At long last this war has come to an end. The fortress is taken and today I stood proud on a field of victory. I managed to convince Dylan and Devin to reenlist. Devin's scab is barely visible now and Dylan is now sure that I'm not playing with the weird neighbor kid anymore. I welcomed them back and gave them each generous promotions. Super Colonel Dylan and Sergeant Devin met me at Pineridge Park. Top Brass relinquished her command to Dylan's CO and headed back to HQ.

Dylan still had his water soaker and I let Devin use my dart gun. As we checked our weapons and readied for the final push, I paired my phone to a bluetooth speaker and played "War" by Edwin Starr. After I yelled "Charge!" we bolted through the front lines, dispatching bad guys just like the good old days. I took the center, Devin flanked them on the right, and Dylan set up for a stealth maneuver by attempting to climb up the slide. I slung my SMG around my shoulder and took one of the ladders. As I reached the top I was immediately surrounded by bad guys. Thankfully Devin was there to buy me the time I needed to re-equip my weapon. We cleared the platform and fought our way across one of the bridges to the to the other side.

We fought back to back, holding our ground as the bad guys closed in around us. Still no sign of Dylan. The slide must have been more slippery than we thought. I could only hope he would think to remove his shoes and socks to gain better traction. The spring on my trigger came loose and my SMG no longer made the rattling sound that indicated firing. I asked Devin to cover me, but he said he lost all my darts. Before I could reach for my sidearm, the bad guy general had us surrounded. It was over. Even if Dylan reached us, we didn't have the firepower to fight them all off.

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I had to think fast. I slipped Devin one of my grenades and told him to wait for my signal. The bad guys would take us out one way or another, but we were gonna take as many as we could with us. Hopefully it was enough to give Dylan a fighting chance when he got up here. The bad guy general went on with a long self-indulgent speech about all the cool bad guy stuff he was going to do now that he defeated us. As he wrapped up, I asked him to hold something for me. He looked in his hand to find the pins of two grenades.

Time stopped for all of us in that moment. I looked around to see Devin and I were still intact and Dylan rushing in with his water soaker. My training kicked in and I reached for my sidearm and put two in the general's chest and one in his head. Devin fought off the remainder of the bad guys with karate as Dylan planted the bomb.

We picked up our gear and made a fast exit down the slides. We ran toward the sandbox and watched the explosion from a safe distance. I speculated as to why the grenades didn't blow us up. Devin suggested he had a grenade proof shield to protect us. Dylan said the grenades I had were the standard issue trick grenades; flashbangs disguised as frags. I liked his explanation better.

We went back in to pick up the pieces. I made Devin look for my darts while Dylan and I recovered the bad guy general's dog tags. We made Top Brass proud today, I'm sure of it. Devin found five of the blue darts he lost, plus an orange one that wasn't mine.

Dylan asked me if we could play ninjas now, and I agreed. I owed him that much.