---Get You Freak On--- Chapter 2

Dax had insisted on being dropped off at the Naughty Otsel because of the errands he had to run for the party. Jak knew he really just didn't want to sit through the boring report. Jak fishtailed into palace's plaza and brought the zoomer in for a landing. He returned a few dirty looks to the blue armored guards as he climbed the stairs. As the elevator groaned to life, Jak thought about the street urchins earlier. Then again, he really didn't want to think about them, he just wanted to report to Ashlin and go home.

The doors rolled open and he entered the control room, Ashlin was yelling thru the COM at some one and Samos looked worried. He didn't catch every thing she was saying, but it had to do with the south side of the city.

Torn's voice crackled over the COM, "We got metal head and KG bots coming on both sides, its like they're heading for the palace."

Jak made face of half horror and half bafflement. Things had been fine outside a moment ago. He looked around frantically for some answer but chaos had already set in.

As if on queue the palace shook, a horrible metallic grinding noise came from the walls.

"Ashlin! Ashlin!" torn shouted through the COM over the rumbling.

"Run!" Jak yelled as part of the wall was ripped off its foundation. Kiera looked at him, noticing him for the first time as he ran toward the newly formed hole. Jak stopped suddenly, he looked over his toes at the city far below and the streets of swarming metal heads and freedom fighters.

"It's Torn!" Keira yelled relieved as another rumble shook the palace. Torn was coming in fast in a blue freedom fighter hellcat.

"When I say jump, jump!" Jak yelled as the building gave another violent convulsion.

He took a deep breath and waited, one-precoursor orb, two precoursor orbs….wait for it, "Jump!" he pushed off his toes as hard as he could and launched himself at the cruiser.

Jak heard Ashlin and Keira thump onto the cruiser after him; a third thump smacked onto the cruiser, Torn swore loudly and pulled Samos into the cruiser the rest of the way by the log.

Parts of the palace came tumbling pass and bounced off the cruiser. A fiery ball of flame smashed into the wall of the palace. Ashlin watched as the whole building shuddered and swayed.

"Get us the hell out of here Torn!" she yelled, rage edging her voice.

Torn gunned the accelerator and shot away from the palace like a bat out of hell.

The palace erupted into a fiery ball of doom and shrapnel, crashing onto the street below with an ominous boom. Where once freedom fighters had held the line against a wave of metal heads now stood a tangle of flaming debris.

Torn brought the cruiser back into a fish tail and faced the destruction. The debris fell all the way back to the stadium, covering every thing with twisted metal and concrete. It had all been so sudden, so unexpected. Jak blinked, he hadn't even known they were being attacked.

"Holly.." Jak stared down at the mass destruction.

"Shit…." Keira finished for him as she looked out toward the racing stadium.

Ashlin was frothing at the mouth in anger, "what the hell is happening Torn!" she yelled as she tried in vain to calm herself with deep breath.

"Torn!" Jak yelled before he could answer, he pointed at a wave of KG robots ascending from the street on the other side of wreckage.

"Hang on to your asses" torn yelled as the zoomer took off like a rocket.

Keira was thrown back into her seat with the force. She grit her teeth and clenched her fists as enemy fire sizzled thru the air as Torn took a hard left turn. Her stomach flew into her chest as they dropped hover zones. She watched as a walls sped towards them. She screamed and squeezed her eyes shut.

Torn took the corner at top speed, the cruiser's underbelly screeched against the metal of the building as the force of the turn pushed them sideways up the wall. Jak hung on and twisted himself around to see the Kg bots behind them.

He braced himself against the drivers seat as torn steered them at break neck speed under the over pass and around the supports.

Keira opened her eyes in time to see the large support beams ducking in and out of view as torn dodged thru them; she squeezed her eyes shut again. She was glad he was such a good driver. She opened her eyes again to see torn just miss a beam then crash thru some debris.

'Or maybe he's just crazy!!' she thought screaming again as they went up a hover zone.

It seemed like a thousand red beams of searing KG fire flew thru the air. Jak pulled out his gun; one of those bastards had nearly taken off his head.

Jak opened fire, adding yet another reason for Keira to scream. He picked off a few and they exploded. Torn took another hard turn, they were almost to the new part of the city now. Jak was almost knocked out of his precarious position and he wedged himself farther back between the passenger and driver seat.

He contorted his gun, revealed the Vulcan mod and spun it into place; he opened fire on the mass of red robots with an evil smile.

Keira's world became a place of gunfire, explosion and the constant vibrating of the zoomer engine. This was not a place she really wanted to be. She felt her heart dip into her stomach as Torn dodged around some unknown obstacle. She heard him screaming into his COM for the force field to be lowered.

Jak kept firing till the last second. He saw the last corner zip away from him, the kg bots swept around the same corner in perfect synchronization, the shimmering blue field sprung up behind them as they passed intothe sector. The kg's exploded as they suddenly slammed into the wall of energy.

Torn came to a slow stop in the middle of the new sector. Freedom fighters ran towards them, torn barked orders and Ashlin demanded Intel as they abandoned the cruiser.

"You okay," some one touched Keira's shoulder, it was Jak.

"Yeah," she said a little too quickly hoping her face didn't betray the relief and fear of the previous exodus.

"Good," he said quickly and nodded as he turned and caught up with torn. Samos taped his staff impatiently as he waited for his daughter's daze to pass.

---page break ---

Jak waited impatiently out side of the conference room. He was furious, why the hell had Ashlin kicked him out of the meeting. As soon as the councilmen had shown up, she had just given him this look. He groaned and ran his hand thru his hair. At least Daxter was fine. Apparently, the invasion had left the port untouched.

The last thing he'd heard was that evacuation teams had been sent out to round up 'important people' as Ashlin had said it. At least Dax would be there soon.

'Probably start off bitching about how he won't be able to have that stupid party,' he thought with a smile.

Another yelling match erupted behind the doors. Jak winced as he distinctly heard the words eco freak. He suddenly got a knot in his stomach, he did not like where the conversation was going. A deadly hush overcame the other room, it lasted far longer than made Jak comfortable. At least when they were yelling he could tell what was going on.

Just as he gave up eavesdropping and moved to the other side of the hall, the double doors suddenly slide open. The first of the councilmen stepped out, a surprised and almost horrified look over came his face when he spotted Jak leaning against the wall. Jak watched him walk away quickly, keeping to the opposite side. A few other officials passed by with snobby superior looks. The last one appeared, followed by Ashlin and two guards.

"Freak," the tall councilman sneered at him as he passed. Jak recognized him as a man named Veeger. The councilman would never know how close to death he had come.

Ashlin watched anger wash over Jak's face, she cursed Veeger a thousand times over. Did he really have to make this that more difficult?

Jak watched Ashlin become more distraught, she sighed and stuck out a hand at one of the blue armored guards. The guard promptly handed her a large pair of restraints.

A wave of fear flooded Jak's mind, he knew what had happened. The councilmen had brought him up again, but what ever they had proposed Ashlin had not been able to stop them.

Ashlin mistook the fear for anger and took a quick step forward. She was surprised as he took one back.

"Jak," her voice cracked half way through the word, "just…I'm going to fix this."

Jak could only watch as she clamped the large restraints around his wrists. The fear flew out of him as fast as it had come, and was replaced by a low simmering rage. He glared at her, if any one else had been standing in front of him after putting a pair of handcuffs on him, he'd be shredding them to pieces.

'It's not her fault,' he reminded himself as a guard jostled him to the side. The thought had no affect on his temper what so ever.

Ashlin watched the guards hurry Jak away down the hall; he tried to shrug one of the armored hands off of his arm.

Ashlin leaned against the wall and put her head in both her hands, an exasperated sigh escaped her lips, "My world is going to hell in a hand basket…"

"What do we need a hand basket for?" Ashlin looked up to find Keira standing there wearing her little suspenders and as chipper as always.

A loud yell attracted the stares of both women.

There was Jak, slammed up against a wall; an evil grin plastered his face. The guard pulled him back and slammed him again. Jak swore loudly as hit the wall again. The other guard collected himself off the floor and prodded him on.

Ashlin shook her head, "Mar, help me," she muttered as the rolling doors hissed open. Keira looked back at the corner that Jak had vanished around; the feeling of her heart dipping into her stomach was worse than the zoomer ride. She turned and darted after Ashlin.

The doors hissed shut behind both of them with an ominous clank.