Traitor in the Ranks
By Tallulah and N1K
It was a dark and cloudy night - which it always was - in Benten-cho. Beat and Gum were grinding down a length of Christmas lights, spraying graffiti as they went.
"Beat, you were right. With Garam, Mew, and Tab making a hit on Kogane-cho, the cops'll be busy for hours chasing them, and Onishima will do his nut!"
Beat grinned. "I know." They leapt off the wire, screeched down the street and halted in a spray of rain on the sidewalk. "So, where next, Gum?"
Gum opened her mouth to answer, but then a new voice cut in:
"Prison, I think!"
They spun round, to see Captain Onishima backed by an army of cops.
"Uh-oh." Gum swallowed. "Any ideas, Beat?"
"Yeah. Run!"
They dashed up the steps into the building on their right. Racing through the dank corridor, wheeled footsteps echoing off the stone walls, they heard Onishima's cackling laughter. Gum was first out onto the roof, and skidded to a halt as three parachutists descended onto the tiles in front of her.
"Going somewhere?"
She heard Beat clatter up behind her, grabbed his hand, and dragged him off the roof. The air stung her face as they fell, faster and faster, the lights of Benten-cho wobbling madly below them, and then she felt her skates make contact with a pipe. She and Beat ground along it, flecks of rust flying off behind them, and as they reached a balcony and dived into the next building, they heard howls of rage coming from beneath the purple sky.
Back at the garage, Gum dropped down onto the sofa as Beat removed his damp helmet. She sighed inwardly. Geez, Beat was cute. No. She had to keep her mouth shut, or her tough-girl reputation would be ruined. But he was cute...
"How'd they know we were gonna be there tonight?" Beat asked.
"Maybe they didn't. Maybe they were just lucky."
"Yeah, sure they were. You know it normally takes ages for Onishima to even find us, let alone almost catch us. He'd been tipped off."
"By who? No one outside the gang knew about the decoy plan."
"Then it must be someone inside the gang." Beat rose to his feet dramatically, and Gum snorted.
"Come on, Beat. Like any of us would do that."
Beat looked at her in a superior way, but before he could answer, Garam, Tab and Mew rolled in.
"Man, we had a close run tonight," said Garam. "The cops were there. Dey seemed to know everything!"
"Same thing happened to us," said Gum. She described the ambush. "Beat seems to think it's a spy." She tried to grin, but inside she was feeling slightly sick. If there was a spy...well, that'd be the end of the GGs, that was for sure. And with no GGs...
"But I'm sure it isn't."
"Well, we can think about it tomorrow," Garam said. "I'm off to bed. See ya in the morning."
"Me too." Mew stretched and yawned. "Night."
As they left, Gum turned to Tab. Keeping her voice low so the others wouldn't hear, she said, "Tab. Me and you - we need to do some investigating in the morning. Cool?"
"Cool." Tab was her closest friend after Beat, and easier to work with - he didn't send her heart racing, after all. As he skated off, she turned to look at Beat, who was listening to music. His familiar face made her shiver, and she bit her lip. Stop it, she told herself. Think of...sandwiches. Cold showers. Baseball.
Not Beat.
The next morning, to take her mind off Beat, Gum took Potts the dog for a walk, the first one for years. But it didn't work. Potts was Beat's dog, and by the time she got back, she was a love wreck.
Beat and Mew arrived back some time later, looking pretty stressed.
"We've just been chased up the Shibuya-cho shopping hill."
"And down again," Mew put in.
"Through the sewers at Kogane-cho. Round the factory ruins at Kogane-cho. And, to top it all off, along the railway tracks at Benten-cho." Beat stepped closer to Gum, who forced herself to concentrate on his words rather than his body. "We managed to spray a grand total of one tag. Somebody is tipping off the cops. And I want to know who."
"We almost got caught." Mew's lip trembled. "But Beat saved me. He pulled me out of danger so many times!" She kissed him on the cheek, and Gum fought the urge to punch her.
"Well, who do you think it is?" she demanded. "No one here'd do that. It's not worth it, and it's not like we have any grudges or anything."
"I think I'd better call a meeting of the GGs," Beat said.
Beat left with Potts to find the other GGs (he was feeling guilty about not having walked his dog earlier) and Tab and Gum turned the garage upside down, looking for any signs of a spy.
They found two dollars, three half-chewed sweets, a missing piece of a jigsaw, and Potts's bone collection, which consisted mainly of KFC bones. Nothing else.
Then the other GGs swept in, and the meeting began.
Beat stood up. "We have reason to believe," he began, "That there is a spy in the GGs."
The gang members - Mew, Tab, Gum, Garam, and Cube and Combo on their vid-link over the Internet - looked suitably shocked.
"What d'you mean?" said Cube, her voice crackling over the speakers. "None of us would do that."
"Yeah." Gum felt a little more hopeful. Surely it had to be Beat being over-dramatic...right? "It's ridiculous. We're all friends."
"Well, someone's tipping off Onishima, and I want to know who."
Gum looked round the other members. Most just looked confused. But Mew...
...Mew looked thoughtful. And she was glancing in Gum's direction with a very nasty look in her eyes.
Gum glared back. Beat turned to Mew. "What about you? Any idea?"
"Yeah. I do have an idea." Mew looked furious now. "I think Gum is a pretty likely candidate, actually!"
"What?" Gum and Beat yelled together. Gum clenched her fists. "You - you - what are you on about?"
"You're the one who keeps trying to pretend there is no spy." Mew came towards her. "You're the one who keeps trying to put us all off the trail. You've been around this place for years; you'd know all the places we go and how to get to them -"
"And why'd I be betraying you all?" Gum almost wanted to laugh, it was so stupid. "I almost got caught, in case you'd forgotten!"
"Stop it!" Beat yelled. "Let's not go accusing people now. It'll just get ugly."
Gum felt a little better hearing her friend - just her friend - sticking up for her, but then Combo said, "I dunno...it kinda makes sense..."
"Stuff this!" Gum grabbed some spray paint and marched to the door. "I'm going back to Kogane-cho. See if I can I get a few more tags than you two did!"
She slammed the door behind her, but it didn't make her feel any better.
Her bad mood lifted a little as she shot across the roofs of Kogane-cho, the spray paint cans cool in her hands. Over her head the rich orange sky glowed, silhouetting the sharp crowded buildings. It was a warm evening, and perfect skating weather.
Gum stopped, and began to spray an extra-large tag across the roofs, covering the faded tiles with blistering colours. It was a new tag that she'd designed herself, and she slowly became absorbed in perfecting it, shading, colouring, the moving spray cans catching the light shining over her shoulder.
She only realised she had company when the light was blocked out, and glanced round.
And saw several SWAT team members, tear gas guns at the ready. And behind them stood Onishima, a triumphant smile splitting his stubbly face.
Even as she began to skate the gas burst around her in mustard clouds, tore at her throat. Eyes watering, she struggled on, but it was no good.
She dropped to her knees, the warm tiles scraping her skin, and even as her vision blurred and began to vanish, she made out Onishima's scuffed shoes in front of her, and handcuffs closing round her wrists.
Beat skated along the shady alleyway, trying to think clearly. Kogane-cho was full of people, and there were so many different routes to take that he was starting to despair. But Gum should've been back now. He had to just see that she was all right.
His trick to fool the spy seemed to've worked. He'd announced he was heading over to Shibuya-cho bus terminal, to see if anything was going on there, and once out of the garage had hightailed in the opposite direction. To Kogane-cho.
Sitting down on some steps, he decided to take a breather, and tuned in to Jet Grind Radio on his wristwatch radio. The last notes of a song faded out, and then:
"Dis is Professor K, bringing you all da latest news on...JET GRIND RADIO! Rumour has it that the cops have finally...wait for it...actually caught a skater! Is it da GGs? Is it Poison Jam? Or maybe even da Noise Tanks! Keep listening for more info, only on...JET GRIND RADIO!"
Beat's mind froze. On autopilot he began retracing his steps, looking in every shady corner.
It can't be her, he thought. It mustn't be her. She's far too smart. It's all my fault. I should never've let her go out alone. It can't be her.
But there was still no sign of Gum anywhere.
Meanwhile, in Tokyo-to's police station, Gum was standing handcuffed between two hefty guards. Her head ached and her mouth was dry, but she was finally beginning to think clearly.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Gum." Onishima paced up and down in front of her, rubbing his hands with barely concealed glee. "Don't you know it's against the law to spray paint? Oh - I forgot. You do know. If this was the first time, I'd let you off with a caution..."
"It is the first time," Gum managed to say. "You never caught anyone before and you know it!"
"Shut up! As I was saying..." He glowered for a moment. "I would let you off with a caution. But, since I've had to deal with you punks for years, I'm gonna be tough on ya. Let's say...ten years...twenty years...life!...I just wish they hadn't abolished the death sentence!"
He stalked out of the room, muttering dark threats involving skaters, guns and tanks.
Gum looked around, taking in her surroundings. Apart from the two guards, there didn't seem to be anything else stopping her. Linking her hands to form one large fist, she swung them as hard as she could towards the groin of one of the guards. As he doubled over, she pivoted and kicked the other guard in the same place, then leapt, ground along the edge of Onishima's desk, paperwork scattering behind her, and down and out of the door.
It was just bad luck that Onishima was hurrying round the corner towards her, clutching a cup of cocoa. There was a painful collision. Cocoa splashed everywhere, and Gum slipped in it, felt herself falling, and grabbed at air as her head connected with the corner of the wall. And then everything went dark.
Beat tuned into Jet Grind Radio again, hoping that some dumb Love Shocker had been the one to get caught. In fact, that anyone had been the one to get caught. Anyone except Gum. He had been out all night, scouring the city for any sign of his friend. So far, all he'd got had been one of Gum's tags on top of a roof in Kogane-cho. Things didn't look good.
"Dis is Professor K, comin' aitcha from...JET GRIND RADIO! Latest news on the once-in-a-lifetime occurrence in the police force!"
Beat listened intently.
"We've whittled it down to either...A Love Shocker, or a GG. Naturally, everyone is hoping it's the Love Shocker. But anyway, this girl will not go down without a fight! She's already tried to break out once...will she try again? Whoever it is, it ain't gonna be easy for her...rumour has it Onishima's sending her down! Stayed tuned for more news as it happens, people...on JET GRIND RADIO!"
Beat was horrified. A girl. I guess I'd better go check it out, he thought. It was a nerve-racking prospect, but...he sighed. A guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do.
Gum was sitting in her cell. Prison, she had decided, sucked. Any hope she'd had was slowly and painfully dying.
Suddenly she saw Beat hovering outside the window. Then he disappeared.
Great, she thought. Now I'm hallucinating as well.
Then he sped past again, this time moving in the opposite direction, and called, "Hi, Gum!"
"What are you doing?" she said, unable to think of anything else to say.
"I'm..." He disappeared again. Then a few minutes later, reappeared. "Standing...on a moving...car...and I jump...from car to...car...see..."
"And the point of this is?" Gum said, grinning as she watched. He was making her feel better already and he hadn't even done anything yet.
"I'm try...ing....to rescue...you...any ideas?"
"Have you got any rope?"
"Yeah...why?"
"If you could tie one end to the bars, and another to a bus, it would yank the bars out, and then I could climb out. There's no fence on this side, just the road..." Trust Onishima, she thought. Really hard to escape from this prison!
"Okay...I'll...see...what...I can do..."
This time he didn't reappear. Gum sat down again, but she was feeling slightly more hopeful now. And, she consoled herself, even if she did end up in jail, she could always think of Beat...
A few minutes later, Beat had attached a rope to the bars of the window and was tying the other end to a bus.
"Ready?" he called.
"Yep." Gum waited, and then the rope went tight. Slowly, the bars began to buckle. She watched them, heart thumping, praying that the rope wouldn't break/that Onishima wouldn't burst in/that something else wouldn't go terribly wrong.
The bars suddenly exploded out of the window, and she heard them clattering along the road. She hurried to the window. The tarmac looked very far away as she slid through it, but she told herself not to worry. She'd made jumps higher than this...right?
Then she dropped, and fell, and felt her skates scrape a truck, and then landed on the ground with a thump. The tarmac seemed surprisingly soft.
Then she looked down and realised she was standing on Beat.
"Oh. Sorry. Need a little help?"
"I'm...okay..." Beat groaned as he got to his feet. "Now let's get out of here!"
"Not so fast!" snarled a familiar voice.
"Great sense of timing, hasn't he?" Gum muttered. She glanced left and saw him running towards them round the corner of the police station. Then she glanced back, and saw tanks and helicopters rolling along the road towards them.
"Shoot. Let's move it!" she yelled, and grabbing his hand, she sped off down the road.
Back at the garage, Gum was welcomed back by everyone, even Mew - sort of - and got a kiss from Beat. She blushed, and was forced to conceal it by pretending he had bad breath.
"Here, Potts!" She called the dog over. "I haven't said hi to you yet. Hang on..."
She bent down to look as his collar. "What's this?"
A small, round, technical-looking object was stuck to Potts's collar. And a small voice was crackling through it: "Onishima? Onishima? I think they're onto us."
Gum stood up and glided over to Beat and held out the bug to show him.
"Here's your spy, Beat, it was Onishima all along. And I'd like to thank you for getting me out of prison." She smiled at him, hoping no one would laugh at her.
"That's okay. It was nothing." Beat grinned, dropped the bug on the floor and skated over it a few times. "Hey, you wanna come out tagging with me?"
"Sure!"
The lights of Benten-cho were laid out below them like coloured stars. Gum stretched out her legs, letting them dangle into space, and kicked at the worn guttering along the edge of the roof.
Beat's arm was warm around her shoulders. She leaned against him, and then he kissed her. Gum sighed and kissed back, as she felt his hand brush her neck. There was the sound of a zip moving. And the neon lights silhouetted the two young lovers.
The End
By Tallulah and N1K
It was a dark and cloudy night - which it always was - in Benten-cho. Beat and Gum were grinding down a length of Christmas lights, spraying graffiti as they went.
"Beat, you were right. With Garam, Mew, and Tab making a hit on Kogane-cho, the cops'll be busy for hours chasing them, and Onishima will do his nut!"
Beat grinned. "I know." They leapt off the wire, screeched down the street and halted in a spray of rain on the sidewalk. "So, where next, Gum?"
Gum opened her mouth to answer, but then a new voice cut in:
"Prison, I think!"
They spun round, to see Captain Onishima backed by an army of cops.
"Uh-oh." Gum swallowed. "Any ideas, Beat?"
"Yeah. Run!"
They dashed up the steps into the building on their right. Racing through the dank corridor, wheeled footsteps echoing off the stone walls, they heard Onishima's cackling laughter. Gum was first out onto the roof, and skidded to a halt as three parachutists descended onto the tiles in front of her.
"Going somewhere?"
She heard Beat clatter up behind her, grabbed his hand, and dragged him off the roof. The air stung her face as they fell, faster and faster, the lights of Benten-cho wobbling madly below them, and then she felt her skates make contact with a pipe. She and Beat ground along it, flecks of rust flying off behind them, and as they reached a balcony and dived into the next building, they heard howls of rage coming from beneath the purple sky.
Back at the garage, Gum dropped down onto the sofa as Beat removed his damp helmet. She sighed inwardly. Geez, Beat was cute. No. She had to keep her mouth shut, or her tough-girl reputation would be ruined. But he was cute...
"How'd they know we were gonna be there tonight?" Beat asked.
"Maybe they didn't. Maybe they were just lucky."
"Yeah, sure they were. You know it normally takes ages for Onishima to even find us, let alone almost catch us. He'd been tipped off."
"By who? No one outside the gang knew about the decoy plan."
"Then it must be someone inside the gang." Beat rose to his feet dramatically, and Gum snorted.
"Come on, Beat. Like any of us would do that."
Beat looked at her in a superior way, but before he could answer, Garam, Tab and Mew rolled in.
"Man, we had a close run tonight," said Garam. "The cops were there. Dey seemed to know everything!"
"Same thing happened to us," said Gum. She described the ambush. "Beat seems to think it's a spy." She tried to grin, but inside she was feeling slightly sick. If there was a spy...well, that'd be the end of the GGs, that was for sure. And with no GGs...
"But I'm sure it isn't."
"Well, we can think about it tomorrow," Garam said. "I'm off to bed. See ya in the morning."
"Me too." Mew stretched and yawned. "Night."
As they left, Gum turned to Tab. Keeping her voice low so the others wouldn't hear, she said, "Tab. Me and you - we need to do some investigating in the morning. Cool?"
"Cool." Tab was her closest friend after Beat, and easier to work with - he didn't send her heart racing, after all. As he skated off, she turned to look at Beat, who was listening to music. His familiar face made her shiver, and she bit her lip. Stop it, she told herself. Think of...sandwiches. Cold showers. Baseball.
Not Beat.
The next morning, to take her mind off Beat, Gum took Potts the dog for a walk, the first one for years. But it didn't work. Potts was Beat's dog, and by the time she got back, she was a love wreck.
Beat and Mew arrived back some time later, looking pretty stressed.
"We've just been chased up the Shibuya-cho shopping hill."
"And down again," Mew put in.
"Through the sewers at Kogane-cho. Round the factory ruins at Kogane-cho. And, to top it all off, along the railway tracks at Benten-cho." Beat stepped closer to Gum, who forced herself to concentrate on his words rather than his body. "We managed to spray a grand total of one tag. Somebody is tipping off the cops. And I want to know who."
"We almost got caught." Mew's lip trembled. "But Beat saved me. He pulled me out of danger so many times!" She kissed him on the cheek, and Gum fought the urge to punch her.
"Well, who do you think it is?" she demanded. "No one here'd do that. It's not worth it, and it's not like we have any grudges or anything."
"I think I'd better call a meeting of the GGs," Beat said.
Beat left with Potts to find the other GGs (he was feeling guilty about not having walked his dog earlier) and Tab and Gum turned the garage upside down, looking for any signs of a spy.
They found two dollars, three half-chewed sweets, a missing piece of a jigsaw, and Potts's bone collection, which consisted mainly of KFC bones. Nothing else.
Then the other GGs swept in, and the meeting began.
Beat stood up. "We have reason to believe," he began, "That there is a spy in the GGs."
The gang members - Mew, Tab, Gum, Garam, and Cube and Combo on their vid-link over the Internet - looked suitably shocked.
"What d'you mean?" said Cube, her voice crackling over the speakers. "None of us would do that."
"Yeah." Gum felt a little more hopeful. Surely it had to be Beat being over-dramatic...right? "It's ridiculous. We're all friends."
"Well, someone's tipping off Onishima, and I want to know who."
Gum looked round the other members. Most just looked confused. But Mew...
...Mew looked thoughtful. And she was glancing in Gum's direction with a very nasty look in her eyes.
Gum glared back. Beat turned to Mew. "What about you? Any idea?"
"Yeah. I do have an idea." Mew looked furious now. "I think Gum is a pretty likely candidate, actually!"
"What?" Gum and Beat yelled together. Gum clenched her fists. "You - you - what are you on about?"
"You're the one who keeps trying to pretend there is no spy." Mew came towards her. "You're the one who keeps trying to put us all off the trail. You've been around this place for years; you'd know all the places we go and how to get to them -"
"And why'd I be betraying you all?" Gum almost wanted to laugh, it was so stupid. "I almost got caught, in case you'd forgotten!"
"Stop it!" Beat yelled. "Let's not go accusing people now. It'll just get ugly."
Gum felt a little better hearing her friend - just her friend - sticking up for her, but then Combo said, "I dunno...it kinda makes sense..."
"Stuff this!" Gum grabbed some spray paint and marched to the door. "I'm going back to Kogane-cho. See if I can I get a few more tags than you two did!"
She slammed the door behind her, but it didn't make her feel any better.
Her bad mood lifted a little as she shot across the roofs of Kogane-cho, the spray paint cans cool in her hands. Over her head the rich orange sky glowed, silhouetting the sharp crowded buildings. It was a warm evening, and perfect skating weather.
Gum stopped, and began to spray an extra-large tag across the roofs, covering the faded tiles with blistering colours. It was a new tag that she'd designed herself, and she slowly became absorbed in perfecting it, shading, colouring, the moving spray cans catching the light shining over her shoulder.
She only realised she had company when the light was blocked out, and glanced round.
And saw several SWAT team members, tear gas guns at the ready. And behind them stood Onishima, a triumphant smile splitting his stubbly face.
Even as she began to skate the gas burst around her in mustard clouds, tore at her throat. Eyes watering, she struggled on, but it was no good.
She dropped to her knees, the warm tiles scraping her skin, and even as her vision blurred and began to vanish, she made out Onishima's scuffed shoes in front of her, and handcuffs closing round her wrists.
Beat skated along the shady alleyway, trying to think clearly. Kogane-cho was full of people, and there were so many different routes to take that he was starting to despair. But Gum should've been back now. He had to just see that she was all right.
His trick to fool the spy seemed to've worked. He'd announced he was heading over to Shibuya-cho bus terminal, to see if anything was going on there, and once out of the garage had hightailed in the opposite direction. To Kogane-cho.
Sitting down on some steps, he decided to take a breather, and tuned in to Jet Grind Radio on his wristwatch radio. The last notes of a song faded out, and then:
"Dis is Professor K, bringing you all da latest news on...JET GRIND RADIO! Rumour has it that the cops have finally...wait for it...actually caught a skater! Is it da GGs? Is it Poison Jam? Or maybe even da Noise Tanks! Keep listening for more info, only on...JET GRIND RADIO!"
Beat's mind froze. On autopilot he began retracing his steps, looking in every shady corner.
It can't be her, he thought. It mustn't be her. She's far too smart. It's all my fault. I should never've let her go out alone. It can't be her.
But there was still no sign of Gum anywhere.
Meanwhile, in Tokyo-to's police station, Gum was standing handcuffed between two hefty guards. Her head ached and her mouth was dry, but she was finally beginning to think clearly.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Gum." Onishima paced up and down in front of her, rubbing his hands with barely concealed glee. "Don't you know it's against the law to spray paint? Oh - I forgot. You do know. If this was the first time, I'd let you off with a caution..."
"It is the first time," Gum managed to say. "You never caught anyone before and you know it!"
"Shut up! As I was saying..." He glowered for a moment. "I would let you off with a caution. But, since I've had to deal with you punks for years, I'm gonna be tough on ya. Let's say...ten years...twenty years...life!...I just wish they hadn't abolished the death sentence!"
He stalked out of the room, muttering dark threats involving skaters, guns and tanks.
Gum looked around, taking in her surroundings. Apart from the two guards, there didn't seem to be anything else stopping her. Linking her hands to form one large fist, she swung them as hard as she could towards the groin of one of the guards. As he doubled over, she pivoted and kicked the other guard in the same place, then leapt, ground along the edge of Onishima's desk, paperwork scattering behind her, and down and out of the door.
It was just bad luck that Onishima was hurrying round the corner towards her, clutching a cup of cocoa. There was a painful collision. Cocoa splashed everywhere, and Gum slipped in it, felt herself falling, and grabbed at air as her head connected with the corner of the wall. And then everything went dark.
Beat tuned into Jet Grind Radio again, hoping that some dumb Love Shocker had been the one to get caught. In fact, that anyone had been the one to get caught. Anyone except Gum. He had been out all night, scouring the city for any sign of his friend. So far, all he'd got had been one of Gum's tags on top of a roof in Kogane-cho. Things didn't look good.
"Dis is Professor K, comin' aitcha from...JET GRIND RADIO! Latest news on the once-in-a-lifetime occurrence in the police force!"
Beat listened intently.
"We've whittled it down to either...A Love Shocker, or a GG. Naturally, everyone is hoping it's the Love Shocker. But anyway, this girl will not go down without a fight! She's already tried to break out once...will she try again? Whoever it is, it ain't gonna be easy for her...rumour has it Onishima's sending her down! Stayed tuned for more news as it happens, people...on JET GRIND RADIO!"
Beat was horrified. A girl. I guess I'd better go check it out, he thought. It was a nerve-racking prospect, but...he sighed. A guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do.
Gum was sitting in her cell. Prison, she had decided, sucked. Any hope she'd had was slowly and painfully dying.
Suddenly she saw Beat hovering outside the window. Then he disappeared.
Great, she thought. Now I'm hallucinating as well.
Then he sped past again, this time moving in the opposite direction, and called, "Hi, Gum!"
"What are you doing?" she said, unable to think of anything else to say.
"I'm..." He disappeared again. Then a few minutes later, reappeared. "Standing...on a moving...car...and I jump...from car to...car...see..."
"And the point of this is?" Gum said, grinning as she watched. He was making her feel better already and he hadn't even done anything yet.
"I'm try...ing....to rescue...you...any ideas?"
"Have you got any rope?"
"Yeah...why?"
"If you could tie one end to the bars, and another to a bus, it would yank the bars out, and then I could climb out. There's no fence on this side, just the road..." Trust Onishima, she thought. Really hard to escape from this prison!
"Okay...I'll...see...what...I can do..."
This time he didn't reappear. Gum sat down again, but she was feeling slightly more hopeful now. And, she consoled herself, even if she did end up in jail, she could always think of Beat...
A few minutes later, Beat had attached a rope to the bars of the window and was tying the other end to a bus.
"Ready?" he called.
"Yep." Gum waited, and then the rope went tight. Slowly, the bars began to buckle. She watched them, heart thumping, praying that the rope wouldn't break/that Onishima wouldn't burst in/that something else wouldn't go terribly wrong.
The bars suddenly exploded out of the window, and she heard them clattering along the road. She hurried to the window. The tarmac looked very far away as she slid through it, but she told herself not to worry. She'd made jumps higher than this...right?
Then she dropped, and fell, and felt her skates scrape a truck, and then landed on the ground with a thump. The tarmac seemed surprisingly soft.
Then she looked down and realised she was standing on Beat.
"Oh. Sorry. Need a little help?"
"I'm...okay..." Beat groaned as he got to his feet. "Now let's get out of here!"
"Not so fast!" snarled a familiar voice.
"Great sense of timing, hasn't he?" Gum muttered. She glanced left and saw him running towards them round the corner of the police station. Then she glanced back, and saw tanks and helicopters rolling along the road towards them.
"Shoot. Let's move it!" she yelled, and grabbing his hand, she sped off down the road.
Back at the garage, Gum was welcomed back by everyone, even Mew - sort of - and got a kiss from Beat. She blushed, and was forced to conceal it by pretending he had bad breath.
"Here, Potts!" She called the dog over. "I haven't said hi to you yet. Hang on..."
She bent down to look as his collar. "What's this?"
A small, round, technical-looking object was stuck to Potts's collar. And a small voice was crackling through it: "Onishima? Onishima? I think they're onto us."
Gum stood up and glided over to Beat and held out the bug to show him.
"Here's your spy, Beat, it was Onishima all along. And I'd like to thank you for getting me out of prison." She smiled at him, hoping no one would laugh at her.
"That's okay. It was nothing." Beat grinned, dropped the bug on the floor and skated over it a few times. "Hey, you wanna come out tagging with me?"
"Sure!"
The lights of Benten-cho were laid out below them like coloured stars. Gum stretched out her legs, letting them dangle into space, and kicked at the worn guttering along the edge of the roof.
Beat's arm was warm around her shoulders. She leaned against him, and then he kissed her. Gum sighed and kissed back, as she felt his hand brush her neck. There was the sound of a zip moving. And the neon lights silhouetted the two young lovers.
The End