No matter how hard she tried to; Gum could not shake the terrible feeling that was prodding at her. She couldn't shake the fact that Rapid 99 had described 'pink haired bitches'. Only one group of people came to mind assuming that it was women they were talking about.

She skated somewhat behind the group in an attempt to conceal her brewing troubles. She saw Corn look back at her, and she gave him a small, casual wave; communicating to him that she was fine. Deep down, however; she wasn't.

No one appeared to notice the non-verbal exchange, except that is, for Beat. With a curious expression, he slowed his pace down to skate beside Gum.

"You okay?" He asked.

Gum was caught off-guard because through her anxious mind she didn't see him approach her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied with a casual smile, but he didn't appear convinced.

He shook his head, "It doesn't look like it. I… I don't mean to pry or anything. You just look like something's bothering you."

Gum looked into his eyes, that is, she would be if she could see them behind those mirrored sunglasses. She opened her mouth and paused before saying, "There's… just a lot going on you know?"

"Rapid 99 is probably just mad that we outdid them." He assured, "I bet you there's no one in there." The GG's made it back into the garage where Roboy was dancing to the tune on Jet Set Radio; when he saw the GG's he called to them, "Hey!"

The gang stopped, "What's up?" Corn asked.

Roboy approached them quickly, "You guys need to get to Shibuya Terminal now!"

"We were just headed there." Beat stated, "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah something's wrong! I just heard that there's this gang bustin' in and trying to take the place over!"

The GG's did a collective shocked reaction.

"So Rapid 99 wasn't lying!" Gum declared.

"I don't believe it! Someone's bustin' in on our turf!? No way!" Garam shouted.

"Damn!" Corn expressed, "Who is this gang Roboy, do you know?"

"I heard them say it; they were called the Love Shockers."

Gum's eyes widened and her heart dropped, "This can't be…!"

Corn quickly glanced at Gum with concern, being the only one that was aware of her silent distress.

"So what's the plan yo?" Yoyo asked Corn.

"First things first, we gotta head over there now and check on our tags to make sure they aren't covered."

Roboy yelled to the GG's as they skated off, "I also heard that gang was lurking around the bus route! You better get over there fast or they're gonna claim the place!"

Corn acknowledged Roboy's words with a short wave as the GG's used the usual shortcut to Shibuya Terminal, helping them get there quickly.


"HQ to all squads: skaters are invading Shibuya Terminal again. Do not let your guard down."

Hayashi was not happy with what he just heard, "This is Hayashi! Those punks are back in this area!?" He lashed into the radio, "Get off your butts and earn that paycheck!"

Onishima scratched his head in frustration. He retorted with a snide remark, "Those paychecks you docked? Eh, no matter. Those kids are gonna regret the day they messed with the Rokkaku Force!" The captain grabbed his gun and ran out the door.

Hayashi paced anxiously, "I can't believe this… because this shouldn't be happening! How are we getting upstaged by some kids so many times!? I'll show them… hehehehe…"

"THIS IS HEADQUARTERS TO ALL UNITS. A SWAT TEAM IS ON ITS WAY. TEAR GAS WILL BE DEPLOYED; ALL OFFICERS ON SIGHT, LEAVE NOW."

Onishima grinned, "This'll get them for sure…"


"Look over there! That doesn't look like our graffiti!" Rhyth blurted out, pointing at one of the buses.

"No it doesn't! Geez that's some crazy work too!" Combo observed.

Garam stared in shock, "What the hell kinda graffiti is that? We gotta cover that up!"

When Gum caught sight of the graffiti in question; the familiar broken heart symbol was an alarm for her, "This cannot be happening; what are they doing here!?"

"I guess they hate love…" Rhyth suggested.

"That seems to be the case." Beat deliberated, "The broken heart is a giveaway on that… what the hell!? Check it out!"

A young woman with hot pink hair was spraying diligently over one of the GG's tags. It was a Love Shocker. Gum tried not to be seen.

Rhyth pushed past her friends, "Oh that little stinker!" She gained momentum, skating right for the female like a charging bull.

"Wait up Rhyth!" Corn pursued her.

"Come on, let's fight back!" Beat encouraged, "Time to give them a taste of the GG's!"

"We won't take this on the sidelines!" Combo prepped.

Yoyo shook a spray can, "Yo, let's go! Let's go!"

"Charge!" Garam lunged forward.

Gum remained silent. Even when the rest of her friends took off, she found herself reluctant to move.

The usually cheeriest member of the GG's rushed right up to the woman and rammed into her, catching the Love Shocker off guard and making her stumble. In addition she dropped her spray can, prompting Beat to pick it up and start spraying at her with it. She retreated at an incredibly fast pace; Beat pursued her for a short distance before stopping and returning to his gang.

Corn, noticing that Gum had not moved from their starting location, announced, "GG's! I want this placed looked over! Make sure that you repaint any tags that may have gotten covered. Also, there could be others so spread out and chase off any you see. Got it?"

"We got it Corn." Beat responded.

"All right GG's! Disperse!"

While the rest of the gang scattered, Corn approached Gum, "Are you all right Gum?"

She paused before answering, "I don't know..."

Corn put his hand on her shoulder, "You can go back to the garage if you want."

Gum directed her brown eyes somewhat away from Corn before looking at him again and answering, "No… I guess I should've known that this day was coming. It's just… now it's here and I wasn't expecting it at all."

Corn voiced concern, "They aren't gonna be happy to see you."

She shook her head, "No… no they're not, but I can't run from this forever. I'm not going to keep living in fear."

The leader of the GG's took a deep breath and looked at his friend with assurance; who returned the gesture.

From behind a bus, Beat, who had just painted over a Love Shocker tag noticed the two's exchange. He shrugged and skated away, finding Combo at another bus.

"Hey Combo. Have you found any more of those Love Shockers yet?" He asked.

Combo turned around, "Not yet Beat. I think if there were others the one we charged probably gave them the word and left."

"Huh, well in that case once we get all this painted over we'll be just about wrapped up here then."

"Unless Corn says otherwise."

"That's true. You know something Combo? I could see myself becoming the leader of the GG's someday."

"Is that right?" Combo replied, amused.

"Yeah. If something really bad ever happens to Corn, and I hope it doesn't, I wouldn't mind taking over as leader."

"Heh… well that doesn't surprise me."

When Beat curiously looked at him, Combo explained, "Gum told me the whole story on how you joined the GG's."

Beat laughed casually, "Well what was I supposed to do?"

"Not be an ass?" Combo answered lightheartedly.

"It couldn't be avoided." Beat smirked.

"Whatever you say."

Beat lightly hit Combo on the arm, who returned the friendly gesture.

Combo returned to a serious tone, "Let's go see how Corn's doing."

They returned to where they last saw Corn and saw that the rest of the GG's had regrouped with him already.

"There's Beat and Combo." Gum brought to attention.

"We were just about to go look for you guys!" Rhyth greeted.

"It looks like we got here fast enough." Corn evaluated, "They didn't cover up a lot."

"We caught 'em just in time." Garam declared.

"Yo, but we couldn't find the rest of those Love Shockers anywhere!" Yoyo ranted.

A mature female voice responded in a taunting manner, "Aww don't worry, we haven't left!"

Three women with vibrant pink tresses stood in front of the GG's; all three of them wore heart-shaped eyepatches. Gum immediately recognized her former right-hand woman, Lolli. She looked almost the same as she was the last time Gum saw her.

"She hadn't changed a bit." She kept to herself.

Corn confronted the rival gang, "Maybe you ladies missed the memo, but this is the GG's turf."

A flirty chuckle, followed by, "So?" was Lolli's answer.

Mirroring her sarcastic reply Corn retorted, "So, you girls need to leave."

"We aren't going anywhere. Sorry to tell you baby, but we-." She stopped mid-sentence, her hazel eyes shifted to Gum, "What the…?" her volume dropped to a barely audible mutter.

"But you what?" Corn spoke.

She ignored him and kept focused on Gum, "Hey… you."

Gum kept quiet, pulling her blonde hair back. Her heart picked up speed and she could feel the dread lingering over her. Even more so when her friends began to questioningly gaze at her.

Corn tried to distract them, "You should leave now." He stepped in front of the Love Shocker.

"Hold it! I recognize you!" Lolli suddenly yelled out and pushed Corn out of the way, catching the attention of her teammates and the surprise of the GG's. Gum glared at her.

"Gum! I can't believe it! Finally we found you!" Her expression angry.

"Wait, you know her?" Beat asked.

"You better believe we do! She used to be our leader!"

Everyone gasped, making Gum flinch.

"We're getting off the real problem here!" Corn hastily stated, "You girls need to get out of here!"

"Ha! As if!" Lolli snapped, "I've waited too long for this! You'll pay for leaving us Gum! Now that I, Lolli, am the new leader; I'll guarantee that!"

Sirens resounding all over the area diffused the fast growing tension.

"Ah shit!" Lolli swore, "It's the cops! Come on gang let's move!" They skated away at rapid speed.

"We've got no more spray cans! Let's get outta here!" Corn announced and took off, the rest of the GG's behind him. Gum stayed close to Corn, her head was spinning. She noticed Corn looking very concerned at her.

"Gum…" He began to speak.

"Shut up. I'm fine."

"Are you sure…?"

"Yes… whoa, watch out!" She braked.

The GG's were shocked to see that it wasn't Onishima or Hayashi lying in wait for them. Instead there were several vested men with large shields and guns. Close to them was a van that had SWAT written in big letters on the side. The fact that they were also wearing gas masks was a red flag.

"What the hell!? Guys! Run for it!" Corn shouted hastily.

The SWAT men fired shots; spherical canisters bounced in the GG's path and detonated thick, white smoke. The teens began coughing.

Corn could barely get air in, making him unable to shout instruction to his friends. He rushed forward, desperately trying to find his way out of the smoke that enveloped him. At the same time he was beginning to grow faint from lack of oxygen.

Gum managed to get to where the smoke wasn't as heavy. She turned around for her friends and found no one.

"Guys!" She shouted into the smoke, "This way, hurry!"

When a SWAT man grabbed her from behind she started kicking, "Let go of me!" She demanded, but he begun to haul her to a police car. Luckily, she managed to slow him down long enough for Beat to come out of the smoke and knock her out of his grip. They hurried out of his sight.

Rhyth put her hands over her eyes; trying to block out the tear gas while moving in the direction of Gum's voice.

"Rhyth!" A voice from behind her yelled. She turned and saw Yoyo waving his hand in front of his face, trying to get fresh air.

"Yoyo!" She stopped to allow him to catch up. She put his arm around him, "Come on, this way!" she said while coughing, "I can't breathe…" she used her fingers to close her nostrils.

"You can do it Rhyth, just keep going!" He put one arm around her and held her free hand.

The GG's continuously emerged from the smoke, everyone had tears running down their cheeks. Combo, Corn, and Garam rushed out together; Yoyo and Rhyth fled out holding onto each other. They regrouped and hurried back to their garage without looking back.

Once in clean air the GG's all took a deep breath.

"Man my lungs almost blew up back there!" Garam expressed, "If Gum hadn't yelled out I think we would've died!"

"No kidding, great work Gum." Corn complemented, "I'm surprised you got the air to do that."

"I am too! Let's get out of here!"

The GG's returned to the garage; sure they had achieved their victory, but not in the way they had planned to.

"Is everyone all right?" Corn announced, everyone replied the affirmative.

Roboy didn't hesitate in making a remark at the gang's wrecked appearance, "Whoa, uh, you guys look dog-tired."

Potts was watching from a short distance, "Ruff!"

"You better believe it." Combo explained, "They tried to kill us with tear gas!"

"Oh damn. That would have been terrible." Said Roboy.

"Yeah, you think?"

"Yeah, who would change my oil then?"

Combo rolled his eyes, "Of course."

Yoyo shrugged, "At least we kept those Love Shockers from claiming our place yo. But yo seriously!? Tear gas!? That's cheating!"

"They better not come back." Corn spoke while looking around for Gum. He started to grow concerned when he didn't see her anywhere.

"If you're looking for Gum. She just went into the warehouse." Roboy pointed in that direction. Corn was just about to go after her when Rhyth caught his attention.

"Corn?" She spoke.

"Yeah Rhyth?"

She nervously held her hands together, "That stuff they said about Gum… was it… true?"

The rest of the GG's gathered, just as curious as Rhyth.

Corn sighed, "I wasn't going to say this to anyone but… yes it's true."

The GG's shared a surprised, yet calm reaction. Beat rolled to the front of the group, "When was this?"

"Um… Let's see, how long has it been since I met Gum…?" Corn tried to remember, "It's been almost a year. It's a long story and she didn't want anyone to know about her past." He sighed again, "Deep down she knew… she couldn't hide from this forever."

Beat thought, "I guess this explains why Gum has been acting the way she has… She was worried about them finding her here."

"Hey Corn." He spoke, "I know we talked about this before but… What is the whole story exactly?"

"Well… it started out like this…" Corn prepared to recollect and speak of the past.


Gum was lying in her room with the door locked and the shade down. She had her arms over her head, covering her eyes in the process.

She was talking to herself, "I knew I couldn't keep this a secret forever I knew everyone would find out one way or another… but… I just feel so…" She pulled the covers over her head, she exactly the way anyone would feel when a secret they tried to keep silent is suddenly thrown up where everyone can see. Especially in the manner that it was.

"My past… damn… damn it all!" She took her pillow and threw it to the wall. Then stood to pick it up, and laid back down.

"I wonder what everyone's talking about outside…"


"I'm hijacking the airwaves and terrorizing you with tunes cause we're gonna turn these dirty streets into one big dance party! Jet Set Radiooo! Those cats who ransacked Shibuya Terminal turned out to be the Love Shockers! Love broke their hearts and now they're looking to do some breaking of their own! Watch out for these psychos! When you see their heart-shaped graffiti around, you know someone somewhere; is crying with a Uki-Uki-Waku-Waku feeling! Can the GG's save Shibuya from the Trap of Love, or is it too late?"