OK, a little Cube-y one shot, to get me over a little bit of Writer's Block that's coming with Vanish in the Night.
Disclaimer: Cube, Tokyo and in fact the rest of the GGs and Jet Set Radio Future, are the property of Sega and Smilebit. Screw it, there goes my royalties. And I couldn't think of a title, so this song title, © Marty James, will have to do…
Erm… Warning – a bit of yuri (i.e. – girl-girl implications – not actual girl-girl – I think my head would explode if I tried to do that! ^_^)
Running like a Criminal
By :~Zarrah~:
The sewer was dark and dingy, a slimy mixture of blue and green that, as Cube skated through as fast as she could without boost dashing, merged together into one big swirling mass of turquoise that was just ugly, punctuated by black holes that made up the five exit points; Rokkaku-Dai Heights, the Bottom End of the sewer, the Fortified Residential Zone, the upper levels of the sewer, and Kibogaoka Hill - where Cube was going.
It wasn't her fault. What was she supposed to have done, lie?! Rhyth did have a spot on her chin – hell, the damn thing looked like a lighthouse beacon, and all she'd done was tell her that. Not her fault the ditz started an argument, lost, and ran off howling. Not her fault Beat, being her squeeze and all, stood up for the kid and told her to apologise. Not her fault that Rhyth had stormed back and told Corn that either Cube left, or she did. Not her fault Beat had done the same thing.
Not her fault she was no longer a GG. Cube found herself hating Rhyth, hating Beat, hating herself for her enormous mouth.
The half pipe stretching between the sewer and Kibogaoka Hill seemed really short for once. Cube found herself falling off the edge and into the shallow pool of water in what seemed to be a much shorter time than usual. Strange.
Once in Kibogaoka Hill, she skated forward, and instantly succeeded in making an old woman, sitting in the water with a young child, scream and jump back. The kid stayed stock-still and stared after her, before turning to his guardian and asking, in a high pitched voice, "Why does that lady move funny, granny?"
Cube screed to a stop at the edge of the pool and glanced back at the young one, thinking. She didn't like that kid. She didn't know why, but there was something about him that irked her, made her want to go over there and beat some respect into him…
Maybe that was it. He didn't scream like a schoolgirl and run away from her. Why should she like people doing that?
During a dead of the night thunderstorm, when none of the GGs could sleep and they were all crowded around a flashlight, Rhyth (damn her) had asked everybody,
::~~::
"What do you guys not like about being a Rudie?"
The assembled group, for a minute, stared at the young girl, as if all asking the same question, 'What's not to like?' – then the ice thawed.
Beat was the first to speak. "I don't like not bein' allowed to buy stuff in shops – the Dogenzaka mall, like – the assistant just give ya a funny look when you try an' buy somethin'."
Cube blinked. Who cared about that? As far as she was concerned, being a Rudie gave you the immeasurable right to just take. If they didn't let you get a job and make the money, why should they expect you not to take it?"
That was the next thing. Corn, "Ya can't make money. I mean, you can't get a job, you can't do anythin' that might get you money, coz they'll just either call th' cops, or give ya this funny look like you're not speakin' the same language."
As far as Cube was concerned, that worked two ways; if you could just take what you wanted, why would you want money?
Gum spoke up next, not taking her eyes off the flashlight, "The screaming."
Huh? As if sensing that nobody else saw what she meant, Gum looked up and met her friends' eyes, one by one. "When you're skating down a road, and everyone screams and runs away, no matter how far away from them you are. I hate that."
And most of the others agreed.
::~~::
Not Cube. Maybe she was a sadist, but she found it exhilarating that people feared her enough to run away from her just from seeing her coming! Gum just didn't know how good she had it, that was all.
She jumped out of the pool and ground up the railings beside the stairs leading away from the pool and the pipe. Two more people, making their way toward the pool, screamed and backed off. One yelled, "Excuse me!!"
Cube, stopping at the top, flipped them both off and headed for the dusty rooftops. As she moved out from under cover, the red sunlight hit her in the face, half blinding her.
Didn't the red morning sun mean someone had bled during the night?
Maybe Rhyth picked at the spot… Cube snickered, and didn't watch where she was going – she fell.
Her yelp of surprise was drowned out as her skates found purchase on a strip of metal, screeching heavily – a ladder, she told herself uselessly as she tried to reduce her speed before she hit the ground…
She jumped and fell to her knees painfully as her skate slid on something furry. Something that moved out from underneath her with an indignant squeal and stopped in front of her, just within her line of sight as she sat on her hands and knees, head facing the ground, panting at her lucky escape.
Cube lifted her head slowly, and was met with – a cat. A small, furry tabby cat that was staring at her pathetically, begging for food to appease its bag-of-bones body. And behind it…
The SPCA's nightmare. Tens of dozens of cats and dogs, standing, sitting, fighting, jostling for space on a beat up old couch… All just as emaciated as the little one in front of her. Cube felt her eyes involuntarily fill with tears, and she furiously blinked them away.
She liked animals, a Helluva lot more than most people, and these poor things were dying, either because someone had thrown them down, or because they'd strayed away from their owners and fallen down. What had it said on one of the news bulletins the other day about domestic pets going missing exponentially in Kibogaoka Hill?
She raised her hand toward the tabby in an effort to pet it. It shied away, mewing, scared, where it found a grouping of other cats and hid within their midst. Cube's arm dropped back down, and she pushed herself up onto her shins. Another group of animals, having moved into the empty space near her in an attempt to give themselves room, slid away.
What a weird set-up. She hated people, and they were scared of her, and she liked animals, and they hated her, too. She just couldn't win. Poison Jam didn't count, of course – they'd follow anybody who could beat a little sense into them…
::~~::
Fifteen-year-old Cube was exploring the sewer area. There was something about it that really intrigued her – especially the chamber at the very bottom end; it looked like some kind of neo-modern torture chamber, with chains hung from the ceiling, the water coloured a bright, poisonous colour by chemicals and, in particular, the huge stone face set into the wall, roaring at all and sundry with a mouth that shone with the light of the tainted water below it. On top of it, it was flat enough for someone to sit on. It looked like Satan's throne room, really. It fired her imagination.
Standing on top of the face gave her little of a view, but it felt regal, somehow, which more than made up for it. She sat down and kicked her feet, relishing the cool, silent dark of the cavity.
The silence was suddenly broken by the sound of skates, two sets of them, which reverberated and echoed around her. The skates were accompanied by music, hard rap music that vibrated through the face and into Cube, making it a forced part of her. She stood up, glaring around for the source of the commotion; two guys, both around sixteen, wearing dungarees and masks, lumbering down the halfpipe. The pulled up when they got into Cube's chamber and faced her.
"Hey! This is our territory, bitch!" One of them yelled, his voice hoarse. Cube almost felt sorry for them. Almost.
She jumped down, landing gracefully a few feet away from the guys and facing them, a bored expression carefully arranged on her face.
"Is it, now? Do I look like I care?" The boy who'd spoken clenched his fist, and she could hear him grinding his teeth together. The other moved forward, the sheer weight of his body forcing him to bend over slightly to maintain balance.
"How 'bout a tag battle?" His voice was just a gruff as the other's, "Whoever wins, gets the sewer."
A tag what? OK, these kids were freaky. Tagging was for walls, not for using on people for Chrissake! The paint had a special kind of acid in it that stopped whitewash being able to cover it up, and that stuff getting on to a person's skin… Wait, why did she care? These guys were threatening her after all. Who cared if they got burnt up? Not her. She wouldn't mind getting to keep this chamber, although the whole sewer…
She might have to let them keep that.
"OK." She nodded, a slight inclination of the head. The two guys turned and skated off. Was she supposed to follow? Probably, and as the two stopped and yelled after her, she realised that evidently, yes, she was supposed to go after them. That was no fun – she would have preferred to hide in wait for them…
She followed them. Rules or no rules, she would enjoy this battle very much…
::~~::
She'd won. Of course she'd won. Poison Jam, as she'd found out later they were called, swore allegiance to her, and she had her own gang. They'd been more than a little afraid of her, too, and that was never a bad thing.
Then the GGs came along, strutting around like they owned the place. They hadn't been much trouble before, just a guy and a girl who frequented the old transport garage and Dogenzaka Hill. Then they started to grow in number and in territory, and they became so much more annoying.
Intriguing, too. She could remember the first time she met the leader – properly, anyway.
::~~::
Barracuda, Physalis and the newest member, Venom, had arrived in her chamber only five minutes ago to warn her that a GG was on his way to find them. He was trying to open the shutter that led to the bottom end of the sewer –
*Good luck, sucka…* she thought wryly. The shutter was controlled by six switches – she'd planted them herself, and one of them was in a very hard to reach area that could only be reached from the top end of the sewer area. There was no way he would be able to---
At the sound of skates grinding down the halfpipe, the three Jammers started, and then turned to her for their orders. Cube grinned, and adjusted her own mask, a gold one she found within the mouth of the mask some months back. She thought quickly. The guy was coming from the half pipe. If she stayed there, and the Jammers hunched down… Well, it wouldn't do anything useful, but it would give the guy a helluva fright! She smiled, hidden behind the mask, and gestured slowly for the PJs to crouch. They did so without hesitation.
In the next few seconds, the GG emerged from the halfpipe into the cavity. He was around her height, nothing like the size of Venom, Physalis or even Barracuda, the smallest, but he skated closer, no fear in his body language, only curiosity. Well, that would change soon.
At her sign, the Jammers jumped out, and she began to speak.
::~~::
Finally out of the Petshop of Horrors, Cube began to leave Kibogaoka Hill. She'd had enough of it for one day. So… Now that the GGs had kicked her out, Poison Jam were living without her, albeit not very well, and just about everywhere she turned, there was GG territory and GG graffiti. She began to skate over one of Gum's Large tags spread out over a roof, a 100% with 2% Fruit Concentrate. Someone, presumable the owner of the house the roof covered, had tried to paint over the edges, the parts that spread onto the walls, but to no avail.
In a fit of spite, Cube began to spray over it, a savage, dark Ikaihe No Ana, adding the features with zeal and ferocity until it looked just perfect, and covered the tag beneath it. Finished, she skated to the overhang, and underneath it back to the pool. She jumped straight into it, relishing the screams of the people she splashed, and headed back to the sewers. She felt like visiting the cavity one last time.
Yeah, that's what she told herself the last time…
::~~::
Preparing to leave Tokyo (not that there was much to prepare, anyway), Cube decided that, for one final time, visiting the cavity wouldn't hurt any. It would be about the only thing she would miss, anyway. She hated losing, and if she'd still had her gang and her territory, she would have made those GGs' lives an utter misery, but she didn't have the PJs – they'd scarpered, and her territory was now full of GG tags, each brighter and perkier than the last. Ugh.
Stopping on the walkway directly in front of her 'throne', she stood looking at it for a few minutes. She was about to climb onto it to sit up top for the last time, when she heard skates behind her. She turned, shocked that another Rudie had gotten close enough without being seen. It was a GG, a skinny guy with goggles and headphones; his shirt was a severe eyesore.
"I need to talk to you, Cube." The guy announced. Cube felt a childish pang of pettiness. Why should she talk to him? Well, she may as well get some fun out of this… She smirked.
"If you can beat me at my own game, I'll leave you alone." There was so much wrong with that, she didn't know where to start – for one thing, who wouldn't leave who alone?! However, she breezed past the kid and took her place at the lip of the halfpipe – he joined her, and, in some weird psychic-DJ-thing, Professor K initiated a countdown.
Here goes…
::~~::
The sewer was cool and dark, a welcome change after Kibogaoka Hill. It wouldn't last long, though. The further down a person went into the sewer, the muggier and warmer it got. And she should know – she'd been up and down often enough.
Ahh… Finally. The cavity. She raced over to her 'throne' and climbed rapidly, not even breaking a sweat; she was used to it, after all. She lay back and shut her eyes. Silence.
The quiet generally made her uneasy and suspicious. She'd always liked a lot of loud noise and movement over silence. At least when there was noise, she knew she was alive. After all, when it was this quiet, who could tell whether you were dead or alive?
Would anyone care if she died? The GGs? Pah – they'd just kicked her out! Like they'd care.
Poison Jam? They were probably glad to be rid of her. Right now they were probably racing through Tokyo, causing trouble and making right idiots out of themselves. Well, she should be glad to be alone. She'd always been alone before.
Look after number one. That was her motto. And she was number one. Nobody ever looked after her, after all. What was the point in caring about the world, if the world didn't care about you?
::~~::
"Mm… I've never known 99th Street to be so quiet!" Gum jumped off the rail she had been grinding to join Cube, who was looking around for anything dangerous. Rapid 99 lived here, and like all the other gangs, they weren't just going to sit around and let rivals waltz on in, would they?
After all, nobody else would last five minutes in Dogenzaka Hill. Gum didn't seem to care and she skated on, also looking around, but in her case that was probably looking for the nightlife, which seemed to have all but vanished on this particular night.
"Oh, Jesus. Gum, it's Sunday night – people've got school or work tomorrow. They won't be out on the town tonight!"
"Yeah, but there's always a few, isn't there?" Shrugging nonchalantly, Cube jumped onto the vertical dragon and slipped to the ground, enjoying the free fall for a few seconds, before going back to the horizontal and standing in front of the tail to wait for the other girl, who was taking her own sweet time about it. Stupid.
She heard a yell and the sound of metal on metal as Gum finally took to the dragon's vertebrae, and saw the other Rudie slide down. Whoa – problems. Gum suddenly fell into absolute freefall, and plummeted without the purchase of her skates. Cube thought quickly – well, no, she didn't think at all – as she moved into a catching position. Gum landed on her roughly and the two careened over, finally coming to a halt with Gum lying on top of Cube, panting heavily into the nape of her neck.
Almost as quickly as it happened, it was over; Gum pulled herself up, brushed herself off and reached a hand down to help Cube up, all with a grin.
"You know, if you didn't look like you got the fright of your life there, I'd ask to do that again!" She joked, pulling her friend to her feet. Cube wasn't listening. For a moment, she'd felt warmth, somebody relying on her, and it was as potent a drug as being feared. She liked it.
*Oh, God... I just… What am I, a lesbian?!* The thought was a disturbing one, and it was disrupted by Gum suddenly clicking her fingers in front of Cube's face.
"Helo-oo?" Forcing it to the back of her mind, Cube smirked and took off, Gum in hot pursuit. She'd think about it later…
::~~::
And this was later. Damn. Was she… a dyke? She'd got off with Venom… OK, bi? Gum, Venom, Gum, Venom, Gum, Venom…
Well, it would have to be Venom – Gum was as straight as they came; she flirted like God only knew what – it was her trademark way of winning a race. Plus, she was with Corn. And unless Corn was…
OK, bad mental image.
*Ok, how else do you explain the massive lips?* Shut up. She had no chance with Gum, and that – was – damn – well – that.
Her train of thought (which was close to derailing and exploding anyway) came shuddering to a halt as she heard skates at work, and a familiar voice shouting,
"I thought you'd be here…" Speak of the Devil, and he shall thus appear. Stupid Devil. She sat up and glared at Gum as imposingly as she could.
"What?!" Gum backed off slowly, sensing the anger radiating from the Goth like a thundercloud.
"I talked to Beat. He's gonna talk to Rhyth (although his idea of talking is probably a little out) and calm her down – are you Ok comin' back?" As Grace and Glory filtered through to her ears from Gum's radio (oh, yeah, like that brought back good memories…) she noticed that Gum was dancing along to it; she forced herself to look away from Gum – as far away as possible.
"Whatever." OK, bad Cube, stupid Cube! What the Hell was she going back to them for?! Free girl, no gang? What happened to that? That idea sucked, that was what happened to that. She told herself firmly. Gum smiled and backed off to allow Cube to jump back down, and, as she landed sinuously, Gum turned slowly and skated off, Cube following.
Ok, she might be a total soft touch, but when she thought about it—
The GGs were annoying, they disagreed with most of her ideals and they were too big for their boots, but… They cared. To a certain extent. And she cared. Sort of.
And that was the closest thing to a family she'd ever had.
:~*~*~: