Show me what it’s like to be the last one standing…teach me wrong from right and I’ll show you all I can be…

Once they were on the other side of the wall, Ken realized that the steep winding stairwell lead underground, so they walked began to down a very long stairwell quietly hoping they would not run into any goons because it was an exposed stairwell. Finally they reached the bottom and Ken looked around to see if there were any Galactor goons in sight, he began to walk down the corridor hoping that they would not have security cameras on them.

“Joe, Ryu” Ken whispered into his communicator, Damn it he thought Joe and Ryu must have their communicators switched off, or maybe he was to far underground for the signal.

They came across a small empty room full of computer monitors on the walls. “Quick we may be able to locate her.” He told Elisa who was already in front of one of the screens.

Ken looked at some of the data for a moment when he noticed a code name. Operation fallout. Ken wondered what it was referring to, so he pointed it out to Elisa who went white as a sheet for a moment.

“You know about this?” He quizzed her.

“Kinda…I heard an officer talking about total annihilation of the Resistance two days ago and he referred to Operation fallout. I have tried to get a warning to Kamo that they could have located hideouts…I hope he got my message.” She was worried and it was written in her blue eyes as she looked at him.

“So do I…It is our job to stop Galactor and protect the planet.” He said more to himself, but she gave him a small smile that acknowledged what he had just said.”So that’s why this place is so empty of goons…”

“Damn straight!” She told him, her grin turned feral. Ken had a brief thought that this girl and the Condor would be a very lethal combination.

“Look at this…”she pointed to a screen that had weather patterns showing on it. Ken had noticed the screen when he had come into the room, but his thoughts were only on finding Jun, and they still were. But he had to foil the plans that Galactor had against the Resistance now or they all would perish.

“That is an unusual cloud formation.” She mused as they both made their way over to the computer terminal.

But Ken knew what it was; Katse’s storm cloud was back. “That is more trouble…Berg Katse” he hissed at the moving formation in front of him.

“Are you sure?” Elisa asked him as he nodded slowly.

He could have left then to take care of that cloud, but he was not leaving that base without Jun, he took a mental note of the coordinates of the storm and then looked into Elisa’s eyes for a moment, she seemed to understand as they left the room.

The ducked behind a door as two goons walked towards the room they had just left.

“Damn it Barney, you know that we are not suppose to leave this room…but a look at that bird was worth it…those girls look even better when they practice their routines.” Barney’s mate gushed as the two goons made their way into the room. “So was the stop at the bar, since no one was around to stop us from getting free whisky. Yep I could do with one of those dancers, dancing on my pole any day Ralf.” Barney chuckled. “Get it, dancing on my pole,” Barney nudged his companion to make sure he got the joke.”Yeah I get it.” Ralf responded in a wishful voice.

Ken felt his lips turn up in a snarl as he tightened his hand into a hard fist, he would deal with those two soon, men like that had no respect.

 Jun had to be close by and he focused on her, and he now was suppressing his emotions to keep a level head so they would find her sooner. Elisa grabbed his arm as if she thought he was going to go back and kill them and they began to move down the corridors.

The place was bigger than it looked, but the hallways they walked down looked more like rabbit burrows opening at times into big auditoriums. He indicated to Elisa to start looking in the small glass windows in the doors they came across in one of the corridors.

He stopped and looked into the small window of one of the doors and he could tell it was a cell. She had to be in here somewhere, and they had to work fast before anyone saw them.

He ran down the hall frantically looking in the small windows but he couldn’t see her in any of them, they were all empty. And there were no goons in sight, Galactor were always overconfident with their security he thought.

He looked up to see men in green coming towards him; he looked around him and found a door that would open and ran inside, and he hoped Elisa saw them too and did the same as she was further down the hall from him.

He found himself in a room with some odd looking devices in it, and ceiling shackles with electrical torture devices, it only took a moment to recognise what they were used for and his jaw locked up from the tense emotions that ran through him as he was almost overwhelmed with the thoughts that went through his mind.

Immediately he knew from the guard standing at the far door that he had found the right room, they would have had her guarded even in a locked room so with lightning speed he threw his birdrang at the startled guard and the goon was dead before he hit the ground.

Ken step over his body and looked at the door, she had to behind it and he would soon find out looked at the doors security locks- there was an electronic key pad.

So he took out a small explosive that he had in his belt pocket and set it next to the lock, he stepped back as it let of a small explosion, sparks and smoke flew at him as he covered himself with his wings for protection, the door opened at the force of the mini explosion.

When he walked into the room he was horrified at what he saw.

 Jun was in the room tied to a bed,. Galactor was going to pay for this he thought as he frantically as he knelt next to the bed she was on. He knew what had been done to her and it stabbed at his core, it was what they feared in the beginning could happen to any one of them.

She was not clothed, and her body was battered and bruised, and he could not for a moment see any movement of her chest, her eyes were closed and he feared the worst.

“Jun,” he said, shaking her gently. She opened her eyes and looked at him as she tried to focus. “K…Ken “she replied weakly. “I knew… you would… come…”He quickly looked around him for something to throw over her to give her some dignity, but the room was bare.

“Yes Jun, it’s me Ken. “He quickly untied her arms and legs, and them he looked under the bed for her clothes; luck had it that they had been thrown there. He got them out, and put them on the bed so that he could quickly help her dress. He quickly pulled on her jeans, and he needed her to sit up so he could put on her T-shirt.

”Jun…We need to move quickly can you sit up?” He asked, knowing she was in a lot of pain as she had moaned in agony as he moved her to put on her jeans and then her T-shirt. She nodded and tried to sit up, but the pain was too much and she cried out.

“Jun we have go…”Ken put his arms under her to lift her when he heard the noise at the door.

“What-“Elisa started as she looked at the Swan; Elisa clenched her jaw as she watched Ken pick Jun up in his in his arms.

Without speaking the three of them left the room and ran down the corridor, they were making their way to the exit when Ken stopped for a moment. Jun had become more conscious now but she was still not strong enough to walk, Ken could tell from her erratic breathing.

“Operation Fallout.” He looked urgently at Elisa.” They have to executing it soon. We have to get word out now, and destroy this base.” He ordered looking at Jun.

“I have something bigger that we can do…I know were the Galactor headquarters are…”Elisa spoke quickly. “I know I should have mentioned this before, but when we are finished here…Ken we can take them out totally…Akiya needs us to do it, she-“Elisa stopped as they spotted the mass of goons running into the auditorium along with a Devilstar.

“Stop them!” She yelled.

Ken had no choice but to put Jun down against a far wall were she was protected by a pillar.” Stay here, and don’t move I’ll be back” He promised her.

He took out his birdrang and engaged the enemy along side Elisa. She surprised him with her skills at fighting as she took one of the goon’s guns and turned it against him.

Ken kept Jun in his sights and that’s when he noticed her slowly climb to her feet from the angle that he was fighting from, she was using the wall to brace her and she produced her yo-yo. He had a feeling he knew her plan and he moved quickly towards her using back flips to avoid a spray of gun fire to get closer to her to so he could protect her better.

Then it was like watching something happen in slow motion.

Jun threw her yo-yo at the Devilstar, who did a flying leap in Jun’s direction. The thin metal cord wrapped around the Devilstars throat and strangling her, Jun pulled her to the ground and the retracted her yo-yo cord, but not before the now dead Devilstar let loose a knife that Ken saw disappear behind the pillar were Jun was.

“Jun! Jun.” He called out as he mowed down the last of the goons and ran over to her.

“No.” He breathed as he saw the knife in her abdomen, and Jun ripped it out and screamed in pain as she did it.

“Did I kill her…”Jun asked as she struggled to breathe.

“You bet you did.” Elisa answered for him, she was impressed with the Swan’s handiwork.

“Good…my…communicator.” Jun hoarsely whispered and then lost conscious for a moment, as Elisa crouched down beside Ken with her shirt in her hand wearing only a white singlet top now and jeans and she tore the shirt in two as she began to tie it around Jun’s wound with Ken helping her.

“We need to finish this.“ Ken told Elisa holding in the emotions that he was feeling as he looked at Jun, but they were hard to contain and resisted the temptation to turn away.

“I know…but you need to get her to a Doctor, she’s losing blood and you can’t take her to the local hospitals-“ Elisa lectured him.

“I know that Elisa. I know a doctor who can help us.” He informed her firmly, as he picked Jun up in his arms and held her as her eyes opened again slowly he could feel the brush of her eyelashes against his cheek.

“Then let me destroy this base…then we can get on with it. ”Elisa’s eyes full of vigor as she looked at him. ”I can do this, get her back to your doctor…then we can set out for Headquarters when you have her in good medical hands, and all the team is together.”

That plan was sound, and it was along the lines that Ken was thinking.” Rendezvous with me or one of the team a the airfield outside of Utoland-“ he told her.

“I know the one you’re talking about. I’ll wait there…good luck!” she told him as he left the room from the corner of his eye he thought he saw her pick something that looked like a bracelet  from the body of the Devilstar. He hoped she had just found Jun’s communicator but they had little time and he had to move fast to if he was going to save her.

“Jun hang on…I. need you to hang on,” he pleaded to her as he ran to leave the base, hiding at times to avoid goons. She was semi conscious; he looked at her face and glassy eyes. She was still bleeding and he could see a dark red stain oozing through the dressing of her wound. The corridor he was in now seemed to be leading him upwards, he hoped that meant another exit point.

Fast he thought move faster…

He could hear more goons behind him and the word, “Gatchaman!”

He ran as fast as he could towards the door, he hit the button and it opened, the goons were behind him as he emerged out of and an alley that looked to be a few blocks away from the club

He looked around for a vehicle, and began to run up the street, he turned a corner and found himself in the middle of a busy downtown Utoland. People and cars were everywhere, the street noise seemed to be amplified as he ran down the footpath dodging people, and the goons were still running behind him.

 He spotted a red Ferrari stopped close by at a set of traffic lights, and he made a bee line through the stopped traffic for it. Jun felt so light in his arms and she was motionless. She was scaring him. He opened the passenger door and sat Jun in the seat.

“Hey what the hell do you think your doing.” The young wealthy looking business man with a shocked look on his face as Jun slumped in the seat towards the man. “You’ll get blood all over the white leather.” The man gave Ken a look of disgust- he had not time for this as he noticed the goons weaving their way through the traffic.

“Get out! And put that seat belt on her…” Ken ordered with his birdrang drawn, and Ken gave him a death stare that would have had the Condor shaking.

 He jumped over the front bonnet of the sports car, as the lights were about to change and the goons were closing the distance between them, and goons on motor bikes just rounded a street corner.

“Your Gatchaman…”Then the man’s eyes went wide and then he acted quickly, and did as he was told. And he got out of the car. Ken got into the drivers side and he accelerated hard as the goons ran up the street behind him, weaving his way through the traffic with the goons on motor bikes behind him coming up fast.

Ken got onto an express way that led out of town and then he tried to contact Joe and Ryu but still received no answer. Where the hell are they he thought as he stole a look at Jun, he had to get her medical attention fast…

 They needed Dr.Pandora, or Jun didn’t have a chance.

“Ken!” Came John’s voice in his communicator. “John?” He was surprised to his voice or any of the Lone Gunmen at that rate. “You people are so hard to contact.”

“John I don’t have time for this, I have to get Jun to Dr Pandora she’s injured.” He told him as he moved fast through traffic dodging people and cars.

“I’ve been trying to warn you that Galactor are crawling all looking for you guys. They have captured some more of the Resistance fighters, and we have to move soon, or the Lone Gunman will be history.” he asked and waited for Ken’s response.

“Tell me something I don’t know, you have got to get word out now to all the Resistance…Galactor is moving in,” Was his last response to him as he looked in the rear vision mirror.

It was then that he saw the six goons on motor bikes coming up behind him.

He began to head out of the city on the main freeway hoping to lose them, Jun was fading fast and he needed to get her help. He looked into the rear vision mirror and the goons were closing in on them fast as he sped towards the hideout and Dr.Pandora.

Jun moaned in pain again and he could see her reaching for something in her jeans.

“K…Ken,” she breathed her words slowly, and her green eyes were half open slits, and she was looking at him.”Mm..mmyy Yyoo-yo.” He opened the driver’s window, and looked back at the goons closing in as he floored the accelerator and dropped the clutch shifted into fourth gear to get more power, to try and lose them, but they had fast bikes and it looked like Galactor had improved their vehicles as they moved into formation. 

One came along side of them and he took Jun’s Yo-yo from her out stretched hand. He darted it out the window knocking the man hard in the head as he lost balance and skidded off the side of the road.

But there were still five more of them; He still headed towards the hideout.

He check behind him again, and slowed down to let them come closer, they were close together the last five goons and they were about to split up when he executed his next plan.

 He threw the Yo-yo out the window again behind him and the cord wrapped itself around the middle goon’s handle bars.

Just before Ken detonated the bomb through clenched teeth he said to them.” This is from the Swan… Galactor bastards.” And he pressed the detonation button, the Yo-Yo exploded throwing all of the goons from their bikes and creating a massive piled up behind him, as he surveyed the fire spread across the road behind them.

By this time he was closer to the hideout and Jun, could not travel much further and he needed to look at her wound. She was slumped over again and drifting in and out of consciousness.

“Joe, Ryu!”He yelled into his communicator, this time he got a response, it was Ryu.

“Where are you Ken?? We have Count Egobossler, Joes just talking to him now about where they have Jun…”

“Ryu, I have her with me, we are close to the hideout Jun needs medical attention now, she’s badly injured, I…I can’t…”Ken faltered as his voice cracked; they really needed an ambulance, a hospital.

 He was close to the hideout when he felt the explosion and tons of sand and debris flew high into the air as he pulled on the hand brake to turn the car around to avoid a clump of sand and a tree that dropped in front of him in the middle of the road as he spoke to Ryu.

Damn it! He thought, he wondered if Dr.Pandora was there, or was she now a captive to, so now he had no other choice.

Ken knew he was clutching at short straws and the plan was thin, but at that time he had no choice. Ken swang the car around and he headed towards the airfield. “Ryu, change of plan…get to airfield as fast as you can…” Ken was not sure if Ryu heard him.

“Ken…Joes got his sword and he’s...well,” Ryu’s hesitant but hardened voice came through the communicator, as Ken floored the sports car to its maximum speed as he approached the airfield.

He could hear Joe’s voice in the communicator and sounds coming from the background, it was Joe “talking” to Count Egobossler.

“You won’t find her Condor.” Egobossler sneered. “But she was a good woman to bed with; she should learn to participate more though… I could teach her, but she was not a-” Egobossler boasted in a sneering voice to the Condor.

He could hear Joe’s deadly snarl. ”You’re going to die blue boy for what you did to her, and for Jinpei and Dr.Nambu.”

“Ryu.” Ken tried to get his attention, Ken wondered if he had set his communicator for open channel so that Ken could hear Joe’s interrogation. Then he heard Count Egobossler’s cry of extreme pain and he could hear him gurgling blood. And he knew Joe had killed him in a horrible way.

Ken imagined that Joe had taken the sword that Egobossler carried around with him and he stabbed it into his gut with it and twisted it to make sure the job was done right.

 “We’re on our way…Tell Jun I’m coming…tell her-” The wild deep voice of the Condor spoke through the communicator. “Ryu behind you! Noooo-” was the last thing he heard for a few moments then he heard shouts, Joe was calling out to Owl to get out of somewhere, Ryu called back to Joe, something about getting out of there and he’d hold them back for as long as he could.” No Ryu...Get out now!!!” Ryu…Ryuuuu..”   Joe shouted full of anguish and then silence and them there was only static. Ken’s hand began to shake as he fought to keep them steady as he worried about the fate of his brothers.

Ken felt no remorse over Count Egobossler being killed by Joe like that. They we only minutes now from the airfield and he looked over at her, she was a deathly shade of white as he choked back tears as he looked at the blood soaked seat around her.

For what seemed like eternity he finally pulled up outside of the shack. He got Jun out of the car and held her close to him as he kicked in the door of his shack, and he laid her down on the mattress of his old bed.

Jun opened her eyes and tried to say something as he opened the First Aid kit he has retrieved from the cupboard and he opened a bandage. He un-wrapped her from the bloody chambray bandage, she was covered in so much blood, and so was he, he noticed. He took of his helmet as the visor was getting in the way.

“Ken...I…I…don’t…have …much…longer.” She was struggling to speak.

“Save your strength Jun…Joes on his way….” He just kept talking,” don’t’ you give up on me…are you hearing me Jun, please don’t make me live without you…” He tried to keep the desperation out of his voice but as he spoke he could hear it was thick with emotion.

“Ken…I…Love…” she whispered.

He leaned over and embraced her, as he held he looked into her half open green eyes. “I know Jun…I’ve known for a long time, that’s why I need you to hold on…because…”He struggled with the words, the anguish of her coming death filled him, as hot tears rolled down his face, she didn’t have a chance and he knew it.

 He wanted to tell her how he felt, but under different circumstances, now he may never get another chance, even if she was not his girl.

“I love you.” He whispered in her ear. “I’m so sorry… I let you down…”

He didn’t know if she heard him, she had gone limp, and lost all consciousness again. He sobbed into her neck as he held her tight to his body, and rocked her gently like a child. ”Jun I’m so sorry…”he whimpered feeling weak and helpless as she lay dying in his arms and her breath became very shallow he felt it warm against his ear.

“Ken,” a voice came through the communicator, it was John, and for a moment he ignored him.

Finally he took the call.” Yes John.” He spoke into the bracelet with no emotion feeling dizzy and drained of it, he was still holding Jun, she still felt warm against him, and he could not feel her breath now, and her chest was not rising.

“Your cloud is back, it is not in the same place as you left it though…” John informed him.

“Thanks,” was all he said Ken knew were it was as he looked at Jun, it dawned on him that he had a way he could set things right, it was a long shot but he had to try.

He gently laid her back down on the mattress, Ken knew she was almost gone, and the light left his world, it was suddenly so dark, even though the late afternoon sun was falling in light streams through the cracks in the boards across the windows.

But he had to leave her there alone if he was to catch this cloud and travel through time again, he had to leave her there to die alone and it cut him in two as he picked up his helmet, he gently kissed her lips and ran out the door.

Ken to the Cessna and transmuted back into civilian mode before he got in, then he began to taxi it to the runway.

He looked behind him for a moment back at the shack that Jun lay inside of and he asked for her forgiveness for leaving her there to die alone as he gunned the engines to take off from the runway.

He saw a car stop in front of the shack and the Condor got out alone, Ken felt hot tears on his cheeks at the sight of the lone Condor standing there outside his shack with the wind gently picking up his wings as Joe watched his Commander leave.

Ken wondered what Joe was thinking in those moments, and had they had lost Ryu as well? He wondered. That sudden static over the communicator…

The Condor would now be the last man standing and the final hope for all around him because Ken knew that even if he destroyed this cloud it was unlikely he would come out of it alive.

In the distance he could see a van heading down the road that lead to the airfield and Ken knew that it had to be Elisa, and there was hope that she could help Joe to destroy Galactor’s main Headquarters.

 Joe became a dot in the distance as he turned the Cessna in the direction of the cloud and the Condor went inside his shack. He knew Joe would find her, in his shack and Ken hoped Joe would burn it to the ground after wards; he never wanted to walk in there again with the memories of it being the place he held her in his arms and watched her die…

Ken had to focus now, he had to change things, if he could…there had to be a way to travel back in time…

“Watch out Katse, the Eagle is coming after you.” He hoarsely whispered as determination griped him and he looked at the white clouds in the sky and the unusual storm cloud up ahead.