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, Kobashi Yamato, Flux, Shien, Radeon and Gateway. 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 3: The Blackout
You can't let them take me
"Shut up...SHUT UP!"
Kobashi was almost screaming. He sat deep in his loft, rocking gently backwards and forwards, the only other sound from the creeking of the floorboards beneath him. He clutched his face and continually ran his fingers down from his eyes to the top of his cheek bones.
We are not complete
"You're finished! Leave me alone!"
If they take me, they take you too
"Wh, what are you talking about?"
You can't go back now. Not without me.
Kobashi fell silent. He couldn't answer the voice hissing in his head anymore.
We have Ataru. Use his knowledge.
"I can't"
Kobashi's weak protests were barely audible.
Do I have to think of everything for you? Without me, there is no you. You have to get me.
"How?" By now, Kobashi's voice had become high pitched and stunted. He was defeated against the voices in his head. The voice didn't answer, and all fell quiet for several minutes. Kobashi even stopped rocking.
His eyes turned red.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Wake up, old man."
Ataru opened his eyes as he felt a shuffled foot press against his arm. He was lying flat on the floor. Everything before him was black and white. Staring over him were the same red eyes that had placed the gun to his head and took his soul. The strangest thing now was, he was still alive.
"Who, who are you?" he stuttered, frail lips clanging together.
"I'm Gateway. Welcome to my mind."
"Gateway? Your mind?" Ataru was bewildered.
"My memory banks to be precise. I was quite surprised that you gave me this much RAM."
"What are you talking about? Take me back to Rokkaku Tower!" Ataru's desperate authoritative plea stunk of a cry for help.
"Sorry, I can't do that," Gateway uninterestingly replied, who had now sat back in the dark recesses. "You don't exist on a physical plane anymore. Only here with me. I was expecting my creator to know a little more about me."
Ataru struggled to move, but was overcome with intensive exhaustion. His weak body fell back just a few seconds after he had tried to move. As he stared up to the darkness, he quivered.
"What have you done to me? What are you?" he repeated his first question once again. Gateway sighed.
"My name is Project Gateway, serial number 0055AH1. Classified Grade 2 Golden Rhinos Research Project, authorised by Mr. Shoda Ataru," a long white gloved finger shot out and pointed towards Ataru. "You."
Gateway stood and strode over again, reciting his soul purpose.
"Designed and developed by one Kobashi Yamoto, Project Gateway's main aim is to absorb the energy of criminals and perpetrators from far distances, leaving the police to pick up easy arrests."
"Absorb? Then why am I here?"
Gateway grinned evily.
"Because, Kobashi made me more alive than he ever thought possible."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The three figures in the cramped, hot police office were still like shadows, staring at each other in an almost triangular formation. Onishima gazed intently at the security guard, who kept his eyes carefully on Voltage, who, in turn had her eyes very firmly locked on Onishima, studying every blink of his eyes and twitch of his hands.
Shorty looked considerably different than the same chief of police that had slapped the handcuffs roughly onto her wrists. The familiar light beige, stained trenchcoat was hung up above the filing cabinet, and with it laid the low stench of cigars and the uneven grey stubble.
In fact, he was rather smartly dressed; suit, tie and slick backed hair, accompanied with a very fresh, fully shaven appearance made Onishima seem more like an experienced investment banker rather than a bedraggled captain just looking for a quick bust. It was quite a change for a man who didn't sleep for fear of the next fruitless day.
He broke the triangle by turning his head back to face Voltage. No amount of prim dress could remove the essence of what he really was; some stone faced, cold-hearted cop with a bad attitude. He studied Voltage for a second or two, looking at her face, in particular the shape of her eyes. His face was locked with so much hate that when he came to break away he had to spit onto the floor. Under his breath he muttered something in Japanese. Voltage's ears pricked.
"Hey," she started, assertively. "I speak Japanese you know."
Onishima turned his head back to meet hers, a grin forming across it.
"So?"
"So, if you're going to insult me you should probably do it in a different language."
Voltage knew that the battle was lost, but she wasn't going to go down so easily in a war of words with the police chief. Onishima stood back for a second and straightened his tie, trying to shirk his neck away, and wincing as the shirt collar tightened. He flumfed back down into the chair, and spread his arms out. Voltage sunk into her chair a little; she'd been mentally preparing herself for something quite different.
"So," Onishima began. "What do you think I should do with you?"
Voltage scratched her head and her thoughts sprung into action, racing for a quick witted and off-putting reply. She didn't have time to form one, however.
"No answer?" he began, once again adjusting his position in the chair, shaking his shoulder uncomfortably. "How about I lock you up for life in one of our dingiest cells and throw away the key?"
He put his finger to his mouth and raised his eyes in mock thought for a second.
"Nah," came the extended reply. "We'll throw you in some juvenile institute for rehabiliation where you will no doubt be abused and bullied for days on end, crying into your knees every night just to get to sleep."
Voltage thinned her lips angrily. Onishima saw her cave and he laughed manically, outstretching his arms and leaning back on the chair.
"Nope, nope," he uttered. "We won't do that."
Both grin and laugh vanished.
"You're going to be the perfect test subject for the Golden Rhino's next project."
Voltage was taken by surprise.
"Test subject? What kind of piece of meat do you take me for???" she spoke in outrage.
"A piece of meat that I can feed to the Rhinos," he began. "You see, I wouldn't expect an outlaw like you to understand but I'm on the verge of signing a contract with them to provide all of our policing needs. You'll be the perfect sweetner for the deal; imagine, a real life rudie not protected by our Governmental laws."
It was clear that Onishima was trying to install thoughts of doom into her head; being locked away with no chance of escape, dragged out like a hurt puppy every five seconds to have a further dose of radiation blasted into her was hardly
"This is a breach of human rights! Either charge me or I'm leaving out right now!" By this time, she had become so riled with worry that she wasn't not aware her face was glowing red with rage or that the berth of the chair was no longer supporting her.
Onishima slammed his fist down hard on the desk.
"I'm gonna tell you this, little rudie punk. You're my little prodigy now, my little experiment," he snarled, his true colours leaking more and more through the cheap polyester. He leaned forward over the desk.
"Can you imagine how useful it is to find a rudie not Japanese," he breathed through his teeth. "You have no right to be here, YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS!"
The voice echoed off of the walls and recycled itself until it was no longer recognisable. Voltage's breaths had become shallow and quick. Onishima's voice shrunk back again.
"No one's going to care about some English jaji, least of all you. Taka, take her out of my sightshe's resisting arrest. I have to oversee the deconstruction of Gateway."
Onishima winked at Taka who stood on the door. Maliciously he pulled his baton out and approached Voltage. All that could be heard were the howling screams as the baton pummelled Voltage over and over and over, the pain increasing each time
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The swirling maelstrom of darkness began to unravel in Gum's head. Her vision was blurred and her head throbbed but she could still make out the shapes of three humans in the room. Was she with the GGs? Back in the garage? She scanned the walls for an answer; they blistered with incredible light, flashing on and off. These weren't the shallow, washed out ramparts of the garage - it was some place where they still cared about their image.
A lump came to her throat. If she, and the GGs managed to solve this mystery and get out alive, she would dedicate her entire life to keeping them altogether. It wasn't right for a group of ten dropouts who had finally managed to find their places in a harsh world to rip apart at the seems.
She dropped her head and closed her eyes hard. The blur vanished. She was being selfish and she knew it. Keeping the GGs together was her own form of escape from the past. In fact it was the reason she joined in the first placeto avoid those nights being moved from place to place, face to face. She just wanted to disappear into the background and find an expressive portal.
She'd found that portal, that place of her own nirvana. She couldn't let it slip away.
Even if it was a selfish motivation.
She felt the outside edge of her eye moisten, and flicked them back open, rubbing quickly.
The blur seemed to become clearer, and she could suddenly make out where she was. It was Noise Tank terroitory. Gigantic neon signs buzzed on and off, a haze of purple and green guiding her eyes to the other spots. In a far corner, a pair of computer servers hummed and buzzed away, feeding files to the flatscreen units that were piled on a desk at the far corner. Bits of electronics were scattered all over the floor, most cracked and broken.
It was a horrific site to anyone but the Noise Tanks. To them, it was home.
Two of the tanks sat at a table in the middle of the room whilst the other, who had his backs to them, rocked gently on a stolen office chair whilst he typed to a black screen.
"Umhey, tank dudes?"
Her voice was flippant; she figured that if they had wanted to turn her into some sort of cyborg mutant, they would have done it by now.
"Listen to what I'm saying," One of them bleeped as a small group of the tanks sat, oblivious to Gum. Gum was just relived to hear that they had turned their filters off. "She's an English rudie in Tokyo-To arrested by a crazy police chief with a grudge against art. If we're lucky, we'll get the body back in one piece."
"He can't do that," Gum yelled and emerged from the shadows. No one so much as blinked.
"He can't do that, Radeon," The Noise Tank echoed Gum's words in violent protest. "If there was any sign that English people are being mistreated here, it'll be a major incident!"
The Noise Tank who tapped away feverishly at one of the computer snorted.
"It wouldn't be hard to cover it up, Flux," he chipped in. "Use your brain man, who is going to miss a rudie?"
"Use my brain? What about yours, Shien? If you had even half the mental capacity that your mouth seems to have, you'd have worked a way past the prison defences hours ago."
Shien lifted his filter up and bleeped offensively before turning back around.
"Shut it, you two," Radeon butted in. "Bottom line, the guy is nuts and we don't know what he'll do, even to one of his own."
Gum bit her lip. She knew what he'd do.
Suddenly, there was a crash at the door. It rocked in and out with intense vigour. All three Noise Tanks and Gum flung their heads in the direction of the entrance and watched, scared and wary. All fell silent for a few seconds, before there was a further crash, more violent and louder than the last. The Tanks barely had chance to think of a plan before a third crash took the door clean off the hinges.
Gum put her hands to her mouth and screamed.
In the frame stood that same white trenchcoat that had murdered Ataru in front of her eyes. The hat covered the eyes, fingers barely visible from the sleeves, and the tips of the shoulders shook uncontrollably. Whoever was in the coat had a serious emotional problem.
As he advanced from the walkway down the stairs, Shien jumped up from his seat, knocking it to the floor, and pulled out a switchblade, holding it menacingly.
"Where the hell did you" Flux nervously started.
"Shut up," Shien yelled, then refocused on the mysterious dark figure, whose slow movement towards the group had not slowed anymore with the introduction of the weapon.
"Put it away," growled the trench, lifting a pale white hand out of his sleeve and pointing at the blade. Every step he made on the metal echoed deeply in Gum's ears. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, what she was about to see again. Shien took a few steps back, as if he was arching back to pounce.
"I'm warning you"
The trench ignored him and continued advancing. As his foot left the last step, Shien forced out a warcry and ran forward, diving at the mysterious figure with murderous rage. The gloved hand slapped the switchblade out of his hand, but couldn't prevent Shien impacting with full force against his body. The two collapsed to the floor, and the trench's hat rolled off onto the floor.
Gum froze in fear as she saw the face that emerged, and voices rang in her head.
"Kobashi YamotoGum Yamoto"
Her brother.
She closed her eyes and felt herself go weak, sitting down before she fell. She took heavy, undisguised breaths as she leant against the wall, wishing that the memories would go away. No one could hear her breathing
Except for him.
As he pulled himself to his feet, Kobashi grabbed Shien and put him into a headlock. Flux and Radeon finally rose to the challenge in order to save their imprisoned friend, but with his free hand, Kobashi swept them aside.
"Do that again," he whispered. "And I'll break his neck."
Shien still struggled to get away, but the pain had worn him down.
"They took my project," Kobashi said, almost whispering as the words escaped his lips. "Took it right away from me. You're going to help me get it back."
"How?" Flux said, still rubbing his head from where it had cracked against the rail.
"You'll cut the power from the city's grid."
"What?!?!" Radeon protested. "Taking out Tokyo-To's power? It's never been done!"
"Until now," Kobashi grinned. "I know you want your rudie back. I have the schematics you need."
Without warning, he let go of Shien and shoved him to his workstation, whipping out a disk and throwing it in the drive at the same time. A display of red, blue and green pipes appeared above a chalkboard layout. Kobashi pointed to a large red one that ran into several blue ones and merged in with the rest of the complex.
"Cut it, cut it, CUT IT," Kobashi's whispers became louder and louder. Shien stared at him, and pulled out a finger ready to make a matter-of-fact speech.
"CUT IT!"
Kobashi's scream was defening. Shien quickly complied. He hit the return key. The green text and corresponding map vanished from the screen, and with it, the lights flickered and went down and the buzz of the servers cut out. It was pitch black.
Gum looked around quickly for some way out of the darkness; all she could see were Kobashi's red eyes staring straight at her. He knew she was there.
She looked away, anyway she could, down to her hands. She too faded away.
Backup Generator Charging
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Well, it's been a while. Maybe too long, and for that I apologize, but there's been stuff, and laziness, and three chapter rewrites, and then a cut because some of it's more relevant to all be included in the next chapter, so
I'll try and get Chapter 4 out before the next millennium ^^; Hopefully I won't have killed your interest totally because it's going to get very intense very fast from here on in.
Rob - 2nd March
2003