Cracking the Precursor Stone

Chapter 3

A/N: I do not own Jak and Daxter or any of their incarnations but will forever be grateful for their existence!

Kiera managed to run around the corner just in time to see Jak crunch one of the Krimson Guards in half. Seeing the poor man's leg snap off and hit the ground made her heave in the bushes. Once her stomach was empty, she brushed the residual sick off of her mouth before daring to look for her monstrous friend again. She saw his long tail disappear as he turned a corner and she tried to quietly sneak closer. Peeking around the bend, she saw him eagerly snuffling the ground. He looked like hip hog trying to snort out a particularly good mushroom out of the mud.

"What on earth is he doing?" She thought silently to herself.

Then she saw Jak's ears perk up and him lift his head. She followed his eerie black gaze to a man in the east bazaar examining fruit. Instantly she knew what must have gotten his attention. The man had orange-red hair almost the same shade as Daxter's. The poor soul turned around to see a gigantic eco beast lope over to him and eagerly pick him up. Keira couldn't help but cringe at the look of sheer overwhelming disappointment that overcame her friend when he realized the man he was holding wasn't Daxter. Jak's ears pinned back angrily when the guy understandably started to scream, and Kiera held her breath when he chucked the man over his shoulder into a nearby carnip stand as though discarding an unwanted toy.

Despite the various market goers screaming hysterically as they fled in whatever direction would take them furthest from the beast, Jak seemed unperturbed as he returned to snuffling at the ground. If she hadn't just seen him eat a man, Kiera would think this current version of Jak was adorable, but that grisly image was more than a little hard to banish in her mind. Deciding that something had to be done and quickly, Kiera tip-toed away when Jak decided that he felt like adding nectamelons to his diet.

Pulling out her communicator she first tried Daxter's number. When it kept going to voicemail, she finally dialed the only other person she thought could maybe handle the situation, "Hey, Torn, we got a problem."

Half-an-hour later, Keira was sitting in the Underground Headquarters with more than a few unexpected individuals. She honestly had expected Tess or The Shadow – she tried not to think too much about why there was a younger version of her father walking around in the future – but instead she was met by Torn and four men he introduced as Mog, Grim, Jinx, and Vin. Unable to hide her surprise she asked, "Where is everyone? And where is Daxter? He's the one we really need right now."

Torn sighed, "He's locked up in the prison with everyone else. What you see here is all we got."

"And for the record, sweet thing," The man called Jinx puffed out a disgusting cloud of cigar smoke, "We're not here because Torn can actually afford to pay us. Blondie has gotten us out of a few tough spots, and we owe him. So, what's happened to the guy? Torn didn't tell us much."

At that moment, the very antsy, white-haired man pulled out a data pad, "This is what's happened to him."

Jinx's cigar fell out of his mouth, "Holy sweet mother of Precursors. What the hell is that thing?"

"Uh…" Vin rubbed his head anxiously, "That would be Jak."

There, clearly on display was what most would undoubtedly consider a monster, but despite the changes, Kiera could recognize him. Still, there was no denying the differences from the Jak she grew up with to this beast. His height was just the tip of the iceberg. His fangs, claws, and horns had elongated proportionately with his now much larger size. The characteristic previous pale grey skin of his usual Dark form had darkened to purple while his mane of white hair had become even wilder, currently extending past his shoulders. His eyes were pitch black but if one looked closely, one could just barely see a deep purple light shining from within. A similar purple light occasionally glinted off of the huge, sharp, black, crystal-like protrusions, which had erupted from his back, shoulders, and to a lesser extent his arms. Able to jump nimbly between these crystals and his horns were bolts of dark eco. This constant electric miasma seemed to cheerily crackle as it leapt from one sharp point to another.

However, these dark eco-based protrusions on his body were not the only new additions. Kiera had first-hand experience with one of them. Dragging said long tail, tipped sporadically with those same crystals behind him, deceptively hid its prehensile abilities. Although Kiera had yet to see them open, she suspected the two massive wings he now boasted were also not to be underestimated. Folded up, it was hard to know the true shape of them, but from what was visible, were surprisingly delicate-looking bones – which Keira would bet her garage on being anything but delicate – that were linked together by a leathery black membrane similar to the wings of a salamanbat.

He no longer wore boots – Kiera figured they likely didn't last long once Jak began to grow – which allowed one to see his bare feet with their accompanying razor sharp, black, talon-like toenails. Actually, now that Kiera was able to take the time to really look at him, she realized all his clothes were missing. The one exception was what appeared to be black, boxer-brief-like shorts that seemed to have somehow grown with him. However, seeing the way they glinted purple as light reflected off them, the young mechanic suspected that they too were actually somehow apart of Jak's new form.

After about a minute of just staring dumbly at what her friend had transformed into, Kiera glanced at the time stamp and realized this was a live feed of Jak. He was still in the east bazaar, but he had doubled in size since the last time she saw him. She couldn't help but gasp, "He wasn't that big half-an-hour ago!"

"That's Jak?!" Jinx salvaged his cigar from the floor to take a long inhale, "What the hell has that kid been eating?"

"Wait for it…" Vin pointed at the screen, "You'll see in a second."

Sure enough, within ten seconds, Jak's body began to glow a deep purple, and he grew another five feet. He then promptly began to devour the nearest stand of vegetables with enhanced gusto.

The tech-savvy elf continued, "As crazy as it sounds, based on the sheer levels of energy he gives off when he changes there is a substantial power source fueling him. The only thing that I know of that could be that powerful is the Precursor Stone."

"What, so you're saying the kid ate it?" Jinx looked dubious.

"Quite possibly." Vin shrugged, "You'd have to ask him to find out for sure, but the bigger concern is that if he keeps growing at this rate, he's going to be over 200 feet tall in less than 24 hours."

"He's gonna need a hell of a lot of veggies to keep that going." Jinx chewed thoughtfully at his cigar.

"And that's where things get worse." Torn nodded to Vin indicating for him to find the appropriate image, "He's not just eating produce."

Pulling up a separate image from ten minutes before, the entire room cringed at seeing Jak devour half a dozen Krimson Guards.

Torn continued grimly, "The only positive is that so far, he seems to be sticking with just the KG, but we gotta stop him before he decides to expand his menu."

"Uh can't we just ask him to stop?"

"Mog, you moron," Jinx whacked his man upside the head, "Does he look like he's in the mindset to have a conversation?"

"Jinx is right." Kiera nodded, "Jak isn't in his right mind right now, but he is looking for something and I think I know who."

The tattooed commander sighed, "It's Daxter, isn't it?"

"Yep." The teal-haired elf nodded, "I saw him literally manhandle someone he thought was Daxter before throwing the guy aside in disappointment when he realized it wasn't him. He did recognize me though which means he might recognize other people he knows too. We could use that to our advantage."

"Pretty sure that redhead is the only thing that might bring him back to sanity-ville too." Jinx commented, "I've seen what happens when he usually goes Dark. No matter how pissed off Jak is, that loudmouth somehow knows how to pull him out of it."

"So, we just need to break Daxter out of a high security prison." Torn rolled his eyes, "A complete cakewalk."

"Jak could do it easy." Mog muttered at his folded arms.

"Yeah… Yeah he could." Keira brightened as the idea hit her, "That's it! He's looking for Daxter, right? Why don't we just help him out by leading him there? Once he's at the prison Jak will pick up on Daxter's trail and likely make a beeline straight for him."

"And how do you plan on getting Jak's attention without risking getting mauled ourselves?" Jinx blew out another cloud of smoke.

Green eyes nestled on Torn, "Jak and Daxter spend a lot of their downtime here, right? Where's their bunk? If they're still anything like how they were as kids, I bet you ten credits they have a pile of laundry that needs to be done."

Torn walked over to said specified bunk, "Honestly, we're damn lucky Tess has been so busy at the Hip Hog Saloon lately. She's often the one who does those brats' laundry." He pulled out a rucksack of clothes from under Daxter's bed. "There. One bag of the rat's foul-smelling socks and underwear."

"Perfect!" Keira rubbed her hands together, "Let's get to work!"

A/N: I heavily debated whether or not to leave Jak completely naked or not. I decided him having his junk bare for all to see would be just a little too much humiliation for the guy. Thus, eco boxer-briefs! I know it's a cop-out, but if you prefer you can always just imagine him running around naked ;P

Carnip: Carrot turnip

Nectamelon: Nectarine melon

Salamanbat: Salamander bat