Gum grumbled as she painted over the Rokokku posters. What a pain in the neck. She wished she could get her hands on whoever kept putting the damn things up over their tags. She turned as she heard Cube laugh. Fink had his arms around her and said something teasingly. Gum had come to feel grateful that her English was shoddy, it made it much easier to ignore what was said between the two. Still, every now and then she could make out the word "love" as it caught her ear. She hated it when she heard her laugh when Fink would do/say one of his undoubtedly lame-brained but sweet things. It
drove her crazy to see them so happy.

Gum felt an arm wrap around her stomach and a hand squeeze her ass. Beat had crept up behind her and was whispering sweet nothings in her ear. That was exactly what they were, nothing. The words sounded like she felt, hollow, empty. The hand rubbing her stomach slid down to below her waistline. It wasn't so much that she wanted to get back together with Beat as she didn't care enough not to.

"Have you got any brown?" she ignored whatever Beat had been saying. Beat shook his head, for as she knew well, he didn't carry any. "Be a dear and go borrow some from one of the others," she blew him off. He skated away grumbling. Mew slid up beside her, trying to look casual but obviously feeling sorry.

"What's up?" Mew probed timidly. Gum sighed. "That good huh?" She looked away toward Fink and Cube. "I know it's hard..."

"I feel like shit..." Gum breathed. "I feel violated. I feel tarnished... I should never have gotten back together with Beat... I was just a little girl, only 16. Rick was my first boyfriend, my high school sweetheart. I liked him, I thought I loved him. I let him have me on homecoming night like so many other girls. I didn't want to, but he didn't care, so I did it anyway. I regret it so much now." Gum shook her head. "These little mistakes... They hurt so much. They ruined me. The things I wish I could go back and redo the most, I can't. I'm just marred with these big scars. I was devastated when he left me. In retrospect, I liked who I wanted him to be. Who he was was nothing. Just some faceless creep who deflowered me."

"I couldn't finish school. I left and met Beat, formed GG," Gum recapped. " It was the same, when I think of it, I wanted so badly for this guy I liked a lot to be perfect for me. In the end, I wasn't anything to him either. After that I just gave up. Lots of girls at many times have sworn off guys, but I held pretty true to it. I just became hard. They all became the same to me, I couldn't see any of them ever being any good. It seemed so hopeless, like putting myself back out there would inevitably lead to hurt." She mused. She gazed across the street at Fink, playing with Cube.

"He told me once that I was his oyster," Gum reminisced as Mew listened intently. Gum ceased in her tagging as she thought aloud. " 'A pearl is a scab', he told me. It starts when an impure outside object, like a stone, makes its way in and injures the oyster's sensitive insides. It infects, and the oyster seals it off. The pearl is a precious scab. He said I had built up something beautiful inside me from my life, and didn't realize it. I built a hard shell to protect myself, to keep other impurities out. But the harder the shell grew, the more tender and vulnerable I became inside of it. He was right. I wish I had met him sooner. It would have been easier. I guess I ought to be glad I met him when I did and not later in life."

Gum tried to focus her eyes on him, as though trying to spot some critical detail of his being, "He knew me so well, and you know, I think he was right. We didn't share one heart, I feel like I don't know him at all. But it didn't matter," she determined. "I didn't care who he could be. I loved who he was, for the first time, no matter who that might have been. For a twit, he's very wise," she noted. "He sees right through everyone. The only person he, or anyone else, was always unsure of was himself." Gum thought for a moment. "Yeah," she decided, "I think he can see through himself." Gum went back to painting. "Just he can't understand what he sees therein."

Gum shook her head. "Fink felt like a lesson more than a scar. But one of those lessons where maybe ignorance is bliss. I feel somehow empowered, somehow better about myself and the world. And yet at the same time, I feel more helpless and the world looks more hopeless than ever. I love my memories with him so much, but it makes me ache to have him back, and I just can't see things getting better, things ever being good again. Let alone stay that way," she felt a little teary eyed.

"Oh Gum..." Mew comforted, turning her around and hugging her. "I know... I understand." Gum felt lucky to have a friend like Mew, who got her so well. Mew always knew how she felt, what she wanted. "They'll never treat us right," Mew whispered. "Maybe..." she trailed off. "Maybe we should... we can... only rely on each other," she exhaled slowly. Gum could feel Mew's heart beat faster, she was now breathing heavier. Why was she nervous? Gum was about to ask Mew about it when she felt her friend kiss her on the neck. The hairs on the back of Gum's neck stood on end, she became rigid. Mew kissed her again, lower on the neck, seemingly cautiously, as though getting a feeling for whether or not she enjoyed kissing Gum. She kissed her again tenderly, then started kissing her up her neck passionately.

Gum was blown away, she tried to speak, tried to object, but words had left her. Her mind was blank, she'd been shocked right out of it. Right then, nothing could have surprised her more. Mew shoved Gum's back against the wall and started to excitedly kiss her up the side of the face.

"I've always envied your beauty..." she murmured between kisses. "But now, I admire it." The kisses lead up to Gum's ear, and she began to suck on the bottom part of it. "We can satisfy each other..." She caressed Gum's back. "I want you..." She bit down lightly on Gum's earlobe.

Control suddenly came back to Gum's body and she tried to push Mew away, but she resisted, pressing her little body against Gum's. Gum tried to speak, but was muffled as Mew began to kiss her on the lips. Gum resisted at first, but found herself savoring the kiss. It was like being outside of her body, watching like it was a movie or something as something else possessed her. Their mouths opened and Gum's tongue danced in Mew's mouth, danced with Mew's tongue.

Control once more seemed to flow back into Gum. She tried to push Mew off her, but Mew ignored and overpowered the attempt as she continued to kiss Gum. Gum shoved Mew back, hard this time, and slapped her across the face. Mew raised a hand to the rosy blotch on her cheek. She seemed surprised at first, but her expression quickly became cocky and playful. Gum had hunched back against the wall, breathing heavily. Her eyes were wide and her face seemed scared and panicked. She stood, shaking for a moment, then turned and skated away. Mew said nothing, but watched her go, same cocky expression on her face.

Gum got the message. 'Take some time. Think about it. You'll come back.' Gum skated away in a daze, watching Mew over her shoulder. She hit the curb and tripped. Fink and Cube turned as she stumbled next to them, sweating and looking frightened.

"Are you ok?" Fink cocked an eyebrow. Gum opened her mouth and started to respond (she actually didn't even know what it was she was about to say) when Cube interrupted.

"Son of a bitch..." she breathed in wonder. Gum and Fink turned to see what Cube had noticed.

Fink furrowed his brow in disbelief, "Is that-"

"Poison Jam?" Gum pondered. Indeed, Jason and Wolf were skating just down the street. They were methodically putting up a Rokokku poster over where Cube had just painted over one. Strangest of all, neither had on their hat and masks. On their head was a metallic skull-cap with an antenna on the top. They had big goofy grins on their faces and their eyes were wide open. They seemed to stare off blankly into space directly in front of them as they worked. Down the street, they could just barely make out the rest of Poison Jam going over the rest of the graffiti the GGs had just painted over the Rokokku posters with more posters.

"Well I guess that answers both where they've been and who's been going over our marks..." Cube scratched her head. They'd been wondering how the Rokokku had been getting to all the hard to reach marks only skaters could normally get to.

"What the Hell are they doing?" Fink watched in amazement. "I've never seen them go out without their masks before..." The three stepped backwards as Wolf and Jason skated over to give them room. They proceeded to begin plastering over the tag Fink had just been working on right in front of them, seemingly oblivious or totally indifferent to their presence. "Hey bro..." Fink tapped one on the shoulder. The rudie seemed not to noticed. They finished up and moved over to the nearby mark Cube had just finished. "Well don't that just beat all..." Fink places his hands on his hips. Yoyo skated over to one of the drones, hard at work.

"Yo homes, what's with the headgear?" he asked. Wolf ignored him. "Bitch, you'd best listen to me, or I'll make your ass listen..." Yoyo threatened, pulling out the stun gun he'd been carrying since he took a bad beating a few months ago.

"Yoyo, don't!" Fink tried to stop him. He was to late. Yoyo pressed the device against the boy and sent a powerful electric current through him. Wolf convulsed, then fell down, sparks coming from his helmet. Jason reacted as soon as Wolf was accosted, dropping everything to punch Yoyo in the face. Yoyo stumbled back into a wall, holding his bloody nose. He was startled, but regained his composure enough to try to shock him. Jason grabbed Yoyo's hand and the stun gun held within and squeezed until the device broke and Yoyo's fingers snapped in multiple places. Yoyo cried out and gave Jason a hook to the face with his other hand. Jason's head turned with the blow, but otherwise did not move, his body and face unflinching. He turned his head back to Yoyo, same stupid grin on his face, and wrapped his hands around his neck, lifting him up off the ground and slamming him against the wall. Tab grabbed Jason's shoulder, but the boy backhanded him into a no parking sign hard enough to break it in half. Gum suddenly noticed the music on Jet Set Radio getting softer as Professor K started to speak.

"Heads up all you rudies, we're picking up a weird transmission. I think it's that weird gang that's been causing trouble lately. I know it ain't the keisatsu, but I'm hookin you up anyways."

"-as been interference from Shibuya based group X teens. Maintenance team is required immediately. Perform maintenance on damaged Y unit and eliminate all adolescents. Attempt to bring in Bantam immigrants for questioning," the GGs heard over the radio, with Deavid Soul's "On the Bowl" on in the background.

Yoyo struggled to break free of his assailant's grip, then kicked him in the groin. Neither attempt yielded any results. Cube picked up the no parking sign and T-balled the back of the boy's head. The square metal sheet broke of the stick, but the Jason seemed not to notice. Cube gaped at the broken sign, astonished.

"Unreal..." she awed. "It's like he feels no pain..."

Fink rolled up behind Jason quickly and professional-looking. He gave a quick jab to a point at the base of Jason's neck. A minor seizure seemed to wrack the man's body. His back fluxed and his shoulders locked outwards, releasing Yoyo, who fell to the ground painting.

As soon as Yoyo's fist hit Jason's face, all the other Poison Jam members dropped their gear and were now rushing toward the GGs. Combo rolled over, having set his Jam-box on a nearby but safely-far-from-the-fray curb. The first Poison Jam member rolled up to Beat, who sprayed him in the eyes with paint. He reflexively shut his eyes, but continued to fight as though perfectly sighted anyway, punching Beat, then throwing Mew over his shoulder as she tried to hit him from behind. Garam charged the next one and tackled him at the waist. The two slid backwards and crashed through a glass window into a store together.

Tab kicked high as one rushed him, hitting him under the chin with his heavy skate, sending him to flop flat on his back hard. He immediately, robotically, got up and tried again. Tab gave him a hard side kick to the chest, which caused him to fall back onto his posterior, only to get up unfazed once more. Tab balled his hands together and struck with a mighty swing to the head. The Poison Jam member merely turned back, blood pouring from a split above his now black eye all over his face, which was still frozen in its ridiculous look. Tab rotated and struck the rudie in the solar plexus with a savage back-kick, knocking him to the ground. Tab tried to do a crescent kick, bringing his skate down on his neck, but the Poison Jam member caught his foot and twisted it, knocking him to the ground. The PJ stood up, still grasping Tab's foot. He spun, swinging Tab around in a circle before releasing him, sending him sliding into the curb. Gum jumped onto the PJ's back, but was shrugged off. Cube went in for a sneak attack, but he turned and grabbed her like he had eyes in the back of his head. He picked her up by the waist, raised her above his head and threw her.

"Gum, crank the radio!" Fink yelled as he punched the painted one in the neck, causing him to fall to the ground with the same goofy smile but mouth now stretched open wide gasping for air involuntarily. Gum picked herself up and dashed over to Combo's beatbox and turned up the volume all the way, making it deafeningly loud and carrying it closer. Combo reached over and grabbed one's head in one of his giant hands, it failed to act in time to do anything about it. Combo smashed the boy's head brutally into a wall face first, sending chips of stone and rock dust into the air as the bricks cracked. Gum realized Fink must have guessed they had some sort of sound based radar and were now partially blinded by the noise. Combo's attack had failed to even dent the antenna of the skull cap though.

Fink turned to the one that had thrown Tab, Gum, and Cube. He noticed the whites of his eyes had red running through them. "The ventricles..." Fink thought to himself. "He's tearing his capillaries. They must be pushing their bodies to the max to burst the blood vessels in their eyes..." He pulled his arm back for a punch, then ducked low, stepping in and rising up as he swung, turning what even an expert would have perceived as a thrust to the face into a brutal hook to the ribs of his side-waist joint.

Combo lifted up a skate and brought it down on one's shoulder, knocking him down to smash his face against the ground. Garam's opponent climbed out of the window, glass shards all over him. Garam followed him, and spun him around and socked him in the stomach, then picked him up by the collar and threw him, face scraping against the pavement. One had snuck up behind him though, and picked him up and slammed him into the ground with a suplex. Combo turned to standing clothesline one to the ground. Another jumped on his back, wrapping his arms around his neck, another clinging to his left arm. Combo roared with fury and batted them off like flies.

Fink threw one he was done with to the ground. Another came out of nowhere, it seemed to Fink, and started choking him. Fink wrapped his arms around his attacked and locked his hands and reversed his grip, flipping his palms away from him. He groaned as he bear-hugged the man. There were successive audible pops as squeezed ribs snapped, till the fighter spasmed and his arms went limp, and Fink let him slide from his grip to the ground.

Gum was amazed as she watched the grossly outnumbered Fink and Combo fight on, with everyone else tapped out, Combo not even seeming to feel his opponents attacks and no one being able to land a telling blow on Fink. Suddenly, Gum heard a groaning behind her. She turned and saw the Poison Jam with the disabled headgear stirring. Gum, Mew, and Tab skated and crawled over to him.

"Hey! Get with it!" Tab began lightly slapping him in the face. "Pull yourself together man!" The PJ's eyes fluttered and rolled around while he moaned.

"Where am I? What happened?" he began to rouse.

"You and your friends have been going berserk. What's wrong with you?" Mew asked.

"What?" he wondered blankly.

"They're brainwashed..." Gum concluded.

"What? Conditioned? Like the Manchurian Candidate? No... I don't want to assassinate symbolic-JFK..." he murmured.

"Snap out of it!" Tab slapped him hard a few times. "Who did this to you?"

"Golden Rhinos..." he held his head. "The Rokokku group... the Rhinos are just part of the company..."

"Well shit, we coulda figured that out on our own!" Tab griped.

"Goji wants... the record..." he continued. "He want's Tokyo-to and... the world... wants to be the best... the posters... Goji wants to take everyone's spirit... take away all our individuality... He-"

Suddenly, tires screeched as black luxury cars skidded to a stop. Cool, professional looking men in immaculate black suits and sunglasses stood up and exited coolly. Poison Jam immediately stopped and stood at attention.

"Get the others!" a Rhino demanded. Poison Jam went to work collecting its fallen members.

"Hey, hold up!" Fink called, rolling up to a suit. "You're the creeps who've been scaring everyone off the streets. What's your problem?"

The man chuckled, looking down as he adjusted his glasses. Then, in a motion so quick no one else saw it, there was a flash of light by his hand. As quickly as it happened, it ended. In an even faster movement, Fink grabbed the man's arm and twisted it behind his back, pressing down to slam his face against the hood of the car. There was a knife in the man's hand... The other Rhinos seemed stunned to see their comrade outdone, and quickly reached to withdraw weapons. Fink wrenched the shiv out of the suit's hand and kneed him in the stomach, crumpling him to the ground, brandishing the blade for combat.

"Fink, look out!" Gum cried as she noticed a red dot of light dancing around near Fink, getting closer to his heart. Fink's knife was a blur as he moved it and caused a loud twang as he deflected the bullet coming at him, throwing the blade from his hand. Fink glanced up to see a dark silhouette on a distant roof. Another Rhino came at Fink with a knife, but Fink blazed toward him and grabbed his arm and whipped around his back, grabbing his other arm. He put a skate on the man's back and pushed while he pulled his wrists. There was a pop (or more accurately, two simultaneous pops) as both the man's shoulders dislocated. He wrenched the man's knife out of his hand. The red dot of light danced around the GGs, moving toward Gum. They scattered as a warning shot hit the ground.

"Get outta here!" Fink yelled at the others, turning toward them and pointing down the road. He turned and threw his knife into the hand of another Rhino, who dropped his M5K screaming. The others needed no more instruction, they scattered like a bad cartoon effect. Only Cube was slow to leave, stopping to take a long second look before reluctantly skating away. Gum was the only one to stay, almost too scared to move. She lay frozen on the ground from where she'd jumped to the side. She just had to help somehow, yet she felt so helpless.

"There's a kid here begging to get himself killed," Gum heard as she watched one use his headset. "Send reinforcements."

There was a pause before a voice replied, "Assassin #5 is on his way. Assassin #4 should already be nearby. Be careful, he's in one of his moods."

Gum finally picked herself up and skated off, looking determined. Fink felt relieved to finally have her gone. Fink grabbed another Rhino and pulled him in front of him as he saw the red dot drawing a bead. The bullet tore through the Rhino to lodge itself in Fink's chest. He tossed the Rhino to the side to tussle with another. He watched out the corner of his eyes as the rest of Poison Jam loaded their temporarily liberated comrade, the GGs only informant, into a limo, kicking and screaming, then piled in themselves with another Rhino before speeding off.

"Hey kid!" a weaslely voice called out over Deavid Soul's 'Miller Ball Breakers'. Fink blinked in surprise as he fought on. "That's right, I'm talking to you, punk. The one in the silly Al Capone hat," the weaslely voice taunted. "I've just set a bomb somewhere in this city, and very soon, it's going to go KABOOM! How does that strike you, eh?"

Fink muttered curses as he finished slapping around the last assailant, then ducked behind a limo as another bullet nearly clipped him. The sniper turned as the roof access door opened and Gum came skating out toward him. He ejected the shell and started to load another, but gave up on the idea and tried to deck Gum with the butt of the gun as she drew close. She ducked, then kicked the gun from his hand, landing on the roof of the taller building next door. The sniper jumped off the edge of the building and started scurrying down the fire escape. Fink looked up to see Gum waving at him. He smiled and gave her a thumbs up, then turned to the unconscious Rhinos. He padded them down, and took two colts and the M5K and put them in his bag. As he picked up another colt, he heard a familiar voice above him.

"Hello child," the Arabic man called down to him sternly from the seven story building on the other side of the street. The man did a forward flip off the roof and landed in the street softly on his feet.

"Whoa..." Fink breathed.

"I'll have the record now..." the man asserted plainly.

Fink put a game face on, "Get lost, ya freaky yuppie." He tightened his grip on the colt. #5 slowly pulled out a cylindrical rod, about 15 inches in length. Fink flew into action. Like a pro, he turned his profile to the man a tapped the clip in a lethal spread. 5 was a blur as he swayed back and forth, weaving through the bullets with ease. He drew his arm back and swung, and what Fink could only recognize as a wave of force swatted the gun from his hand. Fink stepped back slowly, genuinely worried and unsure of what had almost hit him. Gum watched from above, mortified to see Fink backing down from a fight. She broke free of her trance and headed for the door. Fink continued to back away, taking one step for each #5 took toward him.

"It's terribly inconvenient to fight you. I have to worry about damaging the vinyl further. Why don't you had it over?" the man held out his hand. Fink's eye twitched from the pressure as he sneered. The man narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses. Like lightning, he drew his arm back and swung downward. Fink watched more closely as he jumped to the side. The rod was actually composed of countless tiny metallic segments, coiled up tightly under extreme pressure. When swung at intense speeds, it stretched to become a sort of whip. It came down on the limo behind Fink, making a sonic boom as it broke the sound barrier by over 700mph (faster than tornado speeds). The effect was devastating. It was as though another car had fallen on the vehicle.

Fink looked from 5 to the car and back again as he continued to step slowly. The two were now sidestepping around each other in a circle. #5 lashed downward diagonally and Fink ducked and slid to the side as the whip ripped a fire hydrant from the ground and flung it out of Fink's peripheral vision, instantly shattering a mailbox. He continued the motion to spin the whip twice above his head before lashing diagonally upward, tearing a swath through the cement wall of the building behind Fink as he skated to the side. Water rocketing into the sky from the fire hydrant hole rained down on the two as a fine mist. Fink started to skate backwards, bobbing to the left as a sideways swipe smashed the entire side of a bus halfway in, and to the right as a downward blow crushed the pavement into chunks of gravel. An upward diagonal blow sent a parked car flipping backwards, landing on the car behind it. A backhand downward diagonal strike bent a lamppost into an acute angle and nearly swatted Fink like a bug. Fink glanced behind him, then turned and bolted. #5 moved like speed itself. Fink had to dive to the ground as a backhand swing nearly clipped him. The man ran faster than Fink's top skating speed...

Fink scrambled up and dashed to his goal. Piano movers had tied a pulley to the roof to heft the baby grand into the 30 story sky scraper. Fink shoulder rammed one mover and elbowed the other as he wrapped the rope around his arm. Loose, the piano began to plummet after he untied the secure, sending the crew running for cover as Fink was pulled quickly upward. Fink unwrapped his arm and held on with one hand as he approached the roof. At the last second, he let go, stopping the pulley from slicing his fingers off and tossing him upwards. He grabbed onto the edge of the roof and started to heft himself up. As he got to the top, he looked over the edge down below. 5 was gone. Fink skated to the other side of the roof and looked down into the alley below. #5 was doing triangle jumps between Fink's and the neighboring building.

Fink cursed, and started skating away. In seconds, 5 was up on the roof. Fink leapt onto a guywire leading to a building 2 stories shorter across the street. As he ground down it, he removed a Colt from his bag. As he reached the other end, he shot the wire, severing it. He turned to look at 5, who puzzled him by continuing to run toward the edge. As he reached it, he jumped, doing another flip to land in front of Fink. The most Fink could do was gasp and stumble back. 5 pulled his arm back, and at the same time Fink tripped and fell through a skylight, which was curiously already broken. The whip plowed into a brick chimney, obliterating it. Fink moaned over his aching back from the bad fall. As he started to get up, he heard a soft landing next to his head as #5 jumped down into the room. He struggled to get to his feet as #5 walked coolly around him.

"I'm very impressed," 5 confided in Fink. "You're everything they said you were. I must admit I didn't believe them, I didn't expect you to make it here," #5 mused coolly. "You're quite slippery. I wasn't holding back, you know. I was trying quite thoroughly to hit you. You're no normal man... who are you?"

"I... am... Fink..." Fink groaned, managing to get to his knees. "Nova... if you must."

"Hmph. Fine. Don't tell me," #5 shrugged. "I just want your piece of the record."

"I'd die... first... you creep..." the injured rudie forced out, getting to one foot as #5 paced, circling Fink.

"And I don't doubt that. But would you let her die first?" 5 proposed. Fink readjusted himself to see 5. Sitting next to him in a chair was Cube, bound and gagged. Her eyes were teared up and she gazed at Fink in shame. Fink thought about 5's words, 'Make it here', the already broken skylight. It was a set-up. He'd been played. They had him right where they wanted him the whole time. He'd been herded here like a lamb to the slaughter, and they'd need not even toy with him as much as they did to beat him.

Fink considered the situation slowly, "What about Coin?" he finally asked.

"Coin?" 5 thought aloud. "You want money? Oh! Yes, this one's friend, the Bantam punk we caught. He knew a wee bit too much. He stuck his neck too far into other people's business and got it sliced off. I'm afraid he's already been quite dead for awhile now... as she will be if you don't cooperate."

Fink looked at Cube. Her big wet eyes. He grimaced. Finally, he closed his eyes and went limp, subdued.

"I'm sorry Cube..." he breathed "I love you too much." Fink reached into his pack and produced a piece of the record. #5 took it and examined it casually before turning back to Fink.

"The other piece too," 5 commanded. Fink was visibly shocked. "Those punks told us where they'd hid their piece of the record, and that you'd been there at the same time we were, and it wasn't where they said it would be when we looked. We know you have it. So cough it up." Fink took a minute to compute this, before taking his pack out again. He dug out the rest of the record, cursing all the while. "That's a good lad..." #5 commended him as he took the record from him. He then jumped out through the skylight and was gone.

Fink struggled to his feet and staggered over to Cube and, hands still shaking, untied her. As soon as she could, she shrugged off the ropes and tore off the gag, throwing her arms around him, crying.

"Oh Fink... They grabbed me as soon as we separated. I blew it... I'm sorry..." she wept.

Fink rubbed her back and squeezed her tightly, "It's alright. I'm just glad you're ok," he whispered.

"Coin..." she muttered distantly. "I can't believe he's really gone... Oh Fink, I was so scared. I wanted to shake my head, to tell you not to do it, but at the same time, I wanted to beg you, plead with you to save me. I just didn't know what to do..."

"It's ok..." he reassured her, cooing. "Come on. Let's go home." As they were leaving there was a click as Fink stepped on a strangely loose floorboard. Cube stopped, and raised her head to listen.

"Do you hear a watch alarm?" Cube asked. Fink's eyes grew wide.

biipbiipbiipbiipbiipbiipbiipbiip

Fink shoved Cube forward violently, and she rolled/flew/fell through the door and into the next room. In a consecutive motion, Fink closed the door behind her. Before it could click into place, there was an explosion, blowing the door off its hinges and sending Cube flying back while everything to either side of the shield was torched by a stampede of flame. Gum heard an Earth-shattering BOOM and watched from outside as the blast propelled Fink, just a tiny dot in her vision, out a window, starting to fall from 30 stories up.

"FINK!" Gum screamed up in horror. Through the ringing in his ears, he vaguely heard her call his name, but it barely registered. Fink's eyes were open wide, pupils dilated, his mouth slightly open in shock as he fell, flames streaming from his burning clothes behind him as he plummeted headfirst toward the river next to the building. Fink's catatonic trance slackened, and his eyes waned sleepily, then closed. Gum rushed to the shore as Fink's fiery body hit the choppy waters below with a splash.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Fink's eyes fluttered open. The world was squares of white, perforated plaster framed in criss-crossing strips of plastic. In the corner of his vision, he could see part of a large, rectangular, fluorescent light fixture's textured plastic covering. He couldn't move. Everything hurt vaguely. He could feel bandages wrapped over him, save his eyes and a hole for his nose. He felt a casual pressure on his chest, and could sense the soft, repetitive sensation of breathing coming from it. Fink gazed up lazily at the ceiling tiles. The fluorescent lights hummed down at him.

"Unfamiliar ceiling..." he muttered languidly, his voice muffled by the bandages.

"Hmm?" a sleeping Cube lying on his chest murmured.

"Nothing," Fink whispered, closing his eyes again. They felt funny, dry but artificially wetted. They must have gotten scorched with the rest of him. The left one felt sore and must have been bruised or cut by something hitting it. The second utterance caught Cube's attention, rousing her from her sleep as it registered in her conscious mind this time.

"Fink?" she tested. "Are you awake?" She lifted her head up.

"Mmmrmph.." he answered, opening his right eye but keeping the left closed.

"I was worried," she leaned in and gently kissed his closed left eye. "You've been out for days. The doctors say your burns aren't that bad, nothing above 2nd degree, no real serious scarring. You broke damn near everything though."

Fink murmured again, closing his eye once more.

He opened it again as the door clicked open, "Cube, I came to tell you the aneasteisiologist is coming by, so-oh, is he up?" the nurse asked.

"Yeah," Cube nodded to her. She turned back to Fink, "You've got a real cool nurse. Piranha is a rudie part time. She's been sneaking me in to see you outside of visiting hours. Speaking of which..." Cube stood up and brushed herself off. "Damn, I can't believe you just woke up and I can't stay. We'll talk later." She leaned down and kissed his eye again. "Bye sweety, I love you..." she waved goodbye and went out the door, looking pained to have to leave. They watched her go, then Piranha proceeded to fiddle with Fink's IV and such.

"Your girlfriend's real nice," Piranha asserted, switching over to Japanese. "She's been sleeping at your side when she can." Fink watched her work. The only sign of rudism was her hair, which was wound into a series of tubes.

"So what do you skate in?" Fink felt curious.

She smiled, "White cut off waistline bell bottoms and a jacket that shows off my midriff and cleavage." She pulled down her neckline to demonstrate how she kept her jacket zipped. She buttoned her nurse's uniform back up. "They've got red and blue stars and shit all over them, like an American flag." She went back to work. "People tell me I look like I should be in a Lenny Kravitz video."

"I don't like him..." Fink muttered.

"Neither do I," she shook her head. "His music all sounds too tired stylistically. His clothes are cool though. Oh, that reminds me..." Piranha turned on the radio and spun the dial.

"-ET RADIO!" Professor K's voice boomed. 'Mischievous Boy' by Castle Logical started to play.

"Just in time," she smiled. Fink listened silently as she worked.

"What happened to my clothes?" Fink noticed he couldn't feel them on under the bandages.

"Had to take them off," she told him. "I think Cube has 'em. Fire wrecked them pretty bad though."

"Damn..." Fink sighed. "That shirt was hand-decorated. Took me forever. Now I gotta make another one." He thought silently some more. "Hey, who undressed me?"

"I did," Piranha said simply.

"So you've seen me naked? How embarrassing..." he closed his eyes.

"You've got nothing to be embarrassed about," Piranha said, flirty.

"I think I'm coming down with Florence Nightingale Syndrome." They both laughed.