A/N: Hi, it's Tallulah here. This fic was co-written by me and Tei/Disk (also known as Tei, Tei Sama, Disk, Disk the GG, Disk Pantalaimon, Disk Skellington, Disk GIR and Crazy Bicycle Crotch.) He had the idea, he asked me to collaborate with him, and the fic was originally posted under his name. I'll always be grateful to him for being responsible for the creation of this fic. Sadly, he's now quit ff.net after a disagreement over censorship, essays, NC-17s, etc. So I'm reposting Skate Park. I hope you enjoy it.
A/N from Tei/Disk: Nihao! Upon writing a vast array of fanfics, Disk tends to find himself getting GREAT ideas but not quite enough time to apply them to any one particular fanfic. Such an example is one I got recently, one which had such great potential that I couldn't ignore it--instead, I've decided to take a new approach, and I asked another author if they'd like to collaborate with me on it. So now, it's our great pleasure to present this Tallulah and Disk Production called--
SKATE PARK
Chapter 1
By Disk ;)
Beat whistled and nodded his approval.
It was large--it took up a good portion of Center Point on its own. There were sections with so many different things to grind on--rails, walls, stairs, and more--that was so crowded with such things that Combo and Cube had taken to calling it Little Grind City. there were half-pipes, quarter pipes, walls, empty pools, bridges, ramps, straight-aways, mazes. It was just unbelievable the amount of crap the city and the Rokkaku Group had managed to cram in such a place! But by far, the most impressive of all was the full-pipe, which started to the left of the entrance and slanted downward, twisting and curving like a sinewy snake underneath the entirety of the park, only to reemerge in the far left corner of the entire property. It was goliath in comparison to even the half-pipe in Shibuya's sewers! Dotting the premises were several different kinds of snack shacks, with a daily charge of all-you-can-eat for one hundred yen, and great wooden telephone poles shot up into the sky, dutifully hanging large speakers that would soon constantly pump Jet Set Radio like a live-giving blood transfusion to any Rudies in need of a fix. The entire setup was surrounded by metal fence, and the large gate hung open so wide that six Poison Jammers and Slate could have walked in abreast.
The cool part was that, once that red ribbon was gone, the gates would never close. Ever.
Toji Rokkaku was standing on a raised podium in front of the park, looking slick with his combed-back hair, stiff-starched business suit, and square glasses. He was giving a speech to the assembled citizens, Rudies and press that included long words that escaped Beat's current vocabulary and lots of sweeping gestures. Most of it revolved around how Tokyo's supposed street-trash had risen up in a time of crisis for the town and saved everyone from the evil devisings of his father, but the GGs (and the rest of the Rudies, of course) already knew the story, and most of what Toji was talking about he'd pulled out of his ass anyway, so they were all just waiting there impatiently for their greatest triumph in all of Tokyo--excluding the events of the Final Groove, of course.
Of course, what would a town celebration be without "Shorty" Onishima there? He stood behind and to the right of Toji, looking as photogenic as a cow pie and wearing a scowl that made little children have nightmares. He was pissed about this particular event and especially his role in it.
The Rudies were being rewarded for saving Tokyo. The Rokkaku Group, as a way of showing thanks, had put this giant funspace together in a month to show their profound thanks for "clearing the slate," one-upping the Rhinos and offing Goji as they did in so many words. Rudieism was still illegal, but the skate park, Toji hoped, would keep the Rudies out of trouble as long as they had a big enough place to play in. Everything about being a Rudie was legal within the confines of the metal fence, and nowhere else.
Toji was actually very cool about Rudies, and if it weren't for the fact that he needed to make a good impression out of himself for the rest of the city, he'd probably have turned a blind eye towards the graffiti and the roller blading and the music, Beat thought. He smirked wryly at the thought, but split into a giant grin as Toji finished his speech and turned to Onishima.
"With this, I would like to have Police Captain Onishima Rezo christen this skate park in the name of all Rudies across the country." Toji, wearing a cool smirk, passed Onishima a pair of oversized golden scissors, which the pig snatched away begrudgingly. Grumbling to himself under his breath, Onishima tromped over to the red line of fabric preventing Beat from the best time of his out-of-bed life. He opened the scissors wide and brought them over the ribbon, hands trembling with the rage and disgrace that bubbled over so much that he was visibly shaking. Beat and Tab whooped from the crowd, and began chanting Onishima's most favorite nickname very loudly.
"SHOR-TY! SHOR-TY! SHOR-TY! SHOR-TY!"
Other Rudies, not just GGs, joined in the rising chant, until it was chorusing throughout the entire assemblage. Everyone who wasn't chanting was screaming in hysterical laughter, and even Toji allowed a chuckle to escape his wealthy lips.
For an eternity, Onishima held the scissors open over the ribbon, his entire body quaking all over with each "SHOR-TY" that rose up from the crowd until at last he screamed and snapped the blades closed. The ribbon didn't even get to flutter to the ground as Rudies from Benten, Kogane and Shibuya stampeded through, around, and over people to get inside. Let Mom Sleep started to scream over the speakers mounted on the wooden poles, Yo-Yo tripped as the ribbon stuck between his wheels, and Onishima would spend the next three weeks pulling Poison Jam scales from his teeth and figuring out interesting new ways to sit down without hurting all over.
Mew lazed back against one side of a southern-section snack shack, letting the warmth of the midday sun shine down upon her, making her seem like the damn laziest angel that anyone'd ever seen. She had her eyes closed and her hands behind her head, and she was wearing an electric-blue grin. It was at that time that Slate collapsed at her feet with a whoosh of air, to whom Mew opened an eye at.
"What's going on with you?" She sniggered.
"Already, the Noise Tanks and Poison Jam are causing trouble in the northeast and northwest," Slate grumbled, his nose pressed to the concrete. "They've taken Chi-gane and Chi-benten."
"What about the Love Shockers and the renegades?"
"They've made their own districts in the southeast and the west, called Shockworld and Lost Angles. It'll make it a lot easier on us in Chi-buya without so many loose cannons. Combo and Cube have gone off to Little Grind City and claimed it for their own."
"How many times have Beat and Tab made idiotic and clichéd war challenges and rushed into enemy turf before coming back more tagged than the buses on the bus route?"
"I've lost count. Last time it was about five."
"I see." Mew giggled this time. "What about the giant full-pipe?"
"That's freeground," Slate mumbled to the ground. "Nobody's daring to take that place. It's just too cool."
"How does baking concrete smell that close?"
"Not too well, actually. And I should know with this schnozz of mine..."
Mew giggled again. She drew her legs closer to her body and draped her arms over her knees. She took a glance up to the clear blue sky, and allowed a passive sigh to escape her lightening-colored lips.
"You know," She said, more to herself than to Slate, "Gum's not aware of what she's missing."
"She's plenty aware, all right," Slate argued, finally pushing himself up from the concrete and standing up full height, brushing his frontside free of dirt. "That's why she's not here in the first place."
"Aww! That's no excuse to drag Garam away from all the fun!"
"For those two, this wouldn't be the same," Slate shook his head. "Gum gets thrills from being chased by Keisatsu, and Garam thinks that this whole idea makes being a Rudie too easy. A few of our rivals feel the same way."
Mew shrugged, and clambered to her skates as well. "I still think they're being dumb. This place is great! Legal Rudieism...I never thought it'd happen. I never gave a damn about it, but here it is, and it's so cool..."
Shibuya
Gum snorted as she left a quick mark on the billboard high above the bus terminal. Far below, she could see Garam skating around and tagging whatever he could, working like a possessed fly that had grown incredibly bored in the meantime.
"What's wrong with them?" She growled, not quite sure who she was implying by saying "them." She shook her arm violently and crated an unusually angular tag on the roof of one of the buildings, dark and heavy, thick with emotions that she couldn't quite sort out.
Garam finished down below and headed for the stairs on one building's side, grinding up the safety rail, and popping up to the top of the building itself. He breezed past Gum and flashed a peace sign before jumping a gap and landing on a different roof, placing his Tokyo Underground tag between two heating pipes.
Gum groaned halfway through her tag and pitched the spraypaint can over the edge, it landing in the street and exploding all over the front hood of a nice car. Now it was shiny red with dark splotches streaking off, and the driver failed to take any notice, continuing to drive onward.
"Forget it," She snorted, jumping over to Garam and grabbing him by the arm. "The Keisatsu aren't coming."
"Huh? Aww, at least let me finish this tag--" Garam started, but Gum shook her head violently.
"We've been out here for an hour and a half," Gum growled. "They should have been here ages ago! I guess they're too busy having fun eating donuts at that damned skate park."
Garam shrugged. "Then we ought to be using this time wisely. We could take back Center Street and all the territory we lost to the Love Shockers when Combo, Tab, Piranha and Mew had the flu."
"What's the bloody point?!" Gum shrieked, giving another guttural growl. Her hands were balled into tight fists and her arms were at her sides. "The Love Shockers are all at the skate park! So are the Poison Jam and Noise Tanks! Even the damned Keisatsu! We could take all of Tokyo in a day like this! And you tell me, Buggy, where's the bloody challenge in that?"
Garam sighed and sat down on the roof, crossing his legs. "You've got a lot of good points. This really isn't much fun, is it?"
Gum let out a flustered breath and began to settle. She closed her eyes, counted to ten, and spoke again. "No, this isn't fun. But I refuse to set my big toe into the property of that skate park."
"I think we're being too critical," Garam noted. "It's a skate park. We can go there and stir up as much trouble as we want. We won't have to be bored out of our skulls."
"But being a Rudie in the skate park means nothing! You might as well be your average extreme sports athlete, only you can paint at the same time." Gum sneered at the thought of that wretched park. "And I'd rather not give up the only title I've got to me."
"All right, all right...geez." Garam didn't get up. "Let's at least hang out and listen to Jet Set Radio or something."
"Fine," Gum replied, sitting down on the baking concrete roof across from Garam. Together, the pair tuned into Jet Set Radio from their wrist radios, and Professor K's milk-chocolate voice rode out to greet them in his usual manner.
"JET SET RADIO! Hey, all you boys and girls out there in Rudieland, the new skatepark's now officially open and ready to serve you!"
Gum rolled her eyes. Professor K went on about the specs and perks of the park, and after what seemed like an hour-long episode of the Teletubbies, finally got onto the news that was worth listening to.
"Hey! The Golden Rhinos have been silenced forever thanks to the GGs, but the Keisatsu and the Rokkaku Group are still digging deep into the bowels of the operation that only Goji's most trusted men knew about! Toji Rokkaku was disgusted by a lot of the loathsome creatures Goji'd been creating down there--that's right, creating! The Golden Rhinos' scientific end had a branch dedicated to the creation of chimeras, man-made hybrids of many different species! One of the cages they found deep below the Rokkaku Tower's remains was empty, but while Onishima expressed profound worry for his job--I mean, the citizens of Tokyo, Toji just deemed it as something to brush off his crotch. Whatever was in there could have been taken out before the tower collapsed and put to sleep, if there was anything in there in the first place. If Goji were still alive, he'd be up for so many manslaughter and torture charges that you'd be able to put 'em all in a Chinese phone book-sized thing and smack him silly with it!"
Gum groaned. That wasn't interesting! With an aggravated sigh, she pushed to her feet and skated away, shaking her head in disappointment. Going back to the Garage would be a good idea. Maybe she could watch a movie or something.