- Jedda, believing her father dead, must make the most important decision of her life -- is she ready to assume the role of Phantom?
- Florida industrialist (and hypochondriac) Kent Madden consults his doctors about his supposed health problems, but they tell him there is nothing wrong with him and that he only thinks he is unwell, before walking out. Madden then summons his lackeys and produces a large wad of cash which he says he wants converted into gemstones in order to exchange them for the magical health elixir brewed by the reclusive Fallu, a race of aliens whose location on Earth is supposedly a secret known only to those born to the Phantom line. The Phantom has decided the time has come for Jedda to meet the Fallu. As they near the Fallu Valley in the Skullcopter, the Phantom tells Jedda that one of their ancestors helped the Fallu when their spaceship crash-landed on Earth. The Fallu shared the secret of their elixir with that Phantom, who in exchange agreed to keep their location a secret. However, the Phantom and Jedda then see a hovercraft leaving the Valley and realise someone else knows the Fallu's location.
Landing in the Fallu's settlement, the Phantom greets their leader Ajuna and introduces him to Jedda. While the Phantom visits Ajuna in his house, Jedda looks round the settlement and presently encounters Ajuna's son Partha, with whom she makes friends. However, unknown to her, he was the one who betrayed the Fallu's location. Meanwhile, Ajuna says none of the other Fallu saw the hovercraft as he would have been informed if they had. In reply, the Phantom says this is strange and asks what would happen if someone found out about the elixir. Ajuna says the Fallu have only one vial which is kept for emergencies, adding that they have nothing to fear as long as they have the Phantom to protect them.
Later, Madden contacts Ming, with whom he has made a deal, asking to be supplied with the weaponry and vehicles he needs to take the elixir by force. Ming says he will give Madden what he asks provided their deal still stands, but then gloats that Madden doesn't know the elixir's real power. Dynak tells the Phantom and Jedda, who have now returned to Monitor, of Ming's contact with Madden and the Phantom has her run the schematics of Madden's vehicles, revealing that Madden's hovercraft is the same kind the Phantom and Jedda saw leaving the Fallu Valley. Jedda says Madden's hypochondria means he would be keen to get hold of the elixir. The Phantom asks Dynak to patch him through to Flash, Mandrake and Lothar, but they are occupied elsewhere, meaning the Phantom and Jedda must handle this situation alone.
The Phantom and Jedda return to the Fallu Valley in the Skullcopter, arriving at almost exactly the same time as Madden and his troops. During the ensuing battle, the Phantom turns the Skullcopter's controls over to Jedda and, using his Ten Tigers power, leaps out of the Skullcopter and onto one of Madden's hovercraft, ejecting the pilot and sending it on a collision course with two others. As the three hovercraft collide, the Phantom jumps clear, but as he clings to a vine at the edge of a ravine, Madden shoots him in the shoulder, causing him to lose his grip and fall into the river far below. Jedda takes the Skullcopter down into the ravine, but finds only her father's belt floating in the water.
Four Fallu, including Ajuna and Partha, search for the Phantom, but find no trace of him and conclude that he has been killed. Ajuna breaks the news to Jedda who, grief-stricken, leaves the Fallu Valley in the Skullcopter, saying she needs time to think. Later, she contacts Flash, Mandrake and Lothar, who are all saddened by the loss of the Phantom. But when Jedda says she doesn't know if she is ready to take over as the new Phantom, she is told she is the only one who can make that decision. Meanwhile, Madden tells Ming that, while the attempt to obtain the elixir was unsuccessful, he did kill the Phantom, but Ming says he has not seen any proof of this and asks Madden what he wants. Madden says he needs Ming's jungle-stompers, four pairs of giant mechanical legs capable of crushing anything in their path. Ming agrees, saying Madden now has six hours to obtain the elixir and threatening dire consequences if Madden fails this time.
Back at Monitor, Rick approaches Jedda while she is crying over her loss, asking if there is anything he can do. Wiping her eyes, she thanks him, but says this is something she must work out by herself. She then crosses over to a trunk and takes out her Phantom costume, reflecting on what it will mean when she puts it on. But she then hears Ajuna's voice in her mind, which spurs her into donning the costume and (accompanied by Kisa) heading back to the Fallu Valley in the Skullcopter. Shortly after Jedda and Kisa arrive in the Fallu Valley, Madden's troops attack again. Ajuna says the elixir is processed in a nearby volcano which must therefore be protected, but Jedda says Madden does not know this and has the Fallu lead Madden's men away from the volcano and into the jungle.
Meanwhile, the Phantom has in fact survived and, having been washed downstream, makes it to dry land, only to collapse from exhaustion. As she leads the Fallu in the battle against Madden's men, Jedda notices that they are greatly outnumbered and uses her telepathic abilities to call on the aid of nearby jungle animals. Ming reneges on his deal with Madden by sending in his own troops even though the six hours he gave for Madden to get hold of the elixir have not yet expired. With the jungle-stompers posing a major threat, Jedda, Partha and Kisa work together to take one of them out. As they do so, Partha lets slip that he has been in contact with the outside world and was responsible for everything that has happened, causing Jedda (who still believes her father is dead) to berate him. Once the jungle-stomper has been dealt with, Partha tells Jedda he is sorry, but she says it is too late for that and tells him to fight for his people, before she and Partha go off in different directions. The remaining jungle-stompers are taken out by a landslide which Jedda and some of the Fallu trigger.
A short time later, Partha single-handedly takes out one of Ming's robo-ships, but is badly injured in the process. As Jedda kneels beside him, Ming appears in a tank and tells her that he plans to wipe out the Fallu and kill her, ending the Phantom line. But Kisa leaps at Ming, knocking him out of the tank and pinning him to the ground, moments before the Phantom (who has now recovered) turns up in the Skullcopter, firing its lasers into the volcano which causes an eruption and destroys the elixir. At this point, Ming retreats, saying he will make Madden pay. The last vial of the elixir is used to revive Partha, who is revealed to be much older than he appears, having been made virtually immortal by the elixir, which explains why the Phantom had to destroy it. The Phantom and Jedda return to Monitor, where their fellow Defenders are immensely relieved to see the Phantom alive, and Jedda invites Rick to go to the movies with her that night.
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