Deadly Art (JSRF NSFW )

 Warning: contains M/M sex & violence (not related to my main JSRF CxB fiction but interesting idea)

"Just going to get some food, fridge is empty." Clutch said, pulling on a t-shirt.

"Need me to come?" Beat asked sitting up on the bed. The loft apartment was very much open living and despite it tucked away in the corner it wasn’t very private, even with the bamboo screens Clutch had put up to try and separate the space from the livingroom.

"What, you mean that blow job wasn’t enough?" Clutch teased. He knew full well what he really ment but after how he chose to wake Beat up this morning, the latter certainly applied.

"Ha ha, though if you're offering..." He said slyly as he got up and walked himself across to the kitchenette and wrapping his arms around Clutch from behind. "You're crazy wanting to go there today. Far to humid. Food can wait till tomorrow can't it?"

"Not if you want to actually eat tonight it can't." Clutch untagled Beat's arms then turned and kissed him. "But if you're going to lounge around like this I'll definitely be back faster."

"It can be arranged. Today is our day off."

"With you there's no such thing." Clutch rolled his eyes but still flashed a smile. "It's either the tattoo parlour or out tearing it up with the street gangs."

"Really? So spending time with you doesn't fit into that, does it?" Beat deeply purred.

"You tell me." Clutch grinned, sniggering at Beat's mock hurt expression. 

Beat didn’t really have to give an answer other than kissing Clutch and pushing him back towards the kitchen shelves and the small pantry door. He wouldn't normally have been this forward but Clutch had more or less been teasing him since he had woken up. Not that being woken up to someone down there getting their throat acquainted with his manhood wasn’t a damn fine way to start the morning but he was all left begging for more when Clutch decided he'd have a real breakfast, thinking it was hilarious he got him so worked up and out of whatever horny dream he was having.

Not that Beat was having much of those lately.  The humidity and the heat had affected the medication he had to take for the 'Decay' problem so evety few days was like playing Russian roulette with what physical activities he was capable of. He had let it slide a few times as the idea of extra intensity during sex with a person he deeply trusted made things certainly alot more interesting but the fall out of all the other memories flooding back afterwards in the shower by himself wasn’t worth it. He refused flatly to let Clutch see those even if the guy sort of knew something was up. 

Making love to him normally was already pretty euphoric but that extra sensation and sensitivity made it go that next level, matching up with how Clutch felt every time they were close. He was always amazed how much his partner was able to let himself go each and eveytime.

Seriously when it got really intense, Clutch was a biter, a clawer and very vocal. Even now against the pantry doors with Beat being a little rougher with him than he should have been, Clutch had already drawn blood from his own lips and his throat was letting out some of the deepest sexiest noises Beat found he could make. 

And he loved every damn second of it.

***

Heading down the narrow streets back from the peir market Clutch was humming away to himself, the bags of food lazily swinging as he slowly skated his way back towards the tattoo parlour. He had taken this route a dozen times, though Beat had said to him once too often that staying where it was crowded was alot safer with the Golden Rhinos, Noise tanks and the Doom Riders around. So far none had tried anything but that could be because Posion Jam, the Love Shockers and the Immortals also held a joint claim to the turf in the area.

The GG'S didn't like it of course, some were worried this 'Alliance' was temporary and was a risk to them as well as a danger to Beat as the back of the place he worked and spent most of his time now had graffiti from all three gangs on the back wall.

The truth was stranger and way more simpler than that. None of those gangs really held any claim nor did the GG's. It was far too out of the way for them so there was little to know interest as far as any turf wars were concerned. Clutch just wanted his friends art on the walls and they obliged. For Beat it was a sign this was a netural area though it didn't stop him worrying what else could be lurking around the place they hadn't encountered yet.

Sometimes complacency sets in, usually because it's human nature to feel safe even if you really aren't. Clutch didn’t involve himself in street gang stuff and while that was fine by Beat, it did leave him completely unaware of the dangerous that could be hanging around.

He certainly was not aware of this one.

After the Zero Beat mess and the struggle to get his brain out from the mess it left it in, he had inadvertently sold the nightmarish artwork to two of the Noise Tanks, who at the time were aiming to partner up with the Zero Beat and integrated them with themselves.  Afterall who'd be better to control killer robot skaters than humans with self build cybernetic enhancements?

It didn't take them much time to make the connections Beat had about what happened to them. They wanted revenge.

Skating around the corner into an even more narrow alleyway littered with junk people were either throwing away after Chinese new year clean outs or just general trash that the city council hadn't got on top of, Clutch slowly picked his way through trying not to catch his skates on anything.

It's why he didn’t see the lead pipe.

Food scattered everywhere amongst the junk in the street, Clutch rolling and gripping his head where he was struck. The attacker swung again, missing only by inches though now Clutch knew they were there he was on the defensive the moment he could get himself upright, which while isn't easy to do in skates at the best of times, the added difficulty of having one attached to a prosthetic leg did make it a awkward process.

It didn't mean he couldn't deflect the blows now, much to the annoyance of the attacker who seemed to shout something that sounded like a string of jibberish numbers.

"I don't know who the fuck you are, but you aren't going to take me down that easy!" Growled,  grabbing hold of the lead pipe on the next swing towards him before throwing a punch of his own. It connected with a crunch though it wasn't from the attacker's ribcage, rather Clutch’s own fingers as they struck metal.

The hood slipped back off the attacker's head and Clutch was taken by suprised,  expecting a rouge Zero Beat and not some weird amalgamation of human and machine with some weird breathing mask and wires all coming out from the back of it's skull.

"What the fuck are you?"

"11001001110000001110-" 

Clutch pulled back and took up a fighting stance, his heart going into over drive.  Sure ok, he's taken machines out before....no problem right?

Only last time he had a baseball bat and shadows to lurk in. There was none of that here. Unless....

As the thing advanced, he grabbed the nearest tower of junk and yanked it infront of him before making a dash for it.

He made to to the end of the alley just as another one skated out to try and cut him off and as he dodged a grapple a third one skated by at full speed and caught his t-shirt pulling Clutch off his feet, magnetic rocket boosters firing and dragging the red head several feet down the next alley until the fabric tore in two. The skate attached to the prosthetic was mangled and the leg was somewhere at the other end of the street, blood smeared all across the brickwork.

The Noise Tank, kicked his unconscious form rolling it over revealing the level of damage it had done. The entire right side of his face was just blood and gravel as well as his entire right arm, shoulder and side. The tattoos down that entire side were already a mess but now... they were completely gone.  There was quite a bit of bone showing at the elbow where it had caught something and it was torn at the joint.

The dangers of rocket powered magnetic skates were obvious to those who used them but seeing it first hand even those who were half machine, it was an eye opener.

The other two Cyborgs caught up with it and a brief discussion in binary was exchanged. Eventually one picked Clutch up and hefted him over it's shoulder as they disappeared into another street.

***

"Are you sure you're not just being paranoid, Kazuya?"

"Belive me Inoue, there's every reason to be.  Michael has started having sezuires again and sure he won't let me shadow him everywhere but it has me really worried. That and after the Zero Beat mess the Noise Tanks have been sniffing around looking for the one responsible for destroying them in that explosion everyone has told me about."

"Strange, they should have known you were laid up in the hospital. We all did."

"No offence Inoue but you guys don't count as much as you used to, not being a part of your gangs anymore."

"Yes well some of us have moved on now there's someone else in charge who wants to rebuild Tokyo-to. They want skilled people from everywhere and anywhere."

"No need to start a fight." Ikagami cut in. The former Immortal looked just as worried as Beat did. Truthfully they all were. Clutch ment something to each of them and no one wanted to entertain the idea that someone out there still wanted his blood, Ikagami in particular.  The two got in particularly well as Clutch had been doing a cover up job on the burns to his body and the end results were stunning. The guy wore those tattoos with immense pride and after showing how good he was with creating traditional styled Japanese art they hired him to do those types of designs. Hell if it wasn't for Clutch he'd never would had mey his boyfriend so Beat was aware he thought of Clutch like a brother more than a friend.

It's why Beat had trusted them slightly more than the GG's for this. They may have friends in the gang but they were few, some were fence sitters and some were very unhappy with Beat's relationship and wouldn't help even if he came begging them on his knees. He hated that as they were people he had known for many years and the fall out of him having a relationship with Clutch though if they had found out about Falcon years earlier it probably would have happened far sooner. He wasn’t entirely sure why suspecting age might have something to do with it as Falcon was six years older than him and Clutch was at least two but all that ment was Beat preferred older guys while any lady he'd always wanted someone the same age. Sometimes knowing you swung on the pendulum sucked.

"Looks like Yomogi found something." Inoue nodded to them as he looked up. Indeed at the end of a narrow street The ex-Love Shocker was moving towards them at speed with something in her hands.

She stopped infront of them and handed Beat the prosthetic limb completely detached from a mangled skate. Sure enough something had happened to Clutch. 

"Where'd you find this?" Beat asked and Yomogi stared at him blankly until he re-iterated again in sign language for her benefit. She then gabbed his arm and pulled indicating that he should follow.

 As they picked their way through the narrow street there was clear signs of a fight and there was food scattered everywhere amongst the refuse. Beat clearly was getting agitated by it all and once into the other street where Yomogi found the limb Beat swore, stumbling before Inoue caught him. 

Blood was all the way up along the street, in some places it looked like something tore as there was the start of pools of it smearing into the already existing drag marks until a large pool had spread out where whoever it had been when they were let go.

There was no doubt who the victim was.  The only problem was the lack of a body.

"Who - who would do something like this?" Ikagami said shocked. Yomogi had gone off to throw up behind some of the dumped garbage. 

"The only ones were those robots that attacked us before...but it can't be them! The bitch in control is dead!" Beat snapped, control starting to slip through his fingers. His partner was out there somewhere bleeding to death at the hands of some copy cat.

"Woah, calm down Beat." Ikagami said grabbing his shoulders. He was never sure if he was ok to call him by name or not even though they now worked together. "Going spare right now will do you no goood."

Beat tool a deep breath and said, "No, you're right. Let's find the fucking arseholes THEN go spare."

Yomogi looked upset and made a few gestures. 

"Yeah, I'm not sure either. Why would someone have it out for him? Another one from your colourful past?" Inoue rumbled. He wasn’t impressed when he found out about the crazy 'Madame' in control of the killer robots who killed one of his best mates and murdered many others was someone who Beat tried to brush off because it was in his past. People were coming out all over the place now making the street far more dangerous than before and for some strange reason they seemed to want Beat and anyone associated with him dead.

"Belive it or not, Michael has made alot of enemies without my help." Beat bit back. "You don't just break people out of the Residential District without ending up without at least one. Plus, before that he did alot boxing to keep his sister's medical bills paid in underground illegal fights. Can't tell me you make best buddies with people you're supposedly ment to kill!"

Ikagami folded his arms. "Michael wouldn't hurt a fly. What the hell you on about?"

Beat straightened himself up and ajusted his shirt. "Yeah, of course. No way could he lay a hand on someone and give himself nightmares for the rest of his life. He's not capable of that level of violence."

The other three exchanged glances, Yomogi shrugging until someone signed for her.

"Something you're not telling us, Kaz?"

Beat sighed. He opened his big stupid mouth didn't he?

***

Clutch groaned. His whole right side felt both numb and on fire. He didn’t think that was possible but everything wasn't feeling normal and it was pretty much confirmed when he made an attempt to check his right eye. His left arm couldn't move, instead there was a loud clink of metal and when he could finally shift his head, he could see with his only good eye that it was chained up to a wire fence. His fingertips were covered in blood though and another painful turn of his head revealed the blood soaked clothes and his right arm laying limp by his side. Any attempt to move fingers was ecursiatingly agonising, letting out a loud shriek when his severely damaged limb decided to send him signals that his nerves where throbing with checks his brain hadn't been available to cash.

How the hell was he still alive and not bleeding out?

He looked up again to his left as something seemed to temporarily block the only source of light coming into the dark room and a sound of a ball bring bounced around. 

He was in a basement just below the street level and some people were just outside.

He had to get their attention.

Something lay against the chain link fence he was restrained to. Possibly a chunk of wood or something, whatever it was it should make a loud clatter that hopefully they could hear through the small pane of broken glass.

He waited until the ball rolled close enough to block out the light from the window before he tried to shake the fence to get the object to shift. When it did there was a loud bang that echoed through the room.

Sure enough, whoever it was that grabbed to ball looked through the window. It was just a kid, but Clutch was desperate. He straighted his fingers briefly, folded his thumb and closed his palm. 

Help me.

Given what he probably looked like, it was obvious he was in trouble. Hopefully they could see that and get someone - anyone - to get him out of there.

The noise hadn't gone unnoticed. Footsteps echoed around the room until three figures all illunated in the dark by red glowing lights from inhuman eyes. As they stepped into what little light was available  Clutch could see they had alot of strange things in their possession and none of it looked like it was to make him any better.

One had something that looked like a taster and was advancing with a rag in the other hand. Panicking he moved his hand once more signalling for help as his face was forcefully covered as the taser was pressed against his chest.

For Clutch, everything suddenly went black.

***

"I don't belive it." Inoue shook his head.

"Yeah I didn't either and I'm pretty sure he still hasn't told me everything. The only time I've ever seen him mad was huh... funny, was back at the Residential District." Beat realised that was over a year ago now but it felt somewhat longer. "Even then I don't think he was fully aware of the consequences of his actions that day either." Clutch could have been, it was hard to know since they weren’t near each other but he's pretty sure the sticking his arms into two electricity generators to short them out wasn’t a sane decision by any means." Both times he went in aware it was suicide but people had been killed, people he knew. To Beat admittedly they were just faces, random civilians in a place they were forced to be. To Clutch they were parents with small children,  students, people who worked their entire lives, neighbours and friends... he knew most of their damn names. He took an interest in people and it made them feel important. 

Even now with Yomogi, Inoue and Ikagami you could see how much impact someone like him had.

"I know it's hard to belive, I know I didn't want to either but the nightmares... things that slip out after a seizure and some of his art.... it's all there. Don't think he wanted to." As clearly Beat knew all the signs of someone haunted by their own actions and Clutch was a grade A example of that. He added a few extra peices in for Yomogi who signed back that she had a feeling too. She was probably the first one who'd notice something was off about someone as not everyone knew or remembered she was deaf so reading people's body language was second nature.

Looking at each of their worried faces, Beat felt guilty he didn't think much about how close they were to his partner. It didn't help the GG's and the other gangs had bets going to see how long their friendships would last and Beat had dropped a few dollars in as while he was ok with them he wasn’t entirely sure his former enemies were trustworthy at the time.

Now he spent way too much time with them according to Corn, Gum, YoYo and Garam though that wasn't really true either.

Yomogi gave some hand signs which made all of them wince as all four of them had been in that situation at least once. To say Clutch wouldn't be either if push came to shove would be disingenuous.

"You're right there. Push anyone's buttons enough they'll become dangerous."

"Let's spread out and take the search street by street. They couldn't have gone far." Yomogi's hands added quickly. 

They nodded in agreement and picked a few streets to investigate. Time was ticking.

***

Regaining conciousness was something Clutch didn’t want to do anymore but at least it was a sign he wasn't dead.

Yet.

They could have let him bleed out though for some reason after removing his right forarm they were very quick to stop it. Chloroform might knock you out but it doesn't numb the pain. Waking up in the middle of them cutting it off almost sent him straight into shock with how intense it was, heck it still HURT like hell!

What were they going to do with his arm, he didn't know but he'd be in trouble if they decided to take his remaining limbs.  The bigger question was why they were trying to keep him alive? At least for the time being. For all he knew they were because they planned on selling his organs or something on the black market.  It's not like he hadn’t heard the stories or upset the right people of late. Making enemies out of Beat's former contacts trying to locate Angel was a risk he took and for that any one of them could have tracked him down via his own mobile phone number and put a hit out.

He had no idea the level of shit he was in with weirdos he'd never met or wouldn't recognise in a dark alleyway but if he lived in fear of that then what was the point? Somehow you have to get on with your life.

There might be another up hill battle after this he wasn’t going to be prepared for.

The footsteps were approaching though he could barely move his head to look up to see them. They stopped infront of him and his head was yanked up viciously and inspected.

 There was more of that weird number code being spoken too along with a sharp jab at his chest.

Without warning the sharp jab was a scream of sheer agony.

***

"Find anything?" 

Ikagami shook his head. "I've gone down six streets and come up with nothing. No blood, no trail."

"Fuck!" Beat swore, combing his hands through his hair. "We're running out of time!"

"Easy, we'll find him. Even if we have to search every slum in the area. They can't have gone anywhere without anyone seeing anything. A person bleeding with red hair like Michael isn't something you'd see every day. You'd take notice."

"I hope you're right."

"HEY! YOU GUYS LOOKING FOR SOMEONE?"

 Both skaters looked up and saw a group of young teenagers with a basketball at the corner of the street.

"Yeah, our friend has gone missing. He's got red hair that's like a mess of curls. Have you seen him?" Ikagami called to them.

The teenagers seemed to push one of them forward. "Yeah, we think so. Guy got a beard?"

"Face fuzz, yeah." Beat replied. "Can you show us?"

"Sure! Follow us!"

The teenagers lead them to the court they were playing on several blocks away near an old disused hospital, showing them the little window to the basement where they last saw someone who needed help. 

The person was gone but there was blood everywhere... and something that made some of the teenagers run off to throw up.

"Holy shit." Ikagami couldn't help it. Despite the years of medical training before everything went to hell, he still couldn't handle seeing physical dismemberment.  Not... not when it was this brutal.

Beat gabbed him. "Come on!"

"Right!" 

***

The disused hospital was eerie as thier skates echoed around the linoleum floors. Rooms looked like decaying cells, walls smelled of rot and metal was mostly rusted. Old bed lined walls with cockroach infested matresses and old equipment laly smashed or dismantled.

"This place is huge, how the fuck do we get to the basement?" Beat scowled.

"There's a service elevator typically around where the operating theaters are." Ikagami explained. "It's so they can easily take anyone who doesn't make it to the mourge for autopsies."

"You think... they'd take Michael in there?" Fear was rising in Beat's voice. There was now a possibility that the attacker's had killed his partner and dumped his body somewhere where no one would consider looking.

"I don't know. But it's the fastest way to the basement."

"Alright, lead the way."

Ikagami swallowed. "Warning you in advance, the surgery rooms freak me out."

Beat nodded. He recalled Soda telling him once about Ikagami's past before joining the Immortals. It didn't sound pleasant even though he didn't go into any details. He had seen the photos of Clutch’s sister when she was dying of radiation posioning and could easily imagine people suffering far worse than that, especially after the bombs fell on Kyoto. He had no doubt that the guy had nightmares from that experience. 

Beat grabbed Ikagami's hand and gave it a squeeze.  Afterall it's something Clutch done to him before even if he wasn’t sure why at times when he had a toxin induced episode. It was like being given a life line to cling to, a golden rope that was there to pull you out of the swirling void. He needed it just as much as Ikagami - if Clutch was indeed dead he would have lost one of the most important people in his life, the one who reached deep into the pit of darkness and wanted to pull him free. Of course he had to be the one to ask the awkward question but he never once regretted it. 

Ikagami gave him a suprised look but didn't say anything. He could feel the shakes throughout Beat and it didn't need to be pointed out.

Eventually they found the surgery rooms behind the emergency stay ward.  Pushing through the doors immediately Ikagami had to back out to throw up as what they found was utterly disturbing. Beat couldn’t take his eye of it and just stood petrified. 

Clutch’s bloodied body was leaning up against a wall of the theatre where the large painting of his nightmares from the killing of Angel and her androids was hung surrounded by all the nightmarish sketches he gave away. Beat new it was all his, Clutch has a very distinctive style when it came to unleashing his inner monsters on paper and canvas.

When he was game enough to approach he could see not only was his right arm missing from the elbow but they'd taken his right foot at the ankle too. Whoever was responsible was taking him apart peice by peice.

He got to his knees and rolled Clutch’s head in his hands. "What have they done to you, Michael?" His voice trembled, wincing as he touched the blood stained and heavily wounded side of his face. He looked at the eye and found himself cursing as how damaged it was. It shouldn't have been but someone had taken great pains to put something sharp into the right iris with sicking precision. They hadn't left anything there but it was clear they wanted him to suffer an extremely painful death.

Which they didn't seem to have executed on, Beat noted. Despite everything Beat was glad didn't walk away and considerd him dead the moment he saw him. Being this close he could see the faintest signs Clutch was alive, still hanging on even though he should have given up after his first lot of serious injuries.

The shallow breathing, the erratic heartbeat... the biggest giveaway was that the other eye opened, twitched as it failed to focus before closing again. 

"Hang in there Michael. Please, for fuck’s sake hang on."

Ikagami eventually came back into the room and confirmed Beat's suspicions, the only difference with the added medical terms. He still looked really green in the face from being sick but he wasn't going to leave Beat in there watching his partner die. He could also see he had broken down before coming back inside, eyes red rimed the tell tale signs of tears.

"Even if we grab his arm and his foot, I don't think they're going to be reattached." Ikagami said darkly. "You only get a short window to do that and I have no idea how long ago they did this. We've been looking for him for hours."

Beat simply nodded. "I don't know what to do. He's alive but might not be by the time we get him treated but I also don't just want to put him out of it if... if he can be alright."

"The standard put them out of their misery practice? Yeah no, I don't think anyone would forgive you if you did."

"I'd never forgive myself either, don't you worry." Beat pulled the mangled body towards him in a tight embrace. "Call an ambulance,  they... they'll give him more of a chance than he'd get if we tried to take him in."

"Sure. You alight?"

"No. I told everyone that I could keep him safe, heck I promised him I would. I've failed at it."

"You can't stop what others do to people.  You also can't blame yourself for the actions of monsters." Ikagami rested his hand on Beat's shoulder a minute before heading off and making a call.

Beat felt something tugging his shirt and looked down to see Clutch’s remaining hand gripping it like a life line. He was going to fight death whatever it took it seemed. Beat at least knew that unlike most people the guy born with one leg had more ablity to cope with amputation but you never could tell. It made him sick in the stomach to know someone had been watching him, hunting him down when he was alone and forcibly keeping him alive while they slowly hacked him apart.

He was shaking, unable to hide behind walls of anger and ignorance as the person he loved was clinging to him, fighting with every thing they had left in his arms. 

"I'm so sorry. Hang in there please.... I'll find whoever did this... they... they'll pay."