Andrea and Cj's team eased through the heavy forest. Their guns were on the ready, heads on swivels. Andrea used her sword to cut them a path taking the lead with Cj close behind her navigating their way. Grayson eased up behind Cj.

"Boss, I feel for her story but are you sure it's a good idea to take her to command?" He asked her.

"I don't know but I feel like she's trustworthy and we could help each other. She needs info to get to her sisters and we need help winning this war. She knows a lot about the Canadian army. She helped them get to the superiority they currently hold. I think she can be of more help than we can even imagine right now."

"I hope you're right Boss."

"Well, if I'm wrong, I doubt I'll live very long to regret it."

"Jeez, that was dark." Joey said slogging through the grassy area behind the two. "You two talking about the Xena?"

"Xena?" Grayson asked.

"Yeah, Warrior princess. It's one of those old classics. My dad has the DVDs, we used to watch them."

"Good lord, when was the last time anyone used a DVD?" Cj asked, bursting out into laughter.

"Well I like DVDs. A lot of the old stuff got lost in the transition to digichip. Blu rays are cool too."

"Blu rays are a little more understandable, though not by much. I wonder how much that collection would be worth." Grayson said

"Probably a good amount if. ." Cj started but stopped quiet when Andrea suddenly stopped before her.

Andrea had her fist held up to let them know to freeze. She signaled seven hostiles and two vehicles. Cj turned to the rest of the group and signaled for the group to split into 2. She motioned for them to check their ammunition to make sure they were fully loaded and for Grayson to stay behind as he was carrying their supplies. Interrupting Cj, Andrea nudged her and motioned that she would be taking up the front as a distraction. Cj shook her head and told her they travel as a group. Andrea shook her head and motioned that the two groups were to flank the hostiles from the sides while waiting for her signal, she would take the front to draw their attention. She stood up and moved to deny Cj any further argument; Cj quietly growled her disdain and confirmed the group’s new orders.

Andrea walked forward and hid herself just out of the line of sight from the hostiles ahead, Nicholas quietly perched beside her.

"Let me know when they're in position Nicky." Andrea communicated

"What's the plan here?" Nicholas asked.

"Can you hear anything? What are they saying?" Andrea asked back.

"Sounds like French, talking about being bored and waiting out here forever."

"Must be an interception squad to stop any caravans passing through the side roads. Make sense. French Canadian huh? That should be fun. How about vagabond and wounded dog?"

"Stay a German Sheppard or change?"

"It's fine, they shouldn't be too threatened by you, and if they are you'll need to be in a form best to fight back." Andrea said while pulling a long brown cloth seemingly from thin air and wrapping it around her.

“They're in position."

"You sure there's only seven?"

"I can never be absolutely sure but there's three in the vehicles and and the other four are standing outside. They're loaded up so whatever you're going to do, be careful."

"Ok go ahead. Play it up for the audience."

Nicholas limped his way out of the brush and whined. The four around the car went weapons ready and moved to see what the disturbance was while the the three in the cars moved to get out. Nicholas fell to the side onto the ground.

"Aides-moi, s'il vous plait. Aide mon chien." Andrea said bustling out of the brush pleading profusely for the Canadian soldiers to help while moving to hold Nicholas. Confused the soldiers just stood staring at her for a moment.

"Qui es tu?" One soldier shouted aiming his weapon at her.

"Monsieur, je ne suis personne. Juste une pauvre femme dont le chien a ete attaque par un mal americain." Andrea answered. The soldiers were still hesitant but one stepped forward and kneeled to check Nicholas, then ordered another one to get the first aid kit.

"Merci bon monsieur" Andrea thanked him. The air seemed to calm as the soldiers moved to the back to watch the situation, curiosity getting the better of them.

"I don't like this boss, you sure we can trust her." Grayson whispered.

"Hush, just keep your aim trained on the six in the back. I'm going to move forward to get a better shot on the one still in the truck." Cj said shifting her position forward and creeping slowly out into the open. The soldier still in the car turned her head noticing something moving in her periphery but suddenly Nicholas howled loudly drawing her attention away.

Suddenly things got loud when Nicholas' teeth lodged into the arm of the soldier. Andrea threw four long knives into the hands of the soldiers closest soldiers causing them to drop their guns. Cj knocked out the female soldier in the vehicle with the butt of her gun and went up behind the final soldier with her rifle pointed at the back of his head.

"Drop it." She growled. "All of you, move away from your weapons." She barked to the rest of the group. They held their hands up clutching their injured hands. The rest of the group came from the trees and secured the weapons and tied up the soldiers. Grayson bandaged their wounds and they were stacked uncomfortably in the back of their vehicles.

"That was extremely dangerous." CJ said to Andrea

"If you guys had taken them you would have killed them instantly, or they would have killed you. This way, no one dies. Also who knows if there were only actually 7. Getting close and taking a minute to observe them would have let me know if someone else was watching for afar. They didn't signal anyone to let them know there wasn't any reason to worry." Andrea answered matter of factly. Cj just stood there for a minute, not knowing what to say. "I've been at this a long time. I know you're used to being in charge and don't particularly like taking orders but sometimes you have to know when to take a back seat." Andrea continued before walking away.

"Well, fuck me then." Cj said letting out a sigh of exasperation, completely unable to argue. She motioned for them to load up and get ready to go. The Canadian vehicles seemed to be well stocked with enough rations for at least four days and a lot of ammo. The groups decided to take the vehicles and their captives along with them for the rest of the trip. Canadian trucks wouldn't set off the sensors for the sentry bots so they could travel seemingly unhindered.

@@@@@@@

A couple of hours later they two vehicles were pulling up to the doors of the walled city of Kingston, New York. Most of New York and the other border states between the U.S> and Canada had become occupied by Canadian forces. Nearly all the major cities were under Canadian occupation and renamed, early in the war. Certain cities were able to build walls and borders that became military strongholds. These borders grew higher and higher until they were completely defensible, the walled city of Kingston had spread out to encompass almost its surrounding cities including Poughkeepsie and Saugerties. The cities were too close for to the border for too much heavy weaponry to be used against it. The walls had grown to be over 300 feet tall and took over 60 years to build.

The group pulled up to the gate and Cj stepped out. A small outpost sat outside of the gates of the city and two armed soldiers one young but large and the other much older but still fit clambered out guns at the ready for the assumed Canadian opposition.

"Clark. Sam. Stand down, it's only us. Team 7" Cj said hands raised in the air. "We managed to snag a couple of armored trucks from some Frogs a couple klicks away. They were waiting to ambush us on the main road." She continued.

"Did you take out their lojacks?" Clark, the younger of the two, asked lowering his gun.

"Yeah, we had to keep them up to keep the sentries off of us but we circled around a few times before we got here and took them out about six klicks west."

"Safe word?" Sam the grizzled elder asked, keeping his weapon trained on the trucks.

"Pastel." Cj said then held her right fist up tapped two fingers to the back of her hand before running her thumb against her knuckles. Satisfied Sam relaxed, and Clark pulled Cj into a big hug. "Ugh, you know I hate when you do that." Cj said with exasperation when Clark let her go.

"Well, ever since you became a big shot I never get to see you anymore cousin." Clark said a large smile on his face.

"Yeah, yeah. I miss you too." She answered slugging him in the arm. "Now you gonna let me in or not?"

"Yeah kid, no problem." Sam answered her. "Open the gates, the rest of team 7 is back." Sam said into his earpiece.

"You know Unc is pissed right?" Clark said his smile wavering.

"When isn't he?" Cj said walking away from the two to get back into the truck as the mechanisms in the gate began to separate the two halves horizontally to grant them entry.

"Take the trucks straight to the depot of Ulster Ave, they're going to want to make sure there's no extra tracking software on them." Sam shouted to them as they drove into the city. Cj just put a thumbs up out of the window.

With the size of the city the group still had another 30 minute drive just to get into Kingston proper. When they finally made it onto Ulster Ave and pulled into the vehicle depot that used to be a mechanic shop they were more than a little exhausted, stiff and tired of riding around. They handed the keys over to the depot workers and handed their pow's to armed guard before the group split up.

"We're gonna head home." Ryan said before he and Enid walked off toward their house.

"Don't forget to fill out your combat forms this time guys. You know they want them in by the end of the next day while it's still fresh." Grayson said.

"I think we're going to get going too." Joey said before she Jacob and Jackie went toward their apartments.

"You know they're just trying to escape before we go see the general." Cj said.

"Of course, they're terrified of him."

"Can't say I blame them."

"Oh well might as well prepare to face the firing squad. Come on boss." Grayson said taking her hand in his and dragging her along, Andrea and Nicholas taking up their rear.

"They don't seem to like this general person, you sure we shouldn't just leave?" Nicholas asked.

"We need supplies and information. Also, a bed might be nice for a night."

"Man, when's the last time we slept in a bed." Nicholas said with a small chuckle.

"Tell me about it. I really should add one to my inventory. Maybe should think about getting that RV."

"Would that fit in your inventory? That'd be a lot harder to explain when you pull a whole RV out of nowhere."

Andrea laughed; Grayson and Cj looked back at her in confusion but brushed it off. They made their way through the city to a large building full of soldiers in service uniforms coming and going. They get to the entry metal detectors and find two security guards sitting on either side of them. Andrea notices that one of them is a hardened female soldier who looks like she takes her job way too seriously and the other is a fresh faced young private who seems like he'd rather be anywhere but there. She has to resist a desire to laugh at the fact that his gun seems too big for him, then a pang of hurt from the memories of so many young soldiers just like him she's seen over the years. She could only hope he didn't end up meeting the same fate.

Cj and Grayson empty their pockets completely and drop all their items in the supplied buckets. They take their gloves off and slide their rings off of their fingers. Andrea notices that they both have matching rings that they put in a bucket and a smile crosses her face. They both walk through and the detector doesn't make a sound. Then it's Andrea's turn, she takes off her watch and prepares to walk through when Cj stops her.

"Hold on, she's with us, she should be fine." Cj says to the security guards.

“It's fine." Andrea says before walking through without alerting the detector.

"What?" Cj said in confusion.

"Don't worry about it. Lead the way." Andrea said with a small chuckle before gesturing for Cj to continue.

"Hey, there's no dogs allowed in here. He'll have to go in the kennel." The female security guard said.

"He stays with me." Andrea shot back.

"We can't allow that." The gung ho young security guard said raising his gun to the ready position. Nicholas let out a low and steady growl.

Andrea reached behind her back with her left hand and made a bokken, a wood practice sword appear, as if she had pulled it out of the back of her jacket. "You're going to want to take your finger away from that trigger boy before you lose it. I really don't like having guns aimed at me." She said her tone even and emotionless. Cj looked up from where she stood getting her stuff from the bucket and when she saw what was happening she moved to diffuse the situation.

"Stand down soldier." she said moving in between Andrea and the over zealous soldier.

"She rejected a direct command, and now she's threatening a soldier with a blunt weapon. I have my orders." The young soldier said with a sadistic smile creeping across his face.

"Now I'm giving you new ones, Stand down, that's an order." Cj commanded, but neither soldier moved to stand down.

"You heard her." A deep voice said just loud enough to be heard. "she's your superior officer. Stand down."

An average sized man walked up but he held an air of authority so strong that he appeared much taller. Both soldiers quickly dropped their weapons to their sides and stood at attention. Cj and Grayson followed suit, Andrea eased her grip on her wooden sword and relaxed. "At ease, all of you." He spoke in an even and calm tone. Most of the small group relaxed except Cj and the young soldier. The man who Andrea could tell by his suit was a general strolled up to the young soldier with ease as if he had all the time in the world.

"What's your name young man?" He asked.

"Private Benjamin Shang, sir." The young soldier answered concisely.

"Shang? Your father is Emmanuel Shang?"

The man asked lightly, conversationally in complete contract to the tight and concise way Private Shang was speaking.

"Yes sir." Private Shang answered.

"I know Manny. Good man, big shoes to fill Benjamin." He said bringing a small smile to Private Shang's face. He brought his hand to Shang’s shoulder grounding him before speaking softly but loud enough for the others to hear. "Be careful though; don't let those big shoes you're trying to fill cause you to trip." The smile faded from his face quickly replaced by an uncomfortable grimace.

"I hope you do a better job of keeping your subordinates in check in the future Corporal Sheree." The general said with a side glance to the female soldier, she quickly averted her eyes in shame. Andrea was impressed; the general had managed to prove his superiority without even raising his voice. Authority worked for him. "Team 7 and friends. Follow." He commanded while walking away his hands interlocked behind his back. Cj released a breath she hadn't known she was holding in. Cj looked to Grayson who gave her an encouraging smile before they all began following the general.