The Wrath Of Yo-Yo

(Yo! Yo-Yo is back! Right. Okay. We don't own JSR, and the names Koji, Data, Giga and Shackler belong to NoiseTank XIII. Not us, him. However, the characters of the characters are ours so paws off! Please r+r!)

Cube sighed and felt miserable. Again.

It was six o'clock in the morning. She hadn't slept all night. Every time she'd closed her eyes, she'd remembered it – bionic hands on her body, one covering her mouth, the other touching her, caressing her…feeling cold metal bite into her wrists as she struggled to get away…

Cube felt her stomach lurch, and buried her face in her hands.

If it wasn't that, it was remembering her dream…she and Coin…together…safe…and he'd kissed her, and that had been nice, but then it had got too heavy, and she'd wanted him to stop….and he wouldn't…and terror had poured through her at the realisation that he wasn't going to… And she'd struggled to wake up – and it hadn't stopped. There'd still been someone lying next to her, someone kissing her – someone she'd thought she could trust. Another GG.

Cube clenched her fists. Talk about history repeating itself. Kell had done this to her twice now. Twice. What sort of idiot got herself done like that twice?

And Coin had gone. Again.

She knew that if only he was here, she would be all right.

But he wasn't. And from what the other GGs had said, he was dead by now. Frozen to death.

Cube felt tears come to her eyes. She couldn't cope with this. She'd had enough. Someone up there had a sick, twisted sense of humour to let this happen to her again.

Well, they'd won. She was crumbling.

She got out of bed and headed out of the infirmary.

It was very quiet. No one else seemed awake. Rudies liked to sleep late. Cube made her way to the kitchen. She'd decided what to do.

She closed the kitchen door and stood in the morning sunlight that streamed across the floor. Listened. Still silence. Good.

She opened one of the drawers, and took out the vegetable knife in there. It glinted in the sun.

Cube took a deep breath. So they wanted to see her hurt, did they? Well, fine. They'd see how she felt.

She bent back her left wrist. The veins were dimly visible below her pale skin. Her right hand held the knife. Her palms were damp, but her hands were steady.

Here goes.

The door opened.

Cube brought the knife down towards her wrist.

A large hand grabbed her right arm, and pulled the knife from her fingers.

"Don't." Combo sounded shaken.

"Combo, let me end it." Cube tried to grab the knife back.

"No. I can't let you do that."

"Why not? My life isn't worth living. Every time I think I'm handling it, someone slaps me down again."

"How d'you know? We don't know that Slate's dead."

"Oh, yeah? How long do you think he's going to survive like that? You saw the others when they came out. There's no way that Slate's still alive."

There's no way I can still be alive. Slate had been drifting in and out of consciousness for some time now. Sooner or later he knew he'd drift in and not out again. And he could no longer feel the cold. He could no longer feel anything.

He could hear ringing in his ears. This is it, he thought. The darkness began to take over his eyes. At least maybe in heaven he'd be able to move again…

Just as he was about to black out he felt the ice sliding away from his body. He blinked, and tried to see…but all he could make out was darkness.

"Uhhh…I'm blind…"

"No. It's just my hand."

Slate made three connections. One, he was talking. Two, he was shivering. Three, he could feel the guy's hand on his forehead.

The ice was gone.

The guy let his hand drop. Wrapping his arms around himself, Slate looked around. He was in a prison cell. The blue guy handed him the blanket off the cell bunk. Slate wrapped it around himself, noticing with not a little worry that his hands seemed sort of dead. They couldn't feel the inside of his gloves. Still, there wasn't much he could do about that at the moment.

"I'd better go. I'm making this place colder than it already is."

The blue guy stepped out of the cell, relocking the door behind him. Slate noticed the increase in temperature.

"Th – thanks," he called.

"No problem."

The guy turned and walked off down the corridor.

"Okaay…" Slate puzzled it out. "I just got saved by a dude who tried to kill me in the first place… this is too weird."

"Welcome, Mr – uh – Yo-Yo, to the Rokkaku Corporation." Koji paced proudly through the labs.

"Uh…yeah. Hi. Um…Onishima said you could help me get revenge."

"Oh, yes, that is very easy for us, Mr Yo-Yo. Trust us. We are here to help." Koji held out his hand.

Yo-Yo's brain was in turmoil.

What? What? He's a sleazebag! Leader of the Rokkaku Corporation! Bad guy, remember? Demons! Assassins! Guys with jet packs shooting you! Mad Poison Jammers! Mad brainwashed Poison Jammers! Are you nuts?

Yo-Yo shrugged. He shook Koji's hand.

"Combo, let go of my arm."

"Sorry, Cube, no can do."

"I'm not gonna ask you again. Let go. It's my life and I'm free to end it if I want to."

"Cube – if you end your life, then I'll have to come too so I can be with you and look after you. And dat really mucks up my social life, because the new Jurassic-5 album's coming out."

"Don't try and make me laugh, Combo. I'm not going to stop."

"Even if you do punch me, I doubt you'll be able to get your arm out of my grip. Now knock it off, okay? You're tougher than this. Remember your tag? Tougher Than You?"

"I'm not, though. I can't stand this any more."

"I'll help you. Come on. The guys need you. Slate needs you. Heck, I need you."

Cube sighed, and, hardly knowing why, she let him take away the knife. Then she hugged Combo. Combo hugged her back.

"Come on. Let's get you back to bed."

Cube let Combo escort her back down to the infirmary.

"Oh, yeah…Combo. I never got to thank you."

"For what?"

"For going down on your knees in front of that slimy, good for nothing bitch." Cube felt a sob rise up in her throat. "You didn't have to…"

"You know I'd do anything for you."

"Thanks, Combo. I needed that."

"You're sure this thing's gonna work?" Yo-Yo looked nervously at the giant apparatus around him.

"Oh, of course, Mr Yo-Yo," Koji said, smoothing his goatee. "The chances of you being injured are incredibly remote."

"Well, if you're sure."

"Of course. Now, I will place the Brain Wave Isolator And Deatomizer on your head."

"Okay. What does this thing do, anyway?" Yo-Yo asked as the machine hummed into life around him.

"Oh, it just wipes your brain."

"What? Oh, man, now I remember where I've seen this before! It's one of those helmets you put on the Poison Jammersssssss…"

Yo-Yo slumped in the chair.

Koji pressed a button on one of the panels. It slid open, and in came three scientists carrying a metallic suit.

"Begin the creation of Assassin Number Eight," Koji said.

Slate was humming 'Recipe For A Perfect Afro.'

"What? What the hell? How on earth did you get out of that ice?"

Slate looked up as Onishima stormed along the corridor towards his cell. He decided not to mention the blue guy – evidently he'd been going behind the Police Chief's back.

"Uhhh…I thawed about curry…and beaches…and beautiful babes?"

Onishima scowled. "Well, you shouldn't be able to thaw that ice at all. BLIZZARD!"

The blue guy strolled into view. "Yeah, dad?"

Dad? Slate gulped.

"How did that ice melt?"

"I don't know. Maybe he was close to a furnace or something. It's not permanent. Not unless I want it to be."

"Well, it melted. Explain! Now, or you're grounded!"

"Ooh, I'm really shaking. I don't know how the dumb ice melted. Now just get off my back about it."

"You're almost as bad as those rudies," Onishima muttered.

"Don't compare me to those freaks."

"Freaks?" Slate yelled. "Take a look in the mirror, sometime, bozo!"

"Shut up, you," the other two snarled.

Slate carefully stepped away towards the back of the cell. These guys were weird and dangerous.

Suddenly there was a loud crash from overhead, and the sound of a buzzsaw.

"Dad, what the hell is that?"

"Don't call me dad. That's – uh – your mum throwing a tantrum. It appears she lost her little pet."

"Cube, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Those damn GGs busted her out. But not before Kell got a little fun out of her." Onishima sniggered.

Slate rushed up to the bars, the blood pounding in his head. "Hey, you bastard! What the hell do you mean, she got some fun out of her? If that bitch touched her I'll kill all of you!"

"Ah, shut up, rudie, like you could do anything to any of us." There was a thump that shook the ceiling. Onishima sighed. "I'd better go and try and calm your mum down."

He clattered away.

"Hey, Blizzard! Ice dude!" Slate called. "What happened?"

Blizzard turned and walked over to the bars. "Ah…how can I put this nicely? Wait – I can't. My mum – uh – screwed your girlfriend."

Slate grabbed Blizzard's boiler suit and slammed him against the bars. He was surprisingly light, but Slate was too angry to notice. "I'll kill you, you – you cold-hearted, blue, son of a bitch! You and your fucking mum too!"

"Hey, back off. It wasn't like it was my fault or anything. If you want the truth, I actually saved one of your own kind – and I don't know why I bothered." He shook himself free from Slate's grip. "They're right. You rudies are worthless anyway."

"Guys, here's the plan." Beat slammed his fist down on the table. "We have to rescue Slate."

"Oh, great, not another rescue," muttered Gum.

"Hey, I'm not leaving one of our own in that – that police station!"

"Welll…I suppose we have to get him out." Gum sighed. "It'd do Cube some good to see his face again."

"Okay. I reckon it should just be me, you and one of the Tabs."

"Fine. I'll go find Present Tab." Gum walked out of the kitchen and started to head towards the tunnels.

Just then an explosion knocked the door clean off its hinges.

"What the hell? –"

GGs came rushing out of the tunnels to see what had happened.

A short figure was standing framed in the doorway. The light glinted off its gold-coloured armour. It stepped into the room. Then they realised. It was wearing skates.

Beat studied the figure. Its hands seemed to be glowing with a kind of red energy, and the Rokkaku symbol on its chest was smoking.

"Who – who are you?" asked Future Tab.

"You mean you don't know?" Beat asked.

"No, this never happened in my future."

"Uh-oh."

They heard a monotone voice. "Primary target selected. Termination imminent."

The figure raised an arm and pointed at Beat. The red energy began to charge up.

"Get down!" yelled Gum, and threw Beat to the floor. A blast of laser ripped over their heads and disintegrated part of the infirmary door.

"Eek," muttered Future Tab.

Omega stuck his head through the gaping hole in the door. "What the heck…"

The monotone voice changed in pitch. "New target selected. Will terminate with extreme violence."

The being unfolded some wings. Two cannons popped out of the wings and aimed at Omega's head.

"Burn in hell, scumbag," grated the voice.

There was a whooshing noise, and two rockets took off towards the infirmary. One hit the remains of the door and blew them to oblivion, and the other just missed Omega and sent him flying against the wall.

The figure skated into the infirmary and picked him up by the front of his jacket in one hand. The other hand began to charge up a laser blast. This one would not miss.

"Lemme go!" Omega struggled to get free. One hand caught the figure's mask, and knocked it off. It clattered to the floor.

Everyone gasped.

"Yo-Yo?" Gum stammered out at last.

"What are you doing?" Mew yelled. "Put him down, Yo-Yo, put him down right now!"

Yo-Yo ignored her. He brought the laser very close to Omega's head.

Omega panicked.

"OkayokayIadmitit! It wasn't him! It was me! I'm the one who hit on Cube now please don't kill me don't kill me don't kill me!"

There was a fizzing noise, and the aerial on top of Yo-Yo's head spat out more electricity.

Yo-Yo suddenly screeched, dropped Omega and clutched his head. "Guys…" he struggled to say. "What's going…on…"

"Yo-Yo, come on," Mew yelled. "You can do it! Come on, what happened to the nice little kid I used to know?"

"I…am…not…your slave…" Every word seemed an effort.

"Come on!" Mew came closer to him, gripped his shoulders.

"Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!"

Yo-Yo wrenched the control headpiece off his skull, and then collapsed on the floor in a cold sweat.

"Yo-Yo?" Mew knelt down beside him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…urrgh…geez…my head kills…" He fell unconscious.

Combo marched into the room. "So."

"Eep." Omega gulped.

"You're the one who bothered Cube."

"Uh…yeah…heh, heh…"

Combo looked down quite pleasantly. "I'm going to kill you," he said. "No, I'm not joking. You're gonna die."

"Guys, grab him!" Beat yelled. Every rudie in the room leapt onto Combo. He tried to get to Omega. He swung one arm, rudies trailing off it like streamers.

"Combo, violence is not the answer!" Beat yelled, clinging on like a limpet. "You do not want to fight!"

"Yes, I do."

"Why?"

"This bastard made Cube try and commit suicide!" Combo roared.

"Oh." Beat thought about it. "Okay, everyone off."

"Wait! Wait!" Omega backed away. "Aren't you on my side?"

"Hello?" Gum snapped. "You make our friend try and kill herself, we are definitely positively absolutely not on your side."

The rudies were now walking towards Omega, looking murderous.

"Wait!" Data rushed between them and him.

"Are you crazy?" Gum snapped. "He's a pig!"

"I know. I know. But you don't want his blood on your hands. Just let him go. I'll make sure no rudie ever speaks to him again."

"Data…"

"Don't talk to me." Data didn't even look at him. "Now get your butt out of here before I let them get you."

Omega scrambled to his feet.

Yo-Yo blinked and sat up. "Hey, guys, are we killing that Noise Tank? Let me help!" He pointed one of his arms at the ceiling and fired.

There was a loud crash, and a shower of plaster decorated the GGs.

"Oops. The trouble is, now I'm no longer under mind control, I sort of forgot how to use this thing…"

"Go practise outside!" Gum ordered.

Yo-Yo trudged outside, and the GGs felt explosions rocking the ground, and a voice muttering, "So if I do this, this happens…"

"And as for you," Gum snapped, turning on Omega. "Go. Now. Or suffer the consequences."

Omega ran.

"Hey, come back, you baka!" There was a sound of lasers hitting walls.

"Yo-Yo!" Mew yelled.

"Sorry…Spoilsport. Hmm. What does this button do?"

A short silence, then…

"Wooah! I'm flying! Yo! I'm flying! Woo-hoo! Yee-ha! What? No – wait – how do you turn this thing – uh-oh – Yow!"

There was a metallic clang. The GGs winced.

"We'd better get him out of that suit," Gum said. "Tabs, get moving."

"I'll kill them!" Kell threw a few chairs into the air and pulverised them with her fist. "I'll kill them all!"

"Well, you won't have to," Onishima said, quickly sliding the remaining chairs away from her. "I've already got one of my best agents on the job."

"Oh, yeah, and who might that be?" Kell snarled. "Don't tell me you're trying bugs again."

"No, I've actually turned one of the GGs into a mindless cyborg Assassin."

Kell thought about it, then shrugged. "Cool."

Onishima's mobile phone went off. "Just a second." He answered it.

"Hello?…Yeah…Uh-huh…What?…Well, can't you try and…no…well, no one's gonna like this…namely me. Uh-huh. Well, ciao."

"Something went pear-shaped?" Kell said sweetly.

Onishima glared at her. "We lost the signal from his mind-control helmet. Which means he's taken it off. Damn!"

"Oh, well…I guess this means I get to play with the GGs again…right?" Kell smirked.

"Oh, all right. Go have your fun."

"Oh, not today, honey…I'm a little tired…aren't you too?" Kell sidled closer to him and wrapped a large arm around his shoulders.

Onishima looked nervously at the buzzsaw next to his head. "Umm…yeah…but what're we gonna do about the GG downstairs?"

"Oh. Slate." Kell sighed. "You think we should let Blizzard have some fun with him….cos I sure wanna have fun with you…"

"Oh, stop it!" Onishima shoved her off. "Fine, Blizzard can kill him. But you might want to send a ransom note to the GGs anyway. It might be useful."

"Sure, sure. But after we've finished our…um…business."

Outside the door, Blizzard shuddered. His parents could be really sick when they wanted to.

So, they wanted him to kill the rudie? With what?

Blizzard looked nervously at his hands. His ice powers? But that wasn't killing. That was just reducing pursuit. Right?

He glanced at a wall, and froze it. Hmm. Looked okay. He tapped it, and it crumbled into a million pieces.

Kell and Onishima were making out on the other side.

"Oops. Sorry." Blizzard shut his eyes. "Just testing out my powers, you know…got a little carried away…"

"Like hell you did," Onishima snarled. "Get out of my sight!"

Blizzard dashed away down the stairs. Soon he'd reached the corridor leading to the cells.

Surely he couldn't have killed people. His parents might be a little wacky, but they'd have told him, right?

On the other hand…his mother seemed to like hurting people…something he'd never liked to think about…and his father hated rudies.

But that was okay, too. Rudies were evil. They were worthless. They didn't do anything but go around scribbling on walls. Everyone he'd known told him that.

Oh, it was too hard to think. Maybe the rudie's input would make things clearer.

Blizzard walked down the corridor and stopped outside Slate's cell. Slate was sitting in the corner staring out of the window.

"What do you want?" he snapped as Blizzard approached.

"Just wanted to talk."

"Like I want to talk to you? Your mum screwed my girlfriend!"

"Why do you care?"

"Duh! She's my girlfriend! I just said that! And your mum is…well, a psychotic evil bitch! And Cube's only just got over the last time this happened. So I'm a little bit pissed off right now!"

Blizzard mulled it over. The whole speech was baffling.

"What's a girlfriend?"

Slate looked at him in surprise. "Uh…you don't know what a girlfriend is? How old are you?"

"About…a year old, I think."

"Okay, this is weird." Suddenly Slate's eyes narrowed. "Hang on…you're like our age…and so is Kell. How can she be your mum?"

"Ohhh…Koji Rokkaku stuck me in an aging machine when I was ten months old. And gave me these ice powers. Unfortunately, I didn't learn all the things that you guys must have done in your childhoods. Mum and Dad told me some stuff…and the machine taught me stuff like talking and walking and reading…but there seems to be a lot I don't know."

"That is really sick. Poor you." Some of the bitterness left Slate's voice.

"So I was just wondering. What's a girlfriend?"

"It's like…a girl you really, really like…someone you love. And who likes you back. That bit's sort of important."

Blizzard thought about it. "What's love?"

Slate groaned. "Oh, boy. Love is…um…sorta, well, you know what to like something is, right?"

"Yeah."

"Love is like that, only like a hundred times stronger. If you love a person, you want to…sort of spend the rest of your life with them. Like I do with Cube. I guess."

"Oh. Uhh…can I ask you something else?"

"I guess so."

"Would I have killed you if I'd left you in that ice? It just…I thought you looked a bit uncomfortable in there, so I took you out."

"I think I can say with absolute certainty – I'd be dead if you hadn't taken me out of that ice."

"Oh, no…" Blizzard swallowed. Suddenly his stomach felt icy cold (even colder than normal.) "Excuse me…"

He rushed from the room and was sick.

Once he'd finished, he didn't feel any better. His hands were shaking, and his skin was speckled with flecks of frozen sweat.

"Hey, you okay?" Slate called.

Blizzard walked back in. He shivered. That was extremely unusual.

"Geez, settle down," Slate said. "It's not like you killed anyone."

"How do you know?" Blizzard gripped the bars, trying not to freeze them solid. "The others who were with you…"

"My friends picked them up. They'll have defrosted them. Unfortunately you picked me up before they could."

"My mum told me to. I was supposed to collect all six of you, but when I saw your friends I kinda panicked. I just feel…scared…I've got the power to kill people…"

"Hey, it's okay. You're in control of yourself, aren't you? It's not like you're going to go psychotic and run around freezing everyone in sight."

"But why didn't they tell me?" Blizzard said miserably. "They're my parents…"

"How can I put this?" Slate said. "Your parents are…um…mentally different from most of us. In a word, nuts."

"My parents…are psychos?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Well, how do I know I can believe you?" Blizzard demanded. "You're just a rudie, anyway."

"And what's that supposed to mean? You said you saved one of us!"

"Yeah…well…I just felt I had to…" Blizzard remembered the odd feelings he'd felt at the sight of the girl. "Anyway, everyone knows rudies are scum!"

"What? Everyone? Would these people who told you that happen to be known as Kell, Onishima and Koji Rokkaku?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Well, they hate rudies. Kell was one once, but –"

"My mum was a rudie? Yeah, right!"

"She wears skates, doesn't she? Anyway, they want you to think that so you can help them kill us. They all hate us GGs."

"GGs?"

"That's the name of our gang. And a gang is like a group of friends, in case you didn't know. Anyway, Onishima hates all rudies for some vague and unspecified reason, Kell hates the GGs because we almost killed her…that was an accident, or so I'm told. I wasn't there because I was helping a friend your mum had stabbed."

"My – my mum stabbed someone?"

"She has a habit of doing stuff like that. Don't tell me you haven't noticed. Anyway, Koji hates us because we defeated his father who was trying to take over the world with a demon."

"Okay. My ideals are now totally screwed." Blizzard tried to absorb all the information he'd just gathered. "And my mum and dad want me to kill you."

"Oh. Okaayyy…Blizzard, old pal…can you get me out of here?"

"Uh…I suppose." Blizzard gripped the bars. They turned to ice. He kicked them, and they shattered.

"Woah. Blizzard, you are one cool dude."

"I'll take that as a compliment. Right?"

"Yeah. Cool means, like, radical, and radical means good. Only don't say radical, cos it's not cool any more."

They crept along the corridor.

"Okay. So radical is no longer radical. I'm beginning to understand."

Slate pushed open the front door of the police station. "Hey, Blizzard, why not come with us?"

"Uh…"

"It'll get you away from all the killing."

"Okay. I'll get to see that girl again, right?"

"Which girl was it?"

"She had pink hair and a uniform like my mum…but she was much prettier."

"That would probably be Alex. So let's go."

Suddenly –

"Ah hah! Trying to sneak away with my son, are you?" Onishima leant out of the upstairs window, minigun aimed at Slate.

"I'm not sneaking away, I'm running away!" Slate yelled. "Totally different!"

He and Blizzard started to run.

Onishima yelled, "Hey boys! Stop those two right now!"

Slate groaned as he heard the familiar "Hut Hut Hut," echoing around them. Soon he and Blizzard were surrounded by police infantry.

"Blizzard, you've got to use your powers and get us out!"

"But I don't want to kill anyone…"

"If you don't do something they will kill us and it will totally not be cool!"

"Uh-oh…moral dilemma…"

"Yo, yo, Slatester man! Yo-Yo air taxi here to save the day!"

Slate looked up. Yo-Yo was wearing a strange robot suit and hovering above them, laughing madly.

"Yo-Yo?"

"That's right, Slate! I've come to take you back to Cube! Oh, man, it's the ice dude – run! Run!"

"No, wait – Blizzard's on our side now."

"Ohhh…okay…Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times!"

Yo-Yo swooped down and picked up the two guys and they headed off back towards the garage.