Activating the warp gate in the Red Sage's lab, the gang stepped back to allow Samos and Keira to land.
"Ow! I always wonder if I'm losing body parts in those things!" Samos groaned before noticing the room. "Holy Yakow! The Red Sage's lab looks worse than the Blue's!"
"Well, it definitely looks as though there's been a struggle here," Keira pointed out.
"D-Do you think whoever attacked the Blue Sage took the Red Sage too?" Fluttershy fearfully asked.
The Pegasus girl got her answer when maniacal laughter with an otherworldly echo was heard above them, making her squeal in terror before hiding inside Ben's shirt. As everyone looked up, the blue-skinned, emaciated male the gang had seen on Misty Island smirked down at them from his hovering position.
"I'd hardly call it a struggle. Would you, dear sister?" He asked the female figure who had been with him.
"Certainly not!" The woman proclaimed primly. "The Red Sage gave up with so little effort. No fun at all."
"Gol?! Is that you?" Samos asked in shock. "You've finally gone off the deep end, eh? And Maia, I told you the Dark Eco would affect you both!"
"Wait...THAT'S Gol?!" Rainbow asked in shock. "Wow, you and Maia look like you haven't been living well..."
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight hissed admonishedly.
"Actually, this is a good thing because now we can ask them how to fix Daxter!" Pinkie said as she picked up the Ottsel and presented him to the two. "Can you take a look at our friend and tell us how we can fix him? He fell into some Dark Eco and turned into this fuzzy-wuzzy adorable thing!"
"Excuse me?! Are you asking the scary blue people who were talking about destroying the villages to give me a physical?! No way!" Daxter argued angrily before suddenly being yanked out of Pinkie's grip. "Wha-HEY! PUT ME DOWN!"
"Since he's so against it, I'd be happy to take a look," Maia purred, examining him through lenses of Eco. "...But this is not a mutation."
"Eh?" Jak asked in shock.
"What?" Twilight added.
"Come again?" Ben questioned.
"Beg yer pardon?" Applejack arched an eyebrow.
"Excuse me?" Rarity asked.
"Oh my..." Fluttershy muttered.
"Say what?!" Rainbow gawked.
"Ooooh, plot twist!" Pinkie giggled.
"Seriously?" Keira demanded.
"That's impossible!" Samos proclaimed.
"Lady, are you loco?! Look at me! How can all THIS not be a mutation?!" Daxter snapped.
"It is an evolution, and before you start babbling about 'blind obsession with things we aren't meant to tamper with', we can see that Daxter's cells have undergone an accelerated evolution," Gol explained. "Aging, energy generation, healing factor, Eco metabolization...all these factors have increased by at least a factor of 4 from an ordinary human, over what our scans show Jak and Ben are capable of, and still growing every time his body absorbs Eco."
"However, scans show that these abilities are in infancy, and can't be reliably tapped yet," Maia clarified. "Also, his body appears capable of metabolizing Dark Eco...eventually. Not yet, but the potential is there."
"Wait, are you saying I'm some sort of super being now?" Daxter asked, completely gobsmacked.
"You mean to tell me Daxter went through a forced evolutionary cycle thousands of years ahead of what would normally be what would happen for the people of this world?" Twilight asked in amazement. "This is...SO FASCINATING!"
"It couldn't have happened to a worse child..." Maia growled.
"Is that all it takes for this? Getting dunked in Dark Eco?" Daxter demanded. "What, so Jak, Keira, and Ben will end up looking like me too if they all decide to just jump into a huge vat of the stuff as well?"
"No, it appears your unique genetic structure was naturally keyed towards this evolution, and the Dark Eco exposure drastically accelerated it." Gol clarified. "Instead of your descendants thousands of years from now achieving these abilities, you did."
"At the cost of PANTS," Daxter grumbled as he perched back onto Jak's shoulder.
"I'm still planning on making you that pair, dear." Rarity pointed out.
"This is amazing! Clearly, our studies are in the right direction!" Maia proclaimed. "Dark Eco is the key to unlocking the secrets of the Precursors! Once the Robot is fully powered, we shall open the silos and unlock their ancient secrets...and all the Dark Eco of the world!"
"Not the silos!" Samos exclaimed in horror.
Yes, the silos! They will be opened, and all the Dark Eco of the world will be ours!" Gol cackled as he and Maia teleported away.
"Well, so much for Gol changing me back..." Daxter bemoaned. "Still, can't argue with the whole super evolution thing."
"You might not get to enjoy it if we're all DEAD!" Samos snapped. "If they open the silos, the Dark Eco will twist and destroy everything it touches! We simply must get to their citadel to stop them!"
"The fastest way there is through the Lava Tube at the bottom of this crater. A few more Power Cells and the Zoomer's Heat Shield should get you guys cross the lava safely." Keira pointed out.
"Uh...what do you propose we do?" Rainbow chimed in. "I mean, we're in the middle of an active volcano, last I checked! I don't know how we're gonna get by!"
"And we technically are covered in fur." Rarity added. "And the heat will be absolutely dreadful for my hair!"
"There's also the fact we'd die of heat stroke the second we stepped outside..." Twilight pointed out. "Thank goodness the Red Sage's room has A/C."
"Then I guess it's up to the three of us to handle things from here." Jak said. "No way are we letting out LSBFF's go through this."
"Uh, can I opt out?" Daxter spoke up. "In case you didn't know it, I'm furry too!"
"You're a super-evolved Ottsel whatchamacallit, Daxter! You can handle it!" Ben snapped.
Keira and Samos managed to safely bring the Mane 6 to Snowy Mountain, the latter going back to Sandover to get some nutrient-rich food and drinks for them.
"Ugh, this sucks!" Rainbow grumbled. "I hate waiting around while our brothers get to have all the fun."
"Well, would you rather die of heat stroke, RD?" Applejack pointed out. "I think they made a pretty good call."
"Not to mention experimenting with the Eco using my magic has made me overheat a bit," Twilight added. "I don't know how long I would have lasted there."
"Hey! We can still look around for Scout Flies, Power Cells, and Precursor Orbs!" Pinkie said. "You guys just gotta think of the positives!"
"Well, that could help pass the time." Rarity said. "What do you think, Fluttershy dear?"
"Um...Okay."
"Just as long as I can keep an eye on you guys, okay?" Keira said. "And don't worry about me freezing, that personal temperature regulator Twilight and I made a while ago finally came in handy."
Twilight smiled. "I knew it wasn't a waste of time making that!"
"And it is so very fashionable!" Rarity added with a giggle.
After clearing Snowy Mountain for all collectibles, the girls got a call from Jak that he, Daxter, and Ben were about to take the Zoomer through the Lava Tubes, having gathered all the Orbs and Power Cells from the region. At this point, the boys had been operating on the assumption that, with enough Power Cells, Keira could take something that Gol and Maia had built in their Citadel and turn it against them.
With the message received, Keira snapped the personal temperature regulator around Twilight's neck and led her and the girls back to the hut where the warp gate was. Twilight focused her magic to take the Eco from the regulator and make a temperature regulation field around her friends to protect them.
While waiting for the next gate to open, the girls glanced around.
"Shouldn't Samos be back from Sandover by now?" Fluttershy asked worriedly.
"He really should," Keira murmured, biting her bottom lip. "I'm going to go check on him."
She quickly hopped through the warp gate. When she hopped back, she looked horrified.
"What's wrong, darling?" Rarity asked.
"Daddy's not there! And his hut is a mess, just like the other Sages' huts! I think Gol and Maia kidnapped him like the others!"
The Mane 6 all gasped in shock before Rainbow angrily punched her fist into her palm.
"Oh, they've done it now! That old coot may get on our cases a lot, but he's family!"
"This calls for extreme measures...PINKIE PIE STYLE!" Pinkie said, taking out a large cannon out of her mane and slinging it over her shoulder.
"Uh, Pinkie, where have you been keeping that?" Applejack asked.
"It's my Party Cannon...ECO DESTRUCTION EDITION!"
"I'm not even gonna question it..."
As if right on cue, the warp gate opened and the Mane 6 leaped through to join their brothers for the final assault.
"Took you girls long enough!" Daxter said as the Mane 6 made their way through the warp gate.
"Samos has been kidnapped!" Twilight said urgently. "We need to save him and the other sages right away!"
The boys looked at each other and nodded as they and the Mane 6 made their way into Gol and Maia's Citadel carefully. The front door irised open with a metallic hiss. The inside was very high-tech, beyond anything they had seen before.
When they made it through the first tunnel, they found themselves in a massive chamber dominated by a giant Precursor robot held in a Dark Eco field. Without warning, Samos dropped down, suspended in a cage held shut by even more Dark Eco.
"It's about time you kids decided to show up!" He barked. "You need to get us out of here!"
"Us?" Jak asked in confusion.
"Gol and Maia kidnapped the rest of us to drain our power to fuel their Precursor robot!" Samos explained. "I'm still close to full strength, but the other sages have been here much longer. If they aren't freed soon, they might not survive. So make sure you free them first!"
"Okie-Dokie-Lokie!" Pinkie saluted as she prepped her Party Eco Cannon. "Let's waste some bad guys!"
"Hey, can I get one of those..." Ben asked as Pinkie just giggled.
"There's still the giant monster robot to deal with afterward though." Rainbow pointed out.
"You'll need the power of all four of us to break the force shield protecting that monstrosity before you can begin destroying it. Now get going!" Samos said.
The paths into the Citadel were a maze of floating platforms and wooden bridges suspended over deep pits. One thing was certain, none of them wanted to fall here. Switches raised paths of colored squares linked together. Standing on any square of one color caused all the squares of that color to drop back into the pit after a few moments.
"That's going to get annoying real fast," Daxter muttered as the group left off the first such bridge, which also collapsed in its entirety after a certain amount of time passed.
"Can't you just fly us across?" Ben asked Twilight.
"We could..."
Fortunately, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow were strong enough to carry their friends across. Pinkie just made a rhythm game out of jumping over the colored platforms.
"Sorry, I'm not used to holding more than a bunny or two..." Fluttershy apologized as she set Daxter down.
"Why in the hay would they even set this place up like that?" Applejack asked.
"It's not like they even need platforms, they can fly!" Jak barked out. "Why make it so hard to get through if you can't? Why not just not have the platforms? Most of them aren't even connected to anything!"
Daxter rubbed his chin. "Well...either the arrangement is channeling Eco energy in a manner we'd need Samos to explain...or..."
"Or?" Everyone asked together.
"Or breaking the barrier around the Precursor Robot is part of the activation process, and they want us to free the Sages to do it," Daxter concluded. "The Sages wouldn't do it if they told them to, and we'd get suspicious if it was too easy to free them. And if they can get us to get the Sages to do it, they don't need to expend their own power to do so."
Everyone was silent for a while as they stared at Daxter before Jak spoke up.
"Since we need to free the sages anyway...if that is the case, then how do we stop them?"
Daxter glanced around. "Well, with all the Eco tech around, there's bound to be a few Eco Vents, right? So once they're on the robot, we just need to make sure Gol and Maia are more focused on us than unsealing the silos long enough for you guys to tear their robot apart somehow."
"I have another question..." Ben said before picking Daxter up and shaking him violently. "WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE REAL DAXTER?!"
"YEAH!" Rainbow snapped as she flew in. "THE REAL DAXTER WOULD NEVER BE THIS SMART!"
"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" Daxter snapped back angrily.
Jak and the rest of the Mane 6 couldn't help but let out a much-needed laugh at the sight. But still, they continued on with a much more serious air than before.
When they came across a Yellow Eco vent before a long hallway that soon became flooded with Lurkers, Twilight got an idea.
"Everyone, stay behind me," She ordered as she stepped into the vent.
Everyone did as they were told, keeping their eyes focused as Twilight closed her eyes, focusing on the Yellow Eco her body was absorbing into her horn. When she felt he could hold no more, she released it forward...in a flood, rather than a burst.
A blazing inferno erupted from Twilight's horn, blasting the relatively weak Lurkers to ashes as it filled the hallway, subsiding as Twilight fell back onto his rump and out of the Eco vent.
"Okay...that...was...AWESOME!" Rainbow exclaimed.
As blasting away the Lurkers had also broken several dynamos of some sort, which opened another door. The door led straight to where the Red Sage was locked up. Breaking another dynamo released him, as well as providing another Power Cell.
"So you've finally come to rescue me." The Red Sage, Lemnos, chuckled. "You know how long I've been here? What took you so long? And what are your names?"
"Jak."
"Daxter."
"Ben."
"Twilight Sparkle."
"Pinkie Pie."
"Applejack."
"Fluttershy..."
"Rainbow Dash!"
"Rarity."
"You're real heroes, you three. You've got to stop Gol and Maia before they can use their robot. I'll use my Eco Power to start breaking down the barrier."
"We'll save the others, don't worry!" Twilight assured as the nine turned to keep going, keeping their eyes peeled for anything that might give them an advantage if their theories were right, or any sign that they might be wrong.
Once more, the path was wrought with color panel bridges and moving platforms, forcing the winged members of the group to carry the non-flying members across. Daxter proved to be quite helpful, as his new eyes proved exceptionally effective at judging distances.
Rainbow Dash then decided to cut the knot by charging herself up with Blue Eco and zipping across to open the door and free Chios, the Blue Sage.
"Good work, fellows! Old Samos was right about you!"
"How, exactly?" Jak asked, curious.
"Sorry, I'm not supposed to say!" Chios replied before gasping when he saw the Precursor Robot. "Great piles of Precursor metal! That insidious mechanical creation must not be allowed to wreak its terrible havoc!"
"Gee, ya think?" Daxter and Rainbow grumbled.
"I will try to actuate the shield door by eliciting a conduit of energy between myself and the vast portal below!"
"Did anyone other than Twilight figure out what he just said?" Applejack asked.
"Is it weird I understood what he was saying?" Ben awkwardly spoke up.
The next path leading into the Citadel proved to involve a great many Blue Eco-powered launchers. The key wasn't just getting the full distance of the launch, but landing on the next launcher without falling into the pit around each floating launcher or running out of Blue Eco. On top of that, some of the launchers were moving, making the landings even more difficult to aim.
"Thank goodness you, me, and Fluttershy can fly!" Rainbow said to Twilight.
After all that, the gang finally reached the next door, opening the path to Cunda, the Yellow Sage, where they were able to release him.
"Who would have thought I'd live ta see the day when I needed to be rescued by a boy, his pony, and his muskrat!" He said. "Ah'm gonna give Gol and Maia a little payback for this embarrassment! Then we'll see about cooking up some muskrat stew."
"Please don't eat Daxter..." Fluttershy whimpered as she hugged her Ottsel brother, who gulped in agreement.
The added Eco provided by Cunda resulted in a new set of platforms rising up out of the abyss below. The group made their way carefully over to this new path, certain this would lead them to Samos. This included some of the most precise jumping they'd had to do so far, as there were times they had to wait until the platform they were on had almost completely retracted into the wall before they could make the jump to the next one.
The platforms themselves were spaced widely in an upward climb. Once again, Jak and Ben had to leap to one, pull themselves up, then hang halfway off it to grab Applejack and Rarity as they leaped before struggling to pull them both onto the platform. Twilight, Rainbow, and Fluttershy provided aid wherever they could with their flight.
Once at the top, they then had to climb up the central circle of the main device, in the center of the Citadel. While up there, they happened to find the last Scout Fly of the area, getting their hundredth Power Cell. Smashing the last reactor, they released Samos.
"Good work, you all, and nice teamwork! Perhaps I've been underestimating you all this time."
"We do what we can!" Daxter preened. "We do what we can."
"Don't let it go to your head," Samos scolded. "My opinion of you isn't that high."
Daxter hung his head and growled, which elicited a giggle from Pinkie, Rainbow, and even Fluttershy.
"I'll combine my Green Eco power with the other three Sages, and together we'll open the shield doors surrounding the Precursor robot." Samos said.
"Does that mean we can count on you to help us deal with the robot?" Fluttershy asked hopefully.
"Unfortunately not. The shield generator is a part of the robot. It's going to take all our combined power to keep the shield down long enough for you all to destroy it." Samos said. "Good luck. We're all counting on you!"
With that, Samos dove down to pour his power into the shield along with the other three Sages. The four colors of Eco combined bonded to the Dark Eco shield, causing it to short out.
Seeing that Gol and Maia were heading for the robot as it came active, the gang prepared themselves, seeking an elevator to the top of the citadels.
Alright, we're ready for the Final Boss Fight of Precursor Legacy! Strap yourselves in, folks!
