Be glad I got this up, because I'm still tired from yesterday's competition -yawns-
"Hm?" I raised an eyebrow
"It's a long story" Combo sighed
"Then tell it, we got plenty of time, and the only other person besides us here is sleeping" I shrugged
Combo sighed again "Well, it was a year or so after Cube left for Tokyo-to. My friend, Coin, and I were trying to escape the cops. I heard a gun shot, then I heard Coin yell. I turned my head to see what had happened, and saw his leg was a bloody mess. I went back, to help him, but the cops landed one on me, right here" He patted his chest right over his heart "Next thin I remember, I was with another Rudie, one I never learned the name of, but she saved me. Bullet never reached my heart, so she was able to get it out. But Coin, when I went to look for him, I never saw him. He was gone, probably picked up by the police while I was recovering. I almost wanted to blame that Rudie for helping me and not Coin, but she said that Coin wasn't there when she got there, and the police had simply mistook me for dead and left me to rot on the streets"
"That sucks man" I couldn't believe how much he had gone through. It was way worse than getting kicked out of your own house. And trust me, that's worse than you think when that's the only house you've known all your life
"Yeah" Combo turned back to me "Promise you won't tell anyone about this?"
"My lips are sealed" I nodded and skated away. Nothing else of much importance happened that day, but there was a really big shock the next. Yoyo had vanished, no trace of him but his sunglass and a puddle of blood. I think I was the least affected by it, because I hadn't even known him for a day, but Beat was crying (and from what I heard, Beat was an ass, he never cried). I think we all didn't talk for a couple hours after that, too busy worrying about Yoyo, but then Rhyth approached me
"Garam? Can you go to Rokkaku-Dai Heights with me?"
"Why?" I asked
"Well, Corn would be really mad if I went alone, and I need to do something really important
"Okay" I shrugged and went skated to Rokkaku-Dai Heights (after telling Corn, of course. We didn't want him worrying about us).
I followed Rhyth through Rokkaku-Dai until we were on top of one of the larger building. There were a bunch of crows there, but they all scattered except one, the one with a deformed neck that made it almost look like a black vulture, except without the bald head.
Rhyth skated up to it and kneeled down, whispering to it and giving it some bird seed from her hand. After a couple more moments of this, she turned to me with the crow resting on her hand, and gave a small smiled "I promised Yoyo that I'd take care of him if he couldn't"
"Is that Yoyo's pet or something?" I asked
"Yeah, his name is Vulture" Rhyth stroked the crow "Yoyo said he got his neck stuck between two fence posts and it stretched his neck, so he wouldn't be able to fly properly again
I remained silent, but nodded in understandment. It was depressing that an animal couldn't do what it was made to do anymore, but it was also kind of comforting that Rhyth and Yoyo had a pretty big hard
"He also said that it reminded him of a friend from a while ago, but he wouldn't tell me anything about that" Rhyth sighed and squatted down to let Vulture off of her hand "Thanks Garam" She turned to me and smiled
"You're welcome" I grinned. Then my radio, which was playing 'Oldies but Happies', abruptly stopped, and DJ Professor K's voice came on
"The show the FBI, your parents, and the PTA don't want you to hear. Jet Set Radio! This morning, the GG, Yoyo, disappeared without a trace. No ransom note, no threatening phone call, nothing"
"Thanks DJ-states-the-obvious" I sighed, but Rhyth 'shushed' me
"But with Yoyo's disappearance, a new Rudie gang has appeared on the scene. The Noise Tanks! They're rumored to be cyborgs, mechanical parts and all. And that's not all, they've brought the Immortals under their control, and other gangs are falling to them as well. This gang definitely has something to do with Yoyo's disappearance. If you defeat the Immortals hey might help you 'unwrap' this mystery"
The broadcast ended, and we both blinked, taking in everything
"I think he's right. . ." Rhyth finally said
"Yeah, even if they don't have anything to do with Yoyo's disappearance, I still have a bad feeling about them. I think we should get back now"
"Same here" Rhyth agreed, and we both skated back towards the Garage
When we reached the Garage, everyone was already waiting
"You heart?" Beat asked
"Yeah, we started heading over as soon as it ended Rhyth nodded
"The Immortals were one of the strongest gangs out there" Gum sighed "If we don't stop them soon, we might be next
"Then we stop them" We all turned to Corn as he said that "I heard they're sleeping in their coffins at the moment, so we can take over the territory they have been taking over for the Noise Tanks" Corn looked up at us "As long as we don't run into them or the Noise Tanks, we should be fine"
"But wouldn't it take a while? I mean, it's Hikage Street, Kibogaoka Hill, and the Skyscraper District" Gum asked
"I never said it wasn't without risks" Corn sighed "But, from what we've learned so far, the Noise Tanks seem to not like doing the dirty work their selves. Plus, the Immortals are mummies, they sleep a lot"
"It sounds reasonable" Combo shrugged
"Lets go then. The sooner we take over their territory, the sooner we find more about Yoyo's disappearance" Beat skated off without another word
We all stared at each other for a few moments, then followed
I don't know if it was just me, but it seemed Beat was the most concerned about Yoyo
Our first stop was Hikage Street, former turf of the Love Shockers, before the Immortals took it over for the Noise Tanks. I'd never actually heard about the Love Shockers until now, so they must have been a pretty small gang
Almost immediately the path we were on split into three. We were trying to do this as fast as we could, so Corn split us up. Rhyth and I would take the middle both, Combo and him would take the right, and Beat and Gum would take the left (much to both's disproval, but we didn't have time to complain
But as Rhyth and I skated down the middle path, we picked up on a police conversation over our radios
". . .Rudies have been spotted in Hikage Street. All officers respond"
"This is Captain Hayashi! Deploy the Terror Drone at once!" Hayashi's voice came on
"B-but sir, it's still being. . ."
"Does it look like I care? If I say it's okay, then it's okay!"
"U-under stood sir. Deploy the Terror Drone"
"I wonder what they mean by 'Terror Drone'" Rhyth sounded worried
"Hopefully it won't be anything too bad" I smiled, trying to comfort her. But really, I was as worried as she was, but her knowing that would just make the situation worse
We finally reached a dead end, a very large square like area with buildings rising high on all side, except the opening of the path we came from. But before we could even start tagging the large amounts of immortal graffiti, we could see we had a very good reason to worry
We hear a helicopter and looked up, and saw one carrying a giant robot. The robot dropped down and an electric fence blocked the only e4xit
Shit, the police had a new toy. And telling from the laughing from inside, Hayashi was controlling it