Chapter 9: One Gang By Air, Two Gangs By Land
The rudies soon got bored waiting and decided to hang out in the Noise Tanks' HQ. They swapped LP's and had a little party of their own. Most rudies talked with each other and forgot that they were from rival gangs. They saw each other as fellow skaters. They even agreed to have a big party at least once a year to forget their rivalries for just that one night. The party continued until 6:00. Then, Beat had a brilliant idea, "D'oh!" he inwardly cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner, "Hey, guys!" "What is it, Beat?" came from everyone all over. "I just had an idea that could tip the scale in our favor even further!" Beat shouted. "What is it this time, GG?" Beat turned around, and saw the Love Shockers come up from behind him. "Good! Just the ladies for the job I had in mind!" Beat grinned. "What is it?" Grip, the leader of the Love Shockers demanded. "Listening to Jet Set Radio, I'm sure Pink will be able to tell us when the Jet Set leave the station for Benten, right?" Beat looked excited. "Yeah, what of it?" The Love Shockers were curious. Beat could sense their curiosity, "Here's my plan: I want you three to head to the Police Station and wait there." "Are you insane!?!?" Grip shouted, obviously pissed, "Do you want us to be slammed along with Poison Jam?!?! You traitorous dog!" she raised her fists, almost ruining the mood of the party. "No, wait!" Beat backed up a step, "You didn't let me finish! Wait there, but don't be seen. After the Jet Set leaves and reaches Benten, I want you three to spring out Poison Jam! The cops will never expect a suprise break out this soon!" Grip started to protest, went silent, and thought for a minute. If they would do this, the cops would definitely be off their guard and it shouldn't be too hard to spring the fishy freaks. A smirk rose on the lips of Grip and her followers, "Good plan, for a GG." "Thanks...I think." Beat blushed. "We shall wait for Pink's signal." With that, they were gone through the door and out of sight.
Beat felt an intense excitement rise up in him and he couldn't contain the laughing fit that ensued. After five solid minutes of laughing, Beat straightened up and did his best to stop his blushing. He looked around and saw the others were staring at him like he was some sort of lunatic. They were probably right. He also noticed that the music Professor K was cranking had also stopped. He told them of the plan and they laughed too, though not nearly as long. K radioed Pink to tell of the Jet Set's progress. He got an OK back and all the rudies returned to their partying, itching to pounce on those who would dare disturb their skating and tagging ways. Zeta told the others to get a little shut-eye. He knew that Strike would wait until after dark to show. Sun down occurred usually around 9:25 - 9:45. He set his alarm to 9:00 so everyone could completely wake up. They would be ready.
Meanwhile, at the Police Station:
"Strike!" a familiar scruffy voice called from behind a glass door with the lettering "Captain Onishima." "Yes, sir?" a young man, dressed entirely in black, entered the room. "Get your friends in here, too!" Onishima commanded. "Right away, sir." With that, the man in black exited the room and entered again followed by a huge figure clad in white and rather tall fellow wearing all red. "Sit down, all of ya'." Onishima sneered at the three. "You three know that I'm still not entirely thrilled of having to resort to using you guys to catch those punks out there," Onishima sighed, "But, you three really did a good job yesterday, I'm proud of you boys. Tonight, if you can pull this off, I'll promote you all to Lieutenant's!" Three pairs of bug-eyes appeared out of nowhere.
"Really!?!?" The man in black stood up, he then immediately sat back down, giggling to himself, "Uhh...sir." Onishima started to laugh, which doesn't happen often enough. "I should have expected that kind of reaction from you boys!!" He continued to laugh, almost uncontrollably. The three men just stared at the hysterical man in front of them. They didn't know if Onishima was laughing at their reaction, or from thinking of what it would be like to have two gangs in jail, or a somewhat odd mixture of the two. Their joy nearly melted into fear. After a brief moment of sanity, Onishima stopped laughing and tried to straighten his hair, which of course, didn't budge an inch no matter how hard Onishima tried. The man in black chuckled, "I've told you, sir. I have an uncle that works on hair. He could probably fix that for you." The other two joined his chuckling.
Onishima just glared at them, they promptly shut up, "I told you that personal hygiene always takes a back seat when there's a bunch of mangy punks trashing up my city!!" "Yes, sir." said the man in black, shortly before coughing. "Anyway, I'm having you three lifted to Benten via chopper. Your backup will leave shortly after you three do. You'll leave at around 9:30 with an E.T.A. of about five minutes." "Have us dropped off near the subway entrance in the business district." (I'm stopping this mysterious colored clothing thing. You already know who they are. If you don't, take the time to read the flipping story from the beginning, ya' foo'!!) Strike(man in black, duh) said. "Huh?" Onishima was caught off guard, "Why there? I was fixing to have you dropped off at the shopping mall!" "Let's just say I have my reasons." He smiled to Ultima(man in white, pay attention). Ultima just smiled back and Blood(man in red, should I spell it?) did the same. "OK, whatever you guys want. I'll head out there shortly after you guys leave too, wouldn't want to miss this party." Onishima said with a dark grin.
A young girl , plainly dressed in regular street clothes was waiting outside Onishima's office. She stood up, and with a shuffle in her bell-bottom jeans, walked out the building. She rounded the east corner, passed a dumpster, when someone grabbed her around the neck, covering her eyes, from behind. "Reveal thy name!" a voice whispered in her ear. "Damn it, Grip!!" the captive yelled, though not loud enough to alarm the policemen outside the precinct, "You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Grip chuckled and let go, "I've been waiting for you, Tallulah. So, what's the scoop??" "They're leaving at 9:30 by helicopter. The Poison Jam are being held in some cells in the basement, I know where they are." Tallulah snapped back at Grip, obviously pissed. "Good to go, my sweet. Head back to the HQ, get properly dressed and meet up back here as soon as you can. Evolove, let her use your skates until she gets back." "What? But I..." the Love Shocker trailed off. "Now, little lady!" Grip scolded her. "OK, fine!" she stomped, got out of her skates and angrily tossed them at Tallulah. "Geeze, it's not like I'm too thrilled using your skates either, Evo. I'll get them back to you in a jiffy!" with that, Tallulah blew her a kiss and raced off. Evolove just glared at her until she was out of sight. "Don't get too attached to them, even if they are only skates." Grip spoke up, "Remember what happened the last time you got too attached?" Evolove simply curled up. A tear streamed down her left cheek, though no one noticed.
The third Shocker started to laugh, but Grip quickly made her shut her lip. "What are you laughing for, Indigo? You were hurt just as bad as the rest of us, or don't you remember that?" Indigo stared at the ground and kept quiet. Grip stood up from behind the dumpster, "You two stay here." She dashed behind the building next to the precinct and worked her way to a pay phone. Fishing out a metal slug, she dialed a blur of numbers and waited. "Hey, waz' happenin'? You're on Jet Set Radio! In a minute you can speak with all of Tokyo-to as soon as this jammin' song kicks off." a male voice said, trying to sound like Professor K. Grip smiled, "Pink, get off your ego trip and listen up, this is Grip with word on the Jet Set." The voice became an octave lower, as if Pink was trying to impress her, she knew he had the hots for her. "Ahh... My lovely leading lady Love Shocker, to what pleasure do I owe such a call?" Grip rolled her eyes, "I have info on the Jet Set, ya dip!!" "Wha..what??" came Pink's voice as he almost tripped over some stereo cords. Grip suppressed a laugh with some difficulty, "They'll be leaving the station at 9:30. They're being transported by chopper, tell K and the others." Pinks voice lost it's deepness, "Wha...right, right. Say, Grip, what's the chance of a girl like you and a guy..." Grip slammed the phone before he finished the same line he always said every time she had the displeasure of reaching him while requesting a song on Jet Set Radio. She rushed back to her fellow Shockers.
When she got back, Tallulah was back and Evolove had already gotten her skates back. "Where did you go?" Tallulah asked. "I had to make a quick call to tell Pink what was going down." Grip still has a smile on her face. "Hah!" Indigo burst out laughing, "Let me guess, he tried tat same old tired line on you, huh?" "Yup, he'll never learn." Grip chuckled. Grip told Tallulah of their plan and the four Shockers waited for the right moment to strike.
Back at Noise Tank HQ:
"Yo! Listen up, everybody!" K shouted so all the rudies could hear him, "I just got word from Pink. The Jet Set will leave the precinct at 9:30 and will be arriving by chopper! It should only take 'em about five minutes to get here!" "So that means they'll be here in roughly fifteen to twenty minutes." Zeta said, after looking at his digital watch. "Allright!" Beat exclaimed, "Let's get up top! We are going to have guests!" With that, the rudies left the warehouse and hid back in the dark corners of the street. Beat, Tab, and Gum waited out in the open along with the Noise Tanks. They started to choreograph their moves so that they would look like they were rally fighting, but without actually hurting each other. What they didn't realize, is that they were being watched.
"Hey, guys. I got some news." Said a very young rudie into a radio. "Good to hear from ya, Catz. What's up, little dude?" Came Strike's voice on the other end. "I don't know how they knew when you would be getting here, but they seem to be planning some kind of ambush. It appears that the Noise Tanks are pretending to fight with some of the GG's. I guess the others will spring out of their hidey-holes when you guys get there." The twelve year-old reported. "So that it, huh? Thanks for the info, dude. It's too bad you're too young to fight with us. But you do good enough as an informant. I'll give the word to Blood and our brother. We are now getting into the choppers and are on our way. Strike over and out." The radio cut off. The youth in gray laughed, knowing that he had the best seat for the greatest show he would ever see.
Back to the Station(frequent flier miles, anyone?):
The choppers finally took off, but something wasn't right. "Two choppers?" Indigo asked, "I thought there was only three of them, why do they need two choppers?" "Who cares?" Tallulah snapped, "Maybe the other is for the rudies they capture. They won't get any, though." A fleet of police cars left the precinct in the direction of Benten. They waited a few minutes and finally Grip said it was time to go. They flew through the precinct with little to no resistance, most of the cops were out of the building, either on their nightly rounds or in Benten waiting for the big show. Most of the people there were secretaries. They first headed for the radio room to stop the Jet Set from learning they were there. After sending the equipment to electro-heaven, Tallulah and Grip raced to the basement with Tallulah leading the way. Evolove and Indigo stayed up top to deal with any cops that would try to stop them.
Tallulah found the Poison Jam, although they weren't in their outfits. She was shocked at how much they looked like normal people beneath those scaly suits they wore. She wondered for a minute what the Noise Tanks looked like. She came out of her trance when one of the guys spoke to her, "What are you girlies doin' here?" the voice was very rough and deep. "Savin' your scaly hides!" Grip yelled as she clipped the lock with a pair of bolt cutters she found on the way down. She decided to keep them as a souvenir. "But, why? We thought you hate us? Why you save us?" the boy said. Tallulah winced at the lack of grammar and the horrid smell of his breath. She started to cough, violently. "Uhh...Sorry 'bout dat." He said, "I not able to use my breath stuff since I stuck here." The three hulks walked out of the cell and hobbled over to a locker across the hall. Tallulah caught her breath again and stood up. The three opened the locker. Grip could see the familiar outfits and skates that was usually worn by the Poison Jam in the locker. The boys took the clothes and slipped on their uniforms with amazing ease. They came back to the girls after they got their skates on, "We thank you for prison bust. But, me need to ask again, why you help us?" Grip gave them the short version of the plan to take out the Jet Set. "We like!" came the roar of the three Poison Jam.
The five of them skated up to the other two Love Shockers. "Wha...four of you!?!?" the leader of the Poison Jam, Mag said. Grip chuckled and introduced them all to the Poison Jam. "Happy to meet girlies, I Mag, this here Tater and him Big." Mag said, trying to sound impressive. "Uh..., hi." Evolove said with a nervous smile, "Let's get outta here before more clones show up!" "You think they clones, too?" Big asked. "All the rudies, do." Said Indigo, holding her side. "You hurt! Me help Shocker!" Tater said as he picked up Indigo with no effort. He slung her over his shoulder. "No! You big lug! Put me down!" Indigo shouted, pounding on his back. "But you hurt. I help you." Tater said back. "It's OK Indigo." Tallulah said, laughing hysterically. "Yeah, take this time to get aquatinted." Grip wasn't able to keep from laughing. Tater blushed, "So soft." he mumbled to himself. The two gangs rushed out of the precinct, which now looked like it was hit by a tornado. They raced to Benten-cho as fast as they could, with a screaming Love Shocker over the shoulder of a blushing Poison Jam.
The rudies soon got bored waiting and decided to hang out in the Noise Tanks' HQ. They swapped LP's and had a little party of their own. Most rudies talked with each other and forgot that they were from rival gangs. They saw each other as fellow skaters. They even agreed to have a big party at least once a year to forget their rivalries for just that one night. The party continued until 6:00. Then, Beat had a brilliant idea, "D'oh!" he inwardly cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner, "Hey, guys!" "What is it, Beat?" came from everyone all over. "I just had an idea that could tip the scale in our favor even further!" Beat shouted. "What is it this time, GG?" Beat turned around, and saw the Love Shockers come up from behind him. "Good! Just the ladies for the job I had in mind!" Beat grinned. "What is it?" Grip, the leader of the Love Shockers demanded. "Listening to Jet Set Radio, I'm sure Pink will be able to tell us when the Jet Set leave the station for Benten, right?" Beat looked excited. "Yeah, what of it?" The Love Shockers were curious. Beat could sense their curiosity, "Here's my plan: I want you three to head to the Police Station and wait there." "Are you insane!?!?" Grip shouted, obviously pissed, "Do you want us to be slammed along with Poison Jam?!?! You traitorous dog!" she raised her fists, almost ruining the mood of the party. "No, wait!" Beat backed up a step, "You didn't let me finish! Wait there, but don't be seen. After the Jet Set leaves and reaches Benten, I want you three to spring out Poison Jam! The cops will never expect a suprise break out this soon!" Grip started to protest, went silent, and thought for a minute. If they would do this, the cops would definitely be off their guard and it shouldn't be too hard to spring the fishy freaks. A smirk rose on the lips of Grip and her followers, "Good plan, for a GG." "Thanks...I think." Beat blushed. "We shall wait for Pink's signal." With that, they were gone through the door and out of sight.
Beat felt an intense excitement rise up in him and he couldn't contain the laughing fit that ensued. After five solid minutes of laughing, Beat straightened up and did his best to stop his blushing. He looked around and saw the others were staring at him like he was some sort of lunatic. They were probably right. He also noticed that the music Professor K was cranking had also stopped. He told them of the plan and they laughed too, though not nearly as long. K radioed Pink to tell of the Jet Set's progress. He got an OK back and all the rudies returned to their partying, itching to pounce on those who would dare disturb their skating and tagging ways. Zeta told the others to get a little shut-eye. He knew that Strike would wait until after dark to show. Sun down occurred usually around 9:25 - 9:45. He set his alarm to 9:00 so everyone could completely wake up. They would be ready.
Meanwhile, at the Police Station:
"Strike!" a familiar scruffy voice called from behind a glass door with the lettering "Captain Onishima." "Yes, sir?" a young man, dressed entirely in black, entered the room. "Get your friends in here, too!" Onishima commanded. "Right away, sir." With that, the man in black exited the room and entered again followed by a huge figure clad in white and rather tall fellow wearing all red. "Sit down, all of ya'." Onishima sneered at the three. "You three know that I'm still not entirely thrilled of having to resort to using you guys to catch those punks out there," Onishima sighed, "But, you three really did a good job yesterday, I'm proud of you boys. Tonight, if you can pull this off, I'll promote you all to Lieutenant's!" Three pairs of bug-eyes appeared out of nowhere.
"Really!?!?" The man in black stood up, he then immediately sat back down, giggling to himself, "Uhh...sir." Onishima started to laugh, which doesn't happen often enough. "I should have expected that kind of reaction from you boys!!" He continued to laugh, almost uncontrollably. The three men just stared at the hysterical man in front of them. They didn't know if Onishima was laughing at their reaction, or from thinking of what it would be like to have two gangs in jail, or a somewhat odd mixture of the two. Their joy nearly melted into fear. After a brief moment of sanity, Onishima stopped laughing and tried to straighten his hair, which of course, didn't budge an inch no matter how hard Onishima tried. The man in black chuckled, "I've told you, sir. I have an uncle that works on hair. He could probably fix that for you." The other two joined his chuckling.
Onishima just glared at them, they promptly shut up, "I told you that personal hygiene always takes a back seat when there's a bunch of mangy punks trashing up my city!!" "Yes, sir." said the man in black, shortly before coughing. "Anyway, I'm having you three lifted to Benten via chopper. Your backup will leave shortly after you three do. You'll leave at around 9:30 with an E.T.A. of about five minutes." "Have us dropped off near the subway entrance in the business district." (I'm stopping this mysterious colored clothing thing. You already know who they are. If you don't, take the time to read the flipping story from the beginning, ya' foo'!!) Strike(man in black, duh) said. "Huh?" Onishima was caught off guard, "Why there? I was fixing to have you dropped off at the shopping mall!" "Let's just say I have my reasons." He smiled to Ultima(man in white, pay attention). Ultima just smiled back and Blood(man in red, should I spell it?) did the same. "OK, whatever you guys want. I'll head out there shortly after you guys leave too, wouldn't want to miss this party." Onishima said with a dark grin.
A young girl , plainly dressed in regular street clothes was waiting outside Onishima's office. She stood up, and with a shuffle in her bell-bottom jeans, walked out the building. She rounded the east corner, passed a dumpster, when someone grabbed her around the neck, covering her eyes, from behind. "Reveal thy name!" a voice whispered in her ear. "Damn it, Grip!!" the captive yelled, though not loud enough to alarm the policemen outside the precinct, "You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Grip chuckled and let go, "I've been waiting for you, Tallulah. So, what's the scoop??" "They're leaving at 9:30 by helicopter. The Poison Jam are being held in some cells in the basement, I know where they are." Tallulah snapped back at Grip, obviously pissed. "Good to go, my sweet. Head back to the HQ, get properly dressed and meet up back here as soon as you can. Evolove, let her use your skates until she gets back." "What? But I..." the Love Shocker trailed off. "Now, little lady!" Grip scolded her. "OK, fine!" she stomped, got out of her skates and angrily tossed them at Tallulah. "Geeze, it's not like I'm too thrilled using your skates either, Evo. I'll get them back to you in a jiffy!" with that, Tallulah blew her a kiss and raced off. Evolove just glared at her until she was out of sight. "Don't get too attached to them, even if they are only skates." Grip spoke up, "Remember what happened the last time you got too attached?" Evolove simply curled up. A tear streamed down her left cheek, though no one noticed.
The third Shocker started to laugh, but Grip quickly made her shut her lip. "What are you laughing for, Indigo? You were hurt just as bad as the rest of us, or don't you remember that?" Indigo stared at the ground and kept quiet. Grip stood up from behind the dumpster, "You two stay here." She dashed behind the building next to the precinct and worked her way to a pay phone. Fishing out a metal slug, she dialed a blur of numbers and waited. "Hey, waz' happenin'? You're on Jet Set Radio! In a minute you can speak with all of Tokyo-to as soon as this jammin' song kicks off." a male voice said, trying to sound like Professor K. Grip smiled, "Pink, get off your ego trip and listen up, this is Grip with word on the Jet Set." The voice became an octave lower, as if Pink was trying to impress her, she knew he had the hots for her. "Ahh... My lovely leading lady Love Shocker, to what pleasure do I owe such a call?" Grip rolled her eyes, "I have info on the Jet Set, ya dip!!" "Wha..what??" came Pink's voice as he almost tripped over some stereo cords. Grip suppressed a laugh with some difficulty, "They'll be leaving the station at 9:30. They're being transported by chopper, tell K and the others." Pinks voice lost it's deepness, "Wha...right, right. Say, Grip, what's the chance of a girl like you and a guy..." Grip slammed the phone before he finished the same line he always said every time she had the displeasure of reaching him while requesting a song on Jet Set Radio. She rushed back to her fellow Shockers.
When she got back, Tallulah was back and Evolove had already gotten her skates back. "Where did you go?" Tallulah asked. "I had to make a quick call to tell Pink what was going down." Grip still has a smile on her face. "Hah!" Indigo burst out laughing, "Let me guess, he tried tat same old tired line on you, huh?" "Yup, he'll never learn." Grip chuckled. Grip told Tallulah of their plan and the four Shockers waited for the right moment to strike.
Back at Noise Tank HQ:
"Yo! Listen up, everybody!" K shouted so all the rudies could hear him, "I just got word from Pink. The Jet Set will leave the precinct at 9:30 and will be arriving by chopper! It should only take 'em about five minutes to get here!" "So that means they'll be here in roughly fifteen to twenty minutes." Zeta said, after looking at his digital watch. "Allright!" Beat exclaimed, "Let's get up top! We are going to have guests!" With that, the rudies left the warehouse and hid back in the dark corners of the street. Beat, Tab, and Gum waited out in the open along with the Noise Tanks. They started to choreograph their moves so that they would look like they were rally fighting, but without actually hurting each other. What they didn't realize, is that they were being watched.
"Hey, guys. I got some news." Said a very young rudie into a radio. "Good to hear from ya, Catz. What's up, little dude?" Came Strike's voice on the other end. "I don't know how they knew when you would be getting here, but they seem to be planning some kind of ambush. It appears that the Noise Tanks are pretending to fight with some of the GG's. I guess the others will spring out of their hidey-holes when you guys get there." The twelve year-old reported. "So that it, huh? Thanks for the info, dude. It's too bad you're too young to fight with us. But you do good enough as an informant. I'll give the word to Blood and our brother. We are now getting into the choppers and are on our way. Strike over and out." The radio cut off. The youth in gray laughed, knowing that he had the best seat for the greatest show he would ever see.
Back to the Station(frequent flier miles, anyone?):
The choppers finally took off, but something wasn't right. "Two choppers?" Indigo asked, "I thought there was only three of them, why do they need two choppers?" "Who cares?" Tallulah snapped, "Maybe the other is for the rudies they capture. They won't get any, though." A fleet of police cars left the precinct in the direction of Benten. They waited a few minutes and finally Grip said it was time to go. They flew through the precinct with little to no resistance, most of the cops were out of the building, either on their nightly rounds or in Benten waiting for the big show. Most of the people there were secretaries. They first headed for the radio room to stop the Jet Set from learning they were there. After sending the equipment to electro-heaven, Tallulah and Grip raced to the basement with Tallulah leading the way. Evolove and Indigo stayed up top to deal with any cops that would try to stop them.
Tallulah found the Poison Jam, although they weren't in their outfits. She was shocked at how much they looked like normal people beneath those scaly suits they wore. She wondered for a minute what the Noise Tanks looked like. She came out of her trance when one of the guys spoke to her, "What are you girlies doin' here?" the voice was very rough and deep. "Savin' your scaly hides!" Grip yelled as she clipped the lock with a pair of bolt cutters she found on the way down. She decided to keep them as a souvenir. "But, why? We thought you hate us? Why you save us?" the boy said. Tallulah winced at the lack of grammar and the horrid smell of his breath. She started to cough, violently. "Uhh...Sorry 'bout dat." He said, "I not able to use my breath stuff since I stuck here." The three hulks walked out of the cell and hobbled over to a locker across the hall. Tallulah caught her breath again and stood up. The three opened the locker. Grip could see the familiar outfits and skates that was usually worn by the Poison Jam in the locker. The boys took the clothes and slipped on their uniforms with amazing ease. They came back to the girls after they got their skates on, "We thank you for prison bust. But, me need to ask again, why you help us?" Grip gave them the short version of the plan to take out the Jet Set. "We like!" came the roar of the three Poison Jam.
The five of them skated up to the other two Love Shockers. "Wha...four of you!?!?" the leader of the Poison Jam, Mag said. Grip chuckled and introduced them all to the Poison Jam. "Happy to meet girlies, I Mag, this here Tater and him Big." Mag said, trying to sound impressive. "Uh..., hi." Evolove said with a nervous smile, "Let's get outta here before more clones show up!" "You think they clones, too?" Big asked. "All the rudies, do." Said Indigo, holding her side. "You hurt! Me help Shocker!" Tater said as he picked up Indigo with no effort. He slung her over his shoulder. "No! You big lug! Put me down!" Indigo shouted, pounding on his back. "But you hurt. I help you." Tater said back. "It's OK Indigo." Tallulah said, laughing hysterically. "Yeah, take this time to get aquatinted." Grip wasn't able to keep from laughing. Tater blushed, "So soft." he mumbled to himself. The two gangs rushed out of the precinct, which now looked like it was hit by a tornado. They raced to Benten-cho as fast as they could, with a screaming Love Shocker over the shoulder of a blushing Poison Jam.
