#look dark eco turned Dax into an ottsel so I'm making it super unpredictable

[radioactivepeasant]

Unscheduled Dark Jak Wednesday!

The little gremlin wanted to cause a little chaos, so behold: the first in a series of crack snippets I wrote for the Demon Baby au!

(Warnings for blood mention, reference to slight body horror, and implied violence. Because this is still Dark Jak)

The dark eco of The Chair was measured carefully. 50% blue, 20% yellow, 30% red. The same ratios, every single time -- Jak thankfully would never know that they'd worked out that ratio after four different subjects melted in their cells after the wrong mixture. And when he'd first transformed, snapping the restraints when for the first time hope arrived in the form of Daxter, Jak had been the embodiment of that recipe. Built for speed and power. And he siphoned every drop of dark eco he could out of that machine as he slid off the Chair, so that they could never use it again.

But outside the lab, dark eco wasn't measured and precise. It was as chaotic in its makeup as it was in its behavior.

In hindsight, Jak wondered if that's why it felt different.

When the KG approached -- oh, how does it feel to be in front of me without bars to protect you? Without me in cuffs? Are you afraid yet? You're going to be--- that toxic cocktail from the injector was still burning painfully in his veins. It was too easy to lose his grip, to be dragged under by that rage even as he felt panic rising in his lungs.

This isn't me-! What's happening to me?! Help me!

Through the hungry, hate-filled thing's eyes, the KG weren't his tormentors. They were nothing but prey. Livestock to be butchered. And butcher them he did. For every beating in the common cells they'd pointed and laughed at, he returned it tenfold.

And then the eco ran out.

Shaking with adrenaline and nausea, Jak stumbled. His boots squelched in a pool of blood, and eco rose out of it and spun into his body. He was breaking down the corpses and- and feeding off their eco.

He wished he could feel horrified by that. He wished he didn't feel like it was justified.

But dark eco made by drawing disparate ecos from decomposition was far more random in its makeup. And when it built up like rising pressure in his chest, even as Jak screamed inside, he changed again.

It was fast, at least. But it hurt, it hurt almost as much as the Chair.

And then-

Why was the world so big? Why did the prey grow larger?

Jak stumbled, tripping on oversized boots. His clothes pooled around him like blankets, and he couldn't even see his hands when he looked down. Why?

Stuck. Don't like that. No! No traps! Get it off getitoffgetitoff!

Snarling, he flailed to get his arms free and something fell over his eyes, blinding him.

"What the ever-loving, snot-flicking, abso-flipping heck?!"

Oh. Friend! Da- D- Dax-ter. Daxter!

Daxter came into view, at eye level.

"Jak? Is...that's still you, right?"

Jak nodded and the things fell off his eyes. Oh. Goggles.

The little boy hiding behind the old man peeked out, and his mouth made a little "o".

"Hi?" he signed.

"Hi??" Jak signed back, or tried to with floppy sleeves.

"Dax help. Eco wrong? Can't...control flow. Not okayokay."

Daxter sucked on his teeth. "H'ohboy. I dunno how to help, pal. But uh...last time you changed back after slicing up a bunch of guards, right? Maybe thats whatcha need to stop being...Demon Baby."

The old man stared down at Jak with eyes so wide he thought they'd fall out altogether.

"That's...interesting," he said faintly, as if in shock, "...that's very interesting."

Jak scowled and wriggled out of the pants. The tunic hung down to his calves now. He needed to be able to move! He shook off the gauntlets and growled. It was high pitched and quiet. He didn't notice.

Fight them fight them not hurt Daxter not hurt friend!

Two guards at the end of the street saw their comrades' empty armor lying in pools of blood. With shouts of alarm, they ran towards them, guns drawn.

"What the hell is that?!" One of them yelled, pointing at Jak.

Jak spread his claws and leaped.

Yes. Hell. Got out of hell. Gonna send you there.

(More chaos to follow later)