Staygoldenkidd: :D! I'm glad you gave this a shot, then. Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the others.

JSRF has recieved a small makeover... I gave the GG's different outfits, and made Kibogaoka Hill walk-able. Seriously, how do the people that live there get around? (And if you don't want to read the outfit changes in chapter 3, they're at the end of this chapter.)

P.S. As of this chapter, I'll be using songs from the original JGR soundtrack!

x x x

It was beginning to get dark. The warmth in the sky was now slowly fading into a soft, cool blue color, and the temperature was dropping so much that I started to shiver under the wind. I held onto Beat tightly, for both warmth and comfort, as we rolled down the highway to the garage.

We came to the stairs, and I let myself off his back to go on my own. But as I continued upward, I started to slow down...

In the center of what used to be the GG's hideout, was a giant, shining tower.

Without looking away from it, I stopped at the top step. "What... happened to the..."

As I trailed off, Beat was already by my side. He looked upwards to the top of the tower, as if he'd only seen it for the first time.

"Noise Tanks."

After he answered me, I looked back towards the tower. I should've guessed it was them. The building itself looked like it was made of metal, and the only door to get in or out was caged by electric bars. There were windows on what looked like the few top floors, and from those windows, came a blue, pink, or green light that went on and off every two seconds. I could also feel a low hum in the area, or maybe it was bass... but it was probably from whatever music they were playing inside.

"After the GG's broke up, the other gangs saw it as a chance to take our base. It has exits to get basically... anywhere, so it really is the best hideout for any gang of rudies."

Beat lowered himself to one knee, and, still gawking at the tower, I climbed onto his back.

"I guess the Noise Tanks beat the rest of 'em here, and took over." He finished.

As he slowly started to move forward, I kept my eyes on the tower. If the police intervened, how would anyone take that thing down? And how did they get away with building it so high? It must've taken a while, so someone had to've noticed...

I turned my head back towards the direction we were headed, and right after, we came to a stop. More stairs.

I climbed down again, and walked down the steps alongside Beat.

"How much farther 'till we get... wherever we're going?" I asked.

He knelt upon reaching the bottom step, and I climbed onto his back again. He lifted me up, and started to move forward.

"It's not too far. But then again, my estimation is based on the times when I don't have to go slow to make sure I don't tumble over and crash into the ground."

I smiled, lowering my head onto his shoulders. "Uh huh."

After coming through a tunnel in the side of a building, we rolled through the dusty pathways of 'Rokkaku-dai-heights'. That was what Beat called the neighborhood. It had to be about seven p.m. Now, since there wasn't much of the sun in the sky anymore.

The buildings here looked as though they represented the lower end of Tokyo-to... They looked like they were made out of any random sturdy materials the residents could find. None of the buildings had two floors, and the rooftops were mostly flat. There were a few rails above the houses that led pretty deep into the neighborhood, though.

"You guys come here often? You know, just for fun?"

We hit a left into a dark alleyway.

"We used to. The only time we're really over here now is when we're going back to the garage," he answered, taking another left turn.

There was another stairwell coming into view, only this time, it led to a pitch black tunnel below us.

"So," I said, climbing down from his back. "You guys are the new Poison Jam?"

He smirked briefly, and we started down the rusted metal stairs.

"Nope. We're in Kibogaoka Hill. The garage's pretty out-of-the-way, and we picked it because if someone wanted to find us, they'd have to be real determined. Keeps a lot of trouble out."

We entered the dark tunnel, and the first thing I saw when I let myself down was a broken beam that led us across. If both of us could get across, that is.

"Didn't think this through, huh?" I snickered, watching Beat move towards the edge of the drop.

He looked down to guesstimate the depth of the drop, and then over to the opposite side.

"Nope, but I'm good with coming up with ideas on the spot."

He rolled backwards, passing me, and I stepped aside. "You are?"

He crouched, pressing the tips of his fingers on the bottom of the tunnel in a readied position. "Can't you tell? If it wasn't for me, we still would've been walking..." he shot me a playful look, and I rolled my eyes. "After I get over there, I'll throw my skates back over here. Sound alright?"

I nodded in approval, and after he looked away, I found myself smiling as I watched him take off and grind the beam to jump over. His skates loudly skidded against the ground of the tunnel when he stopped, and he spun around.

Beat made it look so easy.

He rolled towards the edge on the opposite side, and began to take his skates off. "You can get over here... right?"

I came closer towards the edge. "If you're asking me if I can grind, then, yeah."

He threw one over, and then the other, and I put them both on. I looked down at my feet.

"Lots of room in here... what if I fall?" I asked, looking over at him.

"You scared?"

Tilting my head slightly to the left, I smiled. "Of falling to my death? Yes."

"Don't be. You just won't fall. Okay?"

Still doubting it, I called over, "Okay."

I threw both of my shoes to the other side, and rolled backwards. His skates were really big on my feet, and it was almost the same as trying to run in size thirteen shoes when you know you're a size six- It just wasn't gonna happen.

Paranoid as hell, I took off the skates, and my socks, and bunched each of them up in the back of his skates. Then I put them back on, and, without allowing anymore doubt to settle in, I pushed forward. I hopped onto the rail, and...

Just that soon, I felt like I was losing control.

"Holy shit, I'm going to fall!"

"You're not, I'll catch you," Beat quickly called back, holding his arms out in front of him.

I jumped over to the right side of the beam instead of trying to land on it, and watched Beat shift to the right with me. The edge of the tunnel hit the space between the wheels of his skates hard, and my heart dropped a single time before Beat gripped my wrist. He pulled me forward immediately, and I collided with his chest.

"You good?"

Heart pounding and shaken up, I answered. "Never again."

He lowered our hands, and let go of my wrist. "At least you didn't spaz out mid-air. That would've been a nasty fall."

"Yeah." I muttered, trying not to die of both shock and embarrassment. If Beat wasn't acting so casually about our bodies touching unexpectedly right now, I probably wouldn't have been able to control my blush-meter.

"Any more places we can only get to on skates?" I asked, taking off his skates, and putting my socks and shoes on, while he put his skates back on.

He laughed and shook his head. "Nope. Lucky for you, we're almost to Kibogaoka Hill." He knelt down, facing the opposite direction. "You still okay to ride?"

Heart still pounding, I walked toward him. "Of course."

I climbed on his back, and we went through the center of the sewage facility into another tunnel that led to Kibagaoka Hill.

As Beat skated calmly through the neighborhood with me on his back, lights came on inside the houses, and I could tell it was around eight or so. Kibogaoka Hill was nearly the same as Rokkaku-dai-heights; the buildings and layout were the same, except for the fact that there were more poles above the houses to grind. For what seemed like an hour, Beat was taking me through a maze of alleys, and then we finally came to a stop, and I climbed down.

"Down this ladder."

He took off his skates, and climbed down. I followed suit, and after walking a little further, we came to another shorter ladder, and climbed up that one as well.

And then, in front of us, was an old shutter.

I looked around. "This really is out of the way... How'd you find this place?" I asked, watching him lift the shutter.

"Dropped down here on accident a few months back. Yoyo insisted we 'explore' since the area was abandoned, and we found out that you could still open this shutter. It leads to a place kinda like our first garage."

He climbed inside with his skates in hand, and I climbed in after him. I closed the shutter behind me, and when I turned around, the whole hall was pitch black. Suddenly, I heard music, and a red light started to blink from behind the door.

Beat pulled the door open, and the first thing I saw when I stepped inside, was a boy dancing on top of a pool table in his socks, and immediately after that, a girl bobbing her head on the sofa a few feet away, holding the boombox as she watched the boy in amusement.

"Uh, guys..."

Beat flipped the red lights off, and the normal ones on.

"What?" The girl shrugged innocently. She turned down 'Bout the City, and hauled the stereo from her lap onto the table beside the couch. "This dork wanted to have a party, and I told him up and at it."

"Yeah. And it was gettin' pretty funky 'til you turned the lights on, yo."

I started to look around, and I didn't know how to else explain it, but...

Their garage had a serious vibe.

Graffiti covered the walls in so many bright colors, and the themes were centered around the people that lived there and most of the stuff rudies were supposed to care about: Jet Set Radio, the soul of the streets, and keeping your skates with you until the day you died. Music apparently would never escape their grasp with all the boomboxes, turntables, and speakers they had, and style definitely wasn't out of the question with their furniture. It helped that the upkeep wasn't exactly nasty... it was just... lazy.

The boy jumped off the pool table, and jogged over to give Beat some kind of handshake. "Who's this?"

"Rush." I smiled, cutting off Beat's chance to introduce me. My eyes went from the red and blue lenses of the boy's glasses, to his lime green hair. It was Yoyo, no doubt.

"Name's Yoyo, yo. You gonna be the newest addition to the washed-up loser crew?"

"We're not washed up, Yoyo. And we're definitely not losers," the girl frowned. "Well. I'm not a loser, at least." She said, smirking.

If this was Yoyo in front of me, then that had to be-

"Boogie. Nice to meet you," she smiled, lifting her chin to me.

"Come on, Rush. We're here for skates, remember?"

Beat signaled for me to follow him to the back, and we headed down the hall.

"Oooooh! Baby, just follow me in back and I'll make all your dreams come true!" Yoyo joked, his hands smushing his cheeks together as he sang behind us.

Beat laughed to himself, and I started to laugh, too. Because otherwise, I would've fainted on the spot.

After Yoyo's singing was too far away to hear, we were in a room with tons of cans of spray-paint, skates, different colored wheels, and boxes of 'netrium' batteries scattered all over the place.

"Mix and match 'til you find the skates you want. I'll put 'em together."

I looked to Beat, eyes wide. "Really?"

He nodded.

"You're fuckin' awesome," I said, unable to help my huge grin.

After about five minutes of standing around with my chin in my hand, and pulling skates down, I was torn between black skates with purple wheels, and white skates with red wheels.

I held them both up, and turned around. "Which ones?"

"Whichever you like." he answered simply, looking up to me from the crate he sat on.

I let my arms drop to my sides. "Big help." I dropped the white skate onto the ground, and handed him the black one.

Beat slightly tossed it into the air, turning it over. "Give me an hour. You got somethin' to do 'till then?"

I shrugged. "Maybe I'll go dance with Yoyo and Boogie."

He nodded, and took my skate over to the workbench.

"...Or maybe I'll stay here and talk to you," I said, plopping down on the crate he was just sitting on.

"Oh, you will? What about?" Beat opened a drawer, and pulled out a few tools.

"Well, first off, you do realize I can't live with you guys down here, right?"

"If you need to bring some stuff from your house down here, that's fine." He answered, starting to work on the skate.

"It's not that. My parents come to check on me every couple of months," I said, looking into my lap.

"So go back when they come to check on you."

I shook my head, even while knowing he couldn't see it. "It's not that simple. School, remember?"

He put one of the tools back down. "You said school wasn't your thing anymore."

Oh, yeah...

"I guess I did... It's just that... I'm just not used to the thought of ditching everything I used to do. I mean, I won't see half the people I know anymore. And college? What happens to all those plans people had for you... all the stuff you'd do in normal, everyday life. Walking, coming home from work and getting ready to go back to work the next day..."

He closed the drawer beside him, and as he reached for a lower drawer, he looked to me. "You're thinking too much."

My hands went through my hair, and I gripped my scalp. "It's overwhelming if I even think about it a little bit."

He took a box from the drawer. "So don't think about it at all. Most of us rudies don't have to, so I guess I wouldn't fully get why you're feelin' like this... it's kinda the same way with Rhyth."

I looked up. "With who?"

"Rhyth. She went back to school after summer break ended. She actually has the choice of being a rudie or living a normal life. And Yoyo likes her a lot, but he wouldn't tell her before she left. Actually..." He opened the box, and inside, were the purple wheels.

"We were gonna go meet her on Chuo street tomorrow, around six. Wanna come with?"

I watched him snap and screw the wheels into the bottom of the skate. "Sure, sounds like fun. And you said she actually has a choice between being a rudie and having a normal life... most of you didn't?"

"So you're starting to catch on to my every word now, huh?" He asked, smiling. "Well... no. My mom died, and my dad was always a dick, so I couldn't take living with him. I know Yoyo's sister was a rudie and left home, so he did too. And Boogie... I'm not sure. I haven't asked, and she doesn't really bring it up. But... most of the old group pretty much had nowhere else to go."

"Oh... well, I'm sorry for bringing it up, then," I said, looking at the back of his head, as if I expected him to turn around. "I hope I didn't re-open any old wounds."

"You didn't. She died when I was eleven, and I was pretty messed up for six years. I think I'm okay now, though."

He pulled two silver fenders from the drawer on his left, and slid them over the set of wheels. "So you can't live with us forever. And what else did you wanna tell me?"

"I also don't think I can be a GG forever, either."

He put one skate to the side, and picked up the other. "So what, you're just sticking around for the fun times?"

I smiled. "If you want to put it that way... then yeah. I just don't know if I can switch lifestyles so quickly."

"You've kinda already done it. You missed school today, and you're gonna miss school tomorrow."

He had a point. "Yeah, I have...

"Wait. And why am I missing school tomorrow, again?"

"We're taking these for a test run tonight. You'll probably crash during school hours. And plus, you're already too far away from home to get ready for school, anyway."

I laughed. "Is there anything else on my schedule?"

He started to snap and screw the wheels into the bottom of the second skate. "Nope, you're pretty busy the rest of the day. Potts needs a bath. Bad."

Assuming he meant their dog I had yet to see, I giggled to myself. Having this talk made the things that'd happened over the past two days a little clearer in my head, and not just a jumble of happenings. All I had to do now, was make the choice of becoming a rudie, living a 'here and now' life, or, going back to my normal life, where I'd probably never experience anything like this again.

...No. All I had to do now, was tie up a few loose ends.

x x x

And on with the outfit changes. They're in chapter 3 if you wanted to read how I put this into the story:

Boogie: Wears a black zippered hoodie with a red tank top underneath, and a blue and red starred belt over black shorts. Wears the same goggles with red lenses over her hairline from JGR, and has her grey and yellow skates from JGR also.

Beat: Wears a black jacket that he rolls up to his elbows, a yellow shirt with a record on the front, a studded belt, and black pants. Goggles, headphones, fingerless gloves. His skates are the same as the ones in JSRF.

Yoyo: Wears a navy blue hoodie with a white retro game alien on the front, tan cargo shorts, 3-D glasses, and the same orange messenger bag and yellow skates from JSRF. (His outfit was mostly inspired by Zeke from Zombies Ate My Neighbors, if you've ever heard of it. It's an old genesis game. :D)

The rest of the characters have different outfits, which you'll no doubt see in future chapters. I tried to keep at least one thing the same so you'd have something to recognize them by, so don't worry about any surprises.

P.S., don't forget to show me that you're still following! I expect everyone has forgotten what this story is about and it's purpose by now. xD