Cut to Julia and Romina standing in the doorway of a plane, waving to cheering people.



At the back of the cheering crowd is Illya, who smirks nastily and walks away. But he doesn’t notice someone watching him.



Wow, I guess these Birdstyles really are inconspicuous!

But I guess the man did notice. As soon as he is out of Joe’s sight he dashes away, and even though Joe is running to catch him again, the Condor loses Illya.

“Damn, where’d he go?” Joe asks.



But then he spots a jeep moving away fast. So what does Joe do? He jumps off the roof of the building that he is standing on! Joe lands in time to get a good look at the man in the jeep.

“That’s him.” Joe mutters.



So Joe jumps into the nearest car.



He ignores the others as they rush up to him.



Joe takes off!

“Just let him go.” Ken tells Jun. “We’ve gotta guard those two!” He has a point. Their mission, after all, was to guard Julia and Romina.

The young lovers’ plane is racing down the runway. It takes off. But the jeep and the Condor (in his borrowed car) are leaving the airport. Soon both cars are headed out into the desert. Joe is determined to catch his man!



As Joe drives, his bracelet lights up. Ken asks him ‘what’s up’. Joe’s not happy about the interruption.



“Where’d you go?” Ken asks from the bracelet. “We’re supposed to be guarding Romina and Julia!”



“Look, I’m sorry, Ken, but there’s something I’ve gotta check out first.” Joe says, rather politely.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Ken wants to know.

“I don’t have time to explain, Ken!” Joe shouts in irritation, as the jeep races away, and the chase music begins to play. Of course, Illya has clearly noticed Joe following him by now. He speeds up. Joe calls him a bastard, and speeds up too. He jumps the car over some rocks, but this vehicle is clearly not up to his usual standards, because it doesn’t quite make it. The car is slightly damaged and spinning out of control. Joe has to jump for safety!



The car smashes into a rock and explodes, but Joe is okay.

“Aw, damn it!” he swears, as he looks at the burning wreckage



Meanwhile, Julia and Romina’s plane is flying to an unknown honeymoon destination. It is being followed by the God Phoenix. I guess Ryu has his time to shine now!

On the plane, Julia’s bouquet of flowers seems to have grown large enough to practically cover her entire lap. Romina puts his hand over Julia’s. She smiles at him and lays her head on his shoulder, thinking about how happy she is.



A stewardess comes in and sees the young couple smiling at each other. She offers them a wide selection of bagged peanuts and pretzels.



Romina thanks her and she cocks her head in a very unnatural way. Then she twists her pin and there is a metallic gleam… uh oh.



Suddenly, her clothes fall off, revealing a robot body underneath!



Her face disappears (to be replaced by an ugly, manly robot face) and the two sides of her body open up as Romina and Julia hold each other and cry out in fear.



I guess there are no other passengers? Because there’s no one else around who seems to be reacting to this strange event.

The robot’s arms reach out to grab the couple.



And they are stuffed inside of the robot’s body!



Okay, finally we see other horrified passengers screaming, as the robot becomes a rocket (yep, this is one serious Galactor Transformer) and literally blasts off from the aisle of the plane!



The other passengers are caught in the blast. Cut from BOTP:



And the entire plane blows up, right in front of the God Phoenix, much to Ken’s horror.



“What the hell?” Ken cries.
“Jeez, that plane just blew up!” Ryu shouts angrily. “A rocket just flew out of it!” Jun reports.



Ken orders Ryu to follow the rocket. As he does, as we head off to a commercial break.

You know, every time I see that gold-plated Ken on the commercial break screen, I think it’s the Utoland version of an Oscar. He’s just got that ‘statuette’ look…

Anyhow, when we return, the rocket is still streaming away and the God Phoenix is following it. But apparently it is getting away, and Ken urges Ryu to hurry.

“Yeah, I’m tryin’!” Ryu snaps back.



Jun reports that they have lost the rocket on radar.



Jinpei isn’t too happy about this.



“Damn, those bastards got away!” he shouts.
I guess no one had luck catching their Galactor foes today.
Meanwhile in some secret Galactor base, Illya is supervising Romina and Julia, who are encased in metal boxes.



“This one’s all great.” he says. “I’ll turn these two into cyborgs and keep their outward appearances so no one suspects a thing! Then I’ll be able to manipulate them and force Bien and Ameria into conflict again!”
Okay, I admit, it’s a decent plan, but why did Illya (if that’s really who he is) go to the airport? What was the point? It just alerted the Science Ninja Team to his presence.
Machinery moves, lights whirl, and there are weird sounds. Illya is happy.



“That’s right! Come on baby!” Illya crows. “I’ll finally show them all the wrath of Galactor! No one can stop me! My plan’s flawless!”

Hmm…. I’m having suspicions as to this guy’s identity…

In the meantime, the God Phoenix is picking Joe up in the desert.



“That joker’s gotta be around here somewhere!” Joe mutters.



“You know, I think we lost the rocket on radar around here too.” Jun adds.

Right on cue, Jinpei and Ryu appear over a rise.

“Hey, Big Bro, come check out this weird building over here!” Jinpei calls.

Hmmm…. near a Galactor base, a weird building in the middle of the desert… are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Ken agrees to look. Ken, Joe and Jun run off to see the building.



The building is some kind of ancient temple. Ken tells everyone to ‘move in’ so they jump off the cliff, heading toward the temple.



But they don’t move in. They hide and spy behind another rock.



Ken turns and winks…



… at Joe. Yep, sorry ‘shippers, but it’s a yaoi moment.
Joe nods back.



The two hop out and run to the temple in opposite directions, as the others watch.



Joe checks out the interior of the temple. Hmmm… that church-like building inside looks old, but hardly ‘ancient’.



Ken climbs over the crumbling walls to enter.



Inside, Ken and Joe meet up. It’s the Dangerous Duo!



Strangely enough, a pan of the area shows us that it is a church built a few hundred years old in style) built inside a set of walls and columns that is Roman in style (and therefore thousands of years old). Hmmm…. architectural inconsistencies… could it be the sign of shoddy Galactor base construction?



Ken goes back to the wall and signals the others with his color-changing belt-buckle.