Chapter 01 - Back to the Past
(Tallulah here - that sleazebag brother of mine has left me to upload this on my
own so you won't receive his comments at the moment...maybe later!
Anyway, hope you like this chapter - written by N1K the Rudie, formerly
known as Silver Star Sayain, and typed up, spellchecked and abetted by moi. It
would help if you had read my fic 'Down And Out' as this is turning into a
sequel to it - hint hint...Anyway, please r+r this chapter!)
Date: 6th July, 2001
Tab opened his eyes, and sat up. He was lying on the roof of the garage. The
old garage. Below him he could hear Shibuya-cho waking up.
There was no death. No destruction. No flying robots. No insane
laughter. No body parts all over the place.
"Yessssss! It worked! Right on!" Tab did a little victory dance on the
roof, and fell through the skylight.
"Yaaaaaaaaaaa! Oh, oww, oh man, ohhhh man! That hertz!"
Someone groaned. "What's going on?"
"Yo-Yo?"
"Yeah...what is it, Tab?" Yo-Yo blinked a little.
"You're alive! You're alive!" Tab hurtled over to Yo-Yo and hugged
him.
"Okay...Tabster, man...you can put me down now...this looks kinda
weird, you know what I mean...Anyway, of course I'm alive. Why wouldn't I
be?"
Tab dropped Yo-Yo, who looked at him in surprise. "Why are your
clothes different? And what's that on your face? And...shit, man, where's
your bobble hat...and your hand?"
"I can explain everything," Tab said. "Get the others in here. Quick."
Soon the main area of the garage was full of GGs, plus one Noise Tank,
one Poison Jammer, and one Love Shocker.
"Okay, then," said past Tab, "What's the deal, Yo-Yo? Who's that?"
"Uh - hi, me." Future Tab grinned.
"What do you mean by 'hi, me?" past Tab asked.
"I'm you," said future Tab.
"Oh...my...god." Past Tab's jaw dropped. "What's happened to your
hat?"
"It got burnt off by a flamethrower."
"Okay, enough reminiscing here," Beat said. "Who are you, what are
you doing here, and what do you want?"
"Okay, you're probably not gonna believe me here, but I'm from the
future."
"You're right," Gum said. "We're not gonna believe you. Come on,
let's chuck him out, we got a loony here."
"Woah, woah, how about I tell you something about the GGs no one
else would know? Then will you not throw me out?"
"Uh - okay. But I bet you can't tell us anything," Gum muttered.
"Okay. Goji Rokkaku was not killed in a construction accident. I saw
him die. You tagged Mew's tag on his head, and he tripped and fell off the
building. Hah!"
"Well, that proves you're a rudie," Gum said. "Not necessarily that
you're Tab from the future."
"Right then, how about I tell you what colour Tab's eyes are?"
"That's impossible, no one knows that."
"Wanna bet? They're orange! In your face!"
"Tab, is this true?"
Present Tab stared at the floor. "Yeah, unfortunately it is." He dashed forward and grabbed Beat's shirt. "But if you breathe a word of this to anyone, I will kill you all!"
"Okay, fine. No one knows." Beat turned back to future Tab. "So
you're Tab from the future. What do you want?"
"Ah. Now, this is gonna sound really, really clichéd, but I'm here to
warn you."
"Boring!" Yo-Yo yelled.
"No, listen. In my future, you're all dead."
"No way! That's not possible!" Garam said.
"Fraid so, Garam old buddy. I've seen it all. Onishima - basically
decimates every single rudie on the planet."
"I've found a hole in your story!" Gum marched forward and poked
Tab in the chest. "Onishima's dead. We were holidaying in Grind City, and he
chased us up onto the roofs of Grind Square -"
"Yeah, and you ground out along one of the American flags, he leaned
out to grab you, and fell. I know. I saw it happen. Or rather, he did." Future Tab pointed at past Tab. "Anyway, he's not dead."
"Boring!" Yo-Yo yelled again.
"Will you shut up? He's not dead. Just near-fatally paralysed, but not
dead."
Yo-Yo opened his mouth. Future Tab charged across and jammed his
paint cannon into it. "Now listen. This gun can fire paint capsules at one
hundred and fifty miles per hour, at the slowest. Now are you gonna shut up,
or shall I shoot the back of your head off?"
Yo-Yo gurgled, and Tab let go of him and continued his story.
"Anyway, as I was saying, you know Koji Rokkaku?"
"Yeah. Goji's son. Majorly cute," Mew said.
"He may be cute, but he's also downright evil. Must run in the family.
He's picked up Onishima and taken him off for five years of robotic surgery.
When he comes out, he'll be Delta Onishima."
"Who or what is Delta Onishima?" asked Gum.
"He's a robot. With Onishima's brain and head in it. He's got minigun,
two shotguns and some wire spikes."
"What the hell are wire spikes?" asked Cube.
"Oh, they're these little rocket-powered spikes you fire at rudies which
have a thin but incredibly powerful wire attached to them, and they wrap round
the rudies and drag them back to Onishima. They should be on the streets in
about two years. And, Cube, Alex..." He turned to the Gothic GG and the Love Shocker leader. "I have some real, real, majorly real bad news."
"What?"
"Kell is back."
There was a long, worried silence, as all the GGs remembered the
psychotic Love Shocker leader. Not only had she loathed, hated and despised
the GGs, she had conceived an attraction for Cube, and sworn revenge when it
hadn't been returned. This revenge had taken the form of tagging all of
Shibuya-cho with Love Shocker tags, giving Cube two broken legs and later
raping her, stripping Gum of her rudieship, trying to scar Mew, and
blackmailing Piranha, who had been a former Love Shocker. In the end Kell
had been tagged ten times herself and had then had a nasty accident...
(A/N from Tallulah: I've created a monster...)
"She's dead," Cube said at last. "She fell off a building - oh. Wait.
Koji picked her up too..." Tab was nodding. "And he's revived her?"
"Yep."
"Oh, man."
"When she first appears, she's like a hundred times more dangerous than
Delta Onishima. But then, Onishima goes back to Koji, and tells her that he's
not strong enough to control Kell - or Chaos Kell, as he calls her."
"This just gets better and better," Cube groaned.
"And...he goes in there for about two more years of robotic surgery, and
comes out as Neo-Onishima. The most deadly, psychotic cyborg ever to walk
the planet."
There was another long, worried silence. Onishima was bad enough.
Kell was bad enough. Both of them as cyborgs was even worse. And both of
them as super-cyborgs was potential catastrophe.
"And there's one more thing."
"There's more?"
"Onishima learns how to skate."
All the GGs burst out laughing.
"Onishima? Skate? I don't think so!" shrieked Piranha.
"No, really, I'm serious. He becomes the best skater ever. Well, the
best skater you can be when you're a ten-foot tall cyborg."
All of the GGs turned very, very pale.
"And then - we all die?" Mew said at last.
"Yep. Except me. I manage to escape back to here, through the time
portal I've conjured, and I tell you guys all about this. Which is just what's
happening now."
"We noticed. Okay, so we get the picture. So we know what's gonna
happen. How do we stop it?"
"That's the part I haven't quite got to yet."
"You don't know?" Beat yelled.
"We've got five years, we've got five years!" Tab said hastily. "Oh,
yeah, one more thing - if you find a dead Noise Tank lying under a blood-red
tag saying You're Next GGs, signed C.K, we know Kell's back."
"Duh. I think we could've worked that one out for ourselves," Cube
said. She looked the palest of all of them, even under her Goth make-up.
"So. We like have five years to prepare for this. Couldn't you have
come at a different time?" Mew pouted. "This is going to totally mess up my
social schedule. I mean, with Onishima dead - or whatever - think of all the
parties there are to go to..."
"Allow me to put it this way," Future Tab said. "I believe Koji may
have detected the flux in the space-time continuum as I entered your
dimension."
"In English?"
"He knows I'm here. And supposedly he will try and ice me."
"What, now?" Beat said.
"Yeah. Because he knows I could muck up his plans. But Tab, man.
Tab. Tab. Me, even. If you get a mysterious letter in the post saying...now
what was it?...oh, yes, 'Dear Mr Rudie, you have won the Rokkaku Grand
Prize. Please come to the top of the Rokkaku building at 4:30 today,' go
there."
"Why?"
"Because you'll learn all about genetic cybernetic healing. So this'll
mean you'll be able to fix the GGs when they get damaged in the battles with all these cyborgs. Course, I'll
be there to help you."
"Are you staying here, then?" Beat asked.
"Well, it's not like I've got anywhere else to go. My old dimension was
trashed and I can't get back there anyway."
"What - you mean there are two Tabs?" Yo-Yo said. "Oh, no, this is
gonna seriously muck up my trick-playing plans...Tab, old buddy, old friend,
old pal...do you forgive me for putting custard in your hat? You do, right? I
don't wanna get smushed by two Tabs..."
"Ah, poor liddle Yo-Yokins," Mew said, patting him.
"She called me Yo-Yokins! Yes! I'm one step closer to the bed."
"Eeeuw!" Mew swatted him across the head.
"Right, enough messing about," Beat said. "Here is our plan. We sneak
into the Rokkaku headquarters, and smush the robots before they can be turned
on - and no dumb jokes, Yo-Yo! Does that sound like a good plan, Future
Tab?"
"Yeah, sounds good to me."
"Then let's do it."
In the evening, six dark shapes crept towards the Rokkaku building.
"So, Future Tab? What's the plan?" Combo whispered.
"I thought we figured this out this morning! We go in, we smash the
robots before they wake up, we get out. Got it?"
"Right."
"Cube, get the crowbar," Beat hissed.
"Okay."
WHAM!
"Not so loud, you idiot!"
"Sorry."
WHAM!
"That's better!"
Soon the door was open.
"Okay, if I can just remember which way it was..." Tab said.
"What do you mean, if you can remember? This place is probably
booby-trapped! They'll be expecting us, numb nuts!" Gum snapped.
"Okay, okay, don't worry, I know which way to go. Now if I can just
find a plug socket..."
"A plug? A plug? What do you need a plug for?"
Tab got a plug out of his bionic hand and jammed it into the socket he'd
found on the wall. "Now, if I can just locate a digital map...Combo, quit
humming the Digimon theme tune before I kill you!"
"Sorry, man."
"Right. I know which way to go. We need to go left."
"Are you certain?"
"Totally. But let me go first, 'cos I know where all the traps, guns,
infra-red beams, etc, are."
"Okay..." Gum gripped the front of his boiler suit. "But if you get us
all killed I am so gonna kill you!"
"How?"
"In the afterlife!"
They reached the robotic gestation sector.
"There they are!" Tab whispered, pointing to two glass coffins in the
middle of the room. "Combo, guard the door. Gamma, Beat, with me. Cube,
Gum, make sure the robots don't do anything they're not supposed to."
"Like what?"
"Like wake up unexpectedly and slaughter the lot of us!"
"Oh, okay."
Gum looked down at Onishima's frozen face. "Eeuw." She didn't often
use Mew's phrases, but there was no other word for it.
She looked over at Cube, who looked like she was about to be sick.
Gum couldn't blame her. Chaos Kell was - ugly. Most of her face had been
replaced by armour plating, and she seemed to have grown four extra limbs, all
with various spiky and vicious implements on the ends. She still wore tattered
Love Shocker uniform, but her skates appeared to be rocket boosters.
But the sadistic smirk she'd always had was still on her face, rippling in
the cold fluid that bathed the robots.
Gum glanced over at the three guys tapping away at the keyboard, then
back to Kell. She still had an eyepatch, of sorts. Her other eye was closed.
Click.
The eye opened.
Cube yelped and backed away. "Uh - guys?" Her voice trembled.
The fluid in the tank swirled as Kell struggled to break free of the bonds
that held her.
"Cube, we're busy!"
"Guys..." Cube's voice rose up the panic scale.
"Cube, leave us alone!"
"Oh, for crying out loud," Gum snapped. Dashing over, she grabbed
Tab and spun him round to face the tanks, just as an armoured fist smashed
through the top of one of them.
Kell sat up, glinting in the moonlight.
"Cube, honey...I'm ba - ack."
"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttt!" cried the GGs.
"Well, well, well. Look who's here. Hey! Onishima! Get your ass out
of that stupid containment unit!" She kicked it.
There was a grunt from inside. Tab frantically began to type, trying to
override Onishima's circuits, but Kell shot out a wire spike.
"Woah!" Tab ducked. The spike shot over his head. "Hah! You
missed!"
"No, I didn't."
The computer exploded.
"This is bad..." Tab groaned, rubbing soot off his face.
Just then another metal fist broke through the other containment unit.
"All right, which one of you punks woke me up?" growled a familiar voice.
Standing on his three spider-like metal legs, Delta Onishima stepped out
of the remains of the containment unit. Instead of his left hand there was a
primed minigun, and on the other there were two sets of wire spike cannons
surrounding a bionic hand. The original Onishima's head was encased in a
plexiglas dome, bathed in a fluid which gave him life. He had also gained
several inches.
The shotguns on his shoulders swivelled around and pointed directly at
Beat. "Ah ha! The infamous leader of the GGs! Prepare to die, scumbag!"
BOOM!
"Noooooooooo!" Gum threw herself at Beat, and they both crashed to
the floor as the bullets passed over their heads, taking a chunk out of the wall.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
The circular saw shot over Cube's head as she dodged another attack
from Kell.
"Come on, Cube, you know I want you..."
Her gigantic metal fist flew towards Cube's head.
"Uh-oh -"
She ducked at the last second and the fist pulverised the door behind her.
Growling, one of Chaos Kell's drill arms smashed a pile of chairs
leaning against the wall.
"Guys, I think we need to get out of here!" Future Tab yelled.
"You're - yipe - telling - woah - me? - arrgh -" Cube gasped as she
dodged Kell's fists.
"Okay, now I just have to try and remember the way out of here..." Tab
said.
"What?" Gum screeched as she grappled with Onishima. "You don't
know the way out of here?"
"Uhhh...no."
Cube stepped backwards, trying to keep out of the way of those
glittering fists. And then (yep, you guessed it) she felt the cold plaster of the
wall behind her.
"Oh, shoot. Look, Kell, about that whole accidental death thing - can't
we talk it over like responsible adults? You know, have my people call your
people?"
"No."
The large spiked drill shot towards her.
Cube ducked, rolled, felt dust speckle her skin as Kell tore through the
wall like it was paper.
"Mr Rokkaku is not going to like this," she muttered.
"Run!" yelled Tab, grabbing Gum's wrist and dragging her towards the
hole in the wall. Combo grabbed Beat and Cube, and Gamma just ran.
"No - don't -" yelled Gum. "You don't know how high up -
arrrrrrrrrrrrgh!"
They jumped.
Cube shuddered as the Shibuya streets rushed towards her -
Suddenly there was a twang, and Combo, still clutching her round the
waist, ground down the telephone wire they'd landed on. Cube glanced back,
and saw a twisted, spiky figure jump out of the hole after them.
"Hurry," she said to Combo.
"I'm working on it," Combo said. "It's not easy with you and leader
guy hanging onto me!"
He jumped onto the roof of a building, and dropped Beat and Cube.
"Uh-oh..." Gum looked back as she jumped onto the roof as well.
Kell was speeding towards them, looking like a cross between a spider
and body-piercing kit gone horribly wrong.
"This calls for a little help from the inside," Tab said, kneeling down
next to the wire.
"What inside?"
"The inside of my arm." He pressed the side of his visor, and a scalpel
shot out of the side of his paint cannon. He chopped through the wire.
There was a crash, and a snarl of rage tore through the air.
"Now we run," he said. "Very, very fast."
And the GGs dashed away.
Meanwhile at the police station...
A three-legged figure clattered through the door.
"Hi, boys. Remember me?"
"But - but - you're dead!" stuttered the desk sergeant.
"Oh, yeah, I was...BUT I'M NOT NOW! Who's in charge?"
"Uh - uh - Captain Toshiko - sir -"
"Well, not no more he ain't!"
The desk sergeant listened as Onishima charged through the office door
without even opening it first.
"Right, you! Get your butt out of here RIGHT NOW!"
"You can't do this!"
"Watch me!"
Pyeeeeow pyeeeow pyeeow
"Arrgh! Help! Mummy!"
Crrrrrrrrr
"I'm going! I'm going! Here's my badge! I quit!"
The desk sergeant heard a metallic clatter, and then the sound of
desperately running feet. He looked up as Ex-Captain Toshiko came dashing
past, the ground he was covering becoming peppered with bullets. At last he
reached the door, and threw himself out into the night.
Onishima turned round, a smug expression on his face. The other
officers were glancing out of the other rooms, looking puzzled. Onishima
shrugged.
"What? Haven't you ever seen a man get literally fired before?"
The Love Shockers sat in a circle around the fire on the floor of their decaying
factory HQ, eating Chinese takeaway.
"You know," Dash said, swallowing a mouthful of noodles, "Shibuya's
been really boring since Alex began hanging out with the GGs so much."
"Yeah," Shar agreed. "I wish something would happen. You know,
make things a little more interesting."
CRASH.
The door fell down as a buzzsaw hacked the hinges off.
"Huh?"
"Hi, girls. Miss me?"
There was a clatter as four pairs of chopsticks hit the ground.
"K - K - Kell?" Dash had gone white.
"Well, I was just in the neighbourhood, and I thought I'd drop by and
see my old friends. You know, the ones who abandoned me?" Kell's voice
dropped to a snarl.
"Look..." Shar stammered. "You know, that whole throwing down our
weapons and siding with the GGs thing....oh, man, we are so dead..."
"Got it in one, Shar." Kell shot forward.
The buzzsaw rose. There were screams.
Two minutes later Kell picked her way delicately out of the burning
factory.
"Well, that was easy enough," she murmured. "Now to pay a little visit
to the Poison Jammers."
Her buzzsaw gleamed red in the moonlight.
(Tallulah: that was horrible! You killed my Love Shockers, you evil slimeball!
Anyway, I've finished sobbing on the keyboard, so all you kits, kats and dawgs
out there (to borrow a phrase from Prof K) go r+r NOW! I've got my
machete...)
(N1K the Rudie): Ah, quit your whining. I had to get rid of them. Storyline,
etc. Aaah...a new name, a new chapter...life is good. And you can make it
better by r+ring!)
(Tallulah here - that sleazebag brother of mine has left me to upload this on my
own so you won't receive his comments at the moment...maybe later!
Anyway, hope you like this chapter - written by N1K the Rudie, formerly
known as Silver Star Sayain, and typed up, spellchecked and abetted by moi. It
would help if you had read my fic 'Down And Out' as this is turning into a
sequel to it - hint hint...Anyway, please r+r this chapter!)
Date: 6th July, 2001
Tab opened his eyes, and sat up. He was lying on the roof of the garage. The
old garage. Below him he could hear Shibuya-cho waking up.
There was no death. No destruction. No flying robots. No insane
laughter. No body parts all over the place.
"Yessssss! It worked! Right on!" Tab did a little victory dance on the
roof, and fell through the skylight.
"Yaaaaaaaaaaa! Oh, oww, oh man, ohhhh man! That hertz!"
Someone groaned. "What's going on?"
"Yo-Yo?"
"Yeah...what is it, Tab?" Yo-Yo blinked a little.
"You're alive! You're alive!" Tab hurtled over to Yo-Yo and hugged
him.
"Okay...Tabster, man...you can put me down now...this looks kinda
weird, you know what I mean...Anyway, of course I'm alive. Why wouldn't I
be?"
Tab dropped Yo-Yo, who looked at him in surprise. "Why are your
clothes different? And what's that on your face? And...shit, man, where's
your bobble hat...and your hand?"
"I can explain everything," Tab said. "Get the others in here. Quick."
Soon the main area of the garage was full of GGs, plus one Noise Tank,
one Poison Jammer, and one Love Shocker.
"Okay, then," said past Tab, "What's the deal, Yo-Yo? Who's that?"
"Uh - hi, me." Future Tab grinned.
"What do you mean by 'hi, me?" past Tab asked.
"I'm you," said future Tab.
"Oh...my...god." Past Tab's jaw dropped. "What's happened to your
hat?"
"It got burnt off by a flamethrower."
"Okay, enough reminiscing here," Beat said. "Who are you, what are
you doing here, and what do you want?"
"Okay, you're probably not gonna believe me here, but I'm from the
future."
"You're right," Gum said. "We're not gonna believe you. Come on,
let's chuck him out, we got a loony here."
"Woah, woah, how about I tell you something about the GGs no one
else would know? Then will you not throw me out?"
"Uh - okay. But I bet you can't tell us anything," Gum muttered.
"Okay. Goji Rokkaku was not killed in a construction accident. I saw
him die. You tagged Mew's tag on his head, and he tripped and fell off the
building. Hah!"
"Well, that proves you're a rudie," Gum said. "Not necessarily that
you're Tab from the future."
"Right then, how about I tell you what colour Tab's eyes are?"
"That's impossible, no one knows that."
"Wanna bet? They're orange! In your face!"
"Tab, is this true?"
Present Tab stared at the floor. "Yeah, unfortunately it is." He dashed forward and grabbed Beat's shirt. "But if you breathe a word of this to anyone, I will kill you all!"
"Okay, fine. No one knows." Beat turned back to future Tab. "So
you're Tab from the future. What do you want?"
"Ah. Now, this is gonna sound really, really clichéd, but I'm here to
warn you."
"Boring!" Yo-Yo yelled.
"No, listen. In my future, you're all dead."
"No way! That's not possible!" Garam said.
"Fraid so, Garam old buddy. I've seen it all. Onishima - basically
decimates every single rudie on the planet."
"I've found a hole in your story!" Gum marched forward and poked
Tab in the chest. "Onishima's dead. We were holidaying in Grind City, and he
chased us up onto the roofs of Grind Square -"
"Yeah, and you ground out along one of the American flags, he leaned
out to grab you, and fell. I know. I saw it happen. Or rather, he did." Future Tab pointed at past Tab. "Anyway, he's not dead."
"Boring!" Yo-Yo yelled again.
"Will you shut up? He's not dead. Just near-fatally paralysed, but not
dead."
Yo-Yo opened his mouth. Future Tab charged across and jammed his
paint cannon into it. "Now listen. This gun can fire paint capsules at one
hundred and fifty miles per hour, at the slowest. Now are you gonna shut up,
or shall I shoot the back of your head off?"
Yo-Yo gurgled, and Tab let go of him and continued his story.
"Anyway, as I was saying, you know Koji Rokkaku?"
"Yeah. Goji's son. Majorly cute," Mew said.
"He may be cute, but he's also downright evil. Must run in the family.
He's picked up Onishima and taken him off for five years of robotic surgery.
When he comes out, he'll be Delta Onishima."
"Who or what is Delta Onishima?" asked Gum.
"He's a robot. With Onishima's brain and head in it. He's got minigun,
two shotguns and some wire spikes."
"What the hell are wire spikes?" asked Cube.
"Oh, they're these little rocket-powered spikes you fire at rudies which
have a thin but incredibly powerful wire attached to them, and they wrap round
the rudies and drag them back to Onishima. They should be on the streets in
about two years. And, Cube, Alex..." He turned to the Gothic GG and the Love Shocker leader. "I have some real, real, majorly real bad news."
"What?"
"Kell is back."
There was a long, worried silence, as all the GGs remembered the
psychotic Love Shocker leader. Not only had she loathed, hated and despised
the GGs, she had conceived an attraction for Cube, and sworn revenge when it
hadn't been returned. This revenge had taken the form of tagging all of
Shibuya-cho with Love Shocker tags, giving Cube two broken legs and later
raping her, stripping Gum of her rudieship, trying to scar Mew, and
blackmailing Piranha, who had been a former Love Shocker. In the end Kell
had been tagged ten times herself and had then had a nasty accident...
(A/N from Tallulah: I've created a monster...)
"She's dead," Cube said at last. "She fell off a building - oh. Wait.
Koji picked her up too..." Tab was nodding. "And he's revived her?"
"Yep."
"Oh, man."
"When she first appears, she's like a hundred times more dangerous than
Delta Onishima. But then, Onishima goes back to Koji, and tells her that he's
not strong enough to control Kell - or Chaos Kell, as he calls her."
"This just gets better and better," Cube groaned.
"And...he goes in there for about two more years of robotic surgery, and
comes out as Neo-Onishima. The most deadly, psychotic cyborg ever to walk
the planet."
There was another long, worried silence. Onishima was bad enough.
Kell was bad enough. Both of them as cyborgs was even worse. And both of
them as super-cyborgs was potential catastrophe.
"And there's one more thing."
"There's more?"
"Onishima learns how to skate."
All the GGs burst out laughing.
"Onishima? Skate? I don't think so!" shrieked Piranha.
"No, really, I'm serious. He becomes the best skater ever. Well, the
best skater you can be when you're a ten-foot tall cyborg."
All of the GGs turned very, very pale.
"And then - we all die?" Mew said at last.
"Yep. Except me. I manage to escape back to here, through the time
portal I've conjured, and I tell you guys all about this. Which is just what's
happening now."
"We noticed. Okay, so we get the picture. So we know what's gonna
happen. How do we stop it?"
"That's the part I haven't quite got to yet."
"You don't know?" Beat yelled.
"We've got five years, we've got five years!" Tab said hastily. "Oh,
yeah, one more thing - if you find a dead Noise Tank lying under a blood-red
tag saying You're Next GGs, signed C.K, we know Kell's back."
"Duh. I think we could've worked that one out for ourselves," Cube
said. She looked the palest of all of them, even under her Goth make-up.
"So. We like have five years to prepare for this. Couldn't you have
come at a different time?" Mew pouted. "This is going to totally mess up my
social schedule. I mean, with Onishima dead - or whatever - think of all the
parties there are to go to..."
"Allow me to put it this way," Future Tab said. "I believe Koji may
have detected the flux in the space-time continuum as I entered your
dimension."
"In English?"
"He knows I'm here. And supposedly he will try and ice me."
"What, now?" Beat said.
"Yeah. Because he knows I could muck up his plans. But Tab, man.
Tab. Tab. Me, even. If you get a mysterious letter in the post saying...now
what was it?...oh, yes, 'Dear Mr Rudie, you have won the Rokkaku Grand
Prize. Please come to the top of the Rokkaku building at 4:30 today,' go
there."
"Why?"
"Because you'll learn all about genetic cybernetic healing. So this'll
mean you'll be able to fix the GGs when they get damaged in the battles with all these cyborgs. Course, I'll
be there to help you."
"Are you staying here, then?" Beat asked.
"Well, it's not like I've got anywhere else to go. My old dimension was
trashed and I can't get back there anyway."
"What - you mean there are two Tabs?" Yo-Yo said. "Oh, no, this is
gonna seriously muck up my trick-playing plans...Tab, old buddy, old friend,
old pal...do you forgive me for putting custard in your hat? You do, right? I
don't wanna get smushed by two Tabs..."
"Ah, poor liddle Yo-Yokins," Mew said, patting him.
"She called me Yo-Yokins! Yes! I'm one step closer to the bed."
"Eeeuw!" Mew swatted him across the head.
"Right, enough messing about," Beat said. "Here is our plan. We sneak
into the Rokkaku headquarters, and smush the robots before they can be turned
on - and no dumb jokes, Yo-Yo! Does that sound like a good plan, Future
Tab?"
"Yeah, sounds good to me."
"Then let's do it."
In the evening, six dark shapes crept towards the Rokkaku building.
"So, Future Tab? What's the plan?" Combo whispered.
"I thought we figured this out this morning! We go in, we smash the
robots before they wake up, we get out. Got it?"
"Right."
"Cube, get the crowbar," Beat hissed.
"Okay."
WHAM!
"Not so loud, you idiot!"
"Sorry."
WHAM!
"That's better!"
Soon the door was open.
"Okay, if I can just remember which way it was..." Tab said.
"What do you mean, if you can remember? This place is probably
booby-trapped! They'll be expecting us, numb nuts!" Gum snapped.
"Okay, okay, don't worry, I know which way to go. Now if I can just
find a plug socket..."
"A plug? A plug? What do you need a plug for?"
Tab got a plug out of his bionic hand and jammed it into the socket he'd
found on the wall. "Now, if I can just locate a digital map...Combo, quit
humming the Digimon theme tune before I kill you!"
"Sorry, man."
"Right. I know which way to go. We need to go left."
"Are you certain?"
"Totally. But let me go first, 'cos I know where all the traps, guns,
infra-red beams, etc, are."
"Okay..." Gum gripped the front of his boiler suit. "But if you get us
all killed I am so gonna kill you!"
"How?"
"In the afterlife!"
They reached the robotic gestation sector.
"There they are!" Tab whispered, pointing to two glass coffins in the
middle of the room. "Combo, guard the door. Gamma, Beat, with me. Cube,
Gum, make sure the robots don't do anything they're not supposed to."
"Like what?"
"Like wake up unexpectedly and slaughter the lot of us!"
"Oh, okay."
Gum looked down at Onishima's frozen face. "Eeuw." She didn't often
use Mew's phrases, but there was no other word for it.
She looked over at Cube, who looked like she was about to be sick.
Gum couldn't blame her. Chaos Kell was - ugly. Most of her face had been
replaced by armour plating, and she seemed to have grown four extra limbs, all
with various spiky and vicious implements on the ends. She still wore tattered
Love Shocker uniform, but her skates appeared to be rocket boosters.
But the sadistic smirk she'd always had was still on her face, rippling in
the cold fluid that bathed the robots.
Gum glanced over at the three guys tapping away at the keyboard, then
back to Kell. She still had an eyepatch, of sorts. Her other eye was closed.
Click.
The eye opened.
Cube yelped and backed away. "Uh - guys?" Her voice trembled.
The fluid in the tank swirled as Kell struggled to break free of the bonds
that held her.
"Cube, we're busy!"
"Guys..." Cube's voice rose up the panic scale.
"Cube, leave us alone!"
"Oh, for crying out loud," Gum snapped. Dashing over, she grabbed
Tab and spun him round to face the tanks, just as an armoured fist smashed
through the top of one of them.
Kell sat up, glinting in the moonlight.
"Cube, honey...I'm ba - ack."
"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttt!" cried the GGs.
"Well, well, well. Look who's here. Hey! Onishima! Get your ass out
of that stupid containment unit!" She kicked it.
There was a grunt from inside. Tab frantically began to type, trying to
override Onishima's circuits, but Kell shot out a wire spike.
"Woah!" Tab ducked. The spike shot over his head. "Hah! You
missed!"
"No, I didn't."
The computer exploded.
"This is bad..." Tab groaned, rubbing soot off his face.
Just then another metal fist broke through the other containment unit.
"All right, which one of you punks woke me up?" growled a familiar voice.
Standing on his three spider-like metal legs, Delta Onishima stepped out
of the remains of the containment unit. Instead of his left hand there was a
primed minigun, and on the other there were two sets of wire spike cannons
surrounding a bionic hand. The original Onishima's head was encased in a
plexiglas dome, bathed in a fluid which gave him life. He had also gained
several inches.
The shotguns on his shoulders swivelled around and pointed directly at
Beat. "Ah ha! The infamous leader of the GGs! Prepare to die, scumbag!"
BOOM!
"Noooooooooo!" Gum threw herself at Beat, and they both crashed to
the floor as the bullets passed over their heads, taking a chunk out of the wall.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
The circular saw shot over Cube's head as she dodged another attack
from Kell.
"Come on, Cube, you know I want you..."
Her gigantic metal fist flew towards Cube's head.
"Uh-oh -"
She ducked at the last second and the fist pulverised the door behind her.
Growling, one of Chaos Kell's drill arms smashed a pile of chairs
leaning against the wall.
"Guys, I think we need to get out of here!" Future Tab yelled.
"You're - yipe - telling - woah - me? - arrgh -" Cube gasped as she
dodged Kell's fists.
"Okay, now I just have to try and remember the way out of here..." Tab
said.
"What?" Gum screeched as she grappled with Onishima. "You don't
know the way out of here?"
"Uhhh...no."
Cube stepped backwards, trying to keep out of the way of those
glittering fists. And then (yep, you guessed it) she felt the cold plaster of the
wall behind her.
"Oh, shoot. Look, Kell, about that whole accidental death thing - can't
we talk it over like responsible adults? You know, have my people call your
people?"
"No."
The large spiked drill shot towards her.
Cube ducked, rolled, felt dust speckle her skin as Kell tore through the
wall like it was paper.
"Mr Rokkaku is not going to like this," she muttered.
"Run!" yelled Tab, grabbing Gum's wrist and dragging her towards the
hole in the wall. Combo grabbed Beat and Cube, and Gamma just ran.
"No - don't -" yelled Gum. "You don't know how high up -
arrrrrrrrrrrrgh!"
They jumped.
Cube shuddered as the Shibuya streets rushed towards her -
Suddenly there was a twang, and Combo, still clutching her round the
waist, ground down the telephone wire they'd landed on. Cube glanced back,
and saw a twisted, spiky figure jump out of the hole after them.
"Hurry," she said to Combo.
"I'm working on it," Combo said. "It's not easy with you and leader
guy hanging onto me!"
He jumped onto the roof of a building, and dropped Beat and Cube.
"Uh-oh..." Gum looked back as she jumped onto the roof as well.
Kell was speeding towards them, looking like a cross between a spider
and body-piercing kit gone horribly wrong.
"This calls for a little help from the inside," Tab said, kneeling down
next to the wire.
"What inside?"
"The inside of my arm." He pressed the side of his visor, and a scalpel
shot out of the side of his paint cannon. He chopped through the wire.
There was a crash, and a snarl of rage tore through the air.
"Now we run," he said. "Very, very fast."
And the GGs dashed away.
Meanwhile at the police station...
A three-legged figure clattered through the door.
"Hi, boys. Remember me?"
"But - but - you're dead!" stuttered the desk sergeant.
"Oh, yeah, I was...BUT I'M NOT NOW! Who's in charge?"
"Uh - uh - Captain Toshiko - sir -"
"Well, not no more he ain't!"
The desk sergeant listened as Onishima charged through the office door
without even opening it first.
"Right, you! Get your butt out of here RIGHT NOW!"
"You can't do this!"
"Watch me!"
Pyeeeeow pyeeeow pyeeow
"Arrgh! Help! Mummy!"
Crrrrrrrrr
"I'm going! I'm going! Here's my badge! I quit!"
The desk sergeant heard a metallic clatter, and then the sound of
desperately running feet. He looked up as Ex-Captain Toshiko came dashing
past, the ground he was covering becoming peppered with bullets. At last he
reached the door, and threw himself out into the night.
Onishima turned round, a smug expression on his face. The other
officers were glancing out of the other rooms, looking puzzled. Onishima
shrugged.
"What? Haven't you ever seen a man get literally fired before?"
The Love Shockers sat in a circle around the fire on the floor of their decaying
factory HQ, eating Chinese takeaway.
"You know," Dash said, swallowing a mouthful of noodles, "Shibuya's
been really boring since Alex began hanging out with the GGs so much."
"Yeah," Shar agreed. "I wish something would happen. You know,
make things a little more interesting."
CRASH.
The door fell down as a buzzsaw hacked the hinges off.
"Huh?"
"Hi, girls. Miss me?"
There was a clatter as four pairs of chopsticks hit the ground.
"K - K - Kell?" Dash had gone white.
"Well, I was just in the neighbourhood, and I thought I'd drop by and
see my old friends. You know, the ones who abandoned me?" Kell's voice
dropped to a snarl.
"Look..." Shar stammered. "You know, that whole throwing down our
weapons and siding with the GGs thing....oh, man, we are so dead..."
"Got it in one, Shar." Kell shot forward.
The buzzsaw rose. There were screams.
Two minutes later Kell picked her way delicately out of the burning
factory.
"Well, that was easy enough," she murmured. "Now to pay a little visit
to the Poison Jammers."
Her buzzsaw gleamed red in the moonlight.
(Tallulah: that was horrible! You killed my Love Shockers, you evil slimeball!
Anyway, I've finished sobbing on the keyboard, so all you kits, kats and dawgs
out there (to borrow a phrase from Prof K) go r+r NOW! I've got my
machete...)
(N1K the Rudie): Ah, quit your whining. I had to get rid of them. Storyline,
etc. Aaah...a new name, a new chapter...life is good. And you can make it
better by r+ring!)