Schools of fish swam serenely past, appearing and disappearing in each of the undersea windows that spanned the vast length of the room. Yet again, the whole team was assembled at a cluster of couches at the Crescent Coral Base, waiting for Dr. Nambu to explain Galactor's latest assault on global peace and safety.
Except Dr. Nambu wasn't actually explaining anything yet. Instead he was standing far down the room from the science ninjas, talking on the phone.
They couldn't quite make out what he was saying, but the scowl on his face was apparent despite the distance, punctuated with abrupt hand gestures.
"Must be something really bad this time," said Jinpei.
Silence is a form of concurrence; no one answered him.
But eventually Joe muttered, "Whatever it is, it's only going to get worse while we just sit here."
Dr. Nambu's conversation, however, was looking more and more like an argument that he wasn't winning but wouldn't concede either.
Ken assessed his second-in-command, who was sitting with his head in his hands instead of leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. Was there significance in that? After all, it wasn't that long ago that he'd been shot up with bullets at BC Island. Despite Joe's repeated insistence that he was "Just fine, damn it," there had to be some lingering effects.
And it also wasn't that long ago that he'd pretty much had a complete breakdown during the mission in the submarine to that deep sea lab. Joe seemed to be over that now, and reconciled to the truth about his parents. But with Joe, wondered Ken, could one ever really know what was going on in his head?
But he, and the rest of the team, soon had something else to think about. Dr. Nambu had finished his call and strode back to them, still scowling, and they were tersely informed that:
There was a place called "Mesa City" in some remote desert area of Ameris.
It was an experimental city built by the ISO that almost totally recycled its water supply, over and over, and thus could be in a remote desert area.
An unknown disease had just suddenly broken out there, that seemed to have a 100% percent fatality rate within 24 hours.
The UN had ordered the ISO to deploy a recently-developed form of force field over the entire city, creating complete containment -no one could leave Mesa City and no one could enter it either.
"That's so harsh," said Jun, "Isn't anyone going to help the poor people in that city? Surely they're not just being left to die?"
"You summoned us, and we're no doctors," said Joe, "Do you think Galactor's behind this?"
All the science ninjas exchanged looks. Yeah, wasn't it always Galactor?
"I agree with Jun," replied Dr. Nambu, "That it is unduly harsh to leave an epidemic like this solely in the hands of the one hospital in Mesa City, and inefficient -a team of medical experts from the ISO could isolate disease samples and bring them back for research and accomplish far more."
"Let me guess," said Ken, "You've been overruled?"
"Yes," said Dr. Nambu, nostrils flaring slightly, hands clenched. "The UN is in a complete panic -convinced that letting anyone in or out of Mesa City will unleash a global pandemic and kill us all."
'Uh, what Joe said," said Ryu, "What is it you're wanting us to do, Doc?"
Dr. Nambu's eyes narrowed.
"I have access to all the research pertaining to the force field that's around Mesa City, and I can make an adjustment to your birdstyles that will allow the five of you to be able to cross the barrier and enter the city. You can then investigate for any Galactor presence, do whatever you can to promote calm and assure people the ISO won't abandon them, and urge the extreme necessity of staff at the hospital isolating disease samples for you to bring to me, as quickly as possible."
"Of course, we'll go and help and everything," said Jinpei, looking at the other ninjas with hope of corroboration, "But, um, isn't that awfully risky? We won't do any good if we just get sick too..."
Yet again, silence was concurrence.
"Your concern is valid," agreed Dr. Nambu, "And I can also temporarily modify your birdstyles' visors into full face masks, with oxygen tanks under your capes. I've long been working on this, with the aim of making your birdstyles suitable for being in space, and it will work equally well now for biohazard protection."
"All right then," concluded Ken, "We'll go just as soon as you've got our birdstyles ready. Anything else we need to know?"
"Make contact with the mayor of Mesa City. There is... some chance that communications from your bracelets will not be able to pass through the force field around the city. Currently, no communications via radio or satellite are getting in or out, but the mayor's office has a secure landline, for telephone and internet, so if necessary, you can reach me from there, once you have the disease samples. All I know is that the disease initially manifests as a severe headache followed by extremely high fever... and that death follows very soon after."
"So many people dying, and so quickly," murmured Jun to Ken, "Jinpei was right -this is really bad."
Joe heard her too.
"And if Galactor is somehow behind this, we'll make them pay."
Ever since his father died thwarting Galactor's V-2 plan, Ken truly understood why Joe's voice sounded like a jagged blade whenever he said something like that.
The pain was uniquely personal. Galactor had killed his parents.
And his parents had been Galactor.
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The God Phoenix settled down onto the arid plain of rock and sand. Mesa City was visible in the distance, but obscured behind a shimmering force field dome, in an early evening sky.
"It's desolate here. No one will be around here to mess with the God Phoenix while we're gone, and we can approach the city from its least populated side," said Ryu, "But it still won't take us that long to walk to the city from here."
All of the ninjas were in their civvies -possibly the first time ever that they'd all been in civvies on the God Phoenix. But their birdstyles now featured complete face masks and independent air supplies. This was tremendously reassuring, considering they were about to enter a city stricken with a mysterious death-plague, but the masks also felt very stuffy and confining, and no one wanted to endure them any sooner than they had to, or waste their oxygen supplies.
But soon they had to; a short walk had brought them up to the force field that covered the city as a massive, shimmering dome of translucence.
"Okay, everyone," said Ken, as the others gathered around him, "This is it. It's nearly dark but we should reach the city soon."
Even through the force field, they could see the lights of Mesa City looming ahead. No one replied except to raise their arms and cry "Bird go!"
A five-fold flash of light and it was all done; they were safe in their biohazard-resistant birdstyles, each of them with oxygen tanks concealed beneath their capes and hoses connecting to their now fully face-covering visors. Otherwise, their birdstyles were unchanged.
And Dr. Nambu was correct, as always -they were all able to walk right through the force field, though sharp flashes of sparks resulted from their passages.
As soon as they were all through, Ken raised his bracelet to his mouth.
"Dr. Nambu, this is Gatchaman, over."
No response.
Jun tried next, "Dr. Nambu, we're through the force field, please come through."
No response, except Jinpei. "Hey, I don't have my bolas! Oh wait, it's okay -they're here on my belt!"
They all tried to reach Dr. Nambu, but it soon was undeniable -Dr. Nambu's prediction that they might be cut off from communicating directly with him was all too true.
"Okay, we're prepared to deal with this," said Ken, "We'll liaise with the mayor here just as soon as we can. Let's get moving -it's going to take at least half an hour to reach the edge of the city."
Their path to the city was clear before them, an even and dry swath of sand and small rocks. The remnant of sun on the edge of the horizon was all the light they needed. Their masks, they found, muffled their voices somewhat, but no one was in the mood to talk anyway, with the grim prospect of a disease-stricken city before them. But it still felt unnatural, like they were under water or in space - in a place they didn't belong.
At one point Jun said "My boot! It's-" but just as they all snapped their attention her way, she added, "It's fine -don't know what I was thinking..."
It was shifty, walking on the sand. Clearly, she'd briefly stumbled. They all kept trudging forward, and they were almost up to the buildings on the very edge of the city, none of which seemed to be more than three or four stories, and all with very few or no windows -which made sense considering how much brightness and heat the sun probably unleashed here during much of the year.
For an instant, though, Ken felt the cool evening air on his right hand, and in that instant, would have sworn that his glove was gone, but he pulled his hand up to his visor and his glove was there.
"This is creepy," said Jinpei.
It was fully dark now, though the moon had risen and its light was making it through the force field, though the stars couldn't be seen. There seemed to be a few street lights in the vicinity as well, but there was no sign of any people.
"Yeah, I think we're all getting a little jumpy," said Ryu, "A few minutes ago, for a moment it seemed like my face mask was gone."
"Well, if that's so, I think it's understandable," declared Ken, stepping ahead of the others and squaring his shoulders, "This could be really grim and terrible, but we have to do our duty."
"The map that Dr. Nambu had of Mesa City showed a large plaza at the center, and it's where City Hall and the hospital are," said Joe, "I say we go directly there. The sooner we know what's going on around here, the better."
"Let's go up on the roofs," suggested Jun, "The building are all close together and we can soar from roof to roof -might be better to keep out of sight until we reach the city center."
Everyone liked that plan, and for the ninjas, it was easy to cover ground that way, quickly and covertly.
Roof to roof, buildings got taller, but also closer together... Soon they were almost to the plaza -there was more light there, from lampposts, rising into the sky, and also more noise. Voices -angry voices, and lots of them.
One more flight across a street and they'd be able to see it.
They landed on the last roof. The plaza five stories below them was swarming, packed with people, all yelling and waving fists. It was chaos. Joe had landed badly, fallen over. When did Joe ever fall over?
"Hey, are you okay?" demanded Ken. He was close enough now and there was enough light, he could see that Joe's eyes were clenched shut.
But Joe was hastily getting back on his feet, snapping "I'm fine!"
Jun had been studying the insanity below.
"Ken, this is bad -it's practically a riot." She had to shout to be heard through her mask and over the sounds of rage coming from the plaza.
"At least not everyone's dead!" said Jinpei.
They were all hunkered down now at the building's edge. Angry shouts, louder than most, rose above the roaring din.
"Let us in the hospital!" "Let me see my wife!" "The ISO can't do this to us!" "We need help here, not a goddamned force field!" "We demand to see the mayor!"
Ken sighed. "Look, we'd better get down there -right now. We can assure people that the ISO hasn't abandoned Mesa City, try to calm some of them down, and make our way over to City Hall to speak to the mayor.
Instinctively, though, he felt for his boomerang as he stood up -but it was missing from his belt. What the hell?
But no time to deal with that now. And these were scared, angry people in the plaza -not enemies to mow down.
"Shit, I lost my-" That was Joe, but no time to deal with him either.
"We go down there together," shouted Ken, "Now!"
And they all jumped, as one, capes in full flare, slowing and controlling their descent...
A faint flash of light surrounded them.
They were all on the ground, five in a row, in low crouches, wincing and gasping. They'd landed hard.
But in a heartbeat they were all upright, still gasping, but staring at each other in utter horror. Crowds of people, yelling in anger, surged all around them now, ignoring them, elbowing past them.
They were all in their civvies, numbered one through five. Their birdstyles -the uniforms, capes, boots, helmets and even weapons -had all vanished.
Their visor-masks and oxygen tanks had also vanished.
Before he could even think about the fact that he was in a crowd of people, Ken whipped his bracelet up before his face and cried a "Bird Go!" that was swallowed up by the noise around him. But it should have worked nevertheless!
But it didn't!
The other ninjas continued to stare at Ken, frozen in horrified disbelief, except Joe, who was still crouched on one knee, holding his head.
The seething mass of scared and angry humanity all around them was unifying its cries into a deafening chant of "Down with the Mayor! Down with the ISO!" They were being shoved and buffeted from all sides by the crowd.
"This isn't for kids," said a man who paused to look at them as he charged past them, "You get back to your homes!"
Ken gestured anxiously for other ninjas to gather close around him. "We have to get to the City Hall!" he told them, "Until we can figure out what's wrong with our birdstyles, our only chance to accomplish anything here is through the mayor -he can help us contact Dr. Nambu."
Fear widened all their eyes -except Joe's, his were closed again. None of them wanted to say it...
They were completely vulnerable to the disease now.
And there was nothing they could do about it.
The mania of the crowd that flooded the plaza continued to escalate. Rocks were being thrown at buildings and flames from bonfires were rising into the air. More and more people were pushing their way into the plaza and joining in the angry chant.
"We keep moving!" Ken told them all, "And we stick close together -we'll try to skirt the edges of the plaza, use backstreets, till we're closer to City Hall."
He and Jun moved to either side of Jinpei, and Ryu got in front of them, prepared to be their vanguard through the crowd. Joe was right behind Jinpei.
"You okay, Joe?" said Ken.
Ken couldn't see him but he sure heard the "I'm fine!"
And they set off through the crowd... And it was rough going. The crowd was afraid -of course they were; people were dropping like flies from a mysterious disease and they were helpless- but it was escalating into total panic. No one was paying much attention to who they collided with or shoved, and it was nearing a frenzy.
But City Hall was looming ahead now. They would find a way inside, somehow. They would make contact with the mayor, explain that they could actually get help for Mesa City, through Dr. Nambu.
This must be a peaceful and rational city in normal times, Ken thought -they clearly didn't have much in the way of police or security forces for crowd control around here! The mayor would listen to them...
The crowd was densest, and angriest, this close to City Hall. People were screaming and throwing everything they could get their hands on -many of the things they were throwing were on fire.
The doors of City Hall flew open, no longer barred shut, and figures came storming out -all dressed in what looked like police riot gear combined with white biohazard suits. There were at least five dozen of them and they began attacking the crowd before them.
Some carried shields and clubs, and they began beating people and shoving them back off the wide stairs that led up to City Hall's doors, which now slammed shut behind them again. Others began firing guns into the screaming crowd -with what Ken prayed were rubber bullets. Worst of all, though, was the gas. These security personnel from City Hall were tossing canisters all throughout the crowded plaza, that landed and instantly began gushing a thick smoke that left people gasping and attempting only to flee, with eyes streaming thick tears. Many were collapsing onto the ground, clutching their faces.
"This is no good!" Jun yelled, "We have to retreat, try to reach City Hall tomorrow!"
She was right, Ken conceded.
"Everyone -stay together!" he yelled
A frenzied rout -a stampede- was breaking out all around them. They were helplessly being shoved and hurled along now, at the mercy of the rushing flow of panicked people all around them, in serious danger of getting gassed or getting knocked down and crushed by people too frenzied to care who they stomped on.
It was a nightmare, but all nightmares end eventually. They'd avoided the gas canisters and they were out of the plaza and into the streets that led away from it. The crowd around them now was lessening, dispersing into the smaller streets and fleeing back to their homes.
"Where's Joe?"
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Pain. Sudden, blinding pain in his head had made Joe stumble, then fall. He was lucky he hadn't been trampled to death, but he was moaning hoarsely and clutching his head...
Where were Ken and the others?
The screaming and shooting was fading. Joe tried to look around, tried to stand, but it was all a blur around him. He was coughing and his eyes burned, and he collapsed to the ground again, on his stomach, feeling as if his head were about to split open...
There were people around him now, talking.
"I think we might have one here."
"Get him to the hospital then."
He was lifted onto a stretcher. He stared up at the people, mere blurs in the darkness but white like the biohazard garb the savage anti-riot squad had been wearing...
He wanted to shout "I'm fine!" He wanted to get away from them!
But everything was fading to darkness around him, fading to oblivion...
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"Where's Joe?" Jun's voice was high with alarm.
Oh no.
"Joe!"
Ken spun around, looking everywhere he could see, looking for Joe's face, a yellow 2 on a blue shirt...
Jun, Ryu and Jinpei were doing the same.
But it was futile. Somewhere along the way, in the retreat from City Hall, Joe had become separated from them.
"Joe?" called Ken into his bracelet, "Joe -answer me!" Jun did the same.
"I don't think our bracelets are working at all," said Jun, "Mine won't do anything!"
"Those guys from City Hall," snarled Jinpei, "They're a bunch of thugs! I bet they're with Galactor!"
Could that be? Ken didn't find it too hard to believe Galactor was behind every major calamity -that had so often been their experience...
"It's sure a crappy way to treat a bunch of people who are just frightened and angry," said Ryu.
Ken was remembering BC Island, finding Joe shot and bleeding inside the church. He'd been in his civvies instead of his birdstyle that day, so much more vulnerable.
Just like they all were now.
Why had they lost their birdstyles -and even their weapons? Without them, they were... kids. That's what the man in crowd had called them.
No one was going to take them seriously. And they were all at risk, of more than just disease, if they continued to try to carry out their mission.
How many Galactor goons might have seen Joe's face that day on BC Island and lived to remember it? He was possibly the most vulnerable of any of them now.
Ken tried to keep fear out of his voice. "He's okay -wherever he is. We'll find him."
"We have to reach Dr. Nambu too," said Jun, "Maybe he can tell us how to get our birdstyles working again."
"Yeah," said Jinpei, shoulders sagging, "Like this..." He gestured at his t-shirt and striped pants, "We're nothing."
"You're alive and well, kid," said Ryu, "That counts for a lot right now."
"We're not nothing," said Ken, "We've done undercover missions before, in our civvies."
"But when the real action starts, we always change to our birdstyles," said Jinpei.
"How about you work on trying not to breathe any of the air here?" said Ryu, "That'll probably keep you safer than anything else now."
Ken closed his eyes... what to do next?
"We need to find Joe, but Jun is right -we also need to get our birdstyles back. It's a long shot now, but maybe we can still get back through the force field, even in our civvies, and contact Dr. Nambu. Or maybe if we just get back to the edge of the force field dome, our birdstyles will start working again -they were working when we first crossed through there."
But not working well. It was apparent now that none of them had been imagining their weapons, gloves, masks and boots disappearing and reappearing.
"So, first we're going to go back to the force field, where we came in," said Ken, "And then we're going to go and find Joe."
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Joe opened his eyes. His head still ached, but he could see a little better; he was staring up at an institutional sort of ceiling with harsh, utilitarian lights. There were voices all around him, people moving on the edge of his vision, all smocked in white, faces covered.
"Get me temperature readings on these new patients."
"We need more beds! We've got tons of incoming, all from that riot."
"Someone tell the morgue crew to work faster -we'll have more beds as soon as they get more bodies out of here."
He was in the hospital, Joe realized. Last thing he remembered was being out on the plaza, in the riot. He'd lost his balance, fallen...
He sat up, heart pounding, discovering that his wrists were cuffed to the sides of the gurney he was on, as were his ankles. All around him were rows of gurneys with other patients, some sitting up like him, many not moving at all. Medical staff, all swathed in white protective garb and with surgical masks covering their noses and mouths, were moving amidst the gurneys but were vastly outnumbered by the patients.
"Hey! What the hell is this? Why am I chained up?"
Joe began thrashing his arms and legs as he yelled. A couple of medical staff rushed up to him.
"Sorry, but those are our orders -we have to keep all patients here until it's clear they're not infected. No one can leave."
"I don't give a damn," snarled Joe, continuing to try to snap his cuffs, and resisting their efforts to push him back down onto the gurney. "Uncuff me now!"
His head was pounding along with his heart, his vision blurring again. He was Condor Joe of the Science Ninja Team -not some sickie in a hospital bed! He had to get out of here!
"What's the problem here?" snapped a new voice. Another surgical-masked face was looking down at him, a woman, with pale blue, angular eyes.
"No problem except these!" Joe shook his hands as hard as he could, making the cuffs clatter loudly against the metal rails of his gurney. He could hear some other patients around him beginning to do the same, demanding to be freed.
"He's almost certainly infected," said one of the medical staff, "Security brought him in -said he'd collapsed out there on the plaza."
The woman said nothing, her icy-cold eyes unblinking as she studied Joe intensely.
"Quit staring at me, would you? Let me go -I'm fine!"
"I've got this one," she instructed the two other medical staff, "Go see about those others making noise."
Even as Joe continued to yell "No!" and thrash against his restraints, she wheeled his gurney down a long corridor and into a small, windowless room not much bigger than a supply closet.
Without a word, still ignoring all of Joe's efforts to free himself, she left the room and the last thing Joe heard was the click of a deadbolt lock on the door.
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