Chapter 24
The Eagle sat on the floor, surrounded by force fields and bored-looking goons. Ken's knees were drawn up to his chin, and he had wrapped his wings around himself, so that most of his body was not visible to the guards. He bent his head so that his eyes focused on the small amount of floor he could see beneath his feet.
Ken silently cursed himself. How could he have been so stupid… so reckless? He had rushed out into a situation without thinking through all of the possible ramifications, and all because he had been furious with Joe.
If he were completely honest, Ken knew that he was also furious with himself. Whatever may… or may not… have happened between Joe and Jun, the Eagle was partly to blame. He had never properly expressed his feelings to Jun, yet at the same time, he had never been able to cut himself off from her either. It was his own weakness that had left her vulnerable to the Condor's advances.
That Galactor drug… it had shown him a side of Jun he hadn't known existed. Where had it come from?
Had Joe been the one to bring out that part of the Swan's nature?
The very thought made his blood boil. And it wasn't just that Jun might have let the Condor into her bed.
It was that Ken had been unable to bring the same level of passion to their own intimacy.
He was Gatchaman, damnit! The Swan was supposed to be…
His head jerked up with the sudden revelation.
He had taken Jun for granted.
She was the most incredible woman he had ever known… would ever know… and he had taken her for granted, assuming that she would just be there for him whenever he needed her. Sure, Ken had felt guilty for leading her on, but deep in his heart that had been what he wanted: to have Jun pining away for him.
And now, he knew that wasn't the case.
With a heavy heart, the Eagle realized that it wasn't the Condor's 'fault'… it was his.
And Gel Sadra had made that ridiculous threat to get Joe to surrender himself. There was no way Joe would ever fall for something so obvious! As if Galactor would execute the Eagle before torturing him, and bringing him to Leader X! Joe had to know that much, at least.
Gatchaman was on his own.
Suddenly the door to the Detention Area banged open, and a dark blue shape flew into the room, arms and legs thrusting as it whirled through the guards, leaving a path of broken, twisted bodies behind.
The last soldier fell, and the form stopped, standing slowly to reveal the figure of the Condor.
"Joe!" Ken gasped, "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Nice to see you too, Ken." Joe said dryly. The Condor walked over to the control panel and pressed the button to release the force fields around the Eagle.
Ken stood up, astonished to see his second there. He was about to speak when the room shook.
The comm system came to life, echoing throughout the mecha.
"The Shield Generator is under attack. All personnel to battle stations. This is not a drill." The sound of hurried footsteps filled the corridor.
"Sounds like Jinpei and Ryu are doing fine without us." Joe grinned.
"But they could always use a little assistance." Ken smiled.
"Then let's go help them." Joe suggested.
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"Great work, Jinpei!" Ryu said through the Swallow's bracelet. "I think that got their attention!"
"It sure did!" Jinpei replied in an alarmed voice. "They're coming for me!"
The bear mecha had been still ever since the Condor had surrendered himself, but it was now moving toward the Swallow Helico, red lasers coming from its ears.
"I'll try to distract them!" Ryu said, moving the New God Phoenix between the mecha and the Helico.
"I can see the base!" Jinpei crowed. "It's behind the shield generator I destroyed! I've got a good shot!"
"Jinpei, you have to get out of there!" Ryu insisted, "I don't know how much longer I can run interference with this thing!"
"Just a few more seconds…" begged Jinpei. "I've got it in my sights…"
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The Eagle and the Condor left the room, running out into the now empty corridor, in search of the main control room for the mecha. Fortunately, Joe had learned something of the mecha's layout while searching for Ken, and they were able to locate the Command Center within a couple of minutes.
Silently counting to three, the two ninjas burst into the room, moving in opposite directions. Ken's Bird Saucer flew through the air, taking out a handful of guards, while Joe's shuriken found their targets with deadly accuracy. The Condor punched an oncoming goon in the stomach, then flipped the unfortunate soldier's body behind him, tripping yet another group of attacking green-uniformed guards. Ken's leg shot out in a side kick, breaking a goon's ribs with a sickening crack before the Eagle's other leg swept around to fell another opponent.
In less than thirty seconds, all resistance in the room had been eliminated, save for a sniveling Captain.
"I will not let you take over this mecha!" he declared, hiding behind a nearby console. "If you come any closer, I'll set the self-destruct!"
"Perfect." Ken smiled, a malicious gleam in his eyes as he approached the hapless Galactor. "I'd love nothing more than to see this mecha blown to pieces."
Uncertainty crept across the Captain's face as the Eagle drew nearer to his position. Realizing that his ploy wasn't going to work, he pulled his last ace out of his sleeve.
"Our missiles are trained on that bird plane down there!" he cried frantically, gesticulating wildly at the viewscreen. "If I press this button, it will be obliterated! One of your Science Ninja Team will die!"
"He's right." Joe confirmed, analyzing the computer readouts. "It's the Swallow Helico. It looks like Jinpei's done a pretty good job of blowing through the mountainside to get to the base." The Condor couldn't help the note of pride in his voice.
"Of course," Ken said casually, "you'd actually have to press that button first."
Before the hapless Captain realized what was happening, the Bird Saucer had sliced through his throat and already returned to the Eagle's hand. The Galactor slumped to the ground, his lifeless body sprawling across the floor.
"What's Jinpei doing, anyhow?" Ken asked, turning his attention to the main viewscreen. From this angle, he realized that the Command Center they were in had to be located behind the bear's eyes.
"It looks like… Oh shit!"
The Condor threw himself on the floor, the Eagle quickly following suit as a pair of Swallow Missiles crashed through the main viewscreen, then tore through the interior walls of the mecha as if they were paper, before detonating three seconds later.
The moment they saw the missiles fly over their heads, the Eagle and the Condor leapt into the air, launching themselves out through the now broken eyes of the bear mecha and into the sky. The heat and force of the explosion a bare second later propelled them higher into the air, catapulting them to an altitude where they could easily see the mass of destruction wrought by the tiny Helico.
And then, gravity's inexorable pull took over, and the two ninjas plunged back toward the ground.
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"What the hell did you do, Jinpei?" Ryu asked, astounded. "I thought they were going to blast you, for sure!"
"I thought so too!" the Swallow's voice came through the Owl's bracelet. "I saw the mouth open and all of those missiles pointed at me, and I thought maybe if I sent some Swallow Missiles that way it might intercept them…. only… I missed…"
"I'll say!" Ryu exclaimed. "You hit the eyes instead of the mouth! But it looks like a good shot: the entire head is gone! Keep shooting!"
"Roger!" Jinpei ended the communication. The Owl could almost hear the grin in the Swallow's voice.
The Owl looked up on his viewscreen, noticing two small shapes, one white and one blue, gliding through the sky above him.
"Right on time." Ryu smiled to himself, moving the New God Phoenix up to meet his teammates.
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"What happened, Gel Sadra?" Leader X raged at his underling. "You held Gatchaman as your prisoner, and the Condor as well! How could they escape?"
The Galactor Leader whimpered on the floor, hiding underneath her voluminous cape. She was terrified beyond belief, and the fact that the 'truth serum' was still running through her veins didn't help matters any.
"Answer me!" raged X, his image seeming to grow three times its size in the space of an instant.
"Forgive me!" screamed Gel Sadra, prostrating herself on the ground before the alien. She cried out again as X invaded her mind, inflicting the torturous pain of which only he was capable. The Galactor Leader was not certain how long she endured this agony, only that the excruciating pain took over her entire existence in a way that forced her to surrender the physical nature of her body to this vicious alien.
"You barely made it out alive yourself!" X sneered. "You were so incompetent that you couldn't even make it to your own escape pod! Just what were you doing as the mecha exploded around you? If it hadn't been for the three soldiers with you…"
"I have failed you, Leader!" sobbed Gel Sadra, tearing at her hair in a mad panic. "I am not worthy to serve you!"
These words seemed to mollify X, and he returned to his normal size.
"Unfortunately, you are the only person I have to serve me, right now." The alien said in an irritated tone. "Until I locate another human with your DNA patterns, you will have to suffice."
"Oh, thank you, Leader!" Gel Sadra groveled, bowing low before X. "I will not fail you again!"
"Somehow, I doubt that." the alien sighed reluctantly.