If Xing perchances to see this, let it be known to him he is a dick licker. That is all. Thank you for your time.















Chapter 4 : Loser





 Beta opened one eye and peered around, taking in his pathetic little apartment.


Or closet, take your pick.


He lived in an unidentifiable shack that blended perfectly in the higher elevated slums of Kogane, in the Rokkaku-dai district near the outskirts of the city. Poison Jam never goes that far, so Beta obliged himself to create an illusionary rudie gang by giving walls and shacks some... colors. The crime was a lot lower than would be expected, but there was the occasional thief, burglar, rapist, you know the drill. People who lived in Kogane were content trying to eke out a living through mindless, mundane tasks in the assembly plants owned by the Rokkaku Group, or turning towards crime when it just won't get food on the table.


Beta was fortunate enough to claim a home for himself when he was kicked out from his old home, which consisted of some dozen odd siblings, an understandably drunk father, and a mother who lost her mind. Beta was the buffer zone between his mother and his siblings, and a year ago, when she finally realized it, she went ballistic, throwing Beta out of his home and into the street.


Beta was no slacker in school of course. He maintained a decent set of grades, despite the high amount of suicides in his high school due to the enormous difficulty the courses contained. He was fairly popular, not because he wanted to be, but because he had intellectual merits and was fairly athletic too. But he dropped out as soon he hit the gutter, and it all went downhill. People turned their noses at him, said he was a quitter and a loser. People he once thought of as friends stabbed him in the back, and in a depressed rage, contemplated suicide.


But, like a beacon of light, something drew him to the Genkijomae Arcade in Benten, where the Keisatsu were in droves. Onishima had bagged a rudie with his gun, and the Keisatsu were looking around for the rudie. Beta walked by an alley, and saw someone's arm at an odd angle, and a heap of trash piled over it. Making sure no one was looking, he sifted through the garbage and pulled out the dead rudie, who was clutching a photo of two elderly looking people. His parents, Beta assumed. Wondering what to do with him, Beta saw his skates.


Tank tread skates were not common, in fact, they were extremely rare, and Beta had a fleeting hit of inspiration of selling them for cash and getting a decent place to live in while he searched for a job to support himself.


He stumbled upon Miss Rokanisu's Bargain Homes wandering through Kogane. She wasn't exactly the model motherly figure, but she knew a homeless child when she saw one. She offered him a home for, oddly enough, a bargain, for 10000¥. Beta declined, knowing the skates won't sell that much, but she countered by having him pay 100¥ every month until it was paid off. He accepted.


Getting his job as a comic book store clerk in Benten was surreal in itself. He had some spare yen on him, and decided to mess around the store. He was approached by an angry girl in her late teens named Suki, rusty brown hair and two georgeous eyes, plus a body to kill for. For some odd reason or another, she mistook him for the replacement clerk, as the actual clerk hasn't come to work in several days.


His life seeming to come back on track, he went to work, slept, and wandered, until he got bored and decided to try on the skates. The transition was tough, but he got the hang of it, grinding, jumping and tricking started to become second nature, and finally, with a job, a place to call home and a hobby under his belt, he was beginning to get hope.


Then he met Giga.


He met the stoner at some wierd party thing they call a rave, where Suki ordered him to go to, to promote the comic shop. Giga stumbled into him, wearing the traditional Noise Tank uniform, and started yapping at Beta to take some disco biscuits and rave. Beta declined, and Giga challenged Beta to Jet Crush.


To this day, Beta swears it was a fluke he won. He had no intention of getting pissed off at the braggart and decided to put him in his place, going back to his shack, putting on his skates and meeting Giga and his buddies at the Train Graveyard in Benten. Maybe Giga wasn't feeling correctly, maybe it was the fact he was drugged out of his mind, but Beta beat him, clear as day.


Since then, he was a Noise Tank. After much fanfare from joining the gang, Beta was quickly made into another faceless grunt, as were most of the Noise Tanks.


Which right now is where he is to date.


He grunted, and sat up, taking in the orange light, and lifted himself up from the bed, and looked around the room.


Cables in every which way was strewn about, a hunched over humanoid robot Beta calls Niama was in the corner, and a midnight black cat he called Shin was nestled on top of the TV in the corner. His bed was a pile of pillows and a worn blanket.


He got up, and dusted himself off, and put on a t-shirt which had some sort of a gothic schoolgirl glaring outward, with a Hate the Mainstream logo beneath it.


This shirt went into circulation in response to the recent mainstreaming of rudie life, which was evident by Taka Kaga, some pretty face who was a rudie in many movies, which had him saving lives, helping old ladies, blah blah blah.


Fuck him.


Since the GG's caused the death of the insane tyrant Goji, everyone thought rudies were just youths wanting to help society become clean, happy places.


Fuck that.


Rudies, and rudiedom for that matter, wasn't some picturesque masquerade of good guys, or a lifestyle. It was the destination for kids who can't go anywhere anymore, and were doomed to fuck his or her life up, go to jail, or grow beards, go weird and head into the sewers. Painting tags, bombing walls, those were cries of the damned, and everytime Beta saw Taka's face, a boiling hatred overcame him. That same hatred helped him win a fight with Suki over selling materials that mainstreamed rudies. He became so vehement, that Suki caved in, and rejected Bak Choi Comics shipment of rudie comics. He never won an argument with her since then. Beta wasn't crazy about being a rudie, but it was his destination, he had no choice, but when he saw people glorifying rudies, he becomes enraged. How dare they ignore the messages the rudies themselves are sending! How dare they replace that message with Japanese Government propaganda! If he was anything else, he would have been a criminal. But he hated criminals.


He grimaced as he put his pants on, and walking out the door. Niama was a programmed watch dog. Anyone or anything not authorized was dealt with. So far, no problem, though Beta has his concerns with an overflowing trash bin outside his shack a week ago. Shin was a cat, and the cat had a mind of it's own, as it sometimes visited him at the comic book shop, always during the silence of Suki and Beta after an argument. It would butt it's head against Betasiki's with such force, it knocked his glasses off. It was a very good companion.


He walked on the iron bar floor outside his shack, and headed to the train station. He paid the service man the yen, and climbed in and headed for the Comic Otaku in Benten.


Suki. The girl you would love to hate, was probably the only reason Beta decided to keep his job at the Comic Otaku. Excluding his current infatuation with Byte, a fellow Noise Tank, and a girl he hasn't seen for years since high school, she was the longest relationship he ever had with a girl. As much as he did fighting with her, if she was gone, Beta would be indeed crushed.


Of course he would never admit that. Not even to himself.


He got to the Comic Otaku with little incident, except when a man tried to bomb the train by lighting his shoes. Turned out he put the wrong
pair on and only succeeding in giving his feet first degree burns. Idiot. Beta hated idiots.


He stopped dead in his tracks. There was Suki tapping her foot, hands on her hips, and and an expression that turned what ordinairly be an attractive looks, rather forbidden.


Sweet hells, this is going to be a long day... he muttered, sighed, and walked through the doors.


Almost immediately, he was confronted.


Didn't you do the paperwork last night? Suki asked coldly.


Thought you were gonna do it... No I didn't Beta sighed. He was not in the mood to argue, so he will play the role of the bitch again... for three months running.





Please Suki, not now....


No, listen to me you little loser, I gave you a piece of paper. With all of your tasks. Where is it?


Wiped my ass with it and flushed it down the toilet. I never thought I was gonna say this, but I can I please get back to work?


You little shit...!


Betasiki sighed, and turned and walked out the door.


HEY! DON'T YOU TURN YOUR BACK ON ME!! he heard Suki scream.


Shut the fuck up.


============


Hmmm.... hehehe...


Shut up dude! She's coming!


Oh yeah! She took her top off!


Here comes the panti- no, no, don't shut the.... awww..


Yo-Yo made a pouting face from the tree in front of Cube's room. His compatriot, Garam, scowled.


All that planning for some T, yeah, good job gummy bear.


Shut the fuck up Garam. Christ.


Combo would like to know what you two morons are doing.


Yo-Yo looked down.


None of yo' bizness man!


Combo say he will tell Cube what you doing!


Yo-Yo swore, and came down from the tree. Combo, sorry man, never happen again. Cookie? Yo-yo asked coyly, holding a chocolate chip cookie.


As Yo-Yo nursed his bruised face, courtesy of Combo's Boombox of Whacking, Garam looked down.


What's been going on?


Beat upset over combined Love Shocker and Poison Jam attack. Yelled so loud it make Combo's ears bleed.


Indeed. In the GG garage, Beat was throwing a tantrum. Mew was looking grimly at him from her perch, Pirahna was in the corner where Yo-Yo kept his kaput car, Gum was playing Pinball, and Slate and Tab were chilling on the couch.


Why do they hate us?! We helped Poison Jam and they stabbed us in the back?! WHY?!


Because we took their property. Tab said matter-of-factly.


Beat gave up and sat miserably in the center of the garage.


Well, we should retaliate. Gum said, over the beeping and pinging of the pinball machine.


Won't work. They grossly outnumber us. Mew said.


Gum shot her a dark look.


Ok, YOU come up with something! We can't sit here and take it, and we can't go and spray them the fuck up.


Don't get so mad.... bitch. Mew muttered under her breath.


What was that?!


Mew froze. Was she louder than she thought? It became clear as Gum rolled in front of her.


Get down. she commanded coldly.


Beat began, but Gum silenced him with a look. Mew sort of melted down the sides of the speakers, and forced herself to look Gum in the eye.


Mind repeating that?


Mew didn't want to, and it showed. She blinked, and tried to not look scared.


Hey! I'm talking to you! What did you say?





Lying bitch! and Gum put all her strength in her wrist as she slapped Mew flush on the cheek, causing Mew to fall, sprawled on the floor. She got up, hot tears running down her face. She ran to the window and exited.


That wasn't necessary Gum Pirahna said quietly.


Bitch shouldn't talk trash if she can't back it up. Gum retorted and headed back to her corner, putting in another quarter.