with the Metal Heads is reaching a tipping point and I fear he's going to do something nasty, since he thinks the Dark Warrior program was a failure. Don't repeat this to anyone, got it? There are some secrets that are better left untold, and you'll be learning quite a few when working alongside me," Errol said, me frowning and nodding at him. I was not going to share all the secrets, but the important ones were going to be shared with Torn and the Shadow, but not Kor. I'd make sure of that.
"I promise," I lied, which Errol nodded at as we then got me some KG armor that I would wear. And I soon saw that the armor would cover my entire body and it also came with a basic Morph Gun with just the Scatter Gun equipped to it as of now. "If you rank up in the KG, you'll get more upgrades to that weapon. Do you know how to use it, per chance?"
"No, honestly," I said, being truthful this time. "I mean, I think I've seen a weapon similar to this before, but I've never used it."
"I'll lead you to the training room, then," he said as he led me to a KG version of a gun course and showed me how to use it. It took a bit for me to get used to the recoil of the Scatter Gun, but I got used to it after using it for a bit. And then, he led me to the gun course proper in the Fortress, where I had to shoot the cutouts of Metal Heads while sparing the civilians. I managed to shoot good enough in the process to win not only the listed score to pass, but I also had picked up well enough to get a final score of silver rank, where I got a reward of 6 Precursor Orbs for doing so!
"Huh, impressive first showing. Most don't even make it past the bronze rank," Errol admitted.
"I'm a quick learner, I guess," I smirked. "And hey, since I still have the ability to use Eco, I could always take the stuff from the ammo and use the Eco powers instead, should I be against a tougher enemy," I smirked.
"Indeed... your first task is going to be simple, but it's also a very, VERY important one. It's where our very first and most important secret will be at. Again, do not tell anyone about it," he said, me nodding as he then led me to the lower floors of the Fortress and he showed off a whole slew of Eco that was in barrels, mainly dark but also a few in the form of blue and green.
"What are these for?" I asked.
"Just stay quiet and don't make sudden movements. The big secret is that these Eco barrels are to be traded to Metal Heads," Errol said, which it was time to drop a truth bomb.
"I don't think I've seen a Metal Head before," I lied. I did, but it was hard to count the first encounter with the leader in the far past as a true encounter, since he didn't even try to stop us going through the Rift Gate.
"What? You've never seen one?" he asked.
"All I know is that I was sent far into the future from a timeline that Precursors weren't a thing... and then after going through a giant warp gate, I get sent falling into the Palace," I explained.
"Is that what that other song was for in the prison cell? Tend the graves and all?"
"I'm never going to see any of them again... I felt that a eulogy in song was appropriate," I admitted. And then, I heard the sound of some Metal Heads... the grunting was hard to mistake. I then looked at them with my armor fully intact and Errol joined me, along with two other guards that soon appeared. And as for the Metal Heads? There were 5 of them in total.
"These barrels contain the latest shipment of Eco. The Baron says take them and get out," Errol frowned, the Metal Head grunts grumbling and barking in their creepy way, which we simply held our ground as the five grunts then grabbed the eco drums and proceeded to guzzle the stuff down, me gawking at how much they could down in one go! And after they finished, they left through the same sewer drain they entered from... but it was also at this time that we heard some stuff going on above us. The sounds of explosions!
"Crap! Something's going on up there! We need to get out!" I said in surprise, the other guards nodding as Errol gave the order.
"All Krimzon Guards, get away from the western portion of the Fortress!" Errol shouted, us then rushing out and towards the elevator to the east. And once we then exited the Fortress from the entrance to the east, we then gawked at how a deafening blast could be heard and that, when we opened the door again, the road that led towards the left was completely blocked off with dust and debris.
"Some Underground creeps must've destroyed our Ammo Dump!" Errol growled.
"Um... and the tank, don't forget the tank," I frowned.
"That's the least of our concerns... regardless, thanks for the assistance. And remember, not a soul knows, got it?" he said, me nodding at him.
"Promise," I lied. I then proceeded to take off my armor via a special remote that could make the armor retract itself (almost like I had power armor) and I then went towards the Underground, at around the same time as Jak, Daxter, and Maia.
"So? How was your first mission?" Jak asked me with annoyance.
"I'll explain when we go in there," I said as we then met up with Torn and Daxter then smirked.
"The demolition duo has returned! One bbq'd ammo dump served up hot!" Daxter smirked as Jak then spoke up.
"We saw something odd when torching that ammo. A group of Krimzon Guards were giving barrels filled with eco to a group of Metal Heads!" Jak said, which Torn looked at him in shock.
"Really? The Shadow will be very interested to hear that," Torn smiled.
"As for my end... thanks for almost singing my hair off of my head, Jak, because that was my first KG mission, go trade eco with Errol and the KG... and shortly after the Metal Heads leave? A big meltdown above us that ended up blasting apart the western half of the Fortress," I frowned.
"Hmph, so you would've told me about that, then?" Torn frowned.
"I was, but Jak beat me to it... by the by, how was your trip to the Oracle?" I asked, Jak smiling.
"I learned how to better control it, so I shouldn't enter that state that easily anymore," Jak said as he then gave me about 10 different golden gems that felt... squishy, yet durable. "Those are Metal Head skull gems. You said you'd need them to get sagehood for Dark Eco, right?" Jak asked.
"Yes, I would. Thanks a lot, Jak," I smiled at him.
"Anything else?" Torn frowned.
"We think your gigs are easier than stealing grass from a sleeping Yakow!" Daxter frowned.
"Hehe! You three wanna start proving yourselves? One of our 'suppliers' needs his payment delivered. A bag of eco ore. Take the zoomer parked out back and take it to the Hip Hog Heaven Saloon in South Town. And don't let the Baron's patrols stop you. Ask for Krew, he'll be there. And when you get there, pump him for information. He's wired into the city and may know what the Baron is up to," Torn said, me nodding at him as I then asked a quick question.
"And Maia? Where's she at?" I asked him.
"She said she needed to take some 'meditation' time. She ended up using too much Dark Eco when going to the Pumping Station to turn on the water for the Slums. She's sleeping with your sister," Torn said, me sighing at that.
"Okay, you can count on us," I smiled.
"Are you still here?" Torn frowned.
"No, it's not us, it may look and sound like us, but we're not here," I said with a snarky attitude of my own as we then left the place, which Jak smirked at.
"Not smart, trying to mess with a guy who owns a dagger," Jak smirked at me.
"If it wasn't me, it would've been Daxter mouthing him off, I'm sure of it," I smiled.
"Eh, she's got me there," Daxter chuckled. We then proceeded to go onto the Zoomer... we'd be meeting the most disgusting character in the series very soon, so I had to make sure my lunch stayed in me.