Jet Set Radio: 5 Years Later - Deus Ex Machina
Chapter Four
By Jason Winter
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It had been a week since the Triple-C came over to visit, and things were not going so well for the Tri-District Alliance. Their rivals had also allied with each other, and were tagging the crap out of the entire city. Even worse, the cops had begun to get a lot more active, and had set their sights on every single person on inline skates. Already, the six gangs had to break out some of their members a couple times, but the Skull Roses never seemed to get caught.

Today was no different. However, there was some good news for the TDA (Authornote: I will call the Tri-District Alliance this from now on). The Knight Riders had all been arrested, and unmasked. Arthur was babyfaced and had his hair dyed purple, Merlin was pudgy and had his head shaved, and Lancelot was a very geeky acne-infested blonde. Off they went to the Rudie Correctional Facility, probably to be either brainwashed or to be never seen again...

But this was no time for celebration, because the Skull Roses and the Disease Patrol were still bombarding all 3 districts, and the cops were definitely not letting up. This was a bad time for Tokyo, and little did everyone know, it was about to get even worse.
--NOA HQ-- (A/N: The New Order Alliance is also gonna be acronymmed from now on)

"I can't believe the Knight Riders got caught!" Anthrax snarled "Your plan is starting to FAIL, Rika. I should have known to stay solo..."

"We weren't the ones who failed, Anthrax." Rika replied "No, it's the Knight Riders who were stupid enough to get caught. They failed the NOA, not us. Besides, we'll still destroy the TDA... If the cops could deal with our former allies, maybe they'll be able to bump off some of our rivals... I have an idea..."

"What is your idea?"

"We will lure one of the gangs into a trap. We attack their turf and then force them into coming after us... But one of us will be ready, and not join in, and will call the cops. The rest of us will then get signalled by the caller, and we'll then quickly leave, and let the cops have at the gang. With luck, they'll all get arrested and tossed into correctional oblivion!"

"That sounds very excellent, but which gang are we going to go after, Rika?" Rabies asked "The GGs have 3 out of towners with them at this time, and the Virtua Crush have the advantage of the nighttime, which is where the Knight Riders excelled."

"Well then, there's only one gang to go after at this time then..." Sora said, winking at the Disease Patrollers.

The Disease Patrollers grinned behind their faceplates. This was their chance to bump off their rivals, the Anthro Morphers, for good...

"Very well." Anthrax chuckled "We'll go after those idiot Anthro Morphers, but as their rivals, we think we should attack Kogane on our own..."

"That's a stupid idea!" Hikari yelled "What if the 3 gangs are together at once, and we can't bail you out of the sit--"

"No, I think Anthrax has a good idea here..." Rika chuckled "They'll attack the Anthro Morphers on their own, while WE distract the GGs and the Virtua Crushers! That way, they'll have a much easier time... One of us Skull Roses will call the cops and signal the others, the other 2 will distract the other rudies!"

"Yes, it's perfect, if I do say so myself!" Anthrax laughed "Then let's get to it, shall we?"

"Yes, but let's wait until the peak time of activity in all 3 districts. However, we should have our plan set up fully by then..."
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Brenten-cho

Gum chuckled as she trickjumped past a billboard and tagged a Knight Riders tag. Cleaning up was going to take awhile, but it was also going to be fun. She looked up and smiled, watching Mew get rid of an X-X-Large Knightrider piece... But it was a grueling job... So Gum quickly lept to where Mew was standing.

"Need some help there, lovely?" Gum grinned enthusiastically.

Mew turned her eyes towards Gum and flashed that cute uni-fanged smirk of hers and said "Sure, if I get to paint you afterwards... if you catch my drift, hehehe..."

"DEAL!" was Gum's quick and obvious response.

Charla looked up and chuckled, but Marie just sighed and rolled her eyes and went back to work on the X-Large tag.

"Geez, lighten up." Tia said "What do you have against romance anyway..."

"Tia, you know better than to say that." Charla said...

"Lighten... up?" Marie said very maliciously "LIGHTEN UP?!"

"Now you've done it, Tia."

"And why?! I'll tell you why, no, I'll show you exactly why..."

She dug deep into her right pocket, and pulled out a metal disc, somewhat rusted and cracked, with torn wiring in the centre.

"You think I could forget what happened 5 years ago?! You don't forget about something like that, it sticks into your brain for the rest of your days... I'll tell you why I don't like love, because I can't! I'm too afraid that it'll happen again... I... I... guh..."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry..." Tia said "I just keep on forgetting what happened myself... it's okay, Marie, he's been scrap for 5 years, he's never coming back... But I guess that still doesn't change anything... I'm sorry, I should have known better."

"Thank you." Marie said with a sniff and went back to work while Tia went off to get rid of another couple tags. Gum and Mew had finished off the tag they were working on, and were about to go somewhere to get their privacy, but that's when Hikari suddenly came grinding past, spraying Skull Rose tags along the way, laughing.

"Well, looks like we'll have to postpone this for another time..." Gum sighed "Come on, let's get that whorish monstrosity!"

The Virtua Crushers quickly grouped up and chased after Hikari, not knowing of the trappy intent.
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--Shibuya-cho--

Combo grinned as I Love Love You began to blare through his boombox as he tagged a long line of Skull Rose tags. He had foigotten just how fun Tokyo was, despite the constant assault of the cops and rivals. Beat jumped over his head, and tagged a billboard, while Tab was getting the buses. Piranha and Garam were having a paint war, tagging over each other's tags again and again, while flirting like mad. Zrex, however was just sitting on the steps, watching the others. His mood wasn't one for tagging at the moment. Cube was off at Park Street, while Coin was checking up on Center Street. He began to look back to when he teamed up with the GGs, how cool they were for allowing him to stay with them... But then came back a memory he wished to forget...

***"You know why you are here, don't you?" said the voice of a woman, very blurry to memory.

"Yes." Zrex and some more voices said together "To seek... And destroy. To destroy those who opposed you..."

"Very smart." she said "Soon, you will be very important to our revenge... After all, we made you what you are."

Zrex could still remeber what he was thinking to himself...
~You may have made us what we are, but you sure aren't very nice. Why should we wage war...~

"Yes." the voices all replied.***

And that's all that he could remember in that horrid memory. He quickly repressed it and went off to tag a car, when something soared over his head... Sora, who tagged what he was going for.

"HEY!!!" Zrex yelled as Sora flipped him off and dashed down the road. His yell alerted the other GGs, including Coin and Cube, who had just finished checking their assigned areas.

"Looks like they're at it again..." Beat said "But she seems to be all by herself..."

"This could be our big chance!" Piranha said "Let's go get her!"

The other GGs nodded in agreement and quickly skated after Sora.
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--Outer Kogane-cho--

"Okay, it's all ready!" Rika said "The other gangs are distracted, now you go in for the kill."

The Disease Patrollers nodded and began to emit their toxic fumes, and dashed off to where the Anthro Morphers would be at this time. Rika seemed oddly unfazed by the gas, she didn't even cough or gag.
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--Kogane Sewers--

Slate continued to infinitely grind the rails, he was getting a lot better, over 200 tricks without a mistake. He quickly hopped off to get a small tag. Canis and Lobo concentrated on the X-X-Large tag on the wall, green getting covered in a mass of reds, greys and purples. Vix and Yo-yo... Hey, where the hell are Vix and Yo-yo?!

"Hey, weren't the Yoster and Vix here a second ago?" Slate said.

"Yeah, where did they disappear off to?" Canis said "I thought I saw them duck into that alcove, and I haven't seen them since."

"I'll go check."

So Slate began to go down the steps to the alcove, but he was about to wish he hadn't...

"Umm, Canis, why did you send Slate down there?" Lobo said "You know how Yo-yo and Vix are about something like that..."

"Because the result's gonna be fun, in three, two, one..." Canis chuckled.

"AAAAAHHHH!!!!!!" came Slate's voice.

"EEEEEEEK!" Vix's voice went.

"Dammit, Slate!" Yo-yo yelled "Can't get a single ounce of privacy! It's one thing for me to invade someone else's but I like mine!"

"Augh, geez, Yo-yo, put your pants back on, i don't wanna see THAT!!!" Slate said disgustedly.

Canis grinned.

"Canis, you are evil, you know that?" Lobo commented.

"Isn't it COOL?" Canis said with a grin.

"About as cool as heated toxic waste!" came a voice from above. Then, came the green smoke and the Disease Patrollers right behind. The voice was Anthrax's naturally.

Slate walked up the stairs while Yo-yo and Vix came out behind, their clothes a mess... Vix had her shirt on backwards, as was Yo-yo's pants.

"What do you want now, Anthrax?" Lobo sighed.

"This is your final warning, Anthro Morphers." Anthrax growled "Surrender now or suffer the concequences."

"I think I'll suffer."

"Very well then, I really wish it wouldn't come to this. Since you will not surrender peacefully, we'll make you surrender using force. Flu, Rabies!"

That's when Flu and Rabies tossed down two green containers into the sewage below. That's when the stench got horrific, and sewer gas began to rise, making the Anthro Morphers a little woozy. And then, Anthrax pulled out a red container, and tossed it into the rising gas...

"OH, SHIT!!!" Slate said, quickly knocking his friends out of the way as the gas was set alight.
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--To be Continued--