Ten days later, Joe was sitting with the others in the G-Town briefing room, glowering. Earlier that day, they'd been sent by Dr. Nambu to fetch his new assistant, a Dr. Pandora. Dr. Pandora had turned out to be an attractive redhead, and she'd sure laid on the charm but he didn't trust her. Not one bit.
They'd been attacked by Galactor on their way back to G-Town and she'd helped them defeat their attackers. But she had known the attack was coming before anyone could have possibly have known –unless it had all been an elaborate set-up, an attempt to win their trust by seeming to be opposed to Galactor.
Still, Joe had to admit to himself, he might yet have trusted her if Dr. Nambu hadn't announced that one of her areas of scientific research was Cybernetics. If that were the case, then she was certainly one of the first ISO scientists to ever delve into that area. There were reasons that Cybernetics possessed the dreaded and sinister reputation that it did; it had been developed and advanced by Galactor –using men like Dr. Rafael- to turn humans into deadly, unnaturally powerful minions of Galactor –creatures with no free will or no consciences. Sure, Dr. Rafael had since gone legit, and Joe knew that Dr. Pandora had no recent ties to him; but if she was an expert in Cybernetics, then it was damned unlikely that she'd come by her knowledge honestly.
And why the hell was Dr. Nambu suddenly interested in having an assistant who claimed to know about Cybernetics? Joe cast a suspicious glance at Jun. Could she have ratted him out to the Doctor?
Dr. Pandora wasn't here now. She and Dr. Nambu had left G-Town together to investigate an explosion at the Cape Long energy plant –part of the Mantle Project- and Joe wasn't happy about that.
"We shouldn't be here!" he finally burst out, "We shouldn't have let the Doctor go anywhere alone with that woman –I'll bet she's with Galactor!"
"Dr. Pandora?" said Jinpei, "No way! But going with them would have been more fun than hanging around here."
"I don't know," said Ryu, "It couldn't have hurt, though, if we'd tagged along…"
"Joe, you shouldn't be suspicious," said Jun, making him flinch slightly, though there was no way she could know he'd just been suspecting her too.
"Yes," said Ken, "If Dr. Nambu selected her, we have to trust her. Don't you think he would have had her thoroughly investigated before bringing her here?"
Maybe she wasn't with Galactor, but Joe was still convinced that Dr. Pandora was a person harboring some kind of secret –it took one to know one! But he also knew that this was a situation where his instincts wouldn't be able to prevail over Ken's logic. He could feel his fists clenching, almost involuntarily.
"I have some bad news to report!" An ISO employee called out, running into the briefing room. "Dr. Nambu has been shot, at the Cape Long energy plant, and he's in critical condition!"
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At the hospital at Cape Long, they were able to see Dr. Nambu briefly, but he was comatose and the neurosurgeon wasn't optimistic…
Not Dr. Nambu! I should have been there; I should have been protecting him!
But the appearance of Dr. Pandora diverted Joe from his anguish… and into rage. He'd tried to shoot her, and had failed only because Ken had grabbed onto him.
Then Dr. Pandora had asserted herself, denying that she had been Dr. Nambu's attacker, and coolly reminding all of them that she now held his authority and that they were obligated to follow her orders. And Ken accepted this!
Now she had taken them all to another room in the hospital, a room with a strange scientific machine that none of them recognized. Joe's anger still simmered and only his belief that he could always shoot Dr. Pandora later was keeping him in line now. He slouched against the wall, as insolently as he could.
She claimed that, using the machine, she'd been able to detect powerful brain waves emanating from an unknown location, and that these particular brain waves could attack the mind of another person. According to Dr. Pandora, the explosion of the Cape Long energy plant had been a ploy by Galactor to lure Dr. Nambu out, so that he could be attacked in this way.
Joe was still deeply suspicious. Her theory didn't explain why Dr. Nambu had been shot instead of having his brain attacked, but she ordered them to launch the God Phoenix and she handed a device to Ken that she claimed would allow the God Phoenix to trace the origin of the attacking brain waves. It sounded like a lot of bullshit to Joe, and he was fully prepared to stay at the hospital and guard Dr. Nambu –guard him from her! But Ken, so damned dutiful, acceded to her orders.
Soon, they were out in the God Phoenix searching for a secret Galactor base in the vicinity of Cape Long, using Dr. Pandora's supposed tracking device.
An indicator light began to flash on the main console. That could only mean a top priority incoming message. As protocol dictated, Ken picked up the secure receiver so that only he could hear it.
Ken's face went blank with shock.
"What?" demanded Joe, and everyone else too.
"Dr. Nambu is… he's dead," stammered Ken.
And Joe saw red. Without a second's hesitation, he ran from the bridge and straight to his Condor Attacker vehicle. Obeying Dr. Pandora's orders? Fuck that! He was going back to the Cape Long hospital -the hospital he never should have left in the first place- to avenge the man who had been like a father to him!
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Joe pulled up to a screeching halt in front of the hospital. It was late at night and as he ran inside, he encountered no one. But he could hear faint shouts and crashing sounds, and while following those, he saw a set of doors with a large hole melted right through them. Inside was Dr. Nambu, lying on a table, and directly in front of him was Dr. Pandora. She sat in the midst of the "brain wave detector" machine that she had shown them earlier that day, and she was wearing a metal helmet with wires protruding from the top, connecting her to the machine.
"Stop, Joe, don't come in!" she yelled.
Like hell he would stop! She had done this to Dr. Nambu!
He moved into the room, whipping out his gun –Ken wasn't here to stop him now- and aimed for her head.
An invisible force ripped the gun from his hands. But he didn't need a gun to take her out. He rushed towards her.
"Stop, Joe!"
He wanted to kill her, but the look on her face –it wasn't fear or anger, it was just… complete anguish. In that instant, he still hit her –his fist to her midsection- but not nearly as hard as he'd intended.
"Joe," she gasped, doubling over and clutching him to keep from falling. "You have to understand… there's a monster in this room -invisible brain waves from Gel Sadra- looking for Dr. Nambu's mind… I was trying to fight it off using this machine, to protect him!"
"Protect him?" snarled Joe, "He's dead –you shot him!"
"No, he's not truly dead! He's in a state that simulates death, but it's wearing off now! If he regains consciousness, his mind will be detected by the monster and then he really will die!"
Joe wasn't sure he believed her, but he had nothing to lose now by trying to use the machine himself. He yanked his own helmet off and put the one wired to the machine over his head.
Strange energy, like nothing he'd ever encountered before, flowed into his head and through his entire body in a rush. A roaring sound filled his ears, but he could see it now. The monster was a hideous red demon-thing, moving around the room, searching.
Fight it, kill it, protect Dr. Nambu…
And then a powerful warrior of glowing gold appeared, and it attacked the demon. That was him –his own thoughts in a visible form! But the demon was fighting back; he had to concentrate; he had to generate more power or he would lose this fight. He unleashed everything he had within himself, draining all his mind's energy, but he was able to see the golden warrior stab and destroy the demon, before his world went dark and he knew no more.
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He could smell the scent of fresh flowers.
He opened his eyes, to a white ceiling in a room filled with sunlight. He was on a bed. He hastily sat up, and the first thing he saw was Dr. Nambu, alive and well. Thank God…
Dr. Pandora had been telling the truth after all.
"Finally, we're all together again," said Dr. Nambu.
Dr. Pandora was there, they were all there –Ken, Jun, Ryu and Jinpei. He slowly looked at each of them, seeing the stains of grief on all their faces. Well, that was understandable, as they too had believed that Dr. Nambu had died.
"We found and destroyed Galactor's base," said Jinpei, looking at Dr. Pandora, "But can you explain now what happened at your end?"
Joe was still looking at Ken and Jun. Something about them was still… wrong. Ken looked shaken and hollow-eyed, and Jun… her face, normally so expressive, seemed somehow closed off.
"Galactor attacked Dr. Nambu, using brain waves, when he and I were investigating the Cape Long energy plant, and the only way I could protect him was to shoot him with a special weapon that sends its victim into a state that resembles brain death. I should have explained what I was doing, but time was of the essence and I wasn't sure anyone would believe me if I'd tried to explain. But I should have tried… I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too," said Joe, as her words sank in, "I shouldn't have mistrusted you so much."
"But only you could have saved Dr. Nambu, Joe," she replied, "Only a cyborg could have had the strength to endure the machine long enough to defeat Galactor's brain wave attack."
And Joe's entire universe froze. She had just told them all –everyone in the world that mattered to him- what he was!
Joe closed his eyes. It was all over. He heard someone gasp.
"A cyborg?" That was Ken.
He would have to face them now; he had to look at them. He opened his eyes slowly, steeling himself.
Ryu and Jinpei were wide-eyed and both looking to Ken as if waiting for a cue for how to respond. Jun's face was unchanged. Ken glanced at her briefly, but then his eyes met Joe's.
Ken looked dazed, like someone who was already in pain and for whom one more blow didn't make much difference.
So Jun really had kept her promise…
"Yes," said Dr. Nambu, "Joe is a cyborg, and it's because of him that I'm still alive. Thank you, Joe."
Dr. Nambu was almost smiling, smiling at him. Could this really be?
"And thanks to you all," he continued, "Now, we can all continue in our fight against Galactor, to preserve peace in this world."
Dr. Nambu trusted him, trusted a cyborg? He could actually stay on the team?
Jun's face was still unreadable. He looked at Ken, Ryu and Jinpei again; surely he would see some… suspicion or dismay in their faces. But all he saw was the blankness of surprising information being processed and absorbed, and nothing more –no hint of the sickening gaze of pity, even.
How could this be?
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