Chapter 39

Clank-clank. Clank-clank. The metallic noise of the gears almost sounded like a train traveling down a track.

"What the hell...?" Joe asked angrily, as the room started to slowly spin.

"Joe, look! The walls!" Jun pointed out as the walls started to converge. "We need to get out of here now, or we'll be crushed!"

"Ok, let's go. There's an escape hatch right..." Joe looked where the escape hatch was, but with the walls moving, so did the door.

"K'suo! I'm getting really tired of this mission." he remarked, shifting his burden. Then speaking to both the Eagles, "You're going to owe me big time if we get out of this, Washio! Whichever one you are!"

"Joe, I found it! A way out!" Jun broke in urgently, the walls coming ever closer.

Joe looked around vehemently, "Where?" he growled. Jun could tell his patience was running thin.

"Right there!" Jun pointed and looked up.

Of course! The ceiling where the removable plate was! Why hadn't he thought of that?

"Perfect! Blow that panel out, Jun!" Joe ordered as Jun threw her yo-yo. A second later, a small explosion brought the ceiling plate down in pieces.

Joe shot the cable from his air gun at the now-gaping hole in the ceiling, and all four ninjas started to ascend. When they reached the hole and situated themselves on the rafters, Jun threw her yo-yo at the control panel Katse had been standing at earlier.

"Just a little good-bye present..." she mused, as she triggered the electric current down the line.

Jun and Joe opened the roof hatch and carried the two Eagles out onto the rooftop.

"You ok there, Jun?" Joe asked concerned. "These Eagles are heavier than they look!"

"Yeah, I got it." Jun grunted in reply. There was no way she would admit to Joe that the dead weight she was carrying was almost too much for her to bear. Carefully, she laid her Eagle down on the roof, using the next problem of getting back to Crescent Coral Base as her excuse.

"So, how do we get back? You can't take both Eagles in the G2 and I can't take any on the G3."

"Easy enough." Joe said with a grin.

Then lifting his wrist to his chin, he said, "Hakase, this is G2. We need a transport."

Jun smiled. Now why hadn't she thought of that?

Knowing they couldn't wait on the rooftop, the Condor and Swan again hoisted the Eagles and descended via Joe's cable gun to the ground below. There they took cover in the nearby brush until the emergency transport team would arrive.

Ken could feel the cool earth at his back. His head was fuzzy as the neurons and electrons in his brain weren't making any connections. But somehow the thought of Jun came to him and he instinctively knew that he had to protect her.

"J-Jun..." he said weakly.

Jun, who had been standing a distance away with Joe, turned.

"Did you hear something, Joe?"

"No. Where is that transport team??"

"Juunnn..."

Jun turned and looked at the Eagles.

"Ken?" she asked as she ran to the first Eagle's side.

"Ken, is that you? Can you hear me?"

"I wish you'd stop doing that," Joe broke in, irritated. "We still don't know which is the real Ken."

"I told you that I thought this one is the real Ken. This Eagle doesn't have a crack in his helmet." Jun responded, agitation in her voice.

"But we don't know if Katse switched the helmets or not. I say he did, thinking that we would believe he didn't. Katse and his stupid mind games..."

Jun stared at Joe incredulously. Why did he always have to be so stubborn?

"Jun... please..." the Eagle moaned.

Jun quickly turned her attention to the Eagle at her side.

"Ken, it is you, isn't it?" Jun said more as a statement than a question.

Suddenly, Ken's world started to spin again. 'Hold on, just hold on a few more seconds…' he begged of himself.

Ken tried nodding his head, but he couldn't tell if he really did it or not.

"Jun...Me...Ken...Kyle...Destroy..." Ken was sure these words got out before his world went black again. But his last conscious thought was of how he felt something snap in the back of his mind.

"What'd he say?" Joe asked, his voice sounding more compassionate.

"I don't know. I couldn't understand him." Jun responded sadly. "I thought he said he was the Eagle. Oh, Joe, what if we never figure out which one is the real Ken?"

"Calm down, Jun. Hakase will figure it out."

"But how? All the tests that have already been done must have resulted in a perfect match to Ken. If they didn't, Hakase would know already."

At that moment, the other Eagle stirred.

"Jun..."

Jun and Joe turned to face him.

"Ken?" Jun asked more tentatively.

"Jun...Other...Eagle...Fake..." Kyle got out just as blackness also filled his world once again.

"This is ridiculous! We're not getting anywhere!" Joe yelled in complete frustration. "Where the hell is that transport team??"