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katblu42 · 2 years ago

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Signals

A (Kagaku Ninja Tai) Gatchaman fic written for the Secret Santa gift exchange in 2017. The prompt I was given tasked me with giving Joe and Jun a moment alone, lost on an island with time to reflect on their hopes and fears, and a possibility of romance between them.

I hope there is an audience for this fic here. I loved writing this, and the challenge of shipping these two (who I'd never really considered would end up together) pushed me to write something I was quite proud of.

It is fairly long at just over 14000 words, so this is just the first part. Rated G Minor injury Minor character death budding romance (I've tagged with Battle of the Planets as some fans may recognise enough familiar content to follow the story.)

Signals (link to AO3)

Four birdlike shadows flashed across the stainless steel wall of the compound. Two streaked left and disappeared behind pallets piled high with boxes, while the other two headed right and vanished into the darkness between the dimly lit doorways.

“This doesn’t look like the stolen electronics components,” Ken whispered.

“No,” Jun agreed, “it seems more like catering supplies.”

“I guess even Galactor have to eat.”

“Hey, kid, what’d you see?” Joe prompted Jinpei after a brief reconnoitre.

“First door leads to bathrooms, second one looks like kitchens,” the youngster responded. “You?”

“Last door looks like it leads to living quarters. Door three’s the winner – stairs leading down.” He grinned a mirthless grin, then spoke into his bracelet. “G2 to G1. I think we’ve found the way in.” There was no response.

“Aniki?” Jinpei tried whispering into his own communicator. “Should we go in?”

“Comms are down. They must be jamming us,” Joe surmised. “Go see if you can find them. I’ll stay here.”

“What’s taking Joe and Jinpei so long?” wondered Jun. “We should have heard something by now.”

“G1 to G2. Found anything? . . . Joe?” Ken waited but received no answer. “No response. Do you think they could be jamming us?”

“Yep!” Jinpei popped his head around the corner of the stack of boxes, then continued as he joined his teammates. “That’s what Joe thinks too. There’s a way down over there. Come on!”

“Hold on,” Ken grabbed the young swallow’s cowl and held him back. “We need to try contacting Ryu before we get any deeper into the base.”

“Are you kidding?” Jinpei turned to Jun. “Does he really expect to be able contact to Ryu out there in the God Phoenix when we can’t even get a signal in here?”

“G5, this is G1. Do you copy?” Ken spoke into his bracelet. “G5, do you read?”

“He’s not expecting an answer, but you know we have to try,” Jun reminded him. “It’s procedure. And the God Phoenix has signal boosters.”

Just then Joe dropped down from the top of one of the taller stacks to join the others.

“I guess we can’t call in the cavalry?” Joe’s question was answered by a shake of Ken’s head. “The jamming device must be somewhere in the base. Last time we contacted Ryu we were less than a hundred meters away from where we are now.”

“Maybe I can find a way to detect the device,” Jun suggested as she opened her bracelet’s faceplate.

“Good idea,” Ken agreed. “We get in, Jinpei and I will find the stolen equipment, you and Joe find and neutralise the jamming device. Twenty minute time limit – if communications haven’t been restored by then we get out and blow the base.”

“We won’t have that long if we go now,” Joe said, ominously. “There’s a lot of activity over there now. Change of shift, meal time or something.”

A five minute wait allowed the foot traffic around the stairs to die down while Jun found a signal that could be the jamming device, and a way to track its location.

The four ninjas made it down the long flight of stairs without needing to deal with more than a half dozen Galactor infantry. The staircase opened out to a wide intersection of corridors. They’d seen similar layouts before and could make educated guesses as to which direction to head in to find what they were looking for.

“Signal seems strongest this way.” Jun indicated the corridor leading straight ahead of the stairs.

“Twenty minutes,” Ken reminded them, then took off down the corridor on the left with Jinpei close behind.

The corridor Jun and Joe needed to take appeared to be a main artery through the base. It was wide with a high ceiling and doors leading off either side at regular intervals. A suspended catwalk allowing access to the corridor lights and air ducts ran above the centre of the corridor. Joe suggested they’d encounter less goons if he and Jun traversed the catwalk. Progress was slightly cautious to prevent the suspended lights from swinging as they walked. All the while the signal Jun was following became stronger. The end of the corridor brought them to a large set of interlocking, sliding steel doors.

“Whatever we’re looking for is through there,” Jun whispered.

“Looks like it has a keypad lock, that’ll mean we need a code.” Joe groaned at the prospect. “That door will be too thick to drill through or torch – it’ll take too long.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky,” Jun smiled and nodded towards a pair of Galactor soldiers approaching the doors.

Sure enough, they stopped at the doors and the taller of the two punched a series of numbers into the keypad. As the huge doors slid apart the two men started to walk through, and Jun and Joe swooped. Quick as a flash, a streak of pink and another of blue descended from the catwalk and flew through the doors. The two Galactor goons never knew what hit them – both were out of action before the double doors had closed again.

Jun and Joe found themselves inside a large hangar. Technicians and mechanics in Galactor uniforms, and small service vehicles moved about the vast space. An enormous, somewhat bird-shaped aircraft occupied the centre of the domed area. A kind of mezzanine level jutted three meters out of the side walls about ten meters above floor level, extending three quarters of the way around the room, leaving a semi-circular hangar door at the far end.

After dragging the hapless goons out of sight, Joe and Jun crouched beside equipment racks against the side wall and took stock of their surroundings.

“What is that?” Joe asked, indicating the massive, blue-ish metal aircraft with a nasty looking long, thin, slightly curved beak. “Some kind of wading bird?”

“I don’t know,” Jun replied distractedly, “but the jamming device is probably somewhere on board.”

At that moment an alarm started blaring.

“Jinpei and Ken!” Jun gasped.

“. . . can take care of themselves,” Joe reassured her. “But if I’m not mistaken, we’re gonna have to hurry this up.”

The amount of activity in the hangar (and by the sound of it, on the mezzanine level above them) began to increase as uniformed soldiers began responding to the alarm. Orders were being barked, weapons collected and readied for action, and likely locations for the intruders suggested; “The Command Centre!” . . . “the plant room” . . . “The power generator!”

“Do you think they found the stolen components?” Jun whispered.

“I think they found trouble.”

“Then maybe we should go and help them.”

“The best way for us to help would be to get inside that . . . thing and find the jamming device.” Joe studied her expression for a moment. He hoped his own concern for Ken and Jinpei was not as obvious, but he could also see determination behind that golden visor. She nodded, doing her best to put aside her unease.

There were now less technicians and mechanics in the hangar, but there was still some activity audible above them. Guards could be seen posted at entrances on the mezzanine, but they were focussing their attention away from the hangar floor.

“Looks like now’s our best chance,” Joe suggested before heading off in a blue streak across the hangar and concealing himself behind one of the long, folded metal legs of the giant bird. Jun quickly followed.

The main hatch and ramp was closed, but a small opening in the bird’s hull, designed to allow maintenance access, had been left open in the rush to respond to the alarm. The ladder had been removed, but a five meter, near-vertical leap was no challenge for the two ninjas.

Just as Joe made his landing inside the iron bird, and Jun was preparing to jump, the vibrations and muffled sounds of an explosion somewhere within the base shook them. Jun fought the urge to look for the source of the detonation and instead focussed her energy into her leap, and soon joined Joe in a narrow space running uphill towards the bird’s left wing. They couldn’t fit side by side, and Joe had to stoop to keep from hitting his head. The tunnel was designed to give maintenance crews access to control cables, electrical circuits and crawl spaces between mechanical sections.

Another, slightly louder explosion and the sound of distant gunfire reached their ears.

“We need to hurry,” Joe grumbled and began making his way up the access tunnel.

“I wish I knew what was going on,” Jun complained.

“Then we’d better find this thing and disable it so we can get hold of Ken and ask him!” Joe shot back as he continued up the tunnel, leaving Jun little choice but to follow.

They had made about ten meters of steady progress when another alarm began to sound. A different tone from the earlier one. The maintenance hatch Jun and Joe had entered through clanged shut below and behind them. Sounds of running feet and voices made their way nearer and the loud, mechanical cacophony of the main belly hatch mechanism clunked to life, culminating in the gritty clang and grind of the ramp hitting the hangar floor.

Jun took a breath to steady her pounding heart, and consulted her bracelet to try and get a fix on the location of the jamming device. They had to be pretty close.

“We need to make our way up and to the right,” she stated in a far less panicky tone than she felt.

“Then we’ll need to check out these side shafts,” Joe suggested.

Footsteps and voices were now evident both inside and outside the mecha. A distinctly metallic screeching sound indicated the opening of the main hangar doors. Servos began clicking as the mecha’s systems started to come online, engines whined into their warm-up sequence. Preparations for take-off had begun.

“Okay,” Joe backed out of one of the side shafts. “Not that way! By the sound of it, that leads to an engine.”

“This one!” Jun exclaimed from another shaft a little further up.

The side tunnel she had found led a short distance into a small room lined with shelves and racks stocked with tools and spare parts. Joe crawled through into the room and stood at his full height for the first time since they’d entered the mecha, then strode straight over to the door at the other end of the room and listened.

“. . . base is compromised, Lord Katse has set the self-destruct. As soon as he is aboard we’ll take off . . .”

As he turned to face Jun he saw her expression change to one of alarm and Joe realised his own expression was a mix of surprise and concern. He relayed the overheard information to her.

“Then we need to get out of here,” she responded. “We have to warn Ken and Jinpei!”

“They will have figured it out by now,” Joe reassured her. “They’ll find a way out of the base. Right now our best chance of escape is to stay aboard this mecha. If Katse is using it as a lifeboat then it’s a guaranteed safe ride out.”

“Then what? Our comms are still down. The others won’t know where we are.”

“We stick to the plan – find the jamming device and disable it. Then we can contact the others and . . .” he trailed off in thought. “Maybe we can track Katse back to Galactor’s headquarters.”

“And what if we can’t disable it? Or if we can’t find it? Or if we’re discovered and . . .”

“Then we blow this thing to pieces and hope for a soft landing.”

Just then the engine noise increased and the mecha lurched as it moved into take-off position. The belly hatch ramp could be heard retracting and closing. There was a large explosion somewhere close by, perhaps even within the hangar. Another change in engine note and a sudden jolt accompanied the take off. The bird mecha barely cleared the hangar entrance as a massive fiery explosion blasted out of the base. The shockwave and turbulence sent the aircraft lurching and rocking, causing badly restrained equipment to fly in all directions about the storeroom. A large tool chest began to topple.

“Jun!” Joe warned as he staggered and struggled to stay upright amid the aircraft’s erratic movements.

Jun tried to leap clear of the heavy chest as it fell, but she was off balance and struggling to find her footing. As she jumped the mecha pitched sideways violently and her right ankle buckled beneath her. The tool chest crashed to the floor, narrowly missing her feet on its way down and her way up. She landed heavily in a half-kneeling position next to Joe with a grunt and a grimace of pain.

They rode out the rest of the turbulence in silence, concentrating on staying balanced and clear of further falling objects. Then as the mecha’s flight began to level out into clear air, Joe reached out to help Jun to her feet.

“You okay?”

Jun kept hold of Joe’s arm as she tested her weight on her right foot.

“Aaaaah!” She hopped a little on her left foot. “No! I don’t think anything’s broken, but I can’t put much weight on it.”

“Okay,” he said, slowly, “so, you stay here. Show me how to track this jamming device and I’ll go find it. Then I’ll come back here and we’ll get out the way we came in. Moving through these tunnels is too slow for my liking, but it’s a more discreet option than using the main corridors.”

She considered his plan for a moment. She didn’t much like the idea of sitting around helplessly, wondering if Joe was having any luck. The chances of him finding it without drawing unwanted attention were too slim.

“No,” she asserted, a look of steely determination in her emerald eyes as she fixed them on his. “Let’s go with Plan B – blow this thing to pieces!”

He held her gaze a while, discerning how much of this was pain talking and how much was about wanting to know if Jinpei and Ken were okay. He could see that she wanted this over quickly, but she was looking at the options. If they destroyed the mecha it might destroy the jamming device as well.

“Alright,” Joe sighed and gave a nod. “What kind of charges have you got?”

He and Jun took stock of their combined stash of explosives and timing devices, discussed what little they knew so far of the mecha’s structure, propulsion system and dimensions, and came up with a plan of action. Joe would need to leave Jun on her own for a while, but there was little chance of either of them being detected while he was gone. Jun handed over the two small, but powerful devices she’d assembled. All Joe would need to do was place them and set the timers.

Joe returned to the maintenance tunnel and followed it upward, looking for a lateral corridor that would cross over to the other side. Just as Jun had predicted a cramped tunnel, presumably somewhere close to the bird’s shoulders provided access to a central power cell which supplied most of the ship’s critical systems. It was likely the path he had just travelled would be mirrored on the other side of the ship.

It took only a few minutes for Joe to secure the explosive device directly to the power cell, set the timer and make his way back to Jun. Together they made their way back through the maintenance tunnel toward the small hatch in the hull where they had come in. On the way Joe ducked into the side shaft he’d found earlier and set the second explosive device close to the engine, this one on a shorter timer.

They were delayed slightly by the seal on the exit hatch. Jun used a small charge to blow the electronic lock and they were able to drop through and freefall clear of the giant metal bird, just as the timer on the first explosive reached zero.

As two sets of Birdstyle wings unfurled the dull crump and thud of the first explosion caused the steel bird to buckle outwards between the metal wings. Joe began to ride the air currents, searching for a place to land on one of the small islands dotting the Pacific Ocean below them. He spotted a likely candidate and looked back to check that Jun was following as he directed his glide towards it. The second explosive detonated, causing a fireball and black smoke to belch from the engine behind the mecha’s left wing. The ugly steel bird was losing altitude, breaking apart and beginning to tumble as further explosions flashed across its body. The spindly legs were among the first large pieces to break away, along with large sheets of the outer casing and smaller pieces of flaming debris.

The long, narrow curved beak detached and plunged into the ocean as the spherical head launched away from the elongated neck and steered up and away. It had to be Katse’s escape vessel.

Checking over his shoulder at regular intervals to watch for debris, and to ensure Jun was still close by, Joe glided above the wooded area of the island and started descending toward a long stretch of beach. Dodging various jagged pieces of hot metal jutting out of the sand, he touched down gently in the soft, white sand close to the trees. Knowing Jun would find landing difficult with an injured ankle, he immediately turned to check her position. Following her trajectory, he ran along the beach to meet her at her landing point.

Jun glided in to land, seeing Joe waiting to assist. She touched her left foot down and allowed her momentum to take her forward towards Joe’s waiting arms so that she didn’t have to put weight on her right foot as she put the toe of her boot onto the sand. She held Joe’s right forearm and left shoulder as she steadied herself, and looked up to meet his concerned gaze.

“Thanks, Joe”

At that moment the largest remaining section of the bird mecha, which had only remained in the air this long through the sheer determination of a small Galactor flight crew who were desperately hoping against all hope that they may somehow survive this catastrophe, finally succumbed to its fate and crashed into the ocean in a dramatic and bright ball of flame. Joe closed his eyes and turned his head against the irritation of the flash of light. Jun turned to study the colour and shape of the flames and smoke on the horizon, analysing the probable cause of the aircraft exploding on impact the way it did.

The bright flash faded to an orange glow and began to disappear as the smoke billowed, rose and dissipated. Joe, no longer irritated by the light, turned back towards the crash site.

“I guess that’s it. Now we’ll never figure out what it was meant to be.”

“I think it was an ibis,” Jun informed him, “although I’m not sure why they decided to paint it blue.” She shifted her position slightly with an awkward pivot and a limping half step.

“Here, let me take a look at that ankle.” Joe indicated a nearby fallen tree trunk and gently guided Jun over to it, lending a hand to help her sit. Kneeling at her feet, he took her right foot in his hands. “This isn’t going to be easy, but we need to get this boot off.”

“It’ll be easier if I transform out of Birdstyle,” Jun offered.

“Check your communicator,” Joe suggested. “Can you contact the others?”

“What? Why?” Jun responded with appropriate confusion, raising her bracelet to follow Joe’s instruction.

“Just try it.” Joe had that look that said he was thinking two steps ahead and waiting for her to catch up.

“G3 to G1. Do you read me, Commander? . . . Jinpei? Ryu? Do you copy?” There was no response.

“Comms are still jammed. That means the device is still active and somewhere nearby.” Joe watched Jun as she concentrated on where this train of thought was going. “There is a chance that there are survivors from the crash who could also be monitoring our transformation frequency. It’s a slim chance, but do you want to risk it?”

Since Galactor had gained the knowledge of the team’s transformation frequency some months back Dr Nambu had cautioned them all to be even more careful of when and where they transformed.

“No,” Jun conceded. “But how did you know our communications were still down?”

“I know Ken,” Joe grinned. “As soon as that jamming device is out of action we’ll hear him chirp.” The grin faded as Joe began to concentrate on the job at hand. “Okay, you ready?”

Jun gave a nod and manoeuvred her foot as best she could while Joe gently eased the long, white boot off, revealing her reddened, swollen ankle. She found herself marvelling at the gentle touch of his hands, the tender care he took as he had her test the range of movement, and that mixture of calm, controlled confidence, and pure concern in his eyes each time he looked up at her to ask a question. It didn’t take long to determine the injury was most likely to be a sprain, albeit a nasty one. Joe reached into a pouch on his belt and brought out a compression bandage. She watched in silence as those hands that she knew could be deadly when necessary expertly wound the bandage around her ankle with such gentleness.

“You’re good at that,” she remarked as he finished pinning the bandage in place. He gave her a bemused look. “The first-aid thing. You have excellent field dressing skills.”

He found himself unsure of how to react, so he smirked, shrugged and adopted his best doctor-ish voice. “Well, without ice to bring the swelling down you will have to make sure you rest and elevate that ankle.”

“I’ll rest it when we get back to the God Phoenix.” Jun’s expression changed to one of resolve as she reached for her boot. “Right now we need to find that jamming device.”

(Read the rest on AO3)

#science ninja team gatchaman #gatchaman #joe asakura #jun (gatchaman)#fanfiction #joe/jun #battle of the planets

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