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Ryan:

Was I crazy? Duh.

I just survived a few near death encounters, pissed off a colonel who would probably have my head if this worked, and now I was heading to some anti-air defense cannons in hopes to destroy them. Maybe I was walking a thin line between crazy and insane but that was a line I had created since this whole battle started. I was surprised Jason came along with me, but I had to remember that he was my partner and that now we would do more things together instead of solo. I had to remind myself sometimes, I wasn't alone now and I wouldn't have to be now, I had a squad to back me up and a cool partner by my side who was ready to put his life on the line with me.

Man, I was lucky, and that was saying a lot.

We ran down the street the Chief had told us about. It was one hell of a long street, with the park he explained to our right, it wasn't exactly to our right, a hill led down to the actually park but it was probably the bumpiest, stone covered, and hardest hill I was probably going to ever see. The entire hillside was covered in plates of metal and stone, which would make one painful thing to climb down on.But the park wasn't what I was worrying about right now.

I had to focus on the cannons.

Street after street we passed, making sure to count each and every one carefully. I didn't want to mis-count and have to start all over again or else I was just going to get a massive headache (which I was already getting) from all of this. I was glad at least no troops were shooting at us, which meant this part of the area was secure for the most part as well, which gave the both of us some breathing room.

Things were usually easier when no one's shouting and shooting at you.

Once we had gotten to the final street the colonel had told us, we were already out of breath so we decided to fast walk thr rest of the way. Not very heroic but then again we weren't heroes, not yet. The next street boardered the park, which was pretty much almost in ruin. I could see a crumbled fountain surrounded by red brick tiles and small gardens of flowers around the bricks. Now, the bricks were broken up, the fountain was barley standing, and the garden was torn up and burned. I bet it was a nice place, once I actually would've liked to visit.

Sadly, this battle had already taken so much from me already. Not just the battle actually, the war in general. It took my entire family away from me a long time ago which made me an orphan, it took my beloved parents away, it took me away from my friends, it was taking away innocent people from their families (by death and by joining the fight), and it was slowly destroying our world as we knew it. Twelve year of war, you'd think the Shadows would give up and take a hint we were not giving up our planet? You'd be wrong then, it was like their goal was to take our world and kill us all off or use us as prisoners or something else worse. I wasn't very fond of any of it, especially since they were using us as controlled slaves to do their dirty work for them most of the time, and I was getting pissed day by day just hearing of it.

We were not slaves, and we were not for sale.

Still, as we walked I could feel the presence of something powerful nearby. Just then, it hit us. Not literally but Jason and I both felt it. It was a loud booming sound that wasn't far from where we were, it shook the ground violently and even cracked a few windows nearby. It was like my body took a step back without even moving, then it happened again which caused the ground to shake like an earthquake. The impact felt like something had shaken me violent like for a split second then stopped, but the next thing that happened however was that a jet in the air that was near the loud thuds was now on fire and was crashing far away from us.

"How much you wanna bet that the cannon's did that?" Jason asked me, pointing at the crashing jet.

I shivered a little and tried not to look at the sight. "I bet my entire life-savings."

"Do you even have life-savings?" he asked again.

"Nope," I smiled then resumed walking.

Jason followed closely beside me but kept looking around, maybe expecting something or someone to pop out from somewhere. He had every right to be actually, I had let my guard down once already and if it wasn't thanks to the voice in my head I'm sure I'd have a hole in my head. I'm sure even he had some near death encounters (duh, he was like me, horrible luck and all that) while we were separated. He didn't seem scared however, he just seemed apprehensive.

"You feeling okay, Jason?" I asked, cocking my own gun, as if expecting a fight to break out soon.

He turned to look at me but kept walking. "Yeah..." he replied, not sounding too excited, however he tried a second time to sound better. "Oh, I mean yeah! Totally! Why ask?"

I gave him the you're-such-a-horrible-liar-look, which made him look down again. I really hoped I hadn't just kicked out his morale or courage, 'cause I could really use that right about now.

"Talk to me," I said, patting his shoulder.

He sighed and apparently blushed (odd) then looked at me. "It's about-- "

He was cut off by the loud thud that shook us once more, I grabbed him tightly then pulled him back as a large plate of glass fell from the sky and nearly crushed us both. It crumbled into pieces as we regained ourselves.

"We're getting closer," I said in a near whisper.

Jason seemed to forget the topic he was on entirely and gulped. "Somehow, that doesn't make me feel any better. Let's go."

We spent no time waiting around and jogged the rest of the way, which wasn't far at all, only about three more streets until we rounded a corner. There we hid behind one of the corners behind the buildings and peeked over the corner. My heart dropped into my stomach at what I saw. Two black hexagon shaped metal vehicles were placed at the edge of what looked like a cliff. They had long barrels that looked large enough to fit a cannon-ball, but I'm sure they were used to fire anything but that. They looked as tall as a truck with wheels twice the size of a manhole cover.

The sight mage me cringe, shake, and nearly quiver all at the same time. The colonel didn't mention they were tanks! They looked brand new to me, shiny armor making the sun from above glisten off from the armor. They not only had shiny armor but even their armor was deadly, spikes surrounding the end of the barrel, outlining the hexagon on the armor. The sight made me cringe and fear as I stared. I had heard stories of these things...I think they were called "Death Stalkers" or something like that. They still did what they were created to do best: kill, destroy, and obliterate.

Great, our luck.

This did not look good for us, not even in the slightest. I thought we would just have to deal with two large cannons that didn't spin in a full 360 and shot at us.

This was only going to make things more difficult for us. Which made tons of sense considering our lives revolved around luck and diffucult times. Ugh. I just had to calm down and break this up. Okay, two tanks. One for me and one for Jason, but getting to them was our first objective. The second one was figuring out how to destroy them, I saw a rope ladder leading to what looked like a hatch at the top so that would be able to get us in, but that still left the destroying part.

Hmm, maybe they don't have to be destroyed, I thought. Just turn them off. That was easier said than done, if we even got to the tanks to even turn them off or whatever. As fr as I could see, there were no soldiers around to guard those monsters of destruction, maybe because they thought no one would even get this close to them in order to do so.

Which is a fatal flaw by them, my mind told me.

Jason crouched down with me and looked at the tanks as well. We studied them over and over until there was nothing left to udnerstand. He seemed to understand what we had to do: get to the tanks without getting blown up, find away to kill them men inside, de-activate them, then get back to the base and wait to be killed by a man who probably used steroids and his partner. Well, hopefully not die. He sounded like he just exploded when we ran from him (which was going to bite me later) but reasoning with him was like trying to reason with a 120 year-old man without a hearing aid.

"We have one shot, Jason," I stated in a whisper, as not to draw any attention from the tanks which were about fifty feet away. "You ready?"

He hesitated then looked at the tanks and nodded. "Ready." He replied with a nod then began to walk with me carefully forward.

Luckily the barrels were aimed away fom us and our into the open area of the sky battle. One of them fired again, which knocked us back a little, sending jolts of fear running through our bodies. The ground shook for a second but things returned normal shortly after, and I was glad the other didn't fire.

These things were powerful, no wonder the colonel was scared.

Not to mention dangerous, I thought to myself. The Shadows only had two stationed right here and they were tearing up our air jets like it was a sunny Sunday walk in the park. Thinking about dozens of these things just made my skin crawl, it sickened me to the core and I was not about to let these things go on.

We resumed walking forward, very very carefully as to not make a sound and alert them. It was like careful jazz-running in a way, but we took it a little slower to make sure for two things: to not kick something and to not get caught.

It was about ten feet where we drew out line and hid behind a fallen over tower of stone. Jason took a quick glance over the stone to check things out. He knelt back down and gave me the nod, telling me it was safe. We didn't talk but I could read his eyes easily, almost like they were sending their own little message to me. At least we didn't have to speak and give ourselves away.

With a sigh, we carefully took from our cover.

Again we resumed our slow jazz-run-like walk. The barrels of the tanks still remained aimed away from us but did move from side to side a little, which didn't do well for my nerves. I felt like they were going to turn fully around and shoot us dead in a spilt second, and I was not in the mood to be made mince meat out of today (considering I hadn't been killed yet) just because of a tank.

A sound that my ears caught made my body freeze. I turned my attention to Jason to see a pebble skitter across the ground, right where his foot had kicked it. I stifled a gasp and curse, really wanting to cuss him out because of that but I still remembered the tanks.

Oh, crap. The tanks.

My head slowly turned to the mountain-sized monsters. The barrels had stopped moving which ended up putting us in some insane silence. Then, when I thought our luck was breaking through, one of the barrels began to swivel in our direction. I felt my hairs along my body stand up on end as I thought of somewhere to hide, quickly.

The closest thing I saw was a hole just big enough to hold Jason and I, and I took that chance like it was the last thing on the planet. I had abouty five seconds, and in those five seconds I grabbed Jason's arm and bolted forward--throwing caution out the window--as I ran like my life depended on it (which it did) for the hole. I dived inside, settling Jason and I inside just as the barrel made it to our direction. I cupped my mouth along with Jason's just as things went silent again.

No explosions. No booming sounds. No thud. Just dead silence. Even as I trembled with the Veemon, I kept my cool and waited this out as long as I possibly could, even if we were running out of air.

Just as my lungs felt like they were about to burst, I heard the whirring sound of the cannon begin to turn again. Slowly, I un-cupped Jason's mouth as we took in slow breaths. He looked down and breathed slowly.

"Too...close..." he gasped.

"Be..." I grunted, eying him with a little frustration. "...careful next time."

He nodded to me. "Yeah, I...know."

As he spoke, I began to rise from our cover, helping him out as I looked ahead. Too close of a call was right, but we were getting closer. Only a few dozen feet to go to get to the tanks then getting up would be another careful problem.

In short time we got to the tanks, it took a few minutes or careful walking but we made it. We had decided it would be best to take each tank by ourselves, leaving us vulnerable and only reliable on ourselves. I stood just behind the mass of metal and thought of getting up there as quickly as possible without making much sound. Only way up was the rope ladder, which could go either way.

It was better than nothing I guess. Jason took hold of his ladder then began to work his way up. I followed his lead and took each rope in my hands and began to work myself up the tank.

It was hard work alright. I never used rope to climb something like a tank before but I was glad it was in the form of a ladder, the sweat on my palms didn't make it any easier to climb, sure, but that didn't stop me. My shoes didn't make much sound (thankfully) as they helped me get highter. I avoided the spikes, trying not to get impaled by them on my way up, but soon found myself on the top. Jason had already beaten me to the punch, mainly because he was, like, fifty pounds lighter than I was which was totally not fair in my opinion.

Okay, not I was at the end of my plan. Sure, I could see the hatch they used to get inside the tank but it wasn't like I could knock on the hatch and ask them Hey! Can I kill you guys and destroy your tanks while I'm at it?

Wait...knocking...

Lightbulb! I looked at Jason with a smile as I gave him the minute sign with my finger. I then looked at my belt and smile brightly, I still had a grenade strapped to my belt. Perfect. I saw that Jason had one as well, which meant a bonus. I took it from my belt and positioned myself over the back of the hatch. One shot was all I had at this and I really did not want to mess this up at all (not like I would get a second chance).

With a heavy sigh, I belt down and knocked on the lid as hard as I could to make it sound urgent. Sure, it was stupid and might not work but it was all I could really do right now and I only hoped my plan worked well enough.

The sound of squeaking and gears turning lifted my spirits as the lid of the hatch opened to reveal a human Grunt who poked his head out and looked around the area, like something was going to be standing there. Okay, I was standing there but that didn't matter. He looked old but strong but I knew he was controlled to only kill and follow orders from his superiors.

I didn't dwell at that, even though I felt for this guy I still had a mission to do and if I had to kill him...I had to do it. Thousands of more lives were on the line. With a swift motion, I clutched the grenade and pulled the pin, throwing it inside the hatch as I kicked the lid shut from behind him. There was the sound of screaming but I stood on the lid as they yelled for help. While I had done that, Jason had done the exactly same thing and had (by some odd miracle) gotten the same result. Only thing though was that he was now throwing his grenade inside, once that was done he shut the lid and pressed it down with his strength as the soldiers inside yelled for help as well. Seconds later did both explosives go off, both of us getting a powerful thud that nearly blasted me off my feet. The shouting had stopped as the smoke rose from the hexagon shaped lid of the hatch. Okay, they were all dead, clearly.

Carefully, I lifted the lid (without any problems) as the smoke blew out and showed me the devastation one little grenade had done. Wires sparked, bodies were slumped as some had actually been (gulp) blown to pieces. I willed myself to shut my eyes and hole my breath. Instantly, my mind went to work without my body's consent as I dropped inside, immediately hit with the smell of blood, smoke, and death.

"Oh, merda," I groaned, clamping my nose shut with my hand as the scents his my nose. (Shit.)

My mind still worked my body, which was actually pretty weird. I found a smile computer that still worked somehow. The screen was cracked byt it still worked byt some odd chance. It didn't matter, my fingers began to move over the keys as I felt the barrel of the tank begin to move again. I hoped I didn't do anything wrong but on a separate monitor I saw it began to aim at Jason's tank with his also pointing at mine. There was a loud clicking sound as red numbers flashed on the screen. I gulped.

A countdown.

1:00...0:59...0:58...

_ _ I cursed again. "Oh fuck!" Then tried my best to climb out of the tank, slipping on my first attempt but with my heart racing, my body sweating a rainstorm I didn't care. I just needed to get out of there. Now!

I grabbed the rim of the opening and hauled myself out with all the strength I had to give. I lifted myself up and out, groaning in pain as I set myself on the lid of the tank from where I was before. Jason was just now climbing out from his tank and was struggling a little. I looked inside mine again and gulped, we had about twenty-five seconds. Holy crap.

Even Jason looked scared. No chance we were climbing back down and getting out in time. I looked down and gulped, it was a tall jump but I took my chances. I jumped from the top of the tank and fell on my legs shortly after, rolling forward as I got back to my feet. I didn't even look back as I felt Jason right next to me, running away along with me.

BOOM!

_ _ The sound was like thunder behind us, the whole air pushing us forward as we landed on our hands and knees. I looked back to see a huge wild-fire of destruction and obliteration, all wrapped up in heaping mounds of large flames. The air sizzled and the smoke rose heigh into the sky.

Once we were far enough away, we took a slight break to catch our breath. We both panted and coughed from the lack of air. I felt the back of my throat go cold as it felt like shards of glas was cutting into it. Gah.

"N-never..." Jason stuttered, looking at me with a glare. "...again."

"Agreed," I replied with a smile that only made him roll his eyes at me. I kne whe didn't like my plan from the start but he still pulled through it.

I can't say I wanted to run back, because I really didn't want to. I didn't feel like I had any more energy to give and, frankly, I just wanted to find a nice bed to crash in and sleep in for a few days. My body was never so sore in my entire life, my fingers ached from all the firing, reloading, cocking; my legs ached from all the running; I smelled like a human sewer; and I had nearly died dozens of times today.

So yeah, food, shower, and bed. Those were the tings I needed.

Jason looked beat, and I knew he was. He was fighting longer than I had and now the battle was wearing on him. He staggered a little when he walked but managed not to fall flat on his face, and if he did fall I would be the first one to catch him. We were both tired and needed rest, this whole day was killing us just by fighting through it, but we were lucky not to be killed in all of this.

Being in one piece felt good; being in the war felt terrible.

We walked down and rounded the corner that we took to get to this fifteeth street. However, what I heard down the road made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. It was a girl's scream, a high pitched one that I could tell harbored pain, agony, and pure anger. I don't know who's scream it was but it was only down the street.

Jason and I exchanged a look and nodded. Finding some newfound energy, we ran down the road in search of that shriek of pain. It was only a few seconds later did we see what that cry for help was. The both of us hid behind a wall of a nearby building then looked over the corner.

My eyes went wide with shock. On the ground was a wounded Piper, cut, bruised, stabbed and lying on the ground groaning in pain. Her uniform was torn up in several places mainly her knees, legs, stomach, and arms. I saw blood on the ground but she was still alive, but only bearly I guessed. Nick was close to her but looked just as bad, only difference was that he wasn't moving, much, and he looked like he had been knocked out cold from something powerful.

And that's when I saw him.

A Flamedramon stepped out from the shadows and walked towards them. He looked like any other Flamedramon--just as tall as me, lightly built but still had some impressive muscles to show (though his was similar to mine), and his face was regal and strong looking. He wore black sweats by the look of it (odd), black leather greaves (odder), a red short sleeve shirt with a seethrough black longsleeve underneath (seriously odd) with a metal chest plate over his chest (freaky).

One sword was strapped to his back while another was within his grasp. Yes, I knew a lot about swords (mainly because I'm a geek) and I knew what kind he was holding. They were called a "khopesh" which was basically an anicent Egyptian sword around the BC's. They were shaped like a hook/sickle and looked to be about 2 and a half feet long but the coloring of both really made me question. The he was holding was as black as obsidian (yes, Minecraft ref) with a brown leather handle, there looked to be an inscription along the blade but I couldn't read it to be sure.

The other was a color I was beginning to seriously hate. It was as gold as the sun, with a brighter brown leather handle. Yes, there looked to be an inscription on that one as well but I still couldn't read it, mainly because it was strapped to his back.

What really made me scared was the fact that he had black skin. It had to be a Shadow, but he wasn't like the others. He had black skin, ruby red eyes, but his stature was different in a way, I just couldn't understand what it was.

He walked over to the wounded Piper and smiled, kneeling down to her level. I saw him place a human-like hand on her face and rub it tenderly. Okay, if that guy was about to kiss her, I was going to take that blade and ram it right up his--

"You are a feisty one," he spoke in a deep, smooth voice that made me shut up even though I was in mid-thought. "I like that in a human, especially a female like yourself."

Blegh.

Piper just looked at him and grunted. " __Allez...au diable!" (Go...to hell!) She cursed at him in her rough French voice.

He only chuckled at her attempt to be frightening. "Oh, silly girl. You are a fighter, even resisting me after I've bested you. Mmm, yes, once you are healed you will make one fine slave girl back at my castle." He laughed, bellowing his deep laugher everywhere which made me cringe. He sounded crazy, intense, and seductive all at the same time. It made me fear him a little. "Yes, such perfect skin...a beautiful face, and a warriors spirit, such great traits if only all you female's had them then this war would be much more interesting. No matter, you will soon bow to me and worship my feet." He chuckled again, leaning closer as if to kiss her.

I was about to jump in right then and there but she spit on his face, causing him to hiss at her. "Not on your...life, bastard! I bow to no one! Not even to a pathetic and snot-nosed brat like you, Rodrigo!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. I knew he name at least now, which made addressing him easier.

He snarled at her and grabbed her by the throat, pulling her up into the air. She flailed and cried out for her unconscious partner who barely moved. I saw tears run down her eyes as the held the blade against her throat.

"How dare you?" he snarled at her, his voice getting stronger. "I cannot wait to break that will of yours, soon, oh yes, very soon you will be grobbling at my feet and begging me to release you. But for now..." he pushed the blade against her throat, getting a cough from her. "...its time to add another scar to that skin."

What came over me, I don't know. All I knew was that I bolted from my cover and ran straight for this Rodrigo guy. My mind was in a haze as Jason's shouts for my name became more muffled by the second, yet I didn't care about that. Piper was the one who mattered the most right now, and saving her was my top priority.

"Yo, Black-Skin!" I yelled to him. (That's all I could think of, don't judge me.)

He turned his head to me and cocked an eye. The Flamedramon didn't even get a chance to react as I tackled him like a football all-star and then pushed him back, causing him to let go of Piper but stumble back a few feet.

Sadly, that few feet led to the hill of the park Jason and I had passed by earlier. He fell backwards, taking me with him and in no time at all we both were tumbling down a rubble covered hill, bouncing around as we fought against each other.