Chapter 5 to make a choice

Authors Note: Exposition is the bane of every writer.

Its jet set radio!

That's right, the home to the rudies of the streets, I am your fast talkin wise man of the streets. Professor k. looks like after the Stone Tears lost Benten-cho, those boys and girls ran cryin home to mama. Ha Ha look at them run! No sooner than they go look who comes back to the game but none other than the Noise Tanks! Who put a quarter in their last count down to game over anyway? With a week into the sudden and unknown cease-fire, things have been nice in quite in Shibuya and Kogane-cho! What happened to Beat and the new leader of the Stone Tears, Silphie? All I know is that my spidey sense is tingling and it tingles never wrong!

"Yo GG!"

Tab and Slate stopped. They had both just finished their day of making the rounds around the Stone Tear Border. A Noise Tank pulled up to them and asked, "Is it alright if I try to talk to the Leader of the GG's?" Tab looked to Slate who simply shrugged his shoulders. Tab hated being the leader. It was too much pressure when he would rather be picking up girls. His last one, a non-rudie, finally dumped him after a week and he was eager to look for another one. Tab sighed and said, "I am current leader of the GG's what do you need?"

The Noise Tank asked? "Current? So it is True Beat left somewhere?" The Noise Tank seemed shocked by this. Maybe it was because there is still such high stakes with the streets with The Stone Tears right next door. Thought Slate.

Tab nodded in reply, "What can I do for you Noise Tank?"

The Noise Tank nodded, making a slight shift in his mask. "I am Leader of the Noise Tanks, Bit. I would like to talk to you about the Stone Tears."

Tab nodded and turned to Slate. "Go ahead of me, I'll meet up at the garage." Slate decided not to argue and went ahead of Tab. With it just being Tab and Bit, Tab decided it was easier to simply state what the noise Tank was thinking. "You want to team up then?"

The Noise Tank took off his masked then smiled saying, "Yeah. I know we turned down your help before we were wiped out, but loosing and not just our territory but our very name as Noise Tanks, has a humbling effect on a person."

Tab smiled a genuine smile of appreciation. He had heard from Beat that Bit was a horrible jackass. It really looked like he turned into a good guy after everything he has been through. "What do you have in mind Bit?"

Bit led Tab to the ended of Benten-cho to the tower that was still being built. It was a good look out for the whole city. He had remembered that Mew had said as much. Bit and Tab stood on the peak of the tower looking over the border that separated Kogane from the rest of the city. "From the north of the railroad tracks to about here is heavily checked by the Stone Tears, But from then to the Sub way terminal is practically left alone. I think that if your gang and ours were able to push our territory from there we would be able to wedge a line and cut off the northern half of Kogane, say most of the residential area." Tab nodded.

Noise Tanks only numbered three, but that three could make a difference if they got into a tagging war with the Stone Tears. Tab noted the whole area and thought to himself, this could work, but the GG's are two no three GG's short now, and what about the truce? "Bit do you know why Silphie is gone?" The GG's were surprised how all the sudden that Professor K kept quiet about big news like why there was a truce. One was That Silphie took Chisel the former leader of the Stone Tears to Kyoto and also that Beat and Gum took off with Z-ro within almost the same few days of each other, as a result Bit was probably the only true gang leader actually in town. Tab didn't want to count out Poison Jam just biding their time.

"No, only that she's gone and now is a perfect time to strike!" Bit was expecting Tab to be just as excited but Tab looked worried. It deflated Bit's enthusiasm only slightly.

"Beat is on a trip about…" Tab paused. It wasn't his business to tell others what was going on if it wasn't public. "a family emergency. We can't make a move without his go ahead. Plus we made a temporary cease-fire with the Stone Tears. I can't go against that. Not until Beat comes back." Tab did his best to make it sound final.

Bits eyes widen in surprise then said, "You can't even help us with this? Com'on they leave a weakness like this only once in a while, we noticed this before we lost but we never had the manpower to pull it off. If we don't do this now it will already be too late. Can't you at least help out in some way?" Tab stayed silent his hands tied in bureaucracy of it all. Bureaucracy, that's something I would never thought I would think of this as.

Bits' excitement faded completely and sneered out, "Oh I get it, you had to make a deal since your trusty leader wasn't here to protect your little asses. I see how it works. Fine, Then shove it GG!" Bit pulled his mask on then left. Heh, looks like he didn't change after all. Tab sighed then laughed. He left and this is his territory.

Z-ro, Beat and Gum were taken deeper into the city. When they approached an airport. The Police had surrounded and barricaded the airport closed. The group stopped and Nack turned to them saying. "From here we will need to ride in a car."

Beat and Gum were surprised. Neither of them had been in a vehicle in a long time, not since they were children. A black car pulled up a few moments later and Nack sat in the front passenger seat and the three GG's sat in the back. Beat was glad Z-ro wasn't much bigger or they would have had a hard time sitting since they still had their bags in hand. The car winded around streets and up large hills, after a particular climb through what looked like the center of the city they got out of the car.

In front of them was a large skyscraper with the name WoSo Corp written in huge letters across the face of the building. "WoSo Corp is World Source Corp, the leader in Ameran aid to both those abroad and inside its boarders." Z-ro looked away from the sign jaw locked and nudged his head for Beat and Gum to follow.

Gum was in awe at how tall it was. It rivaled anything they had seen in Tokyo-to. When they entered the elevator, it took them immediately down. Gum placed her hand on her stomach. "Don't worry Gum, it doesn't last long, this is an express elevator, we are dropping at like 10 floors a second." No sooner than he had said that the elevator slowed and came to a halt.

Z-ro waved his hand to their escort saying "I know where we are going, Jonel's office right?" Nack nodded then left them. The three GG's moved alone through large corridors until they found an office framed with large double doors that extended the length of the office. Both doors were open leaving the office more like a dent in the wall. The three walked the length of the deep office to a desk. On the wall behind the desk was a huge monitor that extended the length of the wall. It displayed the city as if it was a window than a screen.

"Gered." The person who sat in the head chair stood. He was a young boy as old as Z-ro himself.

"Adam. What happened?" Adam went around the desk to shake Gereds' hand.

"It's a mess. Once your brother disappeared several of his rivals moved in to try to claim the Free flyers Territory." Oie, thought Beat he talks like Z-ro when he is serious. "I'll tell you this, I am glad your bro Jules started making some of those defense patrols so routine. Those insurrections lasted only an hour before they were put down. Most of the harsh stuff is over. But we still don't know where Jules is. Here. This might help with clues. You were always better with that stuff than me." Z-ro looked at the contents of the folder that was given to him. It had notes, interviews with several bladers and police reports. "One more thing Gered, who are these guys? I know you would not travel with someone if you didn't trust them but I don't know them."

Z-ro's eye were suddenly alarmed then he said quickly, "Adam, this is Beat and Gum. They decided to come along to aid me from Japan. I am apart of their gang." Z-ro said with pride.

Adam was dubious over the fact that Gered turned down the chance to be leader of a gang here, but stayed silent about that touchy subject. "Hello Adam, I am Beat, Leaders of the GG's. Can you tell me what was going on inside the Free Flyers' gang when Z-ro's brother disappeared."

Adam gave a whistle. "GG's eh? You sure know how to pick em' don't you 'Z-ro'." Z-ro blushed beat red, and then scolded himself for not having asked Beat and Gum to call him Gered while they were here. "Sorry Beat, I only meant that I have read of what your gang has done from over here. I don't suppose you know why Z-ro has named himself that?" Beat shook his head. " If I know that Gered wouldn't kill me… anyway, Jules was last seen in his own territory, going south towards Virginia. No one knows why. There are no gangs down that way and well… there is nothing down that way."

Gum sat down on the floor and yawned. Z-ro tore away from his knew folder and looked at Gum. "Sorry Z-ro, but I am tired, we've had a long flight, and a longer run and all you guys have been doing is just talking."

Beat turned from Adam to Gum looking embarrassed, "Sorry Gum, I kinda forgot you were there." Gum didn't have the strength to snap back. "Adam is there a place where we can rest, we can pick this up in the morning."

"Afternoon," corrected Adam, "It's 5 am now. And yeah, Z-ro you know the way. I'll see if I can dig up any more info for you."

"Thanks," Z-ro led Beat and Gum to another room that was more of a living room than an office, both Gum and Beat sat down on a sofa in front of a fire. Within minutes both of them were fast asleep. Z-ro made a cup of coffee and began reading through the files on recliner beside the sofa.

When they finally woke up it was already mid-afternoon. Beat looked over to Gum who was calmly snuggled into the crook of his neck. Beat smiled and nudged her with his chin to wake up. She groggily protested saying something that sounded like "I'm too comfy" to his chest then yawned. After a minute she finally got off him only to lay against the armrest and continued to doze. Beat began to move the stiffness he found in his arm from a position his arm was not used to. The rudie leader picked up his goggles off the ground, thinking it funny that he didn't even remember that he had taken them off.

Beat began to look around and noticed things he did not see in the early morning when they had arrived. The main room all three of them had slept in was decorated in what looked like a museum. Paintings and sculptures lined the walls. Beat stopped in front of one that looked like Professor k. in a dramatic pose with microphone in his hand.

Z-ro stood next to him with two cups of coffee. Beat wordlessly took one. "That's Keith -man, He led a underground pirate station in New York for a while. When he had to leave the country a lot of gang violence broke out." Beat only grunted not quite awake yet. "You two were so happy looking together that I didn't have the heart to wake you up." Beat did a small side-glance at Z-ro then took a sip of coffee. A moment passed before Beat made bitter face. "Don't like black coffee?" Asked Z-ro with a smile. He turned away from the painting and showed him the condiments. Sugar, cream, milk, cinnamon and a couple of other things Beat didn't even recognize were among the tray's sleek trim.

"So what's' the deal with Adam? How did he get to run something this large?" Beat began to sample things he didn't even know went into coffee.

Z-ro smiled. His slightly droopy eyes perked up a little saying; "Think of him as an Ameran Rokkakaku Jr." Beat nodded. He remembered how Kogi replaced his father when Beat and Tab saw Gogi go down with his turntable skyscraper.

"I got some info a couple of hours ago. It places my bro near the harbor south of the city. We'll need to take a car to get there, I don't think we can get there from here."

"Huh?" Beat said while rummaging with the condiments to fix up his coffee.

"Oh you don't know. D.C. is made up of four cities. We're are in the northern most section." Beat nodded while pouring copious amounts of cream into his coffee. Z-ro sighed, "You know if you want, I can try to get you some tea?" Beat nodded concentrating only on adding more sugar.

Gum finally got out of the sofa now fully waking herself up. "So when do we leave Z-ro?"

"As soon as you guys are ready." Beat and Gum both looked up at him then. "I had to argue to get my way so it will just be us and a driver." Gum nodded, checking her netrium blades.

"I got our backpacks loaded, we will need to be there a couple of days." Beat and Gum wordlessly nodded. "You know its weird for you guys to just wordlessly follow me." Z-ro couldn't knock the edge off his voice.

Beat smiled as he slid his goggles on, "Heh, here we're the newbies remember. GG's all ways follow the veterans. Right Gum?"

Gum placed a reassuring hand on Z-ro's shoulder. "Z-ro, just remember that. We won't take the lead for anything that you don't signal use to. Alright?"

Z-ro nodded after Gum let go. "Just don't expect me to be a good leader Beat."

"You are, is what we are saying." replied Beat in his best English. With that they got what they had on to their backs and eat some food quickly before they left.

Though they only expected to be gone for a few days, Adam did not hear from the three GG's for another three weeks.

Weeks passed with no word from Beat, Gum or Z-ro. Silphie had returned to Tokyo-to a few days earlier, and slowly the GG's were getting back to their old edgy selves.

"I wonder why the Noise Tanks still try?" Garam, Cube and Piranha just got back to the garage talking over the Noise Tanks.

"Bit didn't say anything to Tab about it. Apparently The Stone Tears are still holding the cease-fire with us. But Silphie still didn't say why." Cube sat on the couch they moved in front of the TV last week.

"Mew thinks its because of that agreement that Beat said, 'only if we could do the same' or something like that." Garam went into the fridge and moved around Mews' juice bottles. "That girl is drinking more juice than I drink everything combined."

"Heh, is mew still over at Z-ro's mom's house, what's her name, Lylith?"

Garam looked over to Piranha and said, "Yeah I think she is still nervous about being pregnant still is talking to the only mother she knows."

"Guys." Yo-Yo burst through the door. His face is completely red. "We got a problem!"

"I am not going to, Silphie!" Tab had gotten over his uneasiness of being temp leader and was actually impressed with himself. Talking back to a leader of a Stone Tear group was not something many people have done.

"Tab, I just want you to talk to them. The last stunt those idiots pulled nearly killed a few of my men, theirs and some innocent people near by."

"Oh, Now your concerned for innocent people." Tab looked away from Silphie in disgust.

Silphies' black and purple locks flew in every direction as she almost yelled, "I don't care what the hell you think of my group but you talk them down and settle things or I will stop them for good!" With that Silphie rolled back wards on her skates then netrium dashed on to a near by telephone wire.

Tab cringed as she left. "That was scary. Nice of you to high tail it out of here when she showed up."

"Hey I am a lover not a fighter." Slate pulled up to Tab.

"No you are a liar and a damn good fighter."

"Man you two know how to push each others buttons." Slate looked down the path Silphie took.

"That reminds me. How did she know about my lack of picking up any kind of women."

"Maybe it's the suit." Slate pointed to Tabs coveralls.

"Hey shut up, I like these."

"What do we do now?" Slate and Tab began to head for the Garage.

Tab sighed, and then said, "What Silphie said was not a threat. It was a promise. I guess we need to stop the Noise Tanks before they get themselves killed."

"Think they'll be as reasonable as when Beat tried the helped them the first time?" Tab smiled, remembering when Bit started flying his fist at Beat when Beat tried to offer his help.

"Naw, Bit doesn't like me remember?"