A.N: A NICE LONG UPDATE FOR YOU GUYS

Chapter 7: Help

PART ONE

Yoyo checked his battered old Timex watch and skated up the stairs to the upper section of the Garage, shielding his eyes against the bright morning sun, the sky stained red and orange and yellow as the orb rose above the skyscrapers and flats of Shibuya and beyond. He found Felix slumped on the stained and frayed sofa which had once been the ex-leaders favourite hangout spot, his eyes red and puffy with lack of sleep. Yoyo figured that Cassie, exhausted from yesterday's events, had retired to her room some hours before.

As if on cue, Felix's eyes snapped open to look at his leader. He frowned as his eyes adjusted to the light, and, seeing that the intruder was simply Yoyo, his face relaxed.

"Hey." Yoyo said softly. "Thanks for keeping the watch. I'm gonna head out for a while. You should get some sleep."

Felix frowned once more. "Go out? But what about Rush? You said we'd go and find her first thing in the morning. Shouldn't we wake up the girls and head to the Skyscraper District? That's where Trixie said she last saw Rush." Yoyo felt himself blush. Felix was questioning his leadership and, he thought, quite rightly so. He had said that they would go and find Rush first thing in the morning, but he had been thinking the events of last night over in his head as he tossed and turned in bed, and he had begun to form a plan in his mind.

"We will." Yoyo sighed heavily. "We will find Rush. But you're in no state to be out skating in the Skyscraper District, you know how dangerous it is out there, and I'm betting Cass could do with a couple more hours of sleep before she heads out too. We will go out and find her, together, but first I think we could do with getting more help if we can. The more numbers we have the better chance we have of finding Rush up there."

"So what?" Felix spat. Yoyo could see how angry he was and he felt both ashamed and upset, didn't his own gang trust him? "You want to get other gangs involved? Do you think we are so weak we can't handle this by ourselves? If you hadn't have been out go-knows-where yesterday none of this would have happened! If anyone's got beef with anyone in our gang it's with you, not Rush! She had no business being taken by…by…whatever those robot things were."

Yoyo could feel his cheeks reddening once more and felt a sharp pain in his crown, he raised his hand to stroke his temples gently, trying to see how he could reason with Felix. He wondered if it was the lack of sleep which was making his say these things or if they had been on his mind for days, weeks even, and only now were they coming to light.

He sighed once more and checked his watch once again. Going on "I know you are angry with me Felix, but I don't have any answers for you right now. I'm not going to another gang, I'm going to see if an old friend can help us out. If he can then that's one more pair of eyes to help us search for Rush, and that's one more chance we have of getting to her. Please, just let me be the leader for once and do something worthwhile. I'm late…please get some sleep and I'll be back soon."

He didn't wait for an answer and grinded down the banister to the main level of the Garage, skating over the mesh bridge and down the hill into Dogenzaka. The usually-bustling shopping district was strangely quiet in the morning light, most of the shops would not open for fifteen minutes or so, and as Yoyo took a shortcut, grinding along the half-pipe to the once-modern but now strangely out of fashion record store, he hopped with all his brain power that Beat would be there.

He didn't have to wait long to find out. As he turned a bend in the pipe he saw the red-head immediately, leaning against the wall of the record store, smoking a hand rolled cigarette. The older man looked up at the sound of skates against concrete, blowing out smoke as he pulled down his shades.

"Hey! Yoyo, my man." He grinned, throwing his cigarette butt on the floor and stepping on it carefully.

"Beat…thank god you're here!" Yoyo panted, grinding to a halt infront of the store. "I need your help."

PART TWO

The heavy thudding sound echoed around the narrow street, travelling up the walls of the compressed flats and bouncing off the worn cobblestones.

"Corn?" A woman shouted, banging heavily on a front door. "You in there Corn?"

"Jeez girl, you want to be any louder? You'll get complaints."

The girl sighed and turned to face her companion. "I don't care if I wake up the whole goddamned street." She swivelled around back to the door, smacking the palm of her hand against the front. "Corn?"

"Calm down Boog. I don't get your rush."

"Look Garam." The tall girl snapped. "It's not like Corn to miss his meeting. I know you're finding this hilarious, but I'm worried. We didn't come all the way from Kibogaka to have a conversation with a door. So if you don't mind, Corn?" She shouted once more.

"Maybe he's out with a girl?" The slightly shorter man suggested. He wore dark sunshades and his hair was closely cropped to his skull, his companion's hair was shoulder length and matted in thick dreadlocks.

The girl gave a mock chuckle. "Ha ha ha. Very funny Garam. Corn with a girl. And where, prey tell, did he meet this mystery girl? Alcoholics anonymous? That's a match made in heaven right there."

"It was just a suggestion, you don't have to be so judgemental." Garam sighed, stepping up to the porch-way.

"Oh, come on. You know how much I care for him. Poor guy. We're the only friends he's got." Boogie reasoned, reaching into her scarlet handbag and producing a key.

"What's that?"

"Spare key. Corn gave me it back when he started AA. In case of emergencies." Boogie grinned, fitting the key snugly into the brass lock on the front door.

"Girl, you're seriously not thinking of breaking into Corn's apartment are you? What if he's…busy?"

Boogie turned to face Garam, frustrated. "I just told you, I have permission…kind of. And we just went over the secret lover situation. It's not happening. I'm worried, and tired, so come the fuck on!" She turned the key and pushed open the door. After a second of contemplating his situation, Garam follow her, reluctantly, down the stairs and into Corn's basement flat.

"Boogie, I don't think we should be doing this." Garam whispered, following Boogie into the living room.

"Like I said, I don't care what you…Christ on a fucking bike." Boogie trailed off, dashing quickly to the corner of the living room.

"What?" Garam asked, but a second later he saw for himself. The glass cabinet in the corner of the room drew his eye; the door was wide open and several bottles of hard liquor laid smashed on the floor. He saw Boogie run over to a figure laid motionless on the floor, a long and thin bottle at his side, empty, and an open notebook on the carpet in front of him.

Boogie bent down and turned the body over, strands of blonde hair trailed over Corn's pale face and his eyes were closed. She pressed her fingers to his wrist and bent lower to listen to his shallow breathing.

"He's alive." She gasped, breathing an internal sigh of relief. She moved around him to hoist his body into an upright position and propped him against the leather armchair. As she did so Corn began to mutter, half-formed words slurring from his mouth. "Fuck." Boogie said. "He's drunk."

Garam bent down to pick up the notebook. Scrawls of poetry in messy handwriting filled the pages, getting loopier and larger as the words went on. "At least he's writing again." Garam smirked.

Boogie shot him a look. "Do you think this is funny? He's drunk an entire bottle of absinthe. He should be dead!"

Garam moved closer to Corn. Yes, he could smell the alcohol on him now. A sickly combination of aniseed and heady spirits. "What a cliché! Absinthe. Sounds about right." He bent down and gently patted the side of Corn's face, the bristle of his beard tickling his hand. "Oi. Corn? You awake?"

Corn's blue eyes opened half way, giving the younger man a droopy drunken look. He tried to sit up further but Boogie's arms were wrapped tightly around his waist, restricting his movement. His eyes darted franticly around the room, to the open doorway which the two ex-rudies had entered through, to the kitchen door, to the open alcohol cabinet. He grunted and closed his eyes once more.

"Do you think we should call an ambulance?" Asked Boogie, looking more sincere than her partner had seen her in years.

"I don't think so. Maybe we should pour him a cold bath or something…sober him up. You stay here." Garam stood up and went through the closed door in the corner and down the hallway to the small bathroom which housed a large but old bath. He poured the water, measuring out the hot and cold carefully…more cold than hot. He placed a towel from the small cupboard in the corner on the floor, and another on a rail which hung next to the small hand basin. When the water half-filled the bath, he turned off the taps and returned to the living room to find Corn awake and mumbling some half-nothings to Boogie who was now sat in front of him.

"What's he saying?" Garam asked, bending down to hoist up the slightly taller but thinner man from the floor.

"Christ…he's delirious! Muttering something about Gum. I think we may need the ambulance after all!"

"Maybe…we'll get him cleaned up first. See if this cold bath doesn't do him some good…Corn…you in there?" Garam said, shouting slightly.

"Mmm." Corn replied as Boogie and Garam lifted him slowly to his feet. He swayed a little and they each moved to his sides, supporting him under the armpits and slowly moving him to the open doorway. When they reached the bathroom Corn had begun to walk, a little timidly, on his own.

"Maybe I should undress him." Garam suggested as they steadied Corn upon the closed toilet seat.

"Why?" Boogie snapped. "I don't suppose he's got anything I haven't seen before. Say Corn, you don't have two cocks or nothing do you?" Boogie said, her voice echoing around the tiled walls.

"Don't think so." Corn managed to muster.

"See?" Boogie smirked, moving to undress Corn's upper body as Garam dealt with his socks and trousers. Once he was fully stripped they both helped lower him into the bath and flinched a little as he gasped out at the temperature as the cold water touched him skin. They steadied him into an upright position, feeling him shiver against their hands and then, tentatively, after a moment, they let go.

"Corn?" Garam asked, slowly. "Are you okay?"

The blonde man shook his head a little in confusion. "I don't know…what happened?" He said, equally slowly, trying to regain his memory.

"You well and truly fell of the wagon…that's what happened." Boogie replied, sitting on the closed toilet seat.

"Yeah man. What was that in aid of? A bottle of absinthe? You think you're Van Gogh or something?" Garam smirked.

Corn took a moment, remembering, sighing, frowning. "It was Gum. She was here."

Boogie and Garam exchanged a glance over Corn's shoulder. "Gum?" Boogie asked. "You said that before…but it's impossible. Why would Gum come here?"

"No…not impossible." Corn replied in-between shivers. "She was here, I swear. Yoyo too. He's still a GG you know…"

"Corn…I think you're confused. Maybe that alcohol messed you right up. There's no way they both could be here. We haven't heard from either of them in what? Three…four years? Why would they suddenly come here?" Garam sighed, fearing that Boogie had been right…maybe Corn did need a doctor.

"I don't know." Corn replied, his shakes dying down as he got used to the cold water. "Yoyo left before he could explain. Me and Gum, we…we got into a fight. I didn't mean to start it but…anyway, Yoyo left and then Gum left and I…oh Christ…I was reading through my book…you know the one…and I felt so fucking bad. I guess you were right Boogie." He turned to face the girl. "I shouldn't have trusted myself with that cabinet in the room. I thought I was strong…but I guess I was wrong."

PART THREE

"I can't believe I'm doing this. I haven't skipped work in months." Beat was struggling to keep up with Yoyo who had the extra advantage of wearing skates, as they rushed along the twisting streets of Dogenzaka, heading for the secret entrance to the GG Garage. "They owe me holiday time an all but shit! Going back to the Garage again…You say you saw Corn? How was he?"

"Broken." Yoyo sighed. "I never knew someone could get that bad over a girl. It sounds strange, after looking up to him for years, but I kinda felt sorry for him."

"That's too bad." Beat panted, almost running to keep up. "And what about Gum? How did she look? I ask for…purely scientific reasons you understand." He smirked.

"I'd stay well away." Yoyo said. "I don't know what shit went down between her and Corn, but it wasn't how-do-you-do's being exchanged between them, I can tell you that for nothin'. Here we are." He turned a sharp corner and fiddled with a lock on a painted wooden panel. He swung open the make-shift door and entered the Garage.

Beat was silent for a moment behind him as he closed the gate shut and skated over the mesh bridge onto the main floor. The place seemed strangely quiet in the morning sun. He spotted a figure on the upper floor, sat on the old sofa.

"Fuck me." Beat gawped. "This place hasn't changed one bit! I can't believe it!" He joined Yoyo on the raised platform and followed him up the stairs to be confronted by a tall girl.

"Who's this?" Trixie asked, her brow furrowed in suspicion.

Yoyo turned to Beat. "Beat…meet Trixie…Trixie…Beat."

"Nice to meet you." Beat raised a hand but was met with a scowl.

"He a freelance?" Trixie asked Yoyo, raising to her feet.

"No, an ex-rudie." Yoyo explained. "An old friend…he's here to help us get Rush back. Where are Felix and Cassie? I didn't see them downstairs."

"They went out to find Rush." Her expression softened a little as she turned towards the 99th Street exit. "I told them to wait for you but Felix was pretty pissed…he said you weren't looking out for us and that he'd find her himself. I told him he was being a prick but you know how he is…he and Cassie left about fifteen minutes ago down the highway, said they were going to the Skyscraper District."

Yoyo sighed deeply and followed Trixie's gaze into the distant skyscrapers and billboards. "Fuck." He turned back to face them both. "Do you think we should go after them?"

"I don't know." The girl shrugged. "You're the leader." Yoyo felt himself blush for the second time that day. He wished once more than Corn were here to take charge. Broken or not, he'd know what to do.

"Right." Yoyo steadied himself. "I guess we'd better follow them before they get captured themselves or fall off a fucking skyscraper. Beat, you coming?"

Beat grinned. "A GG mission? Sure. I figure a rudie never loses his game."

"Your friend here…he have skates?" Trixie asked, her tone slightly patronising.

"Well, I never threw them out." Yoyo began. "I assume they are still in your room?"

Beat's grin widened. "My room? You mean it's empty? You never threw all my shit away?"

Yoyo shook his head. "There are only three of us. Most of the rooms are still empty. Go have a look."

Beat didn't hesitate and ran down the steps excitedly, entering the underground portion of the Garage in a rush.

"Your friend." Trixie smirked. "Is he for real?"

Yoyo smiled for the first time that day, feeling warmth as his cheeks widened. "I think he's just happy that he doesn't have to sell records and cds in the digital age."