Grace and Glory

Chapter 3: Something's A Little Fishy Here...

Static interrupted the music playing through the speakers of Corn's sound system. There was a moment of dead air before DJ K's show music started up.
"Yo, yo, yo! It's time for your daily dose of street lowdown, in the form of my sweet, sexy voice y'all. Comin' straight to ya from the undergrounds of Tokyo-to, it's Jet Set Radio!" DJ K began in his enthusiastic tone.
"There's been a lot of commotion in the streets lately, from the missing Goddess of Dogenzaka, to the new and upcoming gangs of Tokyo-to! But first some more recent news. In a strange turn of events, the GG's managed to find the rumor spreadin' punk that's been causing them a whoooooole lot of trouble, and it turns out he was an old acquaintance of Corn and Gum. He decided to join up with their group and search for the missing Goddess with them. Isn't that crazy y'all?! Speaking of the Goddess, different areas of Tokyo-to, including Shibuya terminal, Rokkaku-dai Heights, and Chuo street have suddenly received a new paint job. Be careful in these areas, y'all, the artwork seems to laced with som baaaaad toxins, it's making people laugh themselves to death! They are maaaad ugly paintings, someone PLEASE get out there and cover them up! Whoever's behind these ugly excuses for tags might have some info on this whole Goddess situation! Get out there, get painting, and get funky with Jet Set Radio! Until next time! DJ K our!"
And with that the broadcast ended, followed by more static, and then the regularly scheduled pirated music.
"Ugly artwork, huh? Yoyo, Beat, tomorrow you guys are checking that out. Got it?" Gum said sternly, glaring at Beat and Yoyo.
"What? Why us?" Yoyo asked back, he was starting to notice a trend.
"Because you let him follow you here, and because he forced his way into the gang. You're both being punished." Corn answered.
Yoyo groaned in response, there was no use arguing it, Gum and Corn don't budge when they have their minds made. Yoyo headed to bed, and Beat followed.
"I'm not sharing my bed with you, ya know that right?" Yoyo said to Beat, trying to establish some boundaries.
"Then where am I gonna sleep?" Beat asked back.
"There." Yoyo answered pointing to the old beat-up couch across from the bed.
"Fine." Beat said laying down on the couch.
"Sorry I got you in trouble with the bosses." Beat said after some silence.
"It's whatever, yo. They were just gonna push me around anyway, even if you weren't here." Yoyo responded.
"That really blows man, but it's nice to see that Corn hasn't changed much since last time." Beat laughed.
"What happened to your old group?" Yoyo asked, curious to know more about his friends and his new roommate.
"Well we were a group just like now, but I was the one who was leading us. Corn has a superiority complex, which causes us to butt heads a few times, especially since at the time he was fourth year and I was a second year." Beat began. "Eventually things started to become to hard for me to handle with family and gang stuff, so I just left. I ran away from home and spent a while in the next city over. I finally decided I'd been away long enough and I came back. That's when I discovered Corn and Gum started a new gang, and I guess it just got to my head. Then I met you and figured I might as well come check the gang out for myself. It feels good to be back in Tokyo-to though."
"I feel that, yo. The whole reason I'm here is because I ran away from home. I would have been a fourth year this year, but I dropped out. I just needed to get away from it all, and Corn and Gum were there for me when I was in need." Yoyo answered.
"Life's rough, kid. At least things feel a little bit better out in the streets."
Yoyo nodded in agreement and the two dozed off, they had a lot of work to do tomorrow.

~

The next morning Beat and Yoyo prepared for a long day of covering up graffiti that someone left on their turf, and Yoyo was not excited about it. Not because he didn't want to do it, but because he had to bring him along. Beat seemed a little too excited to go out on the town, possibly because he was finally back on his old turf, or maybe he's just a morning person. Either way Yoyo wasn't happy about it.
"Why are you so cheerful, yo? We're just going out to investigate and cover up some ugly ass graffiti." Yoyo snapped at Beat. He is not a morning person.
"Because I haven't been to some of these spots in so long! Chuo Street has the best burgers in Tokyo-to! We gotta go there and check them out!" Beat said excitedly.
"Maybe, but we gotta take care of our mission first." Yoyo said in a serious tone. He was usually the one to get side tracked, but today he's trying to avoid getting into any trouble to avoid the wrath of Corn and Gum.
The two headed to the Shibuya bus terminal first, as soon as they arrived they were greeted with tons of purple graffiti covering the walls and busses around the terminal. "First things first," Yoyo started, "we gotta cover up this nasty graffiti."
Beat and Yoyo divided and conquered the bus terminal, covering up all of the tags with their own and getting it done quick. When they finished they met on the patio in front of the station building. Suddenly they saw three large masses rolling through the station sending everyone in their path off running.
"Damn, it's Poison Jam!" Beat said as the three fish-like monsters approached them. They stated up in a V formation, the one in the front coming up close to Beat and Yoyo.
"You two. Did you cover up our tags?"
"You call those tags? It looked more like some kid got his hands on a spray can and didn't know what to do with it. We were just doing the community a favor!" Beat said coyly.
"What did you say, punk? I eat bugs like you for breakfast." The leader of Poison Jam responded back threateningly.
"I saaaaid. Your tags are trash, shit-for-brains. Why don't you just go jump back into the sewer you swam out of, fish-face." Beat retorted with a smirk.
Obviously Beat has interacted with this group before, or he just really has a death wish. Yoyo stayed silent, this guy looks like he could kill him with one swing. The Poison Jam leader started to post up when his eyes trailed away and began to look worried. He backed off and looked to his lackeys, "Guys, it's him, we gotta get out of here." He said nervously. He looked back to the two GG's, "This isn't the last you'll see of us you brats!" he said as the three large men skated off. Beat and Yoyo turned to look at  who or what could have possibly scared those guys away, and were greeted by an older man in skates with a big chain and a boom-box.
"We're those trick-ass fish-men trying to square up with you guys?" The mysterious man asked.
"Trying, yes. But would they have won? No." Beat responded in his normal cocky tone.
"That's some big talk for such a scrawny-ass kid. Ya know, I was pretty into this turf stuff when I was about your age. The streets were a lot crueler during that time. I may be old, but I still got a few tricks up my sleeve. How about you copy exactly what I do, and maybe I'll agree that you could take them on." The mystery said. He then gave the two a sequence of tricks and grinds to perform, and they copied them exactly and with ease.
"C'mon you geezer, maybe if you put down that dinosaur of a radio you could pull off something a litter more challenging." Beat complained.
"Whatever, yo. Old dogs can't learn new tricks, I like to keep things simple, but I'm sure my wisdom could do your attitude some good. The name's Combo." He said holding out a fist for a fist bump.
"I'm Beat, this is Yoyo." Beat replied, giving Combo a fist bump.
"You kids remind me a lot about myself when I was young, is it just the two of you in a gang or is there more of you?" Combo asked.
"There's two others, Corn, our leader, and his girlfriend Gum. Together we make up the GG's." Yoyo answered.
"The GG's? I like it." Combo was interrupted by a police transmission in his boom box,
"This is Captain Hayashi to the Rokkaku Police, there's some of those little punks out in Shibuya terminal, hurry up and arrest 'em!"
Sirens began approaching the bus station.
"You guys got a base somewhere nearby? I'm an old man, I can't take on those police hooligans anymore." Combo pleaded. Yoyo gave him directions to the Garage and Combo skated off. Beat and Yoyo fought the police off again, as well as their crazy captain, Hayashi. They then started off towards Chuo Street, as it was just a few blocks from the bus station.