Well, once again, the Legion strikes. Unable to control her basic urge
to fanfic, we continue in the universe of Deborah's insane fantasies.
Enjoy!

Rescue Run
by
Deborah Brown
Characters acquired from Tatsunoko, all rights reserved

Note: This, like Alara and Ennien's fanfic, is set in a parallel
universe to the original Gatchaman. I've tried to set it fo fit with the
original as much as possible, but any flaws in characterization, or
differences in background information are purely the result of my
demented imagination. Ken's characterization in particular is based on a
friend's version (story to follow when it's finished) and is the result
of *her* demented imagination.

- Deborah
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART 1
======
	"You're up early, aren't you?" Joe leaned against the doorway to the
rec-room, looking at his commander with a worried expression.
	Ken gave the dark-haired Sicilian a quick glare. "I don't need a
keeper, Joe. I feel fine." He appreciated everyone's concern after his
recent recovery from a drug induced seizure but it was getting wearing.
He bit into the piece of fruit he'd snagged from the kitchens with a
defiant air that was ruined as the magazine stack he'd been standing
near fell over with a crash.
	As Ken picked up the mess Joe shrugged. "Yeah, but we still don't know
what the stuff that bastard gave you does. I'd hate for you to suddenly
go psycho and run through the halls chopping people in half with a
banana."
	Ken snercked, suddenly visualizing the scene. "Careful, Joe," he
grinned. "I'm armed and dangerous."
	Joe laughed. "And me without me tiger." He came into the room and
settled on the couch. "C'mon, Ken. Let's watch 'Seven Blows of the
Dragon' again. Chen's not here to spoil it, this time."
	Ken sighed and nodded. It was better than lying awake feeling like your
skin was going to twist right off you.
***
	::AMBA!!!!::
	The shriek in Kay's head sent her rocketing out of bed, body
automatically shifting into masculine mode as adrenaline and fear shot
through hir. A sharp twist of pain and he stood straight, half dressed,
long blonde hair wild around a face white with shock. In his mind he
could see the images being projected at him. Men in uniforms only too
familiar, searching through debris. Pain and fear came through the link,
nearly sending him into a panic.
	Without thought, Kay raced for the door, his night shirt flapping
around him. Slamming it open, he pounded up the hallway, bare feet
slapping the metal floor almost two yards apart. At full speed his long
legs carried him down to the launching bay in barely a minute. He
screeched to a halt - gazing wide eyed at the huge room, not even aware
of the stares he was eliciting from the guards. Then a smile, cruel and
dangerous, crossed his face. Just what he needed. As the guards shouted,
"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" he ran across the room, taking a
flying leap for the wing of the jet sitting in the middle of the room.
The G-1, like its pilot, had been grounded for a few weeks now.
	A bullet whizzed past Kay as he landed in the cockpit. Quickly he
pulled down the cover as more bullets *pinged* against its surface.
Scanning his surroundings he searched for the ignition. [They would make
it difficult], he thought, forcing himself calm. He didn't have much
time. Taking a deep breath he drew on his inner resources, psi powers
reaching into the machinery and starting the engine. There was a roar of
sound and he grabbed the controls.

	The guards watched helplessly as the G-1 launched.
***
	Ken and Joe were halfway into the old movie when the emergency sirens
went off. With a curse, Joe hit the stop button while Ken raised his
wristband to his face. "What's going on?" he demanded, annoyed. They
were just getting to the good part.
	"Er... Sir... we have a problem." Ken waited patiently while the
dispatcher found his voice. "The G-1's been... stolen."
	"What!?" "K'so!" the two men shouted, no doubt deafening the poor
dispatcher. "How? Who?" Ken was on his feet, preparing to transform.
It'd be the first time in weeks, but there was no way he was going to
stand by while his ship was stolen. He gestured for Joe to turn off the
tape machine. It didn't matter anyway, the tape's tracking had gone bad.
	"The guards say it was some guy with long blonde hair. Looked a bit
like Doctor Valg..." The dispatcher took a deep breath. "Doctor Nanbu's
been notified. He's on his way down to the launch bay."
	"Tell him Joe and I will be there in just a few seconds." Ken looked at
Joe, noting with a frown the tail-end of an odd expression. "Does Dr.
Valg have any family on base?" he wondered, and Joe shrugged quickly.
"She maintains your cybernetics. I just thought you might know."
	"I doubt it." Joe hurried out, as if he did *not* want to discuss this,
leaving Ken frowning even more deeply.

Rescue Run
by
Deborah Brown
Characters acquired from Tatsunoko, all rights reserved

Note: This, like Alara and Ennien's fanfic, is set in a parallel
universe to the original Gatchaman. I've tried to set it fo fit with the
original as much as possible, but any flaws in characterization, or
differences in background information are purely the result of my
demented imagination. Ken's characterization in particular is based on a
friend's version (story to follow when it's finished) and is the result
of *her* demented imagination.

- Deborah

PART 2
======
	Kay struggled to keep control of the G-1. It'd been years now since
he'd actually flown a jet and though the experience was returning to
him, he was fighting with both unfamiliar controls and turbulence. [Like
riding a bicycle. You never really forget]. The panic faded and he was
beginning to realize the trouble he was in. Nanbu was going to be really
really pissed at him and Ken - a tight grin crossed his face - Ken might
just go back to his old hobby of beating him up. He shoved the thought
aside, concentrating on the link. The child was still frightened, but
had calmed once he'd made it clear that he was on his way.
	"BERG KATZE!!!"
	Nanbu's enraged shout echoed through the radio, sound distorted and
almost unrecognizable. Kay grinned. "I wondered how long it'd be before
you called," he commented, half to himself and half to the microphone on
the control panel.
	"GET THE HELL BACK HERE YOU MURDERING BASTARD, BEFORE I HAVE YOU 
GUNNED
DOWN!"
	"Be pretty hard, Nanbu. I know how tough the G-1 is. From experience."
Kay forced the jet's nose up as a sharp wind nearly blew him sideways.
	"DAMN IT, KATZE!"
	"Go ahead and shout it to the world, why don't you? Do you really want
to explain why you've kept me alive?" Kay glanced over the edge of the
cockpit, spotting the large and particularly ugly mecha that stood
beside an old mansion. The roof of the building was on fire and he could
see people rushing out in panic, only to be gunned down by men dressed
in dark suits. In the dim morning light he couldn't make out the color,
but he didn't need to. He'd been surrounded by such uniforms for most of
his life. [I do *not* understand this... Soosai's dead... Galactor
should have been *finished*!] He'd been sure that Ken's abductor a month
earlier had been working on his own. Now he wondered.
	Glancing at the sputtering radio, Kay grimaced. "I'd love to chat,
Hakase, but I'm going to be a bit busy for a while. You'll just have to
make do without my charming personality until I'm finished here." He
flipped the switch for the radio and focused his attention on landing.
In other circumstances the mecha would have been his first order of
business, but he was needed elsewhere.
***
	Ken, Joe and Nanbu stared at the silent microphone, the professor
muttering dark threats under his breath.
	"Berg Katze?" Ken demanded, finally, as Nanbu picked up the stack of
books that had suddenly fallen over off his desk. "BERG KATZE?" He
glanced at Joe, seeing anger but no surprise. "*You* knew? You knew he
was alive?" Strangely, the knowledge calmed him. Joe couldn't have known
this without Nanbu knowing too. Besides, if *Condor Joe* knew and Katze
were still alive then there had to be a reason. He didn't like having
been kept in the dark but he was ready to listen to a good explanation.
He just hoped there *was* such a thing.
	Joe hesitated, "I found out about hir last year," he admitted, slurring
the pronoun with an obvious effort. "Rafael saved hir after s/he jumped
into the volcano." He gave Nanbu a quick look. "S/he helped me get rid
of Soosai X's last entrance to Earth."
	Dark brows drew together in an expression of anger. "Are you saying
s/he's reformed? Tell me another one." Ken clenched his fist, "Damnit,
Professor..."
	"I wasn't pleased to discover who it was, either, Ken." Nanbu turned
away, staring off at the wild terrain outside the new base. "But it had
been with Rafael for two years, had helped him rebuild Joe. It was the
only one who knew how Joe was put together. Even Dr. Pandora didn't know
all Rafael's methods and now that *she's* gone too, we need someone to
take care of Joe when he's damaged. I kept it on the base and under
guard." He tensed. "I let our guard slip. It hadn't tried to escape in
all those years."
	Ken gazed at Nanbu, hands relaxing. Oddly, Nanbu's referencing Katze as
an it seemed out of place. Even hating the mutant as he had he'd still
had some pity for the poor thing. Katze'd lived all hir life on the run
because of hir dual gender. It surprised him that Katze had stayed as
long as s/he had in such an environment and puzzled him that s/he'd
chosen now to leave. [Not to mention in such a spectacular fashion.]
Something didn't seem right about this. Katze hadn't ordinarily been
this stupid.
	Before Ken could say anything, however, the phone rang. Nanbu picked it
up and spoke into it briefly. "This is going to have to wait. A mecha
that looks like something from Galactor is attacking an orphanage in
Indioh. You're going to have to deal with that, first."
***
	Kay kicked another guard in the jaw, fired his captured machine gun and
blew three more away. Kids and their guardians ran for cover, almost as
scared of the maniac in the torn night shirt as of their previous
attackers. "JACKIE!!!" he roared over the din of the battle. "WHERE ARE
YOU?"
	A faint voice was audible from one of the buildings - fortunately not
the one on fire. Kay raced towards it, spotting the youngster leaning
out the second story window, waving at him. "Amba!"
	Kay felt a surge of relief. His child was alive and - it appeared -
unhurt. "Are you all right?"
	"We're trapped," Jackie replied, glancing over hir shoulder. "Rosarri's
holding them off, but she can't clear a path." As always, the child
showed little signs of emotion on hir face. Even endangered Jackie
seemed to take matters with an almost terrifying matter-of-factness. Kay
took a deep breath. "I'll be right up." He'd worry about who this
Rosarri was later.

To be Continued...


Rescue Run
by
Deborah Brown
Characters acquired from Tatsunoko, all rights reserved

Note: This, like Alara and Ennien's fanfic, is set in a parallel
universe to the original Gatchaman. I've tried to set it fo fit with the
original as much as possible, but any flaws in characterization, or
differences in background information are purely the result of my
demented imagination. Ken's characterization in particular is based on a
friend's version (story to follow when it's finished) and is the result
of *her* demented imagination.

- Deborah


PART 3
======
	"There's the G-1!" Jun pointed off to one side as the team approached
the orphanage. The jet was parked in a clearing near the burning
buildings, looking a bit worse for wear for having been landed by
skimming across the treetops.
	"My *plane*," Ken muttered to himself. "Damn it, Katze!" He clenched
his fists, aware of Jun's glance in his direction. She was worried about
him. He hadn't been in action for some time now and no one was certain
what the drug his abductor had given him had done. He knew she wondered
if he was well enough to fight. Carefully he forced himself to calm,
barely noticing the snapping sound as one of panel lights fused and went
dead.
	Joe leaned forward. "Never mind the plane, Ken. Look at that mecha!"
	They looked. Spines covered the thing, making it look like a giant
hedgehog. Great claws were half buried in the dirt and - at their
approach - the anteater like snout of the machine raised to fire a laser
beam. "Dodge, Owl," Ken told Ryu. "Joe, let's give it a few missiles...
Joe?"
	Ken turned to look at his fellow Gatchaman. Never before had Condor Joe
needed to be nudged in order to get him to attack. Joe wasn't looking
his way, though. "It's *this* orphanage?" he muttered to himself.
"Jackie!"
	Before Ken could even ask who Jackie was, Joe had spun around and raced
out of the cockpit. [Not this time, Joe!] This wasn't the first time the
Condor had decided to go off on his own, nor was it likely to be the
last. In Ken's current state of mind, however, he was in no mood to put
up with it. "Jun, take over."
	Jun didn't get a chance to protest as her commander followed the
Condor.
***
	Blood soaked and furious, Kay slashed the throat of the last of
Jackie's attackers. Most of the gore was his enemies' but he was
beginning to notice the cuts and bruises he'd taken during his bloody
rampage through the orphanage. He took a deep breath. Looking over at
Jackie, he saw the child was holding a small, slight, body in hir lap. A
shaggy mane of black hair concealed the figure's face and the form was
dressed in what looked like a black body suit that glittered as if
covered with faint galaxies. Kay looked at his child, seeing bruises on
the pale skin of hir face. "Kitling, are you hurt bady?"
	Jackie shook hir head. "But Arinel is..."
	Kay glanced around. Hadn't Jackie said something about a *woman*
protecting hir? S/he went down on one knee beside the body. Fragile and
delicately boned, he might have mistaken it for a woman, but the
bodysuit concealed nothing of what was a purely masculine shape. "Who is
he and what happened to Rosarri?" He turned the face and frowned. The
delicate features seemed strangely familiar.
	Jackie swallowed. "This is Rosarri, too."
	Kay blinked, about to demand an explanation, but a sound behind him
made him spin around.
***
	Ken followed the swath of destruction that Joe almost *had* to have
left behind him. The Condor had apparently outdone himself this time.
Ken had never seen so many bodies resulting from one man's efforts. The
sound of a child's voice caused him to turn down the hallway and step
into one of the classrooms. He came to a halt, staring at the three
figures under the window, their bodies starkly lit by the firelight
streaming in from the window. One spun from a kneeling position, left
hand holding a bloodied dagger, the other a machine gun.
	"KATZE!" Ken started to yell, as a desk - probably knocked over by one
of the explosions outside - fell on its side. Startled, he glanced
towards it, then back at Katze. His eyes widened as he  focused on what
Katze was wearing. A long nightshirt, buttons popped open, hir currently
male chest bared and black speedos just visible. The look of startled
rage on hir face had turned to a hilarious expression of 'Oh SHIT!'
	Ken came to a stop and his hand came up as he tried to say something.
Then, without warning, a long snort of laughter escaped him. He was
laughing so hard he barely avoided the sparks that blew in through the
window, their brilliant blues and greens fading and dying rapidly.
	Katze's eyes went huge, an expression that only made the laughter
worse. At last the former Galactor demanded, in a voice much closer to
hir old one, "What the HELL are you laughing at, Owashio Ken?"
	Ken managed to stop laughing. "New uniform for Galactor Commanders,
Katze?" He gestured at the blonde's outfit. "I don't know, I'da thought
tiger stripes would be more your style." He wasn't sure why he was
wasting time bantering with the mutant. He *ought* to be taking hir in.
Perhaps it was the sense that there was a hell of a lot more to this
than met the eye?
	"Tiger stripes?" Katze repeated. "Now *that* would be *really* tacky,
Ken." The faintest of pink tinges seemed to flush hir cheeks. At the
same time hir hand came up, machine gun aiming itself in Ken's general
direction. "Someone's coming."
	Ken spun sideways, just beginning to hear the footsteps creeping
towards the doorway. He had little doubt Katze had heard it before him,
the mutant always *had* had exquisite hearing. He raised his birdarang,
only to stop as a dark clad figure rolled into the room.

To Be Continued... (But not until next week, as your truly is going out
of town.)

PART 4
======
	Kay barely stopped himself from firing as the Condor made his entrance.
Of all the stupid... "Joseph, what the hell is wrong with you? Don't you
know better than to sneak up on people like that?" Kay automatically
dropped into the faintly exasperated tones he'd been using on the Condor
ever since Joe had been made a cyborg and Kay'd been set to nursing him.
	Joe came to his feet. "Why do you think I ducked?" he asked reasonably.
Noticing his leader standing nearby and glowering at him, he did a
double-take. "Ken, what are you doing here?"
	Owashio Ken was apparently unamused. "Following you." He paused,
glancing Kay's direction. "At least I *thought* I was. What are *you*
doing here? Chasing your main squeeze? I know you had a thing for
Galactor women, but isn't this going a bit far?"
	Joe's jaw dropped and he stared at Ken. Kay didn't blame him for being
stunned, considering that Ken wasn't ordinarily given to comments like
that. [My goodness, did Alverson manage to give him a sense of humor?]
It'd be the first time that idiot's habit of playing with designer drugs
did something useful. At least Ken wasn't frothing at the mouth or
cutting everyone up in a murderous frenzy. He frowned at the thought.
What *had* that drug done? Had the strange feeling he'd gotten when Ken
entered been his imagination only? He thought back to Ken's outburst of
laughter, and the sparks that had accompanied it and wondered silently.
	A moan broke the brief silence, reminding Kay of his child and the
person Jackie had claimed to be hir rescuer. He turned back to the pair,
noting that the dark lashes were flickering a little. It looked like -
Arinel? - was it? would be all right. "You two will have to have your
testosterone duel later, boys. We'd better get out of here before that
lump of a mecha steps on this building."
	"They won't do that, Amba. They want Arinel." Jackie helped Kay pick
the slight figure up and toss it over his shoulder.
	Distracted from their argument, Ken and Joe blinked at Kay, who was
marching towards the door. "Amba?" Ken repeated. Then he took a good
look at Jackie.
***
	There was a long silence as Ken stared at the child. Dark hair, tinted
red - perhaps by the firelight - hung long and fine around its
shoulders, two locks falling forward around a heartshaped face. The fine
features were pure Katze, up to and including the feline smile - except
Katze had never looked so innocent in hir life. The purple eyes,
however, belonged to someone else. Ken raised his head and stared at
Joe. He couldn't see anything of his Second's eyes, but he didn't need
to. "Joe?" he said questioningly, realizing that he might have hit
closer to home than he'd thought.
	Joe sighed. "I didn't know who s/he was at the time. It isn't my
fault!"
	"Oh sure," Katze muttered. "As if you didn't know how to use a condom."
S/he turned and looked at Ken with an annoyed glare. "Do you think you
could close your mouth long enough to let us get back to the Phoenix,
which I *assume* is here? I'd really rather not get captured and I doubt
you two would either."
	Ken gazed at hir evenly. "You came for the kid, then?" He wondered how
Katze'd known, but guessed that the same psi talent Katze had displayed
before may have had something to do with it. At hir nod, he sighed. "I
see. I don't forgive you for it, but we'll talk about your stealing the
G-1 later." He quickly ruffled the child's dark hair. "Come on. We'd
better go."
***
	Kay moaned into conciousness, sprawled on a metal floor and feeling
like she'd been hit by a ton of bricks. Slow return of memory told her
that that was essentially what had happened. I hurt, she thought,
forcing her eyes open. They'd been halfway out the front door when the
mecha had lowered its snout in their direction and something had shot
out at them, knocking down the side of the building in the process. She
could remember being carried through the air before fainting.
Unconciousness had restored her to her natural state in the cycle and
she could only hope that her captors - whomever they were - hadn't seen
the shift.
	It occured to Kay to wonder where she was. Opening her eyes, she gazed
around at three other figures, two men and a child - Ken and Joe,
dressed in their civilian clothes again and Jackie. [What happened to
Arinel?] She remembered Jackie saying hir rescuer was the Galactors'
target. They must have taken him somewhere else. Slowly she sat up,
rubbing at her face.
	A moan from Jackie drew Kay's attention. The child was curled on hir
side, a bruise on hir cheek seeping blood. Kay clenched her fists. Why
was it this child, who she'd barely known for a handful of years, sent
such a surge of protective fury through her? Conceived during an
accidental meeting with Joe - before either had known who the other was
- Jackie had been taken from her immediately after hir accelerated
birthing. Kay had no reason to feel concern for hir. She bit her lip and
finally moved to Jackie's side, picking hir up and cradling hir. Some
instinct made her hum a half-remembered melody. Someone in Kay's own
past had sung it to her.

PART 5
======
	"Solusa la ta radi, Solusada mi... Anusada masha ne... Rosali a jen..."
	Ken winced, managing to turn his head towards the soft singing. It was
a pleasant sound, reminding him a bit of his mother's lullabyes. Rubbing
the back of his neck, he sat up and blinked at the sight of Katze
leaning against a wall of their rubbish strewn cell, the child s/he'd
referred to as Jackie in hir arms. [Now there's a sight I'd never expect
to see.] Berg Katze's icily handsome features had softened a little,
granting hir face a tenderness Ken wouldn't have thought possible. With
hir shirt open and her small, delicately formed breasts visible, the
pair resembled a Madonna and child. [Which has *got* to be the the most
nonsensical thing about this whole mess.]
	At Ken's movement, Katze stopped singing, looking at him with that
cool, distant, expression that had earned hir alter-ego, Kay Valg, the
name Ice Princess. After a moment s/he spoke. "Well?"
	"Oh... nothing." Ken pulled himself to a seated position and glanced at
his second-in-command. Joe was beginning to stir. "You might want to
pull the shirt together, though. You're sharing quite a view right now."
	Katze glanced downwards, obviously just realizing hir breasts were
exposed. S/he flushed a little, pulling the fabric close. "I don't
suppose you could start looking for a way *out* of this mess?"
	"Just as soon as sleeping beauty here decides to rejoin us," Ken
replied, glancing at his friend. He knew from the way Joe was breathing
that the nusiance was awake.
	The Condor opened one bleary eye. "When the world stops spinning
backwards I'll consider it." He turned his face towards Katze. "Sorry I
missed the view..." he muttered, eliciting an even brighter blush.
	Ken shook his head. Some things just never changed. "Joe, quit trying
to gawk and get up. We have to escape."
	The child's soft voice drew both men's attention back to Katze. Jackie
had opened hir eyes and was looking at them. "You have to rescue Arinel,
too," s/he stated in a weak but definite tone. "You don't know what
they'll do to him."
	"I'm not leaving anyone behind, Jackie," Ken replied in tones no less
definite. "Even your..." he hestitated over the term, "Your Amba."
	Jackie nodded, amethyst eyes clear and intent. Ken had the eerie
feeling that if he *had* tried to lie the child would have known it.
Unnerved, he turned away. "Come on, Joe. We gotta get moving."
***
	::Jackie?:: Kay sent a soft query up the link between herself and her
child. ::Who is Arinel? Why did you say he was also Rosari?::
	Jackie was silent for a moment, hands tightening their grip a little as
Kay carried hir through the halls of the mecha. Aside from the few
guards who'd been watching their prison, they'd yet to meet anyone.
Finally s/he responded, hir thoughts shaping her protector's name more
clearly for Kay, ::A'Rynel told me he was an alien. That his people have
only one gender.::  S/he hesitated. ::He's been teaching me.::
	Kay was not at all certain she liked this. An alien had been
interfering with the development of her child? What gave him the right?
She sent the query to Jackie and received a faint sense of amusement
back. ::What?::
	::I like A'Rynel. He really *is* concerned about me. About you,
too...:: Jackie stiffened. ::Guards around the corner!::
	Ken halted them. "Where?" he asked Jackie softly, glancing back at the
child on Kay's back quickly and leaving Kay frowning furiously. Had
Jackie spoken the last aloud and she just hadn't noticed? Surely she
wasn't *that* out of it? [But the alternative is that he *heard* hir
mindspeech...] Kay wasn't sure she wanted to believe that, even though
the first tiny seed of suspicion had already been planted. "Joe, why are
you just standing there? We have trouble coming."
	Joe stared at Ken for a long moment, expression suggesting he thought
his leader had finally lost it. With a shrug, he pulled to one side,
pulling out a feather shuriken, just as a couple of green garbed men
rounded the corner. Before they could react Ken and Joe had moved, Ken's
fist taking one in the gut, Joe's feather slicing through the other
man's throat.
	Kay glanced at the bodies as they passed. "You know," she muttered to
Ken. "I used to deplore the ease with which you'd take them down. Right
now, however, I believe I'm grateful."
	A quick grin was Ken's only reply.
***
	Ken was beginning to wish Katze and Jackie would be quiet. Their
whispered conversation about A'Rynel didn't seem to be attracting
attention, but he didn't want his own efforts to shush them to do what
they hadn't. They were in enough trouble as it was. Besides, his head
was beginning to hurt.
	"So Rosari is an alternate personality?" Katze asked, receiving a quiet
affirmative.
	"But she wouldn't be normally. It's just because she's been needed so
frequently and people keep treating her like a person. They both say
it's artificial. It wouldn't happen in their Homefleet."
	Ken wondered about that. Whatever this alien A'Rynel was, he, she or it
sounded as weird as - well as Katze hirself. He might have said as much,
if he weren't absolutely certain how Katze would take it. Nor, in all
honesty, would he have blamed hir.
	"But why is he or they, teaching you? What gives them the right?" Katze
sounded aggravated and Ken sensed violent possesiveness in hir tone. "I
know you say you like him, but..."
	"I can't explain that. It's A'Rynel who should explain." Ken caught a
glimpse of Jackie's face over Katze's shoulder. Hir expression was oddly
adult as s/he looked down at hir parent. Noticing Ken looking at hir, a
quick, reserved, smile crossed hir face. "We're getting close," s/he
said, voice a little louder as sh/e spoke to him.
	Ken nodded. "Why do they want him, or should I say them?" he asked,
eliciting an odd expression from Katze. The mutant had been giving him a
lot of those lately and he was beginning to wish s/he'd quit it.
	Jackie gave Ken a considering look. "He's a powerful psi," s/he said
finally. "I think they want to use that."
	Joe raised a hand. "Jackie, is Arinel likely to be in a large room with
a bunch of guards?" At Jackie's soft agreement, Joe turned to Ken.
"Bingo. This must be the place!" He gestured towards a double door
guarded by two heft men in green. "I saw inside a moment. We're going to
have to find another way in. There's enough Galactor Goons to start
their own state."
	"That's easy enough," Katze commented wryly. "If this mecha's built on
the same lines of the ones I used to design, it'll have an escape hatch
somewhere."



PART 6
======
	Kay was getting the uneasy feeling she knew exactly what Alverson's
drug had done to Ken. [And if I'm right I don't think I like it.] She
remembered her first sight of Ken after he'd been returned to the base,
lost in a coma and victim of muscular spasms so intense his doctors had
had completely imobilize him. She'd been convinced at the time that
there wouldn't be much left of Washio Ken's mind. Alverson's little
experiments had never done his subjects any good when he'd worked for
Galactor and she'd had no reason to think that had changed. Almost,
she'd pitied him. He'd beaten her up so often she shouldn't have cared
if he lived, but he'd looked so damn helpless and so very young...
	Yet Ken *had* survived. Survived and was beginning to recover. She'd
thought it a fluke, testimony to the Gatchaman Leader's supreme good
health. Now she wondered if there hadn't been deeper scars than she'd
thought. Scars that she wasn't sure Alverson had ever intended or
expected. The incidents over the last couple of hours, however, were
beginning to add up; That desk falling on its side; The strange lights
that had glittered around him when he'd been laughing at her costume;
His apparent awareness of a conversation that had been held *entirely*
mind-to-mind between herself and her child. Kay's lips compressed as she
thought about it. This wasn't the time to test it, but she couldn't help
but have the urge to mentally shout *boo* in Ken's general direction.
	"Hey, Kay," Joe whispered urgently. "This ain't the time to go into
lala land. Try to concentrate."
	Kay nodded briefly at Joe. Sooner or later Ken was going to make his
'grand entrance', giving Joe and Kay a chance to break in through the
side door they'd found. While Ken kept the Goons distracted Joe and Kay
would grab A'Rynel and make a run for it. Glancing at Jackie, Kay hoped
the child would have the sense to stay put. Orders might be orders but
Jackie was hir father's child as well as hir mother's and s/he was
*very* concerned about A'Rynel. Kay wished she understood *why*.
	The sound of shouting in the other room caused both Kay and Joe to look
at each other and nod. Sounded like Ken was doing his stuff. They
grabbed the door and opened it, Kay going low while Joe soared upwards.
Rolling to a crouching position, Kay stared. Gold hair streamed from the
black clad figure in the center of the room, whipping around it as he?
she? whirled in a deadly dance, black knives slicing Galactor Goons with
easy swiftness. [Where the *hell* is Ken?] Kay started to wonder, then
saw him in battle at the other end of the room. [Oh.]
	Kay raced forwards, grabbing a distracted Goon from behind and breaking
his neck. Relieving the corpse of its unneeded weapon, she aimed and
fired, missing her target entirely. [Oh damn! I forgot we used to use
lowest bidder on these things. The sight's off.] She test fired again,
this time coming closer, just as a gaggle of Goons turned her way.
[Better get it right this time.] At last she took out the first of the
gaggle. A few more shots killed several more, even as a whole bird's
worth of feathers pierced the throats and eyes of more Goons.
	It took less time then Kay expected for them to disable or kill enough
of the Goons to cause the remainder to turn tail and run. She hurried
forwards to where Ken was finishing off the last of his Goons and the
blonde stranger was coming to a slow, graceful, halt. Kay stared at the
stranger's face, for it seemed oddly familiar. Then she looked at the
body and realized that it was garbed in the same way A'Rynel had been.
She glanced around and saw the sliced through restraints that must have
contained the alien. "Rosari?"
	The blonde's knives disappeared, fading into nothing as s/he walked
towards Kay. "Yes." The blonde's voice was as familiar as hir face and
Kay wished she knew why. "You are the child."
	Kay stepped back, startled and more than just a little frightened. Why
was the alien looking at hir like that? A slow smile crossed Rosari's
face as s/he reached out and stroked Kay's cheek. "You've grown pretty."
	Breathing suddenly became very difficult for Kay. Why was Rosari acting
like s/he knew her? Before she could speak, however, Rosari paused and
another voice, more male in its tone, left hir lips, even as hir hair
shifted its color to jet black in a flash similar to that which
accompanied the Gatchaman transformations. "You're frightening her. Let
me handle this."
	"Of course, A'Rynel. She's yours too." Rosari's voice faded away and
dark eyes watched Kay with wary concern. "It's all right."
	Kay was about to demand an explanation when all hell broke loose.
***
	A howling wind buffeted Ken, almost knocking him to the ground. He
stared around, aware of the others doing much the same, and saw the wind
beginning to swirl into a funnel at the center of the room, picking up
smoke and dirt as it grew. He glanced at A'Rynel, the only one who
looked unsurprised. "What's going on?
	"They're coming." A'Rynel's black eyes gazed intently at the funnel.
"We must get out of here, before they come through." His voice trembled.
	"They?" Joe demanded, eyes also on the funnel. "Who are they?"
	"The twins." A'Rynel's lips tightened as hir hair flushed gold, the
black knives appearing in hir hands. Hir voice changed, became flat and
almost emotionless. "The Abominations."
	|ABOMINATIONS?| The voices that echoed out of the funnel sounded a bit
like Katze at hir maddest and echoed with Soosai X's own insanity. |WE
ARE THE CHOSEN ONES. WE ARE THE FUTURE. IT IS YOU WHO ARE UNNATURAL. 
WHO
REFUSE TO ADAPT AND GROW. IN THIS WORLD ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE. THE
AKAI ARE THE PAST. WE ARE THE FUTURE.|
	Ken glanced Katze's way. "Where have I heard that before?" he asked.
	Katze managed a brief, crooked, smile. "Soosai used to say that kind of
thing all the time. Where do you think I learned it?" Hir hands clenched
hir weapon tighter and hir lips had gone as white as her cheeks.
	|SILENCE, SELECTRO TOOL! WE ARE NOTHING LIKE THE MACHINE THAT TRIED 
TO
RECREATE YOU IN OUR IMAGE. WE ARE YOUR MASTERS. WE ARE THE MASTERS OF
ALL THAT LIVES. SUBMIT, AND WE WILL BE KIND. DEFY US - AND YOU WILL DIE
AS SELECTRO DIED.|
	Ken's brows drew together. This was beginning to sound altogether too
familiar. [Great. Another meglomaniac alien with delusions of grandeur.]
He glanced towards the escape hatch, giving Joe the signal that they
should be trying to get their butts out of there. He had a feeling they
weren't ready for whatever was making such a grand entrance.
	The funnel died away, revealing two figures standing straight and tall
at its center. Like A'Rynel/Rosarri, they were dressed in black body
suits that glittered as if all the stars were contained within. Unlike
the alien, however, their genders were more than just obvious, they were
clearly differentiated. The male stood at least a foot taller than
*Katze*, his black hair a wild mane pulled back in a short tail, the
drooping mustache and goatee accenting arrogantly handsome features. His
muscles stood out clearly under his bodysuit.
	The female, on the other hand, was slim and delicate, though no
shorter, her black hair surrounding her sweet features in a ebon halo.
Her breasts were full and marvelously shaped, and the curve of her hips
sent a sharp surge of feeling through Ken that he forced himself to
ignore. He did wish his uniform wasn't *quite* so tight, however.
	Once again they spoke. |SUBMIT, HUMANS. SUBMIT, AKAI. SUBMIT,
HALF-BREED. YOU CANNOT DEFEAT US.|
***
	Kay took several deep breaths as she stared up at the twins. Her body
was betraying her, becoming almost painfully aroused at the sight.
Something deep within her, the part so used to letting herself be ruled,
wanted to give in to these two. [It's just pherenomes,] she reminded
herself, aware of the faint scent that filled the air and - no doubt -
was giving the others a few things to think about. She resisted the urge
to pinch Joe, who was staring at the woman with his tongue hanging out.
[Next thing you know he'll start doing his imitation of Pepe LePew.]
	"You are not rulers," Rosarri stated in hir cool, flat, tones. "You are
insane." Kay glanced the alien's way. It didn't look like s/he was being
affected by whatever it was that the twins were using on them. "You need
help."
	|FOOL! DO YOU THINK BECAUSE YOU ARE OUR PARENT YOU MAY COMMAND 
US?| The
male raised his hand and a solid wave of star studded blackness knocked
Rosarri off hir feet. S/he fell several yards behind Kay and the others,
hir body curled around itself in obvious pain. |SILENCE. YOU >WILL< OBEY
US!|
	Kay narrowed her eyes. She'd felt the force of will behind that blow
and she wondered if she had even a remote chance of defeating it. She
could recognize a minor effort when she saw one. The male twin's power
was more than Soosai's had been and if the female were capable of equal
displays then they didn't have a hope of defeating the pair. They *had*
to get out of there.
	::Amba!:: Kay glanced upwards and saw that - somehow - Jackie had
managed to slip into the great chamber and was hanging from one of the
girders above them. She didn't know whether to laugh or scream at the
child to get down and she had to fight the longing to put Jackie over
her knee. Before she could do either Ken shouted, "Jackie, *run!*"
	Jackie ignored the Eagle, purple eyes meeting Kay's even as the female
twin started to raise her hand in hir direction. "Amba, they're only
partly here. You can fight them. I'll help!" Before the female could
attack hir, s/he dropped from the girder, landing with unnatural
lightness between Kay and Ken. Silently s/he grabbed Kay's hand.
	A surge of energy jolted through Kay, causing her entire body to
stiffen. Her eyes rolled up in her head as she fell to her knees,
fighting for control. Then she raised her face and glared at the twins.


PART 7
======
	Ken cried out as something surged out of Katze and launched itself at
the twins. Something in his mind was twisting awkwardly, trying to
respond to whatever energy Katze was using. He was struggling to
maintain command of his body and failing completely. He crumpled to the
ground as Joe shouted his name.
	Lost in a confused welter of sensations, tasting the sound of his
friend's voice - sour with fear and bitter with worry, Ken didn't even
want to think about what he was seeing. [This isn't real. It can't be
real.] He tried to find something familiar, something to hold onto, but
each time he thought he'd found solid footing it slipped away from him.
He was losing touch with his own body.
	"It's like this, Ken," the soft voice said in his ear. At the same time
he felt himself being gently guided into new positions. Slowly reality
returned to what he called normal and he opened his eyes, finding Joe
staring down into his face, expression going from terror to relief.
	Ken sat up, barely noticing the fragile fingers that fell away from his
temple. "Stop that, Joe. You want people to talk?" He forced Joe to
release him, turning to look at Katze, who was glaring at the twins, hir
child holding one hand, expression equally intent. Dimly, through a
curtain he sensed had been thrown over his mind, he could feel energies
churning around both pairs. Then he looked at A'Rynel, who he knew -
somehow - had helped him deal with whatever had happened. "What can we
do to help?"
	Silently A'Rynel gazed from Ken to Joe. "It will be risky. You have no
skill in protecting your Selves from a link." S/he smiled. "But -- I am
a healer and that much I *can* do." S/he raised hir hands - holding them
out to the pair. "Ken, you are at the greatest risk, for you are most
sensitive now. Yet your strength is also the greatest. Are you prepared
to take the risk?"
	Ken wasn't sure what A'Rynel meant, though he was beginning to guess.
Still, "Can't let those two win. They're worse trouble than Katze ever
was." He took the alien's hand, feeling the cool fingers curl around
his.
	"Joseph, take Ken's free hand. You have not enough power of your own,
only that augmented by the bracelet, but you are will be our link to
reality. Don't let yourself be distracted by anything."
	Joe looked at Ken, expression troubled, then nodded silently and
obeyed. "Let's do it."
***
	Fire and ice swirled together in a flood of starlight, brilliant in a
blackness deeper than space itself. It surged, flowing one direction,
then the other, stars exploding as they collided. 
	Deep within the darkness, Berg Katze was dying. Hir power wasn't great
enough to counteract such unfamiliar weapons and hir sense of Self was
slowly being eroded. S/he howled hir fury, fighting to regain ground,
but the twins kept shifting their attacks, first one, then the other, in
a bewildering array that s/he couldn't predict. S/he tried to reach the
child, to make it leave, but sensed stubborn resistance to the idea that
both gratified and terrified hir.
	Without warning there came another surge of energy, focusing itself
through the child. Blackness engulfed hir, massive galaxies glittering
within. Unquestioningly, Katze caught the darkness in hir mental grasp,
shaping it. Within hir Self, something responded, a tiny swirl of shadow
that combined with the larger and overlaid it, glittering against the
darkness like the wave pattern on a samurai's katana. Katze focused all
hir fear and anger into it, the despair and hatred and feelings of
betrayal that s/he'd kept under control for so long and lashed hir
enemies with the energy. The twins staggered under the attack, then
straightened, greater darkness surrounding them.
	::Katze!:: The voice was Washio Ken's but it echoed in hir mind, where
it did *not* belong. S/he tried to shake it off, but it was insistent.
::Katze, break their link with each other. Hurry!::
	Katze focused hir attention on the two, even as they shifted attacks
once again and the male buffetted hir with a wave of mental shadow. S/he
fought to stay on hir feet, eyes narrowing as s/he spotted the faint
thread of dark that lay between them. Every time they shifted attack it
pulsed brilliantly. S/he'd been blinded by their attacks until now.
Smiling, she went on the defensive, preparing hirself and hir weapon.
	The shift finally came, the male twin ceasing his attack and - in the
bare second before the female could begin - their link began to glow.
Katze screamed wordlessly and flung the mental spear straight for the
thread, ripping it apart.
	The twins screamed, their bodies wavering as starlight swirled around
them in a deadly tide. For a few seconds they struggled, then, glaring
their fury, they began to fade. |YOU HAVE ONLY WON THE FIRST BATTLE,
LITTLE SIBLING. WE WILL RETURN.|

PART 8
======
	Ken moaned and opened his eyes to find Jun's concerned face looking
down at him. The Swan's lips curved into a tremulous smile in response
to his own. "Hi pretty lady," he told her quietly. "What's up?" At least
I'm not strapped down, this time.
	Jun looked up and beckoned someone over, while Ken forced himself to a
seated position and looked around. He was back in the base hospital, his
last memories of fainting into A'Rynel's arms as the terror twins
disappeared. "I feel like I've been run over by a particularly large
elephant," he commented wryly to Nanbu as the professor came to his
side.
	"Well, that answers my question," Nanbu replied wryly. "You look like a
large elephant ran over you, too." He sat down beside the bed. "When
they carried you in I was afraid you'd had a relapse."
	Ken shook his head. "Katze coulda told you I'm harder than that to get
rid of." [Speaking of whom --]  he glanced around the sickbay.
"Where..."
	"Where are the others? Joe is with Jackie in the rec-room and Rosa
Lee's writing a report." Nanbu's voice hardened. "As for Dr. Valg, she's
in solitary confinement, where she'll remain until I've decided exactly
what to do about her."
	Ken nodded. There was a lot of explaning to be done. "Professor, don't
be too hard on her. She *was* trying to save her kid, after all."
	"I've taken that into account." Nanbu's eyes were unreadable. "As well
as other considerations." His eyes softened for a brief moment as he
looked at Ken. "I'll make sure you're there when I make that decision.
In the meantime, get some rest. From what Rosa Lee, I mean, A'Rynel
tells me, you've got a lot to adjust to."
***
	Kay leaned back in her cell, staring at the ceiling and silently
calculating the precise amount of explosive that would be required to
shatter the door. She didn't have anything of the sort, but the effort
kept her from being bored. [Too bored, that is. Damnit, Nanbu, shoot me,
hang me, electrocute me or bloody well let me go. I'm going stir-crazy.]
	The door opened, almost as if in answer to Kay's unspoken complaint and
a slight, blonde-haired, figure stepped in. The guard behind glanced in
at Kay curiously, then closed the door.
	Kay turned her head and watched as the blonde hair shifted color to
black and the thin face became thinner, almost elfish in its appearance.
A'Rynel smiled quietly. "Can we talk?"
	"What's there to talk about?" Kay asked rudely. "The fact that you're
my mother? The fact that I'm half-alien? The fact that you've been
missing from all my life and left me in Soosai's tender care?"
	A'Rynel sat down. "I knew you'd figure things out," s/he admitted. "But
there are things you don't understand and won't if you refuse to
listen."
	Kay sat up. This was - if nothing else - better than watching paint
peel. Especially since she was fairly sure the walls weren't painted.
"Well? I'm listening."
	A'Rynel's dark eyes gazed at Kay, taking in her face. "I was a prisoner
of war among Soosai's people. They used me in their experiments,
breeding me with selected genetic monstrosities, trying to combine their
physical strength with the Akai psionic abilities. They wanted slaves
they could use to take over my people. The twins are the result of
that."
	Kay sneered. "Such *lovely* children, too. Are they abominations
because of their separate genders?" She wasn't sure she liked that
attitude any better than the human response to her own nature.
	"They're abominations because they have no conciences, no understanding
of anyone's needs but their own. They are complete and utter
sociopaths," A'Rynel said sharply. "And they don't even have *your*
excuse of having been manipulated into it. They, and I, were rescued
before they were a week old. They were treated with love and respect in
the Fleet. They thanked us by blowing up one of the mother ships and
escaping back to the Selectro when they were ten years old."
	Looking in A'Rynel's eyes, Kay didn't have the heart to say anything.
Her parent's expression was bleak and unhappy. A'Rynel continued. "They
took me with them, but I escaped, using the stargate the Selectro had
been building to reach Terra. They'd long ago used up their own
resources, as well as those of the Akai homeworld. Earth would have been
next."
	"So you came to Earth. Then what?"
	"I crashed here a year or so before you were born and was captured by
the government." A'Rynel managed a wry smile. "Unfortunately, Soosai had
gotten here before me and he was already beginning the process of
setting Earth's government into a turmoil. He 'liberated' me for his own
use."
	"With my unlamented Daddy's help," Kay growled, eliciting a pained look
from his parent. "Rafael didn't do me any favors saving me from that
volcano. If he'd given a damn about me he'd have told me who he was. He
didn't want anyone to know he had a *freak* for a child."
	A'Rynel sighed. "Rafael helped Soosai because he really thought that
computerized maniac had Earth's interests at heart. He certainly hadn't
a clue what Soosai's real intentions were until it was far too late."
S/he looked away. "In any case, Soosai recognized my lifecraft and had
me stolen from the government laboratories. I didn't know who he was
either, so I was just glad to be rescued. I'd had quite enough of being
poked and prodded."
	"Soosai had a fair amount of mind power. Enough that, weak as I was
from the government's experiments, it was easy for him to control me. He
made me use my abilities to project a more human appearance, he made me
fall in love with your father, he made us marry and he made us have you.
It took me nearly the whole pregnancy to realize what he was doing to
you." A'Rynel touched Kay's cheek, causing the blonde to pull back.
	"I don't understand."
	"Kay, Akai healers like myself have the ability to interbreed with a
variety of different species. However, we always breed true unless
somebody deliberately fiddles with matters. You should have been exactly
like me, a functional hermaphrodite with some of the strengths of your
human blood. Instead, you're either male or female and almost never
both. The Selectro have always considered the Akai single gender to be a
sign of our racial perversion. Soosai, being created by them, tried to
do the same thing they'd done to the twins. If I hadn't come to my
senses in time, he would have succeeded." A'Rynel's eyes turned sad.
"I'm sorry, child. I was confused and angry and remembering what had
happened with the twins. I'd been certain you'd be just as bad. I
escaped Soosai somehow, ran away and did everything I could to put you
back together the way you should have been. All I succeeded in doing was
making things worse."
	Kay stared at A'Rynel, hands trembling. "You... you put me back
together..."
	"It had gone too far. You were almost completely separated by the time
I tried. I did what I could. When you were born I meant to stay with
you, to help you deal with the confusion. But Soosai found us and I was
injured in the fight. My Rosarri, or protector, took over. When I came
to conciousness, she'd been in control for over a year and we were
working for ISO as Rosa Lee. I found out that the technology from my
lifecraft had been used to build the God-Phoenix, among other things.
I've been working for Nanbu ever since. I found out about Jackie
accidently and it was s/he who told me about you."
	Rising to her feet, Kay turned away and leaned against one wall,
staring at the grey surface. "Then why didn't you tell me then?"
	"After everything that's happened to you, I was afraid you'd reject
me." A'Rynel's voice was low and unhappy. "I don't blame you for being
angry over everything that's happened. I failed you miserably."
	"I can't think of you as my parent, A'Rynel. Or is it Amba?" Kay
glanced sideways at her companion, recalling that it had been almost a
month and a half after she'd placed Jackie in the special orphanage that
s/he'd started calling her that name. She'd assumed it to be a made up
word to take the place of mother or father, but now?
	"Amba, yes." A'Rynel's dark eyes met Kay's with a calm solemnity so
like Jackie's that Kay nearly caught her breath. "And no. I don't expect
you to feel that way. I haven't been either protecting or nurturing
parent to you. Fate hasn't permitted that." S/he sighed. "I'm sorry."
	With a deep sigh, Kay shook his head. "If I blame you for the things
Soosai did to you, or anyone else, for that matter, I'd have to take
more blame for what I've done." She managed a sour laugh. "I'm not quite
prepared to do that, yet." She gestured around her cell. "But I don't
think we should be making any plans for resolving old business just now.
I may not be around much longer."
	A'Rynel looked at Kay steadily and nodded. "What of Jackie? The
orphanage is too badly damaged for the survivors to return to for at
least a year. What do you want done about hir?"
	Kay sat down. That had been one of her biggest worries. Joe, she knew,
was taking care of the kitling for the moment, but it was obvious from
what had happened that the team was going to be pretty damned busy in a
bit. He didn't want to leave Jackie in Nanbu's hands. Not when the
professor still though of Berg Katze as an *it*. "Will you take care of
hir? S/he seems to like you. It's better than letting Nanbu get his
Gatchaman-building fingers on hir."
	"I believe I can convince the professor of the justice of such a thing,
if it should become necessary."

Okay, folks, this is it. The prequel to this will be out soon (I hope),
just as soon as its author gets it finished.

Legion

PS. Those w. missing episodes or who want a MS-Write version of this,
please let me know.

-------

PART 9
======
	"I've considered this matter for a long time," Professor Nanbu said,
leaning back in his office chair and ignoring the softly muttered,
'you've taken you're own sweet time, you mean,' from the blonde man
sitting in the chair across from him. Ken gave Katze a sharp squeeze on
the shoulder to shut him up and received a glare in return. Nanbu
coughed. "While stealing one of the base ships was out of line, it was
an understandable course of action, given that you didn't want me to
know about your child. I question your choice of ships..."
	"The G-1 was the first thing I saw," Katze shrugged. "It wasn't as if I
was terribly concerned about discretion, by that time."
	"Didn't have to get it all scratched up by landing it in the trees,"
Ken pointed out. He'd been a bit miffed to realize that Katze had
managed to ruin the paint job on *both* of the G-1's forms. "I thought
you knew how to fly."
	Katze gave Ken a sharp look. "I didn't have any clear landing fields.
You're just lucky I didn't drop it into the lake."
	Before Ken could respond, Nanbu coughed for attention. "The fact that
you failed to notify me about Jackie, had even been sneaking off base to
see it -- " he noted Joe's glare from the side and shifted
uncomfortably. "*hir*," he corrected himself. "is also understandable.
Especially since it seems Jun was accompanying you on your -- jaunts."
He gave the Swan a sharp look while she tried to look innocent and
failed. "It would, I suppose, be too much to have expected you to trust
me."
	Katze smiled that deadly dangerous smile and leaned slightly forward.
"Precisely. I'm not having you turn my child into another
goody-two-shoes world-saving hero. I'm not having you make hir hate me,
no matter *what* I've done to deserve it." The blue eyes went narrow and
Ken recalled being on the receiving end of that cold glare with an
internal shudder. "I most especially am not having hir think hirself a
freak because you can't conceive of any physical state but human
standard as being acceptable."
	Nanbu sighed, taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his
nose. "Those points have been made by Rosa Lee," he said finally,
glancing ruefully in A'Rynel's direction. Ken had heard some of alien's
alternate personality's lecture and was very glad not to have been on
the receiving end of it. Nanbu continued, "You don't need to re-iterate
them." He looked at Katze again, replacing the lenses. "However, listen
to me carefully, old enemy. You've been here on sufferance and you still
are. I'm not prepared to have you executed, yet. Not when Joe might have
need of your services. Besides, there's one other thing I need you to
do."
	"And why should I do anything for you?" Katze's sour demand made Ken
shake his head, wondering if the former Galactor *wanted* to be killed.
	"Because, it's the price for your life - don't snort, I don't think you
really want to die - and for your being permitted to leave the base."
The other occupants started, staring at Nanbu as if he'd gone stark
raving mad. "With the caveat that you will move to a safe house in a
location *I* determine and someone be placed there as your guard. Your
child will also live at this house, since I believe you are probably the
best possible person to help protect it... I mean *hir*." This time both
Ken and Joe glared at Nanbu and the older man had the grace to look
embarrassed.
	"Just because I'm Jackie's amba doesn't make me the right person to
raise hir," Katze said with asperity and Ken wondered if he really was
picking up a faint edge of fear in hir tones. "I'm concerned enough
about the child, but..."
	Nanbu raised a hand. "I'm not expecting you to raise... hir. I don't
think you're a good mother - or father - either. But you won't hurt the
child and you won't let anyone else do so either. The same person
guarding you will be guarding the child too. As for nurturing - A'Rynel
has already volunteered to handle that function."
	Katze slumped slightly. "What if I refuse?"
	Ken looked at the mutant, wondering why s/he didn't want to let Nanbu
do this. [S/he's afraid], he realized, seeing the way Katze's lips
paled. At first he wasn't certain what could be so terrifying about
being practically freed, but then he remembered that sometimes slaves
feared freedom more than their old, familiar, chains. "Kay," he said,
"you can't sit in a cage all your life."
	The blue eyes turned on Ken, chilling in their glacier intensity. Ken
returned the gaze calmly, directly, willing Katze to understand what he
was trying to say. Finally Katze sighed, "Even if the cage is the
closest thing to safety I've had in a long while?"
	Ken went into a crouch beside hir chair, suddenly understanding. "Kay,
you know as well as *I* do that there's a price for safety. You don't
want to die, you chafe at the chains Nanbu had on you. Are you telling
me you didn't enjoy breaking out and stealing the G-1? We both know you
could have had your pick of the other aircraft in the bay."
	For a brief moment the blue eyes flared with bright, wicked, humor.
"You have me there," Katze admitted softly. "But you know I always like
the very best."
	"We'll discuss *that* later," Ken replied. "The question is, if you
want a measure of freedom, as well as what protection ISO *can* give
you, then isn't accepting Hakase's offer the best thing you can do?"
	Katze sighed and turned back to Nanbu. "What do you want me to do, if I
agree to this?"
	"I want you to help Ken." As both Ken and Katze stared at the
professor, he sighed. "Ken, one of the reasons you, and the others, were
particularly *right* for being members of the team is that you all have
relatively minor psi-talents. Up till now, those talents were close to
dormant, used only to aid the transformation from your civilian
appearances - and those of your ship's - to their battle state."
	Nanbu turned to look at A'Rynel, who continued, "The technology for
your equipment was created based on what the Professor learned from my
lifecraft. When he first worked on it, he didn't understand why only
certain types of minds could manage to utilize the technology, but he
was able to classify those best suited to do so." S/he shrugged a
little. "I believe that Alverson's drug somehow activated the parts of
your brain which control psionic ability, pushed it into overdrive.
You've become a functioning psi, just as Jackie, Kay and myself are."
	Now it was Ken's turn to be frightened. "Isn't there a way to turn it
*off*?" he demanded. "I don't need the headaches."
	Katze shook hir head. "We could burn out your brain, I suppose, but
then you couldn't be Gatchaman and there's a damned good chance you'd go
insane. I *might* find that amusing, but I'm reasonably certain I'd be
the only one."
	Ken started to glare at Katze, only to - briefly - catch what seemed
like a muttered, ::Poor son of a bitch!:: from hir. It occured to him
that Katze, at least the one before him right now, was at hir most snide
and sharp-tongued when s/he was trying to hide hir real feelings. "No,
Ken. The only thing we can do is teach you to control it. And you *have*
to learn, or you're going to go into convulsions *every* time someone
uses psi in your immediate vicinity for anything more powerful than
scratching their ass."
	Ken couldn't help it. "Is *that* what you use it for?" he wondered.
"Explains a lot about you, Kay."
	Katze snerked, about to speak, but Nanbu said, sharply, "Will you stop
that?" As both jumped and looked up like guilty school children, he
sighed. "Well? Are you agreeable to that?"
	"Can't imagine Kay agreeable in any circumstance -- well, maybe one --"
Ken replied, eliciting a sudden, delighted, grin from the former
Galactor as s/he gave Joe a quick glance. Ken noted the Condor had
suddenly gone completely speechless, staring out the window with intent
and patently false interest. "What'sa'matter, Joe? Cat got your tongue?"
	Katze started to giggle helplessly as Joe's cheeks turned the brightest
red Ken had ever seen them and he muttered, "K'so!" Nanbu's mouth worked
like a fish learning to be an amphibian and failing, and even A'Rynel
looked amused. Finally Nanbu drew in a deep breath. "I thought Joe was
bad enough, without *you* getting an attitude too. Do you think you
could give me a straight answer?"
	For some reason that only made things worse for Katze. Hir blonde hair
fell forward around hir face as s/he buried hir head in hir hands and
howled. Ken somehow resisted the urge to say "I'm not the one who
fathered a child on Berg Katze," and instead shrugged. "Okay,
Professor." He glanced at Katze. "I'll cooperate as long as *s/he*
does."
	Nanbu obviously made an effort to ignore Katze's laughter, though he
was clearly losing control of the situation. "Very well," he said,
decisively, "I'll get things set up."
***
EPILOGUE:
	Kay sat back with a sigh of relief, taking a long sip from the glass of
wine beside him, listening to the sound of his child and hir father
chasing each other outside in the yard. He shook her head, Joe was going
to teach Jackie a lot of bad habits, he was certain of that much. As a
father he was absolutely untrustworthy. Still, they seemed to enjoy each
other's company.
	Looking around, Kay sighed. The new house was an utter and complete
mess, with boxes stacked from floor to ceiling in some corners. Most of
those boxes hadn't been opened in years, but Joe had insisted they be
moved in, even though he never used any of their contents. As for the
kitchen -- Kay was damned glad A'Rynel was taking that over. He didn't
want to even think about cleaning the mess up. At least A'Rynel seemed
to enjoy it, or s/he wouldn't be in there even now. Kay could hear hir
busily sweeping and mopping, singing softly in the Akai language.
	You'd think Nanbu could have put a bit more money into getting a decent
place, though, she thought. Although he put a lot into the lab in the
basement and the workroom and the security system... I suppose it is
better for us to be living in apparent squalor. It's certain Berg Katze
wouldn't choose a place like this, in the 'Burgh, of hir own free will.
	Reminded of the workroom, Kay decided to head down and see how Ken was
progressing with his exercises. The Eagle was a more cooperative student
than he'd expected, but it wasn't easy to teach someone what one had
always used instinctively. Actively moving things with the force of his
mind seemed easy enough but shielding, particularly from unexpected
psychic influences, was still escaping him. At least he wasn't going
into fits anymore. Between A'Rynel and Kay, they'd been able to prevent
that much.
	Opening the door to the workroom, Kay looked in at the Gatchaman
leader, standing behind him quietly as he struggled to maintain a shield
against the candle flame pressed against his bare hand. Cautiously,
knowing he'd be pissed if he burned himself, Kay stretched out his
thoughts and brushed at the Eagle's mind lightly.
	Reaction was immediate. Ken leaped up into the air and spun around. At
the same time a small flare of energy lashed out at Kay - automatically
blocked by his own shields. Kay sniffed and looked down, blinking at his
trousers, which had suddenly begun billowing a cloud of tallow-scented
smoke. "Mind if I smoke?" he asked, concentrating and blowing the stuff
away.
	Ken took a deep breath. "Er. Sorry."
	"Don't be. It's a better reaction than dropping to the ground and
biting your tongue off." Kay shook his head. "But we have a long way to
go." He sat down opposite him. "You must concentrate, grasshopper. Do
not look at the finger pointing at the moon or you will lose all that
heavenly glory. Now, let's try that again. This time with feeling."

The End