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Chapter 5: Training

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Tess had parked the two-seater she’d swindled out of her boss—a choice that’d set her back a few paychecks, but hell if she was there for the money, anyways—in the Dead Town alley for two reasons.

One, people rarely, if ever, jacked out of this alley—Slummers were some of the most religious people in the city and you can’t get much more sacred to them than Old Sandover—and two, she’d really been in the mood to walk. Today was so pretty, after all. Nice, clear-ish sky. Patches of blue shining through the smog. Just right for stretching your legs. She was so happy to have an excuse to get out of Krew’s dingy bar and outside, and with her Daxxie in tow no less.

But now she was regretting it. Just wanted to kick herself in the butt for not parking in front of the hideout like any normal person.

That hadn’t gone well at all.

Poor Jak. He seemed so confused and hurt, only half listening to the prattle that fell continuously from his buddy’s mouth. Tess couldn’t blame the kid for being depressed. If someone ever looked at her like that woman had, well, it’d just break her heart.

But she couldn’t blame the woman either.

Before the accident, Jak was hardly a safe person to play with. Just about everyone knew that. In fact, there was no playing being done, unless you counted the killing kind. Sure, he did that everywhere, but here in the slums was where he got the most fear from it.

Most Slummers didn’t have much more than their faith after all, and to them, Jak was something straight out of the Dark Testament, a fabled book of the demons. He’d gotten a reputation as being a creature born of Dark Eco, of evil, and had earned himself the affectionate nickname of ‘white devil’ or ‘cursed one’.

The rumors really hadn’t started until the day the KG tried catching him at the water slums. After that, though, they flourished and multiplied like freaking bungooses. If you hadn’t known of Jak and his unholy powers before then, you sure knew him now. And everyone had their own spin on the massacre, each bloodier than the last. Even Tess wasn’t sure anymore what was fact about the blonde anti-hero’s abilities and what was just spawned from urban legend.

But that’d never mattered much to him before, she guessed. Or rather Jak’d never acknowledged it. It’s not like he used to be the type to stop and take a survey concerning his public image. Or save kid’s toys out of the pot holes in the street. She doubted he’d really cared. He’d had tunnel vision, and at the end of that tunnel was Praxis’ head on a stake or something gross like that. So what if some dingy civvie thought he was scary if what he was doing got him one step closer to that ending? They could deal.

Jak’s views used to be a lot like Torn’s, actually. What with the tunnel-vision thing. Though, Tess worried a lot more about what Torn’s tunnel-vision got him into than what Jak’s did.

Probably because she wasn’t that close to Jak. Not that anyone was.

Well, ‘cept her Daxxie.

That used to bug her, too. How someone like Daxter could be close to a person like Jak. The emerald-blonde did seem pretty heartless on the best of days. Never towards his friend, of course, just to everyone else. He was an outlaw, plain and simple. Ruthless, rugged and violent with a vendetta against all of the system.

And Daxter was just…Daxter. The adorable sidekick that’d won Tess’s heart the day they wandered down the Hideout’s alley. The exception. There was no reason for him to be there, he just was. That’d always been fine by her, of course. She just…didn’t get why Jak tolerated it.

He didn’t seem the one for dumb jokes…

A while ago, she’d chalked it up to him liking the white noise of the rodent’s ranting.

Now it’d become so obvious. What they really were to one another. They were just friends, in ways deeper than most in a city like Haven could understand. Something happened to Jak along the way to change the sad, silent, smiling boy that was following a step behind her at the moment into the dangerous renegade that’d already done so much for their cause, but it didn’t bother Daxter. He stuck by Jak regardless.

Maybe that was why Tess had no problem accepting the drastic change in Jak’s personality. It just made so much sense when she thought about it!

And it was really so adorable.

Tess was, however, worried now. For the both of them. She knew now that Torn had been more than right about what Jak had become. He was letting what that mother had done affect him far too much. If he buckled under something like that…

She’d wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt; really she did, but…

You can’t afford a soft spot in this business. Or accept coddling.

If it was anyone but Tess watching over him at the moment, they would’ve been able to follow through with that advice. They would have given Jak a push and told him to suck it up. It’s no time to be a wuss. Grow some balls, pansy. That’s what Torn would say…

But it wasn’t Torn or anyone else. It was Tess. And she, like Daxter, was a lot more comfortable comforting the kid than being mean to him. Even if he did need that a lot more.

Hell, if he wasn’t a walking bruise, she’d give him a big ol’ hug.

Luckily, by the time they’d made it to Tess’s Zoomer, Jak was finally coming out of his funk. The younger teen’s mood seemed to brighten even more when he spotted the parked vehicle. After a quick glance to Tess to see if it was indeed hers, Jak rushed over and stuck his head over one side. Right away he was fascinated with the complicated control panel, though one thing in particular instantly caught his eye.

There were two steering wheels.

Once Tess had caught up, he motioned between the twin wheels with confusion written across his face. The barmaid blinked before what he was asking sank in. “Oh! You want to know why there’s two of them?” she asked, just to be sure. Jak nodded and Daxter grinned.

“My baby’s a smart one,” he shot to Jak. The hero rolled his shoulder in response.

Tess smiled at the compliment. “It’s for easy access,” she explained as she opened her door and stepped inside. Jak followed suit not a moment later. Once she was buckled in and had made sure Jak had done the same—surprisingly quickly, too—Tess continued. “Either side works, but only one at a time.” Thin fingers brushed two lights in the center of the dashboard, positioned on either side of a small switch. The left light was on, making it stand out against the otherwise dead panel. “See, you can change which one works with this.” Tess flipped the switch a few times, demonstrating how the light cycled with each motion.

Jak nodded in understanding. Though, when Tess pulled her hand away to fish for her ride’s keycard somewhere in her pockets, the young man sitting next to her noticed the light nearest him was still on. Well, that wasn’t right. Tess was going to be driving, not him (even if he did want to learn how to maneuver this beast). So, being thoughtful, he reached out to remedy this.

His fingers closed around the small strip of metal, not even changing its position, and the entire dashboard lit in a spark of violet electricity. Both he and Tess gave a start as the engine rumbled to life. The only person who wasn’t surprised was the rodent perched on Jak’s shoulder.

“Still got them crazy hotwiring skills,” Daxter exclaimed and wiggled his digits for a moment like he was casting a spell.

Tess just looked astonished. “You did that, Jak?”

The blonde shrugged, surprised and sheepish and embarrassed, though he didn’t quite know why he was the last of the three.

Maybe?

“A’course he did,” replied the animal. “How else do yah think we get around this dump? M’boy here,” he cushioned an elbow on Jak’s messy mane, “has always had mad powers over techno junk.” Jak watched Daxter as he spoke and once he’d finished, turned to the now very bright board in front of them.

Jak’s mouth drew to the side and thick, green brows scrunched together and up. He tilted his head towards his friend’s chest.

I guess…

Very few parts of the dashboard reminded him of the technology outside this dream. He could still pick out the speed gage and of course the steering wheels, but the rest of it baffled him. And it certainly didn’t resemble Keira’s inventions. There weren’t enough creases and wood involved. Just more smooth, painted metal. If he hadn’t seen similar vehicles in the air earlier—and still in the air now—he would’ve been a bit skeptical that Tess’s contraption would even stay airborne at all what with its size and it carrying more than one passenger.

Why then would he have any sway over this? Usually it was Precursor artifacts, not the earth bound things elves like him made, that sang when he touched them. That awoke. And this didn’t look remotely Precurian, not anymore than the gun.

Still…he couldn’t deny that he’d started it…

And it did sound like Keira’s Zoomer, if a bit smoother around the edges.

Jak was torn from his thoughts when Tess pulled some lever between them and the contraption they sat in shot upwards. He gave a quiet exclamation of surprise and gripped the side of his door. Tess giggled at him.

“Oh, sorry,” she said, though she hardly sounded apologetic. “Just changing levels.”

Jak didn’t know what that meant, and he thought it hardly excused her laughing at him. Frowning, he removed his hands and instead crossed them under his arms. The waitress laughed harder after noticing his childish posture. She covered her mouth with one hand and turned the wheel to join the traffic with the other.

The slowly passing scenery softened Jak’s pout until he couldn’t hold it any longer. Instead, he resigned himself to taking in the strange new city and its inhabitants the best he could, this time from the air. Daxter helped, of course, answering silent questions when they were asked with points and gestures and just plain ranting when Jak stayed still.

“There’s three types a’people here,” the rodent explained as they flew past the ends of the slums and into a new place completely, inhabited by smooth, dark walls and uneven metal floors. “Slummers—like dear ol’ mommy back there, High-risers from o’er here ‘n this district, and them.” Daxter pointed down at a large red thing below. For a moment, Jak was almost certain the thing was some statue. It was huge! But, not a moment later, it began walking and he realized that, no, it was simply an extremely large man. An irrational fear awoke then, creeping a shiver down his spine. Then, he was reminded of the soldier they’d met in the Rock Village, and the strange feeling stopped.

Dax continued, oblivious to or ignoring Jak’s reaction. “Slummers ain’t nuthin’ but ‘Cursor fearin’ nobodies, but they can get pretty gutsy. Ain’t got much t’lose ‘n all that. High-risers don’t help nobody but themselves, so they’re pretty much just as useless.”

And ‘them’?

Jak motioned with a pointed thumb over his shoulder to the general direction of the red-thing. By then, they’d driven past it. Daxter’s eyes thinned a bit, expression becoming stern. Already, Jak didn’t want to know what he was going to say next.

“Y’just stay away from them,” the ottsel said. Jak rolled his eyes

Yes, Samos.

“What—HEY.”

Tess giggled softly as Daxter began raving at his now extremely amused friend. Their one-sided conversation greatly intrigued her, actually. It reminded her of listening to people talking on personal communicators set low enough for only them to hear. Like she was getting just one side of the conversation. Daxter never repeated anything Jak ‘said’ like Tess had, because she assumed that unlike her, he wasn’t guessing at what he could be thinking. He knew. And he talked like he did any other time, any other place.

It sorta reminded Tess of watching the soothsayer in the Bazaar and her blue-framed sign language. Here it was much simpler and far less entrancing. Jak made simple faces and casual motions that, to her, could mean anything. And Daxter understood them. Always.

Finally, she couldn’t take it. The curiosity was getting to be too much.

“How are you doing that, Daxxie?” she asked, giving the friends in the seat over a side long glance.

The rodent perked and his nose twitched she assumed without his permission. “Doin’ what?”

“That,” a wide, vague motion towards the two. “Knowing what he’s saying.”

“Ah, that’s nothin’.” Daxter straightened and puffed out his chest. “I,” a paw came to rest flat over his skinny ribcage, “am simply fluent in Jak-o-nese.”

The Jak in question snorted. There was always a different name for Dax’s helpful ability, but that was so far the worst.

“Jak-o-nese?” Tess repeated, a thin eyebrow raised. This time the blonde covered his smile and shook his head.

“That’s what I said.” Daxter hopped onto the dashboard to face the driver and other passenger. “Ain’t no better translator than lil’ ol’ me. Heh, without yours truly, Boy Wonder here would be seven kinds’a lost, wouldn’t yah?” Jak nodded courteously, but then shot the woman steering a look even she could read as dismissal. A simple eye-roll over a smirk.

I have to put up with this.

Orange Lightning chose to keep tooting his own horn over shooting the hero any look of disapproval. “There’s not a single damn thing Jak here could say that I ain’t gonna understand.” The ottsel punctuated his friend’s name by giving the teen’s head a quick pat. Jak watched his hand with crossed eyes.

“Really?” Tess asked. “Even if it’s really complicated?”

“Complicated?” repeated Daxter. His voice dripped with sarcasm. “Jak?Complicated?”

The teen poked his shoulder companion in the stomach and glared.

“Kiddin’! Jus’ kiddin’!” He pushed Jak’s hand away with both paws and grinned as innocently as he could manage.

Tess concentrated on driving for a bit longer, now that the traffic was thickening between sectors, before picking back up the conversation. “Prove it,” was all she said. Then cocked one shoulder and smiled at Daxter over it.

Like he could refusethat.

“You heard th’lady!” Dax all but shouted at his friend, arm and forefinger extended level with his broad nose. “Say somethin’ ‘complicated’.”

For a moment, Jak blinked and mused over the request. His mouth twisted into a thoughtful frown, deciding on what would be the best challenge for his friend. Dream-Dax had told him that in the two years he ‘didn’t remember’, he’d started talking for one reason or another. To that end, it could very well be Dream-Dax was out of practice at this game. Or so said logic.

At times, there was quite a bit of logic in this dream…

The frown split into a smile as a mischievous glint lit up the too-dark blue eyes. Jak bit his lip, looking quite pleased with himself, crossed his big hands behind his head at the knuckles, and sat back.

Magic Orb Tree.

Daxter groaned and shifted his weight back in a disappointed lean. “Goddammit, babe, that’s not what I meant n’you know it!” Jak snorted around his lip and then burst into soft giggles.

“What?” Tess couldn’t keep from grinning. Jak’s laughter was infectious and was already seeping into her own voice. “What’d he say?”

By now, Daxter was pouting, twiggy arms crossed and neck eaten by his head and shoulders. “Nuthin’,” he replied sullenly. “’E’s bein’ dumb.”

And Jak’s bubbly laughter continued.

-----

“Ready to give it a try?”

Jak grinned at the hovering device as it circled him for what would probably be the last time. Daxter, once again properly glued to his shoulder, rubbed his paws together.

“That’d be a yes, baby!” he crowed. The orange, slightly distorted image of Tess reflecting against the lens of the comm. gave them both a thumbs up. Then the screen dulled to more of a brown and the entire thing compacted down and zipped to Jak’s pouch.

And then the doors opened.

Jak drew in a breath then let it out slow.

Finally, he was going to get to cut lose with this baby…

After entering the harbor district he was told was named ‘South Town’, he and Tess had split up. She’d directed him to a rather empty room right off the street and, giving him his gun, told him to stay there while she went elsewhere. It turned out she’d gone to the course’s control room just one door over. For the next hour, she and, really, Daxter spoke to one another over a communicator Jak…apparently had in the little brown bag that’d been found on him.

It amused him how much this communicator resembled the vid-bug Keira had invented for him to carry on missions, but he kept that to himself.

The last sixty minutes had been spent re-teaching the blonde hero how to use his firearm. He was clumsy at it at first, not used to weapons that were not his own hands. He also had some issues with how and when to change the gun mods, so Tess quickly gave up on teaching him them all at once, and instead stuck to the standard Scatter. It took some time after that to keep the boy from just swinging the thing like a club at the cardboard targets that popped out of the floor.

While guns did look fun at first, Jak found them unnecessarily complicated.

Like, for one thing, all of these ammunition cartridges contained different types of Eco. The different modes of his gun corresponded with said different Ecos. So…if he had a yellow cartridge which obviously held Yellow Eco inside…

…why didn’t he just channel that and shoot the stuff out of his hands?

Of course, that thought had barely crossed his mind before it was blasted down by Dax. And then Tess had backed him up that it wasn’t a good idea and Jak hadn’t wanted to fight anyone in the first place so he just dropped it.

Still. This particular dream-logic failed.

“Your goal is--” came a smooth female voice within the long room as Jak entered it, and while he didn’t recognize the woman speaking, he found he liked her voice quite a lot. He waited for the new woman to finish her sentence while taking note of the tracks on the floor where his targets would be popping up soon. The blonde still didn’t know how the heck that worked. Such clean mechanics didn’t exist, and if they did, he doubted this place would still be in one piece if Keira knew about it.

She was one to take anything she could get her hands on apart, after all…

He’d barely noticed the few tracks hidden around the corners of the model buildings sticking up out of the walls when the woman spoke again. “Your goal is 2000.” There was a click as the speakers turned off.

“2000?” Dax repeated from his perch. Jak glanced up to catch the shocked expression the rodent now wore as his voice jumped another half-octave. “Two-thou’? Yer shittin’ me!” While the blonde made a face at the language, Daxter turned to give him his own look, it of disbelief. “What are we, Rookies?”

One emerald brow shot higher than the other.

“Ooookay, dumb question.”

A small buzz sounded, followed by a click. Jak turned instantly and, without thinking, clubbed the fake enemy with the weapon in his hands. While an approving ding sounded as it shattered, followed by the unfamiliar woman announcing his score had risen from zero to one hundred, Daxter palmed his face.

“Duuumb question.”

-----

Tess stretched her feet carefully across the control panel in front of her and leaned back to watch Jak and her Daxxie start their third run through the course.

First run? Not a complete failure. A lot more hitting rather than shooting going on than she or the side-kick liked, but near the end, Jak got into the hang of things. Aiming was more of an issue then than in the second run, too. There was definite improvement going on. First time, their goal was reached, but only by the skin of the outlaw’s teeth. Second time, the goal was passed.

And Tess was very amused when she wasn’t the only one doing a victory dance for them.

Too bad she’d had to turn off the security camera recordings, else that would’ve been a keeper. Anyone and everyone would pay big—hell, any money to see Jak shake his butt like that.

…’least she would.

And now it was try three—third time’s a charm. She’d already let the boys in and now it was just time to sit back and watch the show.

Jak had already set out at his steady, albeit awkward, pace. He was so clumsy with the firearm it was almost frustrating to watch if you knew how good he used to be. But Tess was a patient person. She’d been the right gal for the job of reacquainting him with his weapon of choice.

This run was already going better, though. She could tell. Quicker reactions, less thrusting and swinging, and fewer misses. The make-shift gunsmith suspected that Jak had already memorized a few of the course surprises and was using that to his advantage. He seemed a smart fellow like that. She’d seen him watching her control her Zoomer when he wasn’t busy ‘talking’ to Daxter—quiet he may be, but he never stopped thinking.

It wasn’t just now, either. She’d always thought that he was hiding a big brain under that mop of yellow-green hair. How else did he survive everything thrown at him? Between Krew and Torn, it couldn’t have been simple dumb luck.

There was nothing ‘dumb’ about Jak, no matter what others thought.

Tess smiled as she watched the brown tinted screens, the little Jak across it once again managing to just barely miss a civvie cut-out. He was very good at that. The first two runs he’d even purposely missed a few good shots because of the possibility of hitting a civvie. The fact made a small little smile spread on her face.

…though, hadn’t Sig said something about civvie cuts being a real downer to Jak’s old scores? Oh well.

It was half-way through the current run when Tess started to notice Jak’s reaction times peak. He’d gotten to the ammo check-point—and thankfully remembered this time that he couldn’t continue until he’d broken those boxes—and just shot off like a rocket. By the final stretch, he only swung on the double-hits, just to finish them off.

Tess couldn’t help but smile. So his body did remember what to do! With his score closing quickly on a bronze, she was certain after this they could move onto the next course and then smack a big, huge ‘mission complete’ sticker on this whole thing.

Then, Jak would be good enough to start missions again. The sooner the better. The Underground needed him more than anyone really liked admitting, and there was something big in the works with Jak smack dab in the middle of it. She’d heard things. Something about the Old Place and Jak and seeds.

So yeah, sooner the better. So this was good!

…and Jak’s score suddenly dropped off a hundred points.

Tess blinked, sitting forward a bit in her seat. So caught up in her thoughts, she’d defiantly missed something here. Reaching out, she gave the score monitor a quick slap.

The numbers dropped down again.

Blue eyes jumped to the furthest monitor. Jak was indeed at the final stretch—stuck in the trick shots.

Last couple runs, this portion definitely hurt his score. Usually, he’d just stand there, picking off a few when he felt lucky, and never once with a bullet. A quick kick here, a smack or punch there. Once or twice only. First run, he didn’t even budge until the pace had slowed down.

Now he was hitting everything. Anything. Quickly jerking back and forth as something new popped out of the floor at him. Points were added and subtracted so quickly from his score, the counter was flashing. The speed—the reaction time, it was amazing! Even when the mechanics slowed, he didn’t. He was turning before targets even popped up—like he’d already knew they’d be there. Like he already had it memorized.

Only that didn’t make any sense…

Jak finished the run with a bronze, but only barely thanks to all the civvies he’d hit. Tess, slightly concerned now, buzzed him before restarting the course. On the base monitor, a little dot jumped from Jak’s pouch and began hovering around him. The one next to it turned from brown to a distorted orange image of the hero and his companion.

“—man, just breathe.” The speakers around her crackled with the static of Daxter’s voice. He was rubbing Jak’s head.

“Uhh, everything okay down there, guys?” Tess asked, leaning towards the stationary mic protruding out of the desk.

“Jus’ fine, sugar,” replied Daxter. He wasn’t looking at her “We almost done?”

“Oh. Oh yeah, we’re almost done. Just one more time through.”

Daxter nodded, paw still running its smooth course through Jak’s hair. Tess could see the young man’s shoulders shaking. “One more time, buddy, ‘kay?” he hissed to his friend, almost too low for Tess to hear. “We’re almost done.”

The barmaid closed the comm. link, feeling strangely guilty—as if she’d intruded upon something she had no right being apart of. She thumbed the entrance command. Picked at the side. Watched the little blip that was Jak slowly calm. Pressed down, and opened the doors.

…what the hell was that?