Authors' note: Laziness is a greater enemy than writers block.
Chapter 7 enemies old and new
This must be it. The woman, who could only be deemed old by rudie standards, stopped next to a young lady looking down to the rail road tracks below them. "Is that the GG's and Noise Tanks?"
The Silphie looked at the intruding woman for moment. The unknown rudie sported gear and wore loose jeans with a simple black shirt under her heavy coat. "They just barely started talking," was what she finally said. "but it looks like Tab is just giving the Noise Tanks one more chance to back out." The woman nodded.
The woman turned away from the rudies below them and asked, "Who are you?"
Silphie smiled. "Sounds like that should be my line. My name is Silphie." The woman looked at the small necklace of a stone tear around Silphies' neck.
"Stone Tear?" The woman narrowed her eyes.
"The leader. Yes. You have a grudge I take it?" Silphie looked down at the bag the Noise Tank leader was carrying.
"No grudge. I would have had one had my son met your gang first." The woman looked back down to the fight that was unfolding before them. "It doesn't seem fair seven to three…"
"I think Tab knows this is too important to risk fair play. Who is your son?" Silphie liked the small talk but curiosity was something she liked to resolve more.
"He is a new GG member."
Silphie raised an eyebrow. "Your Z-ro's mother?"
Z-ro's mother turned and looked square into Silphie's eyes. "yes."
Bit had fought the GG's a number of times. Many of them were normal rudie races but there were also street fights where they had fought three on three. Bit didn't know how to describe the fight he was in now. It was different, but that was all he knew. The GG's were not nearly as hard as they should be. Especially when it was seven to three. The Noise Tank ducted under Combos' flying arm and jumped back when he saw Yo-Yo move after Combo missed. Bit looked to find Jine and he quickly nodded, noticing the difference too.
Tab jumped and missed kicking Bit in the gut by inches. Bit shook off any reservations when Tab began to attack him fiercely. Bit exchanged blows with Tab before Brenlis rammed Piranha into the GG leader knocking both of them to the ground. Bit nodded for Brenlis to help Jine, Cube was giving him a hard time. He was stopped by Slate. Brenlis was knocked back with only a few moments to get a passing punch in on Cube.
Combo rushed Bit and was about to close hang him. Bits eyes widened for a moment seeing only Combo alone. Now's my chance! Bit swung his bag off his shoulder and dived his hand into it. He pulled out a small thin metal disk. Combo reached him just as Bit stood. "Take this!" Bit flung the disk onto Combos' chest then jumped away form the rudie. Combo only had enough time to look at it before it exploded. All of the GG"s heard a muted thud and looked to see Combo blown into a wall covered in graffiti.
Tab and Yo-yo looked at Combo for a moment and saw the unconscious rudie covered with Noise Tank graffiti. Tab smiled at the cleverness of this particular tactic. Rudie gangs test each others ability to reach impossible tags. With that kind of disk… Tab looked at the rest of the staring GG's then dodged Bit who never slowed a step. The Noise Tanks only need a good arm to reach what would take a lot of skill for others.
"No way!" shouted Yo-yo. Cube, Slate, were hit to the ground while staring at the downed Combo. Tab pushed Garam out of the way of a disk heading for his head.
Tab kicked the disk away and it arced into an explosion of paint on a railroad car. The explosion left dents in the metal wall. Tab narrowed his eyes at Bit. Aiming for Garams' head is low. Tab thought to himself. "I have had enough Bit!" Tab charged Bit. Tabs' blades roared to life as blue light licked the pavement. Tab dodged two pair of arms. His single mindedness only told him to stop Bit before he kills someone with a graffiti bomb. Tab felt his fist connect to a jaw before he felt something slap against his chest.
Tab felt the little disk begin to vibrate against his chest. Tab closed his eyes and moved his left forearm over his eyes as the right tried desperately to grasp the smooth disk. After what seemed like an eternity Tab managed to throw the disk off his chest. Tab landed face down on the worn concrete expecting a small explosion. He knew he didn't knock the disk far enough for him to be safe. What he felt, was a large inferno fly over the back of his body. The bag! He though to himself, I must have knocked the bomb into the bag! Tab couldn't even guess how many bombs were in the bag. The multiple explosions seemed to be endless. When the heat of burning fumes passed he saw that all three Noise Tanks were knocked on their asses with one of them passed out.
Tab shakily stood up, a little stiff from the heat that scorched his back. Blue, yellow, purple and red paint fanned out into a tie-dyed pattern from what used to be the bag. The center of the explosion was a large hole in the concrete. Tab surveyed the rest of the GG's and saw a couple of them were covered in paint. His own back was covered with red and blue paint.
Tab walked to Bit who was being held by Garam and Cube. Tab took off the Noise tanks' mask. "Bit is this what you wanted?" Tab said quietly. Bit looked away from Tab and saw the hole the bombs made. "Do you think this would drive the Stone Tears away?" Tabs' voice was a little louder.
Bit still did not say a word. Bitterness consumed him. I couldn't even get to the Stone Tear boarder…
"What if it was just another rudie who found one of these before it went off? Or the police?" Bit still didn't say anything. His eyes glared back at Tab. "YOUR NO BETTER THAN ROKKAKAKU!" Tab angrily backhanded Bit. Bit felt his lip cut and spit the blood. He looked back up to Tab but his anger was gone. "Let him go." Both GG's let go of the Noise Tank leader. "Don't show your face unless you want be to finish what we started." Tab motioned the rest of the GG's to let them go.
Bit led his gang out of Benten-cho to the outskirts of the City.
Silphie smiled. "That was interesting." She gave a soft applause.
Lylith turned and said, "Enjoyed the fight?"
Silphie felt the bite in the mothers' words. "No, I like how Tab defused Bit before letting him go. He might not look like it but Tab can handle tough situations when he sets his mind to it." Silphie did one more long glance at him before looking towards Lylith.
Lylith nodded, "It got his attention didn't it? It is nice to meet the person who is my sons enemy as something other than that.
"I am not an evil person. But that doesn't excuse the others that are." Selphie looked down and said, "I should go. The fights over, and its almost morning. I am sure I am violating some rule being here. Rudie laws are too reversible for my tastes."
Lylith looked surprised, "Your not originally a rudie?"
Silphie laughed, "Ye gods no! I am or rather was a body guard." Silphie said a parting farewell and left the rudie mother alone to the new information she absorbed that evening.
Tab let out a soft sigh. Its over… Well for now. Tab waved for all of the GG's to come together. "Guys I understand your reluctance to fight them." Tab looked at them all. "But we can't loose the little control we have in our territory. I say ours. Because we represent Tokyo-to" Tab felt sweat slide down the back of his neck and rubbed it off. It had crawled down his back but didn't care, the burns he must have only tingled now. "Tab!" Tab turned and saw Cube look at him horrified. Tab looked down at his hand. It was covered in blood. The sudden realization of it all made him sick. Tab collapsed to his knees. Tab last thought before he slipped into unconsciousness was How does Beat do it?
Beat was thinking that same question. How do I do it? He still felt a little giddy from the last scrap he save his GG's from. Beat had saved the three of them a lot of trouble through fast talking lately. The latest being able to fool a small gang that the three GG's were just passing by while getting as much information that all of the small gang had on Z-ro's brother. That info wasn't as helpful as they had hoped. Jules was said to be taking in bladers from this area then those who were rejected from what ever he was recruiting them for simply disappeared. Atleast the successful recruits came back to say they passed before they too disappeared. But that was almost a month ago. With Z-ro's brother Gone a lot of the gangs have been fighting each other in the area.
Beat and his GG's landed south of the D.C. state boarder with all of their clues burning down to one last unlikely thread. The three had traveled south for five hours when Gum begged to stop. The group stopped at a small lake park that was the only natural looking place they had seen since landing there. Many of the places they had been to had been industrialized with buildings and crop fields. Gum took of her blades and stretched her feet. Beat and Z-ro did the same but did not bother to take their blades off. "Grinding and skating for hours really takes a toll on a person." said Gum out loud. Beat gave a slight grunt in agreement.
Z-ro dove into his bag and pulled out some food for everybody. He looked up and said out loud in Japanese. "Oh shit!" both Gum and Beat looked up instantly to see a police car, Beat and Gum have seen enough of them to know what it was, circle around the parking lot and up to them "Guys don't say anything! English or Japanese!" The three GG's did not say a word as they were silently handcuffed and moved into cars. Beat looked at Z-ro several times, but Z-ro shook his head mouthing out not to say anything. Gum was less agreeable to police than the two men, and almost came to blows when a police officer had to search her. Beat was just grateful that the police did not do anything so far that was underhanded.
After a few minutes they arrived at a small village in the direction they were headed. The village had only three roads and a lot of farm equipment. The three were escorted out of the car and into the sheriffs office. It was nothing more than a converted house for the small three road village. The rooms were decorated with sparse furniture in one room, another that could be seen next to them was converted into a communications out post and the room ahead of them was the main office. They were guided to the Sheriff who gestured them to sit down.
"I am told that none of you said a word as my officers arrested you." The officer was rummaging through papers and files on his computer. He stopped and looked at them. "Do you know why you were taken to me?" Z-ro thought he had an idea but didn't want to think about some of the things that he had heard about this area years ago. Bladers would come here and not be heard from again. They were picked off by crooked police. "I have been instructed to find a child matching your description." he picked up a file full of papers and dropped it in front of Z-ro. "Disturbing the peace, Damage of property, and is suspected in connections to rival gangs in D.C. Heh, you have been busy haven't you?"
The three rudies remained silent. Beat was the only one looking at the officer, his jaw locked. "You have also been traveling a lot this past few weeks, all over south D.C. as a matter of fact."
Z-ro broke the silence. "How long have you been looking for me?" Z-ro's heart sank. He had only been fooling himself if people already knew who he was.
"Since you moved to the D.C. Virginian border." Came the curt reply. The officer busily punched information into his computer and said, "I am going to make this easy. I am just going to detain you in the cell for a few hours while I get a few papers in order."
"What about my friends? Can they go?" Beat didn't anticipate Z-ro asking such a thing and didn't want to sound weird countering Z-ro's question..
"No, As far as I know they are accomplices." The officer smiled a cruel smile, then waved for the two policemen that arrested them escort them down stairs to the holding cell. The three GG's were placed into a electronically locked cell that hummed shut when the barred door closed behind them.
When the police officers left, Gum saw that they were the only ones down in the basement. No guard, no other prisoners. Just several cells lining one wall.
"Great now what are we going to do?" Beat sat on the bench and laid against the back wall.
"I guess we wait," Z-ro sat next to him.
Gum couldn't stay still, she paced back and forth. "Um, Guys?" Beat and Z-ro looked up. "Doesn't this look a little weird? I mean, I have only seen a couple of movies but wouldn't they, you know take us some where else? We are in the middle of nowhere."
Z-ro looked around and sighed saying, "Don't expect much Gum. There have been a lot of rumors about the police down here. None of it was good. We have to find a way out of here." Z-ro got up and looked around. But he did find it hard to believe that the officers did not confiscate anything they were carrying. They even let us bring our bags into the cell. Too bad none of it will help us get out of here. Thought Z-ro.
After an hour of coming up with nothing, The three GG's thought that they would make their break when the police come in and open the door to the cell.
It never happened, after six hours of silence upstairs the GG's were wondering if the police officers forgot they were down there. It was getting towards evening. Beat finally tried to make a ruckuss to see if an officer would come down and at least indicate someone was there. That didn't work either. A few more hours passed and only the lamps gave off light. Even the lights leading up stairs were out. All three GG's were beginning to wonder what would happen if an officer didn't come back for a week, or if ever.
Beat looked up as he heard a sudden distant explosion. The lights in the room went out. "Oh great the power is out." Z-ro and Gum felt their way to Beat. Z-ro managed to dig around for a flash light. After a few shakes and a click the three GG's could see the room again.
"Guys that was the power going out right?"
I think we established that Z-ro." Z-ro ignored the wise crack and went to the cell door. He shook it and it budged a little.
"These doors lock electronically. With the power out…" Z-ro gave a budge to the door. "they are just heavy pieces of metal. Lets get out of here." Z-ro was joined by Gum and the two opened the cell door. Beat grabbed Z-ro's back off the floor and led the way up stairs. The place was abandoned, no one was there. Darkness had set in completely, and all three GG's were ready to put this place behind them.
A sudden spot light hit them just as the three of them left the front door of the house/police outpost.
"Heh, you guys sure took your sweet time getting out of there." Z-ro blocked the light with his hand. That voice sounded familiar. No Way! "Gered, I didn't think I would see you back here on this side of the planet so soon."
"Who is it Z-ro?" asked Beat quietly. Beat only managed to get a look at the tall man wearing a sleeveless vest and two wheeled inline skates.
Z-ro stood up strait against the blinding light and looked directly towards the man. Z-ro said loud enough for everyone. "Its Jules, my brother."