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Ryan:

I stood there for a whole minute, my mouth dropped as I looked at the dark form I had just killed.

A Shadow Growlmon.

My heart dropped into my stomach. I felt my body go numb as I saw the dead Digimon before me. It was a Shadow soldier! A Shadow! Everything in my body screamed to run away as far as my legs could take me, but I couldn't seem to take my eyes away from the sight. This seemed impossible, they weren't even supposed to be this close to England, I had heard they were so far away. Even farther than France! But, here one was, dead as dead can be and it was because of me.

I gulped. This can't be happening...this is not happening...I'm dreaming...

_ _ I wished it was true but I knew deep down in my heart that it was happening. I had nearly died, twice, and I wasn't going to stick around and push my luck for a third time. I gulped and jogged out of the plane hatch as quickly as I could.

Yet, I didn't get far with my running before I was greeted by a bright ray of sunlight and a barrage of bullets that nearly missed my body by milimeters. I stumbled and fell forward, rolling until I hit the side of an overturned car, which luckily shielded me from the rest of the bullets that impaled themselves in the underside of the car. I shook my head and tried to process everything.

The sky wasn't that clear blue I once knew in America, it was a yelloish brown streaked and stained with black smoke and fire. I saw jets flying in all sorts of directions, light gray ones chasing pure black ones, then vice versa. The explosions in the sky rattled the ground below like fireworks, I even saw a gray jet get hit then explode in a huge nova of fire and smoke.

Things weren't better on the ground however. My eyes darted from the air-to-air battle to the battle on the ground, I looked over the car I was hiding behind to see how bad it was.

It was worse than I thought.

The city we had crash landed in was slowly being turned into a mountain of rubble. Buildings--both tall and small--were missing roofs, others were missing huge chunks of their walls and roofs. I saw fires all over the place as the black smoke rose high into the air, mixing with the other smoke from far away. I coughed, trying not to inhale the toxic stuff. Even the roads were in horrible shape, large craters were randomly placed throughout the streets as I saw faint trails of smoke rise from them as well, small hills of debris and huge blocks of stone were scattered throughout with large cars--some overturned, some not overturned, som on fire. The sidewalks were destroyed as the tiles place there were knocked from their places, even lampposts were bent while some had fallen over, making the whole place look messy.

Messy...that was the best way to put it. Besides the air battle, the ground looking like it had been destroyed beyond all measure, there were also the gunfights going on at the corners and intersections, some inside the buildings. Bodies from our side and the...Shadow side (still trying to process that) were littered across the fields of war (the streets). Blood stained the streets around the bodies, the lifeless corpses, as some pooled all over each other. I had to nearly turn away at the sight of so much death.

Merda...what had I gotten myself into? (Shit.)

My voice cracked as I ducked again after looking over for so long, bullets whirred passed my head. I breathed quickly and crouched myself, frantically trying to wrap my mind around all of this. I didn't have time to even think as a nearby explosion rattled the ground and air around me, making my body shake in absolute fear. I looked to my left and saw that the flat next to me was now missing the front door and now a few windows, large enough to drive a moped through.

That was so close to me, if that had been ten feet farther right...

No, I got lucky with that, and that was saying a lot sicne my luck is horrible. I was glad to still be living and breathing.

Still, I was practically alone, aside from the soldiers nearby shooting from behind walls of sand bags. There was no way I could do this by myself, it just wasn't possible. I needed some serious help, and I needed it now!

Jason, I definietely needed him. For all I knew, he was either dead or alive and probably fighting for his life. Finding him was my first goal. My second was to find the squad and rally up with them to make sure none of them were dead, especially Piper and her partner Nick. I was going to need their war experise and numbers to get through all of this. That was my second priority. My third was to find somewhere safe so I could contact them, a small outpost here or something, a base, or just anywhere where I could contact the squad and ask for help.

It wasn't much of a plan, but it was all I had to deal with.

Without even thinking, I sprinted from my car--hounded with bullets that whirred and whizzed past my head--towards the way for my next point of cover, a nearby hill of stones. I ducked behind the mound and gulped in some air, I hadn't died but I wasn't out of the woods yet either.

Suddenly, I felt someone lay next to me. He wasn't dead but he was taking cover from a few more bullets that zipped over our cover. I looked at his uniform and found that he was a G.M.A.F soldier! I may be saved!

What I didn't notice was the fact that it was John.

He looked right at me then went wide-eyed. "Ryan?" he exclaimed at me over the loud bangs. "I thought you were..." he trailed off, took a few shots over the pile of rubble then sat back down. "...nevermind. Where have you been?"

I tried to explain things to him as best I could, even with the gunfire around us rattling everything. Once I was done he knelt down and sighed, reloading his gun, which I realized was an AK-47 with a red dot sight. He looked right back at me again, then over the pile, then back at me. He shuffled for a few seconds looking for something, once done he placed something in my hands which sent shivers down my body.

A pistol.

"Take it, you'll need it," he said to me, taking a few more shots over our cover.

I examined the gun for a second, baffled why a full-grown adult would hand a kid a firearm. Then I realized I did need it actually. Did I actually expect to get through this entire thing just by running and hiding behind cover? I did at first but it all dawned on me at an instant. The Shadows, the city, Europe...

"Is this an invasion?" I asked John, cocking my gun in a way that I felt I had done it before.

He sighed then knetl back down. "I dunno. Hard to tell. All we know is that the Shadows somehow crossed the borders undetected and are now at Her Majesty's doorstep. We're still trying to figure out how."

Well, that didn't sound good at all. I myself, without any fear at all, stood up from our cover and aimed my gun, firing three times at three Shadow soldiers. I saw them all cry out in pain before falling to the ground, dead. I knelt back down, realizing I had caught some unwanted attention, then covered my head. How I did that, I have no clue. It felt so natural, like I had done it before for some reason. Hell! I had never held a gun in my life! I had just shot and killed three people without even thinking about it, and the courage I used to do it was still there. I felt confident in my shooting, my aim, and my abilities now. How I felt like that, that was beyond my thinking.

I did the exact same thing again not long after, standing up and taking two shots but hitting one guy this time in the head. The recoil of the gun didn't seem to affect me at all, it felt still and tight in my grip. I still didn't understand how, this was all still all foreign to me. Yet, it wasn't...

"Where'd you learn to do that?" John asked me with a cock of his eye, taking a few shots of his own.

I gulped and gasped for air. "I...I don't know."

He looked at me again and saw that I was telling the truth by the way I looked back at him. I seriously didn't know how I did that but I did it anyway.

We nodded at each other then bolted from our cover, sprinting as fast as we could for another car, this one still standing on all four wheels. As we neared the car, I heard a loud howl of pain. Instantly, I dropped to my knees and shot at the nearest man wearing all black--a Shadow Grunt, that was what we called humans controlled by the Shadows--which didn't make me feel better at all. I just killed a man who didn't even know he was shooting at his own people, and it made me feel sick to my stomach. Well, this whole battle was making me sick to my stomach but still.

With a quick turn of my head, my eyes saw a fallen John spiraled out on the ground. He didn't move for a second, making my heart sink further, then I saw him breathe hastily. Thank God he was still alive! I turned my head and nearly got shot in the face, but quickly dropped onto my stomach then shot another bullet and hit a Digimon this time, not sure what kind but I knew he was a Shadow.

I jumped to my legs and ran for John, he groaned loudly and grabbed his side. I saw a faint trail of blood dripping from his side, a bullet wound no doubt. My blood turned into ice but it didn't stop me from picking him up. He was heavy all right (not like I was used to carrying guys 200 plus pounds before) and carrying him to the nearst cover was painful for me. Not to mention we were also barraged with bullets from all corners, however John was still awake and began to shoot at the enemies firing at us. I was able to use my gun hand and use up all of my ammo on five other men, once out I focused all of my energy on getting John and I to the cover.

Half a dozen explosions went off close by and shook the ground frantically below us, causing me to stumble for a few times. Once at the car, I set him down against one of the doors and took his gun, placing the pistol in my pocket. He was gasping for air quickly and roughly, sounding like he was having trouble breathing. I wasn't a doctor, so there was nothing I could do to help him.

That was a lie actually. He grabbed his hunting knife and began to tear off strips of cloth from his shirt, placing the cloth on the bullet wound. I helped him as bed I could by pressing the cloth against the bullet wound to keep the bleeding at a minimal. I looked around, seeing closeby soldiers either hiding behind their cover or in some deep heat from the Shadow side.

With luck, a soldier had seen us and began to run his way across the battlefield to come to our aid. He carried a red box with a white plus on the side and looked at John, pressing the cloth hardly against his side while getting a howl of pain from the injured Flamedramon in the process.

"Kid," he said in an urgent and deep British tone. "You need to get out of here, quickly. Things are about to get really ugly in a few seconds."

"I need to find the survivors from the plane crash," I replied quickly, looking over and seeing dozens of Shadow soldiers fast approaching. "My name is Ryan Masters."

The man looked at me, a little surprised and stunned. He then sighed and pulled out a shot from the kit he carried, I couldn't read the label from the distance I was away but I really hoped it was something good.

"You're the big package? Shit, get down!" he ordered quickly, grabbing and pushing me to the ground.

I was confused at first but followed the order without question. I braced my head against the stone covered ground and waited as he followed what he ordered me, and I soon realized why he wanted me down. This whirring sound began to fill the air around us, my eyes looked up to see this large gray jet flying right at us. I was about to get up and start running for my life, but stopped instantly (mainly because I had nowhere to run) once I realized the jet began to tilt upwards after shooting two large rockets at us.

You'd think I'd start running like a cheetah after seeing that sight, right? Yes and no. No, I did not want to run away just because the missles weren't even aimed at the G.M.A.F soldiers, they were pointed at the other side. Yes, I did want to run away--just for a split second--once I saw them shot from the jets. I was really hoping I had enough cover to keep me safe, along with John and the soldier that came to help.

The impact shook the ground violently, I felt my body jump into the air for a second then land on the ground with a loud thud. The air around us whipped violently around us like a mini-hurricane, everything heating up all at once as I grunted to keep my grip on the ground. The ground shook violently as I smelled smoke begin to stain the air around us, the heat of fires nearby hit my body hard as he tried to look up and see what the damage was like. The ground was still shaking from the impact of the two missles, and I could see buildings ready to topple over from losing so much support. I was able to see two large craters if combined could easily fit a monter truck inside.

I gulped at the sight, it was barely twenty feet in front of us. Any closer and I'm sure we would've been toast. Gah, these army guys could seriously shoot a direct target just with the flick of a wirst huh?

I stood on my knees and look over eveything, the soldiers on our side finished up the last of the Shadow troops that had somehow survived the massive bombs. The soldier and I helped John back to leaning against the car, his breathing was slower than before but I still noticed the shot was still in the soldier's hands.

"The survivors went on ahead," he explained, pointing ahead. "Take a right where we are then head down five streets and head left. That's as far as I can say for sure. Once we're done cleaning up the mess here, we meet up with you and hopefully the rest of the soldiers who surivived the crash. If you're as good as you look, you should have no problem getting to their location, understood?"

I knelt there for a few seconds, my mouth open in disbelief. He was literally sending me off to God knows where without any back-up whatsoever? I wasn't as good as him! Maybe I got lucky with a few shots (shots I didn't want to use to kill) and I was somewhat good, but this guy looked like he knew what he was doing better than I did.

Without even thinking, I nodded my head like a fool.

He patted my shoulder and helped me on my feet, giving me John's AK in the process. The blasted thing was heavy as hell but I seemed to already know how it worked without even checking it out. The soldier took John's ammo packs from hsi belt and fastened them around my waist, the thing felt heavy as well but not as heavy as the gun in my hands.

"Go on, we'll make sure you're covered here," he winked then pushed me along.

I was about to reply but he just kept pushing me along, something told me to follow his orders and head on but the second part of me wanted to stay with John and hopefully get help for this. That wouldn't get me any farther than I was already, so I decided to start jogging towards the direction the soldier explained to me.

The street was littered with broken glass, smoke, large stones, metal, bullets, and bodies. The bodies were what creeped me out more than anything else here, they just laid there motionless, some lying on their stomachs, others on their sides, more on their backs. Women, children, men, soldiers, and Digimon alike. I fought the urge right then and there to gag and puke, it would only make me feel worse not better. I promised myself I would send them a prayer later, if I even lived to later. My promise to getting back home was getting bleaker and bleaker by the second, and my hopes were going down even quicker as I ran along the street.

Explosions rattled the air as two jets raced through the lower parts of the city, causing me to duck and roll forward. The loud noises they made caused dozens of windows to shatter from above, as the glass began to rain down on me I took shelter behind a car as shard after shard of glass hit me, some actually cutting up my arms but not severely. Once the onslaught was over, I bolted from my cover and began to run again, the glass crackling from udner my shoes (thankfully I decided to wear sneakers) as I ran down the street.

I turned at the fifth street and saw nothing there, just more bodies and destruction. It puzzled me for a second as I walked down the next street, expecting at least a lot or very little resistance. Bu there was nothing there, it was quiet, save for the explosions and gunfire from far away. It was odd actually, something didn't settle right in my stomach about the nature of this street.

I examined the bodies littered on the road. I cocked an eye. They were mainly G.M.A.F soldiers, not many civilans or anything. Actually, there weren't any Shadow troops anywhere I could see. None were on the ground, just our allied troops. Yeah, something wasn't right, either tthe Shadows got really lucky here or tehre was more to this area than I didn't understand.

Suddenly I felt something I didn't before. Run! My mind told me, and it was like I didn't have control over my body for a few seconds, but I was glad whatever happened happened right then and there. I jumped to the left, hearing a crack of a bullet that impaled itself on the ground. I cursed then jumped forward, dodging a barrage of bullets that just grazed my body. I landed behind a pile of sand bagsa dn laid against them, feeling the bullets plant themselves inside the bags.

_ "Porca puttana!"_ I cursed to myself, cocking my gun. (Holy shit!)

I turned around and looked over the bags craefully. I don't know what happened next because I wasn't sure of it myself, my eyes seemed to focus entirely on a new level. The area turned pitch black, aside from the fires and sun which remained white. I looked up and saw red dots moving around in the buildings in front of the sand bags. I pulled up my gun and aimed down the barrel, pulling on the trigger a few times as the red figures moved in front of the windows, giving me a perfect opportunity to kill them.

It took one cartridge to take out the eight snipers who were shooting at me. I don't know how I did it, but I did. The recoil of this gun didn't seem to affect me either, much like that from the pistol. This was getting really weird actually.

I reloaded my gun then, taking another look at the buildings one more time, started to run away down this new street. I hoped I was getting closer to the squad, my body now starting to realize how much pain it was in. My fingers felt like they were being stung by a million bees, my body was wracked with soreness and pain, and I was beginning to feel dizzy. Sweat trickled down my forehead and arms, small drops of blood dopped from my arms and face.

It wasn't long before I decided to head down a different street. It wasn't a quiet one however, I could hear gunfire booming from down the street which didn't sound good to me but it was my best bet to hopefully find the squad. I was able to cut through a nearby alley way, keeping out of sight and staying in the shadows, which, again, felt eerily familiar. (I don't know why honestly, so don't ask me.)

Once on the other side of the new street I was greeted with a rocket that flew straight at me. Instantly, I dropped to the ground as it flew past my body and exploded on a nearby building that soon crumbled to the ground, leaving me coughing in the afetrglow of all the dust and smoke that blew my way. Near death experience number...4? I think? Hard to tell when you're being shot at from everywhere at once. If I counted that as near dead then I'd be in the hundreds right now.

I jumped to my feet and hid behind a corner of one of the nearest buildings. Bullets zipped passed the corner in a flurry, telling me I had just caught some unwanted attention from the Shadow side of the battle. I forced myself to gulp, looking over the corner to catch a quick glimpse of the numbers on the other side before having to hide again for more bullets embedded themselves in the brick wall.

"Great, my luck," I sighed and let out a long drawn out breath, looking over my shoulder again before nodding to myself.

My body foced itself to bolt from its cover, not even caring what the circumstances were. I brought up my gun and aimed it forward, bullets passing my body as I ran for the nearest cover, however I returned the fire as best I could. My bullets hit their mark as three men fell to the ground by the time I reached a wall of sand bags then ducked under them. I managed to dodge a barrage of bullets, however some actually grazed my skin, making it bleed slightly. At least it didn't hurt like an actually bullet wound (which I was glad I didn't have) for I was on my own, and I could expect not help from the Shadows. Not like I can just wave the white flag and say "Can someone come and give me a hand?" right? Yeah, right.

I didn't stop either, I stood up from my cover and aimed my gun once more. Bolts of bullets fired from my gun and hit the targets I aimed at, three more this time. I reloaed quickly then cocked my gun, rolling forward as a wave of bullets whizzed past my head. My breaths were shaky and quick, my lungs getting a little harder to breathe with each movement as I finished off the soldiers on the street. My hands were beginning to cramp up, even my fingers were getting irritated by the reloading and firing. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and looked down the huge street. It was like a highway, easily six lanes which were divided byt a large oval hole in the middle. I could see large skyscrapers on both sides of the streets that towered over the city, some missing large sections from their tops, middles, and lower sections. Glass, large stones, cars, and bodies littered the streets from afar and it didn't look any better half a mile ahead.

_ Great,_ I thought to myself, groaning loudly since there was literally no one around to hear me. Just fucking great.

I sighed, holding my gun in hand as I went back to the other soldiers and looked for a new one. With my luck I found an M4-A1 and took it, along with the ammo belt the soldier had, not like he was going to use it again. I reloaded the gun and looked back down the street again.

"Better get moving," I said to myself.

With that, I sprinted towards the large gun fire at the other side of the road.

Of course, I didn't get like 50 feet before having to duck.

I was more focused on getting to the other side of the road than actually taking in my surroundings. I didn't even care that tehre wer eno soldiers nearby shooting bullets or throwing grenades at me, which made me feel lucky for a few moments. Like I said, a few moments. I stopped dead in my tracks and looked ahead of me to see a black jet with it's left wing on fire. Now, that wasn't what made my blood turn into ice, nah. It was the fact that the jet was crashing towards the ground, heading in my direction, that made me want to run for the hills described in The Sound of Music.

I stood there like a complete idiot (which I just now realized I am) and stared at the blasted thing. It went lower and lower on the ground, the flame spreading to all over the aircraft. I hesitated then rolled forward and laid flat out on my stomach, feeling the large jet soar over my body as it then hit the ground twenty yards behind me. That wasn't the end of it however, the large plane then exploded in a massive inferno of fire and smoke, sending me flying ten feet across the road as I yelled out in a slight bit of pain. The fire heating up my body all over, forcing me to shut my eyes and grunt to myself as smoke whipped over me and surrounded the area. Once I was fianlly able to get up, I wobbled to my knees to see pure utter destruction where the jet was. A new crater had formed, which was now home to half a jet and a fireball in the center.

"Holy...shit..." I coughed, seeing the painful sight.

The massive inferno blazed into the air and began to spread all over the ground, leaving me to skitter away as quickly as I could before the flames got to me. Whoever was piloting that jet--Shadow more than likely--was either extra crispy or country fried chicken, and he/she was not coming out of that alive.

Sadly, I felt a little sense of remorse for the pilot of the jet, and it didn't matter to me if they were Shadow or Shadow Grunts, they were still people and dying such a painful death had to be terrible. I still actually found it hard that I had killed dozens of soldiers already, it didn't feel so real to me but I had done it, I had pulled the trigger and fired the shots. It was my fault those soldiers were dead, whether they were human or Digimon, and I was the reason they weren't going to see another day.

But it was them or you, a voice in my head spoke.

Okay, yeah. I get it. Who would you rather save? A man hell-bent on killing one of the two most prized people on the world? Or the prize that could hopefully end the war you've been trying to end for so long? Yeah, it didn't sound fair but that was all we could do, and it was all I could do at this point without much help. I remembered John and hoped he was still alive, his death would be on my head since we were working side-by-side that whole time. Piper, Nick, Travis, and Felix were really happy to see the guy and...I wasn't ready to take the blame for his death if he did die. They wouldn't look at me the same way, and I knew it.

God, my life sucked.

With a little limp, I began to jog the rest of the way down the street, hopefully without interruption.

Lo and behold, I actually managed to get to the other end without being shot at, nearly crushed, or killed. Seems my luck was pulling through, but just by barely. My hopes however went up quickly once I realized whow as fighting at the other end of the road.

The Squad.

I was glad to see them, however, I wasn't very fond of the sight. They were in it deep, even I had to hide behind a Bug because bullets even went at me. I managed a quick look over the hood of the car before I had to duck again, but I was able to see everything I needed to see in just a few seconds.

The Squad was in it deeper than I had thought, even I was surprised by the sheer number of the troops that were hammering at them. It was a bloodbath. I saw Shadow troops and Grunts in the buildings above, some on the streets, and others on the roofs. Bullets were being fired from every corner, making the area sound like one gigantic fire-cracker with smaller ones stuffed inside. The ground shook as violently as it could every few seconds, with another look I saw grenades bouncing from the pavement and exploding shortly after, creating a small ball of fire that shook everything in its blast radius. If it wasn't a grenade going off, it was an RPG instead, which was far worse than any grenade you could handle. They flew through the air, leaving a faint trail of smoke from where they were shot, and exploded in a heap of fire and sparks that made semi-large craters in the ground.

My friends were pinned down, bad. Each duo seemed to have their own problems and they were too busy to help. Travis was holding Felix, who I noticed seemed to have a broken wing and a few scractes over his body along with dirt and dust. Emily and Victoria were separated by a large mound of rubble, both holding their own Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG for the dee-dee-dee's who can't understand that) but were unable to fire. Mia and Mina were shooting from their own walls of sandbags, mostly dodging bullets beging hammered at them, I could even see a few blood splatters on their clothes, hopefully they weren't injured (even if Mina was a bitch). Jun and Viktor probably had the best vantage point, being about five floors higher than everyone else, being inside a building to out left, but it didn't seem to make a difference for the Shadows were breathing down their necks. Michael was clutching his arm which I soon realized was a wound that told me he had been shot, while Leo was covering him from his right but seemed to just draw the other sides' attention. Joshua was holding onto his Guilmon partner, Tony, tightly as I soon found out blood was dripping from the Digimon's left arm, much like that of Michael. Joshua was only using a pistol to fend off the enemy and it didn't seem to be getting any better.

The sight killed me to look at (not literally) but a glimmer of hope surged through my body once I saw Piper, Nick, and, of course, Jason together. They were taking cover from behind a pile of metal crates with out troops' stmbol on the front but were faring no better than the rest of the squad.

They were all still alive at least, but they were only hanging on by a thin thread of string. All that mattered to me right then was to give them as much help as I possibly could, however I couldn't understand how courageous Jason was right now. He was holding a gun and firing at soldiers! I saw him even kill three soldiers without even thinking twice. He didn't even seem to care about nearly getting shot at, let alone nearly killed, and still shot. I thought he would cowar or cry or something just because I knew he was shy and gentle, yet this was a whole new level of him that I wish I had seen a long time ago.

They were still alive...oh, my heart felt better.

I didn't have a lot of time to stay Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky. They needed an extra hand in their fight, and I was the only one around to help them out. Better than nothing I suppose, right?

Taking a long breath, I cocked my gun and ran from my cover. My eyes fell on an object that landed in-between Piper and Jason, it was round and black, which made my heart sink back down. A grenade. With that little encouragement, I ran even quicker and slid onto my knees, grabbing the explosive without even thinking (yes, I know it could've went off right then and there) and hurled it right back at the other side as far as I could. Within a few seconds, another explosion filled the air with some pained screams filling the air as well. My heart raced as I realized what I just did. Damn, I was really beginning to go crazy with the war srtuff.

Piper turned around to look at me, along with Jason and Nick. Their eyes could've went to the size of frizbees as their mouths dropped. Piper looked shocked and awestruck at the same time, yet I couldn't seem to get over her beauty. Evn in the middle of a firefight, she still filled the air with radience. Her brown hair still had that curl at her shoulders but it looked frizzy, her face was covered in dust and dirt along with her arms, and her shirt and pants were ripped and had bloodstains (hopefully not hers). Jason and Nick looked exactly like her (minus the beauty part, I'll say handsome instead) and they all looked tired and weak.

"Less gawking, more shooting," I stated to them, which quickly snapped them out of their trance.

Piper fumbled with her gun for a second then nodded, taking her position and firing a few more rounds at the soldiers, only sending one to the grave. She grunted and cursed, taking her cover again.

"You're not a ghost, are you?" she asked me.

I smiled and snorted. "I don't think ghosts can throw active grenades that far." Okay, that was a smart-ass comment but I'm sure she understood.

I saw her smile, which made my stomach flutter. "Welcome back, so glad you could join us. We're just about to die."

"Don't say that," I replied, taking a few shots. My bullets soaring through the air to hit two guys dead center in the chest.

"Since when did you learn to use a gun?" Jason asked me, ducking from a few shots taken at him.

"Since when did you?" I replied, still talking like a smart-ass. However, we both did look at each other and nodded, saying a quick tussé to each other.

I focused on shooting for a few minutes, seeing the numbers of Shadow troops staying the same but going down as we somehow seemed to be making a dent in their numbers. I hoped that stunt with the grenade paid off, along with my added help. Still, things were on the losing side for us. Unless I could just pull out more troops from my butt, there was no way we were going to win this fight alone.

I took a few more shots, actually missing my targets this time, which made me groan loudly as I took cover again. Damn, my hands were getting seriously sore from all this! I had to pop my fingers just to get the blood flow back. The entire squad seemed to be suffering from the wear and tear, I saw some of them panting for air as others were finding it hard to reload their guns.

Piper gasped next to me as I turned to see a Shadow Grunt aiming his gun at us. How did he get past us so easily? Were we really that out of it that we couldn't focus? Was it because of that that he slipped past us.

He gave us an evil grin as I looked into his emotionless eyes, his gun aimed right for us as the Squad began to shout our names, ready to fire at him.

"Not today, son!" a familiar voice called from afar.

At that second the man turned his head and was greeted with a bullet that right right between his eyes, exiting the back of his skull. He toppled over backwards and fell lifeless, just like his stare.

"Just in time to save the day, huh?" the voice called again.

I turned my gaze and nearly lost my breath.

Standing there was John. John! He wa still alive! Holy crap! That pulls a huge weight from my shoulder. At least I didn't have to stress over a possible death, thankfully, which helps me a little.

"John! You're here!" I called to him.

He smiled and cocked his gun, firing a few rounds through the air as they hit their marks and took down three more troops. The sight made me awe, apparently I still had plenty of room for improvement. John was like a god of war (which was giving him more credit than I thought) and made sure the title was settled in place.

He nodded and smiled, ducking a wave of bullets whizzed past his head.

"And I brought some friends!" he called back, standing back up.

The sight of what he meant made my mouth drop a few inches. Dozens of soldiers began to run from behind him, all of them cheering loudly in the name of the Global Military Allied Forces. Their shouts where powerful, courageous, heroic, and majestic. They boomed through the air as the began to bombard the other side hardly with a hail-storm of bullets.

I smiled and leaned back against the pile of rubble we stayed behind. Breathing out a sigh of relief. I released the grip on my gun as Jason, Piper, and Nick followed my lead and dropped their guns and breathed deeply. We didn't need to worry about firing anymore for right now, we had dozens of men on our side already laying waste to the Shadow side of the army.

And with that, I shut my eyes and smiled.

I only wished that was the end of all of it.

It took half an hour to finish off all thr troops in our area and set up a base from where we were. It wa small but at least we were able to rest easy for a few minutes, my body finally relaxing from all the soreness and stress it got through that whole ordeal. I was able to get a nice drink of water, a little energy bar, and some more ammo while I was at it. The idea of having a grenade strapped to my belt didn't sound too pleasant but so long as it helped me when I needed it, I was all for it.

While the injured members of the Squad were taken care of (a.k.a Michael, Tony, and Felix) Piper lead me through the base, telling me someone would be glad to see me. Well, I'm pretty happy to see her and Jason as well as her partner, since they were the only ones I was close to, other than Nick who I intended to find more about soon.

At least we were well guarded, barricades were placed throughout, turrents were being mounted at key points, and small medical tents were being set up for the critically wounded. Large metal crates were piled around the place, ammo most likely, either that or more guns and explosives. Soldiers began to take guard around the perimeter, some Shadows already tried to breach the base with no luck so it gave me a little more sense of security to know we were well-guarded.

I had torn the sleeves off my hoodie since I was burning up, but I didn't feel like taking the whole thing off. Too much money spent on something and I was going to use it--wash it about ten times then wear it--until it was burned. Jason had followed exactly like I had done and kept the remains of his hoodie. He looked tougher than I last saw him, a few cuts on his face, a bruise or two, and some scratches. It was a start at least, and it was better than having a scared Jason on the battlefield. He was a mouse before all of this but now he looked like he could handle himself against Connor and his partner any day of the week, with ke of course because I wanted to punch Connor for picking on him.

Besides that, I was going to also figure out why he had gotten a crush on Nick. Yes, I said crush. The Veemon walked next to Nick and gave him a smile from the corner of his eye and blushed, in return, the Gaomon blushed and tried to look away like he felt a little embarrassed by that. I knew better, even he was crushing on my partner. Don't as me how I knew, I just knew. Don't ask me why they fell over each other only after meeting a few hours ago, because I didn't know. I was not an expert in relationships, though I did wanna be in one with Piper...

"Ryan?" Piper asked me, catching me by surprise. "Are you listening?"

I hadn't even realized she was speaking to me. I was caught up in so many things that I failed to realize she was talking to me. God, I am such an idiot.

"Huh?" I replied, sounding like a total fool. Great job, genius, no extra points for you of course.

She sighed. "You remember the guy back on the plane?"

I thought about it and nodded. "The big bulky guy and his partner...Chief Hector, right?" I asked, just taking a guess because I really didn't even remember much.

"That's him, he wants to talk to you," she nodded and stated. I saw her point ahead of us, showing me the muscular man and his tall Angemon partner. Ugh, this guy was not a favorite on my list, he seriously made me want to punch him in the face just for the heck of it.

I sighed. "I hate him so much."

I felt Nick shrug. "You and I both, but we have to deal with him. He's been with the army for a good eight years, so we have to listen to him because he's our 'superior' or something."

First time he spoke to me and I already saw why Jason liked him.

Piper and Nick had to leave and check up on something. Piper gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder (which felt soooo good!) while Nick and Jason smiled at each other then waved goodbye, I could tell Jason was feeling like a million bucks besides the fact he looked like...we actually, he did look like a million bucks since he had golden skin coloring. No fair, I had a good joke.

It was a lame joke but it was still a joke!

We both walked over to the bulky duo. Jason didn't tense up as we walked up to them, telling me he had actually gotten a little backbone during all of this. Thank God! I hoped he broke that habit since I really needed that courage right now.

Chief Hector stopped speaking to his partner and looked in our direction, his face still stone cold and wrinkly. His skin was still its same almond color but he reeked of sweat and man-musk. Ew. His partner folded his arms over his chest and looked at us through his metal mask, maybe I couldn't see his eyes but I bet my bottom dollar that they were soul-piercing and tough.

"You picked one hell of a time t' show up, Masters," he greeted me in his sweetest tone ever. (Translation: he sounded irritated and angry).

I shrugged. "You gonna spill more crap about me still being less than you expected?" Again, I was being a smart-ass again, but I seriously couldn't help it with this guy. He made it so easy to be mad.

I saw him flash his crooked teeth, which made me shiver in place. I still looked at him intently, as it trying not to look intimidated of his pressence.

"Still being a wise-ass, eh? Whatever." He replied, holding up a clipboard and sighing deeply. "What matters, I guess, is that you're still alive fer us. I jus' wish we actually had soldiers who knew what they were doing."

I balled my fists again. "How about you get off your man-period, dude." I replied, feeling my ears get hot as I spoke. "You spill a lot of BS about me being nothing like you expected, but, news flash, I just survived in my own through Shadows troops with not a lot of help and you expect more? Please. I don't care how much you hate me or dislike me, you need to lose your attitude because it reeks, like you." Probably shouldn't have said that part but I was sick of this guy. " So, how about you get that pole out of your ass and actually act like you give two shits about me."

It took me a second to realize what I had said. Damn, I didn't even know I had that kind of courage (or language) in me. Jason looked at me with his Jaw dropped, looking just as surprised as I knew he would be. Hector's partner looked the same, though I think his arms dropped a little from his chest. The man himself held the clip-board like it was about to break, hold crap I think I was seriously about to die, and not a quick and painful death either.

He stood there and laughed. "Ha-ha! Now that's what I'm talking about! Not like th' other pussy's here who would just take all th' shit I give 'em. You got some potential, Master's. I like that fire of yours, makes me wanna push ya even further." His smile made me cringe on the inside. Had this guy heard of toothpaste?

"Whatever, still, it doesn't matter now anyway," he went on. "These are all the supplies we can get at this point, once we run out, we're out. We have supply planes ready ta fly in from th' east but there are anti-air cannons blocking their path, hell, they've already shot down three of our cargo planes." He sighed and rubbed his eyes wearily. "If we had the troops and power to send them out to the cannons, I'd order them in a second, but we don't."

An idea popped into my head, it was a crazy one but I had already been through some crazy stuff already today. I didn't even like the plan at all, it was insane but it was something that could at least prove my worth to this guy.

"Where are the cannon's?" I asked, getting a WTF look from Jason.

Chief Hector cocked an eye and directed towards the alley behind him. "They're past the alley, fifteen streets past the park on the right, then another right and down the road. Why ask?"

I looked at Jason, who looked at me back. He took a second to understand what I was trying to get at. Once he understood, he gasped and let his mouth drop. I could tell he thought my plan was downright crazy, even I thought it was crazy, but, like I said, it was still a plan. A crappy plan but a plan. Once he gave me a mischeivious smile I knew he was all for the idea, however it didn't really make me feel better.

He was beginning to understand how crazy I could get.

"Why did you ask, Masters?" he asked again.

I looked at Chief Hector and gave him the same smile Jason had given me. Somehow, I just knew I was going to regret this at some point in the future. But I didn't care right now, what mattered was winning this fight.

At an instant, Jason and I nodded to each other then bolted from the Chief Hector and ran down the alley. All I could hear behind us was the sound of long distance explosions, far away gunfire, and a whole lot of angry shouting from a man and his partner who really needed to take a chill pill.