After I did the parkour part of the challenge, Damas gave me my new version of the Morph Gun, me gawking at how it was a pistol variant, much like my original version! And afterwards, I then went to the arena and had to hope it was as Kliever said and marauders only.
And luckily, it was. And all of them looked hideous, almost like the inbred cannibals from the Wrong Turn movies. And when I killed them, they shrieked in grunts regardless if it were from shooting them with some Scatter Gun blasts or sending them into the lava. And when I got down to 10 more, I proceeded to grab some of the lava from the arena before it could rise and sent it to coat the remaining marauders, resulting in the crowd gawking and cheering when they saw the bones being the only things that remained of most of them!
I then boarded the platform again as I heard my dark side speak to me. "Such sweet destruction... why not use me next time?"
"Next time, yes, but if there's any non-marauders, do not kill them" I said in my thoughts.
"Fine enough."
"So, you can use eco, can you?" Damas asked, me nodding at him.
'That I can. And the elements correlated to each variant. Well, all except Light Eco. I'm still training in how to control it perfectly," I smiled.
"That could be very useful. But from now on in the arena, do not use your eco strengths, because it's considered as cheating. I'll let it slide this once, and only this once, got it?" Damas said, which made my dark side upset.
"DAMMIT PUSSY SHIT!"
"Language, missy! Swear like that again and I won't let you play against bad guys for a whole day."
"Argh! Fine..." And Damas noticed something from me speaking to my dark side in my head.
"Why are you turning your head every so often?" Damas asked.
"Uh... that's me arguing with my darker side... I was put up for Dark Warrior testing, same with someone else in our group," I said, which Damas gawked at. "I was only in it for one test, but my other friend had been injected for 2 years straight. I'm able to control it a lot better than him, but my dark side is a little more wily than his. I need to keep her under strict guidelines, so she doesn't accidentally gut my friends," I smiled awkwardly.
"I see... regardless, your bravery has earned you your first battle amulet. Succeed in two more arena fights and you will have earned your citizenship to Spargus. And for your victory, a new gun mod is your prize. I was told by another that your preferred gun preference is the pistol variant," Damas said, me nodding.
"Yes, it is. The regular morph gun mods are a bit much for me with the recoil," I admitted honestly as I then went to the side, me seeing that, when I did, Seem was there. And they looked at me with a stern frown.
"You have been touched by the darkness, but that is not the whole story, is it, female warrior?" they asked, me nodding.
"I had a feeling you would know... name?"
"I am Seem. And I can see your thoughts. I am female." I then frowned and knew to think clearly and not think of anything involving secrets. "I can sense it clear as day. You are the chosen one, the one to become a sage of every type of Eco... and I sense you only need one more to master, the very rare essence of Light Eco," she said, me nodding at her.
"Can you keep that a secret, please? I was told by some people in a dream that some of my allies don't know that," I explained.
"I can, as monks are sworn to secrecy, unless the time is dire... and unfortunately, that time is coming soon... I must warn you, however, that mastery of Light Eco is very difficult. You'll need to gain every strength that Light Eco can give you before you can gain Sagehood. Those include regeneration, slowing motion, shielding from harm, and flight of dreams... do tell, how many of these abilities have you mastered?"
I then sighed as we went to the wings and I then showed her as Errol went to his tests, me showing that I had regeneration and shield mastered from my 3 years of downtime, but I did not know the other two abilities. "I also know how to use the other colored eco to turn them into Light Eco, but it's quite annoying having to do that every time I want to use it," I admitted.
"Indeed, it is hard to master the strengths of an eco that is rare to come across... I've heard of a secret well that runs close to the abandoned temple to the far south, but you are not yet ready to go there. You must prove yourself, along with your darkened friend and the former commander... but do tell, how did Errol, commander of the horifying Krimzon Guard, get thrown into banishment?" she asked, me sighing at that.
"I reformed him to be on the side of good, even if he's still a negative Nancy. But despite his help in rescuing Haven from Metal Korraquon and dethroning Praxis, he needed to rebuild his trust back up with the city. And after doing so, an egomaniac on the city council cast a vote to the entire city in favor of getting everyone in our group banished. And I KNOW that the votes were rigged, since I rescued almost everyone from the palace falling into the most populated sections of the city, as Veger claimed the votes to be 90 percent in favor of us getting banished. Even to 3 toddlers," I frowned, Seem frowning and nodding.
"I understand... hmm..." she frowned as she then looked to the arena and saw that Errol had succeeded the platforming challenge with Pecker perched on his shoulder. "Meet with me outside by the beach to the northeastern shores. I may require your help with something, as you have a perfect balance of darkness and light," she said, me nodding at her as she then left and I then went to check on my kids, my siblings, and Jak and Daxter, who were still waiting in the wings.
"Momma? I'm getting thirsty," Starlight said, me then smirking and giving her some blue eco in a bottle, her groaning after and sucking it, me smiling at how Jak smirked.
"I see she likes to keep her promises," Jak smirked.
"Yep, that's Dory for ya. No nonsense when it comes to punishments," Jilly said with a sigh. "I don't like this at all, Dory. Why did I get banished, too? I don't even have any Dark Eco in me!"
"Because he wanted to get rid of us, most likely. But for what purpose, I have no idea. But he knows that I rescued nearly 70 percent of the city's population thanks to some future insight from Onin, so I have a feeling he fiddled with the votes behind the scenes," I frowned.
"Yeah, I had a feeling he did, too. But still, even if it were a complete opposite-day flip of the votes, 10 percent wanting us all banished, every one of us, including toddlers? That still makes me ticked," Jak frowned.
"Those would all be city council members if that were the case, Jak. The most protected part of Baron's original design for his trusted palace members. Veger's the head of the council and 10 percent of the city listens to that whacko's orders. Do you honestly think he'd try to make himself look bad by casting a vote he knew wouldn't make him look correct? From what I heard in a meeting with him and Praxis when he was still in charge, he planned to use experiments on you instead of the Dark Warrior program and he planned to do the same to Adora Plorex because of her having the ability to channel eco. I have no doubt it would've been at least twice as painful as the Dark Warrior program, considering he tried to appeal getting rid of the torture and starvation of prisoners law that Ashelin made," I frowned in a long talk.
"I may believe you on all of that, but Errol still thinks they all threw us out. It'd be wise to try and convince him in a way only you know how to, because he still doesn't like talking to me too much," Jak frowned. And then we saw that Errol had succeeded in his trial and he asked a single question after he finished.
"I must know, but we sent Praxis here to this city to be banished almost 3 years ago. Do you know what became of him? I need to know if I should be relieved or pissed," Errol said.
"I can assure you, Errol, that when he reached Spargus, I did not hesitate and placed him among the marauder ranks for our combat arena challenges. He didn't last even a month before he was killed in a fight," Damas frowned.
"Good, that's a relief then," he said, making the crowd gasp at his words. "Hmph! What's so unbelievable about that?"
"Well, we just assumed that, with you being his commanding officer for 5 years straight, you'd be pissed at learning about his death," said a female voice... one that made me shocked when I heard it... why? It was the Muse's voice! I immediately rushed out to look at the scene going on and was shocked to see her! The muse in her genie form was hovering right next to Damas at the throne out of nowhere!
"What's she doing here?!" I gawked in a quiet voice as Errol then elaborated.
"Baron Praxis started to do drastic measures around a year before Metal Kor had been killed by Dory, her actually outranking me in the guard 2 years ago," Errol explained, which made the crowd more shocked. "And I knew those measures were drastic when he started to arrest and torture innocent men, women, and children and place them in jail for suspicion of being in the Underground. Literal. Children. Some no older than 4 were taken from their families and either put in prison, labor camps, or the Dark Warrior program. Only Jak and Dory have survived that chair. Everyone else died after 1 to 4 sessions," Errol said, his face grimacing by the end. "Are we done gasping now? Because I'm not even the commander of the KG anymore. I'm the general of the Freedom League, which is the new protection of Haven City under Ashelin's reign."
"I see... that's very..." the Muse said before then looking to me and then her eyes going wide when she saw me. "Very... very... uh... D-Damas, I need to go talk to the one down there, do you mind?" she asked, me smiling at her.
"Very well, Musette," Damas said, the genie muse then hovering down to me and looking me all over.
"It's... it's really you, isn't it? Dora, slayer of Gol Acheron? The sinker of Misty Island? Discoverer of Light Eco? Is it truly you?" she asked in shock.
"I'm surprised you didn't recognize me just on the name alone, Muse," I smiled at her. "But how are you still alive? I thought for sure with the overflow of Dark Eco popping up in these past centuries, you'd have gotten killed for sure."
"Oh, hogwash! I'm very capable of handling even a Metal Head Leader with my skills of weather! The only thing I am unable to prevent are the storms that coat our Wasteland home, but only because of the strength those maelstroms have. They happen at least thrice a day," she said with a boastful smile.
"I see... I have a lot more questions to ask you, but I'll need to wait for that... until then, I need to go meet up with a certain monk girl nearby. Good luck, okay?" I said, her nodding at me as Jak then proceeded to do his tests and the Muse then spoke to me.
"By the way, since you are the guardian/parent of the little ones, as I sense they all share your blood, you can take them with you if you wish," she said, me smirking at that as I went back to the kids and proceeded to lead them outside of the arena and towards the northern shore.
"Where are we going, mommy?" Bruce asked with a smile of curiosity.
"We're going to meet with an important person, Bruce. She wanted me to help her with something important and I need you guys to watch me work," I said, them nodding after as we then got to the northern shores and proceeded towards the area in question, where Seem and her fellow monks were investigating the creepiest damn satellite ever conceived. I could sense the dark eco inside of it and the heart of something that used to be a Precursor within... it was so hard to believe that something so sinister could come from something so cute and cuddly.
"I don't like the looks of these things, momma... I sense evil in it..." Bruce said with concern.
"I know... it's making me feel icky just being near it... as if my instinct should be to run far away..." Starlight said with concern as Seem then looked at us.
"As well it should be, animal woman..." she said.
"Rude, miss. She's my kid, thank you very much," I said, that making Seem actually tense up and look at me in shock.
"You are the mother of... her? How is that possible?" Seem asked.
"Daxter's the dad... let's just say big things come in small packages and leave it at that," I said, making Starlight giggle a bit. "Not only that, she's fully grown at age 2. Ottsels are quite quick to mature, I guess," I smirked.
"Mm... maybe I could ask for your assistance with this before I get any bad thoughts forming. These artifacts are abominations, formed from Precursors who destroyed themselves with Dark Eco... one fell into the great volcano in the middle of the desert. I sent a team to go find it, but my monks never returned... I fear that the reclaiming of the world is at hand..." Seem said, which made Jilly speak up.
"Listen, monk boy, we don't care about-"
"Monk girl." And Jilly frowned.
"Well, poop. Okay, monk girl, we don't care about the creepy nature of the talking, I just want to go back home to Haven! It's a stinkhole, sure, but I was wrongfully sent here, same with all of us!" Jilly said in annoyance, me sighing at her and how Diego then hugged her with his tentacles.
"Please stop yelling, Jilly... you're making a scene," Diego said, me then noting that some of the Wastelanders were looking at us with concern, especially since most of the ones in my group were children.
"At ease, everyone, I'm sure it's not the first time that children have been banished here... unfortunately," I sighed, which Seem then sighed.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it is the first time of children banishment... most who are banished are old enough to have at least 2 children of grade school age... your group is full of youth with one older man, that being Errol..." Seem said, me then gasping as, out of nowhere, a freaking Wumpbee appeared out of nowhere, me then smacking it with my hand, which also sent some dark electricity to the Dark Maker satellite while I also killed the Wumpbee in the process. And good thing, because those things hurt worse than a sting from a fire ant swarm for just one! And said dark electricity activated the satellite, which made Starlight gasp as she instantly hid inside of Diego's shirt in fear, right on his backside.
"Keep her safe, Diego. I'm going to use this thing," I said, me then proceeding to go ahead and use the machine in a way that made me surprised. I had to use my different eco strengths on the corresponding colors that would've been the shapes on the controller, them being bits of green, yellow, red, and blue. But the final one? A big clump of Dark Eco, that I had to click on at least 5 times before it finally finished up and revealed the prize.
"That must be the prize," Glee smiled with her thoughts as I then tried to reach for it and Seem gasped.
"Don't touch it! Dark Eco!" she said, me then ignoring her and touching it with my bare hands, proving it had no ill effect. And then the machine started to speak in Precursor Runes, which Starlight gasped at when she heard them.
"Huh?! It's... it's saying it wants to reclaim this unfinished world... that the darkness will rule this planet as it has done to numerous ones previous... and once it's finished, the planet will be erased from existence?!... Starting with... us..." she said, me then gasping as the machine then came to life and flew into the air, me shooting it with a blast of Light Eco, the last of the reserves I had on standby in my bag, which blasted the machine to kingdom come and eradicated all the dark eco before it could hit the ground.
"Even you cannot save us from this, heroine," Seem said, me frowning at her. And I saw Diego start to shake in place.
"I... I felt nothing but vile evil from that thing... it felt as if it were trying to speak to me, specifically... trying to get in my head..." Diego said with concern, me gulping at that.
"That's... extremely problematic... if anymore of those things showed up and saw you, who knows what would happen... we need to stop them before they do anything else," Starlight said with seriousness.
"You may carry the color of our creators, thirdbreed, but the world cannot be saved by one alone. You must take heed and prepare for the end of days. Lest the darkness consume you, as it has done to all previously touched by it," Seem frowned.
"Ah, yeah, not really an issue if you've got exposed to Light Eco or have that stuff in your bloodstream. I mean, look at my friend, Maia. She had Dark Eco in her body and almost got corrupted by it, but thanks to some Light Eco that I gave her and an old soothsayer that helped her realize her training to be a Sage of Light Eco, she's completely defeated her darkness, despite not being blessed by the Precursors or having Sagehood in Dark Eco," I smiled.
"Hmph. I'd recommend finding something else to do. Maybe speaking to your mother," Seem frowned, me nodding at her as I then asked around the place to find out where Lola might be at.
"Oh, Lola? She's hanging out by the garage, same as always," said one of the group, me then going to said garages to see that mom was there indeed, as well as Jak, Errol, Daxter, and Kliever, the former two looking to be getting into an argument with Kliever about the cars in question.
"I'd say your pet's a little bony. But skinned and buttered, he'd make a nice treat. My vehicle against him," Kliever said, me growling at that.
"Oh no, no, NO!" I shouted angrily as I then proceeded to use the dirt to grab Kliever's arm and have him bend down forcefully to get in my face. "You are NOT, repeat, N O T! Going to ever threaten to eat my husband OR my daughter again. Or so help me, I will throw you out into the nearest Metal Head nest in nothing but a diaper, UNDERSTAND?!" I growled at him, my voice getting gravelly at the end as I accidentally turned into my dark form in the process, which Kliever looked at me in fear after.
"Y-Yes ma'am... never again, ma'am..." he said with concern, me then releasing him and seeing that mom looked at me in surprise.
"Um... good job..." mom said with concern as Kliever then shook himself off.
"Thanks for that, hon," Daxter smiled at me as he then hopped onto my shoulder as Jak then looked at the cars.
"Go 'ead an' 'elp yerself... just don't use the dune 'opper, slam dozer, gila stomper, or the dust devil. Those ones are mine," Kliever said, which Jak and I smiled at.
"Sweet," Jak smirked as Kliever then grumbled and left our group back to town, at the same time that Errol appeared from the doors.
"Ugh, that big guy is as stubborn as a Yakow bull in mating season," Errol frowned at.
"Tell me about it," mom frowned. "So, would you like to talk now, Dory? Maybe bring along your kids and siblings? Maybe your husband, too?" mom asked, me nodding at that.
"Yeah, but not here. Let's talk somewhere else," I smiled, her nodding as Jak and Errol then proceeded to take the cars out to the track, with Jak taking the Sand Shark and Errol taking the Heat Seeker.
Mom led me through the town towards one of the tal buildings that orbs could be found on the roof and led me inside, me seeing it was like an apartment complex on the inside and it was bigger on the interior than the exterior!
"My room is 9-A, and it's on the ground floor. I've spoken with Damas and I made it so you and your friends are close by, getting 14-A and 3-B for your friends. And lucky you, 14-A is for large families," mom smiled, me nodding at her as Jilly spoke.
"That's all well and good, but I don't want to live here. I want to go back to Haven," Jilly said.
"I could tell from your upside-down smile, Jilly..." mom sighed as we then reached the room and we went inside, seeing that mom's room looked small, but quaint. And it also had a custom communication device, like the ones in Haven, but with some Spargus touches like being made exclusively from repurposed Precursor technology. "When we speak, I'd like to request that we speak with uh... your new stepfather. Would that be okay?" mom asked, me nodding.
"Human form or Metal Head form?" I asked.
"So you know, then... I'll request human form," mom smiled. We then got everything set up and we had to be prepared to talk about a lot of things.