Once the Rift Gate appears to be fully functional, I waste little time, grabbing my bundle of silk garments - comically small in my claws - and leap into the swirling vortex. I briefly close my eyes as I'm bathed in a flash of light, and when I open them I find myself in a familiar tunnel of rushing purple energy, all racing towards a blindingly bright threshold. Briefly, I tumble somewhat haphazardly through this maelstrom of time and space until I'm able to use my wings to steady myself and I fly as fast as I can towards the threshold.

As I fly and dodge errant arcs of energy, my mind can't help but think back to the first time I experienced this.

It was at a convention of some kind. The title of the event has long since escaped me, but I remember the basics: people going to and fro from booths to autograph signings, merchants peddling assorted items of some pop culture significance, and then there were people like me - the cosplayers.

All sorts of bizarre beings could be spotted among the crowd: armored warriors, alien creatures, people in spandex with no right to wear something so form-fitting... And then there was me: a disgruntled old man with bizarre facial hair and pointed ears three times the length of my head. I'd come to the convention as Kor, the villain from one of my favorite video games, Jak II. It had taken weeks to put the outfit together: the tattered blue robe, the yellow skull cap-like head covering, the lengthy prosthetic ears, the wooden cane with a zigzag handle, and of course the plumes of white hair sticking out from my head that flowed down the sides of my head like massive mutton chops that nearly reached down to my stomach and ended in a slight upward curve. In a word, my costume was flawless; I looked every bit the part of a monster pretending to be a harmless old man.

So why was I not happy?

For one thing, no one seemed to know who I was dressed as. I'd had numerous people ask me if I was supposed to be some elven version of Merlin, Gandalf, or Dumbledore. Secondly, and most infuriating, was the fact that none of my so-called friends had kept their promise to cosplay with me. We were supposed to show up as a group of various characters from Jak II: Jak (obviously), Torn, Ashelin, Baron Praxis, and me as Kor. Instead, I'd simply gotten a text the day before the convention that none of them were going to come! I forget if they ever even gave me a reason, but I doubt I would have cared to hear any of their excuses. So there I was, dressed in a great costume, and no one seemed to care. Hence my disgruntled walk through the convention as I tried my best to ignore the people who thought I didn't notice when they snickered and pointed at my ears. I was about to call it a day and just head back home, when someone called out to me.

"Well hello there, my angry young friend."

Even now, I can still hear that voice as clear as day. It was a strange, echoing, slightly labored sound, and when I looked to see where it came from, the source was clear.

It was Gol. Gol Acheron. The Gol Acheron. The villain from the first game in the Jak and Daxter series, and he was at this convention standing behind a booth full of merchandise. Whomever this guy was, he'd nailed the Gol costume to a T. The gray-blue skin, the manic yellow eyes, the plume of wild white hair and matching goatee, the ears, the navy-blue coat with missing right sleeve... He even had the metallic red gauntlet on his right hand with tubes that looked like they were going into his arm. I had felt rather proud of my costume, but this guy was on a whole 'nother level.

Many of my human memories have become rather hazy, but somehow the following has remained rock-solid.

Snapping myself out of my stunned awe, I noticed he was staring at me now. So I responded in my best old man voice, "Isn't that supposed to be my line?"

"Ahahahahahahaha!" Plenty a passerby stopped and stared as 'Gol' actually threw back his head and laughed. He then took a full minute of coughing and wheezing to collect himself. At that point I'd started to wonder if this guy was actually faking the labored breathing...

"Very true, very true... Tell me, would you perhaps be looking for some Precursor artifacts?" He then gestured to his table and sure enough, there was all manner of Jak and Daxter themed merchandise laying about. I spotted a Precursor Orb, the Time Map, the Heart of Mar, a Dark Eco bomb, and what must have been an inactive Power Cell - all of a clearly exceptional craftsmanship.

Then I stopped at something truly intriguing at the far end of the table: a Metal Head skull gem. There it was: an ovoid, yellow gem sitting in a display rack. What was so intriguing though was the fact that it actually seemed to have some kind of yellow glow to it, not to mention the swirling arcs of energy that seemed to be within the gem. It was almost hypnotic...

'Gol' noticed me staring and floated over to the gem. I couldn't see his legs behind the table, but it seemed like he was actually floating rather than walking. "I should have realized this would pique your interest... I assure you, I came by it though purely... humane measures..." He grabbed the football-sized gem in both hands and floated back over to me. "But I suppose it's only right it should go to you?"

He offered the gem to me and I couldn't help but take it, if only to get a closer look. It felt lighter than it looked, and gave off a distinct glass-like *ting* when I tapped it. It actually seemed to feel a little warm to the touch.

'Gol' now loomed over the table and eyed me. "So you're gonna take it?"

I started to reach for my wallet. "I suppose so..."

"Excellent! Enjoy! Wha ha ha ha ha ha!" And as 'Gol' laughed the gem went off like a flashbang to my face. I felt myself falling backwards, but the floor never met my back as I kept falling and my vision went dark.

When my eyes finally opened again, I found myself hurtling through a tunnel of rushing purple energy, all racing towards a blindingly bright threshold. I could pretend I was cool in the face of the impossible, but at that point I could only scream at the top of my lungs until I went hoarse.

And then I did my best to keep screaming.

Bolts of energy then struck me, and I felt electric tingles shoot through my limbs, followed by a splitting headache. Before I could fight through the haze of pain, I reached the end of the tunnel and found myself shooting through the open sky.

I screamed some more. My throat no longer felt raw, but I certainly sounded hoarse to my ears.

Hurtling at an impossible speed toward the ground, I tried anything I could think of to help myself. I spread my arms to catch more wind resistance, I tried to aim for something soft... I even tried flapping my arms like in a stupid cartoon. As I saw the ground rapidly approaching, I did my best to brace myself with the wooden cane that I still had somehow managed to hold on to. I did my best to make peace with myself, but instead found myself cursing everything I could think of: my friends for not being there for me, the hecklers at the con for driving me into a rational-destroying anger, 'Gol' for doing this to me... even God a little.

Then I hit the ground, but instead of being reduced to a bloody smear I seemed to skid along the ground on my stomach until I came to a safe stop.
I lay there on the ground with my cane held in outstretched arms for a few minutes as my mind tried to process the fact that I had just survived a HALO drop minus a parachute without so much as a rug burn

When this fact finally dawned on me I leapt to my feet and shouted with joy to the heavens. I twirled my cane in the air like a baton and caught it multiple times. Most of all I gloated.

"Fuck you, universe, 'Gol,' and God! I fell from the stratosphere and walked away without a scratch! Hahahahaha!"

Some time later I finally stopped celebrating and decided to take stock of my situation. I still had my walking stick and my costume on; I could still make out the weight of my over-sized ears, so even they hadn't come off during the ordeal. Looking around, I could see I had landed in a small clearing surrounded by trees. Most likely a forest based on how deeply I could make out trees. I didn't recall any forests near the convention, so I was fresh out of luck at figuring out where I was at that point. The sky wasn't dark but looked like it was close to dusk. As I tried to figure out where to go from here, I suddenly heard voices in the distance.

"I'm telling you, whatever it was, it landed in the clearing!"

I could also make out the clopping of hooves approaching. So someone was riding horses? People out horse-riding? Ranchers? Mounties? It didn't really matter to me, as long as someone was coming towards me.

As I waited for my potential rescuers I idly scratched at my stomach.

It took me a minute to realize I had done it without the use of my hands.

I dropped my cane in shock and felt along my stomach, expecting something to be crawling on me, and instead I found something entirely more terrifying.

I found claws. And they were mine.

I grabbed through my robe and could feel the claws in my hands, and I could feel my hands on my claws.

Somehow I had grown something resembling vestigial T-rex arms on my stomach, stubby arms that ended in metallic-feeling pincer-like claws. I reacted accordingly.

"What the FUCK?!" I called out as I put my hands on my head in shock.

And then I felt my head. I ran my fingers over it. It suddenly felt harder, smoother, and bare. I could feel the cloth of my skull cap still covering my head, but I could also feel my... skull... underneath it? I tapped it with my fingernail and heard a distinct glass-like *ting* that echoed through my head.

"What. The. Fuck." I was a broken record at this point.

The clopping sound was very close now, and while I was still doing hysterical mental gymnastics given whatever the hell had happened to me, I grabbed my cane and did my best to look calm for whomever had come to find me.

Then they finally came into view.

"... What. The fuck?" Broken record.

They were ponies. No doubt about that. They were too tiny - their heads maybe coming up to about my chest, too disproportionate, and entirely too colorful to be horses. They were two little ponies standing there staring at me; little ponies: like something you'd see on a little girl's lunchbox, school notebook cover, or some TV show for 5-year-olds. They were little fucking ponies.

They both stared at me with confused expressions.

Then one spoke.

"Uhm... Hello there?" And he waved one of his hooves in the air like a hand wave.

The little pony could talk.

"Fuck this." I turned and started walking over to the nearest tree.

"Excuse me?" One of the ponies said in a bewildered tone.

"I said 'fuck this' as clearly I've been slipped some kind of hallucinogen, or pain killer, or suffered some kind of head trauma that slipped me into a coma because there is no way this is happening." I noticed that my voice sounded oddly old and weary, but I chalked it up to the hallucination/drugs/trauma/whatever. Coming up to a solid-looking tree, I set my cane aside and braced my hands against the trunk. "So I'm just going to wake myself up now." And I proceeded to bash my head against the tree. Repeatedly. The resulting crunching sound was oddly satisfying.

I could faintly hear the ponies arguing behind me about why and what I was doing, but I just kept on bashing.

After the twelfth bash or so, I noticed I seemed to be doing more damage to the tree than anything. My head didn't hurt as much as I thought it should, but there was a definite lingering ache from my skull... gem.

"Fuck."

I tore off my skull cap and felt my head again. It was smooth, glassy, and faintly warm. It was a Metal Head skull gem. Like the one I had gotten from 'Gol.'

"Uhm... Sir?" I heard someone stammer behind me. "Are you... okay?"

I turned around to face the stupid little pony that had asked the question. His eyes went wide as he no doubt saw the glowing, yellow gem that was now lodged in my head.

"Am I okay? AM I OKAY?!" I bellowed as I loomed over this ridiculous creature.
"I've been ditched by my 'friends,' ridiculed for my costume, thrown though a strobe-lit wormhole, dropped from orbit, met talking pastel-colored ponies straight out of some baby's first TV show, and to top it off: I'VE TURNED INTO KOR!" The pony stumbled onto its behind as it tried to back away from me. "And you ask if I AM OKAY?!"

Tears started to trickle from the pony's eyes. "I-I-I'm s-s-sorry?"

"SORRY?! YOU'RE SORRY?!" I got so close to the blubbering little thing's face that I can actually see myself reflected in its big Bambi eyes. My skull gem pulsed with an internal fire and my teeth had shifted to dagger-like fangs.

"Hey!"

Just as I was about to bitchslap this pathetic thing across the clearing, the other pony planted itself between us.

"Back off!" It tried to glare at me defiantly. "I get that you're angry but that doesn't mean you can take it out on somepony else!"

A full minute of awkward silence hung in the air as I let that line register.

"Somepony? Some-PONY?!" I can feel something in me give way. "Do you hear yourself? It's ridiculous!" My blood is boiling, my bones are aching, my whole body feels like it's crammed into a package ten times too small.
"You're ridiculous!" Both ponies are now backing away. They clearly want to run, but they don't want to turn their backs on me. My vision turns hazy as a blinding white light comes from my forehead and I raise my hands to the sky. "This is all UTTER INSANITY!"

With a blast of light I leap into the air and slam my fists down onto the ground as I land.

As I try to regain my composure I realize that my perspective has drastically changed. I'm suddenly towering over the tree line and the ponies are nowhere in sight. I look down at my hands and notice that they're now a shade of dark blue with only two fingers and a thumb on each hand, topped with long, clawed white fingernails.

"What the fuck?" Back to that old line.

I lift my hands off the ground, and notice a red smear in the small crater that I made with my fists.

I ignore the blood for the moment and look myself over. My body is enormous, covered in a leathery dark blue skin and slabs of gray armored plates. The two vestigial arms from before are now closer to my chest and resting over a bulbous blue belly. I'm standing on six legs that end in large, segmented metal spikes. Past my legs I can make out a long tail ending in a metal bladed tip, and covered in more of the armored plating, but also numerous tubes going over and into my flesh, as well as countless egg-like pustules covering the full length of my tail. I run my hands over my face and feel the familiar gem in my forehead, but now with several of the tubes like those from my tail connecting to it, as well as eight bladed appendages branching off my head like nightmarish flower petals. Under my mouth I note four large mandible-like fangs and I can tell with my tongue that all my teeth are now also nothing but sharp fangs.

Now I'm actually more curious than horrified.

"Hmm... I wonder..." Flexing something that feels oddly natural in my back I can feel wings unfurl from my body. I'm conscious of all four of them as soon as they're free from my body and I give them an experimental flap. I then grab one and hold it close to my eyes. The wing looks like a blend of leathery bat and flimsy dragonfly wings. As I turn in circles a few times, I can't help but note how instinctive my movements feel. Even with the six skittering legs and other numerous appendages, every movement I make seems smooth and... familiar?

Obviously this confirms it. I have become Kor. And not just as his human disguise.

Part of me feels I should be terrified, stunned, or horrified by all this. Another part of me is simply fascinated.

I am Kor.

Yes, Kor is terrible, monstrous, and evil; but... Kor is also powerful and imposing... Which means I am now powerful and imposing...

As I contemplate this, I finally notice the dripping sound coming from the blood smeared on my hands. I look at the blood and feel like I should be disgusted, but the smell... is so inviting... It smell like iron and sugar, like the juice of a savory steak mixed with a chocolate sundae.

Then I notice a slight movement coming from the smear on the ground that used to be ponies. It looks like little floating lights, like fireflies slowly fluttering in the night.

I lower my face down as far as I can to get a closer look and see the lights as they float just a few inches off ground, away from the gore.

Light green lights, as well as some red ones are floating around as tiny wisps of glowing energy. Where have I seen these before? ...

Then it hits me. I am now Kor. If that's my reality... Could this be... Eco? The mystic energy that was integral to the Jak and Daxter series?

I reach out to the wisps with one of my massive hands to try and touch it, but they just seem to bounce off my skin and lazily float above my hand once I stop moving it. Due to my jostling, the wisps seem to have merged together, and there are now two little cloud-like clusters of the green and red energy resting over my hand. This confuses me. In the game, Eco could be channeled. Green Eco would heal, and Red Eco would strengthen attacks. Bashing my head against a tree should at least have done some damage worth healing, and the Red should've simply been absorbed as soon as I tried to touch it. So why did they continue to float there on my hand?

I bring my hand closer to my face and glare at the clusters, and they just continue to float there as if they are passive aggressively defying me. I glare a bit longer before I realize how pointless it is to have a staring contest with floating energy and suck in some air out of frustration in order to sigh.

My sigh is cut short though when the Green and Red Eco clusters are sucked right into my mouth and disappear down my throat.

I'm immediately floored by the sensation it gifts me. It's like the jolt of a massive caffeine injection or a sugar rush throughout my entire body. I swear this must be what crack feels like! There's just a feeling of pure pleasure going through my senses for an all too brief moment of time. The feeling fades, but there remains a warm sensation somewhere inside me. It takes me a few minutes to realize from where, given my new body, but it seems to come from my bulbous abdomen. My stomach? Do I eat Eco instead of channeling it?
Strange. Then again, I am a Metal Head instead of whatever passed for human in Jak and Daxter. And I just ate Green and Red Eco... Does that mean I can eat the other kinds as well? Blue and Yellow? Even Light and Dark?

This would require... study.

I shake myself from my nostalgia as I realize I've finally made it to the opposite end of the rift. I cross the portal's threshold with little ceremony.

Part of me felt like proclaiming, "Finally! The last Rift Gate has been opened!" But one: I'm not wasting more time than I need to, and two: If anything is waiting for me on the other side then I don't want to give it any advance warning.

I'm actually a little disappointed when I exit the gate and simply find myself in a dark, stone room of some kind with no one there to welcome, attack, or cower before me.

The room reminds me of a dungeon mixed with a basement: bare stone walls, dank lighting, some collapsed wooden shelves and crates filled with mostly dust, a large ascending stone staircase on the far side of the room, and very little else to decorate the place.

I lavishly kissed the floor and nearly wept with joy at the sight of it all. After an indeterminable time in the wasteland I'd come from, this was the most welcoming place I'd seen in ages!

After I composed myself and I silently thanked the fact that no one could see that display, I turned to the source of my torment.
The Rift Gate.
It was still active, and floating there almost mockingly on the wall. This swirling mess of metal and energy had been my liberation, but it had also been my sole tormentor in the wastelands. I didn't care what it took, I was going to destroy this thing.

Just as soon as I could figure out how to turn it off.

After all, the Rift Gate was technically what killed Kor at the end of Jak II... So I was definitely not touching it while it was still active.

That was a task for another time however. First I had to regain my energies. With that in mind, I opened my mouth and inhaled deeply to taste the air around me. The taste did not disappoint. Eco was in the air. It was like the smell of morning coffee - not filling, but still invigorating.

Then I caught scent of a particular Eco that stirred my bile instead of my drool.

I inhaled even deeper to verify what I'd tasted.

It was the sickly sweet smell of Light Eco.

"Alicorns..." I said with a growl as I turned towards the stairs.

Author's Note

Yay! Update! 4,000 words? Dang.

Funny thing. At the end of the chapter I wanted to have Kor smell the air for Eco, and then I realized he doesn't really have a nose as a Metal Head... So now he inhales through his mouth and "tastes" the air for smells!
Certain animals can do that, right? If not, screw it. Kor's a nightmarish fusion of dinosaur, insect, and machine - logical biology went out the window long ago.