Chapter 1: It begins with a phone call
He returns home late the young thief from earlier, he slumps into his small second floor flat, basically a one bedroom apartment. There is a small bathroom off to the left and a closet in the back to the right. As he walks past his small couch in the center of his room to the sink in his makeshift kitchen and den, he splashes water in his face and goes off to the bathroom. He looks at himself in the mirror with disgust, a seventeen year old Japanese high school student who almost threw away his future for a ride on some Air Trecks. He knows good and well that ATs are for no-good do nothing losers who would rather fantasize about the sky then to actually make something of themselves, and their lives. As he looks deep into the mirror into his messy mahogany brown hair that stands up and lays down at the same time, his unique soft hazel green eye and his light tan skin clear of any facial blemishes, his sharply pronounced nose and thin lips. He smiles at himself for the luck that he has, and his smile with perfect precision his teeth radiate white from their perfect alignment. His lean muscular build and his five foot nine and one half foot body, did come in handy for riding his "run", no he couldn't think about things like that. Just as he was about to engage in a severe inner battle to determine what he should do, the phone rang and it brought him out of his revere. It was weird mostly because it was his own home phone that was ringing, and if anyone wanted to reach him, even the school, they would contact him through his cellular phone. He let it ring twice more before he picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Yes is this the… um where is it? Oh yes Hashigaki residence?"
"Yes this is."
The voice that came through the phone was familiar as if he had heard it recently. He spoke into the receiver,
"May I ask whose calling?"
"Oh yes this is officer Susku, John Susku, of the NPA. Could I speak with the parents of Ryoku Hashigaki? You see he was involved in an incident earlier today, no charges were filed but I felt it was only right that I inform his parents"
"No, you cannot."
The voice of Officer John Susku tensed up over the phone.
"And may I ask why not?"
"Because Officer, my parents are deceased."
The gruffness in his voice disappeared, he chose his next words very carefully, and he had already spoken too much anyway.
"I am very sorry to hear that young man; I take it that this is Ryoku, am I correct?"
"Yes that is correct."
"Well Ryoku, I am not supposed to be saying this but that run you did today had us all going."
The line remained silent, for quite a while to long for John, then suddenly,
"Thank you; it was my first and last time."
"Well that's what I wanted to hear, but it's not on the right subject, do you mind talking to me a little bit?"
"No sir,"
"Well I called do to the theft you committed today, you stole those Air Trecks, just because they have been made legal, does not mean that it's okay to steal them. You however didn't seem like the thief type, so I pulled your file you're a top student and the number one choice to win some scholarship I never knew existed until just now for advancements in physics."
Ryoku spoke back into the phone,
"The SAPA Scholarship, yes I know."
"So I wondered why you would steal a pair of… ATs as you kids call them, I guess now I know."
Silence rang through the phone; Officer John broke it once more
"Look, this left the realms of a routine call a little while ago, and I am officially off the clock, so I can say that you have a great talent for riding."
Ryoku smiled in spite of himself.
"Thank you even though it was my first time?"
"Yes, well it must be all the knowledge you have of physics it help must with a run. Talk to me son, why is this going to be your last run?"
Ryoku took a deep breath.
"Well my parents died when I was really young, I don't have to many memories of them but I do remember a promise, a promise that I made to my father about how I would be a great son someone that they could be proud of, and when they died I vowed to myself that I would keep that promise, that I would keep it no matter what."
"You already have son, you have done exceptionally well, I am proud of you and you are a thief in the eyes of the law, you deserve a break a little fun, something for yourself.
"Even if I wanted to, there is no way that I could; I don't own a pair of ATs, that's why I stole that pair."
"As I said I am off the clock so I can tell you this, too I suppose, just outside of town in the ravine that runs under the western Great Tokyo Bridge leading out of town, there is a place that is kept secret from the local residents, we on the force call it the AT Graveyard."
"AT Graveyard, but why are you telling me this?"
"Because I like you son, you're a really special kid and you deserve the chance to branch out, and touch the sky one more time."
The phone call ended shortly after that there wasn't much left to say from either of the two, Ryoku sat up half the night at his desk, the best part of his small home and thought, then around three o' clock in the morning he found a pen and a bundle of papers and he began to write for the rest of the night and well into the morning. He fell asleep at his desk with his pen in his hand and his paperwork stuck to his face. He was awoken by the noon sun and a steady pounding at his door, that and various shouts from outside.
"RYOKU I KNOW YOU'RE IN HERE!"
The door springs open and there stands Ryoku, his hair a mess because of either bed-head or its own natural sloppiness.
"Damn dude, your hair is freakish."
The two boys on the porch make their way into his small house and crashed on his couch.
The taller of the two a thin lanky boy, with a neat uniformly cut short hair style deep brown eyes a pug nose and deep brown skin and braces on his teeth, is the one who spoke about his hair. The smaller one a more round pale boy with parchment colored skin, black eyes, and flat laying black hair with a wide pronounced nose and acne all over his cheeks looks at the paper plastered to Ryoku's face. As Ryoku looks back at the two of them their features read them as a young African-Japanese hybrid, and a pure Chinese boy, both in school uniforms.
Yawning Ryoku begins to speak to his two friends dressed in a T-Shirt and pajama bottoms,
"Quantarious, Lee what's up?"
Quantarious, the lanky boy answered first,
"Your up now, why weren't you in school?"
Ryoku answers back in between stifling yawns,
"Why aren't you there now?"
Lee the round Chinese boy answered this time,
"Seniors can leave half-day if all of their important classes are finished."
Reaching out and grabbing it off his face Lee asks about Ryoku's work.
"What's this?"
Looking at the paper his eyes widen, and the complex equations presented on the paper seems to excite young Lee.
"Wow these are some complex formulas, whatever you're trying to work on is amazing!"
As with most people who suffer from a weight problem, his breathing is heavy and labored, his added excitement due to reading Ryoku's papers doesn't seem to help. In between labored breaths he manages to speak to his tallest friend.
"Huff… Quan… check these out."
Standing, the much taller "Quan" measuring around six feet tall, compared to Lee's five foot one inch height. And as is common for people with braces he has a slight slur due to a loose plate at the roof of the mouth.
"Thankss Lee at leasst you remembered I don't like the government name. What ever it iss, he hassn't cracked the code yet."
Ryoku takes the papers back from his friends and beams with pride,
"I've cracked it, and gentlemen what I have found is astounding!"
Both read a skeptical look on their faces.
"You guys don't believe me, fine but I cracked this code and with it I will create a perfect pair of ATs."
The looks of skepticism vanish and are replaced with looks of loathing.
Quan speaks first and loudest,
"YOU MISSSED SSSCHOOL TO WORK OUT SSOME SSHITTY AIR TRECK FORMULA!"
Ryoku's anger rises, fast,
"Its not shitty okay Quan, and don't fly off the handle over nothing."
Lee finally regains his breath and begins to speak.
"Rye, I have to agree with Quan on this one Air Trecks are pretty shitty."
The three boys speak in unison the two who are on the same page with gusto and feeling while
Ryoku "Rye" speaks with a dull voice that gives an indication as to just how times this mantra
has been given.
"ATs are for no-good do nothing losers who would rather fantasize about the sky then to
Actually make something of themselves, and their lives."
Rye, walks over to his desk and picks up his papers, stacks them neatly and bundles them up and
puts them into his backpack. Turning around the look in his eyes burns with furious intensity, he
stares down his friends and says,
"Regardless of what you think I'm doing this with or without you."
Quan steps boldly forward defying the look in his friend's eyes,
"And how are you going to do that, you haven't got the money to buy ATs, any money you
have is put away for college Rye, your broke."
Rye looks at his friend and sees the concern in his face; he gets it their worried about him.
"I'll make my own pair!"
The two friends leave their friend looking slightly defeated, but more determined.
Within twenty minutes of their visit Ryoku is dressed in a pair of green jeans white and green shoes and a white T-Shirt with green graffiti designs that read Sky Ripper on the back. He walks to a nearby train station and rides to the end of the line, close to the western outskirts of town towards the underside of the Great Tokyo Bridge. It's dark underneath due mostly to the mist that sets in the ravine, around one thirty in the day time the mist clears away, this is unseen by those on the Great Tokyo Bridge however. Ryoku gets there around one twenty-five and only waits a few minutes before the mist clears and beneath his feet lies a deep crack in the earth and in this crack the largest collection of ATs broken and busted up. Frames and bodies wheels and gears litter the ground. There were mounds of parts stacked in no particular order some of the reaching about halfway out the chasm, and there were some that reached three quarters of the way up, it was amazing.
Rye made his way to the edge of the ground and looked down into the crater to search for a way down. He found one about twenty feet to his right directly under a Great Tokyo Great Tokyo Bridge beam; the cracks there would make for a perfect set of footholds. As he began to lower himself down he could hear the raging horns from cars on the Great Tokyo Great Tokyo Bridge. He eases himself farther and farther down he gets about a quarter of the way down when realizes he's running low on footholds. But not to far from him is one of the high reaching piles of AT debris, praying to him briefly Rye leaps from the rock face and into one of the piles. Sliding and grinding down he lands with a thud on the ground some distance down.
Checking himself to make sure he is okay and seeing nothing wrong he begins to pick thru the debris searching for parts, his noise making is stifled by the commotion on the Great Tokyo Great Tokyo Bridge above. That noise grows louder and louder the closer the two oddly familiar figures approach the scene. As Quan and Lee look down into the wide spread Graveyard open below them, they immediately spot their misguided friend. As usual Quan speaks first and loudest but this time the volume is justified.
"YOU DIDN'T EVEN WAIT FOR USS TO GET HERE?"
Lee looks down at Rye and shouts,
"HOW DID YOU KNOW WE WERE COMING RYE!"
Rye looks up from the mass of parts laid out in front of him, and shouts back
"I KNEW YOU WOULD COME WE'RE FRIENDS, YOU WOULDN'T LET ME GET STUCK DOWN HERE. DID YOU BRING THE GEAR?"
The two open the duffle bags they brought with them, Lee shouts down
"YEA!"
In one duffle bag was a rig that the three friends had used to go down into a hole similar to this one to test wind velocity in a cave tunnel, they kept the gear. In the other was a massive assortment of various tools.
"GREAT PLEASE LOWER THE RIG AS SOON AS YOU HAVE IT ATTACHED!"
The two friends begin to setup the rig driving the stakes into the ground to set up the pulley system that raises and lowers the rig. Next they feed the wire through, just as they are about to secure the rig they are interrupted by the shouts of several loud voices they can't make out what they are saying but they do know that someone is coming.
"UHH RYE PEOPLE ARE COMING THIS WAY!"
Rye looks up placing his finger to his mouth indicating silence as he looks up to the opposite side of the crater's wall he hears them several voices at least four maybe more. The closer they get the louder their voices are and the easier it is to hear them.
"HAHAHA, DID YOU HEAR THAT DIPSHIT SCREAM HAHA!"
"YEA HE BEGGED US NOT TO BREAK HIS BIG BROTHERS ATS"
"PATHTIC, TO BAD NOW THE ONLY THING ON THAT WORKS IS THE MOTORS!"
Motors. Rye heard the word motors exactly what he needed, but from how these guys were
talking they hurt someone and took his ATs, the image of some poor kid broke into his mind
crying hurt without his ATs. The mysterious speakers walked to the edge of the chasm and
Rye got a glimpse of them, dressed in all black down to the ATs, their faces covered in hoods.
The pair of them spotted each other. The group and Ryoku, just in time to see each other before
the mist set in. The one holding the broken ATs shouted to the others,
"YOU GUYS SEE THAT, THERE'S SOMEONE DOWN THERE."
One of the other four responded,
"Yea we saw him and I saw his friends topside, Burst aim a blast at the opposite side.
The sound of AT wheels grinding in place fills the air then there is a burst of light and it flies
across the ravine, Quan and Lee leap out of the way but the rig is hit and blown off the rock face.
Quan shouts down to Rye before he looses sight of him,
"THE RIG IS GONE RYE!"
Rye looks up into the distraught face of is friend and sees his fear, on the opposite side Rye hears
the sinister group,
"HAH THE RIG'S GONE HE'S GOT NO WAY OUT HAHA!"
Rye shouts out his last hope,
"THROW ME THE TOOLS!"
Lee kicks the tool bag down into the ravine, where he last saw Rye, hearing it thud Rye runs to
its location the mist is a lot thinner down at the bottom he can see fairly well he grabs the tool
thinking to himself
"If I had a pair of ATs I could ride out, but I need those motors."
Rye looks up at where he suspects his friends are and cries out one last desperate plea,
"I NEED THE ATS THEIR HOLDING!"
Quan hears this and picks up some of the rig wreckage, as a blessed gust of wind blows to clear
the mist somewhat, he throws a gear and hits the hand of the one holding the ATs. Lee
comments,
"Nice throw."
Quan replies,
"Thanks Baseball."
Lee shouts down into the ravine,
"THEY FELL GO GET 'EM!"
Sprinting forward Rye spots the falling parts smacking against the rocks leaping he is able to
catch them. The sounds of grinding AT wheels is heard once again and a flash of light soars
across the sky above and Rye's two friends barely escape it. Rye can hear the group on the
opposite side arguing,
"Don't worry about them, get the kid down there first, it's hard to see him but aim for that pile of
wreckage down by him."
"Okay give him thirty seconds."
The AT wheels begin to grind, and Rye knows he only has thirty seconds he pulls out the
required tools and begins to piece together his own ATs. The sounds out work combat the timer
in his head, gears here
"twenty-eight"
screw here then a wheel
"twenty-one"
motor here gear and a screw
"fifteen seconds"
frame screws gear shifts, then the count down is heard out of his head the mysterious people on
the other side of the wall have begun to count down his doom.
"TEN, NINE, EIGHT, SEVEN, SIX, FIVE!"
The wheels begin grinding furiously Rye's fingers working all the more fiercely the grinding fills
his ears until
"TWO ONE!"
Burst the flash of light rages downward and strikes the monstrous pile, it collapse on itself
instantly and crashes to the ground. All is silent no one makes a sound, and yet there is a distinct
humming sound, the sound that comes from ATs however not one of the mysterious thugs has
their ATs running.
*The Great Tokyo Bridge that leads out of town has a mist that sets in
beneath it from five o' clock a.m. until one thirty in the afternoon, from then it is clear until
three thirty, after three thirty the mist is set in until three fifty-three when a gust of wind
channeled through the crack in the ground blows the mist Northward for two minutes. That pile
of AT rubble fell at three fifty-two.
From the newly cleared mist Ryoku is seen riding his own pair of makeshift ATs towards the
Rocks wall opposite of his friends, the length of two football fields away. Weaving in and out of
rubble he speeds towards the wall leaping off of a small pile of debris his ATs touch the wall
and he begins to spin outstretching his body he spins in a wide pattern, spreading his legs and
taking his hands off of the wall he starts to spin in a wider fashion following the map in his head,
"180, 360, 540, 720, 900, 1080, 1260, 1440"
Spinning in the corresponding fashion he carves his own path up the wall and out of the ravine.
But waiting there for him the one they called Burst his ATs fully charged he kicks a burst of
energy towards Ryoku, however it has yet to leave the realm of his Air Treck, as they still spin.
Placing his own spinning ATs on his the resulting charge blows everyone on the rock face
backwards several yards and Ryoku who is airborne upwards to the underside of the Great
Tokyo Bridge placing his feet above his head his ATs make contact with the Great Tokyo Bridge
and thrusting downward he is able to safely land on the side with his friends. Skidding
backwards several yards himself
he stops and stands staring down this mysterious group as they stare back. They continue as the
mist makes its way back under the Great Tokyo Bridge. There is a shift in the sound that the
ATs on the opposite side make less of grinding and more of a tearing sound. However it is
interrupted before it can be seen what becomes of it.
"Stop, with this mist if you were to miss with that technique you would destroy that Great Tokyo
Bridge, we don't need that!"
One of the other thugs speaks out,
"But that kid,"
"Don't worry we've seen his face, and as mismatched as those ATs he's wearing's
we'll see him again, after all Storm Chasers crush Storm Riders. Now let's go."
The sound of five ATs moving in unison is heard from across the gap and no more is seen from
the mysterious riders.
Rye turns and looks at his friends relived to see that they are okay, Rye looks down realizing that
he left his shoes down in the ravine, and that they are lost beneath the rubble. Not only that but
the rig was gone and so were the tools. He would make it up to them somehow. He walked them
to the train station then they departed ways, after he saw them on the train Rye rode home on his
make-shift ATs.