Jak & Spyro: When Heroes Collide

dragonball06 · Jan 08, 2011 5:48 AM

Finally reached ch 30! Hopefully ch 31 by next week, because I'll probably be putting this story aside briefly since I'll be going back to school, but stick around and keeping reading, this story isn't over yet!

Ch 30: Into the Depths

There were a few close calls, but Daxter managed to pull off the win. Though there wasn’t much left of the zoomer, with the front steering rudder nearly bent at a 45 degree angle, the tail wings crunched, and the engine cage nearly crushed causing external damage to the block, but not to the point of affecting its performance. Either way, Daxter made it out in one piece and with a polished silver trophy to prove it.

“Now there’s a handsome winner,” Daxter commented on his trophy sitting on the tool bench.

“Nice job you orange puff,” Cynder commented in her usual manner.

“Way to go,” Spyro followed.

“You did it Daxter!” Keira finished, “We’re now qualified for the big race!”

“Did you ever doubt?” Daxter asked, “I backstreet drive for Jak all the time, ask him yourself, I taught him everything he knows.”

“I’d like to tell him he’s full of himself, but he makes it so obvious,” Spyro whispered to Cynder. She giggled at his silent remark. At the same time Jak entered the garage and was heading right toward them. Daxter was the first to speak.

“Hey there, we sure showed those class 2 losers a thing or two huh?”

“I saw,” Jak answered, “You drifted a little high in the turns a few times, but you hung in there, I’m proud of you Dax.” He finished giving him a knuckle touch.

“Really?”

“Yeah, you did great.”

Daxter jumped onto Jak’s shoulder, “No, WE did great, right partner?” Before Jak could answer, he glimpsed Keira out of the corner of his eye and turned to face her. She looked away, still upset with him for his attitude earlier. Jak said nothing to her, turned around, and left the garage. Cynder was disappointed at what she saw going between them. To her, a friend was someone you shouldn’t push away. Spyro had proved it time and time again how special she was to him, so it really hurt her to see these two who shared a similar bond to be fighting over their differences. She motioned for Spyro to follow Jak outside, and then she walked over to Keira.

“You can’t stay mad at him forever.”

“When the old Jak comes back, I’ll feel better.”

“I’m sorry for what you’ve been through Keira, but you have to understand, even though Jak isn’t the way you remember him, one thing hasn’t changed.”

“What would that be Cynder?”

“He’s your friend, and friends care for one another, and are always willing to forgive, no matter what the other has done,” she finished as her mind faded into her memories.

Keira looked at the ground, and turned her head back toward the workbench, saying nothing. Thinking there was nothing else she could say, Cynder walked back to Spyro and they both walked out of the garage. They met up with Jak outside near a BX-10, Daxter & Sparx were with him. Hunter had decided to go back to the Underground to help with security and had left after the race. With their faces covered, the two dragons climbed into the zoomer behind a silent Jak, and took off. They sped out of the stadium and headed out of Main Town. As they entered the slums, a grim voice came over the communicator.

“Hello boys, Krew here aye, If you aren’t too busy right now, I have an errand for you,”

“Just tell tubbo were on a milk run,” Sparx stated. Spyro and Cynder shook their heads, but part of them agreed with him, Krew wasn’t exactly someone they trusted much.

“I need you all to escort three of my boys down into the sewers, and visit Mar’s statue, I’ve heard his cheeky little face might contain a valuable secret, and I want you to see if the stories are true aye!”

“Perfect, another run through the muck,” Daxter complained.

“Make sure all three of them get to statue unharmed, and let them take care of the rest hmmm,” the communicator then switched off. Jak turned to the dragons and said, “guess you guys are about to enter one of the less pleasant areas of the city.”

“Oh, I’m bloating with joy,” Sparx said with high sarcasm.

“Relax, we’ve been underground before, how bad could it be?” Spyro asked.

“It ain’t the depth of the sewers that will kill you, it’s the stench and the metalheads that will!” Daxter answered.

“Is there a part of this city that doesn’t have death written around every corner?” Sparx asked. He never got an answer. Jak just kept flying through the slums, past the Underground hideout, and into the industrial section. Rounding the first left turn, Jak dropped down into a gutter leading to a city lock. They all dismounted and approached the door. It automatically opened and closed as soon as they entered. They dropped about 30 feet until the elevator halted. The door opened and they found themselves in a large drainage tunnel. Before Cynder even took a step, her nose took a wiff of the air and a look of disgust immediately crossed her face.

“Ugghh…this place stinks worse than a swamp full of frogweed.”

“Yeah, and I thought Spyro smelled bad,” Sparx remarked. Spyro shot a breath of fire sparks at him which immediately shut him up. Daxter smirked at the scene.

“Well guys, look who finally showed up.” Jak and the others turned toward the right side of the tunnel, 3 men in dirty colored tunics with c4 packs strapped to their backs were leaning against the wall.

“It’s pretty boy and his pets, about time you guys arrived, we were worried this was gonna be too quick a job.”

“Quick job?!”

“Pets?!”

“Krew’s cronies right?” Jak asked.

“Names’ Jinx blondie, this here’s Mog and Grim.”

“Well I hope you don’t mind me by zooming through the introductions, but what are those things you’re carrying?” Spyro asked eying the c4 canisters.

“Just a little edge to make sure we get the job done.” Jinx answered as he and his buddies slipped the canisters on. “Now come on, let’s do this.” They all started making their way down the hall to a junction, where an elevator was stationed.

“I got a bad case of NBO and high explosives strapped to my back, great,” complained Grim.

“Yeah, why did we sign up for this?” whined Mog.

“And why on Earth would Krew hire such whiners for errand boys?” Sparx whispered to Spyro.

“Just shut your traps and get moving wussies,” Jinx demanded. They all got on the elevator and dropped down nearly 20 feet. Ahead was a passageway that directed left. Suddenly, there was a clank, and Mog spoke.

“Did you all hear that?”

“Quiet you lunk, I’ll scout ahead,” Jinx said as he made his way up, but when he reached the corner, he immediately screamed and pulled out his gun. A large spider metalhead emerged from the corner and crawled toward him.

“Yaahh! It’s a metalhead! Shoot it! SHOOT IT!” Jinx yelled at Jak.

“Oh man, I HATE spiders!” Daxter whined. Jak immediately pulled his blaster and started firing, and after three hits it fell back at the wall, bleeding to death. However, two more emerged from around the corner and made their way toward Jinx, who could barely hold them off with his blaster pistol. Before Jak could fire again, Spyro and Cynder leapt over his head and fired an earth shot and a poison bomb at them. One was literally blown off his feet and the other lost his head as the poison melted it away.

“Nice work, those were some nasty metalheads,” Jinx commented. They made their way through the dead carcasses. Mog and Grim nearly vomited walking past the one Cynder had hit. Around the corner, they found themselves in another small junction. Sparx looked up and screamed.

“Yaaaahhh! Save me! They’re all over the walls!” He immediately flew behind Spyro. He was right; four metalheads were literally crawling down the walls of the junction, and jumped off to close in for the kill. Jak equipped his Vulcan fury and immediately started letting loose a barrage of Vulcan shells. All but one of them was blown back, Jak could feel his gun getting lighter from the depletion of ammunition and let off the trigger to conserve the rest. The final metalhead was closing in on Jinx, he reached for his pistol to defend, but at the last instant, Spyro and Cynder jumped in front of him and took a battle stance. The metalhead thrust its pincers at both of them, but the dragons avoided his reach. Spyro then engulfed it in a wave of flame. The metalhead screeched in pain as the skin melted off of his body. Cynder ended its suffering by consuming it in a shadow blast. As the blast encompassed it, it shrunk as well as sinking into the floor. Soon, it was so small, it disappeared in the floor. Everyone except Spyro was flabbergasted.

“Where’d he go?” Jinx asked nervously.

“Believe me, even I don’t know,” Cynder answered. The other guys still seemed perplexed, but decided to leave it at that.

“Okay, well we’re clear now, so let’s move,” Jak stated. However, the next hallway was blocked by fallen debris.

“Step aside goldilocks, this is where I come in,” said Jinx. He reached into his belt knapsack and pulled out a C4 charge and set it down near the wreckage. He then flipped a switch on top.

“This is gonna be loud, ya’ll better stand back,” warned Jinx. Everybody dove into the hallway they came from to be shielded from the blast. Spyro and Cynder were still confused of how something so small would clear the hallway. About five seconds later, they got their answer.

KABLAMM!!! A red flash nearly blinded them, and a loud blast echoed throughout the sewers. Soon, it all settled and Spyro and Cynder looked and were stunned to see that the passageway was cleared.

“Oh man,” Sparx exclaimed, “what was in that thing?”

“Mog’s bad breath and your hot air bugsy, now let’s move!”

“I love this job!” Grim stated. Spyro and Cynder snickered at Jinx’s remark to Sparx, even Jak chuckled, but shook it off as they made their way up the passageway. However, it wasn’t a friendly greeting up at the top.

“More of those monsters!” said Jinx as he noticed the two metalheads on the bridge ahead.

“These guys are mine,” Jak stated as he pulled out his blaster gun and started shooting. But as Jak kept shooting at the metalheads ahead, a clank was heard behind the group.

“Look! They’re coming up from behind too!” Mog yelled.

“Great, now were trapped in this slime pit!” Grim complained.

“We’ll take them!” Spyro declared. He and Cynder leapt toward the metalheads approaching from the other end of the passage, having remained hidden in the ceiling piping during the earlier fight. Spyro immediately let loose a wave of fire that engulfed the entire hallway; it spewed over the two metalheads and incinerated their bodies. Up at the top, Jak had just shot one of the metalheads off the bridge and was still shooting at the last one. This one was smart though; it crawled along the edge of the bridge, and shielded itself from Jak’s fire. Jak decided to try a different method, he switched to his scatter gun and pointed it the metalheads direction. One pull of the trigger, and a red aura shockwave blew the metalhead off the bridge and to its death 100 feet below.

“You’re pretty handy with that iron blondie,” Jinx commented.

“Jak’s my hero, and so are you guys,” Mog said to the dragons.

“Shut up Mog,” Jinx replied.

“The hero job I can live with, the fans not so much,” Jak whispered to Cynder as they walked over the bridge. She giggled, feeling flattered that someone was actually looking at her as someone good for a change. Walking over the bridge, Spyro got a good view of the junction; there were large tanks that ran all the way up the left side. Connecting pipes ran all the way up to the ceiling and down a corridor on the right. The end of the bridge angled right, and led towards an elevator that would take them all down to the bottom level, just in front of the corridor.

“Hey, why don’t we go back before we all get killed?” Grim stated.

“Yeah, I want to go home,” said Mog.

“You boys stop whining and move your butts! Or I’ll move them for you,” Jinx demanded.

“Have you ever heard a more pathetic group of bickering partners?” Daxter whispered to Jak.

“You and Sparx look in the mirror and you can answer that yourself,” he replied with a smirk. Daxter shot him a look. Everyone piled onto the elevator, except for Spyro and Cynder who took flight, and followed the descending elevator down. They landed as soon as the elevator hit ground, then all four men jumped off and headed down the corridor. In the lead was Jak, with Daxter on his shoulder, and Jinx at his right, then Grim, Mog, followed by Sparx, Cynder and Spyro. Sparx made sure to stay close to the middle of the group, hoping to be less of a target by not being alone at the back. Spyro however, showed no fear of being in the back, as he ran through the murky waterway. The path was littered with pools of muck, and the smell down below was even worse than the odor from the upper level. Cynder wasn’t sure how much more she could stand the stench. But the smell was about to become the least of her worries, because just then something leaped down from the piping above, casting a shadow on the walls.

“Here they come again!” yelled Jinx. He spoke the truth; two more metalheads had landed and were crawling toward them, fangs ready. Spyro and Cynder heard a splash from behind; they turned and saw two more hungry metalheads ready for a feast.

“Ahhh! We’re surrounded!” yelled Sparx. Everyone closed in together as the four metalheads circled them.

dragonball06 · Jan 08, 2011 5:51 AM

Jackson117: Great to see you up again, By the way do you do OC that might fit in?

A: Do you mean from the original Spyro? If so, I don't think so, I wasn't planning on showing anyone from the original series for this story, maybe for sequels, but not for this one.

Jackson117 · Jan 09, 2011 12:04 AM

Well his a wyvern but his more a bit of a nut, granted the state of how baron makes most of his men killing machines...this wyvern would go on a Destruction spree.

It's up to you really but his a nutter who is obsessed with killing those he thinks as evil and preserving that good, his also part of a family that he is the long survivor of and thinks that somehow spyro is blood related to it...He would hire a bunch of merc's or cut-throat's just for him to become a winner

If your interested send me a PM

dragonball06 · Nov 29, 2012 1:15 AM

Thought I was dead? WRONG!!! Its amazing how fast time goes when you get distracted! Trust me, last time I posted for this story I was only halfway through college, now I'm just about to graduate! In case you'd like to know, my absence has been a combination of work, school, writers block, laziness, and of course distractions...but to anyone still reading, I have a few more chapters to go, heres the next!

Ch 31: Statue of Mar

All four men had their guns drawn as the metalheads surrounded them. Smoke emitted from Spyro and Cynder’s nostrils as their fighting spirits flared in the midst of battle. Sparx watched in safety from high above in the piping, while Daxter was sweating bullets on Jak’s shoulder. There was a moment of silence between the two groups; it was like the final showdown out of a movie. One of the metalheads took a step, but that was all Jak needed to make a move, he immediately fired on the two metalheads. They fell back, but immediately straightened themselves out. Spyro and Cynder pounced on the two in front of them and dealt them a few scratches with their claws. Jinx and his buddies kept their distance while the heroes took care of the monsters. Jak conserved his ammo by pounding the two metalheads in front of him in the head with the butt of his gun. Soon their skull gems were crushed and their bodies went limp. Behind him, Spyro head butted his metalhead into the wall; it was shaken but not finished. It leaped toward Spyro, but he dodged, and fired an electric bolt. It pierced its body and the metalhead dropped dead. Cynder was struggling with the last metalhead, it had her pinned down at the ground. She was barely able to hold the metalhead back, keeping its fangs from reaching her throat. Suddenly, Cynder saw two green bursts of energy hit its head square on, knocking it off her.

“Yeah! You like that?!” Jinx exclaimed as he steadied his handgun.

Cynder quickly took initiative and pounced on top of the metalhead and let loose a fear screech. The screech caused everyone to hold their ears, but the metalhead got the worst of it, it immediately froze in stone death as its worst fears flowed through its twisted mind, fears no one else should ever imagine. Cynder stepped off the dead metalhead and looked at Jinx.

“Thanks for the help,” she said to him.

“Don’t mention it,” he replied as he put his gun away, “We hate these bugs as much as you guys do, now let’s move.”
The other men put theirs away, except Jak, who kept his gun out while he led the way down to the end of the corridor. Before they reached it however, several blue beams shot straight out from around the corner. Jak just barely avoided them by stopping right before the first beam.

“Woah! Beams of death! I’m staying right here until you do something about it,” Jinx said.

“We’ll do something!” Spyro replied. He nodded to Cynder and they took off and flew around the corner, keeping above the dreaded beams. The three metalheads were in their sight, emitting three separate beams from their skull gems. A volley of fireballs and poison bombs quickly blew all three of them away. The four men, Daxter, and Sparx came running up as soon as they heard the explosions. But before the dragons could land, two more beams shot right at them from the walls, one narrowly missing Cynder, and another piercing Spyro’s wing membrane. As soon as he started plummeting, Cynder started after him and managed to catch him by grabbing the cape of his cloak before he landed hard. However, the metalheads along the wall immediately directed their aim at her, ready to fire. Cynder saw them as soon as she had Spyro, but could do nothing since her mouth was full and closed her eyes to await the fire. Instead, she heard two POPS and the metalheads were blown off the walls and fell to the ground dead. Cynder looked back at the group, and saw Jak’s blaster barrel smoking, he pulled it up and motioned it was clear. Cynder smiled warmly at him, relieved that he had her back. She slowly lowered herself and let Spyro down to the ground. The others came running up to aid.

“Are you okay?” Cynder asked concerned.

“I’ll live, it’s just a scratch,” Spyro replied.

“Can you fly?” asked Jak. Spyro observed his wing; the beam had just left a small hole at the bottom of the membrane, leaving a gap about an inch wide. It was like one of Terrador’s many wing injuries, but miniaturized.

“Not right now, but once the pain subsides, I’ll be able to,” he answered.

“Once we get out of this place, we’ll find Hunter, he’ll fix you up,” said Cynder. Spyro nodded, knowing the mystic gem he was carrying would help him heal. They would have to find him anyway, their energy reserves were nearly depleted, it had been a while since the mystic gem first rejuvenated their powers, and in a way it kinda shocked him that their powers had lasted this long.

“Well glad we worked that out, but we still got a job to finish let’s move,” Jinx stated.

“Yeah, I want a bath, this sewer is making me reek,” complained Mog. Jinx slapped him in the back of the head for his annoyance, “Shut up and get moving.”

Everyone walked down the corridor to a deep murky puddle, there was higher ground on the right side that was dry, but straight ahead was another sewer tunnel blocked by debris. Everyone walked through the puddle onto dry ground while Jinx walked toward the tunnel. He pulled out another C4 canister and placed in front of the wreckage.

“Stay back, I’m gonna detonate this one remotely,” he told the others as he made his way over to them. Once on dry ground, he pulled the trigger out again and reset it to the canister’s frequency.

“One unclogged sewer, coming up,” he said as he flipped the switch.

KABLAMMM!!!

A huge explosion shook the whole junction, when the smoke cleared, the wreckage was scattered everywhere, but the tunnel was clear. However, a new sound came from above, a large rattle that sounded like a grinding gearbox.

“Hey, you hear that?” asked Jinx.

“Sounds like I gas,” Mog stated.

“Uhhh…g-g-guys,” Sparx stammered nervously, he and Daxter were both pointing at the ceiling with freaked out expressions engulfing both of their faces. Spider metalheads were crawling all over the ceiling, swarming like a marabounta from around and inside the ceiling pipes. Jak estimated there were at least 40 of them. They were even coming in from a separate tunnel that was higher than the one the group had cleared.

“Creeping crawlies,” Spyro gasped as he saw the huge swarm, Cynder by his side showed the same expression but remained silent.

“Yaahh!! The ceilings crawling with them!” Grim yelled.

“Jak, metalheads everywhere!” Jinx stated.

“Stand back!” Jak ordered as he brought out his blaster again. Some metalheads let go of the ceiling and dropped into the murky pool below. 10 of them soon spread all over the junction, blocking the way to the tunnel.

“It’s a trap!” Mog cried.

“No duh! What else could it be dope?!” Jinx yelled.

“A buffet,” Sparx rehetorically answered. No one heard him though, Jak just aimed his blaster while the cronies gripped and aimed their pistols. The metalheads screeched, and as soon as they did, Jak started firing. His blaster started shooting out a fire shower of yellow eco, keeping the metalhead swarm at bay. One made it pass the others and onto dry ground, heading for Jinx. He fired his pistol, but it barely slowed it down. Cynder then shot a wind blast at it and blew it back.

“Keep it up!” Jak yelled to her. He then re-equipped his Vulcan fury and aimed at the pond full of metalheads. The rest on the ceiling were just starting to drop down. He waited for the opportune moment when they were all gathered, then held down the trigger on the Vulcan. Blue shots were soon seen blowing them all back, one metalhead was blown back into two others, making them an easy target. Soon, a pile of 29 metalheads littered the pond. The rest kept coming, but all that was coming from Jak’s gun was the sound of a spinning revolver. The Vulcan fury was empty! Wasting no time, Jak quickly changed to his blaster and kept firing. A few slowly crept pass him, only to blown back by Cynder again. However, she was exhausted, her energy was nearly depleted and was struggling to catch her breath. Jak hit two more in the head, shattering their skull gems and killing them. Now, with only three remaining, he changed to his scatter gun and hit all three of them with a scatter wave. He walked into the water toward them as they were blown back, trampling over the dead metalheads that littered it. He kept shooting them until they were against the wall. With one final BOOM! He drove them up the wall and they fell down dead.

“Nice shooting hero,” Daxter commented. Jak replied with a nod.

“Okay, let’s get out of here before more come back,” Jinx stated, and started leading the way down the tunnel. His two partners followed him, then the dragons and Sparx. Jak brought up the rear, looking back to make sure there were no more following them.

“Your earning your pay today boys, now let’s finish this,” Jinx told his partners.

“I just want outta here,” Mog whined. At the end of the tunnel, they gathered in the center of another junction. When Spyro and Cynder came through, they looked up and gasped. A huge statue of a man rose high over them, it was roughly 40 feet tall, reaching halfway up to the ceiling of the tall junction. It had one foot standing taller than the other on a pedestal, and was wielding a ruby scepter with both hands.

“Mar?” Spyro asked Jak beside him.

“That’s him,” Jak answered.

“Whoever carved him is a master artist,” Cynder commented.

“Ehhh, you see one statue, you see them all,” Sparx blabbered. The two dragons gave him a glare, Jak just ignored him and turned his attention to Jinx, who was walking toward the statue with Grim and Mog.

“So what now?” he asked.

“Just stand back, were professionals,” Jinx answered. He and the others slung off their c4 packs and stationed them each in a certain place around the feet of the statue. Jinx flipped a switch on each of them, a timer of 10 seconds popped up on the display screen.
“Okay boys, lets blow this sucker sky high,” Jinx stated. Jak and the others widened their eyes in shock to his statement.

“Wait, who told you too…”

Jak never finished his sentence, the three men ran to the other end of the junction just as the timer hit zero. There was a loud BEEEEP as it did.

“NO!” Jak cried. The c4 exploded with such force it blew all of them back. The top half of the statue crumbled as its lower half was blown completely to bits. The head fell off as the rest of the statue crumbled to pieces. Jak and the others got back on their feet, only to see the head of the statue roll right in front of them. They frowned at it, but quickly turned their gaze to Jinx, Mog, and Grim.

Jinx pointed to a ruby red gem in the shape of a shield lying on a pile of rubble.

“There’s what were looking for, the Heart of Mar gem,” he said as he picked it up.

“Nice,” said Grim.

“Pretty,” said Mog.

Jak and the others were still dead silent to them. The goons didn’t bother to notice though; Jinx just put the gem into his pocket and walked off with the rest of his crew.

“Thanks for the escort guys, we’ll take it back to Krew,” was his last statement. Then he and his guys headed up the nearby staircase and disappeared from sight.

S240sx24 · Dec 09, 2012 6:08 AM

cant wait to see the ending of this story. I know life has its ways of interfering with ones projects. congrats your graduating tho.

dragonball06 · Jan 01, 2013 5:00 AM

Chapter 32 is UP! I'm not done yet, oh and Happy New Year 2013 everyone!

Ch 32: Challenge

Jak and the others eventually got themselves together and headed for the staircase as well. It led to a tunnel that stretched 50 yards to an elevator which led up to a passageway that connected with the main junction where they originally entered. As they approached the exit, Cynder spoke,

“How could he order them to destroy something so beautiful? That statue nearly resembled something the moles back home could make.”

“In this city, money talks before critics do,” Jak replied.

“Let’s just get out of here, this place is becoming more rancid by the minute,” said Spyro. They were about to step through the elevator door, until the communicator popped up from Jak’s sack. Krew’s bloated voice came up instantly.

“So, the bedtime stories were true, ehh…the fabled Heart of Mar was hidden inside that ugly statue of the old boy, too bad the boys had to make a few nicks to get to it, ahh well, nothing fresh if nothing gained, that’s my motto hehehehe.”

The gang just scowled at the communicator, keeping it silent enough so he couldn’t hear them on the other side. However, right now every one of them wished he was speaking to them face to face, to really give him a piece of their minds.

“I give my condolences to the outlanders for their services and to you Jak, for your loyalty, you will find an excellent gun upgrade stashed in a crate in the port.”

With that communicator returned to its home. Jak led the way into the elevator with the others right with him.

“Guy sure knows how to show gratitude,” Spyro commented.

“Don’t even try to joke about him,” Cynder stated sternly, “From the first moment I met him I sensed nothing but greed, malevolence, and a horrible odor of oysters.”

“Yeah, figured you would,” Daxter replied.

“Was that before or after he petted you like a cat?” Sparx asked with a smirk. Cynder hissed and showed her fangs to him, causing him to stand down.

“One of these days, that big mouth of yours is going to get you swatted instead of encaged in a lantern,” she threatened. Spyro immediately put his paw on her shoulder trying to calm her down. It seemed to work, slightly. Sparx however, was trembling more than usual. Daxter turned to Jak.

“I’m really starting to like her now,” he said. Jak just rolled his eyes. The elevator then reached the top, and the door opened to let them back into the city. They walked out into the open and took a fresh breath, or as close to fresh as it could be in Haven. They all hopped into the cruiser Jak had left near the gutter wall. Jak started the engines and they headed for South Town. Cynder managed to calm down during the trip, feeling Spyro’s comfort next to her. She felt like it had been so long since he had last shown it.

Entering the port, Jak took a sharp right and flew over a boardwalk up to a large building with a small door and no windows. “What are we doing here?” asked Spyro. “Krew said he left something for me, this is where I would find it, stay here.” He entered the building with Daxter while Spyro and Cynder stayed in the cruiser with their hoods up, while Sparx concealed himself. A few minutes later, Jak stepped out with a new gun in his hand, or rather a new gun mod, it resembled a small metalhead skull, and covered the entire gun barrel. “What’s this one called blue boy?” Cynder asked.

“Peacemaker” Jak answered.

“What does it do?” Spyro asked. Jak and Daxter eyed each other slyly.

“You’ll find out when we use it,” Daxter answered with a smirk.

Spyro and Cynder shrugged with each other and left it at that. Jak climbed into the cruiser and started the engines. They took off and flew toward over to the Hip Hog. Upon reaching the Hip Hog, Jak set the zoomer down. When they entered the saloon, Tess waved them over. Daxter immediately jumped up onto the counter and stretched himself out to get her attention. Jak sat on a stool while the two dragons sat on both sides of him.

“Well, it appears someone knows how to work well in the shadows beside me,” Cynder commented.

“Hey guys, things have been pretty quiet around here, how about you?”

“Oh you know, perilous tasks, life threatening battles, ravaging monsters, the usual,” Sparx commented.

“But I’m more interested in what you have to offer sweetums,” Daxter said with appeal. Tess smiled while the others just rolled their eyes.

“Let me see.” She reached down below the counter and got a purple bottle. She also put four shot glasses on the counter and started to pour a small amount into each of them.

“Hip Hog specialty, Nightvaze, 5 years, let me know what you think.” Daxter took a shot, as did Jak. Daxter felt his whiskers spike out instantly, as the buzz from the whiskey pulsed through his body.

“Yeow! Now that hits the spot!” he exclaimed.

“Not bad, thanks,” said Jak.

Tess nodded, and turned to Spyro and Cynder, who hadn’t touched their glasses. “You guys aren’t gonna try it?”

The dragons looked at each other, and shrugged. What the heck, when in the plains, do what the Attlahauwa do, or something like that. They carefully took their glasses and took a small sip from each. Cynder seemed to be soothed by her first taste of Nightvaze, Spyro on the other hand, put on a look of disgust and immediately spat behind him, trying to remove the taste off his tongue. Cynder watched him and snickered, “Guess having powers over poison really does have its benefits.”

“Yweah,” said Spyro with his tongue hanging out, “Wucky wu.” Everyone laughed at how he was handling his first taste. But the laughter soon died down as a hovering whistle was heard in the saloon. From the upper hangar, Krew descended.

“Speak of the devil,” Cynder stated.

“Hey hey, who said you could host a shot party toots?” Krew demanded.

“Relax beach ball! What’s one bottle off a wine rack of hundreds?” Daxter replied.

“Watch it fuzzball, or you’ll be another trophy along these walls,” he threatened as he gazed upon his wall of metalhead trophies. Daxter immediately fainted from shock. Tess immediately started to fan him some fresh air to recover him.

“Jak my boy, quite convenient that you’re here, I would like to discuss some matter of business.” He brought out his fan to cool himself before continuing. “I want you to throw the championship race, and just let Errol win.”

Jak was shocked to say the least, “You bet against us?”

“What?!” Spyro & Cynder exclaimed.

During the argument, in one of the booths behind the bar, a dark figure drew back the curtain that kept it covered and proceeded to step forward. Krew continued trying to calm the situation, “Jak, Jak, it’s just business, you’ve become a symbol to those townies, they’ll put everything on a glimmer of hope, what better time to make money? What do you say my boy?”

Spyro and Cynder scowled at his sick greed for gaining wealth from people’s desperation. Jak decided to give him a piece of his mind.

“I’d say your gonna lose a lot of money, because I’m going to race, and I intend to win,” he said as he gave a nod to the dragons. They smiled back, knowing that Krew had dug himself into a hole.

“OOhh!! You little…!” Krew spat as he spun his hover chair around in fury. “You’re becoming more trouble than your worth…but I wouldn’t get too comfy if I was you, every single one of you is expendable.”

Everyone in the room stand frozen in shock, Daxter had fainted once again after getting back up, and this time Sparx joined them. A footstep then came from behind, and the dragons turned their heads and who they saw heightened their shock even higher.

“In a hurry to die are you boy?” Erol asked Jak, who had just turned to face him. Erol got right in his face just as he was issuing a challenge, which in fact he was.

“Well then we don’t have to wait for the big race, we can do this right now, one on one, through the city using accelerator rings. Hit every ring from start to finish, miss even one ring and its over.” Erol took a step back as he finished explaining the rules, and then continued with his threats. Krew hovered overhead, smirking at Erol’s efforts to upset Jak. “You won’t have your alien freaks to saveyou this time, Keira already thinks you’re a loser, and I’ll prove it now, once and for all!” He finished as he shoved his fist in Jak’s face.

Jak narrowed his eyes and shoved Erol’s hand aside and said one thing, “Your on chump.” Erol walked toward the exit and out of the saloon to get his zoomer.

Jak jumped off his bar stool and started walking outside as well. Spyro proceeded to follow him, but Cynder stopped him, indicating that he should wait until he asks. Acting by conscience, Spyro asked Jak, “Do you need us to do anything?”

Jak stopped and answered, “Wait for me at the finish line.” He exited the saloon leaving the others to recover from the shock of the recent conversation. Daxter finally collected himself and ran outside to join Jak. Tess whispered a silent blessing of good luck to him, and then said the same to the dragons and Sparx out loud. The dragons stepped outside, and saw both Jak and Erol side by side on their respective zoomers. Jak was on a blue Y-wing, and Erol on a brown L-wing. One of Krew’s men stood right in front of them ready to start the race. Spyro and Cynder felt themselves choke slightly, nervous of how this race was going to turn out.

“This will be a cross-city one on one,” the henchmen stated, “As such, the cross-city ring gates will be activated, you are to fly through each one to the finish, reach the end first, and you are the victor.”

Jak and Erol shot each other death glances, and focused their attention forward, blue rings started to pop up in front of them, 3 were already visible, leading the way out of the port and into the farming section. Spyro and Cynder took flight to gain altitude and see where the course would lead. Sparx buzzed behind in tow, while Daxter gripped onto Jak’s shoulder guard as tight as he could. The henchmen raised his arms.

“Ready…” Jak and Erol revved their accelerators.

“Set…” They gripped their steering bars tight.

“GO!!!”

dragonball06 · Jan 07, 2013 11:38 PM

Here is my last complete chapter for a while, school starts again soon, but keep reading and commenting!

Ch 33: Race to the Death

Jak and Erol gunned it, blowing right past the man and through the first ring. People ran out of the way as the two racers zoomed passed them and through the second and third rings. Spyro and Cynder followed by jumping over the rooftops along their race path to keep out of sight. Jak kept ahead of Erol by two z-lengths (zoomer lengths) around the first corner. They entered the farm district and moved through the serpentine area swiftly entering the bazaar. At the first corner, Erol got on the back bumper of Jak and used his draft to gain momentum and slingshot around onto Jak’s left side.

“Out of my way slowpoke!” he yelled as he rammed his zoomer into Jak’s.

“Says the one whose eating the dust!” Jak recalled as he rammed back. They remained side by side as they executed a right turn around a series of shops. A bazaar exit ramp was straight ahead. They both ran up it and turned right through the ring that was stationed at that corner. They made another left turn and found themselves in front of the palace. Erol ran on the inside and sped past Jak.

“Haha! So long punkjet!” Erol yelled back as he turned right through the next ring, heading for the ruined statue of the Baron. Jak just scowled and pumped the accelerator as he ran through the ring. They raced a full circle around the statue’s base, flying through four rings, and watching the people jump out of the way of their flight path. Spyro and Cynder watched from a distance as they finished the circle. They zoomed toward the palace and made another right turn through another ring. Spyro and Cynder took flight to follow. Erol was still ahead by a z-length, but Jak decided to pull his trick and get right on Erol’s bumper. He used the draft to slingshot around on the next left corner. He then made a sharp right turn and reclaimed first place as they entered Main Town.

“First place is MINE!!!” Erol cried in anger as Jak pulled ahead of him. Jak saw the next ring was stationed in the canal, so he turned off the bridge and plunged into it with Errol hot on his heels. The rings continued to lead through the canal as it led deeper into Main Town. Spyro and Cynder ran atop the buildings along the canal, attempting to get ahead to the finish line before the winner. Jak continued to drive through the canal, hitting every ring that was in his path. Erol remained close behind, pushing his accelerator to the max. Ahead was a drainage tunnel that cut through a building, a ring was stationed in front of it. Jak entered first with Erol right on his tail.

On the other side, the canal continued with a break to the left. Erol got on Jak’s far side going in and took a dive toward him. Unfortunately, Errol’s move was predicted and Jak pulled one on him, he let go of the accelerator and evaded. Erol’s zoomer crashed into the canal wall and started to slow down. Jak gunned the accelerator and zoomed past Errol, up the ramp, and out of the canal. The stadium entrance was just ahead, and the finish line was in sight. Jak knew he had it, so he made the left turn into the stadium and across the finish line.

Jak hit the brake and brought the zoomer to a stop in midair. He and Daxter pumped their victory fists in the air. Another zoomer approached them from the stadium, piloting it was Hunter, along with Spyro and Cynder in the back seat.

“Well done!” Hunter exclaimed.

“Way to win! ” Spyro followed.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you drive like that all the time,” Cynder commented.

“Gotta do what I can to avoid the guard.” Jak replied.

Erol drove up, enveloped in anger and frustration as he clenched his fist so hard that his gloves tore slightly at the knuckles. The others turned giving him an intimidating stare that said, ‘who’s the loser now?’

“Don’t get cocky outlaw, next time we race for keeps, and all of your heads will be my trophies!” With that, he slapped down his helmet, ignited his engine, and spun around to leave blowing exhaust in their faces.

“Ah stick it down your pipe windbag!” yelled Daxter.

“Your mother dropped you twice after you came out!” Sparx followed.

“Nice follow-up”

“Thanks, lots of practice.”

“If pestering were a profession, those two could run an academy,” Cynder stated. Jak, Spyro and Hunter snickered while Daxter and Sparx shot glares. With Erol beaten and their work done, Jak and Hunter gunned the engines and drove out of the stadium to avoid any further attention. Jak drove ahead on his single seater while Hunter followed on his cruiser. They flew until they had exited Main Town, then all of a sudden, the communicator popped up.

“This is Samos, Jak, I need you to go out to the ruins in Dead Town, and visit my old hut, it’s time to retrieve something I hid there long ago, take your friends, any extra hands is of the highest benefit.” Jak nodded at the moving talkbox.

“Good luck, and Daxter, clean up my place while you’re out there!” Daxter sneered at his comment as the communicator zipped back into Jak’s pouch. Jak shifted direction toward the Dead Town lock while Hunter followed. They flew through the slum residences and over the island just outside the alley leading to the Dead Town lock. They brought their zoomers to a halt and landed in the alley. Everyone headed toward the lock which opened automatically upon their approach.

As they walked into Dead Town, they didn’t receive the awaited ambush they were expecting. Everything was quiet, and the air musky, but they had the feeling they weren’t the only ones here.

“This place seems more dead than I remember,” said Daxter.

“Nobody drop your guard,” Jak added as he brought out his gun.

“I never do,” replied Hunter as he drew an arrow to his bow. The group started walking toward the ruined building that led the way to the hut. Everything seemed quiet as they made their way through the muck to the dry land path in front of them. Upon reaching dry land, they heard more wood planks give way and fall into the muck next to them. Jak froze as did the others and surveyed the wall with his gun’s laser sight. As the laser hit a broken window, an unfriendly surprise popped out.

A metalhead grunt lunged at them, but before any others could strike, Jak opened fired and shot it dead. His death sparked the arrival of three others, Spyro and his friends stood battle ready against them. The first one ran atop Spyro trying to bite as his throat, but Spyro used his own momentum to throw him over his head and land hard. Spyro finished him with an Earth blast that sent him into the muck. Cynder attacked her metalhead first with her tail and slashed his face across, leaving a bad scar on the left side of its face. One fear screech from Cynder and a finishing tail whip defeated it. Hunter shot at the last metalhead before it even made a move, with an arrow to the eyes.

With their enemies finished, Jak gave them a nod and motioned them to keep moving. They climbed up onto the buildings front platform and entered the ruined structure. More metalheads were crawling all over the walls, similar to the spider-like ones from the sewers. Daxter felt his fur stand on end and Sparx’s wings singed from fear at the sight of these arachna-heads. Jak immediately opened fired with his blaster and Spyro torched the walls with flame. Soon all but one of them were burned or blasted on the ground. As the last one touched ground and about to fire his laser, Hunter shot an arrow at the emitter, thereby disabling it. Two more arrows to the head and it dropped dead. With another ambush dead, they moved up the stairway on the left, through the hallway and out onto the ledge that overlooked the hut.

Jak looked all over the wall and saw another open ledge 20 ft high overlooking the hut, there was also a pillar slightly leaning out toward the hut he knew would be a perfect bridge.

“If we can reach that ledge, we could use that pillar to get across.”

“I think I can get us up there without having Spyro and Cynder having to carry us,” Hunter said as he pulled out a grappling arrow. He fired up and pulled it until it felt solid. Jak, Daxter and Hunter climbed up while the flyers landed atop the ledge to await them. On the ledge, Jak turned to Spyro, “Think you can blow that pillar over?”

“No problem,” he commented as he walked up to it. He channeled the power of the Earth as Terrador taught him and let out an earth blast which toppled the pillar over, with the other end landing on the hut mound. Everyone walked over with Jak leading the way.

The hut was just as Jak remembered, excluding the rotted wood and dead plants that littered the interior of Samos’s quarters.

“So this is where your teacher, the older Samos used to live?” Spyro asked Jak.

“This where we all used to live, back before the city, and even the metalheads,” he replied.

“I spent many sleepless days cleaning up this old place for old greenie!” Daxter stammered. “Despite all that it still ends up being torn apart by vicious beasts and nature itself! Kinda ironic when you think about it.”

At that moment, something illuminated the whole hut with a lavishing green aura; it appeared to be coming from the ceiling of the hut. Everyone looked up to see what appeared to be a small green pod levitating above their heads. Upon their notice, the pod lowered itself to the ground where Jak grabbed it.

‘What the?’ he wondered. Just then the communicator popped out.

“Good work Jak!” said the old Samos. “You and your friends have my gratitude, and…I guess that includes Daxter as well.”

Daxter sneered at the device housing Samos’s voice.

“Before we came through the rift long ago, I was nurturing that lifeseed from the great tree, it has been treated to the point where it can self-sustain, so it’s really no surprise its survived all these years. It seems the metalheads are attracted to its power, it must be taken into protection, deliver it to Onin, and she will prepare it for Samos.”

“You mean you?” Daxter asked.

“NO NO NO The other me Daxter!” his voice explained, “My younger self needs the seeds power to become, sagely.”

“This alternate time twin thing is a real headache,” Sparx whispered to Spyro, who nodded in response.

“So, let me get this straight,” Daxter started putting two and two together, “it’s fair to say that by bringing your younger self the lifeseed now, we helped you become the sage you are today, we helped you get your powers in the first place, AND YOU NEVER THANKED US?!!”

“Thank you Daxter, now go do it!”

dragonball06 · Feb 15, 2013 12:01 AM

Sorry to put this chapter on hiatus for so long, I'd give you excuses but I'm sure you would rather read the story, I know I would! Enjoy this enticing chapter, and please keep commenting!

Ch34: Mysteries Unraveled

The group exited Dead Town and hopped onto their vehicles outside the lock. Keeping themselves concealed, they drove through the slums into the industrial district, and then turned right toward the bazaar entrance and stopped just before entering the zone. They parked their zoomers underneath one of the elevation hangars and the outlanders climbed up to the shop roofs to stay out of sight. Jak and Daxter walked through the bazaar towards Onin’s tent. Spyro, Cynder, Hunter and Sparx followed as inconspicuously as they could. Jak rounded the last corner to the square where Onin’s tent was located. Spyro and the others jumped down to meet him, and they all walked into the tent together. Sensing their arrival, Onin waved to greet them as they entered.

Hunter looked around the tent before completely entering, ‘Interesting décor,’ he thought, ‘like the hermit.’

Packer jumped down from rafters and spoke Onin’s introduction. “Onin says what took you so long? We skipped lunch waiting for you to come!”

Onin clapped dust in his face silencing him, and causing him to cough.

“Care to rephrase that beaky?” asked Sparx.

“Ugghh, very well, she really says thank you for saving the lifeseed,” he replied.

“That’s more like it”

“Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m only speaking her words, but if I were in her position you wouldn’t be getting any thanks what so ever!” Packer stated. Everyone just gave him blank stares. Figuring he wasn’t going to get a response, Packer turned back to the task at hand.

“Anyway, give Onin the seed and she will prepare it for Samos.”

Jak let it loose, and the seed levitated itself down in front of Onin, she started waving her hand eclipsing it in a blue mist of energy. As the others watched, Packer eyed the seed with ravenous intent.

“mmm, birdseed,”

“Back off featherweight!,” Daxter stammered.

“Listen tiny tail, I was leading my 100th flock south before you had your first hair between your legs! Not that your fur means anything”

“Well at least I’m not some overstuffed, over-yapping, feather dusting mouthpiece for the world’s oldest professional!” Daxter started waving his arms around to mock him.

“Jak says have a nice day, Jak says I can’t think on my own, Jak says go bite yourself!”

“That does it rat boy! Now you’ve really ruffled my feathers!” Both got into a fighting stance ready to attack.

“Knock it off you two,” said Jak.

“You’re lucky I’m famished.” Packer said to Daxter with a point.

“Don’t start again, or I’ll silence you myself,” Cynder sneered as she brought the blade of her tail to Packer’s neck.

“yes maam”

The mist surrounding the seed dissipated, and Onin started waving her hands again for Packer to interpret.

“Onin says take the energized lifeseed to young Samos in Haven Forest, it will give Samos the power to finally see the forest from the trees, but wait!” he said halting everyone just as they were exiting to leave.

“Onin says she also has great news for the dragons, startling revelations regarding your last visit,” Packer continued.

“Last visit?” Hunter asked.

“Right, you said that dragons had been here before, but I’m still a little unclear about it all,” Spyro replied. Hunter, having never been around during Spyro and Cynder’s last visit with Onin was completely stumped, but kept quiet, deciding it was best to listen for an explanation.

“While I was in the tomb, the oracle revealed many things I have never been told of, of how the dragons came here to stop the metalheads, taking some artifacts, and this Dragon Father.”

Everyone in the tent was speechless, no more than Cynder, Hunter and Sparx. Having never heard any of this themselves, even from the guardians there were as much curious.

“Dragon Father?” Cynder asked with interest.

“That’s what the oracle said.”

“Onin’s visions into the timelines have uncovered answers you have been seeking. This Dragon Father you were told about was real, and he did come here long ago, at least 3000 years give or take…”

“3000 years?!” stammered the outlanders, Jak also looked surprised but kept silent.

Onin continued waving her hands as Packer translated. “Ages ago, before this city was built, even before the metalheads arrived, this world was in a state of peaceful balance, the eco that shaped it was abundant everywhere, while its destructive form dark eco was kept at ease. Unfortunately, that all changed when they arrived…”

Daxter face turned wide with realization, Jak’s had done the same, he knew what he was referring to, and the fact that he had been there to see it happen, if only for a moment, only made his feelings all the more intense.

“The metalheads ravaged themselves over this planet, consuming anything that crossed their way. They greedily hoarded the vast eco stores, and any valuable precursor items they had found. The precursors could not sit by and watch as those monsters continued to hound their precious resources, so another great battle between the two factions commenced, one that would seem to end in a stalemate and leave our planet with nothing.”

Spyro and his friends listened intently, the story Onin was un-enveloping was broad, yet told of a great history they had yet to fully learn.

“Just when the planetary war seemed to end in a draw, another group of strange creatures appeared from beyond the stars, wielding powers similar to eco, but not the same. The precursors were skeptical of these new arrivals, but soon discovered that unlike the metalheads these creatures showed reason and compassion, and discovered that their home had been decimated by these monsters, and were on a quest to find a new home away from them.”

“Those creatures, they were dragons?” Spyro interrupted. Onin replied with a short nod while holding her hands still.

“Wait a minute, are you telling us that my home, our planet that we came from across the stars, is not the original home of the dragons?”

“From what Onin is revealing to me, that appears to be the case,” Packer replied.

The two dragons could not mask their surprise, nor could Hunter, for he knew for a fact that cheetahs had always occupied their planet, more specifically the valley of Avalar, but he never knew the dragons were actually an alien species on their world.

“Wow, who knew? I guess this means I got an alien little brother,” said Sparx.

“How could we have never known this?” Spyro said turning to Cynder feeling lost. “Why didn’t the guardians ever tell us about our race’s origins, that we’re…not of this world?”

“Maybe they didn’t know,” Cynder said. “Or they did but felt like it wasn’t a good time to talk about it, we were at war with the Dark Master after all.”

What Cynder said made sense, but before he could further press the issue, Packer interrupted them.

“Ahem…unless you want leave with more questions than answers I suggest you get back to listening!”

The dragons simply nodded to the impatient bird. Onin started waving again.

“The precursors realized they and the dragons shared a common enemy, and banded together to drive the metalheads off-world. Their alliance succeeded, all but the Metalhead Leader was left to contend with, but he refused to surrender to two races he considered inferior. With his armies crippled, he vanished, taking his arrogant declaration of revenge with him. Knowing that our planet would not be safe as long as the leader still lived, the precursors arranged a communion with the leader of the dragons, who was known as the Dragon Father. They would help them find a new home if they would help them protect what the Horaquon were after, their artifacts, their strength, and their own essence, from which eco originates. The dragons gladly agreed, willing to ensure that this planets fate would not meet theirs. From their ever watchful sight, the precursors true to their word found the dragons a suitable planet, far from any hostile force, and in turn created a bridge to it, a bridge across time and space.”

“Time and space?” Jak pondered out loud. He thought for a moment and it suddenly became clear. “You mean the Rift Gate?!”

Onin nodded, but Packer decided to get the last word and added, “You got it.”

“No way! If that rift was some sort of, space…bridge…jump thing, how come we ended up in the future while they ended up all the way out here?” Daxter asked pointing to the outlanders.

Onin started waving again, “The rift gate works in mysterious ways, its secrets lost with the precursors, the only thing left Onin says she knows is when the Dragon Father and his kind left through the rift, they took many precursor artifacts with them for safe keeping, the rest you must fill in yourself, for that is your story.” Packer finished with his last statement directed toward Spyro and Cynder.

Hunter decided to speak having held the restraint the whole time, “That’s…quite a story, if not a history lesson.”

“I still find it unbelievable, there is a whole other story to the dragon race we never knew, beyond our own planet!” Cynder exclaimed.

“It’s amazing what you can forget, no matter how significant,” said Jak.

“Are you sure that’s all you know? There’s nothing else? About this Dragon Father?” Spyro asked Onin. Onin stayed silent, but keeping her blind eyes open to the purple dragon.

“If there was anything else, she would have told me, and I would have told you, so cease with the ques…” Packer was interrupted as Onin clapped her hands again and waved.

“Wait, she says there is one thing you might find interesting…” Spyro and the others quickly fell silent.

“The Dragon Father was a powerful dragon, one quite rare among his race in fact, he wielded incredible abilities one would consider limitless, the most unique characteristic was the color of his scales.”

Cynder, Hunter and Sparx gasped, while Jak and Daxter’s eyes widened. They immediately turned to Spyro, who was the most surprised of all. Onin’s final description pretty much revealed the astonishing secret behind the mysterious Dragon Father.

“Purple…He was a purple dragon, just like me.” Onin replied with nothing but a sincere smile.

dragonball06 · Jul 06, 2013 3:30 AM

Hey everybody, I got chapter 35 up, this story is nearing its completion, I'd say about 80%, which is a relief, because I've been writing this one for years! Anyway, this ones up, and another is on the way!

Ch35: Samos’s Vision

Everyone exited the tent, trying to fully take what Onin had revealed to them. Spyro and Cynder’s expressions were stupefied much less speechless, Sparx was still wide-eyed, Hunter kept a passive look yet couldn’t help scratching his head in astonishment, Jak was the only one with a neutral look while Daxter just seemed clueless.

Hunter broke the silence and turned to Jak, “We’ll meet you back at the vehicles,” he said before jumping to the rooftops to get out of sight, Spyro and Cynder followed in suit. Sparx on the other hand stayed back and flew over to Daxter on Jak’s shoulder.

“Let’s clear something up, I don’t like you, you don’t like me, and we both agree that Packer is an obnoxious arrogant featherhead, right?”

“All true”

“Putting that into consideration, would it be possible, if not ludicrous to suggest that we could find some common ground until we find a way to go home?”

Daxter scratched his head in thought while Jak paid close attention to see how this would play out, although he had a good presumption.

“I have much chance of getting along with you as Jak has of attending an anger management seminar and actually taking something out of it.”

“So that’s a no”

“You’re darn right it is.” Jak smirked knowing he was right on both ends. Sparx flew up to the rooftops to catch up with his friends while Jak and Daxter walked off with the lifeseed enclosed in his shoulder knapsack. They left the bazaar and reached the zoomers and flew off over the bridge toward the forest. Jak led the way on his single seater while Hunter followed on his cruiser with Spyro and Cynder riding concealed in the back. They entered the farmer’s bazaar and started heading toward the same lock they entered when traveling to Mar’s Gate. Jak pulled left and turned toward the familiar elevated security lock with Hunter right behind him. As soon as they landed Cynder spoke to Jak.

“Aren’t we heading toward Mar’s Gate?”

“The same direction, but not that way, the path to Haven Forest is taken via hover-platform.”

“Any more hostiles on the side of this lock we should be aware of?” asked Hunter.

“Wouldn’t bet against it,” Jak answered.

“Figured as much, my arrow stockpile is getting low, and I feel foolish for forgetting to bring my broadsword.”

“We’ve got you covered Hunter, but that reminds me, we could use a recharge,” said Spyro. Hunter nodded and reached into his robes and pulled out the mystic gem.

“Unless you guys want to attract a crowd with that I suggest you do it on the other side of the lock,” Jak informed. Hunter thought for an instant and slipped the mystic gem back into his robes before following Jak up the elevated walkway with the dragons and Sparx right behind. After entering the lock and exiting the other side where the warp gate was located, Hunter brought the gem out again and extended toward Spyro and Cynder. Both of them put their paws on the gem, in result the gem’s shine slowly grew brighter and brighter and covered the dragons in shining light. The surrounding audience shielded their eyes from the light to ease the blinding pain. The dragons felt their strength returning and the aches from their previous battles leaving them, even Spyro felt his wing completely healed from the hit he took in the sewers. The shine from the gem reached its peak and then started to die down, the aura lifted from the audience, the dragons and returned to the gem. Taking their paws off, Spyro and Cynder stretched their limbs, feeling totally refreshed.

“Better?” Hunter asked putting the gem back into his robe pocket.

“Much” replied Spyro.

“Okay, now that you guys are replenished, let’s find Samos,” said Jak.

“Yeah, don’t wanna leave young greenie waiting, already seen what that’s done to his older half!” stammered Daxter.

“Can’t you refrain from making a ridiculous joke before we start a mission?” asked Jak.

“Can you refrain from making crazy and suicidal stunts for a change?” Daxter asked back. Jak fell silent for a minute, trying to elaborate his usual mission actions to see if there was any truth to that.

“Yeah, I thought as much.”

Jak just shook his head and turned to Hunter, “Hunter come with me, we’ll jump up.”

“Excuse me?”

Jak pointed to the warp gate behind him, then Hunter understood, “Oh one of those things again.”

Jak jumped in and vanished in a flash, Hunter watched for a second and jumped into the vortex after him. Seeing him vanish, Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx took flight toward the cliff, upon reaching the top they saw Jak, Daxter and Hunter waiting for them.

“Ohh, please tell my bones to stop vibrating, its rather unpleasant.”

“Oh great, another teleporting whiner,” said Daxter. Jak smiled and started walking across the cliff to the other side, where the temple elevator was on the right side, and on the left was a floating platform at the cliff’s edge.

“Here’s our ride,” said Jak as he stepped onto the platform, then Hunter stepped on slowly, trying to ensure he didn’t fall into the deep chasm below. The platform suddenly hummed to life and took off through the air, Hunter steadying himself as it moved. Spyro and Cynder watched them take off for a moment and then took off after them with Sparx in tow. The platform and the dragons flew down to an orange metal gate embedded in the rock which led to an open cavern in the mountain. They flew through the cavern and stopped at another gate which led out to a lush green forest. Jak and Hunter stepped off as the platform stopped and the dragons landed beside them, they all took their first good look of their green surroundings.

“Reminds me of my valley back home,” said Hunter.

“It’s beautiful” added Cynder.

“And peaceful,” Spyro finished.

“Yeah, too bad metalheads are known to invade this area,” said Jak.

“You’re kidding,” Sparx stammered.

“Nope, last few times I’ve been here I’ve always had to hunt down infesting metalheads.”

“Way to kill the mood Jak,” said Cynder.

“You don’t think Samos is?” asked Hunter.

“No, the forest is his domain, if anything hostile were to come in with him around, he’d take care of it his own way, come on let’s find him.”

Finishing the discussion he brought his jetboard off from his back, mounted and sped off over the cliff. Hunter jumped after him while Spyro and Cynder took flight. Jak’s board landed right in front of a small river, he flew over it and headed straight toward a hill and started gliding up, he kept climbing until he saw another cavern embedded in rock on the left and turned into it. His friends followed him through, and on the other side they came to a small valley encompassed with a single large tree, as wide and high as a Haven city building. Jak boarded around it, and when he reached the front, he found who he was looking for, Young Samos was sitting in front of the tree in a meditative state. Jak dismounted and let the others catch up as he walked up to him, Hunter and the dragons landed behind him and followed, they noticed the tree was atop a tall cliff over-hang with two paths leading down to lower ground. Samos opened his eyes and smiled briefly seeing the friendly faces.

“Samos told me to…” Jak started trying to explain, “or rather you told me to, or well your older version…” The others behind him grinned at his clumsy attempt to elaborate.

“Whatever, we heard you needed the lifeseed,” he finished clearly and brought the seed out from his pack and tossed it in front of Samos where it levitated.

“Yes, its power will help me speak to the plants,” Young Samos replied.

“Can you ask them if any butterflies are around?” Sparx asked. Everyone turned to him with a stern and disapproving glare.

“What? I’m hungry!” Spyro just shook his head. Suddenly a blast of propulsion caused them to turn around. Everyone turned in shock to see two Krimzon jet guards flying toward them.

“There he is!”

“Roger that, target located”

“Bring in the squads”

“Who invited them?!!” shouted Sparx.

“Jak! Everyone! Protect me from these guards, I must ask the plants vital questions about our future,” Samos pleaded. Everyone nodded and got battle ready. Jak and Hunter unholstered their weapons while Spyro and Cynder took fighting stances. The jet-guards circled back around the trees and away from them toward the wall, at the same time, two large Krimzon transports flew out over it and headed toward them. The transports flew up toward the tree-overhang and stopped in front of the two paths. They sat for a few seconds, doing nothing.

“What are they waiting for?” Jak asked out loud. He got his answer, the sound of more jets caused them to turn around, two more transports came in from the opposite direction and landed on two small cliffs leading down to the tree.

“Reinforcements,” Hunter responded.

The transport rear hatches opened up and Krimzon guards started running toward them, at least 5 in two separate groups. Jak turned back toward the other two in front, five were coming out of each one as well, and running up the cliff toward them.

“Hunter, you and me will cover the front, Spyro and Cynder, you take the rear! We hold them here!” Jak commanded. They each took their positions, save for Sparx who said, “I’ll probably stay close to greenie, just for safety,” blindly referring to him as he fluttered close to Samos while he meditated.

The five guards from the left backside charged toward the dragons as Spyro met them with a full wave of fire that swept right over them, causing them to scream in agony. Cynder finished up with a wind burst that sent all of them flying in a funnel and out in different directions.

On the other side, Hunter fired arrow after arrow swiftly at the quintal brigade coming at him. Three guards fell from direct headshots but two were left standing due to missing just on the side, damaging their helmets. Hunter jumped at them and kicked them over the edge, where they fell screaming to the bottom.

Jak’s scatter gun blew the group coming at him on their backs, as the five of them tried getting up, Jak fired twice more and they all fell back again and stopped moving. The jet guards started flying overhead firing their laser cannons at him, luckily he managed to roll out of the way in time while re-engaging his blaster. He returned fire, they dodged the first two but got hit by one more each and fell losing their jet propulsion momentarily.

More guards starting running out of the transports behind the tree to engage the defenders. Spyro flew ahead of them and engulfed them all in a full wave of fire. The guards screamed as their armor melted away, until Spyro flew back around and covered them with ice, extinguishing the flames and knocking them out.
The Jet guards steadied themselves and propelled upward once again, aiming for Jak. Jak dodged their blasts once again and shot back at both, missing one and hitting the other back again. The guard flew out of control and into the mountain with a kaboom. The other jetguard prepared to take aim, but never pulled the trigger, as Hunter shot an arrow right into his arm. The guard screamed in pain trying to remove it, but taking his hand of the controls caused to him to spin out of control, right into the front wall.

With the jetguards finished, the remaining patrols exited the transports and headed up the ramps toward the tree in one final attack. All four heroes stood around Samos in a shield, and as the guards prepared to aim and fire, the attack was on. Spyro bit, Cynder slashed, Hunter fired and Jak shot and kicked the whole brigade in a complete assault. The fierce battle was soon over, and the guards lay defeated at their feet. Those that recovered collected themselves and escaped into the transports. Knowing they had lost, the transports engines fired up and flew away.

Seeing them depart, Sparx flew doing from hiding in the tree toward Spyro, “Way to go man, that’s how we do it!”

“WE?!!! You did nothing glowboy! So stop sucking up all the gusto!” Daxter yelled.

“Who are you to talk? You did more nothing than me bushy tail!” Sparx shot back.

“At least I stayed in the action, unlike you who has nothing better to do than count the number of butterflies you stuff down…”

“ENOUGH!” The two bickering animals silenced themselves.

“We have won this fight, let us not start another,” Hunter compromised.

“Thank you Hunter” said Cynder, taking a sigh of relief.

Samos uncurled himself from his meditative position and set his feet on the terra beneath him, beckoning them to come over quickly.

“Samos, what did you see?” asked Jak.

“The lifeseed gave me a terrible vision, the Baron is planning to destroy the Precursor Stone! He aims to crack it open somehow, if he does the energy released will be beyond comprehension, far worse than his real intentions to exterminate the metalheads!”

Everyone was speechless, until Spyro said, “He’s turning the Precursor Stone into a bomb?! To destroy the city?!”

“Unknowingly, but the city is just the start. The released energy would destroy the world and more, ending all life everywhere!”

All their eyes stood wide open, Cynder spoke with stuttered tone, “You mean…even…our home?”

“He truly has gone mad,” Hunter added. Jak just gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

“Jak, everyone, please you must stop the Baron! Stop him however you can!” begged Samos.

dragonball06 · Jul 18, 2013 1:35 AM

Ch 36: Helping Brutter

Following Young Samos’s plea, the heroes left Haven Forest back on the hover platform and toward the city security lock. As they mounted their zoomers, Cynder asked the group, “Where do we start? How can we stop Praxis if he has an entire city guarding him, as well as hunting us?

“We stick to the original plan, I win the Championship race, gain access to the palace, and confront the Baron on his own ground,” Jak answered.

“And if you don’t win the race?” asked Hunter.

Jak was silent for minute pondering the question, all eyes were on him. He shook his head in attempt to clear it and said with firm tone, “I will win.”

He started the engine and took off with the dragons in the back, both of them with apprehensive expressions on their faces. Hunter wore the same look as he started his zoomer and took off after them. As they flew around the corner toward the bazaar, Daxter asked, “what are we going to do in the meantime? The race isn’t for another three hours!”

“Anybody up for another drink?” Jak asked.

“At the Hip Hog? With Krew? I’ll pass,” Cynder exclaimed.

“Yeah Jak, I think it would be best to make more productive use of our time, perhaps Torn has something for us?” Spyro replied.

Jak understood their reluctance to go back to Krew’s place, though slightly bummed he was missing out on having one last Nightvaze before the biggest ride of his life. Although, Spyro’s suggestion did have a good reason behind it, so he went with it, “Alright then, how about…”

Before he could continue, the communicator popped out, “Hey Cherries! Care to take some time out of your schedule for a job?”

“Its Sig!” exclaimed Daxter.

“What have you got?” asked Jak.

“There’s an old friend in need of your expert assistance again, remember Brutter? I’m over by his stand, we’ll discuss details in person,” the communicator shut off as he finished.

“How convenient, were just a dogleg away from them,” Jak said as he entered the bazaar.

“A what?” Spyro questioned hoping that he would explain the slang, but Cynder had a more prominent question, “Wait we’re actually listening to him? He’s Krew’s head man! We can’t trust him!”

“Relax blackie, Sig’s cool, despite the company he keeps, he’s got the right stuff.” Daxter persuaded her.

“He’s right, Sig is someone we can depend on,” Jak added. Cynder wasn’t entirely convinced, she mumbled under her breath while turning her head away showing her doubt. Spyro put his wing around her to ease the tension, it helped…some.

Jak made a sharp left from the west main bazaar into a corner section that sat by itself. He flew all the way to the end and pulled to the right, underneath them was a small curio stand, Brutter’s business. Jak landed right to the side of it, with Hunter following his lead and setting down on the other side of them. Sig waved them over from his seat.

“Hey Cherries! Glad to see you and the outlanders are still on the boat.”

“Yeah, well recent events have been turbulent to say the least.” Jak answered as he took a seat, and the others each found a spot along the bar where they sat down in conjunction, save for Sparx who floated in front of them. Until that split second when a large furry purple mass sprung up from behind the counter!

“ELLO!”

“WAAGGHH!” Sparx cried as he fell back in surprise at Spyro’s feet. Everyone turned with wide eyes to the creature that had just showed himself, he chuckled roughly at his audience before speaking.

“Well now, its brother Jak and his little orangey pal! Brother Sig told you come stop by.” It was then he noticed the dragons and the walking cheetah beside his old friends.

“You have new friends with you too, most unusual from anything Brutter or any Lurker has ever laid eye on.”

“Yeah, same could be said for you…” Sparx stuttered from the ground, still in a daze from Brutter’s surprise entrance.

Spyro decided to introduce, “Hello, I’m Spyro, this is Cynder, Hunter, and Sparx,” finishing the introduction while looking down at his foster brother.

“Are you a friend of Jaks?”

“Indeed, Jak friend of all Lurkers, he help Brutter save brothers from Baron’s iron hand,” he said turning to Jak with a cheerful expression.

“Lurkers?” questioned Hunter.

“Yeah, bunch of furry scowling beasts me and Jak have had rough encounters with,” Daxter said whispering into his ear. “Though the weird thing is here, they’re actually the nice ones.”

“DAX!” Jak shouted, clearly having a good idea of what he was telling him regardless of not hearing it clearly. Daxter just shrugged and jumped off Hunter’s shoulder and back onto the counter where he turned the countertop drinking barrel on and gulped the soothing nectar inside down.

“It’s good to see you again Brutter, but we’re in the middle of a crisis right now, we’re still not sure what Sig called us out here for in the first place,” said Jak.

“What do you think? To help an old friend liberate some more slave labor,” Sig answered.

“Slave labor?” Cynder asked with monotone in her voice, knowing that the term slave was nothing but oppression.

“Me Lurker brothers and I forced to serve as Haven lower class,” Brutter explained with grief, “Baron see us no more than mindless animals, but friend Sig, Jak, and Daxter help free Lurker brothers and release outside wall.”

“Right now, there’s a Lurker transport heading for the construction site, rumors say Praxis is constructing a new weapon of some kind, in secret,” Sig added.

“And he’s going to use his so called Lurker labor force to build it,” Jak finished.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Spyro asked Cynder.

“That what Samos warned us about is unfolding?” Cynder replied with great concern in her voice.

“It not only dangerous in city for Lurkers, but underground home in danger too,” Brutter said interrupting the conversation.

“Metalheaders have been hunting for long time, now they find hidden Lurker village in caves, they bite and hurt village real bad, and me Lurker brothers, trapped like animals.”

“Huh hello? They are animals!” Daxter exclaimed.

“We no longer evil lurking, bad to bone orangey boy,” Brutter stated as he rubbed Daxter’s chin for assurance before turning toward the group with a grin, “We good now, metalheaders are bad, they is enemies.”

“Yeah, I guess we’re all in the same boat now,” said Jak. Daxter went to add something, but Sparx beat him to it.

“And this ships sinking fast, hero”

“Hey I was gonna say that!”

“Not from where I’m planted, and there’s still time to make a stand,” Sig told the group, “I don’t how the whole story of how the lot of you managed to last this long through the fire called life, but I do know this, the fact that your still standing right now proves that you can withstand the heat and pull through. I don’t know what’s coming next, but I’m willing to go all the way, that’s how a true wastelander does it, and I’m not leaving my friends behind, right?” he asked turning to Brutter, who replied with a friendly nod.

“Guy sure has a way with words,” Sparx said to Spyro, who had listened to Sig’s every word and was starting to believe what Jak said about him was true, he hoped Cynder felt the same.

“Well then, I guess it’s time to rally our forces,” stated Jak. “What about you guys?” He said turning in Spyro’s direction.

“We’ve come this far haven’t we?” he responded.

“Please, save four lurker brothers quick, and Brutter will kiss your foot,” he said while mistakingly putting up four fingers on both hands and turning to Daxter who pulled his feet away instantly. “Yeah, do me a favor, and hold onto that.”

He jumped back onto Jak’s shoulder while Sparx snickered behind his back. Jak mounted his flyer with the dragons right behind him, while Sig got Hunter’s attention saying,

“Hey wildcat, ride with me, I could use a main gunner while I pilot.”

“First of all, my name is Hunter, and I’m afraid I’m not accustomed to using your particular brands of firearms.”

“Relax, you just need to know the basics, grip, aim, and shoot, nothing too different from shooting your bow, luckily I have fire already attached to my cruiser,” he said pulling just out of the way to show his cruiser parked next to Brutter’s stand. It was a modified dark brown transportation cruiser with a larger jet exhaust manifold in the back, no doubt the engine was supercharged to accommodate for the upgraded exhaust. Like he said, there was a long range semi auto eco shooter attached to the top of the vehicle body and extended halfway down the front end. Daxter eyed the shooter with high admiration stating, “Only you Sig would think of turning a common citizen approved mode of transportation into a war tank.”

“How did you get something like that through the city without Krimzon guard pursuit?” asked Jak.

Sig walked up to the cruiser and flicked a switch on the console, a compartment opened up in the back, wide and long enough to hold the front mounted gun, thus answering Jak’s question. “Luckily its detachable,” Sig said before climbing into the pilot seat, whereas Hunter was still hesitant.

“You coming?”

Hunter turned back toward his friends, Spyro and others showing they were willing to go through with it. Spyro nodded to him giving him his vote of confidence in Sig. Hunter nodded back and walked over to the cruiser and mounted up. Both vehicles roared to life as their hover engines hoisted them off the ground and into the sky, Brutter waving them goodbye as they sped around the corner.

Leaving Hunter’s single seater behind, Sig led the way with Jak and the dragons zooming right behind him. He activated his front console radar and installed a data drive he received from Brutter, regarding the transports delivery route.

“Luckily, Krew shared his findings with Brutter last time we liberated Lurkers from the Baron, all these transports communicate with each other on their own specific frequency, the data on this drive should isolate that frequency, and display their respective position on this radar,” Sig explained. Hunter couldn’t follow any of that, and simply asked, “So you can find them?”

Sig gave him a blank look and said, “Yes.” He turned back toward the skyway and turned the wheel toward the Main Town gate. The two zoomers flew along a far stretch of farmland which doglegged left, where they saw a large sprinkler cannon watering a vegetation garden. On the right, was the Main Town checkpoint, where Sig noticed two transport signatures in the vicinity.

“Get ready on the gun kitty,” said Sig.

Hunter gripped what appeared to be the trigger of the gun, given he had never used anything of this scale before, he was flying completely blind…literally. Pointing to the trigger he asked, “Is this what fires the weapon?”

Sig turned to where he was pointing and said, “Yeah, point aim and fire Spots.”

“My name is Hunter,” he told Sig with a stern expression.

“Sorry”

“Transport at 1 o ‘clock!” Jak yelled out. Sig turned his view toward the front again and saw it, a large red Krimzon transport was coming around the bend, with a Lurker caged in the backside pen. Though their quarry was in sight, the sight of the stationary armed zoomer and the unusual passengers seated in both cockpits gathered some unwanted attention from the crowd down on the walkways.

“Are those mercenaries?...Aren’t they the aliens the broadcasts warned us about?” Those were only a few of the dialogues the team could depict from their suspicious audience.

“Why do I get the feeling were about to be busted?” Sparx said shakingly.

“Not today,” said Jak, as Daxter appeared on his shoulder holding the blaster with both hands and aiming it at the transport, “Time for some long awaited and refreshing KG chaos!”

He opened fire, hitting the transport with two shots, at the same time the crowd of people started running away screaming from the firing vehicle.

“I thought we were trying to get on their good side?” Cynder asked, voicing her concern into frightening the populace.

“Trust me blackie, this will pay off in the long run!” Daxter said as he continued firing. The ship reversed its direction as it continued to receive pelting fire from the blaster. Jak gunned the engines as it flew off.

“We got this one! Find the other!” Jak yelled to Sig as he flew away. Sig gunned his thrusters and followed them close behind.

“Look out!” Spyro shouted.
Sig and Hunter turned around, two Krimzon H-cat zoomers were incoming fast, intending to knock them out of the sky. Sig had yet to pick up speed, so he did the next best thing, he lowered his hover zone to the ground, the patrol ended up passing over them, with one of them following Jak’s zoomer around the bend. The other started to turn around and begin firing at them, Sig had already engaged thrust and plunged into the water canal beneath. They flew above the water surface with the KG zoomer flying above firing with his bottom mounted laser gun.

“We lost them!” Hunter exclaimed over the gunfire.

“We’ll meet up later, Jak can handle that one but we need to find its partner, these transports always travel in pairs, the other has to be close in this sector, what’s the radar show?”

Hunter turned his attention toward the radar screen on the dashboard. Sig made another turn avoiding another laser blast while one just scraped the spoiler. Hunter regained his bearings and looked at the radar, there was one blip close to them, moving away, and another signal was showing up on the outermost ring of the screen.

“There’s two dots, one close to center, and one near the outside.”

“The one near the center is Jak’s bounty, that other signal is near the heart of Main Town, we’ll follow the canal and meet it halfway!” Sig continued snake winding through the canal, avoiding more laser blasts from above. A couple hundred yards down, the signal pulsed closer on the left, and he raised the zoomer above the waterway and toward another alley on the left, weaving around traffic, the KG zoomer still in hot pursuit.

“I’m starting to think we bit off more than we could chew with this job!” Hunter said as another laser blast hit their spoiler.

“You’re just not used to the heavy fire yet Hunter!” Sig replied.

“The heavy fire is one thing, the high speed chase is another!”

The zoomer entered a large plaza, with a large roofed pavilion in the center and the palace in the background. Crowds starting running in all directions, attempting to avoid the speeding zoomers that entered the plaza. Sig paid them no mind, turning his attention toward the Lurker transport he noticed on the left section of the plaza.

“We got him, hold on Hunter!” Sig shouted.

He gunned toward the transport and made a sharp turn around its right, with the KG zoomer still right on his spoiler. They narrowly avoided a collision with another citizen flyer, going low into the surrounding canal, causing the KG zoomer to collide with the flyer, knocking both of them away in opposite directions. The zoomer had its front end nearly smashed in. Sig flew out of the canal carefully avoiding traffic and focused his attention on the transport, which started to flee in the same direction they had come. He thrusted forward, sideswiping the KG zoomer, causing the pilot to fall right out onto the walkway and the zoomer to crash into the wall of the pavilion. With the pursuit out of the way, they targeted the transport.

“Get ready to fire!” Sig ordered Hunter.

Hunter gripped the trigger, and prepared to take aim. “Aim for the thrusters!” Sig added. Honing in as best as he could, hoping inside his natural skills would transition, he aimed for the jets and pulled the trigger. Three shots fired from the gun, Hunter struggling to keep steady from the recoil. The shots hit the right side of the cage, damaging the cage, but not the jets.

“Hold it tight and keep steady, and hurry!” Sig advised as the transport made the right turn into the sections main canal. Citizen flyers averted themselves as the transport shoved them aside. Hunter gripped the trigger tighter than he ever did his bow, and fired again. Two shots hit the jet causing the transport to topple, veering off to the right toward the ground. It crashed right into the walkway, with people running away from damaged transport, which crashed into the walkway wall. The pilot was knocked unconscious, and Lurker freed himself from the broken cage as he broke it down with his bare hands. Sig flew down and landed near the free beast.

“Get in! We’re getting you out of here!” he said to the Lurker. The Lurker jumped up onto the back of the armored cruiser as Sig took off into the sky again. Krimzon guards started arriving on the scene, but Sig had already flown off.

“Where do we take him?”

“I know the dropoff point, but we need to find Jak first!”

They flew around for about two minutes, and eventually found them, seeing that they had the other Lurker on the back of their flyer. Unfortunately, they were still being tailed by the other KG zoomer. “Turn around!” Jak yelled.

Sig quickly turned in the other direction, keeping ahead of Jak and the zoomer. The zoomer continued firing on them, until finally Cynder spoke, “I’ve had enough of this high speed kill shot!” She opened her wings and jumped up out of her seat.

“Cynder, wait!” Spyro cried after her. She was already air-borne, directing all her momentum toward the KG pilot. He just noticed her as soon as she tackled him off his seat. She caught him in a mild whirlwind and let him go, sending him flying nearly 150 yards away into the canal. The pilotless KG zoomer crashed into a sidewall after him. With her task complete, she flew back to the zoomer, just as the crowd was starting to pull themselves up to view the aftermath. Both zoomers picked up speed seeing that Cynder was coming back. She landed right back in her old place.

“Nice job,” Daxter commented.

“eh, easy peasy,” she replied shrugging her shoulders.

“Cyn, you keep surprising me, and scaring,” Jak added.

“Just don’t get on her bad side,” Spyro said, smiling in Cynder’s direction who returned it. The two zoomers with Lurker passengers rounded the next corner and followed Sig toward the drop-off point. Following his navigation, they came to an extruded manhole at the end of an alley. Both zoomers landed right next to the manhole.

“Here’s where you furballs get out, go!” Sig ordered the Lurkers. The beasts jumped out and toward the manhole. Both jumped in, spinning the cover around as they entered. Sig turned to Jak and the dragons and said, “Two to go, lets leave before more Krimzon Guard arrive!”
Both of them fired up their engines again and exited the alley. They navigated to the canal and followed it out of the Main Town section and into the farm area, unfortunately where a large H-cat fighter was waiting for them.

“Uh oh,” Sparx said upon seeing the obstruction. The fighter opened fired, both with its bottom mounted laser and twin gun turrets mounted on top. The zoomers split up on opposite sides, allowing the gunfire to miss them down the middle. They zoomed by the fighter on both sides, just as it started to turn around to pursue them. They flew through the farm area back toward the bazaar, navigating along the long stretch leading to the Mountain Temple exit, with the fighter rocketing right behind them, firing its top mounted gun. The fire was pelting the back of Jak’s flyer, forcing Jak, Sparx, Daxter and the dragons to keep their heads down. The gun fire broke off one of the back wings, causing the flyer to jolt to the left. Luckily Jak leveled it out quickly, but knew they couldn’t take it forever.

“Can you take this one like the last?” Jak asked Cynder.

“Not without getting pelted with fire!”

“Then we fire from here!” said Spyro, as he stood up with smoke billowing from his maw. He threw a fireball straight at the fighter, hitting right against its blast shield, causing it to halt. He threw a couple more its way, with two more forcing it back further. They lost sight of it as they rounded the right corner, and then made the sharp left turn into the bazaar. As they entered, it seemed they had escaped it, and carefully navigated their way through the crowded airway. They had gone straight ahead, passing the area where Brutter’s hut was and heading toward the west side of the city. As they rounded another corner they saw their bounty ahead of them, another Lurker transport exiting the bazaar and into another farm area. Sig turned to Hunter.

“Blow him out of the sky!”

Hunter followed as he aimed and fired the gun. Two shots get it dead on in the back, even clipping part of the cage loose. The transport instinctively fired up and zoomed away from them, Sig followed in transit with Jak right behind. Hunter kept firing at the transport trying to ground it, but he was struggling to keep it level and make a direct hit, especially with the transport weaving about in a wide area, unlike his first triumph.

“Give him a hand Dax!” Jak stated. His orange buddy nodded and brought out the blaster again, targeting the transport and firing along with Hunter. They made a sharp turn to the right, and continued firing once straightened out. Soon, the transport’s engines were smoking heavily, having taken so much pelting damage, and was starting to slow down. This gave Hunter and Daxter their shot, targeting the thrusters and with one final shot, exploding them and grounding the transport. With the transport grounded, the pilot crawled out, badly wounded. He was no threat now as Sig landed next to the transport and retrieved the Lurker from the broken cage. Jak flew over his head and called to him.

“We’ll go ahead and find the other!”

He turned his focus ahead of him again, avoiding any oncoming traffic as he made a sharp right turn, meeting an unfortunate surprise. Two KG zoomers propelled toward him trying to ram, Jak lowered his hover zone just in time.

“WOOAAH!” came from nearly everyone in the cockpit. The zoomers slowed themselves down and turned around to continue the chase. Jak was flying low hoping to avoid any other oncoming zoomers, unfortunately citizens were walking through this section toward the bazaar, causing him to make a lot of quick moves which lost him speed. Most of them dove out of the way as he made another left turn, passing a Yakow pen on the way.

“There it is!” Daxter pointed ahead to the Krimzon transport as it was exiting the farm area for the port.

“And here they come!” Sparx replied as he pointed at the KG zoomers who were gaining ground.

“We can take them out! Jak, go for the transport!” Spyro told him as he freed his wings from his cape and prepared to take flight. Jak eyed him for a second and then nodded in approval. Spyro and Cynder opened their wings and headed for the zoomers. The KG pilots took their attention off Jak and fired at them. However they were too fast, and both dragons swerved to the side and propelled toward the pilots knocking them off their rides. The transports crashed into the ground, along with the pilots, and the dragons safely landing in front of them. The crowd dispersed in fear as the KG struggled to retrieve their sidearms, but their chance was never given. Spyro comet dashed into his guard knocking him out. Cynder bit down on the leg of her guard, causing him to yell in pain, and through him against the wall, knocking him out as well.

As the dragons finished the guard, Daxter gripped the blaster aiming for the transport on Jak’s left shoulder while Sparx clung on to Jak’s right. His pelting fire was made aware of, as the transport rocketed ahead into the port, heading for the construction site.

“I think now would be a good time for the peacemaker!” Jak told his partner.

“Now you’re talking!” Daxter twisted the morphing servo on the gun, switching from yellow setting to purple, turning the gun into the peacemaker weapon they had received from Krew, they had yet to use it until now. Daxter gripped the trigger and squeezed. Blue electrical energy was charging in the maw of the metalhead mount of the barrel.

Wooooooooo…

Sparx watched in awe. Daxter focused his laser sight right at the back end of the transport, and released the trigger. A blue electric orb released itself from the barrel, propelling toward the transport. The Lurker inside saw what was coming and covered its head. The shot hit dead on, blowing out the thrusters and splitting chunks of the metal hull away as the crippled transport crashed into the ground and skidded toward the port bay. The cage fell free, and the Lurker rolled out on the ground, dazed but alive. The transport broke through the port railing, and surprisingly leveled itself like a seesaw on the edge. People ran from the accident as Jak landed next to the Lurker who had been freed.

“You alright?” The Lurker tilted its head, not sure how to respond considering what they had done, but gratefully nodded saying no harm, no foul. Spyro and Cynder flew back down next to him as they witnessed what had just happened.

“So that’s what it can do,” Spyro complimented on the peacemaker.

“Yup, makes your electric breath look like a sparkler huh?” replied Daxter.

“Let’s not get crazy,” said Spyro.

“On aboard big guy,” Cynder said to the Lurker as she and Spyro mounted as well. Jak fired the engines up again, just as three more KG zoomers approached them from the bay.

“Let’s get out of here!” Daxter yelled. Jak spun his zoomer around and thrusted back toward the farm area. As they entered the zone, they noticed Sig and Hunter approaching them with the other Lurker, who unfortunately were being followed by the H-cat fighter they had escaped earlier. Sig looked ahead and saw Jak was zooming right towards him. Intuitively, they both picked up the hint and kept going full tilt toward each other.

“Jak? What are you…” Spyro stammered. Jak just kept his eyes ahead, the passengers on the zoomers growing more worried as the game of chicken drew closer and closer.

dragonball06 · Jul 23, 2013 11:10 PM

Ch37: Championship Race

Jak kept zooming straight toward Sig, with KG pursuit still hot on their tails, yet puzzled why they would risk ramming each other out of the sky. Their curiosity was panic for the outlanders, as Spyro, Cynder, Hunter and Sparx braced for what could be their last ride. Just before they reached zoomer’s length, both drivers pulled their wheels slightly right, nearly scratching paint as both zoomers passed aside each other and off to the right of both the KG zoomer patrol and the H-cat fighter. Unfortunately, the distance between the two sides was nearly null, and pilots screamed in fear as they collided with each other in a fiery bang.

BLAGGOOOOMMMM!!!

Two of the zoomers crashed into the H-cat, exploding on impact, causing heavy damage to the fighter, blowing out the pilot cab, killing him instantly. The fighter smashed into the ground, with heavy black smoke pluming out of it as it burned. The remaining KG who had missed on the left leveled his zoomer, gazing at the wreckage before him. His shock quickly gave way to anger as he turned toward those responsible, unfortunately…

Woooooooo……POW!

His zoomer exploded in a shining arc of blue electricity, courtesy of Sig’s peacemaker, which he had just retrieved from his trunk. He set it down with a smirk on his face.

“They ain’t no metalheads, but they ain’t on my favorite list either,” he said.

Jak smirked back, while the others were not so sure of how they felt about the recent events. Where Jak and Sig found satisfaction, they found uneasiness, to them this world was too volatile for their own tastes, despite everything they had experienced back home. They fired up their zoomers again and turned them about. Fortunately they didn’t have to go far, for there was another manhole was right near the wall corner, next to the Yakow Pen. They landed in close proximity, allowing the Lurkers to jump off and through the manhole. Without warning, the communicator popped out again…

“Great smellin breath of a ghostleaf!” said Brutter over the speaker, “Heroes to Lurker people you all be, captives all send much happy thanks rraugh! You honorary members of Lurker tribe now, we no forget, if ever you need us, we help you!” The communicator compressed and zoomed back into Jak’s beltbag.

“What do you know! Yet another tribe wishes to worship me for my gracious service, once again the mighty Sparx is respected for what he’s worth and…” he was instantly silenced with a bag shoved over his head.

“WORTH?! The only good thing your worth is five cents for a lantern! Now zip it!” Daxter stammered. Sparx angrily pulled the bag off spatting, “You wanna go fuzzface?! U want some of this?!!”

“Thought you’d never ask, Sparky! Been waiting for this since we first met! Huwaa!”

“Yaahh!”

They lunged at each other in pseudo kung fu fighting style. Unfortunately before they reached each other, Jak and Spyro grabbed both of them out of the air, covering their mouths. They angrily growled at each other under their breath clawing at the air toward one another.

“Bag?” said Jak.

“Got it” Cynder answered, picking up the sack Sparx had tossed aside.

Cynder opened up the bag and the two of them stuffed both sidekicks inside and zipped it closed.

“Come on! Not this again!” cried Daxter.

“Can’t you guys cut us some slack? We were just messing around!” Sparx added.

“Oh no, you guys have been nothing but double your usual trouble from the get-go, despite everything we’ve been through, so until further notice, you’re staying in there!” Cynder sentenced. As the sidekicks groaned at their predicament, both zoomers flew into the port and started across the port bay. The sound of laser blasts from the left drew their attention, they turned to see a H-cat fighter and two KG zoomers coming their way. Jak pulled right in attempt to elude them, Sig followed in advance.

“Guess the heats still on,” he told Hunter.

“How are we gonna lose them?” asked Spyro.

“Either we keep running, or we blow them out of the sky,” Jak answered.

“Jak, don’t think me sympathetic for any of the Baron’s men, but I really would prefer not having to kill any more than we already have,” Spyro stated, with regret in his voice. Cynder turned toward him with concern on his face, sensing his unease with murdering all of the Krimzon guard. Jak sensed the same thing, and he knew right then and there, that even though they fought for the same goals, their methods of fighting weren't the same. Spyro was a kinder soul than he, whereas he held no remorse for any of the Baron’s flunkies. Yet he respected his statement, and made an inner choice. He gunned the thrusters harder, and switched hover zones to the low so they were flying just above the lake. Sig followed his example, though he was curious as to what they were up to. They were heading in the direction of the bridge that spanned the distance between two relay spires in the port bay. Laser fire continued coming from above, the water around them continued splashing from all the misses. They passed under the bridge, being careful to avoid all the transport boats that were floating around the bay. The KG battalion continued following them on the other side, Jak and Sig made a sharp right turn and started flying right along the shield wall and headed back in the direction they came. The zoomers stayed behind them the whole way as they flew to the end of the corner wall, where another walkway extended out back in the direction of the port. They were started to pull ahead as they came close to a couple of small support towers whose cables extended all the way back toward the port spires. Surrounding the towers were pipes protruding out of the bay, creating a dangerous obstacle, luckily Jak and Sig navigated through all of them skillfully, whereas behind them, one KG zoomer was destroyed by colliding with the pipes, causing the other zoomer to halt from the shockwave. The H-cat behind them halted, since the fighter was too big to fly through. He turned the other direction and missed all the pipes to the left, flying above the walkway with the other zoomer right behind him. They hoped to intercept them on the other side, but no one was there! Both the zoomer and the fighter kept flying around the area attempting to spot them, but to no avail, they had seemed to escape unnoticed, and turned their direction and flew off toward the other end of the port. As they passed over the walkway however, little did they know the escapees had found a hiding place, just underneath the angle bracing of the walkway. They watched as the KG flew off, and breathed a collected sigh of relief.

“Whew! We lost them,” sighed Spyro.

“Let’s not stick around to gather anymore unwanted attention, we need a new vehicle,” Jak said as he inspected all the laser dents and broken wing on his cruiser. “We also need to head for the Stadium now.” Jak added.

“I’m gonna take my tank back to storage,” Sig said, “I still have another job I need to finish and I need to get along, Hunter you wanna ride back with them?”

Hunter replied, “Actually, I think I’ll return to the Underground, my weapons are nearly depleted, and perhaps Samos would have something in reserve.”

He turned to the dragons, “We’ll meet up again later, if that’s okay.”

“Of course,” said Spyro.

“Alright then, good luck to you cherries, against Erol you’ll need it,” with that, Sig gunned his thrusters and flew across the port bay with Hunter, and disappeared out of sight. Jak then ignited his engines and turned the other way toward the walk. There was a crowd around the transport they had shot down at the port walkway and was still being cleaned up, so Jak kept flying until he was safely far away from them. He kept flying close to the port walkway until he came to a small ramp which led from the water to the walkway. He shut down his engines and climbed out onto it.

“Stay here, I’ll return soon,” Jak told the dragons. Cynder kept a grip on Daxter and Sparx’s bag, shaking it once to make sure they got the message.

They nodded as he made his way up. Jak peeked his head to make sure the Krimzon Guard were clear. He saw nothing but citizens, so he climbed all the way up and walked all the way across to the wall on the other side. Looking down the right side, he saw a purple and blue Y-wing cruiser. That transport was exactly what he was looking for, so he made his way over to it casually. He reached it successfully and started the engines. A Krimzon Guard zoomer passed by on his left, as soon as he saw it leave toward the industrial section, he took flight himself. He flew low down to water level and headed back to the dragons. He stopped right in front of his old damaged zoomer and gestured for the dragons to hop aboard.

Sparx popped his head out of the bag, taking a gulp of air before asking “I don’t get it, the old zoomer’s still flyin so why are we switching?”

“The Krimzon Guard will most likely be looking for us in a battered zoomer regarding the previous battle, best way to draw attention away from us is to fly a fresh one,” Jak explained. The dragons slightly nodded, knowing that Jak had a good point and agreed with his logic.

“There’s your answer, now get back in,” Cynder demanded as he pressed his head back into the bag with her talon.

“You’ll regret this!” Sparx threatened her. Cynder just rolled her eyes.

Jak changed his hover zone and took off into the sky, leaving the damaged zoomer behind for the Krimzon Guard to find. He took off toward the industrial zone exit with his destination in mind, the Haven City Stadium.

The cross-city trip finally came to an end as Jak landed the zoomer right outside the Stadium where Keira’s garage was located. They emptied out and headed down the hallway to the open garage door. The sidekicks were freed once again, both still in fuming mood but returned to their respective partners none the less. Old Samos was in the back next to the large curtain sitting in a meditative state. He opened his eyes as he soon realized he was no longer alone.

“Hello young ones, I see you’ve made it ahead of schedule, and that’s new for you two,” he said directing the last statement in Jak and Daxter’s direction.

“Haw Haw, it is to laugh old man, just don’t you forget that you owe us for what we did for your other self!”

“Considering what he's done for us already Dax, there are no dues” Jak declared.

“Hmph…sure as always.”

“I have heard that recent events are leading toward eminent destruction, if the baron has his way that is,” Samos stated.

“Your right Samos, and if we fail in stopping his plan, more than just your world will be at stake, for ours will be as well, and any other planets that may exist,” Spyro answered.

Samos saw the worry in his eyes, and decided it was best to move off subject, “We should relax for now, the race has yet to begin for another hour, and the real battle will begin in transit, so until then tell me what has occurred since your last visit young dragons? They spent the last hour relaying all the events to Samos, everything from Erol’s challenge, to retrieving the lifeseed, and Onin’s revelations. In all his years, Samos found himself in a state that was rare to him, speechless. Jak was leaning against the zoomer lift near them while the dragons sat in front of Samos as they told their story. What he found most intriguing was Onin’s story.

“My word, I never knew your race had ever set foot on this planet before!”

“Me neither, Onin’s tale shocked me to the core, I have been told there were purple dragons before me, but I never knew dragons had inhabited a different planet.”

“Our teachers never knew, or they never had the chance to tell us, so a lot of questions will have to be answered when we get back home, and we might have to go on a scavenger hunt,” Cynder added.

“Oh?”

“Onin said there was a large quantity of precursor artifacts taken to our planet, yet from everything I’ve ever seen on our planet, we’ve never seen anything that even resembles the workings of these precursors, Spyro can vouch for the same.”

The purple dragon nodded in agreement, Samos turned his head away in thought for a brief moment, and then spoke again.

“If there are precursor artifacts hidden away on your planet, it would be imperative you find them straight away, for in the wrong hands, relics of our ancients can be a dangerous force.”

“I’m sure,” Spyro agreed.

“Oh were not sure, we know! Take it from someone whose messed with too much precursor junk for his own good!” said Daxter. Suddenly, Keira appeared from behind the curtain with her face shield on.

“Hey Keira!” Cynder greeted.

“Hi Cynder, Spyro.”

“Hello”

“Hey! Glowing dragonfly here too! Small but not invisible.”

Keira just smiled in nodded, and then turned toward Jak and Daxter. The smile fell from her face for a moment, but decided not to dwell on what has been done.

Jak spoke first, “You been back there the whole time?”

“Aren’t I always?”

“Yeah, you gotta admit, that was a rhetorical question Jak,” said Daxter.

“What are you working on back there anyway?” Cynder asked.

“Not sure you really need to know.”

“Oh come on sweetie!” Daxter stated as he hopped down from Jak’s shoulder, “No more of the dragging suspense, show us what’s behind curtain number one!” he proclaimed, ending the last segment like a game show host.

Keira removed her face shield and turned her head to the left, trying to decide whether to cave in or not, and to make a long story short, she relented.

“I’ll show you guys what I’ve been working on if you promise not to laugh.”

“Oooh, I love surprises, and I love to laugh, show me! Show me!” Daxter begged. Keira pulled back the curtains to reveal a grey machine shaped like a jet engine, with a seat and console up front.

“I’ve been building a replica of our crashed Rift Rider machine from old artifacts.”

“That’s my girl!” commented Samos.

“Rift Rider?” questioned Spyro.

“When we came through the rift, we rode in on this," Jak explained. "The original was destroyed during the warp, though we still ended up falling through. I have to say, you matched it up perfectly, nuts, bolts, and everything.”

“Almost, I’m still missing two pieces.”

“Figures,” said Samos.

“Vin says I need an artifact called the Time Map, and an old energy gem history books call the Heart of Mar,” she said gesturing to two pictures hanging on the far wall of said artifacts.

“I’ve also looked in every book on Precursor history I can find, but the Rift Ring seems to have vanished,” Keira finished explaining.

“Not what we wanted to hear,” Sparx said, knowing the Rift Ring was his and his brother’s only chance to get home.

“You did all this? I mean, that’s useful,” Jak stated.

Cynder shook her head at his reluctance to bury the hatchet.

“Oh would you two stop moping around and make up already?” Daxter asked.

“I’ve seen the Heart of Mar, Krew has it, we’ll get those artifacts Keira.”

Suddenly the announcer voice just came over the speaker

'Attention all drivers, the Class 1 Championship Race is about to begin'

“Well here goes, the race of my life,” he turned to leave.

“Jak,” Keira said halting him, “I just want you to know, well you’re the best racer I’ve ever seen.” Spyro and Cynder smiled at her comment, seeing that their friendship was rekindling. Jak grinned slightly at her comment before Daxter interrupted.

“Hey! What about me? I helped get us here.”

“Do you wanna drive?” asked Jak.

“Against that crazy loon Erol? No way! You got the handlebars brother, and you better keep us alive, or I will never speak to you again, obviously.”

“Well, I guess all we can is, go get em!” said Spyro.

“Leave em in the dust Jak!” Keira finished.

Jak raced out of the garage and down to the other end of the stadium. Daxter raced after him and jumped onto his shoulder. He entered the other garage hallway which led to the stadium entrance. Entering the stadium, he saw the racer was just ahead of him, on top of a trapdoor above the starting line. He mounted up, and as soon as he sat down, the door opened up and he fell down in line with the other racers. Keira and the dragons watched from a safe distance in their private pit stand, also making sure they stayed out of sight. Seven drivers were accounted for at the line, waiting for the eighth. A revving engine behind them caused Jak to turn around, to their displeasure, the eighth racer Erol had arrived. He pulled up next to Jak, shooting a threatening glare.

“I want more than just to win, Eco Freak, I want you!” he threatened. Jak and Daxter just glared. Up above, the Baron and a squad of his Krimzon Guard floated down close to the starting line on a hover platform.

“Greetings Racers!” he said over the roar of the crowd. “Today your nerve and skill will be tested for our amusement, should any of you by some small chance beat our grand champion Erol, you will be awarded a month’s supply of eco!” he said pointing toward the small eco stock the guard was watching over near the stadium entrance.

“And a short tour of my palace to see how the other half live,” he mumbled under his breath. “Good luck, and may you die bravely! Ready, Get Set,”

Erol pulled down his helmet, Jak gripped his wheel, and the spectators in the pit box looked on with apprehension. The countdown tree flashed red, then yellow, and at the tone of the bell, Green!

“GO!”

The racers took off from the line, and clashed with each other as they tried to pick up speed and positions off the line. Jak was side to side with Erol around the first corner, but was able to push him over atop as the crumpled field spread out. The field raced down a hill and to the left where the racers disappeared into a tunnel. Keira turned the others attention to her small handheld tablet, where inside cameras caught the action in the tunnel. With the other drivers lagging, Jak managed to stay ahead of Erol all the way through, but he collected a turbo charge where Jak missed, and boosted himself ahead of him on the outside. Jak scowled and turned right onto the ramp shortcut built into the track. Flying out, he nearly ran into Erol, but pulled ahead again as they completed the first lap.

The last lap came around, and Jak was still in the lead, with Erol and two other drivers right behind him. As they headed into the tunnel, he picked another purple turbo charge and boosted ahead, the two other drivers picked up the others and propelled ahead of Erol, at this point his frustration was apparent, and nearly broke the throttle trigger in his hand. Jak kept ahead of the other two behind him, unfortunately one drifted too far to the left fall into the lower runway, causing him to lose control and run up the wall, leading to him falling out of his ride. Erol zoomed by paying no mind, Jak knew he wasn’t done, and went around the falling pit that was ahead, with the other two doing the same. Erol had Jak in his sights as they came to the sharp right exit of the tunnel, looking to knock him off his ride and take him out for good. The spectators watched in grueling suspense, but Jak kept his bearings and pushed ahead toward a turbo charge, and with Erol only a z-length away, collected it and hit the boost button. He zoomed ahead, with Erol missing him by a hair, and now with his ride heading for the wall, luckily for him he managed to brake in time before slamming into it.

“Oh Yeah!” Daxter cheered from Jak’s shoulder.

Jak smirked knowing he had it, and raced out of the tunnel, keeping ahead of the single driver behind him the whole way to the finish line. Everyone cheered as he crossed it for the win. Keira breathed a sigh of relief, whereas the dragons cheered together.

“YES!!” Spyro and Cynder said together before giving Keira a group hug with Sparx.

“They did it! They did it! Haha!” he cheered, “You know that boyfriend of yours really has the right stuff.”

Keira blushed slightly, and Cynder grinned at her, sensing her obvious emotions. Jak turned his zoomer around and parked at the line, while the other drivers moved off the track, giving Jak parting waves as they left. Jak dismounted his racer with a feeling of pride and moved up to the stockpile of eco that was laid beside him, and picked up the palace security pass that was placed on top it.

“Thank you! Thank you very much, I love my public!” Daxter spoke with appreciation to the cheering crowd. Unfortunately, their moment of cheerful victory ended as the baron lowered his platform toward the duo. Jak kept his back to him as he spoke.

“A brave man of the people, and who is this worthy opponent? In my world good men are either bought or broken, so which is it going to be?”

Jak just spoke a single word as he turned around, “surprise”

“What?!!” Praxis gasped in shock.

“Just a little closer, we need to talk,” Jak said. Spyro and the others watched the confrontation from the pit and kept vigil, knowing they might have to step in anytime.

“You fool don’t you get it? It’s over Jak! All the heroes died long ago, only survival remains, by whatever means! This city is mine! These lives are mine! This war is mine! And in war, People die!” Jak was furious at his selfish declarations, but before he could make a move, Praxis ordered his guard, “Kill him”

Suddenly Cynder screamed from the pit, “Jak look out!”

He turned around to see Erol line driving towards him, ignoring the guards orders to halt.

“I win Jak!”

At the last instant Jak jumped and Spyro flew over Praxis’s head to catch him, Erol flew under Jak and into the eco stock prize.

BWWOOOMMMMMMM! Ssssshhhh…

The eco exploded as Erol crashed into it, the force of the blast nearly knocking Jak, Daxter and Spyro out of the sky. Keira, Cynder and Sparx shielded themselves from the blast, only to look at a black lightning fog of detonated dark eco. Jak only glimpsed for a moment, but saw that the only remnant of Erol in the wreckage, was his helmet. Spyro placed Jak down on the walkway again, Cynder after telling Keira to leave quickly jumped down with Sparx to join them. They all ran out of the stadium together as the Baron leveled his platform from the shock and saw them

“AFTER THEM!”

dragonball06 · Jul 29, 2013 12:02 AM

These final chapters will be longer than the last, I'm trying to finish this story in at least 45 chapters. I hope you'll stick with me to the end.

Ch38: Palace Investigation

The Krimzon Guard swarmed over the stadium area as they attempted to apprehend the three fugitives. Guards chased them as they tried to escape down the concrete steps. Shots from KG patrols above tried to cut them down, but all three heroes managed to dip, dive, and dodge all of them. One shot from a guard behind managed to burn through Spyro’s cloak, luckily not Spyro himself. They reached the bottom of the stairs, but the air guards above kept right on top of them, aiming their laser guns right at them and letting loose a violent rain of laser fire on them. Cynder turned her head at the oncoming attack and blew her shadow breath. Rather than envelop them, it stopped their approach as they saw the huge shadow cloud grow in front of them. With that done, Jak beckoned them over toward a stray cruiser in the stadium courtyard. He had already mounted up by the time the cloud began to clear, and the Krimzon Guard started advancing toward them again. The gunfire clipped the zoomer, and nearly shot Cynder’s leg, who instinctively pulled it away with a scowl on her face toward the guard. Spyro then let loose an inferno wave from his maw which made them halt yet again. Both dragons finally got into the cruiser as Jak ignited the engine, the KG zoomers kept firing at them as Jak attempted to take off. The pelting fire he was taking was making it difficult to gain speed, but he finally managed to propel forward toward the stadium exit.

“Hold on and keep down!” Jak ordered. The dragon ducked their heads as the fire kept coming from behind. The exited the stadium area with 3 KG zoomers following them. Jak plunged the cruiser into the canal, hoping to stay out of their reach, two more shots hit the back end, causing the engines to smoke. Jak struggled to keep the zoomer straight as the entered the drain pipe in front of them. Watching them disappear, the KG anticipated their next move and flew around to the other side in attempt to meet them halfway.

On the other side, they saw the zoomer heading around the corner away from the pipe. The guards opened fire on the vehicle each shot scoring a direct hit, the damaged engine exploded, destroying the zoomer completely.

KaaaBLAAMMM!

The fiery scrap-pile splashed into the canal, the surrounding crowd watched it sink. The Krimzon Guard departed to report to Praxis, believing they had been destroyed. Everyone around watching was speechless, seeing the new Haven City racing champion and the outland creatures blow to bits.

Unbeknownst to them, inside the pipe clinging to the walls were two dragons and their dragonfly companion clinging to their horns. In the water below, were the two racing champions keeping themselves submerged. Jak pulled his head out of the water, Daxter following taking a big gasp. He looked up at the dragons, who had a hard time keeping their claws embedded in the metal. They dropped down into the water beside him.

“Think they fell for it?” asked Cynder.

“Yeah, but just in case, let’s go out the back way,” answered Jak. They turned and swam out the way they came in, away from the crowd. Outside the pipe, Jak looked around, and saw that the Krimzon Guard had departed. Turning to Spyro and Cynder, “You guys stay here and…”

“Yeah, we know the drill,” Spyro finished. Jak grinned back, took a breath, and went underwater toward being seen and swam toward a ramp on the left leading to the walkway. He surfaced next to it and gripped the side of the ramp, while Daxter coughed up a storm.

“Coough! Coough! Haaack!... Gasp, Huuufff, Next time warn a guy on your shoulder to take a breath before you decide to take a dive!” he yelped, Jak shushed him before he started climbing. Reaching the walkway he saw to the right a Y-wing zoomer, the replacement transport he was looking for. The crowd had dispersed to the other side due to the recent KG pursuit, so he was fortunate to stay unseen. He mounted the zoomer and started the engines, and flew over the railing into the canal before he could be seen by anyone. He pulled up next to the pipe and picked up Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx, changed his hover zone to high and flew around the corner to where the crowd was being departed from the crash site. Krimzon Guard patrol boats were at the scene trying to fish out the bodies, Jak smirked to himself as they passed by them unseen. They flew above the canal all the way to the exit on the left. The walkway took them to the pavilion area behind the palace. They flew the whole way around to the palace entrance. Jak landed the zoomer near one of the front palace torches, in order to approach unseen. They dismounted the zoomer and approached the front palace gate from behind the torch. Jak walked up to the front gate control box and presented the security pass to it. The palace gate lock opened up, the inner cylinder with the Baron’s insignia spun once upside down, and the gate wall lifted up. A computer voice spoke from the box…

‘Access Granted’

Jak beckoned Spyro and Cynder inside immediately, before any guards arrived at their outside entrance. They passed through the gate with haste, it closed quickly after Cynder entered last. On the inside, Jak directed them to a lone elevator on the left. They all ran over and stood on top of it.

“Keep absolutely still, this thing moves fast,” Jak warned them. Before they could question, the elevator launched like a pressurized canister. Spyro and Cynder remained steady while Sparx went splat against the elevator floor. As quick as it launched it suddenly stopped, launching him off the floor, only to fall again.

“Woah,” said Spyro.

“Oooh, that didn’t feel good,” Sparx followed as he slowly fluttered into the air. A door opened to their left, leading out to a large hallway, which they exited to. The hall was decorated with decorated red patterns, a huge white door was located on the left side, two small ones on the right, and a large sentry gun stood silent at the end of the hall.

“Okay, don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m up for leaving before someone decides to turn that thing on,” stated Sparx.

“What are we looking for in here?” asked Spyro.

“Two things, one…the Precursor stone could possibly be in here, and if so we need to retrieve it, and two…one last meet with the man who stole it in the first place,” Jak answered before walking over to the giant white door. The door opened as he entered to reveal another door, but he kept walking, and that door opened as well to reveal a startling surprise to the dragons.

They were in the Baron’s throne room, right where they had first landed upon arriving on this planet. The familiar sight of the Baron’s throne stood before them, as well as the giant windows which made up the walls.

“Wow, we’ve finally come full circle,” Cynder thought out loud. Suddenly, the sound of running footsteps came from behind, forcing everyone to turn around. It was a young woman with locking red hair wearing a fitting Krimzon Guard fighting getup, she was tattoed like Torn, and her green eyes held an unfriendly expression that matched his.

“I shouldn’t have trusted you!” she exclaimed.

“Back where we started, huh?” asked Jak.

“Don’t fool me, all along you’ve been trying to undermine our war with the metalheads. Whose side are you on?!”

“Okay, okay take it easy, you misunderstand maam, we have nothing…” Spyro attempted to explain.

She pointed her gun at Spyro “Shut up alien! The guard already thinks you and your partner are dead along with Jak, and once I’m done with him, you’ll be next.”

Cynder had heard enough, she leaped onto her before the woman could aim her gun. The woman struggled to push her off and succeeded, only for Cynder to get back up and pin her to the ground. She glared at the woman with pure rage in her own green eyes.

“Listen lady, no one threatens Spyro on my watch, and frankly I’m sick of your guard always coming after us, never knowing when they’ve had enough, well this time I’m gonna make sure your baron gets the message.” She brought her bladed tail around to her throat, in attempt to leave her as an example.

“Cynder stop!”

She turned to look at Spyro, her eyes starting to settle. “As I said, let’s not kill any more than we already have.” He then turned to the woman on the ground.

“It’s time to listen, not attack.”

“Listen to the dragon Ashelin,” Jak added from behind, “it’s in your best interest.”

“Ashelin? The baron’s daughter?!”

“What?!!” Cynder exclaimed, her tailblade putting more pressure against her throat. Upon Jak’s revelation, she examined her face more carefully, the features made it all too clear, that she was his daughter. She growled with contempt.

“Do you have any idea what your father has put us through? Do you?!” Cynder shouted.

“Cynder, cool off, let her up, like Spyro said its time to listen,” Jak reasoned. She didn’t move for a moment, and then finally withdrew her tail, allowing Ashelin to get up on her feet. Both girls kept their threatening gazes toward each other, their green eyes raging with fury.

“Aw Jak, why did ya have to break up the catfight?” asked Daxter. Jak shook his shoulder, letting Daxter fall to the ground with a plop.

“You could have let her finish me,” Ashelin told Jak as she picked up her gun.

“Then you would have died without knowing the full truth,” Jak explained as he approached her, “listen Ashelin, your father is planning something terrible, and if…”

“My father can destroy the metalhead armies once and for all!” she argued as she brought her gun to his face, the dragons growling at her.

“If he cracks open the Precursor stone, the explosion will kill all of us, don’t you get it?!” Jak exclaimed as he shoved the gun away.

“That’s right, not so hard huh? Even I can figure this one out,” Daxter added.

“So unless you wanna end up like the dust under my wings, you might wanna persuade your pops to put a stop to it,” Sparx finished. Jak turned his head to the dragons to tell them to leave but Ashelin pointed her gun again.

“Don’t you move! Vin come in,” she spoke into the communicator she retrieved from her belt. Vin’s stuttling voice came from it.

‘What?! What?! I’ve got my hands full here you know!!’

“You know about the Precursor Stone myth right?

‘Sure, I did my Econetic Energy Doctorate on Precurain theoretical physics, why?’

“What would happen if the Precursor Stone were to be say, violently cracked open?”

‘Great, as if I didn’t have enough to keep me awake at night, you give me one more thing to dread, thank you very much. Well if someone actually had the stone, then according to my calculations the runaway eco-surge from cracking it open would theoretically…DESTROY EVERYTHING!’

“Everything?!” Ashelins eyes went wide.

‘All things!! Every single thing! Now if you don’t mind I’m gonna go throw up, bye bye’

As Vin’s voice went silent, Jak spoke again, “Trust me Ashelin, we have to stop him.”

“He may be your father, but what he’s doing is wrong, you know that now,” Spyro reasoned. Ashelin had her head down, as she looked down at the city through the floored windows. Deep in thought, she made possibly the most significant decision of her life. She holstered her gun and turned to the group.

“I’ll try to find out more, but right now, my father is meeting Krew at a secret weapons factory near the dig, take this,” Ashelin said as she placed another security pass into Jak’s hand.

“It’s my top level security pass, it will get you into the factory, but it won’t get you out, remember…we never had this conversation.”

“Where is the stone?” Spyro asked stopping her leave.

“Not here, and before you ask, I don’t know, my father didn’t trust anyone but himself with its security. If you wish to find it, you’ll get out of here now and follow my lead to the weapons factory, it’s in your best interest,” she finished as she exited out the throne room door. Cynder kept her look of disdain even after Ashelin left.

“Despite that show of cooperation she gave, I still don’t trust her,” she argued.

“You don’t seem to trust anyone,” Jak replied.

Cynder eyes went wide for a moment before arguing again, “That’s not true! I trust you!”

“Why? I’m curious, out of all the people you’ve met in this city, why do you trust me?”

Cynder pondered for a moment, but gave a clear answer, “You’ve never given me or any of us a reason not too.”

“Why are you asking this?” Spyro asked Jak.

“Just to tell you not to set things in stone from the start, I know you guys have had a lot of bad first meets since you got here, but shouldn’t label everyone as an enemy, Ashelin is one of them, believe it or not, but shes as much a victim of the Baron as everyone else in the city.”

Daxter interrupted, “Yeah, nice soul searching moment and all, but can we please leave before the guard comes and hangs our hides on the throne room walls?”

“For once I’m with the rat, let’s go,” Sparx added as he flew toward the throne room door and hilariously tried to push it open. The others walked up as he continued to struggle pushing it open.

“A little help here?” he asked.

As the door to the hallway opened up, they were greeted with an unfortunate surprise. A large group of nearly 50 Krimzon guards were pointing their guns at all of them.

“Nuts,” said Sparx.

“Still think we can trust her?” Cynder asked Jak.

“She did tell us to leave now,” said Jak.

“Shoot to kill!!” The guards fired an endless barrage of blasts, forcing all of them back into the throne room. Spyro blew his ice breath to freeze the front line of the guard. Jak looked to the left, he saw a small opening in the wall which led to a downward vent.

“This way!” he beckoned them. The dragons followed them into the vent as the rest of the unfrozen guard attempted to follow with pelting fire. The three of them and their sidekicks fell down 20 feet to another opening. On the other side, they found themselves inside the palace structure, unfortunately the Krimzon Guard was everywhere, including up top.

“Didn’t we just leave this party?” Jak asked aloud as the guards started raining fire down from the scaffolding. Jak brought out his blaster and returned fire. They shielded themselves with the scaffolding, so none of Jak’s shots made a hit. Going for a new tactic, he morphed his gun to the peacemaker and charged it.

Woooooo

He aimed up at the scaffolding where he knew the guards were hiding. He released the trigger…POW! The scaffolding was enveloped in a blue electrical dome as the guards dropped from the shock.

“Come on!” Jak called to the others. He climbed up to the top of the scaffolding with the dragons following in flight. They started making their way across to the other end, only to find more guards in their path, who were eliminated by Jak’s gunfire, blown away by Cynder, or electrified by Spyro. When they reached the other side of the scaffold, there was another obstacle, an open gap with another scaffold on the other side.

“We can fly you across,” said Spyro.

“Actually, I think I have a better idea,” Jak said looking up, there was a large support ring hovering above the open gap via a hover cell in the center. He aimed his blaster at the center cell and fired. The cell exploded causing the ring to fall down onto the scaffold foundation below, leveling with Jak’s current position. The dragons were confused at his actions, wondering what his real goal was. Jak answered their inner questions as he brought out his jetboard. He mounted up and jumped onto the ring in a grind, which he followed all the way around to the other side and jumped off.

“Show off,” Cynder said bluntly before taking flight. Spyro just nodded as he followed her in suit. Meeting up with Jak on the other side, they preceded to the other end of the scaffold where more guards were determined to block their way.

“Surrender!” they yelled.

“Did they really just ask that?” Sparx asked.

“Yep, never gets old,” Daxter added.

The guards fired as the dragons took flight, obviously not taking their threat seriously. Spyro fired an earth blast which blew all but one off the railing and onto the ground below. Cynder fired a poison bomb which blew the guards gun out of his hands, nearly melting his gauntlets. Cynder then knocked him out with a kick to the head. The rest of them jumped down to her from the higher scaffolding.

“Over there, our exit,” Jak said pointing toward the end of the lower scaffolding, where another automatic door was waiting. It opened as they approached it, the jumped the small gap across to it and through to find themselves in the very same elevator they had taken up.

“Here we go again,” Cynder said as the elevator launched down. This forced Spyro and Cynder to keep their wings tucked into their bodies while Sparx clung onto Spyro’s horn. The launch halted as the elevator hit bottom, causing a bit of nausea among the passengers. Jak stepped out slow before walking again, while Spyro and Cynder couldn’t stop shaking stars out of their heads.

“Okay, how can anybody go up and down that thing, and not have any complaints?!” Sparx complained.

“We’ll save the complaints for when we get out of here, we have a job to do,” Jak answered.

“Fine by me,” Spyro added. They all headed for the front gate, it opened up as they exited. Surprisingly, the palace entrance was empty, no one around as they exited. They were confused, wondering why the palace was packed with guards while the outside was barren.

“What?” Jak stammered. Suddenly the communicator popped out of his bag.

You were right Jak, what my father is doing is wrong, I need to help fix this, if you get to the weapons factory maybe we can stop him, I’ll meet you there. By the way in case you’re curious, I had the guard redirected elsewhere to help ease your escape, try not to waste it.

The communicator returned, Jak turned to Cynder with a look that said, ‘well?’

“Okay, she has my vote of confidence,” she said.

dragonball06 · Aug 07, 2013 2:11 AM

Ch39: The Weapons of Krew

Returning to his hidden zoomer, Jak piloted him and the dragons toward the airtrain, which would take them outside the city to the dig, where the weapons facility was located. They flew out into the port where people and zoomers were flying as if it were any other day. Jak headed for the left spire on the port bay and drove all the way around where the Krimzon Air Train was waiting. They dismounted the zoomer and Jak brought out his train pass to allow them access. The ramp opened up as he passed it over the scanner, allowing everyone to climb aboard. The train took off before anyone could even sit down. They watched as the city drew further away as the ramp closed behind them and they flew over the city walls.

On a landing platform deep in the mountain range behind the plumbing station, the air train started its descent. As soon as it touched base, the ramp opened up, allowing the passengers to evacuate. Jumping down from the platform, Jak looked at the tunnel in front of him, knowing that it led to the dig he had already explored before, back before the dragons had arrived in the city. He turned the other way to see a huge factory rising out of the mountain, and a metal security door built into the rock.

“Up there, come on,” he beckoned the dragons. He made his way up the cliff toward the door, with the dragons following him in flight. As they approached the door, Jak provided Ashelin’s security pass to the scanner.

Access Granted said the computer voice.

The door opened for them and they entered. The facility inside was all metal built into the rock, eco barrels lined up along the walls, and an elevator was straight ahead of them.

“Your planet sure has a thing with elevators,” Sparx commented.

“Beats stairs don’t it? Course you don’t need to worry about do ya fly boy?” said Daxter.

“Jealous?” Sparx gloated.

“Yeah, jealous that I’m furry ottsel on a shoulder, instead of a fluttering pixie with a stick for a torso!” he burned back.

“Why You?!!” They prepared to go out at it again before Jak presented another open bag to them, shutting them up. They just smiled at each other and turned away.

“About time they got the hint,” Cynder silently added as they stepped onto the elevator and descended. When they landed, a Krimzon Guard battalion was waiting for them at the other end of a walkway conveyor.

“Fire! Fire!” their leader yelled. Laser fire erupted at them as they sprang into action. Spyro and Cynder flew toward them erupting breaths of flame and fear. Screams were heard from guards losing their minds or burning under their torched armor. Spyro kicked one down while Cynder tail swiped another. The rest were shot down by Jak and his blaster as he rode along the walkway.

“Move ahead,” Jak beckoned as he shot at the electrical switch on the left, dropping the electrical shield which opened the hall on the right leading deeper into the factory.

Going around the hall corner they came to another automatic walkway that was running in the opposite direction. Two guards were riding down it and shooting at them at the same time. Jak shot back, knocking both of them down, and then shooting the control switch on the right reversing the direction, causing the guards to ride it up the way they came. The heroes jumped on and followed them up, the guards had managed to roll themselves off onto solid ground before the conveyor dipped into a pit of acid, but were still at a disadvantage two to three. Only one was needed, Jak shot both of them, dropping them as quickly as they rose up. Spyro still held a look of displeasure on his face walking passed the dead guards. He wasn’t sure he could handle seeing anymore dead at his hands, even though they were trying to kill him in the first place. Then again, that was how it used to be with the apes, yet he never was against killing them. Something seemed to have changed in him ever since he destroyed Gaul.

Keeping his discomforts to himself, they walked up up small stairs where they were overlooking a large open floor, with a giant metal sphere in the back corner hanging in the air. Their seemed to be no way to progress, not without falling in acid, until…

The sphere in the back opened up with a schlonk, catching their attention. Large metal rolling spheres started falling out and heading right toward them.

“Look out!” Jak yelled as they avoided the first oncoming one. Spyro and Cynder flapped in midair staying out of their reach while Jak and Daxter jumped around to avoid the crowd of the four rolling target seekers. To gain advantage, Jak jumped back up to the higher ledge and engaged his blaster. He shot at the closest one forcing it back, and after four shots, the ball uncurled itself to reveal it as a Krimzon deathbot, badly damaged. One final shot from Jak broke it pieces.

“Robots huh?” Spyro commented and flew down to intercept another. His electric breath struck two rolling bots forcing them to uncurl. Jak’s blaster finished them off, and their combined effort finished off the remaining three that spilled from the sphere. When the last robot broke and the sphere closed, there was the sound of a crank, to their right a bridge swung its way over, connecting with the next platform. Sparx waved from the other side having arrived first. Jak and Daxter crossed the bridge with the dragons in flight, and then spun the crank the other way to reposition the bridge with an elevator platform. They made their way up, and headed toward an opening on their left where more Krimzon guards were waiting.

POW!POW!POW!

The gunfire came from all fronts as they dodged frantically to avoid the shots. Spyro jumped in and out and then leaped to pounce on the guard closest to him, encasing himself in an earthdome, ended up nearly crushing the guard under the weight of the shield. The guards were slightly startled by Spyro’s move, which gave Jak the opening he needed. He morphed to his Vulcan Fury and let loose a barrage of machine gun fire which blew all of them away. Spyro released his earth energy and Jak pointed to the right signaling their direction. Another conveyor was running backwards, yet angling up. Jak shot the control switch on the right and reversed its direction.

“Ever get the feeling this is all laid out for us to follow?” asked Cynder.

“It’s likely to be a trap, so yeah, why?” Jak answered.

“Nothing, it’s just something seems oddly familiar about this,” she finished. They jumped onto the conveyor and rode it all the way up like a rectangular staircase. At the top, they saw another metallic sphere suspended above the air on the higher ledge.

“Here we go again,” said Spyro. As they pulled themselves up, the spheres opened letting more rolling deathbots loose. They were disposed as quickly as the last, causing an electrical field encompassing another switch on the floor to open up. Cynder saved Jak the trouble by hitting it with her tail, causing the nearby conveyor to reverse its direction up. Before they even got to the top, Jak found himself under fire from more Krimzon guards on leftside platforms. The dragons dodged in the air while Jak rolled out of the way. The fire was heavier this time, and unfortunately Jak took a hit to the leg.

“Aaagh!” he grunted in pain momentarily, and turned his furious eyes toward the shooting guards. Before he could bring out his blaster, another shot at him again. He prepared to take another hit…

CRUSHH!

Spyro landed in front of him, throwing up an earth shield which blocked the shot. Behind his wall of rock he turned to Jak.

“You okay?”

“Just clobber them,” he stated with a hint of aggravation.

Cynder flew aerobatically around their raging fire before she finally decided to let her wind loose. Her wind breath blew all the guards over the edge of their platforms and into the acid pit below, killing them instantly. She suspended herself in midair, trying to catch her breath again. She didn’t have long unfortunately, more guards came out of a dead end section of the room at the other end of the pit.

“Shoot that thing down! Let the pool finish it!” cried the captain. They fired liked their fallen comrades forcing Cynder to fly back to Jak and Spyro. Jak had gotten back on his feet and Spyro turned to her as she landed.

“Whats wrong?” he asked.

“More guards, they're like cockroaches, swat a few, and more just crawl right out,” she said.

“Yeah, metalheads are the same,” Jak added.

“Can you still fight?” Spyro asked, looking at the burn on Jak’s leg.

“It will take more than this to stop me,” he said sternly while brandishing the peacemaker. He jumped across the bridge to the platform ahead, and then hit the crank to spin the bridge across to the next platform. Once he reached it, the guards started firing at him. He shielded himself using the crank as he charged up the peacemaker. Once he had a full charge he rolled out into the open and fired at the KG group. The guards tried to flee from the oncoming orb but to no avail, it hit the closest target and arced out into the rest, finishing them off.

“I love this thing more every time we use it,” Daxter said to Jak. He hit the crank spinning the bridge yet again, allowing him to jump across to one more platform before realigning the bridge to the ledge where the guards were shooting. The dragons followed in flight and landed beside him on the ledge. Other than the scorched guards, there wasn’t much there except a panel on the far end.

“There,” said Jak as he walked up to it. He dive-jumped onto it breaking through, allowing the others to jump through. They found themselves in another open room, this time with three overhanging deathbot spheres.

“Great, there’s more,” Sparx commented as the spheres opened up. More deathbots than before fell to the floor and started rolling toward them. Jak brought out his scatter gun and blew the four in front of him back. Spyro retaliated with an electrical burst which short circuited them out of ball mode. Cynder’s poison bomb finished the job, melting their bodies to a smelting puddle. Their triple brigade eventually triumphed, and all the bots were scrap. As the spheres closed up, the door behind them opened up, revealing another elevator. They all entered and went for the ride up. This one was a high one, taking them to the highest point of the weapons lab. When the elevator finally reached the top, they looked out to see some sort of giant tower with supports in the middle of a circular platform, and a large metal sphere mounted at the top.

“What do we have here?” asked Spyro.

“Trouble,” Sparx answered pointing near the sphere, where Krew was hovering just overhead appearing to be performing some maintenance.

“Sparx, for once I agree with you,” Cynder added.

Krew hovered down close to all of them and spoke directly to Jak, “I knew you were special…when I first met you Jak…and I commend you for making it this far, we’ve come a long way eh?”

“Yeah I’m getting real teary eyed,” he replied.

“I must admit, your new friends have also impressed me, despite being aliens they have managed to blend in quite well with the Haven inhabitants, while creating a bit of mischief eh?”

“We do what we need to,” Spyro stated.

“Let me guess,” Cynder cut in with her focus towards the weird tower on the platform. “You’re a part time weapons lab assistant?”

“Hehe, in one sense yes, but as you must know, I love weapons…I love how they look, how they feel, eehh even how they smell, Snifff” he went on as he hovered all the way up the tower. The group below watched with uncomfortable silence.

“I think you need serious help,” said Jak.

“Have you considered a head shrink or something?” Sparx added. Krew acted as if he didn’t hear them and hovered back down to them.

“My favorite… was the impossibly powerful weapon Mar built, to blast open the metalhead nest, though the poor fool died before he could use it…ah well…but I know have a new favorite, the Piercer Bomb I’ve just completed,” he said turning back toward the tower which housed the entire bomb, “My masterpiece is powerful enough to crack open the Precursor Stone…and release the untold energy inside.”

“Do you have any ideas of the consequences cracking that stone open will do?” Spyro asked.

“Not really, and don’t worry I don’t intend to find out little lizard…I believe the metalheads will do the honors for us, for once the baron shows up with the stone, we’ll hide it in the last shipment of eco and deliver it to the metalhead nest, a surprise dessert eh? Hehehe.” He tossed a small metal cartridge to Jak and said, “Just take this gun upgrade, and forget what you saw here.”

Jak pocketed the upgrade and shook his head, “Not this time Krew, I’m through being your hired gun!”

“And I’m through watching you profiting from other peoples expense!” Cynder added baring her teeth.

“And I won’t let you unleash a force that will wipe out this entire planet!” Spyro finished getting into a battle stance. Getting their sense that they would not astray, Krew suspended with the nice guy act and declared, “Then its WAR isn’t it!!”

Before any of them could attack Krew, electrical conduits opened up on the sides of his hover chair spitting out green electricity from the nodes on the tips of the conduits. The electricity formed to shape a miniature Krew from electrical energy.

“You know I can’t play fair, so let me introduce you to my clones,” he said as he flew away over the edge of the platform, dispensing more Krew clones from his chair.

“Ah, multiple me, hehehe how delightful,” he gloated as he floated out of their reach outside the platform.

“Don’t touch them!” Jak warned the dragons as he brought out the scatter gun. He took a shot at the clones, and ended up blowing them back. More clones started pouring out from similar nodes positioned all over the platform. It appeared to Jak that Krew had planned this all along. They started closing in on the dragons, who had no way to fight against figures of electrical energy, save Spyro who managed to fire an earth blast which blew them back stunned.

“We could use some help over here!” Cynder called to Jak.

“Little occupied!” he replied as he shot the clones again, causing them to disappear. Before the clones could advance toward the dragons again Jak pulled the scatter gun and yelled toward them.

“SPLIT!” They went to one side, allowing Jak to shoot the clones into nothing. As more clones kept popping up all over the platform, Jak decided to divide and conquer.

“Go for Krew, I got these guys!” they nodded to him and flapped their wings in Krews direction getting his attention.

“Hmph, like moths to the light,” he muttered as he flipped another switch in his hand. The lamp over his head started to aim at the dragons, and opened up into a laser. It opened fired catching them by surprise, hitting Cynder in the wing.

“Aaahh!” she fell to the ground with her wing burning the way down.

“Cynder!” cried Spyro as he dove down to catch her. Jak saw the whole thing, and glared at Krew in retaliation as he finished off the last of his clones with two more shots. Seeing the rest of his counterparts dispatched by the rogue fighter, Krew scowled and flew toward him laser armed.

“Try stopping me now!” he declared as he fired at his former hand. Jak dodged all of the bullets, and fired his own blaster, five shots which made three hits. Krew was shaken up, but not wounded until…POOOMP!

Jak kicked him in the head, nearly sending him toppling over. “That’s for Cynder!” he stated. Krew grumbled in frustration and flew out of his range again, allowing more clones to attack him.

“Round 2 my boy!”

The clones came as fast as the last batch, and Jak kept firing away at them knocking them away. Spyro managed to fly back up with Cynder in his paws, still unable to move her wing.

“Spyro, let me off at the ledge so you can get up and help,” she said pointing to an overhang in the tower.

“I’m not leaving you!”

“Don’t argue! Finish that lardball off, then come back I’ll be fine!” Spyro was reluctant, but finally came to agree with Cynder’s decision, he hesitantly set her down on the small overhang, sharing a short compassionate look before he flew back up, with an inner rage he was willing to take out, and he had the perfect candidate.

Krew was not enjoying watching his clones being blown away by Jak, but he was about to get a more unfortunate surprise as Spyro came from down below and headbutted him.

“Yaaagghh!” he yelled as he tried to steady himself in the air. As soon as he leveled himself, he pulled his head up to see Spyro’s enraged face in front of him.

“Cynder said she could break you apart into half the man you are, me…I can do way better,” he said finishing the last part with great contempt. He roared as he comet dashed toward Krew, who was caught off guard by Spyro’s rash move. Krew was knocked far back, his hover chair struggling to stay afloat as the boosters groaned.

“Aaaggh!” Krew yelled in pain as his right side was badly burned, clothes were scorched and some nasty burn marks were left on his arms and head. Spyro retaliated, not giving him time to recover, grabbing hold of his hover chair and shocking him with an electric blast.

“Arrrggh! Get off me! Get off me!” he screamed as the chair rick-rocketed out of control. Jak was still shooting at Krew’s clones on the platform, knocking some over the platform edge, where he saw Krew being torn apart by Spyro’s relentless attacks.

“Woah, never thought he had it in him,” he said to Daxter, who nodded. Krew had just broke himself from Spyro’s grasp and started firing his laser at him again, which Spyro dodged agily before shattering his laser with an ice shard. With his main weapon gone, Krew was helpless as Spyro bombarded him again, this time back toward the platform that Jak had cleared of clones. Krews impact crumpled his hover boosters, bringing his hover chair to a screeching halt near a support tower. Spyro walked up to him slowly as Krew groaned in agony, Jak watched from a distance approaching slowly, wondering what Spyro’s next move would be. Spyro’s eyes appeared to be emitting a faint glow as Krew turned to him.

“Go ahead… huff…finish it beast…I’m as you wanted…huff…broken.”

Jak turned toward Spyro who was a statue, but spoke quickly to Krew’s request, “I may be a lot of things, but I’m no beast, and certainly not a murderer, like you.”

Jak smiled at his answer, knowing he held onto his restraints. He then noticed Krew reaching his left hand for something fallen on the ground, the Heart of Mar. He walked up to Spyro who had noticed the same thing and pulled the gem closer to him away from Krew. Daxter jumped down from Jak’s shoulder to pick it up.

“Is it too late to give my notice?” Jak asked Krew.

“Yeah! We quit!” Daxter added.

“The city…is already dead! I’ve sold you all out! HAHAHAHa…Cough…Cough…Wheeze” he spat out before revealing his final gamble. A hum came from the Piercer Bomb in front of them.

“Uh, Jak, Spyro? I believe we should be anywhere else just about now!” Daxter alerted, indicating the bomb was set to detonate. Just then behind them came the roar of a zoomer engine, they turned to see Ashelin piloting her H-cat, with Cynder and Sparx riding in the upper cockpit.

“Ashelin?” said Jak.

“Cynder!” followed Spyro.

“We’re outta here!” Ashelin beckoned aboard. The three of them didn’t waste the opportunity, they all jumped in and Ashelin zoomed away from the platform. Left alone, Krew listened to the bomb approaching its critical point, and with nothing else left he said his last words,

“oh well”

dragonball06 · Aug 12, 2013 2:17 AM

I'm on the last two chapters right now, I am so relieved to finally finish this, its been so long since I started this story i nearly lost the inspiration to finish it, thank you all for making it so popular. I wonder if you saw the slight reference to Dark Spyro in the last chapter? keep your eyes peeled, you might just see both of their dark sides in the final coming chapters.

Ch40: Metalheads Invade!

KABLAAAAMMMMM!!!!

Spyro and Cynder shielded their faces from the blast behind them. The bomb had exploded, engulfing the top portion of the lab in a fiery inferno that reminded Spyro of the fires of Boyzitbig. They flew further away from the fire as they approached the city port, soon it looked like nothing but a distant campfire. Ashelin brought her H-cat down to land near Krew’s Hip Hog saloon.

“You guys find my father, I’ll take the Heart of Mar to Keira for you,” she said as everyone dismounted.

“I’m sorry it’s come to this,” Ashelin added as she prepared to takeoff.

“Ashelin,” Cynder said getting her attention. “I just want to say I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been quick to judge, and you’re nothing like your father.”

Ashelin was silent for a moment as she listened to her words, then nodded to her before taking off. As her H-cat disappeared from sight, Spyro spoke to her, “I’m proud of you.”

She smiled at him, Jak came and put his hand on her shoulder and nodded as well, then led all of them into the Hip Hog. Jak suddenly remembered to take the final upgrade out of his pocket and installed it to his morph gun. Upon entering, there were instantly greeted by Tess, who was standing near a strange machine set up near the door.

“Hey guys, I was hoping you’d come back here, before Krew left he put something in that game machine, and he looked really nervous.”

“Hmmm, curious much?” Sparx asked his brother next to him.

“Whatever it is, Krew won’t be needing it anymore, he’s shall we say, not all together these days,” Daxter said stepping up to the machine. “Step aside Jak, let the gameplayer do his stuff.”

Tess crouched down to him and told him, “You’re such an animal!”

“Oh gag me,” Sparx said feeling queasy.

“How about you watch instead Sparky? You might just learn something useful!” Daxter retorted cracking his knuckles. Sparx just sneered as Daxter jumped up to the Metalhead Wack-it game and started it up.

Within a few minutes, Daxter had scored passed the required value. He jumped down with his hands pumped in the air.

“You did it!” Tess cheered. As she congratulated, there was a click from the machine, and something small and orblike popped out of one of the holes. It landed at their feet, and Daxter immediately identified it.

“The Time Map!”

“Now we have both missing pieces,” Spyro commented. The sound of the door opening caught his attention, but he was speechless when he saw what came in.

Daxter turned his attention to Tess again, not knowing of what was creeping up behind him. “You know sugarplum, if any real metalheads came to town, I’d bonk them just like I did in the game.”

“Uh Daxter?” she said trying to warn him of the approaching metalheads behind him. Everyone else had either noticed and tried pointing at them to notify Daxter, or were too shocked to do anything.

Daxter obliviously continued, “They’d be all, don’t hurt me please, and I’d be, too late metal monkeys! You die screaming! Hehe know what I’m saying?”

“Um…” Jak said finally bringing out his blaster. The sight of Jak bringing out his gun finally made Daxter turn around, only the sight wanted to make him scream. Two metalhead grunts were breathing down his neck, ready to eat him alive.

“Jaaak…I think these trophies are still walking!!” Jak hit each of them with one shot, dropping them dead with the upgraded damage from the blaster. Everyone slightly relaxed, still shocked at the realization that metalheads were in the city. Daxter had his face shielded in a panic, but released himself as soon as they were blasted.

“Metalheads! Metalheads!! Where’s Sig when you need him?!!” Daxter said in a sudden outburst.

“Sig?” Tess wondered, “I think Krew sent Sig on one last mission, something about using Mar’s Ruby Key to open a secret door in the Underport.”

“The Underport?” questioned Cynder.

“Of course! Come on Dax, we need to get to the Underport right now!” Jak stated as his orange furred sidekick jumped up on his shoulder.

“I’ll take the Time Map to Keira,” Tess said picking it up.

“Good, Spyro Cynder Sparx, go with her to make sure she gets there safe. We’ll meet up with you later,” said Jak.

“Will do, be careful Jak,” Spyro replied.

Daxter cut in once again to speak to Tess, “Be careful angel cheeks, your hero will return shortly,” he finished with a bow as Jak walked out the front door rolling his eyes.

Tess had taken the dragons and Sparx out the back way to another cruiser. She took the controls and fired into the sky. As they flew into the port, everyone aboard looked out and saw their worst confirmations confirmed. Metalheads had invaded Haven City! They were swarming by the dozen in nearly every nook and cranny. Grunts, scorpions, and combat metalheads were chasing city populace for blocks. The Krimzon Guard were struggling just to hold them all at bay, unfortunately for every one they killed, one or two more would take its place. Spyro couldn’t bear to watch the carnage, it reminded him too much of the attack the Dark Army waged against Warfang.

“We can’t let this happen, we can’t let another city get destroyed,” Spyro argued with Cynder.

Tess interrupted in her place, “Right now, the best thing we can do is deliver the final piece to Keira, if any of these monsters get to her, your chances of finding the rift gate will be ruined.”

“Thanks for helping us Tess, out of everyone we’ve met here, you’re one of the few whose treated us like a real friend,” Cynder said gratefully. Tess responded with a smile toward them both.

“My pleasure.”

“I just hope Jak can make it back soon with Sig, against an invasion this size, we’ll need all the help we can get,” Spyro commented.

“With my furry little hero his side, he’ll be just fine,” Tess mentioned.

“Hero? You mean Daxter?” Sparx asked with bewilderment.

“Of course,” she answered.

“Seriously? Daxter? What is wrong with this girl?” Sparx whispered into his brother’s ear, “Its gotta be the fur.”

“Quiet Sparx, we have a city under siege here, so cease with your personal squabbles.” Tess flew around the palace base toward the Main Town entrance at the back. The battle continued below as they flew past the pavilion and toward the alley leading to the canal. They followed the canal to the large drain pipe which led the way toward the stadium. Tess entered the stadium entrance and flew toward the back corner where Keira was waiting with the Rift Rider. Tess landed right next to the Rider and dismounted with the dragons.

“Hey guys, did you bring the final piece?” Keira asked.

“Right here,” Spyro turned to Tess who brought the Time Map out from behind her back.

“Special delivery,” Sparx added. Tess handed the artifact to Keira, who then sought to question, “Where’s Jak and Daxter?”

“They went to the Underport to search for Sig, they’ll return soon,” said Tess.

“Regarding they don’t stop to land anywhere for a rest stop, since the whole city is being swarmed with metalheads!” Sparx stuttered.

“We noticed, father and his younger self are focusing their spirits to invoke a barrier that will stir away any hostile forces, at least from this area,” Keira said turning toward the base of the stadium steps where Samos and his younger counterpart sat in meditative stances surrounding by green auras.

“Of course, our safety all depends on how long they can sustain it,” she added.

“If there’s one thing I have learned Keira, it’s never underestimate your elders. Besides, whatever can get by them, we can handle, count on it,” Spyro reassured. Keira nodded with a warm smile, she was glad that if any aliens had to fall onto their planet, they were the ones looking to help them, not conquer them.

Another hour passed by, and the stadium remained untouched thanks to the two sages. Tess had evacuated earlier to go assist Torn, leaving Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx with Keira as she installed the final piece on the Rift Rider. All four of them waited patiently for Jak to return from the Underport. Finally, Keira stepped down from the rider and typed in a code on the stationary keyboard she had linked up to it. A hum came from the machine as the control panel came to life, energy levels were stabilized through the Heart of Mar, as coordinates were being fed from the Time Map, it was ready.

“That does it, its finally complete,” said Keira.

“Wow, so can this thing really send you, Jak, Daxter, and your father back to where you came from?” Cynder asked.

“It will ferry us, but we need to find the Rift Ring itself first, which according to my father’s vision, lies right in the heart of the metalhead nest itself.”

“WHAT?!!” they all cried out loud.

“You mean our only chance of getting back home is inside the monsters lair?!” Sparx questioned with panic.

“I’m afraid so,” Keira replied.

Sparx turned to his brother and said dismally, “Home seems further and further away every day.”

“Sparx, we will get back, I promise,” Spyro reassured, yet Sparx still lingered some doubt on his face. Just then, a roar of an engine came from behind, they all turned to see a Y-wing zoomer enter the stadium. They saw the blonde green highlighted hair of the rider, and they knew right and then it was Jak, with the orange colored mass that was Daxter still riding on his shoulder. The zoomer landed right alongside the Rift Rider, with all of his friends crowding around him.

“You made it!” Spyro exclaimed.

“You sound surprised,” Jak replied.

“Relieved” Spyro rephrased before looking around as if something or someone was missing, “Where’s Sig?”

Jak turned away, and Daxter’s ears drooped at Spyro’s question. Spyro immediately wished he hadn’t asked upon seeing their expressions, and assumed the worst.

“He’s…he’s not?”

“Sig…isn’t coming back,” Jak said remorsely. Spyro and Cynder suddenly felt like they had lost another best friend. Sparx and Keira simply had their heads down. Daxter attempted to break the silence.

“At least he went down the way he wanted to: fighting.”

Spyro’s steely look returned to him and said,“Then let’s make sure his sacrifice wasn’t in vain.”

“His or Vin’s, we just got a final transmission from him, he warned us that the shield wall had been sabotaged, right before metalheads broke down his door.”

The dragons were in shock, hearing all of these friendly people they had come to know on this alien world had died, for their sakes. Spyro was wishing again that he had never even set his paw on that gem in the cemetery, then these people probably wouldn’t have died, even though that wasn’t really true.

“I know we have been dealt hard blows, but we still need to salvage the situation,” Keira included. “The Rift Rider is finished, but if my father is right, and the ring is somewhere in the metalhead nest, how are we going to get the Rift Rider there to use it?”

Everyone was stumped, until out of nowhere, a large familiar purple mass appeared to offer a hand, “LOOK!!” A flying wooden dirigible floated over the stadium wall and landed on the other side of the courtyard. “Brutter just knew friends would need lift if metalheaders attack.”

“Thank you! Thank you!” Sparx praised in Brutter’s face.

Daxter jumped down from Jak’s shoulder and turned toward their purple furred friend, “Brutter, you the man!” At the same time, the two sages had come out of their meditative state and walked over to them.

“Lurker balloons are finest lifters in world, but they is easy target,” Brutter explained.

“Right, then you guys get the Rift Rider to the nest, I’ll stay here and defend your takeoff and get away,” Jak said.

“We’ll help as well,” Spyro added.

“Once again, being your friend sucks, I wanna go in the balloon!” Daxter complained, Sparx reluctantly nodded, feeling the same as the ottsel for once.

“You keep stadium safe while we prep balloon for lift away,” said Brutter. He then turned toward the stadium exit and saw that the invading creatures were crawling toward them, since the sages were no longer repelling them. “Oh no here they come! Metalheaders!”

“Get in the rider! Now!” Cynder strongly ordered Keira and Brutter. The two of them mounted up in the machine and the two sages took position on both sides as they each stuck out a hand with glowing green auras. A beam illuminated from each of them enshrouding the Rift Rider in a green sphere which levitated it above the ground. The sages then carried the rider through the air toward the Lurker airship. Jak moved ahead of them with his scatter gun at the ready. The dragons took flight and headed toward the oncoming metalhead hoard. Grunts and scorpions littered the stadium courtyard as Spyro and Cynder dove in to attack. A wave of fire from Spyro and a spew of acid from Cynder made a small dent in the group. Those that were ahead of the blast were getting close to Jak, who fired off his scatter gun at the oncoming scorpions, killing them on the spot. Metalheads continued swarming over the stadium from all sides. Jak kept up the scatter gun block while the dragons flew over the group delivering aerial attacks. Cynder’s whipping tail cut through the tails of three scorpions while Spyro pile drived on top of a nearby grunt. With one dead under his feet, he turned toward the ones still coming toward him.

“Alright then” he said silently.

He rushed them, and just before they could sink their claws, Spyro jumped up emitting an electrical charge. It grew and grew and grew, until Spyro’s body was encased in a sphere of electrical energy, repelling any metalheads in close proximity. He released the energy, throwing out an electrical wave in the middle of the metalhead crowd. The electricity surged through all their bodies, dropping them dead, luckily the wave didn’t reach Jak, who watched the scene before him in awe.

“Wow, talk about short circuit,” Daxter commented. The sages behind continued to carry the rider, but both they and their passengers could help but be shocked by Spyro’s display of power as well. Spyro on the other hand, struggled to catch his breath after exerting so much energy. Luckily, whatever metalheads were left got picked off by Cynder and her poison shots. She walked over to him having finished her attack.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, we get them all?” Spyro retorted.

“Don’t’ bet on it,” said Jak who walked up with his blaster, the sages passing behind him, having reached the ship halfway. Metalbug hornets were flying over the stadium and bearing down with their laser stingers ready. Jak was quick to point his blaster at the head of the swarm and fired. One bug fell out of the sky, and the two dragons took flight once again. Instead of attacking with elements, they tackled them and slashed with their tails, knocking two more away. The bugs tried firing them with their stinging lasers, but the dragons were too agile and dodged them. They in turn took them down the same way as the others, tackle and slash. As the bugs were being dealt with, down on the ground the sages were approaching the airship, when suddenly…

‘Rip…Ripppiitt!’

Hopper metalheads jumped out of the nearby fountain, having infiltrated the plumbling of the city as well. Keira cried to Jak for help.

“Jak! In front!”

Jak turned and saw the approaching attack. Diverting his attention away from the bugs he started shooting his blaster again, knocking the hoppers away dead. With Jak dealing with the ground assault, the sages were finally able to reach the airship. They slowly lowered the Rift Rider onto the ships floor, where the Lurker pilot fastened it down in place with tether rope.

dragonball06 · Aug 13, 2013 12:58 AM

I'm working on the next to last chapter now, standby!

Ch41: MetalKor

“UP UP and away!” Brutter cried as the airship took flight.

“Yeah, later” Sparx dismally waved off.

“Must be nice floating away, while we DIE down here!” Daxter added to their apparent situation. The dragons landed beside them as the ship went airbourne over the stadium, having finished off the last of the metalbugs.

We’ll meet near the nest, Keira called from the ship, “See you soon Jak, be careful!”

“Yeah Jak! Be careful…” Daxter repeated giving him a glare. Jak returned the look and reholstered his weapon. He turned to the dragons and said…

“Come on, back to the zoomer!”

Eager to avoid any more metalheads arriving, they raced back to Jak’s zoomer at the back corner. Before they reached it however, the communicator popped up again, and a dying voice spoke through the air.

“Jak……Kor…construction site…gaaghhh” the communicator went dead. Jak knew who it was even before he stopped speaking.

“Vin”

“He’s alive?” Spyro asked.

“Apparently, though not for long,” Jak stated.

“What are we doing then?! If there is a chance to save him, we need to go now!” Cynder declared as she took flight, not even bothering waiting for the others, determined to prevent another death. Jak didn’t get a chance to argue with her, saying that Vin had given them an important clue and should follow it up. Spyro took off after her.

“Cynder, Wait! Don’t!”

Jak just growled to himself and jumped into the zoomer and ignited the engines as fast as he could. He sped out of the stadium with Daxter and Sparx clinging to his shoulders as the zoomer accelerated into Main Town, attempting to catch the dragons. They flew around the support tower toward the slums as fast as they could. They paid no mind to the metalheads battling the Krimzon Guard below. As far as they were concerned, the metalheads were their deal now. Cynder led the way through the slum sector, pass the Underground alley and into the industrial sector. Recalling her earlier trip to the power station, Cynder back-tracked the route, avoiding all the stray laser shots piercing the sky. She finally reached the last junction that would lead her to the power station ramp, but when she made the final turn, she nearly fell out of the sky in shock.

Spyro finally caught up to her in flight, “Cynder you can’t fly through the city yourself, you could…by the ancestors!” He too gasped in shock of what Cynder was seeing. The power station roof was up in flames, as scorpion metalheads crawled all over it, even covering the door. They were slashing all the power conduits and apparently absorbing the output as a feast, like a power parasite. Seeing the smoldering building surrounded by monsters, Cynder unwillingly came to an unfortunate conclusion. Jak finally caught up in his zoomer and saw the devastation. He lost his voice at the scene, as did Daxter, but only for a moment.

“Oh…nuts,” he said.

“He’s…gone,” Jak stated. Cynder and Spyro lowered their heads in mourn. Another friend they had made in Haven was dead, lost to the continuous carnage of war. They didn’t have long to mourn unfortunately, because combat metalheads started firing at them again. Three shots just barely missed the dragons in the sky. They got their attention immediately and attacked in retaliation, eager to avenge their fallen. Even though they were camouflaged, the outline of their bodies still made them visible to the dragons. A shadow breath and an electrical blast hit them dead on, and knocking them down as such. More grunts attempted to charge them, but Jak’s blaster kept them at bay.

“This way!” he yelled to them. He turned the zoomer around, with Spyro and Cynder following. He flew into an adjacent alley that led along the edge of the industrial zone. Nearly 50 yards down, there was another ramp leading up to an elevated platform, and right next to it was another door. He landed right near it and jumped down fast with the dragons landing after him. The metalheads continued to advance on them, until he opened the door by approaching it and leading the dragons inside. The door closed behind them and sealed shut.

“Where are we going? The fights out there.”

“This way leads to the construction site, Vin’s last clue said we should search for Kor here, apparently he’s the one who sabotaged the wall directly.”

“Kor?! But…why?” Spyro asked desperate for answers.

“That’s what we’re here to find out,” Jak replied as he headed up the nearby stairs. The staircase ended at a security door on the right side. It slowly unlocked itself as they waited. When it opened up, they all found themselves atop a wooden ramp inside the large construction area adjacent to both the industrial area and the bazaar. They walked out on the ramp and took in their surroundings, only to see Baron Praxis and 3 of his guards patrolling the grounds.

“Praxis!” Cynder cried, as Jak and the rest rushed down the ramp toward them, gaining their attention. Before they reached them, a figure jumped down from above. Jak recognized him immediately,

“Kor! What’s going on?”

“I’m sure you know,” the elder man said turning toward him.

“Deep down in your darkest NIGHTMARES,” his face turned venomous during that last word, “we’ve met before, remember?”

“Everythings going exactly as planned,” he addressed to everyone around before turning around with his back turned, while laughing menacingly.

“MuhahahahahaHahHah”

Everyone started feeling a sense of worry and displeasure. The dragons were getting a bad feeling, the same one they felt when they confronted Malefor. Jak was feeling the same bad vibe. The sidekicks started sweating while the baron kept a stern gaze.

Suddenly, Kor’s body sprung up in the air, insect wings protruding from his back, shocking everyone. His limbs started growing, talons extending from his hands.

“Jak! It’s the Metalhead Leader!” cried Daxter, catching everyone by surprise.

“WOAH! What?!!” Sparx exclaimed. Multiple insect legs came from underneath Kor’s robe and he lowered himself back down, with his face hideously disfigured. His forehead suddenly started glowing severely, cracking the rest of his body into a compact explosion. Everyone shielded themselves as Kor’s true form landed with a great thud. He was a giant six-legged monster with four glowing yellow eyes and insect wings, with a giant glowing gem embedded in his forehead.

“NOW YOU SEE! WITHOUT THE SHIELD WALL DISRUPTING MY POWERS INSIDE THE CITY, I AM MY FULL POTENTIAL NOW!”

Spyro suddenly saw the resemblance, “You…ITS YOU! Your face! It was on the arch that brought us here in the first place!”

Jaks eyes widened at his explanation, but MetalKor spoke again, “AH SO YOUR PREDECESSORS LEFT A LITTLE MEMOIR OF ME DID THEY?” He said as he turned toward Spyro, “OBVIOUSLY THEY KNEW THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN OUR FACTIONS WAS FAR FROM RESOLVED, SO LONG AS THEIR CHILDREN LIVED, THOUGH THEY REALLY SHOULD HAVE PERISHED LONG AGO, AFTER ALL I LEFT THEM WITH HARDLY ANYTHING.”

Spyro and Cynder shot acid glares at him, feeling completely disgusted and dumbfounded that this monster was lying underneath their feet all this time. Jak was feeling the same with an ugly frown across his face while Daxter and Sparx kept themselves behind him away from MetalKor’s gaze.

“You…You monster!! YOU DESTROYED THEIR HOME! OUR REAL HOME! You’re nothing but a filthy locust!!!” Cynder yelled at him.

“WATCH YOUR TONGUE LITTLE ONE! THE LAST DRAGON WHO SPOKE LIKE THAT TO ME MET WITH A QUITE GRUESOME END…BUT MY PATIENCE HAS RUN OUT! SO FOR THE LAST TIME,” he threatened turning his attention to Praxis, “GIVE ME THE PRECURSOR STONE!!!!!”

“If the city must die, then we all die!! RAAHH!” the baron declared and he his guards rushed him with their weapons drawn. MetalKor retaliated with an energy blast from his gem, directed at the ground beneath.

SHHHH…BOOOOOMMMM!!!!

The Krimzon assault was blown back into a scaffold, bringing it all down on top of them. Jak and the dragons managed to jump free of the blast before the explosion and escaped unscathed. With them taken care of, MetalKor took flight.

“I WILL FIND THAT STONE IF I HAVE TO CRUSH THIS CITY ONE BRICK AT A TIME!!” he declared as he flew off over the wall. The dragons watched him leave as Jak rustled over the collapsed scaffold and started digging away the wreckage. He was joined by the others as he pushed up a wooden plate and found Praxis gasping his last breath.

“You…are the supreme weapon Jak…cough…and I made you,” he said as he flipped over on his back groggingly, taking out a small remote, “Still, any leader worth his salt…always has his backup plan.”

He pressed the button, and in the center of the construction site, a center gate opened up, with what appeared to be another Piercer Bomb rising out of the ground, with the Precursor Stone installed in it!

“Remember…the first rule in making a bomb…is…to always make…two” he succumbed to his injuries, dropping the remote as his hand went limp, and he died. Jak didn’t know what to think, after all the effort to get to him, make him pay for what he did to him for two years, he couldn’t bring himself to say anything at all as the baron laid lifeless before his feet. The dragons couldn’t say anything either, instead they turned their attention to the bomb which housed the Precursor Stone.

“The stone,” Spyro stated.

“Relax, I’m going in,” Daxter interrupted as he jumped off Jak’s shoulder and plunged into the open top of the bomb to release the stone.

“Man what a mess of junk in here! All jumbled coils and switches!” he spoke inside. Everyone waited around the bomb, nervous of what would happen if Daxter would make a mistake, and knowing him only made them even more nervous.

“Okay, should I unhook the blue wire? Wait a minute, are ottsels colorblind?! Let me just break a few more things and see if anything pops loose…”

Everyone was sweating, Daxter next move would either disable the bomb, or blow it, DUM…DUM…DUUUMMM…

“BOOM! Haha gotcha!” Daxter chuckled as he released the Precursor Stone from the bomb and into Jak’s arms. The dragons and Sparx released the breath they were holding.

“Like candy from a baby,” Daxter pridefully declared.

“You nearly blew us all to nothing fuzzbrain!! You think that’s something to joke about?!” Sparx yelled at the top of his lungs.

“Worked out didn’t it?” Daxter replied before jumping down to Jak’s shoulder. With the stone in their possession, they turned back to the ramp and exited out the security door. Before leaving, Jak grabbed some stray rope littered across the scaffold wreck to tie the stone atop his back later on. Inside the construction site lock, Jak secured the stone on his back with the rope with help from Spyro holding the stone and Daxter latching the rope all the way around. They exited the door and embarked out into the city-wide chaos. Jak’s zoomer had been torn to shreds by the metalheads that pursued them, and were left to trek on foot. Suddenly Ashelin spoke through the communicator,

“I think now is the time to act, the metalheads are so focused on attacking the city, they may have left their nest vulnerable…”

Torn came on the line, “Jak, you’ve got to get out to the wasteland, and breach the nest barrier any way you can, maybe if you get inside and take out the Metalhead Leader, the army will collapse, it’s a long shot, but it might be our only chance, and Spyro Cynder…”

The dragons gave him their attention as he spoke again,

“You guys have been a valuable asset in our struggle, I can’t tell you how grateful we all are, but this isn’t your fight, there is no need to further risk…”

Spyro interrupted, “Torn…I know what your going to say, and you won’t persuade us, this may not be our world, and we have had some rough times here, but you all rescued us when we would have been incarcerated,” he said turning to Jak and Daxter who gave him a grin.

“The least we can do is make sure this city, and this planet doesn’t fall into the wrong hands again…besides if they finish here, they’ll likely come after our home next, and I can’t let that happen…we will fight till none are left.”

Cynder approached him and pressed her head against his to ensure she was with him one hundred percent. Sparx leaned against his horn while giving him a thumbs up.

“Huff…I expected as much, Hunter gave me the same lecture when I told him, and he was out the door faster than I could argue. He’s waiting for you at the transport, best of luck, and hey…it’s been an honor.”

“It’s been an honor,” Spyro replied to the commander, figuring this might be the last time they talk. The communicator went silent and returned to the pocket bag. Jak turned to his companions and asked them,

“Ready for one final run?”

“I think I still have one fight left in me,” Spyro replied.

“Me too,” Cynder added.

“And I,” Sparx began, “Just want to get this over with as soon as possible.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Charge!!!” Daxter commanded. His yell, unfortunately silenced the entire area, getting the attention of all the surrounding metalheads in the area. They turned their heads toward them with ravenous intent. Everyone first looked at them, and then glared at Daxter.

“Hehe…for the record I meant you guys, not them,” Daxter stuttered.

“Niiice,” Sparx steamed. The metalheads did as they were ordered and charged. Jak reached for his gun, but before he could unholster it, the dragons grabbed each of his shoulders and lifted him into the air.

“What?!…what are you guys?” Jak stuttered.

“We need to get to Hunter now!” Cynder declared before taking off in unison with Spyro. The metalheads tried lunging at them, but they stayed well out of their reach. Although, Daxter was struggling to keep his hold on Jak’s shoulder, and Sparx on Spyro’s horn. They flew wing by wing, hauling Jak and his cargo out of the industrial sector. They flew as fast as they could, but they were not used to carrying passengers and were quickly tiring as they entered the port. Cynder was having more trouble, since her wing had yet to fully heal from that hit she took from Krew. The Krimzon guard were nearly on their last legs as they attempted one last stand in holding the port, squaring off with metalheads in small squads all across. Knowing that the battle ahead would decide Haven’s fate, Jak and the dragons purged ahead, as they headed toward the spire where the transport was located, an exhausted Spyro and Cynder let Jak down on the connecting bridge. They had no time to catch their breath, and simply followed Jak as he ran for the transport. Upon their approach they saw two grunts blocking their way, and they prepared to battle through them.

Suddenly two streaks slammed into their sides, getting their attention. Beeps were sounding from them before…BOOOMM! They suddenly exploded on contact, blowing the skull gems out of their heads. Jak and the others were astonished and turned toward the direction the streaks came from…Hunter stood strong near the transport, bow in hand, and what appeared to be a large metal quiver of steel arrows on his back.

“Nice shot,” Jak said walking up to him.

“Hunter, since when do you have those?” Spyro asked referring to the new arsenal on his back.

“Gift from Torn, he said they were antiques cluttering the weapons stock, we traded since my original arrows weren’t packing much of what he called…kick.”

“Torn had those lying around?! And he didn’t tell us?!” Daxter yammered to Jak.

“He already gave us the Vulcan, and were not archers Dax!” Jak explained. Before the protests could continue, the metalheads started converging upon them again, grunts and scorpions were crawling toward them with haste.

“I wish to leave now!” Sparx cried as he zipped toward the open transport hangar. Jak held them at bay with his blaster while everyone else mounted up in the transport. He entered last as the ramp pulled up. The transport then took off into the sky, leaving the war torn city behind, carrying the six passengers off toward the wasteland, the location of the metalhead nest.

dragonball06 · Aug 17, 2013 2:20 AM

This will be a filling chapter, I'm writing the last two now, keep a hold on to hats, and sorry if it isn't as detailed as you would expect, I tried to leave out a lot of game filler in this one, because I'm so anxious to get to the good part.

Ch42: Breaking the Barrier

Miles outside of Haven City, the Krimzon transport came to land in a desolate area ravaged by the scars of past battles. The wasteland was forever littered with remnants of old KG tanks, weapons, and vehicles, permanent reminders of Baron Praxis’s last failed attempt to breach the Metalhead nest barrier. Setting down at a shoreline on the outskirts of the nest, the transport ramp opened up, allowing the passengers to exit. They looked out at the barren landscape wondering if they would survive this, unlike the last ones who tried.

“Well…This looks inviting,” said Sparx. Hunter took a sniff of the air, and scrunched his nose in disgust of the odor.

“We’re definitely on their territory now, their filthy scent is all over the land.”

“Everyone keep vigil, we could be ambushed at any time,” Jak said bringing out his blaster, being careful not to upset the stone strapped behind his back.

“We’re gonna need to be at full strength for this Hunter,” Spyro told him. Hunter nodded as he held his bow in one hand and reached into his robe with the other and pulled out the mystic gem. Its radiance provided some light in their otherwise bleak surroundings. Spyro and Cynder each put a paw on it, and the gem shined brightly as their energy and health came back to them. While that event was taking place, an unknown shape was approaching them swiftly. Both dragons soon felt themselves fully regenerated and released the gem as its shine dulled. Though this time, it seemed to flicker like a flashing light when they pulled away. Hunter looked at it skeptically and said,

“As I feared, the gems energy like any other, is not infinite through prolonged use, we must find the rift quickly, before it dies.”

“Then things just got even more complicated,” said Sparx, recalling something Spyro once told him back home.

“Just do your best to conserve your strength, you’ll need it against Kor,” Jak stated. He finally took his first steps onto the battlefield, with gun at the ready. Hunter put the gem back into his robe and unholstered a steel headed piercing arrow from his new arsenal. He followed Jak with the dragons bringing up the rear. As they moved into the rocky outcrops before them, Jak noticed a small elevator to his right, leading up a cliff. Unfortunately it seemed the elevator was stuck on the bottom, with no sign of useable controls. Hunter saw where he was looking and said to him,

“I can jump up and bring something for you to grab on.”

“Hold onto that thought, a second look usually helps,” he replied. Suddenly, a shriek came from over the cliffs, getting everyone's attention. Their battle stances took effect, everyone back to back with each other in a circle. As they waited to hear something from it again, something leaped through the air so fast, they missed catching it.

“What was that?” asked Spyro. He got his answer, as several more figures leaped along the outcrops toward them, they were known as mantis metalheads, capable of leaping high and moving fast, very tough to catch. All four of them screeched as they closed in on them.

“Great new ones,” stated Jak, “Take em out!”

Jak’s blaster fired at the mantis closest to him, only to miss as he jumped away. Hunter aimed his arrow at another, but was having trouble getting a fix on him as he constantly leaped. Spyro and Cynder jumped in to chase after the other two, keeping up with them swiftly, having revived their full strength. A couple more shots went off from Jak trying to catch a mantis through the air, but he kept missing. Spyro finally caught a break and grabbed one by the leg, he started kicking it in the gut, and then threw it to the ground, where its skull gem popped free upon impact. Cynder lashed out with her tail catching one in the arm, practically cutting it off. She finished off with a poison wheel attack which sent it down to the ground dead.

“I’m really starting to get fed up with these monsters,” she hissed. Hunter kept following one that continuously escaped his sights, and looked like he could score a direct hit as soon as it landed. Once the mantis made another leap, Hunter anticipated his landing, and fired in said direction. As the mantis landed, the arrow caught him in the eye, dropping the metalhead dead.

“Got him!” he said, unfortunately the last metalhead got to him too, right behind with his stingers ready! He gasped as the mantis prepared to slice, until he was knocked away by blaster fire, and killed. Hunter turned toward the source,

“Don’t get cocky,” Jak told him. Hunter simply nodded with slight embarrassment. However, his shocked expression quickly returned, when he saw what was coming next. A heavy fluttering sound was coming from above, causing everyone to turn in the same direction. A large flying spider metalhead came from over the wall and landed right in front of them, blocking their advance. It growled hungrily at them, sending shivers down their spines.

“I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I hate spiders!!” yelled Daxter.

“Not too crazy about them myself!” agreed Sparx. The huge spider slowly crawled toward them, it easily outsized the hosehead spider metalheads they encountered before. They stood their ground and Jak started firing at it before it could advance any more. The spider took five shots to the head, before dropping dead, skull gem released.

“Too close,” said Cynder.

“This was only the welcoming committee, there’s plenty more where they came from,” Jak said before turning his attention to the far corner of the courtyard. What appeared to be a giant gear wheel was sticking out of the ground near a broken tank.

“Excuse me,” he said to the dragons and Hunter as he walked over to it. He grabbed it, and with a heave spun it around counterclockwise to raise it out of the ground. At the same time, the elevator near the cliff rose out of the ground along with it.

“Good second look,” commented Hunter.

“Let me get this straight, a big wheel in the ground, raises a floor a good distance away, just high enough, for someone to jump up a cliff and proceed…is this someone’s idea of a stupid game?!!” Sparx yelled breaking the fourth wall. Everyone gave him crazed looks before his purple brother consoled.

“Sparx, lets just get moving,” Spyro said as he took flight along with Cynder up the cliff. Jak ran up to the raised elevator and took the jump up top along with Hunter. More mantis metalheads greeted them unfortunately upon their arrival. Moving as swiftly as before, it took a while to eliminate them all. Jak managed to shoot two dead, as did Hunter. Spyro and Cynder conserved their elements, and instead resorted to knocking them into corners and on the ground so the shooters could finish them off. They continued advancing up the cliff, only to run into two more flying spiders. Spyro shot each of them with an ice shard through the neck, killing them easily. Two more mantis metalheads flipped into the area, which Jak blew back with his scatter gun before they reached Spyro. With the metalheads eliminated, at least for now, they moved further along the cliff and came across an opening in the rock. They went through, and found their ticket to the nest on the other side. Everyone was amazed by the sight of a giant laser gun built atop a large concrete foundation.

“Impressive,” said Hunter, admiring the craftsmanship of the weapon.

“Is this Mar’s gun?” Cynder asked Jak.

“Yeah, just as Sig said before he died, all we needed was something to power it with,” Jak said, looking over his shoulder to the Precursor Stone on his back.

“Wow, this Mar really thought of everything, he must have been quite a legend,” Spyro stated.

“More than you and me could realize Spyro,” Jak said as he removed the straps from his back and picked the stone off the ground. He walked over to the gun and stepped onto the built in elevator which led to the power chamber. As they reached the top level, the communicator popped up again, with Ashelin on the line,

‘Listen everyone, there isn’t much hope, with the shield wall destroyed its only a matter of time before the metalheads overwhelm us. Jak, Spyro, everyone you should just take the rift back to your own time and world, and get away from this horrible place.’

Spyro and his friends saddened hearing Ashelins words. Sparx and Daxter on the other hand,

“I see your point, let’s go!”Daxter stated.

“I’m with you, I want out of here! Let’s get a head start Spyro,”Sparx spoke to his brother, who narrowed his eyes at him.

“Come on Jak!”Daxter asked again.

“NO! This place is worth fighting for,” Jak declared as he installed the Precursor Stone into the gun’s power chamber.

“He’s right,” Spyro said turning toward Sparx, “We’re not leaving these people to suffer just so we can get away.”

He turned to Cynder and Hunter, to see if they agreed. Obviously, they smiled and nodded their heads, knowing that his words spoke true.

“Ohhh…why must you be such a hero everywhere we go?” Sparx complained.

‘We’ll hold out as long as we can…farewell’ Ashelin’s voice went silent. Jak turned his attention back to the gun as the stone charged it up to fire.

“Precursor Stone…gun…nest,” Jak said running down the list. He turned his attention toward his target, as did everyone else.

“Here we go,” Cynder said as the gun charged with green lightning energy.

“Light er up padre!” Daxter cheered atop his best friend’s shoulder.

“Hahaha, Eat this!!” Jak gloated as the gun fired.

BLAAAMMMMM!!!!!

Everyone recoiled from the shockwave of the shot, but as the dust cleared, they saw that the gun had successfully broken through the wall, metalhead eggs and dark eco laced the ground that could be seen through the break.

“Woah…” gasped everyone in Spyro’s group.

“That outta wake em up,” said Daxter.

“Let’s go take care of business,” Jak whispered enthusiastically. Everyone else turned to him and nodded, ready for action.

“What?! You mean go in there? Uhhh…right behind you,” Daxter stuttered.

“Yeah, me too,” followed Sparx, covering himself with Spyro’s cape. Jak pulled the stone from the gun again and jumped down from the balcony, with the others right behind him. They headed for a narrow walkway that led along the cliffs toward the nest. A few jumps up, Jak and Hunter were on their way, with Spyro and Cynder following in flight. After running 150 yards ahead, they jumped down onto the ground outside the nest entrance. The dragons landed and together looked inside the nest, which strangely remained silent.

“Well, you boys ready for this?” Cynder asked.

“That’s my line,” Spyro retaliated, though Cynder just gave him a smirk.

“Been looking forward to this all day,” Jak said holstering his blaster.

“Then lets end this,” Hunter added as he holstered an explosive arrow.

“What the heck? We’ll probably die anyway,” Sparx whispered to himself before flying out from beneath Spyro’s cape. Everyone gave him confused looks as he headed toward the nest entrance. It soon gave way to shock as soon as he yelled.

“ANYBODY HOOOOME?!!!” He zipped back down as fast as he came.

“Seriously?!!” Daxter questioned angrily.

“Would you rather get it done with, or keep yourselves in suspense?”

“Remind me to swat him when we get home,” Cynder growled to Spyro, who just shook his head. Suddenly, screeches came from inside the nest, getting them all at the ready. Mantis metalheads jumped down from the walls and crowded around the entrance, blocking their advance. The heroes put the weapons and charged inside, with the metalheads charging them, and the final brawl began. Jak knocked back the first one that approached him, and shot another in the head. Hunter leaped on top of the heads of three more in front of him before jumping up and firing his arrow on the ground in front of another three on the ground. They eyed the arrow, curious as to why he fired it there. Figuring it as a miss, they prepared to attack until the arrow exploded with a BANG, knocking them away. Spyro and Cynder pounced on individual metalheads and finished them with poison and earth attacks. More mantises jumped down to continue the attack. Following them were more flying spiders and even hornets. Jak saw the incoming brigade and decided to pull a more wide range attack, switching over to the peacemaker mod. Holding down the trigger for two seconds he fired one shot into the oncoming hoard, killing all the mantises, and knocking the spiders and hornets out of the sky. They landed on the ground of the nest with a thud. Hunter kicked another mantis in the head and took a piercing arrow from his quiver and drove it into its torso with his hand. Cynder slashed at another with her tail, scarring it badly before blasting it away with wind. She diverted her attention to the metalheads knocked on the ground by Jak’s peacemaker. The two spiders were picking themselves up and getting ready to crawl again, until…

“Hiiiyaaahhh!” Cynder jumped into the air spinning like a bladed wheel. She hit the first in the head, and then leaped over to the other, fear screeching in its face, forcing it back. She then used the momentum of her leap to flip onto its abdomen. She raised her tail again and plunged it into the spider’s flesh. It screeched in pain from her attack, but she wasn’t done. She leaped again and drove the full brunt of her weight onto the spider’s head, crushing it. The other spider turned to face her, and attempted to fire from its mouth. However, the blasts missed her as she jumped one final time and spun over one time before driving her tail blade into the spider’s head, missing the skull gem thankfully. Spyro had just finished off the hornets on the ground with electricity before watching Cynder finish the spiders. No matter how many times they fought together, he was always amazed with her fighting skills. Jak and Hunter had polished off the mantises and saw Cynder pull her tailblade out of the spider’s head, snorting as she did.

“She really is good,” Jak commented to Hunter.

Hunter replied, “Trust me, you haven’t seen her on a real bad day.”

Jak and Daxter shuddered at his explanation, wondering how much more scary Cynder could get. Spyro walked up to her as she continued to catch her breath. Sensing him she turned around.

“Have I ever told you how amazing you are?”

Cynder smiled and answered, “Could stand to mention it more.” They approached each other to nuzzle until,

“HEY!” Sparx flew between them hands open, “Can we save the sappy stuff for after we beat the big bad boss, and go home?”

The dragons growled at him before Jak walked up chuckling and said, “Yeah, gets annoying doesn't it?”

“You have no idea,” Spyro commented. A hum could be heard from behind them, turning their heads toward the back chamber which seemed to glow with blue light. They gathered themselves again and walked over toward it, having a strong hint of what laid inside. As they got closer, the light grew stronger, particularly on the left side. They soon reached a ledge overseeing the chamber, what they saw illuminating the chamber shocked them to the fullest. A giant levitating gate with three points was generating a swirling blue vortex in its center against the chamber wall.

“The Rift Gate,” Cynder whispered.

“Our way home,” Spyro repeated.

“FINALLY,” came a malevolent voice from above, they looked to see MetalKor dropping down from the ceiling on what appeared to be gooey webbing strands.

“I WAS WONDERING WHEN YOU WOULD ALL ARRIVE.”

dragonball06 · Aug 18, 2013 10:05 PM

Here it is, the final brawl, enough said.

Ch43: Final Battle

Hunter’s eyes were wide with shock, looking at the face of MetalKor for the first time, he wondered if even Malefor was as hideous as this monster in front of him. The rest of them narrowed their eyes at him, ready to put an end to this freak who had played them like an instrument, and responsible for the deaths of many new friends.

“HOW NICE OF YOU TO FINALLY JOIN US,” he growled as he uncurled his tail, setting something on the ground. To their shock, it was the kid! He appeared to be trapped unconscious in a sphere of shadow energy.

“You monster! You kidnapped him! And to think we once trusted you with him!!” Cynder yelled.

“ITS YOUR FAULT FOR NOT ANTICIPATING THIS FROM THE START, THEN AGAIN, I PLAYED MY PART WELL. I SEE YOU’VE ALSO BROUGHT THE PRECURSOR STONE, GOOD… YOU’VE PLAYED YOUR PART AS WELL, AND NOW THE BOY WILL PLAY HIS FINAL PART.”

“Not this time!” Jak declared.

“OH, BUT THIS CHILD IS SUCH A PART OF THIS, SUCH A PART OF YOU, DON’T YOU RECOGNIZE HIM?”

Everyone looked at the kid completely puzzled, they including Jak had never met him before coming here, so what was Kor getting at?

“THE BOY IS YOU JAK!...AND THIS PLACE, THIS IS WHERE YOU BEGAN, IN THE FUTURE!”

“WHAT?!!” cried Spyro, Cynder and Hunter wide-eyed in complete shock, and Sparx yelling after them, “What?!”

“But?!…but how?” Jak questioned, who was feeling quite surprised himself.

“YOU WERE HIDDEN IN THE PAST ON THE HOPE THAT YOU WOULD GAIN THE SKILLS TO FACE ME TODAY, BUT ONIN WAS WRONG! NOW THAT YOU’VE BEEN ALTERED WITH DARK ECO THE STONE WILL NEVER OPEN FOR YOU!”

Jak scowled as he looked down at the stone in his hands, everyone else turned in his direction as well, wondering what would have occurred if Jak could open the stone.

“YOUR YOUNGER SELF HOWEVER, STILL HAS THE PURE GIFT, HE ALONE CAN AWAKEN THE STONE, AND THE PRECURSOR ENTITY WHICH SLEEPS INSIDE.”

“This stone is a precursor?” Jak asked astonished.

“A real precursor?” Spyro followed his lead.

“THE LAST PRECURSOR EGG…MAR WAS CLEVER, HE COVERED HIS TRACKS WELL THROUGH TIME, HIDING HIS LAST EGG FROM ME, AND BUILDING THE SHIELD AND CITY TO DEFEND IT! BUT NOW THE CHASE HAS COME TO AN END, AND DON’T EXPECT YOUR FILTHY ALIEN FRIENDS TO TIP THE SCALES, I HAVE COME TOO FAR TO BE FOILED BY YET ANOTHER PURPLE SCALED REPTILE!”

“I’m more then willing to stand in your way monster, just as my ancestors did, and for what you did to them, up to what you’ve done now, you…will…pay,” Spyro declared.

“MISERABLE WHELPLING, DON’T THINK YOUR SCALES MEAN ANYTHING HERE! WHETHER IT WAS FATE THAT BROUGHT YOU OUT HERE OR NOT, YOU ARE NO MORE A THREAT TO ME THAN JAK, A BOY TRYING TO PROVE HIMSELF A MAN, OR DRAGON.”

Jak and Spyro glared at him, with Cynder and Hunter getting battle ready next to them.

“YOUNG AS YOU ARE, YOU’VE ONLY BEEN ABLE TEMPORARILY DIMINISH MY FORCES, AND YOUR PRECIOUS DRAGON FATHER COULDN’T EVEN DESTROY ME.”

“You’re not the first monster I’ve fought,” Spyro talked back to him, “and you surely won’t be the last.”

“I hear that,” Jak agreed with him.

“WHEN THIS DAY IS OVER, THE LONG SIEGE WILL COME TO AN END, AND I WILL FINALLY FEED ON THE LAST PRECURSOR LIFEFORCE!! YOUR HOME WORLDS WILL BE MINE FOR THE TAKING, AND THE LOT OF YOU WILL PERISH…” MetalKor hissed.

“Uh,” Daxter interrupted, “I think your forgetting one little thing metal-o-maniac! We’ve got the Precursor Stone!”

“NOT FOR LONG!!!” he declared as his skull gem illuminated before firing a laser from his forehead blasting the Cliffside all of them had set foot on.

BOOOOOMMMMM!!!!...k…k…k…’crumble’

The rubble fell into the chamber below, burying all of them save for Sparx, who managed to flutter out of the way in time. He zipped down below trying to find some sign of anyone in the debris. MetalKor kept his focus on the rubble as well, ready to strike at anything that arose. Sparx kept flying above until…he got a nasty surprise as a purple clawing hand burst out of the rocks…

“Aah!” he yelled as the erupting figure of Dark Jak burst out of the rubble. Sparx backed away slowly, remembering how vicious Jak was like this, until another eruption occurred behind him, stopping him cold.

“Eee!” he saw pitch black wings arise from the ground, and immediately thought Cynder had freed herself, only to see the wings didn’t have her majenta membrane. The glowing eyes from the dragons head however, did drive him back in fear. It fully emerged from the rubble, catching both Kor’s and Dark Jak’s attention as well. It was Spyro, with his entire body shrouded in black shadow, and his eyes glowing white. He had become like Jak, Dark Spyro. Daxter pulled his head out from the rubble and shaking out the cobwebs, only to gasp in shock at the sight of Dark Spyro.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me! Him too?!!” Daxter yelled to Sparx.

“Hehe, surprise?” Sparx replied with a shrug.

“WELL WELL WELL, IT SEEMS JAK ISN’T THE ONLY ONE TAINTED BY DARKNESS, YOU DRAGONS REALLY AREN’T AS NOBLE AS YOU CLAIM TO BE,” Metalkor stated, “BUT ENOUGH SQUABBLE! YOU ARE NOW MINE!!!

He roared as he prepared to fire again, before Dark Spyro opened his mouth. A purple beam of convexity blasted from his maw which snapped Kors’ head back as his beam was redirected at the ceiling, blowing a hole through it. Dark Jak retaliated by jumping onto his back as he tried to recover, digging his claws into the monster’s flesh to latch on and started slashing out in rage. MetalKor screamed in pain, turning his head toward the creature on his back and tried biting him off, only for Dark Jak to jump away to evade. He skidded as he landed, giving MetalKor a deathglare. MetalKor angrily growled, as Dark Jak unseathed his nailclaws again, he seemed to be ready to lunge. Sparx and Daxter looked in growing suspense, waiting for another anger attack. Surprisingly, he reached his hand behind his back, and equipped his morph gun to blaster, his color slowly fading.

“You know, I’d prefer to settle this the old fashioned way,” Jak declared as he slowly returned to normal. At the same time, Dark Spyro watched as he returned to normal, striking a nerve within Spyro’s real mind. He turned his gaze to MetalKor again, who turned to him.

“As would I,” Spyro spoke as he eyes returned to violet and the shade fell from his scales. Maintaining his steel glare towards MetalKor, he challenged, “So bring it.”

“DIE!!!” he yelled as he prepared to fire again, this time his shot directed at Spyro, who jumped and evaded just in time. The force of the explosion nearly knocked him off his feet. Jak retaliated with blaster fire hitting MetalKor in the head getting his attention. Instead of firing back, MetalKor spit pods from his back, eggs the color of metalhead gems. The eggs suddenly hatched into fierce scorpion metalheads ready to feast. Meanwhile, emitting from the rubble is what appeared to be a dense shadow protruding from under the rocks. It circled around Spyro, whose attention was still on the hatched scorpions. He then saw the cloud as it creeped closer to the approaching scorpions, his face lit up when he realized what it was. The shadows enveloped the metalheads, muffling their screeches, and after a moment it gathered, with the metalheads gone and Cynder standing in their place, looking very very angry.

Spyro’s first instinct was console her, but seeing the look on her face made him think, ‘Maybe I should stay out of her way this time.’

Her ticked off gaze aimed directly at Metalkor as she prepared to fire a poison stream. She screamed at the top of her lungs as she threw her head back and blasted a poison stream. MetalKor through up his tail to protect his face, but felt nothing but pain as his tail stung from her attack. To make it worse, Jak kept pelting him on his other side as he continued firing his blaster. MetalKor ignored Cynder for a moment to fire at Jak again, which he successfully evaded, leaving nothing but a smoldering crater behind.

“Mind your surroundings!” Cynder yelled at him as he turned his head again only to feel the full force of her tailblade strike his head. As MetalKor staggered from the attack, something else flew through the air and lodged itself near his neck. It ticked for about 3 seconds before,

BOOOMMM!!

The monster screamed in pain again, causing Jak and Spyro to turn toward the source, Hunter had freed himself from the rocks, and fired an explosive arrow with effective results.

“What she said,” he followed up to Cynder’s statement. As MetalKor slowly recovered, he opened his eyes again to actually take in his surroundings. Heroes surrounded him from every angle, left to right, Jak, Cynder, Hunter and Spyro, with Sparx and Daxter eagerly watching the fight to the finish. MetalKor roared even louder than before, causing a slight tremor inside the chamber as he laid more eggs.

“Okay, that’s disgusting,” Sparx commented feeling queasy.

“Yeah, never get used to it,” replied Daxter.

More scorpions hatched from them and crawled toward the heroes. Spyro jumped into the air to attack them from above, letting loose a searing wall of flame which engulfed them before advancing. Jak and Hunter continued their attack on their leader with a barrage of blaster fire and explosive arrows. MetalKor shook off the pain he was bearing from both of them and prepared to fire again, this time with a double barrel attack in each of their directions. The shockwaves knocked them both aside as they dodged. Cynder watched the attacks in shock, and then unsheathed her teeth at him.

“I will tear you apart!!” she lunged at him ready to fire a screech shot, before MetalKor struck back with his own claw, Cynder narrowly avoided the attack, and ending up looping around his body to get to the other side. At the same time she struggled to avoid getting pummeled by what was left of MetalKor’s steaming tail. To make matters more complicated, 6 jetpack metalheads entered the chamber from the hole in the ceiling and from the hole beneath MetalKor’s tentacles. Spyro spotted them as they arrived weapons drawn.

“I could use some…!” before he finished his sentence, two were blasted out of the sky, causing him to turn around.

“Backup,” he finished.

“You got it!” replied Jak from the ground. Spyro nodded in his direction, and fired another out of the sky with an electricity beam. Hunter recollected himself and drew another arrow, firing at MetalKor alongside Jak. More scorpions started crawling out of the lower hole and crept toward them.

“Oh dear,” he said as they covered the entire floor, forcing him and Jak back. Jak just scowled as he morphed his Vulcan Fury and unleashed a large barrage of bullets at them. It seemed effective, at least for now. Meanwhile Cynder and Spyro were dealing both with the remaining two jet metalheads and MetalKor, they were both lashing out with claws and firing with lasers. Cynder dodged MetalKor’s claws again and fired another poison breath which he just barely avoided. Spyro fired electricity at the jet metalheads again, grounding one and missing the other, while trying to avoiding MetalKor’s swinging tail at the same time. Having ducked underneath it, he focused on his real target, the jet metalhead fired at him as came after him. Spyro dodged again, lifting his legs up just in time to avoid being hit. He slammed into the jet metalhead and crushed him into the ground using earth power. MetalKor roared at Cynder who was coming at his face again, the force of the roar pushing her back onto the ground next to Spyro. With both dragons now within his sights, he prepared to attack again, until he felt the pelting fire of the Vulcan Fury on his back. Jak got his attention from behind while Hunter finished up the rest of the scorpions with piercing arrows, having exhausted his explosive arrow supply. MetalKor turned to face Jak, but found that difficult as Jak kept his trigger finger down, allowing the Vulcan to rapid fire endlessly. Until that is when the barrel kept spinning and the bullets stop.

Vrrrnn…Vrrrnn…was all that was coming from it, Jak had emptied his Vulcan ammo yet again, allowing MetalKor to recollect himself. Witnessing his squad of jet and scorpion metalheads dead at their hands was enough for him. He released his webbing strands as he jumped down to the chamber floor, scooping up the kid’s spherical prison in his claw. He landed with a thud, hissing as he prepared to attack again. Spyro and Cynder were on his right, and Jak and Hunter on his left. He set his sights on his real target and went for Jak, bringing Hunter into the fold unfortunately. Hunter drew another piercing arrow and fired at the monster, who caught the arrow and crunched it in his teeth.

“Come on!” Jak called to him as he took out his jetboard, Hunter agreed silently, having barely leaped out of reach of MetalKor’s talon crushing into the ground. He followed Jak swiftly with cheetah speed while Jak sped around the chamber floor on his jetboard. Spyro and Cynder flew over to them to form up. With all four of them in his sights, MetalKor fired again, this time three shots. The third shot hit the ground beneath Hunter throwing him into the air and back against the wall.

He landed on the ground with an oomph, drawing shock from Jak and the dragons. Hunter wasn’t moving, he had been knocked out. Unbeknowst to all, the mystic gem had fallen out of his robe and lay behind him. Their shock immediately turned to rage as they turned to the metalhead monster, who kept the child’s sphere gripped tight in his slimy hands. He hissed at them again as he approached.

“That…does it,” Jak spat with menace. He equipped his blaster while dismounting his jetboard. Turning to the dragons he said.

“I’ll draw his attention from the front, attack him while he’s distracted, anywhere,” he whispered to them. They nodded and let him go ahead of them. He fired shot upon shot at the monster, who didn’t seem to let the shots slow him down one bit. Instead he raised his claws again and slammed them into the ground releasing a shockwave that Jak had to jump to avoid the full force of it. The dragons opened their wings to let the force carry them into the air. MetalKor kept his watch on them, anticipating an attack from them. His anticipation was short-lived, as Jak starting pelting him with blaster fire again. His attention was giving way to annoyance and started swatting at him to knock him down. Spyro and Cynder used the chance to fly higher into the air out of his sight. Jak kept moving around the chamber circle, attempting to keep out of reach. Unfortunately, he was slower and had to avoid another swat with a roll jump.

“I TOLD YOU BEFORE, YOU CANNOT RUN FROM ME!”

Jak just scowled at him yet again as he picked himself up for another go. MetalKor slowly approached with his claw raised.

“ANY LAST WORDS BOY?”

Jak stood vigil for a second, but then said with a smirk, “surprise.”

Cynder came down from above like a saw, with her tailblade powered with poison. Her tail cut straight through the rest of MetalKor’s tail, burning both sides of the cut with her poison. MetalKor roared in more pain than before, having just lost his external appendage. To add even more injury, Spyro dove down in following, comet dashing toward his chest cavity. Arcing himself steadily, his aim was dead on, and Spyro headbutted him like a cannon, sending MetalKor back against the wall groaning. He dropped to the ground slowly, his claws releasing the kids prison sphere. Spyro and Cynder landed exhausting their breath, having put all their energy into those last attacks. MetalKor struggled to pick himself back up, still grinding in pain from his disembodied tail. The sound of a whooooo suddenly drew his attention, as well as Spyro and Cynder turned around. Jak stood with his peacemaker aimed and ready to fire. Daxter scurried onto his shoulder again just before releasing the trigger.

“This is from all of us, METALSCUM!!!” he cried as the peacemaker fired, passing between the dragons and hitting MetalKor head on, engulfing him in an electrical field. The dragons and Jak watched as his head dropped again.

“Is he dead?” asked Sparx who flew over to them. The others were silent for a bit as they observed the unmoving body of MetalKor. Spyro opened his mouth to speak until a rustling came from the monster. His body shook as his insect wings protruded from his back again.

“They just can’t stay down,” Spyro said with contempt.

“No they can’t,” Jak added as Cynder growled. Surprisingly, MetalKor fluttered past them and headed for the Rift Gate, having been greatly weakened he decided to fight another day. Unfortunately, his aim was far off, as he ended up slamming into the trichoid body of the gate instead, electrocuting his body with pure energy like a bug zapper. Everyone shielded their eyes from the shine of the reaction…zzzzzzBLOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!

MetalKor’s body exploded, leaving only his head.

dragonball06 · Aug 24, 2013 1:24 PM

This is it, this is where the heroes say goodbye, and what happens to them afterwards. I am so relieved to have finally finished this story! Thank you everyone for making it so popular!

Ch44: We Will Meet Again

MetalKor’s head fell to the ground, landing at their feet with a look of utter surprise forever plastered on his face. Jak and the others looked at it with contempt and satisfaction.

“Well, definitely dead now,” Sparx commented.

Everyone paid him no mind, instead turning their attention to Young Jak, who was now released from the sphere. He got to his feet and walked over to them slowly. Spyro and Cynder smiled with relief, while Jak walked over to Hunter to help him up.

“You okay kid?” Spyro asked. He nodded slowly, still feeling very shaky from his experience. But he turned to his left and saw the glow from the Precursor Stone within the cliff-side rubble. He ran over to it as Jak walked over with Hunter over his shoulder, who was just coming to.

“Uhhh…by my ancestors…” he groaned as his head throbbed. Spyro walked over to him and asked,

“Hunter, are you alright?”

Uh…I’ve felt better, but still alive,” he replied with a grin. He turned over to the kid who had uncovered the Precursor Stone.

“What is he doing?” Hunter asked.

“You got me,” Cynder answered as the kid gazed at the stone, before laying his hand on it. The stone glowed blue for an instant, and an entity sprung out from it, radiating the chamber with the same glow. Everyone gasped at the sight of the shining figure.

“Woah man a Precursor,” Jak stated. The figure then turned toward them and the head of the dead metalhead leader in front of them.

IT IS FINISHED, OUR ANCIENT ENEMY IS NO MORE, TAKE HOPE BRAVE ONES, THE TERRIBLE DARKNESS INSIDE YOU BOTH, ARE NOW BALANCED BY A GLORIOUS LIGHT.

Everyone was astonished by both the sight, and the words the ancient entity yielded. Having spoken his respect, the precursor turned towards the Rift Gate and flew into it with parting words,

WE WILL MEET AGAIN.

At the same time, the Lurker airship flew into the chamber with its original passengers and the rider. The Rift Ring was starting to crumble, having been damaged from the overload which destroyed MetalKor.

“We don’t have much time,” Keira stated seeing the deterioration. “I’ve set coordinates back to our village, let’s go home everyone.”

“It’s about time!” Sparx exclaimed.

“Keira, we are home,” Jak answered. Everyone looked at him like he was dumbfounded, until Samos said,

“Keira, I’m afraid your Rift Rider must be used to send young Jak here to a place where he can grow up, safe from harm.”

Young Jak was busy playing with Samos’s bird which fluttered around his head, before following it toward the airship, which Jak helped him reach with a boost up.

“He must become old enough to complete the destiny he has fulfilled today,” Samos finished.

Young Samos suddenly realized something, “Wait a minute! It’s you! I mean it’s me! I have to take him back and watch over him don’t I?”

His counterpart nodded in agreement, confirming his question, “Ah grub roots! Talk about being in the wrong time at the right place.”

Jak walked over to his younger self as he boarded the Rift Rider, “Hey kid, you take care, oh and trust me on this, stay away from any wompee nests on your ninth birthday okay?”

The boy nodded and reached for his Seal pendant, breaking it off from his necklace and handing it to Jak. Jak took it with respect, the greatest respect for himself. Spyro and Cynder walked up behind him, he gave way so they could say their goodbyes to the boy as well. As they looked at the younger version of their new friend with sad eyes, they could only say one thing each.

“Farewell,” said Spyro.

“Take care of yourself blue,” Cynder followed as she nuzzled him. Young Jak grabbed and hugged her head, both trying their best not to cry. Jak watched the touching moment himself, and was feeling quite emotional himself, something he hadn’t felt in over two years.

“I sure hope I built this replica right,” Keira said observing her Rider, “I don’t know if…”

“It’s perfect Keira, this is the very machine we found, or will find later,” Samos attempted to explain.

“What? I just built this, after seeing the first one I mean,” she continued. Everyone including Spyro and his friends was looking at her like they were struggling to make heads and tails of what Keira was trying to explain, who was apparently stumped herself.

“It’s based on what I remember from…”

“Honey,” Daxter interjected, “The more you think about it, the more it hurts the head.”

Young Samos and Young Jak boarded the rider and fired up the controls. As the vehicle lifted into the air and headed toward the Rift Gate, Young Jak waved goodbye, and Young Samos spoke his parting words,

“I’ll take good care of the child, and don’t worry! I’ll be back in time for the celebration, Farewell!” With that, the rider entered the rift and disappeared from sight, transporting its passengers back to the past. As the Rift Gate continued to crumble, Hunter saw this as his queue, and reached into his robe for the mystic gem, only to find it missing! His face went to complete panic, causing everyone else to as well

“The gem…THE GEM!...Where is it?!!” Hunter cried.

“YOU LOST IT?!!” Sparx exclaimed in horror.

“Drop something?” Daxter called as he pulled out the gem he had retrieved from behind his back. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, while Hunter walked over and retrieved the gem from him with a nod. Then with one swift action, he tossed the gem into the maw of the gate. Everyone was watching waiting for something to happen. The rest of the gate’s body broke apart, while the rift itself remained, although it seemed to be spinning faster than before.

“Its time,” Hunter said to his friends. Spyro and Cynder walked over to him, but couldn’t help but turning back towards Jak and his companions, which included Daxter, Keira, Samos, and Brutter. They both exchanged sad expressions, knowing that this was goodbye. Sparx flew in front of all of them with a look of indifference, not knowing what to say.

“Uhh, well…I…guess”

“Just save your breath bugsy, go home, I mean come on, we both know you wouldn’t last another minute out here,” Daxter stated. Sparx looked at him with one eye raised, observing his expression, unlike the other ones which were spiteful and annoyed, this one was respectful. He grinned himself before telling him.

“Later fuzzbrain.”

“Later glowboy,” Daxter replied with a salute. As Sparx flew away, Spyro walked over to Jak, who looked at him with a question burning in his mind.

“I gotta know, why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

Spyro knew he was asking about his dark side, how he and Jak shared a common ailment, “I was going to tell you, at this exact moment. So yeah, you’re not the only one who struggles with inner demons, so don’t believe you’re alone.”

Jak felt a soothing relief, believing the dragons every word as he extended his hand to shake. “It’s been a great ride, take care Spyro.”

“You too Jak, its nice to know we aren’t the only heroes out there, just keep watching out for them, okay?” Spyro replied returning the handshake with his paw, and turning toward Jak’s friends at the airship. Jak nodded with his furry sidekick giving him a thumbs-up. Cynder walked up to Jak with a smile on her face.

“It’s been a blast blue-boy, see you round, you too Daxter.”

“Later blackie,” said Daxter.

Jak smiled at her and told them both, “Thanks you guys.”

“Hey Keira,” Cynder called to her getting her attention, “Watch out for this one, he likes living dangerously.”

“You got it,” she agreed with a wink, while sharing a look with Jak.

“It’s been an honor, young dragons,” Samos said to both of them. They bowed in respect to the old sage. Hunter really couldn’t bring himself to say anything, but merely bowed to them all in gratitude. They all bowed in response.

“Hey bro!” Sparx called to his brother from in front of the rift. “We going or not?!”

Giving Jak’s group one last look, Spyro and his friends headed toward the Rift Gate. Hunter ran and made a giant leap, disappearing into the rift. The dragons took flight with Sparx right next to them. Spyro nodded toward both Cynder and Sparx, beckoning them to enter. Glancing at him for a moment, they both entered and disappeared. He turned to the Haven City group one final time as they all waved goodbye and said, “Until we meet again.”

Spyro flew into the rift and disappeared from their sight, leaving Jak and his group alone. All of them looked in sadness, seeing their new friends depart for their home, at least they hoped. Keira walked up to Jak and took his hand.

“I hope they make it back safe,” she spoke softly. Jak reassured her with a nod. He turned his attention to her father.

“Thanks Samos, without you I…” he started.

“It’s funny, the boy won’t remember any of this,” Samos said as the rift gate closed forever.

“No,” Jak replied, “I do remember the light.”

Light years away from the Precurian star, on the homeworld of Spyro and his friends, a full grown electricity dragon lay stationed at the new Dragon Temple in the great city of Warfang. Days had passed since Hunter entered the rift to go after the dragons. The three guardians had watched the Armageddon Arch gate close in front of them during that time, taking away from them a great deal of hope that they would return. Now Volteer stood alone on the perches surrounding the city, keeping an eye on the ever changing cloud patterns for any signs of obscure weather patterns.

“Still watching the clouds go by Volteer?” said a voice behind him. He turned around to see Cyril walking up to him.

“You’ve been out here for the past week, nothing will happen if you continue to endlessly dwell on it,” said Cyril.

“I can do more than watch, observe or perceive, my natural elemental abilities allow me to sense nearly everything that occurs in the upper atmosphere of this world,” he argued, “so until I obtain complete verification of any outside instabilities, I will station myself in this one spot.”

“Hmph, well at least you’ve managed to quell your tongue for a change, slightly” Cyril replied.

“Still nothing?” Terrador asked as he came in for a landing beside them both. As he set down Volteer answered him,

“No, I’m beginning to believe that the sealing of the interstellar portal from which this embargo started may have hindered their objective,” Volteer stated, his tongue returning to him.

“Ignitus assured us, even if the portal closed here, that as long as Hunter holds the mystic gem and the Rift Gate he informed us about on that alien planet exists, they should still be able to return here,” Terrador informed.

“Then there is a possibility that they have lost the gem, or the Rift is…” Cyril stated with great concern.

“Don’t finish that sentence Cyril! We cannot afford to lose ourselves to despair, or those young ones, we must…” Volteer disputed before he suddenly froze, his eyes widened as his wings and tail twitched.

“What? What’s wrong?” Terrador questioned.

“There’s,” he began slowly, “a disturbance.”

The clouds suddenly started moving fast, departing the area surrounding Warfang. A bright blue flash illuminated in the sky, catching their undivided attention, as well as the city inhabitants below them. A streak of light suddenly shot down to the ground outside the city below, a similar phenomenon to when Spyro and Cynder arrived in the Haven City palace. As the streak made contact, it shook the ground, nearly knocking everyone off their feet. As the guardians steadied themselves, Terrador looked out in complete shock, his earth senses having felt the full intensity of the event.

“What in the name of the Celestial moons…” he silently whispered. The disturbance had ended and everything seemed to calm, save for everyone’s nerves.

“Cyril, come with me, Volteer get down to the ground below and try to quell the citizens!” he ordered. All three of them took flight and went their respective ways. Terrador and Cyril flew to the city’s outer wall and continued flying toward the dense foliage, the same which housed the graveyard of the Armageddon Arch.

The guardians kept flying above the dense forest trying to scope out any abnormal figures or sights. They soon saw what they expected to be looking for, a large ring of disturbed earth in the middle of an open field. They landed in front of it and approached slowly.

“What could have caused this?” Cyril asked. Terrador was silent, unsure of how to respond, still feeling shaken up from the earlier disturbance. They got their answer soon enough though, a moan was heard from the tall grass beyond the circle.

“Uggh” The guardians turned toward the direction of the sound. The tall grass simply waved in the low winds, as a figure slowly crawled out. A purple paw set foot on the dispersed soil, shocking the guardians once again, before their shock turned to joy at the sight of Spyro walking out of the grass.

“Spyro!” they both cried.

The purple dragon pulled his head up to see his two teachers, “Cyril, Terrador!”

“You’re alive! You’re back!” the guardians happily stated as they approached him.

“Yeah, we are,” Spyro spoke again, turning around, to see Cynder, Sparx and Hunter crawl out behind him. Absolute relief washed over the guardian’s faces, knowing that they all had made it home safely.

“Thank the ancestors,” said Terrador. Spyro’s group smiled at all of them as they looked at each other.

“You won’t believe the adventure we’ve had!” stated Cynder.

dragonball06 · Aug 24, 2013 1:33 PM

The story will officially end in this next chapter, in case any of you are wondering, throughout the whole thing I've used bits and pieces of the actual Jak story in it, while throwing in a few twists of my own to allow the story to flow, leaving out filler such as the Underport so I could finish it when I wanted to. The Dragon Father thing was something I came up with off the top of my head, and I'm pleased to have carried it through the whole story. As I said before, this is my interpretation of what could happen if Jak and Spyro were to meet, and I found it simpler to use half the dialogue from another story so I could write it all out. I hope you all enjoyed it, sorry to say I probably won't be doing a sequel, I just graduated from college and would like to move on to other things. If anyone wishes to write a sequel to this, whether using Jak 3 or a full story off the top of your head, please do by all means. "Just don't forget to include me in your references!"

Thank you all again, and farewell!

Ch45: Epilogue

In Haven City, a certain furry orange creature was busy welcoming guests into his new club, which he had converted from Krew’s Hip Hog Saloon. Daxter jumped down as his favorite girl Tess walked through the door.

“Welcome to the Naughty Ottsel! The hippest, happenest, hoppinest joint in town!” he greeted as Jak, Keira, and Samos sat near each other at the bar. Onin and Packer sat on the other side, tasting drink samples. Daxter walked Tess over to the bar, directing her attention toward the ceiling.

“Check out the new décor,” he referred to MetalKor’s giant head hanging over the bar.

“Ooh, what a big trophy,” Tess exclaimed.

“As if size matters, I bagged that bad boy myself baby,”

“Onin says she doesn’t know who has a bigger head, him or you,” Packer exclaimed.

Samos walked in the middle of the conversation with a drink in hand, “We must not forget Vin,” causing everyone to lower their heads in silence, “and all the others who sacrificed their lives to defeat this evil, and protect the child.”

“I still can’t believe, that little boy was me…hmph, better times huh,” Jak told Keira as he looked at the Seal of Mar pendant in his hand.

“You miss him huh?” she consolely asked, before flicking his face with her finger to get his attention, “You know, the kid grows up to be a handsome hero.”

They smiled at each other as they leaned in for a kiss…”HEY! That’s enough for you lady! I’m cutting you off!” Daxter argued with Onin as she continued chugging her drink, only to have her flick him back toward Packer’s feet.

“Trust me,” Packer informed him, “She gets real mean when she’s like this.”

Onin started waving her hands again. Daxter turned to Packer and asked, “what did she say?”

“Something about rubber tubing and certain parts of your mother, you don’t wanna know,” he explained with some discomfort. The door suddenly opened and the sight of a metalhead skull caught them by surprise.

“Yaah! A metalhead!” Until they saw who the skull was attached to, Sig stood in their doorway, alive and well.

“Sig!!” The two critters exclaimed.

“I knew that,” Daxter whispered to himself.

“You’re okay!” Jak added.

“You cherries didn’t think some nasty breath giant sized lizard was gonna keep me from the biggest party in town did ya?” Sig asked rehetorically.

“I knew you were too tough for em big guy!” Daxter stated proudly with Tess holding him in the air.

Outside the Naughty Ottsel, with the new Daxter float stationed over the saloon, Samos, Jak, Sig, and their short companions gathered as fireworks lit up the sky.

“You saved the city and more my boy! MetalKor and his menace are history, Spyro and his friends haved returned home safely, and somewhere out there, an ancient race has begun again,” Samos spoke as his cane pointed toward the heavens, as the memory of the lone precursor came to his mind.

“I’m just glad to be back home,” Jak told his old mentor.

“Yeah, well rest up, we’ve got a lot to do, and so much time to do it in!”

“Don’t say time! The Rift Ring was destroyed remember?”

“You know, my mama used to read me bedtime stories about Mar when she tucked me in, with a nice glass of warm Yakow milk, and a little Poopsie bear…”

Daxter listened to him completely dumbfounded, “bedtime stories? Warm milk? Poopsie Bear?! Buddy, you just blew your image!”

“I’ve got a feeling we’ll meet Mar someday, he may be closer than you think,” Samos told them both.

“You’re the designated driver,” Sig told Jak as he handed him the Ruby Key which started the whole mess.

“Oh NO! I am done with adventures, besides…you’ll know before something happens next time right Samos?” Jak asked him as he whisteled into the distance, pretending he couldn’t hear him. “RIGHT Samos?!”

“Squaaaawwk! You never know what the future may hold,” Packer answered cryptically.

“Wait a minute, you know something don’t ya feather breath?” Daxter asked demandingly.

“Who? Me? Oh no, we’re just ah, guessing right Samos?” Packer stuttered, like he was trying to conceal something, “Today, tomorrow, only time will tell.”

“Nooo, you’re gonna tell, right now! Waaagghh!” Daxter charged Packer and they both started tusseling on the ground. The other three just watched them go back and forth.

“Why you little! Watch the beak! That’s my fur there! Oh you’re gonna pay for that one!”

Sig had watched enough, and pulled each of them apart, holding them by their tails as they continued to scowl at each other. Samos turned to Jak putting his hand on his shoulder.

“Jak my boy, the future awaits!” he said as fireworks shined across the night sky.

Within the chambers of the Dragon Temple, two dragons were busy storing a few items away inside a storage room. Spyro and Cynder had removed their armor and undersuits and placed them side by side on a counter. They were both littered with battle scars. The two dragons gazed at them together, a last reminder of an incredible adventure. They also observed the lone steel arrow perched above them, the last arrow from Hunter’s arsenal that he never had to fire. Their tails intertwined as they looked at the display together.

“So, I guess the only question left unanswered is, what’s next?” Cynder asked Spyro, as they both wandered through the Dragon Temple halls.

“We follow what Samos instructed us,” he answered, “Scattered across this planet are artifacts of these ancient precursors. If they attracted the attention of the metalheads, they will most likely attract other hostile attention, and we can’t let a power scramble purge this planet into another global war.”

“We need to tell the guardians about this then, and huff…go on another adventure,” Cynder stated with exhaustion.

“Yeah we do, but not tonight, after everything today I’d rather rest, plus I’d like to learn what they know about the Dragon Father, and I prefer to be well rested when they did.”

“Sounds good to me purple boy,” Cynder agreed, “but hey, the night is still young,” she said as she wrapped her tail around his neck, pulling him closer. Spyro instantly felt the blood rushing to his face.

“And after a journey across space, facing crazy criminals, fighting vicious monsters, and making some interesting new friends, I think I’d like to spend some personal time with you for a change,” she said to him softly, with her eyes glittering like stars. Spyro blushed, suddenly feeling very hot, and couldn’t think of anything else he’d rather do. However, yet another interruption came between them as a gruff voiced cleared his throat.

“Ahem…” the two young dragons immediately turned their attention toward the resounding corner, where Terrador was peeking his head out, as if he was reluctant to interrupt them.

“Sorry young dragons, but someone else would like to speak to you, if you could spare a minute.”

The two dragons looked at each other momentarily, and wondered the same thing, ‘can we ever catch a break?’

“So who exactly wants to talk with us? Especially right now?” Cynder asked, finishing the last sentence with gritted teeth.

“Someone who is probably more relieved to see you home again then anyone else,” Terrador stated as he lead the way to another chamber at the back of the temple. The new temple was more stable and much bigger than the old one, so the walk took a while. During the walk, so many things were running through Spyro’s mind, about the precursors, the Dragon Father, how Jak and his friends were rebuilding Haven City, just to name a few. His primary question was which one to ask first. They soon came to another large door at the end of the hall, which Terrador opened up for them. Despite the large door, the room was quite small, yet circular. Terrador moved to the side of the room, allowing Spyro and Cynder to see what was inside, which caused them to widen their eyes in shock. Another mystic gem stood in the center of the room, standing straight up on a crystal stand.

“Is that what I think it is?” Spyro asked Terrador, who simply grinned at him.

“He’s been waiting for days,” he said, “Want to keep him waiting anymore?”

Both dragons immediately turned their full attention to the crystal as they walked to it hastily, and immediately put their paws on it. The crystal shined, illuminating the entire room, and as expected the familiar face of Ignitus the Chronicler was seen in the shine of the gem.

“Ignitus,” Spyro said in the greatest relief.

“I can’t say how relieved I am to see the both of you home, safe and sound,” the old dragon said.

“Its good to be home,” Spyro told his old mentor, “Even better to see you again.”

“You definitely have come through quite a great ordeal, you never seem to stray far from the path of adventure can you?”

“More likely we keep getting lost on it,” Cynder exclaimed with a bit of humor.

“Hehe…indeed. Well, I have to know, how was your latest journey?” Ignitus stated.

“Like none we’ve ever had, aside from the usual acts of saving the world, and facing threats that make Malefor look like a walk in the park,” Cynder explained. Her last comment stupefied both Ignitus and Terrador, in their mindset, there was no existing force that could counteract the Dark Master, save for another purple dragon.

“There were these monsters,” Spyro clarified, “The locals called them the metalheads, but they were also known by another name, the Horaquon, have you ever heard of them Ignitus?” His mentor looked baffled, the name seemed to strike a chord within his vast mind granted by the ancestors, but he couldn’t remember off the top of his head.

“Horaquon…that name sounds ancient, perhaps one of my earlier records preceding me might shed some light,” he said.

“I certainly do not recall it,” Terrador added.

Spyro decided to relay the full story, since they were up and already exchanging information. “Yeah, well these creatures were after a great power, looking to steal it for their leader. Jak and all of us managed to defeat him, but before he died, he confirmed something for us.”

“What is that?”

“That our races had met before, on an another world, our real home planet,” said Spyro, Ignitus and Terrador were speechless, as if that was the last thing that they would have expected to hear, especially from a being that neither of them have met.

“Before he fully succeeded, one dragon managed to defeat him, a purple dragon called the Dragon Father,” Spyro finished. Both adult dragons gasped, their eyes widened more than ever now.

“Dragon Father?” questioned Ignitus with some apparent shock, “He was long believed to be a fable, a story to enthrall young ones.”

“So you knew?” Spyro asked him.

“Not directly, as I said they were just stories, though some further digging into my vast collection of records might verify them.”

“I am without words, I remember hearing the Dragon Father story when I was a hatchling, but never did I believe it was real,” Terrador stated.

“It was real alright, at least what we were able to verify from this old soothsayer and the metalhead leader,” Cynder explained.

Spyro continued, “The Dragon Father had apparently visited their planet before, and fought the metalheads off along with the planet locals after they were forced off their world. When the battle was over, he formed an alliance with these ancient beings called precursors, creating some sort of space bridge, which allowed him and his remaining kind to travel and settle here. That bridge…well, was one part of the arch that took us there from the start.”

“So the old legends are true, the Armageddon Arch was created by a purple dragon,” Ignitus verified as his non-physical form turned attention toward Terrador who nodded.

“There’s more Ignitus, those dragons brought with them ancient artifacts of the precursors. Based upon what we saw those things do on Jak’s planet, it would be wise to find them here, otherwise we could have another global catastrophe,” Spyro finished again.

“I see,” Ignitus replied, as he went silent in thought for a moment, relaying everything the two dragons had explained to him. “It seems we have a great task ahead of us then, even after the end of the great war, peace still seems to stray away.”

Spyro slightly hung his head as he said that, knowing he was right, it seemed like forever since he had a break. The few months of peace he spent with Cynder seemed more like a couple minutes now, and he wasn’t sure he would ever get them again.

“However…” Ignitus began again, getting his attention, “Our ancestors undoubtedly went through harsh turmoil to bring us to this point from the start, and we as their children will honorably do the same, if not for us, then for future generations.” Spyro and Cynder smiled, their spirits feeling strengthed by his words, in their minds a better choice couldn’t have been made for the new Chronicler.

“For now young dragons, you must rest, you have accomplished a great feat, you deserve it, I will bid you farewell for now, but you know where to find me.” They nodded to him respectfully as his image faded and the crystal shine dulled.

As the talk with Ignitus concluded, Spyro and company all found themselves sitting atop the temple balcony, gazing at the Celestial Moons. The guardians, Hunter and Sparx all remained silent at the sight, while Cynder whispered to Spyro.

“Feeling anything this time?” she asked. Spyro turned toward her with a grin, wrapping his tail around hers, catching her off guard slightly.

“Yeah, and I wouldn’t want anything else right now,” he replied. She smiled softly as they rested their heads on each other, turning toward the bright night sky again. No matter what challenges awaited them in the coming future, they all knew would be ready together. Unbeknowst to them, a certain blue-clad friend of theirs and his furry little sidekick were doing the exact same thing, light years across space with their friends, as they would all do for all time.

THE END

#51 Jan 08, 2011 5:48 AM

Re: Jak & Spyro: When Heroes Collide

#52 Jan 08, 2011 5:51 AM

Re: Jak & Spyro: When Heroes Collide

#53 Jan 09, 2011 12:04 AM

Re: Jak & Spyro: When Heroes Collide

#54 Nov 29, 2012 1:15 AM

Re: Jak & Spyro: When Heroes Collide

#55 Dec 09, 2012 6:08 AM

Re: Jak & Spyro: When Heroes Collide

#56 Jan 01, 2013 5:00 AM

Re: Jak & Spyro: When Heroes Collide

#57 Jan 07, 2013 11:38 PM

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#58 Feb 15, 2013 12:01 AM

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#59 Jul 06, 2013 3:30 AM

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#60 Jul 18, 2013 1:35 AM

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