Chapter 24

Jun looked on as they prepared Ken for the next lot of treatment. This time by another specialist brought in by Dr. Nambu.

"Don't worry Jun, he's tough as nails." Joe said confidently.

"Do I look worried?" She said in alarm, she tried to look supportive and confident this treatment would give him some better results.

"Yep, you do, when you're worried you always chew you're bottom lip." Joe said keeping his eyes on Ken with the doctor attaching all sorts of tubes and monitoring equipment to his near naked body.

"Team we need you out of the room for a while." instructed. Reluctantly they left to wait outside of the door while the two doctors conducted their testing on him.

"What do they think he is a lab rat?" Jinpei scoffed kicking the closest wall.

"Don't worry I know he feels like one, I know I did when Dr. Raphael…" Joe let the rest fall away and a troubled expression crossed his grey eyes. "Doesn't matter."

"Joe." Jun put a comforting hand on his arm. "It does matter."

He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall with a faraway look crossing his guarded features. "I had some good memories to pull me through- thanks Jun."

"Why are you thanking me?" She said as a small private smile flinted across his lips.

"For just being you…." He coughed and then resumed his nonchalance way of talking." I….I just thought about the good old days of us as a team, fighting Galactor….and you know I had to live to get my revenge-"

"Is that all you think about Joe-Revenge." This obsession of Joe's always annoyed her. He could be very single minded when it came to his need for total revenge on anything that hurt him.

"No…. well in a way yes, what more is there to life than getting rid of vermin like Katse, Gel sadra and now Count Egobossler from the planet." His body language stiffened and his eyes dared her to disagree with him.

"Love…family." Jun looked at Ryu and Jinpei and then her eyes returned to Joe. "We're a family, we love each other…"

"Love…" Joe eyes filled with intense pain his voice became barely a harsh whisper." Love is for poets…any woman I dare to love dies or….well who tha hell cares anyway… anyone I call family dies….look what's happening to Ken. Stay away from me Jun, you might have a chance."

"Joe we can't give up on him we just can't. And you're not a bad luck charm- please don't say things like that. " Jun pleaded and turned to solemn Jinpei and Ryu.

"I dunno Jun, we'll stick by him you know that." Ryu shrugged his shoulders trying to avoid any confrontation as usual.

She knew, her heart began to pound at Joe's response to it all. His bitterness hung like a lead weight around her, try as might she couldn't shrug it off. Jun wondered if Joe would ever find peace anywhere in his life.

Before she could put any more thought into it the sliding door opened to the medical bay and Kamo indicated they all come inside.

Jun's first impression of Ken was that he looked defeated for the first time in his life by an unseen enemy. His face had become drawn and pale and his shoulders slumped when he turned slightly to face them as they walked through the door with Dr. Nambu's hands on his shoulders comforting him the best way he could.

"We have bad news team- Ken won't be leading you, until we can reverse the effects of the hypershoot." Dr. Nambu announced.

"No, it can't be true." The all gasped at once.

"It is true…I'm just not able to…" Ken choked on his words looked away, to hide his anguish. "I've let you all down…I'm sorry."

"We need to go and bring Dr. Furness back to complete the treatment. His ideas are revolutionary in cell deterioration therapy. I need one of you-"

"I'll go." She blurted out before any of the others could respond. She ignored Joe who tried to grab her arm as if to hold her back.

Ken's eyes went wide but he didn't say anything. In a way he looked even more afraid than he did a few minutes ago when they all walked into the room.

"It'll be dangerous, there's a very good chance Galactor is very active in the area he's located in." Dr. Nambu's serious face only made her more determined to go on the mission.

Stepping forward to ensure her commitment Jun changed into birdstyle. "I'll go with you Dr. Nambu- we need to get Ken back on the team. As fast as we can."

Dr. Nambu nodded briefly. "Alright Jun, lets get moving."

"Roger!" She said and they briskly followed him out the door towards a waiting jet Dr. Nambu had ordered moments before.

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Matt walked onto the bridge of Bantegron to greet the Captain chose by Count Egobossler to lead the attack when he gave the order for launch.

"Captain." Matt greeted him, all of the old military training in greeting a peer.

"Yo the engineer." The mans greasy smile made Matt thankful he chose to wear the standard issue Galactor goon helmet to disguise his disgust in the man before him.

"Well, let's hope this beastie hold up." He continued to grin like an idiot.

"Yeah, Go Galactor." Matt worked hard on sounding sincere.

"Ahhh…I was told ta give this to ya. Kempeler said it was important to ya." The Captain pulled out a small disk and he handed it to Matt.

Curiously Matt accepted the disk from the Captain. He knew better than to ask anything more about it from a man he barely knew.

"Well, I best go and check it out, probably Count Egobossler wanting to wish us success on the mission. I'll be down the hall if you need me." Matt said lightly.

"But…I hear he might be joining us?" The Captain said looking confused even through his strange mask.

"You never know." Matt watched his face become even more confused. He tried not to laugh as he turned and walked casually off the bridge. One he was away from potential prying eyes he upped the pace to his work room onboard. Whatever was on the disk he had to find out its contents and fast, why would Kempeler an man he'd had very little to do with during the project send him an information disk. Reaching his office he'd soon find out its contents.