• August 4th, 2013 Chapter 1 – The Garage

    It’s been three years since Rokkaku took over Tokyo-to and forced every single rudie to give up their skates or face jail time. None of the former rudies are anywhere in sight, most likely either in jail or blended in with society as was expected. Even Professor K is nowhere to be found; we’re the only ones left. My name’s Zaiden. Keiraan’s another Rudie who shares my passion for skating, Tag’s a runaway, and Cael is a brat we picked up. We’re the Neo-G’s; trying to bring back the GG’s and keep the soul of the streets alive.

    Before now we had nowhere to go, we kept moving and slept in different places every night so Rokkaku couldn’t find us. A lot of people think it’s stupid for us to be fighting so hard just to skate but to us it’s more than that. It’s our freedom they’re taking away, our freedom and our way of life. We’ll never stop fighting to keep our freedom from that power hungry old man Hayashi who took over when Gouji was finished so long ago. All thanks to the GG’s, the best rudies on the streets that they rid Tokyo-to of Gouji. It’s too bad they didn’t expect Hayashi to rise back up worse than ever.

    The Garage was covered in three years worth of dust bunnies and broken remains of the old building when we found it around the end of this summer. The heat was getting to us and Rokkaku was on our tails, we took a sharp turn down a very narrow alleyway we’d never seen before and ended up here on the other end. It was no wonder Rokkaku never caught the GG’s before Hayashi took over. All the other rudie’s hideouts were much easier to find, but it was apparent those dopes never actually found the GG’s Garage because they didn’t follow us in. Even if they’d seen where we went they couldn’t have fit down such a small alley. Here we are a few weeks later trying to get this old place back into fairly living conditions, a pretty big task for a bunch of fifteen year olds and a nine year old.

    “Tag grab me that board will yah?” I called to him from across the room. He was sitting on his a** again while I was doing all the work. Just laying there with his brown hair hanging in his face, I wasn’t even entirely sure he was awake. Finally he looked up and sent a glare to no one in particular.

    “Man three ******** years and this place goes to waste, move too fast and you practically choke to death in this s**t.” He complained as he got up and waved a thick cloud of dust out of his face before coming over to help me out.

    “That’s why we’re fixing it idiot. Oi, where’s the kid?”

    “Out with Kei I believe; doing some tags lettin’ the Rokkaku dopes know we’re still here.” Tag smirked at the last part.

    “Not a smart idea taking that one out, he can barely skate much less outrun a full blown attack from Rokkaku.”

    “Yeah well, what can yah do? The kid needs some practice, he’ll be fine. If not then he wasn’t cut out for the streets, simple as that. That’s our way of life you know that,” Tag shrugged while handing me another board. “Speak of the little devil, here they come now.”

    Just then Cael came wobbling in on his skates holding onto a spray-paint can. Keiraan came speeding in after him, passing him, grinding up a pole and leaping onto the second floor of the Garage. She came over to us and whispered,

    “He’s going to get caught; I don’t know what to do with him he’s not getting any better.” There was aggravation evident in her voice, I couldn’t blame her really. The kid really was too much of a burden for a couple teens to handle. We could barely look after ourselves half the time much less watch him endlessly so he didn’t die, get caught or starve to death. It wasn’t his fault, he was just a kid; but so were we in a sense. I’m man enough to admit that. It was our choice to take him in, in the first place so we can’t blame him at all; that’d be a d**k move.

    “Give him some time Kei, there’s no way you can take a little kid throw some skates at him and in three months time he’ll be as good as us; that’s just impossible.” Tag jumped to the little guys’ defense. Despite being a total a** I think he’s got a soft spot for the kid, he’d never admit it but I see the way he looks when they play basketball together occasionally.

    Cael finally came up the stairs grasping for dear life to the railing so he wouldn’t roll back down the stairs. Don’t ask me why he wouldn’t just take off his skates if he was that worried he’d fall but he never did when he was around us. He smiled at me and Kei before skate-walking over to Tag. He put on the biggest toothy grin I ever saw a little kid make, lifted up his baggy hoody sleeves and revealed the ends covered in paint stains where his hands would be if the hoody wasn’t so big.

    “Guess what Tag!” He chirped excitedly. I think if Tag never answers him he’ll go insane the way he was just waiting for him to say ‘what’ so he could go on with his story. Then again he’ll probably go on anyway even if Tag never bothers to look at him. And there he goes. “I made my first Tag today! Rokkaku doesn’t stand a chance ‘gainst us!”

    I half expected Tag to be in a crappy mood today since I woke him up early so we could get some work done, there wasn’t a whole lot of time left ‘til it starts getting cold and then we’d be out of luck come winter. Probably freeze to death too. But anyway he turns to Cael, reaches his hand out and ruffles the kids’ hair.

    “Nice job. Was it a big one scribbles?”

    Scribbles is our nickname for the kid, he’s always drawing something or other.

    “Yeah!”

    I almost felt bad for killing the happy mood he seemed to be in but we really needed a decent place to sleep and damn soon.

    “C’mon man this stuff needs to get done or you’re the one who’s sleeping in the snow.” All I got in return was a glare and the finger. So much for a good mood. No turning back now.