Cube met me in the same place sure enough. "Follow me." That was all she said before taking off down an alley.
Eventually we wound up in a derelict housing project, and I followed Cube to a large garage. From inside, thumping techno music blared out. The goth chick skidded to a halt at the door, bent slightly to grip the handle and pulled the door up.
"Hey, guys!" Cube called as she rolled in. "I brought the newbie!"
I rolled in after her, looking curiously at everything, from the souped up hot rod in front of me to the doghouse at the very back. Deep down, I felt embarrassed as several eyes focused on me. Immediately I began to recognise faces.
A guy, about my age walked towards me and grinned. Beat slapped me a high five and said. "Hey, it's Jolt, isn't it? Welcome to the GG's."
"Hey." I said, in an attempt to seem indifferent that didn't quite work. "You're Beat, am I right? You ten-tagged the Noise Tanks a while back didn't you?"
Beat grinned again and scratched the back of his head in flattered embarrassment.
"Let me introduce you to the rest of the guys. You already know Cube, that's her friend from Grind City, Combo." A huge black guy, with a gold Yen necklace and a massive Ghetto Blaster, turned at the mention of his name, and grinned at me.
"That's Gum and Tab, the other two gang founders." Tab waved but Gum merely crossed her arms and looked at me critically.
"What's with her?" I whispered.
"She's always kinda cold to newbies like yourself. That's Garam over there with Yo-yo." A tall, thin black man, wearing fly-like goggles and sky camouflage trousers was sat on a step, in conversation with a short guy in a green hoodie. He apparently said something funny because in a couple of seconds they both dissolved in laughter.
Nearby a tall man, in a high-collared trench-coat was playing on the pinball machine in the corner and by the beeps, whistles and pings, he was doing well.
"Slate's kind of quiet, but he's a good guy." Just then, Slate swore loudly, obviously having just lost.
"This is Mew." The small, blue clothed Chinese girl was bopping along to the music throbbing from the collection of speakers she was sat on. She winked and waved.
"Potts the dog." The bulldog with the odd helmet mooed at me.
"Hang on." Beat was looking around. "Where's Piranha gone?"
Gum glided over. "She went out on a tag spree in Benten-Cho about two hours ago, she hasn't come back yet."
"It doesn't take two hours to tag the spots in Benten-Cho. I wonder what's keeping her." Beat looked thoughtful. "I wonder if maybe-"
Just then all of the gang's, including my own, radio wristwatches crackled and hissed, indicating that Jet Set Radio's DJ, Professor K, was going to make an announcement.
"Jet Set Radio! This is your ringmaster of rhythm, your trapeze artist of tunes, DJ Professor K! Hey! Hey! What's going on! Get off me, motherfucker!" The sounds of a struggle came in over the radio, and were soon replaced by a rasping, cruel voice. "This is a message for the GG's. We have your friend, Piranha, and now we have Professor K. If you wish to see either of them again, you will come to the factory in the old construction site in Kogane-Cho and hand over your turf to the Crimson Claws. End Transmission."
Tab leapt to his feet. "Those bastards! Kidnapping one of our gang! I'll ten-tag 'em then i'll tear 'em a new one!"
Mew had hopped down from her place and as well as anger, had an expression of confusion on her face. "They can't kidnap Professor K! Can they? Isn't there like a law against that?"
Even though I had just joined, I could feel as sense of gang pride and outrage welling up inside me. I wanted the Crimson Claws to pay. And yet... I had no idea who the Crimson Claws were. Combo didn't either apparently because the next thing he said was "Who are the Crimson Claws, man?"
Yo-yo came up with the answer. "They're a new gang. They dress all in red and use these special gloves with claws on the fingers to cut up property and even other people. Merciless. Edge, their leader, is a real psycho. Yo, man, there's no way I'm putting up a fight with those assholes."
Gum whacked him upside the head. "Don't be a loser. Beat, what are we gonna do?"
I looked to Beat, as did everyone else. He was looking thoughtful, his arms folded and his brow furrowed underneath his green sunglasses.
"The construction site. That had lots of grind places. A fairly open part of Kogane-cho. All I know right now for sure is that I am not just gonna troop in there and get killed so those bastards can have GG turf. So, this is what's gonna happen. Piranha and Professor K will be inside the factory. It's the only place where they won't be visible by passers-by. Gum, Tab and I will go meet them and distract them with negotiations and even fists. Combo, Cube, Mew and Slate will flank us and provide back up in case things get ugly, as they undoubtedly will. Garam, Yo-yo and Jolt will sneak inside the factory, free Piranha and K, and escape through the manhole by the old crane but not before informing us mission accomplished over the radio watches. We'll set off in thirty minutes."