Once we closed the door to mom's room, she then called up her husband, me knowing that it was Wolo. And when his visage appeared on the communicator, I saw it was not like the Haven City ones that had only the color of blue and hid your irises. This one allowed you to see in full color! And at first, I saw the Metal Head form, it looking to be more like a Tyrannosaurus Rex mixed with the mandibles of a Metalpede and a giant mustache above said mandibles. Not just any though. A handlebar mustache that would make any snake oil salesman wet their pants!
"Hello, Lola, darling... I see you've decided to bring in others to speak to us for a change," he said, me seeing his voice was deep, but it was also much kinder and wiser than Kor's sounded.
"Yes, Wolo... can I ask you to assume human form for now, though? I need you to see my... my daughters... and grandchildren," she said, Wolo then changing his form immediately, me gawking at how it was a light show of purple before his form was now... almost exactly like Charlie Chaplin, but with two giant fangs coming from his mouth.
"Is this form better?" Wolo asked, him sounding... almost like an aristocricy member! And then, he looked at me and my sister, as well as my children. "Ah, I see now what you mean. Humans... one adult, one teenager, three grandchildren of different appearances, and... Ah! You found Diego!"
"Hi, daddy... I'm finally home again," Diego said with a smile as he then went to the communicator ahead of us.
"My big question is how you never knew anything about my arrival at Haven City about 3 years ago, same with Jilly," I frowned.
"I heard from my sister, Rush, that a human warrior slew Kor by using eco to control the elements, including Light Eco from the Precursor Stone itself. And that she managed a feat impossible to any in the Wasteland of Spargus: slaying three Metal Mammoths in one shot from a Lobber grenade," he smiled. "I'm glad you took care of him, but we happen to have... a bit of a problem," he said, which made mom confused. But Starlight was the one who spoke first.
"What do you mean? What kind of a problem is it?" she asked him.
"Before we discuss the problem, I'd like to exchange names and who your other parents are, as I sense each of you has a different parent aside from Dorothea," he said, me smacking my face.
"Call me Dory. Dorothea makes me sound old," I frowned, followed by the rest of my family, including Daxter, as he was with me in the process.
"I see, you have polygamy in your family, each with their own child. And one of them is a mix of human and Ottsel. How very curious..." Wolo said. "Regardless, the problem is as follows. There's something that's been causing my children to go off the rails, same with the other Metal Head Leaders," he said as I then felt as if my mind was being invaded... and I saw from his eyes what was going on!
"My children have started to disobey my orders, same with the children of Rush and Chilla, each of them rushing headlong to join the forces attacking Haven City and these very Wastelands. They seem to be working to try and find Precursor Technology, but they're trying to hunt elvines that get in their way... and Haven City, by the Precursors, it's a bloodbath," he explained as he then showed me that Rush and Aunt Gertrude were actually out of Kras City and were heading for Haven from a land-type vehicle provided by Krew, that being the Boomer, one of the strongest ground vehicles in the game it came from! And it was traveling through the ruins of the Forbidden Jungle that was placed just outside of Dead Town. They were trying to bust their way into Haven City to help out.
But Rush noted that the entire city from afar, viewed from her own hybrid children with Rayne, were seeing that the place was filled with casualty, and mainly for the citizens, which made my blood curdle. And it wasn't just the original Metal Heads from Kor's side! It also included child-size frog Metal Heads that were able to lob Dark Eco from afar as a spitting attack, airborne reptilian Metal Heads that were firing homing blasts of Dark Eco onto Freedom Fighters who got in the fray, and even some of Rush's Metal Heads were disobeying her and attacking innocent civilians that were trying to flee on foot, as her children were avian roadrunners, pretty much! It seemed only the hybrid Metal Heads were able to keep their sanity in check!
"Oh my god... those poor people! What's going on?!" Lola asked in shock.
"We have a feeling it correlates to a giant purple star that's appeared in the sky recently... it's emitting some insane wells of Dark Eco, the likes of which is so tainted, I've never felt so icky from being made of it! And every so often, I'll hear a voice in my head telling me to join their side, but they're speaking in a distorted language of the Precursors... I need you to speak to the monk leader, Seem, and try to find the best means to find a way to not only go back to Haven City to stop the war going on there, but also find out how to destroy that light in the sky, and, if possible, find out who is responsible for its appearance," Wolo explained. And it was then that Jilly spoke up.
"I don't know who is responsible for doing all of this, but I do know that, just from seeing all that happen? Veger is an absolute BUFFOON! He got rid of the strongest warriors in that city and now he's seeing innocent people get killed! We need to get back there," Jilly said, me holding her shoulder and frowning.
"Yes, us warriors will go there. You, will not," I said to her, Jilly gasping at that.
"Why?! Why not?!" she asked angrily. And I couldn't blame her. Her teenage angst was exactly what I had to go through when I was in school.
"Because of how dangerous it is. You've never held a gun before and you only know how to use Red Eco, which is in short supply in a city at war. And too much usage in a short time will make your muscles get so in pain, you can't move an inch without feeling like you're being crushed and stabbed at the same time," I explained, which, though my words were truthful and were meant to make her stay calm, Jilly did the opposite.
"I CAN FIGHT! I can too fight! I don't want my friends to get hurt!" she shouted before then trying to punch me in the stomach, me expecting as much and preparing myself for the punch, thus, making my muscles too strong for her to hurt... in exchange, she winced and seethed from the pain her fist got into afterwards. "Oooww... you cheated," she frowned, me nodding at her.
"So will our enemies in the war, should they learn any of our secrets. Veger cheated with the votes, who's to say he won't do anything else nasty if he learned that we were planning to come back? He might kidnap any one of us and put us up for experiments. Hold one of our friends hostage in order to keep us out of Haven City or risk them getting killed. Maybe even kill people in the city with footsoldiers and try to pin the blame on Ashelin! We need to make sure you aren't at risk for being sent back. Until then, you'll be watched by two people I trust in this city... that is, if mom can explain to me why she tried to send her tax evasion status onto me and Jilly when we were still in school," I frowned, which made Wolo look at her and then she sighed.
"Look, it wasn't anything I was proud of. I needed some extra money and I fell for that stupid internet scandal. You know, the Nigerian Prince scandal?" she frowned, me then gawking. I remembered that! She fell for the oldest internet scam in the book! "After I wasted my money on that, I tried to do anything to get my money back... unfortunately, everything I tried ended up being illegal, which I wasn't aware of that it was. Selling stocks in the stock market as a stock broker and pocketing the money, taking money from your father's bank account without his knowledge, I even tried to run a funeral business where I'd cremate bodies and give the ashes to people... but I didn't know I needed a special license to do so. And my lawyers said that they wouldn't succeed unless I tried to send you two to jail with me, which would've given me a reduced sentence," she sighed.
"So you were willing to put us in the brink because of that?!" Jilly asked.
"NO! I refused to do so!" she said, me gawking at that... it was 100 percent truth! "I told the lawyer that I would never let my kids follow in my footsteps... so what did he do? He went behind my back and tried to swindle the judges and jury to send my tax debt to you and whoever would've taken care of you, as you weren't old enough to get jobs at the time. I took the stand and told the judge and jury that you two were absolutely innocent and actually almost got arrested for disobeying the orders of a judge when he told me to stay silent! If I wouldn't have spoken that day, you two would've been ruined..." mom said, tears coming into her eyes near the end. I sniffed at this as did Jilly. Because we could tell from her state of tears and her anger that she was, indeed, truthful. We went to her and hugged her after, followed by the rest of the group... well, almost. Daxter and Starlight were only able to hug around mom's head.
"So what do we do now?" Bruce asked.
"We heard what grandaddy Wolo said. We need to find Seem and get some answers," Glee smiled with her mind, us nodding as we disembarked and proceeded to exit the place, but Jilly did, in fact, stay behind with mom, where I told her one simple rule.
"Only you and Musette will be allowed to watch over them, mom... and Jilly, remember this. I love you, and that's the only reason I can't bring you to fight," I said, Jilly frowning at me. "I know you're upset, but we need to talk strategy. I just want you to be safe."
"I... I know. I just want to prove myself at some point!" Jilly frowned.
"If that's the case, ask mom or Musette to teach you how to fight," I said, her then looking at me with a smile. "You know what I'm talking about that will happen someday. A big fight is coming, so train up as much as you can."
"I will, Dory! Don't let anyone stop you," Jilly smiled as I then went with Daxter to go find Seem.
"Where are we going to find one monk chick among all these meatheads? This place is surprisingly big," Daxter said.
"For you and me, quite literally," I smirked at him as I then sensed with the powers of Light Eco, which I had a tiny bit of it on my person, enough to use it for three instances. And when I did so, I sensed Seem was near the gates to the vehicles. I then went there and saw her there and that she was looking at me with a smile.
"I see you have met with your husband again... unfortunately, I overheard a bit of your discussions," she said, me glaring at her.
"How? Tell me," I frowned, her then revealing that she had something. She pushed a button on her chest armor and I heard a small beeping on my shoulder, me looking on the one Dax wasn't riding and saw she'd snuck a Precursor tracking device on me! Basically, a small coin that could stick onto bodies and overhear people! "So, you know some of my secrets, then," I frowned.
"Some, yes. But I do know that you have a lot of distrust towards Count Veger... I ask you to do something for me," Seem said as she then proceeded to hand me something. She handed me a face mask of pure white as well as some special armor that looked like hers, and it being in my size! "I am ashamed to admit this, but I gave knowledge of the Precursor Catacombs to Count Veger, as he claimed he wanted to destroy the Day Star... had I known it would've resulted in the deaths of innocents, I never would've trusted him... he doesn't yet know that I am no longer sided with him. He expects me to meet with him at the Precursor Monk Temple on the far southern island of the desert."
"So why hand me the face mask and armor?" I asked her.
"I also have a Light Eco crystal on hand, but I will only give it to you if you can join me in meeting with Veger in person. He expects to meet with me at the temple in 2 hours from now. While I go make preparations, I need you to fit yourself into the armor and facemask. The armor will disguise your ears to look like they're coated in armor and look as pointy as everyone else's. Plus, I heard he'd seen you in your old KG armor, so he'd recognize you if you tried to use that," Seem said.
"Got it. So you want me to fit into this and then get to the temple to the south, huh? Should I go alone, or can I bring others to record the conversation in secret?" I asked, Seem smiling at that, though only for a brief moment. "I'd recommend the small one on your shoulder," she said, me looking at Dax and him smiling.
"So I get to do undercover work, huh? I'm all in on that! Just so long as that temple doesn't have any Metal Heads or spiders in it. Eugh... I still have nightmares from that giant bugger in Mar's tomb," Daxter shuddered.
"Really? You had to contend with a giant bug? By giant, how big do you mean, Dax?" I asked him as I then proceeded to walk off towards the nearest area to change, that being, get this, a spa built into the walls around the wall by the battle arena, which had water that was heated up by the lava near it.
"Oh, you ain't never seen anything like it, Dory! It was a giant spider, one that's as tall as Baron's spider mech that we contended with in the tomb, but it being a real spider that was wanting to eat me for dinner! I thought it was a giant boulder, but it was just a giant egg sac of a queen spider! I ran as fast as I could, taking pot shots at the giant bugger anytime I could, and then, finally, I escaped in the nick of time by going through a door and squishing the giant arachnid when it closed on top of its disgusting face!" Daxter explained with his famous tall tails. Except this one, I knew for a fact, was truth. Or at least, most of it was. I could tell he was stretching the truth on the pot shots and the size of the spider. And as for the latter, the spider was actually WAY bigger than that!
"Impressive work! Maybe you could actually kick the snot out of the smaller Metal Heads if you get into a tough scrape," I smiled as we then reached the changing rooms of the spa, where I then hid myself in one of them and started to place my old clothes into my bag and, afterwards, I got my new armor on my body one piece at a time... and though it was a tiny bit big in the chest, I saw that Seem's armor of choice actually helped make me look taller, as it allowed me to have special limb extensions to make my legs and arms a tiny bit longer, to make it so Veger wouldn't recognize my tiny body!
"Whoa! That armor is awesome! You look at least 6 inches taller when wearing it!" Daxter gawked at me when we looked at myself in the mirror, me smirking at the look.
"Not complete yet, Dax. Now I need to put on the face mask to complete the look," I said, me then doing so and, afterwards, I saw that it made me look almost exactly like Seem. Oh, and as for my extended arms and legs and what my hands looked like? They looked like armored hands and I was able to use them via some super advanced tech on the interior of the armor! So they had full dexterity so long as they didn't go too far back or go further than 160 degrees rotation.
"No way he'll recognize you now! I bet we could even fool Jak and Errol with this if you used a different voice!" Daxter smirked.
"Unlucky for them, I'm able to change my voice to different accents and inflections. Wanna see my impression of an Australian?" I asked.
"You mean like those annoying videos you showed me? About those weird animals who talk in all those weird phrases?" he asked. He was referring to when I showed him footage on my phone of Ty 2: Bush Rescue, the best of the four games (yes, there was a 4th game on Steam).
"Too right, kookaburra! Just loik 'ow Kliever speaks, ey? You rippah!" I smirked in my best Shazza impression, but with Ty's inflections.
"Welp, annoying, but no way anyone would recognize your voice like that. Now I need to ask if I can get that voice out of my head," he smirked at me.
"By the way, Dax? I wanted to let you in on a little secret," I smiled as I then showed him something in my bag, which, when I did, he looked at it in surprise. "I managed to try making some new clothes for you, just like Tess and Taryn did for Starlight. I had Keira help me a bit with determining tail hole size," I smirked as I handed the pants and small shirt to him, Daxter then placing on set number one, which made him look like he were in a hawaiian shirt and jeans that made him look like a small, furry Quagmire.
"Oh, sweet! And this is why I love ya, hon!" Daxter smirked as he then gave me a kiss on the lips, me smirking at him as we then left the spa and proceeded to go to the arena first and foremost, me taking the mask off of my body and seeing that the armor was just as retractable as my KG armor, which made me smile at how I could make it so that only the extendable armor would be retracted, mainly because I heard over the PA systems from Damas.
"Attention all citizens of Spargus! Head to the arena for part 2 of the newcomers' citizenship battles!" he said, me going there and seeing that, waiting for me in the wings happened to be Ashelin's mom, Yona. And she looked at me with a small smile.
"I heard from Comma... er... Colonel Errol that you helped in getting my horrid ex-husband banished here and having Ashelin become in charge of Haven for the better... is that true?" she asked, me nodding at her.
"She's going to be ecstatic when I tell her you're still alive. She thought you were dead, since your legs were broken when you were banished," I smiled at her.
"Is that what Praxis told her?" she asked. I looked at her in confusion as she then sighed. "Praxis banished me right outside of a Marauder camp, where I was only given a basic Morph pistol to protect myself from the marauders... Praxis did not, however, account for the fact that the camp was under attack from Spargus's citizens as revenge for the attack of 9389," she said, me then going wide-eyed at that.
"Wait! If that was the year you were sent here, then what year is it now?" I asked in shock, as I had yet to learn the truth from anyone in Haven City!
"It's 9399 as of current, at least 3 months away from the turn of the century... why do you ask?" she asked, me smiling.
"Well, not-well-kept secret about me and my sister, Jilly... and my mom, Lola. We come from very far in the past, around the time of 2024," I admitted, which made Yona look at me with a smile.
"I don't know if that's truth or jest, because I can tell from your look on your face that you're trying to be sincere... is there any proof of this?" she asked, me then pulling out my cell phone and playing a song on it that made her look at it in confusion. Why? It was the tune of Rooftop Run from Crash Twinsanity, which she looked at the artwork and listened to the music, completely baffled.
"What kind of... what is this music?" she asked.
"A type of music done mainly by mouth sounds. And this picture is from a game in my timeline called Crash Twinsanity," I smiled, her looking at me with a smile.
"I see... that's enough proof for me to believe you, but maybe don't show that thing to other members of Spargus? They don't really like modern technology like that... though in this case, I'm assuming it's ancient technology instead."
"It is, from the year 2023. This phone came with me into the future, but I needed to find it when I got to the timeline I appeared in, that being 200 years in the past. And then, through a convoluted piece of Precursor technology, me and my group from 200 years ago got sent to Haven City in different eras," I smiled.
"That does sound convoluted... regardless, I'd recommend not playing any music on that thing when in Spargus unless you are completely alone. I may be among Damas's council, but he doesn't make exceptions to anyone, even himself," she smiled.
"That's a good king, then... Okay, I'm going in there," I smirked as I then went up, seeing that I was second in line with Jak only just now finishing his round, with him getting the next upgrade to his gun, it being the Beam Refluxor. Aka, most overpowered gun in the game.
"By the way, about the Beam Refluxor, be mindful if you're in a group with others. It will affect any that isn't the owner of the gun, including friendly fire," Damas warned.
"Thanks for the warning," Jak said bluntly before going to the sidelines, me then going out for my round, me wondering where Pecker was at... and when I did, I saw that Pecker was actually on Errol's shoulder as he appeared behind me!
"You want to go first?" Errol asked, me nodding.
"Yes, I would, actually. I have a meeting to go to after I finish up," I smirked at how I was given access to the Wave Concussor to start the fight, with me proceeding to use it for a test run immediately, which made my body fly into the air after, me smriking at how I jumped way higher than Jak did!
"Whoa! This gun packs a punch for the little girls! HAHA!" I smirked.
"Are you ready for your next arena fight, then?" Damas asked, me nodding.
"Yes, I am, Damas," I smirked as I then went onto the elevator and down to the arena, me then entering the next round, me needing to take care of 40 different Marauders, them not standing a chance against my increased gun skills and the Wave Concussor allowed me to make them fly off the arena just as strong as if I were using my Dark side. But halfway through, she wanted to get in on it.
"Come on, let me kill at least one bad guy, please? I won't even transform us, just let me kill one inbred marauder!" she said in my head, me getting to 34 when she asked this.
"You can take control without transforming? Then prove it," I said, her then doing so and proving she could do so as she then took over my mind, though I saw I could have her retreat into the mind at any time I wished. She then proceeded to shoot the three different Marauders through their skulls before then punching the last of them into the lava before then retreating willingly, me sighing after.
"Thanks for not going overboard," I said with my breath barely a whisper.
"Thanks for letting me have a bit of fun," she said with a small snicker after from my head.. but I looked at Damas and he looked at me in confusion.
"Do you have some kind of alternate voice in your head? Much like Lola does?" he asked, me looking at him in confusion.
"My mom has that, too?" I asked, him being surprised at that, but recomposing himself quickly. "I didn't know... for me, it started when I went through that stupid chair and got injected with Dark Eco... she appears telling me to use her to kill bad guys, but I put her on a short leash because she can be a bit wily," I said.
"Very peculiar. For Lola, her other side is more along the lines of being a ditz that doesn't know the difference between purple and rock," Muse said, me looking at her in concern at that. "But you needn't worry about her. Both are very kind to their allies, it's just that Lola's other half - which she calls Tico - is hopelessly pinheaded at times.
"Thanks for the new information... I never knew my mom had that happen to her... it reminds me of when I was younger... I was just as dumb back then, when I was 5 or 6. I didn't know whether my feet were hands or my hands were feet. And I thought that the veins on my body would be able to make blue liquid... so I cut myself and was confused why only red came out. The look on her face was one I'll never forget," I admitted.
"Uhuh... regardless, your victory has earned you yet another battle amulet and another gun upgrade, the Beam Refluxor. But be warned-" Damas was about to say before I spoke up.
"I heard the explanation you gave to Errol. It will end up hitting anyone except the owner of the gun, even the ricochet shots. And thus, needs to be used carefully or not at all in a large group," I smiled.
"Yes, and also, be wary of your darker side. There are strange goings-on occuring in these deserts as of late, and it all correlates to Dark Eco," Damas warned, me nodding at that.
"Thanks for the warning, I'll be sure we're both safe," I said as I then left the arena and my darker side sounded concerned.
"Is he trying to say that those dark eco aliens are going to do things to me?" she asked with concern.
"We already saw that they wanted to try and control Diego, and he's half Metalhead, having way more Dark Eco in his veins. If they can control normal metal heads of all sizes, imagine what they would do if their infantry arrived," I thought to her without talking, her sighing after. "We can't rule anything out, so for now, we'll just stick to taking care of the baddies with other eco instead of Dark. You know how to use the other eco just as well, and they can be just as brutal as Dark, right?" I smirked, her frowning at me saying that.
"I hate it when you're right, sometimes... let's just get on our way to the temple... but how do we reach it without the Dune Hopper?" she asked.
"Um, hello? We can use Yellow Eco to control the elements? I can just command the rock and dirt to come out of the water and form numerous bridges!" I smirked in thought.
"Oh, you little cheater!" she giggled as I then reactivated my armor as Daxter then hopped back on my shoulder.
"So what were you arguing about with your darker self just now? Every time you seemed to change your head's direction, your horns grew out," Daxter said, me sighing at that.
"We were just talking strategy. If that giant star in the sky really is full of Dark Eco, and it really is causing the Metal Heads to go crazy, then who's to say it won't eventually effect even the leaders, the hybrids, and even me or Jak? We need to make sure that not only are me and Jak protected, but all of my kids and Diego, too," I said, Daxter then nodding as we then went to the garage and I got to my preferred ride once unlocked, that being the Desert Screamer, one of the fastest of all the cars. I then looked outside of the city gates and saw that there were no stirred winds at this time.
"Let's ride," I smirked as we then rushed through the place towards the south. We had a lot of driving to do... and a lot of Marauders to turn into mincemeat on the way!