"Maine... sounds great!" Steve said as he spun around quickly. "I just want to get out of this dry wasteland."

(Whoa! You guys're at 247 pages.. ALREADY?! Yiiiikes..~ But.. I don't think I'll be appearing yet.. Where're you guys now?)

(We're about to leave our rebel desert base.) "Alright. Let's go!" Steve said as he wheeled out into the hallway.

"Flight leaves tommorow. I forget to mention it, didn't I?" Sydney looked embarassly around. "Sorry."

"That's alright." Steve said as he wheeled back to his desk. "Are you okay? Are you cooled down?"

"Yeah. I'm fiine. Are you?" Sydney Wanted to make sure.

"I'm... alright." Steve said slowly. "I'm alright."

"You sure?" Sydney was skeptical. "I'm not trying to nosy or nothing. I'm just concerned."

"I'm alright. I accept to be in this wheelchair. I'm fine." Steve said as he looked out the window. "It's getting late. We should get to bed."

"I'm going to look at the Maine situation so we'll know some thing about the attack then probably go to bed." Sydney went to the nearest phone and called

"Alright." Steve said as he rode over to his bedroom. "Now... hows this gonna work?" Steve said as he looked at the bed.

"Hello?" A hoarse voice was speaking over a beautiful classical piece. "Sydney Andell. I was told to contact you." Sydney was nervous over the reaction he might give back. "Yes, I expected you to call tomorrow. I'm D.J. Baker. Can you call tomorrow?" "Certainly." Sydney hung up and headed down to her bedroom, however she decided to check on Steve instead.

Steve managed to crawl into his bed. "I think this no legs kind of life is alright. It'll be alright." Steve said as he closed his eyes.

Sydney peeked in to see everything was all right and headed to her room. She laid and started to fall asleep.

Steve eventually fell asleep. They both awoke at about the same time.

Sydney packed up immediately and again went to check on Steve. She decided to make checking on him habitual.

Steve slowly got out of his bed and landed on the wheelchair he packed his things then said goodbye to a few people.

Sydney grabbed the phone and DJ. "DJ?" DJ's voice came over the phone. "Sydney?" "Yeah. We're headed to the airport." DJ hung up. Sydney waited up for Steve."

Steve wheeled over to Sydney. "Alright let's get going."

Sydney stuck finger as a symbol to wait. Suddenly a helicopter ended up over top of them.

"I thought you said airplane." Steve said as he looked up at the helicopter.

"I did but I wasn't to sure what would happen." Sydney jumped up into helicopter.

"How am I...?" Steve said as he looked at the helicopter. "How am I gonna get up?"

"Patrick!" A ramp came out. "I'm not stupid."

Steve rolled up the ramp in silence. He grabbed on to the bar on the side of the helicopter.

"Maine, Patrick!" Sydney moved up toward the pilot putting on a headset. "Hey, I still owe you one." Patrick said as he lifted off. "No, this is for saving you." Sydney answered back.

Steve rode in silence. He kept his hand on the rail so he didn't fall off.

They soon arrived in Maine. "Thanks Patrick."

Steve rode off the helicopter and rode over to the base in silence.

Sydney got off the helicopter and walked to the base.

Steve rode to the cafeteria and got some food. He sat down at one of the tables.

Sydney greeted by a young man. "Sydney?" "D.J.?" They shook hands and immediately started talking.

Steve sat alone in the cafeteria. He ate his mildly spicy soup by himself.

"Orginal base?" D.J. asked curiously. "New York." Sydney slow down and tried not to make eye contact. "Sargeant Andell. Welcome to S.O. 12: Intel." Sydney knew exactly where she was. It was a military base created for things like this. Someone must have told him that Sydney was a spy. "So took over a rebel base?" "You fit in well."

Steve wheeled over and placed his empty bowl in the rack with other bowls. He then wheeled down the hall to the control room. He nodded at a general looking at some radar images. "What seems to be the problem General?" "We have reports of a small group in Sector A5. We have no confirmation if it's ours or the military's. Do you have a team ready for the mission?" "Not yet. But I think I might have one ready soon." Steve wheeled out of the room looking for a team to fight with him.

"I'm going to look for my comrade." Sydney left D.j. and started looking for Steve. She checked cafeteria and then headed toward the the security room.

Steve looked inside a room. "Hey! What's your name?"
???: "Steven. Why?"
STEVE: "Hey I'm Steven too. We'll I prefer Steve but oh well. Anyways I'm wondering if you want to join my squadron?"
STEVEN: "Got nothing better to do anyways. So sure."
STEVE: "Alright I'll call you when we're ready."

Sydney checked random rooms. "Jesus, Steve. Where are you?" Sydney ran into another person who seem to recognize her. "Sydney Andell, the genius behind Special Op Black Plague. Come here." Sydney carefully approached the man. "I'm Micah Porter, in charge of coming up the attack plan on th rebels. Might you like to help?" "I'm good, Micah."

Steve wheeled into another room. "Anyone here want to join our squadron?" Steve asked allowed.
???: "Sure."
STEVE: "Who said that?" The room cleared to show an old man smoking.
???: "I'll go with ya."
STEVE: "What is your name sir?"
???: "You can call me Wally."
STEVE: "Here take this walkie talkie. I'll use it to communicate with you."

Micah followed Sydney. "Where should we attack? Sydney looked down subconsciously. "Right flank." Micah patted her shoulder and left. Sydney continued to look for Steve.

Steve looked around for Sydney. He ended up back at the cafeteria again.

Sdney walked in the cafeteria again. "Really? Again?" After seeing Steve wasn't there, she decided to leave.

(I was there though) "Sydney?" Steve yelled as he looked at her in the doorway.

"Steve. I need to talk to you in private." Sydney was about to hyperventilate. "Like now." Sydney pushed open a random door.

Steve followed her in. He wheeled in on front of her. "What is it?"

"We need to leave this base. It's not a rebel base, and 99% of them would kill us if ordered." Sydney stayed relatively quiet.

"This..." Steve paused in thought. "I've got a plan. Are you up for it?"

"Yeah. Anything." Sydney was honest.

"We need to find the ventilation room. I acquired a weird gas when I was in the mountains. I think it's poisonous because I felt really sick when I was around it." Steve pointed out. "Putting it into the ventilation would poison them all."

Sydney choked up a little. She used to be just like them at one point. "Fine. It's down the hall third door to your left."

"Alright." Steve said as he began wheeling down the hall. He entered the ventilation room.

Sydney exited the base as quickly as possible. She wasn't getting caught in this.

Steve chucked him poisonous bomb into the ventilation air pump. He wheeled as fast as he could to catch up to Sydney.

Sydney stood a good 200 ft from the base. She knew far too well the effects of poison.

Steve pressed the rocket buttons on his wheelchair. He rocketed out of the place right as soon as the bomb went off. He managed to get to Sydney when the gas started coming through the vents.

"I guess we should leave." Sydney started to walk away.

"Let me give you a lift. After all." Steve said as he pointed to his rockets. "Now would be a good time for a fast get away."

Sydney sat. Down on his lap. "Thanks."

"No problem." Steve pressed a button and they rocketed out of there.

As soon as they stopped, Sydney choked back a tear or two. She briefly yhought about their families. Suddenly, she remembered Steve's family.

"You okay? You look sad." Steve pointed out.

"I'm...I'm fine." Sydney dismissed all thoughts currrently about family.

"You didn't look alright a few seconds ago. Tell me." Steve said calmly.

"It's stupid. I had a memory." Sydney completely lied.

"Alright well what was it?" Steve asked calmly.

"When I was in the jungle, I had to escape from some tear gas. For some reason that came up in my mind." Sydney smiled hoping to defuse the situation

"Oh." Steve paused in thought. "I've been to the jungle a few times. It's a tough place." Steve said oblivious to her lies.

"Yeah." Sydney went deeper thought about Steve's family.

"I have no idea where to go." Steve said as he looked around. "Still looks like desert for miles."

(We're in Maine)

(And... WHOOPS!) "It looks hilly and like there's no sign of life for miles." Steve said.

"Plus it's getting late." Sydney wasn't used to the cold.

"I think I have a set up tent in my backpack." Steve said as he stopped the chair. "We should set up here."

"Yeah." Sydney started to help.

Steve got the things from his backpack. He laid them out on the ground.

"What do we need to set up first?" Sydney looked at the stuff awkwardly.

"The frame of the tent." Steve grabbed the poles lying on the ground.

Sydney tried to help.

Steve fell face first into the dirt when trying to put up the frame.

Sydney helped Steve up. "I got it from here." Sydney put up the framework

Steve grabbed the cloth of the tent and waited for Sydney to finish.

Sydney stuck the last pole in. "Done with that."

Steve wagged the cloth around. He handed it to Sydney. "I wish I could help out. It's hard to do things that I want to do being like this."

"I'm sure, but you can't let disadvantages stop you." Sydney threw the cloth on the framework.

"But look what it just did to me." Steve said as he wiped the mud off his face. "This isn't fair."

Sydney wiped the rest of the mud off his face. "A lot of things aren't fair. Come on. It's late."

"Yeah. You go on ahead. I need to unpack." Steve said to her as he wheeled over to his backpack. He just wanted some time alone.

Sydney got in the tent. Grabbing her body to kept warm, Sydney remembered her childhood. "I'm not used to the cold."

Steve sat there staring into the night sky. He remembered his parents being killed. He remembered his brother being shot right in front of him. He remembered what he looked liked before and after the killings. Steve sat there stone faced remembering the events. Now he was about to sleep in the same tent as his family's murder. "You guys don't understand." Steve said quietly. "She's changed. She never wanted any of this." Steve said as he got a couple things and went into the tent.

Sydney was still freezing. She could see her breath. Suddenly she noticed Steve enter the tent. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm alright." Steve said as he laid down beside her. "It's a bit chilly. I'm used to this temperature though."

Sydney stayed there. "I didn't have the ability to live in cold weather. Every naval base base is in the south."

"Here take some of my blankets. I don't really need these since I'm used to the cold." Steve said as he held up a few blankets.

"Thanks." Sydney took an extra blanket and started to fall asleep.

Steve sobbed a bit but eventually fell asleep.

The next morning, Sydney woke up and stretched. This was standard for her.

Steve slept in a bit. He had a long day so he slept longer.

Sydney look outside to see it snowing. "First snow day in a while." She smiled and step out without shoes.

Steve eventually woke up. He yawned and got onto his wheelchair.

Sydney held out her palm to catch snowflakes. "It's been a long time."