Jet Set Radio is a registered trademark of Smilebit and Sega Corporation. Any characters in this story from or based on characters in Jet Set Radio are the property of Smilebit and Sega Corporation. They are being used for entertainment purposes only. No money is being made from this fic.
The following characters are mine: Voltage, Shoda Ataru, Timo and Kobashi. They are copyright of me and therefore remain my property.
And that's all the copyright mumbo jumbo done with.
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Chapter 2: The Core Of Humanity
Voltage hummed the theme of Teknopathetic to herself lightly as she sat in the dank and musty holding cell with her knees pulled up close, trying to think of things to keep herself occupied with before she went insane. There wasn't really much to look at; 4 grey walls, a set of shiny bars and some characters she'd rather not have been with, but she didn't have a choice. She was just a rudie locked in the never-ending battle to express herself through art. Not just mindlessly streaks of yellow, red, blue or any other colour in the spectrum, nor a blur of a name running through some underground tunnel but her own portraits that took months to design and even longer to implement. For wanting to express herself, she had paid the ultimate price at the hands of Onishima's police force.
She ran a finger through a trace of her glistening red hair to pull some of the loose strands covering her vision and sighed contemplatively as her sharp brown eyes scanned around again at the usual suspects lined before her. To the far corner was a quivering businessman; she figured he was in for the whole prostitution gig. In front of her, trying to bend the bars almost as a weight training exercise rather than a plan to escape was a muscular, gruff man. She guessed some sort of violence or hardened crime on that one. Finally to her left was a girl in her early 20s, knocked out and sleeping soundly. From the beer stains on her glitzy clothing Voltage concluded that it was drunk and disorderly for her.
There was something about a holding cell that quietened even the most intense victim. It was like a stasis of limbo; you were away from the horrors and confusion of everyday life but you weren't locked up for being clinically insane or having racked up any criminal charges. Limbo might have been boring, but at least it was safe.
Voltage was still, for the most part, dressed in her outfit. Only the helmet lay disregarded, doubtless now in some police storage office or trash compartment, having of course been removed by Onishima himself upon her successful capture. She bit her lip thinking about it, annoyed with her own stupidity at allowing herself to get caught. The moonlight suddenly broke from behind the cloud cover and briefly transformed the room into a hall of radiance. Voltage's fair skin turned angel like from the beam and for just a single split second, all of the tiny, almost invisible freckles that dominated the edges of her straight and slim nose could have been counted. As the glow faded again behind the wrap of the clouds, Voltage rubbed her cheek. The blood had dried now, and great dirt streaks had made their presence felt with layers of gravel etched into her face. She was unconcerned about her own appearance; if anything she prized the injuries like a trophy, a mark of respect for the freedom of expression she did battle for. Even so, the price of freedom did sting just a little.
Voltage was forced to squint when the boom of artificial light from the corridor intensified. The loud scraping and scratching of a safety door very quickly followed it; it was the clanging chimes of doom for one person in the room. They all looked towards the cell bars to see who would be the one being taken for questioning, and possibly even charging. After what seemed like an age, the blackened silhouette of an officer peered into the cell then down to the note filled clipboard tucked underneath his arm.
"Ms. Bethany White?" said the officer blindly, consulting his notes and not looking in the cell.
"Yes," replied Voltage in a timid English accent.
The officer looked into the cell and strained his eyes in the search of its confines for the figure of Voltage. Once he locked onto her, he snorted; a Japanese rudie in Japan was bad enough, but a foreigner, an alien, to the homeland?
"Captain Onishima will see you now."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Gum floated in the darkness. Her movement was still, simmering, not falling but just plain hovering in an endless embodiment of space. Even so, she felt smothered - the random sounds of the outside were muffled, disguised and covered and no sound came from her desperate pleas for help and salvation. Even though her eyes were closed, she could still feel the burning of bright light through her skin. It changed tone and hue often, but all the colours ultimately merged into one darkened vision. She couldn't pick out anything in particular, and began to think she may well have died and gone to some sort of limbo state, waiting to be picked up by a legion of sardonic angels, ready to punish her for sins against society.
Once the initial panic and despair of the situation had worn thin from her mind, she calmed a little more and the colours began to calm with her. It wasn't as if all these mental disconnections were anything new. She sighed, and sadness crept into her. She just wanted to be normal again.
The depression was shattered suddenly as an old and gruff voice barked through the darkness. It was indistinguishable at first, nothing more than a blur of noise, but it was soon very recognisable. Shoda Ataru. It was a half panic-ridden, half anger fuelled jumble of Japanese that Gum could barely make out to begin with, but her senses were still recovering from the fall.
"What are you doing here," The voice shakily demanded. "How did you get past security?"
She carefully opened her eyes a fraction. Everything was hazy and overwhelmingly bright for a few minutes, before slowly zooming into focus before her. Her head felt heavy and her eyes struggled to stay open; it was as if someone was subjecting her to weeks of torture filled sleep deprivation. Nonetheless, she tried to get her wits about her just to find out what was going on, whether this was reality or fantasy and if anyone could help her find her way back to the GGs.
Slowly lifting herself to her feet, she looked around the gigantic office before her. Three huge, neatly crafted glass windows padded themselves at the back of the office; each stretched widely creating the illusion that the office was far larger than it had actually been made. Mahogany bookcases and gold plated filing cabinets were stashed in various corners of the office, each overladen with profit margins, building contracts and old employee contracts that either Rokkaku or Ataru had personally seen to. The floor was a mixture of cream floor mats and light blue carpet, reflecting with gloss. It was the ultimate office, fit for a king; and anyone who sat in control of the Rokkaku Empire was truly a King.
Right in the middle of the room sat the desk of Shoda Ataru, which Ataru sat at. Fear was carved onto his face whilst he tried to play brave against the intruder - it wasn't Gum. Instead, a man dressed in a white trench coat trudged towards the desk slowly. The trench coat covered most of his person, but the unmistakable glimmer of a shotgun could be seen trailing down the leg. Gum gasped but instantly placed her hand to her mouth; neither party had noticed her yet nor she didn't want to get involved. She watched on frozen, as the quivering Ataru continually babbled, his ramblings losing their anger.
"Whatever you want, tell me! I can get you anything, anything you've ever wanted!"
The cries went either unheard or ignored, as the trench swayed ever closer to Ataru's desk. If the slow steps weren't intimidating enough, the hulking shoulders of the brute would be. His arms bulged the sleeves of the coat almost out of shape, and now even Gum felt scared. Her insides rocked with nausea just at the thought of what she could be seeing in just a few minutes. Her instinct was suddenly to get out, and not be a witness or even victim to the massacre about to take place.
She crouched slowly, and began to sneak towards the door. She made her footsteps as delicate and gentle as possible in order to avoid rustling the carpet by mistake, but every twitch of movement she made sounded like a ten-ton weight crashing to the floor and reverbing around the finely tuned walls. Her nerves jangled like bells blowing in the wind, and she gritted her teeth together in fear of getting discovered, focusing on reaching the door as best she could. She had almost made it until a loud boom of words escaped Ataru's mouth that made her freeze square in her tracks.
"But, but, I never authorized that!"
The anger had passed; Ataru clearly knew who his victimizer was, and it was suddenly as if he was regretting every action he'd made as the chief-at-large of the company he had sought to mould in his own sick and twisted image, just as it's founder had before he was bitterly laid to rest following his extended fall. He was a liar creating a monster he thought he could control and handle. Now he realised that it was impossible to control such a beast.
The man in the trench coat spoke. The words were silent but Gum could see by the way he mashed his lips together that the nature of the conversation was pitch black. It wasn't anger, or even intimidating, but it was straight, to the point and dark. Gum would have killed to know exactly what his motives were.
The trenchcoat slowly lifted the gun as Ataru quivered in the moonlight. The first bullet ripped through Ataru's chest like a knife cutting through supple butter. Flesh and blood mixed, dribbling down his chest as he jerked with the impact. One hand covered the wound, and the other dropped down besides the chair and dangled limply. Another bullet left the gun almost as quick as the first.
"No!" Gum held out her hand and screamed as loud as she could. It was then that she noticed her arms, legs and entire body was colourless and clear, like an old disguarded once dearly loved object now plastered in dust. She had no time to dwell on the change in her appearance. The man in the trenchcoat dropped the gun in surprise and turned around with a surprised look. Gum gulped with the knowledge that he could hear her.
"You were a part of this," Gum could read his lips as they mashed together once more. "Get used to it. Get used to the pain."
His hot red eyes were the only feature that burnt from his sunken face. It was a far drawn contrast to the rest of his white appearance. Gum turned to run. Grabbing onto the handle of the huge door, she opened it quickly and began to dart out of the door, but it was too late. A scuffle of metal being scooped up from the floor, a sharp explosion from the gun echoed, and she hit the floor hard and felt the life sucked out of her.
He walked slowly to her as she writhed in silent pain. She only caught another glimpse of his eyes before she felt more insurmountable pain.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
A scream dispersed itself loudly across Highway Zero leading out of Tokyo-To, but was swallowed by the automobiles that populated the roads and went unnoticed by anyone, except for those in the same locale.
"Shit! She's having a seizure!"
Underneath the Highway's newly reconstructed bridge, most the GGs gathered together in a tiny, unoccupied shack they had found. It was hardly homely - the walls were dented, the furniture ripped and soiled, and without electricity or even light. A few sole candles that Combo and Cube had managed to salvage from the remains of a burnt out store a few blocks from the highway provided the only trails of luminosity. Luckily, they had lasted as long as they had needed to - most of the GGs had slept, taking it in turns to watch over their fallen comrade during the night.
Dawn was beginning to break over TokyoTo and as it had, the sound of the cars above doubled and sent vibrations down the supports, shaking the shack to it's foundations time and time again. It was a hazy sunrise
In spite of their success the previous night, the GGs certainly didn't feel like the victors for the most part. Gum had seemingly succumbed to some hard working illness and had failed to make it away from the Rokkaku Tower consciously, and when the GGs eventually made it back to the garage using every back alleyway they could find, the place had been ransacked and torched. It was a mark of the Assassins; now they knew where the GGs had been stationed all this time, and returning there would be like dancing with death. Slate hightailed it out of there to check on his brother whilst YoYo freaked out completely and decided to hide on his own. The braver souls vowed to stay by Gum and using the night as their cover, eventually finding solace beneath Highway Zero. It wasn't perfect, but it was all the choice they had for now. Homeless and not complete as a unit, they had to do their best, if only for Gum.
Alarm rang in Mew's voice as she helplessly watched Gum shake and flip uncontrollably in her unconscious state. The sweat had drenched her forehead and had seeped back into her hair, and her face had turned red from the heat. Mew struggled against Gum's raw strength to keep her down, thankfully receiving quick help from Combo. Gum eventually relaxed at the touch of their hands, and drifted back into a peaceful state. Beat had watched the whole thing in horror from his 'bed'.
Piranha scooched up to him quietly and out of the way once the commotion had died down. Shaking her head, she spoke.
"Beat, I'm sorry but we've got to get her into medical care."
Beat's reply was authoratively instant.
"No," he hissed. "She's one of us, we'll take care of her."
"I know how you feel Beat, but"
"Oh, you do, do you? Do you know how hard it is to see your best friend like that?"
"Yes!" Piranha had raised her voice in surprise at Beat's insinuations. Beat leant against the wall and trailed down it until he hit the floor, scratching his head.
"I'm sorry," he ventured, after a while. His expression seemed genuine and so Piranha took his outburst for what it was; a cry of frustration and fear. She'd seen it before - Beat's weaknesses were in defeat. No longer would he be the cool and calm collected spirit that won so many gang wars and tag battles. Accepting defeat is a bitter pill to swallow.
Piranha put all of that to one side in her mind and tried again.
"She needs medical attention."
Beat sighed and rubbed the edge of his nose before resting his hands on his knees. He thought about it for an eternity before carefully preparing and constructing his answer.
"It's too much of a risk, Piranha. She'll get caught, locked up - worse even - and if Onishima has his way we'll never see her again."
Piranha's rage built as her belief in her leader fell. She had never seen him so positioned against common sense as this. He was being selfish and arrogant, and she wasn't afraid to tell him so. Beat saw red again.
"Forget it. Forget this. FORGET YOU!"
Vibrations were reversed as the slam of the hideout door echoed up the supports. As Piranha took deep breathes and rubbed her nose and eyes in disbelief, things took a further turn for the worse when Slate burst through the door just a few minutes after Beat's departure. His face had turned white and he looked to be in complete shock. Piranha stared at him standing in the doorway. Without knowing, she too had turned white; fear entered her heart and she expected the worst.
"What," she started. "What is it, Slate?"
Quivering, he flicked the playback switch on his wristwatch radio. The grainy sound of a newsreader from one of Japan's public service stations came on.
"Yesterday, Tokyo-To business was shocked by the assasination of Shoda Ataru. Ataru, 81, was found dead in his office by his bodyguards late last night, the victim of a single bullet wound to the chest. It was believed he died instantly. No one as of yet has claimed responsibility for the attack but both police and the Golden Rhinos have stated that they want to question a skate gang who were in the area at the time."
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"Ladies and gentlemen of the Golden Rhinos Research Commission, I'd like to declare this meeting open. I'm sure you will share my greatest condolences to the death of our illustrious chairman but business must move on as usual, and to ensure that the company remains at the forefront of high tech research and development, Timo"
The rest of the conversation trailed off for Kobashi. He had hesitantly turned to his notes to ensure they were all in order again. The hairs on his back pricked and stood on end as he nervously jangled with every sound. Something definitely wasn't right; he was normally composed, especially when putting forth his ideas and results. Maybe it was just the buzz of the major discovery he had made.
"Mr. Timo," the Rokkaku board member invited the head of R&D to the top of the table. Timo smiled in his usual sinister way, and the meeting began. Those with less adequate projects than Kobashi's either mumbled their results and announced that development would go no further, or were laughed out of the room with their ideas. The more intelligent and diligent members would report solid gains, but often Timo squashed their plans. He was ruthless; he wanted a product that would be new, original and take the world by storm, not some bland reworking of some other companies invention. It was not the way he worked; thinking like that had made the Rokkaku Enterprise one of the biggest in world history. Finally, he got to Kobashi. Kobashi shuddered and jolted to his feet in an explosion of enthusiasm. His presentation began.
"I started my project by thinking what the police needed most of all. Surprisingly, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't high tech guns or new spray, or anything like that, instead, I figured it was some sort of suppressant, something to slow down the progress of a perpetrator."
Kobashi paused for effect. His peers all wondered where he was going with this.
"Now, of course, it would be easy to just take an existing police gas bomb and make it more powerful, but I have concocted an idea that allows the police to cull their opposition in stealth. All the arresting officers would need to do would be to pick up the unconscious foe."
Once more, he paused for effect. Timo was nodding his head slightly in interest. Kobashi grinned; he had engaged his target audience.
"Project Gateway works by locking onto it's target and firing an intensive invisible beam into the. It sucks dormant energy from the body's muscles and cell structures. Whilst a criminal could still enact what he is doing at the time, when he tries to run, he'll find that he has no energy to do so. The result renders the opponent either unable to move, or knocks them unconscious."
Timo stood quickly out of his chair, knocking it backwards and clapping excitedly, on his own. Other members of the table reluctantly joined in, fearing that their jobs would be on the line if they didn't. Kobashi continued, explaining the results of the experiment on Gum, all the more getting Timo excited, but he was still to put his foot in it.
"However, I found some of my results were unexpected. The energy taken by the Gateway module is not merely dispersed into the environment but is collected. It can be harnessed for any purpose. Imagine, for example, if the energies of a thousand criminals were collected; essentially, if one person were to get hold of them, they would have the mental and physical capacity of a thousand men!"
Kobashi finished with a conclusion. No one clapped, not even Timo. In fact, Timo looked furious. He quickly dismissed the meeting and took Kobashi aside.
"This project is dangerous, Kobashi," Timo hissed. "Do you realise what could happen if word of this gets out? You should have warned me of these side effects you experienced as soon as they happened. We could have looked at a way to remove them."
"I couldn't give you a report as it stood, I needed more time to feel them in action," Kobashi excitedly started, but his gushing had given him away already. Timo blinked hard and cut him off before he could reflect any further.
"FEEL them, Kobashi? FEEL? You transferred the energy into yourself," Timo's mouth slipped in shock. He stopped, stared deeply into Kobashi's eyes then looked away and mumbled darkly.
"This project is officially terminated. We will send around our own crews to remove the machine from the police station. You, Kobashi, have violated everything this franchise ever stood for. You are no longer a part of this organisation. I suggest you leave as quickly and quietly as possible."
Timo brushed past him, not once looking up as he headed to the exit. Kobashi stood dead still, looking forward with his mouth slightly parted and his eyes sunken. His heart freefell into the darkness below.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
So I heard some sad news today. Smilebit and Sega apparently have announced they have no plans to design, develop and release another JSR game. I guess the GBA one will be the last in the series I don't even want to think about how deserted this place will be within a year :( (source: gamefront.de)
Ok, so that's the end of that for now. 'Owever, next up is the first chapter of a little surprise I just had to write as soon as I realised the parody with the title ^_^ You'll see. "When The Gates Open" will continue after I've written the first chapter of heh, you'll have to wait! :P
Angry Scientist + Linael: I am midway through reading Soul Survivor and A Future of Tommorow so bear with me and I'll review them in due course.
Foo - 4th January
2003.