[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

He was tired. So tired.

He wondered if his signal had gotten through to the others. He hoped so, because he knew he was dying. It didn't matter. He was ready to die now, so long as he'd accomplished what he set out to do.

He felt hands grab his arms in a rough grip, heard the cocking of rifles and gruff voices ordering him not to struggle. He would have laughed if he'd had the strength. He couldn't even lift his head or focus his eyes. His limbs refused to move. His entire body was dead weight. His legs dragged limply behind him as they carried him below ground to the secret Galactor base, the installation the Science Ninja had been seeking from the beginning. The place known as Cross Caracolm.

"Katse-sama! We've captured Condor Joe for you! He put up a terrible fight, but we managed to overcome him!"

Bullshit. Your captain got in a lucky shot because I was too sick to get out of the way in time. Not that it mattered anyway. The Galactor captain who'd shot him had died, grinning, a feather shuriken stuck in his throat.

"How kind of you to come visit us, Condor no Joe-kun." Berg Katse's sing-song voice grated on Joe's dulled nerves. "You should have called ahead so we could have had a proper reception waiting for you. Still, I see you've been greeted adequately just the same."

Joe wondered why it was taking him so long to die. He could feel the bullet inside his chest, a burning, thudding weight close to his heart. Fucking idiot couldn't even shoot me properly. He should have gotten me in the head, then I wouldn't have to be listening to this garbage.

A gloved hand fisted in his hair and raised his head up. Joe opened bleary eyes; the hated cat-masked face swam in his faltering vision. "You don't look very happy to be here, Condor no Joe-kun. Perhaps your reception wasn't warm enough? I'm sure we can arrange things to make you feel more at home."

The Galactors holding his arms cackled nastily. Joe shuddered, trying to stand on his own, fighting with all his remaining strength to throw off his captors and wrap his hands around Katse's insolent throat. But his body was no longer obeying him, and he couldn't move a muscle.

Katse's hand slapped across his face, and his ears began ringing fiercely. Katse was barking orders to his men, but Joe couldn't understand the words. He felt himself being carried to one side of the chamber he was in, and his arms were raised above his head. He felt cold steel manacles close over his wrists, and the guards left him there, dangling from his chains.

It was harder for him to breathe now. Joe coughed, and the dulling pain of the gunshot wound flared angrily in his chest. His feet weren't touching the ground, but he couldn't tell how far off the floor he was.

The buzzing in his ears subsided, and he heard raucous laughter fading down a hallway somewhere. Were they leaving him here alone, hanging in semi-darkness, to die of his wounds?

A door closed, and footsteps approached. Joe managed to lift his head and squint as the tall caped figure neared him.

"It really is a pity, you know," Katse told him, and the tone of his voice was almost affectionate. It turned Joe's stomach. "A man like you, so dedicated and single-minded...if only you'd cooperated, I could have found a place for you in the new world order. It's a pity for someone so strong and brave to die like this."

"Go to hell," Joe rasped, his gray eyes burning.

"And still your spirit is unquenched!" Katse laughed with delight. "What does it take to break a man like you, Condor no Joe-kun?" The gloved hand closed on his chin and lifted his head, and Joe didn't have the strength to pull away. "Shall we find out, you and I?"

The hand trailed down and clasped Joe's throat, cutting off his breath. Joe's chest hitched, lancing him with pain from the bullet wound, but he didn't try to pull away. Let him kill me, he thought. It's not the worst he can do, and it doesn't matter anymore.

But after a moment Katse's grip loosened. The long fingers trailed down his chest, over the bloodstained shirt. "Yes indeed," he purred, "a fine specimen of a man. You've kept yourself in excellent condition, Condor no Joe-kun." The hand tugged at the shirt, pulling it up to expose his stomach and chest. "Aside from a bit of...collateral damage, a fine sight indeed."

"Bastard," Joe hissed as the fingers trailed across his chest. "Fucking freak."

Katse laughed. "Only words, sweet Condor. I've been called far worse, and those who called me those nasty things are dead, as you yourself soon will be." Katse pawed at Joe's belt buckle, loosening his jeans and sliding them down off his hips. Joe shut his eyes tight and tried to ignore the feel of the slick gloves on his skin, touching him with obscene intimacy. "Is it true what they say about you and Gatchaman being lovers? Has he touched you like this? Or are you one of those narrow-minded people who think that homosexuality is a perversion?"

"Vaffanculo!" Joe spat, gritting his teeth.

"Language, language," Katse chided mildly, caressing Joe's bared buttocks lightly. One finger probed at his anus, and Joe tensed agaisnt the intrusion. "No, it seems to me those rumors are indeed only that. You prefer women, then? A pity I haven't time to indulge you on that score. Still, I believe there's plenty of time to satisfy my own curiosity in other ways..."

"No," Joe said, his voice a cracked whisper. "I'll kill you..."

"Yes, yes, of course you will. But I think it might almost be worth it." A rustle of cloth, and then Joe jerked away as he felt a different sort of probing between his buttocks. Katse laughed again, an ugly sort of laughter, as he took hold of Joe's hips and pulled Joe back toward him. Joe screamed as Katse's erect penis penetrated him, forcing him open as he shoved into him. Joe retched, dry-heaving, impaled on Katse's erection and unable to pull himself free even if he'd had the strength.

The whole world was full of pain. Pain from his chest, and pain from Katse's penetration, and a deeper pain of shame and self-loathing that he could be victimized this way. Joe moaned helplessly as Katse thrust into him, violating him, leaving him no dignity and no hope.

And then, the final shame, the worst shame of all, when Joe's penis began to stiffen in response to the stimulation from Katse's slow, steady thrusts. "No," he groaned, "no, stop, please..." He was talking not to Katse, but to himself, to the unwanted pleasure that was bringing him erect in spite of all his raging against it.

Katse laughed and reached around, giving a small murmur of delight at finding him hard. "So perhaps you're not so narrow-minded after all, sweet Condor..." Katse's hand began stroking Joe's penis, adding to both his arousal and his shame. Something inside Joe broke, and he began to weep, lost to any sense of dignity. This was worse than death, worse than hell, worse than damnation.

Joe screamed as the orgasm came upon him, an orgasm as painful as it was hideously pleasurable. Moments later, Katse stiffened behind him, and he felt the mutant's seed pouring into him. Joe sobbed brokenly as Katse finally withdrew from him. He pulled Joe's clothes into something like order, but Joe was too far gone to notice. He gasped for breath, his chest burning, his face still wet with sweat and tears of shame. His humiliation was complete, his self-disgust overwhelming. That he could have allowed himself to be put in this position...nothing was worth it. Nothing. Not the destruction of Galactor, not Katse's death, not even the saving of the Earth from destruction. Nothing.

The door opened, and Katse ordered the guards to take Joe down from the manacles. The men sniggered amongst each other, but their lewd comments were lost on Joe, who was past hearing them by now.

He was too busy praying.

Joe Asakura had been ready to die. Now he was praying to die.