Chapter Two: Work

The stadium was massive. Easily able to see two to three hundred people, Jak, Daxter and Keira were feeling a bit of culture shock. They knew, just from walking through Haven for the past few hours trying to find the stadium that this place blew Sandover out of the water in population.

Actually seeing so many elves in one place though was rather daunting. The subtle roar of so many talking at once was deafening to the three of them in a way they'd never before experienced. And as the excitement rippled through the crowd when one racer took the lead over another, the roar grew to a point that three of them were forced to cover their ears.

And the music! It's crashing, banging, explosive notes and melodies was nearly as overwhelming as seeing this many people. They were barely able to keep up with the happenings on the track.

The race itself was brutal. Racers slammed each other into walls, tried to hit and punch each other, and even tried to push one another into bottomless pits placed around the track as obstacles. It was more violent than they were prepared to see for a race. Keira's hands were apparently permanently stuck over her mouth, her jaw hanging open and her pupils dilated. Jak placed a hand on her shoulder, to calm her while he stared at the goings on with a kind of interested disapproval. Inside himself he felt his ego saying that he could easily win these races, without having to resort to hitting his opponents, and he seriously couldn't understand why the crowd was cheering on a bunch of cheaters.

Even Daxter was struck speechless. The sheer violence of it somehow tainting the enjoyment they would normally be getting from such an event.

Finally, the race ended. A rather nondescript elf managed to take the lead at the end by hitting some kind of booster. Three of the other seven were dead, and some of the survivors looked murderous at the revelation of their losses.

The crowd roared, either with approval or disappointment was up in the air, before a hovering platform began to descend from the ceiling. Silence rippled outwards and the person on the platform became visible.

"That's him!" Daxter hissed, pointing at the man that was now at the center of attention, "That's the jerk that tried to take Jak away!"

Jak nervously glanced around, looking left and right, making sure that none of those 'Krimson Guard' guys were around. Seeing none, though he did sink into his seat a little to try to make himself less noticeable, Jak turned his blue eyes on the red haired elf in yellow.

Keira too was paying close attention, now using her presence to calm Jak. If this was the guy trying to take Jak, they needed to learn what they could about him.

"Congratulations..." he paused to read the man's name off a digital terminal, "Donnovan. You have made it to the Class One race next week. It is nice to see a new face in my circuit."

The elf that won the race just now smiled appreciatively, if a little nervously, and nodded his head.

"Thank you, Commander Erol. It will be an honor to race you next week," he bowed his head to the commander.

Erol grinned rather nastily, "Yes, an honor." With that as the last word, the platform lifted back into the air and the Donnovan and his team went back to celebrating the victory they just achieved.

"I feel sorry for that chump," a man said from next to Jak.

"Why? He won the race, right? Ain't that a good thing?" Daxter asked.

The elf, a skinny elf with blonde slicked back hair, just chuckled darkly as he puffed on his cigar, "Yeah, a real treat that," he smirked, "till ya realize he's got to race Erol next week."

"What's so special about that?"

"You kiddin' me? Erol's won every race in the years he's entered! You been livin' under a rock or somethin'?" The man turned to eye the trio.

"We just moved here, actually," Keira told the blonde man, "I'm Keira, he's Jak, and the orange one is Daxter," she gestured to the boys in turn, "So, why is it such a bad thing to race Erol?"

The blonde man looked at the three of them for a moment as he took another drag on his cigar, "Name's Jinx. And Erol is a complete psychopath, toots. Never seen a man more vicious than him, on or off the track. Most the racers that make it to Class One have learned to just let him take the lead and compete for second place. It's better than dyin' for first place. But that chump," Jinx gestured to the still celebrating race team, "Erol always takes a special interest in the new guys. Makes sure to teach 'em a lesson, you know? He'll be lucky if he makes it out of that race walkin'."

Before more could be said, Jinx stood up, taking a final puff off his cigar and blowing smoke out into the air, "If you three are as new as you look, you gotta big decision to make. You're either with the Baron," he sent a pointed look over at a picture of the Baron telling people to obey, "or against him. There ain't no middle ground here. Either way, ya should probably keep your nose out of other people's business. Around here, it ain't a good idea to go around helping anyone but yourself." With his good deed for the day done, Jinx left the trio there. He really wouldn't have said anything normally, but to be honest, that girl was cute, and he'd hate to see a young thing like that dead 'cause he didn't give her a warning. And that Jak kid looked like he was one of those hero types. Probably get himself killed if someone didn't say something to him before hand.

Jak's eyes followed Jinx as he left the stadium before cutting back to the last place he'd seen Erol. Call it paranoia, but he got the idea just now that they would have a world of trouble from the commander.

"Sheesh! What's with this place?!" Daxter finally demanded loudly, drawing a few looks, but most people kept to themselves as they began to vacate the stadium, "Is everything here all messed up or is it just me?" He looked to Jak and Keira receiving nods of their heads in return, "They can't even race normally!"

Jak looked back to the track as one of the still living but heavily injured racers was being carted away in the aftermath of the races. It said something about this city, and its people, that they would wait till after the celebration of one team's victory to go to the aide of the injured racers.

Jak frowned and firmed his resolve. They needed to get away from this place. He really didn't like having Keira in the middle of this mess. Never mind his own safety, after all the danger he'd faced, almost lackadaisically, in stopping Gol and Maia, he knew he could take more than your standard elf and come out the other side feeling pretty good. But Keira, and Daxter even, wouldn't be able to protect themselves the same way he could. And in a city where even their sports were life and death battles, that didn't leave Jak feeling too comfortable about his ability to protect them.

"Come on," Keira said standing up, "I would still like to take a look at their bikes," she admitted. She hated sounding so callous, but she needed to take her mind off of the stress of this surprisingly long day and the best way for her to do that was to look at a motor.

Jak nodded. He moved up and grabbed her hand in his for a moment, giving hers a firm squeeze before letting go. Just something to prove to both her and himself that at least they were still together through this.

Daxter even recognized the mood. And that's why he had to change it. He knew the perfect way to do it.

"Ignoring the violence amongst our fellow elf," he mumbled at first, "how fast do you think those bikes were goin'?"

Keira shrugged, a slight grin making its way onto her face, "I'm not entirely sure, the course didn't have a long enough straight away to get a good feeling for it. And that pink stuff they were picking up, I think that was what allowed them to boost. I need a closer look at the engine before I can get an estimate of what they're really capable of. I'm also trying to figure out how they replaced the propeller entirely..." Keira began a long discussion on technical theory that neither one of the boys could follow. But it served it's purpose. The stress of the day so far began to ease. Daxter's job was done.

After exiting the spectator's area of the stadium they made their way around to the garages. Most of them were closed down and the few that weren't just glared the three of them away. Jak honestly wondered how anyone could take the kicked croca-dog eyes Keira was unconsciously giving without bowing to whatever it is she wanted.

Finally, they found a garage that was open, and no one was there to glare at them.

"But what if someone comes back and thinks we're trying to steal something?" Keira protested weakly as Jak pushed her into the garage to look at the heavily damaged Zoomer.

Daxter waved away her concerns from Jak's shoulder, "Hey, what exactly would we steal here? Empty bottles of oil? Bent fenders? Only thing more to do to this heap is to blow it up, and you just want to take a look at it."

Keira was reluctant still, looking towards the entrance, just waiting for another angry elf to come in and kick them out, but her restraint could only last so long. Almost before she was consciously aware of it, she had a wrench in hand and was moving towards the bike.

In less than ten minutes she was already amazed at what she'd found and she wasn't even fully to the engine yet. She tinkered with a few more bolts to remove the last of the outer casing.

"Oh, wow..." She uttered as she began poking at random pieces of the engine she could see. It was so... compact. There was no way the engine she'd made for Jak's Zoomer could fit in this, but at the same time, this one went so much faster it wasn't even funny. But she found out that they did still use propellers, they were just inside the vehicles. At least they did in this racing model. They had actually turned the propeller into a turbine that sucked in air. The air was immediately pushed into the engine and that, combined with a spark of electricity, lit the fuel in the engine, the fire from the fuel was what blasted out the back of the engine creating thrust.

She began to explain all of this to Jak and Daxter as she began to remove the engine using a chain pulley system that was already there.

"But it doesn't seem like this is really running at it's fullest potential," she said to Jak who was trying to pay attention. Daxter had given up all pretenses and just fell directly to sleep on Jak's shoulder, "From what I'm seeing here, this turbine should be able to pull in more oxygen the faster it goes, allowing it to go faster which allows it to get more oxygen, creating a nearly endless loop of potential speed. But for some reason this one has a little part right here, see?" She pointed out a bulky bit of equipment that was just behind the turbine, "It's limiting the speed, it's redirecting the air away from the engine and causing it to only achieve half the speed in twice the time. I wonder why they did that..."

"Yes," came a sudden growling voice from the entrance of the garage, "I find myself wondering the very same."

Jak spun around quick as lightning, Daxter fell off his perch to land face first on the ground, and Keira nearly jumped three feet in the air.

Now standing in the garage with them were two men, a skinny fellow that was a bit taller than Jak with a look of shock on his face as he stared at Keira, and a noticeably taller man who was sending a stern look at the first elf. The first man realized that he was being looked at by the second and panicked a little.

"Hey, c'mon boss, she doesn't know what she's talkin' about. I mean, c'mon Mister Krane, I've been working for you for years, I wouldn't lie," the skinny elf in the overalls said.

The one that he called 'Mister Krane' regarded him for a moment before turning to Keira an walking forward with the aide of a cane, "Young Miss," he intoned in a rather rich baritone and the slightest accent, "would you be confident enough in your work to test it?"

Keira, who was about to sputter a few apologies for invading their garage, blinked in surprise, then nodded.

"Yes, yes sir," she was a little nervous, "and I'm sorry about just coming in here uninvited, but I've never seen anything like the vehicles around here before. I mean, I built one back home, but compared to these I was banging rocks together to make water," Keira rambled on, earning an amused look from Krane.

"It's quite alright, dear," the old man assured her, "at worst, you've done nothing to an already broken engine, and only for the sake of curiosity. At best, you've improved my chances at winning one of these races eventually."

"Come on, boss!" The other man pleaded, "You don't actually think she's-"

"Bean," Krane said calmly, but with an undercurrent of steel, "Be quiet."

"Y-yes sir," Bean backed away from his boss and sat down on a tool bench.

"Jak, could you give me a hand here?" Keira asked. Seeing as they weren't in trouble, Jak just nodded and moved over to help her with anything she needed, most likely the heavy lifting. He was therefore surprised when she basically used him as a tool rack, stacking a bunch of tools in his arms before proceeding to move the engine back into the Zoomer, and reconnecting the fuel hose. She made sure it was secure then turned it on, which was surprising enough given that it had hardly been in a working state before she'd set her hands on it.

It hummed to life and hovered about a foot off the ground. She revved it a couple of times, and the bikes hum turned into a buzz of strength.

"Hey, you didn't even do anything!" Bean insisted.

"Wow," Keira mumbled, ignoring the man, "This is one powerful machine. And that's just the control test!"

Daxter was already grinning, anticipating their girl showing this Bean guy up in his own garage.

"Control test?" Krane asked.

"Yeah, I have to be sure of what I'm working for here. I'm pretty sure I'm right, but it never hurts to test it out first."

Turning off the bike she began to take the tools from Jak's arms one at a time as she needed them. First she removed the fuel lines, then the turbine, and then the device that was reducing the Zoomer's speed. She gave the engine another once over to make sure that she wasn't missing something, and managed to find that the exhaust system was also nearly completely shut off. She opened that up with some spot welding, then reattached the turbine and the fuel line.

When Keira hit the ignition this time the Zoomer screamed. When she revved the engine the very ground beneath it shook.

Bean's jaw seemed fit to hit the floor, Daxter's smug grin could almost be felt, and Mister Krane's eyes were as wide as Jak's as he heard the cacophony coming from the vehicle.

Keira turned it off a few seconds later, smiling at he vehicle longingly.

"You've got a great machine here, Mister Krane. I just wish I could work with it some more," She laid a hand gently on the hull like it were an animal she wanted to keep as a pet.

Krane moved forward, hobbling on his cane as he did. He peered at some of the dials on the machine, looking over the read outs as Keira, Jak and Daxter began to leave.

"Bean," Krane spoke just as the trio reached the entrance.

"Yes, boss?"

"You're fired."

"What?! You can't do that! I'm the best mechanic you've ever had!" Bean exploded at his former boss.

Krane ignored him and moved as quickly as he could after the three teens.

"Young Miss!" He called after them, getting their attention, "Young Miss, I find myself with an opening for a mechanic in my garage. If you would like the job, it is most certainly yours."

"But what about Bean?"

Almost as if in answer to her question, said man could be seen as he was escorted out by the stadium security, still shouting obscenities at Krane.

"I find myself no longer in need of his inferior services," the man said calmly, "I'm curious though, was that truly your first time examining a racing Zoomer?"

Keira nodded, a slight blush on her cheeks under the subtle praise. Jak and Daxter were just grinning.

"Astounding," the man straightened up for a moment, "Now, as I said, there is an opening and I would be delighted if you chose to fill that spot."

Keira sighed, "I would love to, really I would, but I honestly don't know how long I'll be staying, Mister Krane, and I wouldn't want to leave a job half done."

Krane bowed his head to her, "I'm deeply sorry to hear that, my dear. I'll not push, but know that if you decide to stay in Haven, there will always be an opening in my garage for you." Krane turned and began to hobble away, while Keira turned back to find the boys giving her a questioning look.

"I can't," she said, "We're supposed to be finding Daddy, then getting out of here."

Jak just lifted an eyebrow.

"I know we gotta find grandpa green, but why do we gotta leave immediately?" Daxter asked.

"Did you forget that there's some crazy elf and his army after Jak?" Keira asked with a frown.

Jak now just crossed his arms and gave her a look that could be interpreted as 'And your point is?'

"Hey babe, we faced down Gol and Maia and their giant frickin' robot without a problem. One little army ain't nothin', right Jak?" Daxter boasted while crossing his own arms.

Keira just looked at the two of them like they were crazy, "You're actually considering staying? Really thinking about it seriously? The consequences and everything?"

Jak nodded once curtly, "Trust us," Dax spoke on his behalf, "we can handle anything this city throws at us."

Keira was still trying to think of a protest, but her own techie side was warring against her logic right alongside Jak and Daxter. And the logic wasn't winning.

"Oh fine! We'll stay in the city after we find Daddy," She huffed. This earned a grin from Jak. He wondered if she knew how cute she was when she was trying to be obstinate. Before she could try to change the topic though he began pushing her back in the direction of Mister Krane, "Alright already! I get it," she laughed a little at their enthusiasm. It was rather endearing.

She ran forward, "Mister Krane!"

The man turned to face her, a speculative look on his face, "Yes?"

"I'd like to accept the position after all."

The man turned a winning grin on her, "Splendid! Absolutely splendid," he reached into a pocket and pulled out a small card, "Here, this is a prepaid card. It's an advance for the work you did. It would have been Bean's bonus had he managed to nab us a win. It's got roughly two hundred Precursor Orbs to it for now. The pay is seventy five Orbs a week. Is that okay?"

Keira's eyes widened. That... was a lot of money. Jak might still have a couple hundred orbs in his pouch, but he had gotten them through exploring some of the most dangerous parts of the land back home, in places most people would never go, yet he had braved them for the sake of turning his friend back to normal at first, then saving the world. And this man had handed her something that was apparently worth two hundred orbs as a sign on benefit for being his mechanic!

"Th-thank you, Mister Krane! I wont let you down," She stood straight.

Krane just gave her a kind smile as he spoke, "I'm sure you wont dear. Now, I don't believe I caught your name."

"Oh, sorry, I'm Keira, these are my friends, Jak and Daxter." She looked back at the boys.

"Splendid. I will see you tomorrow morning, at nine A.M., Keira." With that the man turned and left while Keira went back to Jak and Dax.

"So, how'd it go?" Daxter asked.

"I'm hired," Keira said with a grin.

"Like there was any doubt," Daxter crossed his small arms proudly.

"And he gave me a two hundred orb advance!"

"Whoa!" Daxter's eyes bugged out and even Jak found himself surprised.

"Tell me about it!" Keira exclaimed, "That's enough to buy Daddy's hut back home! And then he tells me I'm getting another seventy five orbs a week! This is kind of overwhelming."

"You know," Dax said, distracted from the obscene amount of money that Keira was being paid for her new job, "that does bring up the question of where we're supposed to stay."

Jak and Keira frowned. They hadn't thought of that little detail yet.

"Well, we'll stay in a hotel for now, I guess, and look for somewhere to live tomorrow," Keira suggested.

"Sounds good to me," Dax decided, and Jak nodded his ascent as well.

Chapter Two: Wort, Part One End

AN: This is actually less than a third of what I had planned for Chapter Two. But I live be the strict standard of never going over five thousand words per chapter. I have my own reasons for such a number, but also know that none of my chapters will ever be less than two thousand words. The second part of this will be up as soon as I can write it out.