Ryuka did not need to anyone to tell her that they have been compromised on the surface. The very moment her comms had been cut off from the rest of them, she had already known what was going on. In fact, she had expected something like that to happen. "This is Koutatsu, initiating sequence 4428," she spoke into the microphone of the computer system, scattering what remained of the C4 that they had brought with them throughout the small, enclosed space. "We have been compromised, I repeat, we have been compromised. Mother Matriarch has authorized a full knockdown of the system. Enemy base is speculated to be near the Old Cemetery. This message will not be repeated."

Across the world, respective Daughters of the Dragon received the feed that Ryuka had been playing and acknowledged it completely. One by one, they shut down all communications between networks, and while this was happening, she routed a message to Shepherd via the US CIA's network.

"This is Red Dragon, reaching Papa Dragon across all 141 frequencies. Skipper's been compromised, requesting permission to initiate Protocol Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo Uniform."

"Red Dragon, this is Papa Dragon, permission granted. Bring the boys home, baby doll," Shepherd replied from the same frequency.

Mrs. Algren may be a military woman like her daughter, but she did not approve of the use of language that the Task Force 141 had. She immediately balked the moment she heard those five words being uttered by her daughter in the NATO phonetic alphabet. "Protocol Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo Uniform?" she asked her daughter across their own frequency. "Ryuka-chan, you had better explain before I wash that mouth of yours out with something stronger than soap!"

At that point of time, when she was busy gathering her weapons and the detonator for the C4 on both levels, Ryuka found it increasingly difficult to stifle a bout of laughter. Used only in situations like these, when most of the team had been cornered by enemy personnel, the protocol would only be known as "Plan B", but when initiated in its pure form, it meant that the amount of explosives have doubled, and the site of the explosions were close to them, increasing the danger to their own, but also the level of confusion that they would cause.

"It's more of a retaliation tactic, hence, the highly dubious name," Ryuka explained to her mother as she made her way along the escape hatch. "How far away am I from the exit?"

"A few more feet and you're home free," Mrs. Algren replied, obviously nursing an apparent headache. Of all her years raising her daughter in Japan had obviously no effect on her resistance towards Western vulgarities... She would have to give her husband a piece of her mind when they returned to Tokyo a few days later. "Be careful, Ryuka-chan, there's nothing that these men won't do."

As much as Ryuka did not want to talk back to her mother, she knew that Mrs. Algren was just being too careful. After all, this was nothing more than a "routine mission" for the 141. Kicking the door at the end of the escape hatch open, she quickly got herself out of the narrow hole, thanking her strict training regime and lack of access to Mrs. Algren's onigiri.

"Bravo Six, this is Red Dragon, initiating Protocol Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo Uniform," she said into her comms after switching frequencies. "I'll be there in say, five mikes."

Back at the shack, Soap was being held at gunpoint by the mustached Chinese man. "Tell me, what this protocol is?" he asked the Captain of the 141 after listening to Ryuka's transmission.

"Do you really wanna know?" Soap asked the other man, trying to keep a straight face. Oh, he remembered when they formulated that very protocol, a result of too much alcohol and the failure of a company of men to get one single woman drunk after a particularly stressful mission they had completed in utter success. He was even more surprised that Shepherd actually authorized them to use it in the field.

If they remembered right, the explosion would happen in, say, four seconds after notification. As he looked right and left, he could see Toad, Roach, Ghost, Meat and Archer already ready to act as soon as the C4 was ready to blow up. "Go!"

It was not meant to reach his teammates, but Ryuka. This was his order, and the very moment she heard his voice, she clicked the button on the detonator, and only hoped that she was there to see the explosions that happened. She knew her comrades so well, in fact, she could see it with her mind's eye.

At the very moment of explosion, Soap would have attacked the person closest to him with a head butt, while Roach the most resourceful, even if he had not been the most experienced of them all, would have already found a way to free himself. Moving from person to person, he would free them all with the tamahagane combat knife that she had given him the last Christmas, and then, the magic would happen.

Once the ash and the smoke subsided, the smartest thing to do was to trudge on forwards, back to the exterior of the shack, where they could already see Ryuka moving towards them. "You missed the fireworks, love," Ghost shouted to her, "Bloody good one at that!"

"There's always the Fourth of July, Ghost darling," she replied with a chuckle. It had been an inside joke. To keep people's attention off her and Soap, Ghost would openly flirt with her, no matter where they were. Well, this was one tactic that used to work, until it ran its course. "Captain, are you alright?" she asked Soap, receiving nothing more than a curt nod, which was so typical of him, right in the field.

"Well, great, we've managed to charbroil enough people to actually tell the Chinese that we're here," Meat said, looking at the amount of Chinese soldiers crawling out of the shack, the flames staying onto their bodies like their own skin. It was a gruesome sight, but a sight that they were used to.

Toad, on the other hand, was not that pessimistic. "I bet that they didn't even know what hit 'em," he said, giving them a round device which seemed to be still working. "See, the Chinese may be manufacturing giants, but they still come out with shoddy work..."

The rest of them did not seem to understand a thing that he was talking about, until a voice came out of the device. It must be one of the comms that the Chinese had on them, miraculously saved from the explosion that destroyed most of the squad sent to annihilate them. "Squad A, Squad A, have you gotten into the bunker?"

And now, they're at a loss. There were no females in the supposed Squad A, so Ryuka could not answer for them. Roach could speak Chinese, but he had a very distinct American accent to it... "I have an idea," Meat said. "It might not work, but it's worth a try."

Two hours later

Grandmother Ryu was anxious. She had already received word from the four corners of the globe that they had already received notification that their network had already taken down by rather explosive means, but still Ryuka had not returned with her teammates.

"Oka-sama, you don't have to worry," Mrs. Algren told her mother. "Ryuka's one of the best in the field, she knows what she is doing." However, a grandmother's worry and concern could not be easily erased. Grandmother's Ryu's heart was set not only upon her youngest granddaughter, who was thrust into the very heart of danger in their own ancestral home, but also to their own safety, not in that current setting, but something a little further.

"Every single Daughter of the Dragon must be accounted for," Grandmother Ryu told her daughter. "Daughter, Ryurei, this task will fall upon you. It is of utmost importance."

Mrs. Algren and Ryurei nodded, and bowed before moving to gather the necessary resources. They must have been betrayed. She knew that no one could have known the secrets that had been known by the Chinese... But not every single Daughter of the Dragon was there, due to various reasons.

Of the daughters of the Algren line, descended and linked closely linked towards the Daughters of the Dragon, only one was absent. Fifth Cousin Algren, one of the US Navy SEALS, had been on a mission in Kenya and was not able to return to Kyoto in time. It had not been a necessary condition that the Japanese line returned to Kyoto every time gatherings like these happened, but for the Algrens, it was of utmost importance...

"This is Black Dragon, come in Red Dragon," Ryurei said to her sister.

"Talk, Black Dragon," Ryuka replied. She was on sniper duty, with Toad and Archer, while Ghost, Roach, Meat and Soap entered the enemy territory. They were now at the second stage of the operation, which was to destroy the base, using air support, after Shepherd hooked them up with the Japanese Special Forces Group after it had been confirmed that Chinese were there.

"Do you remember where Fifth Cousin Algren went before we came here?" Ryurei asked. "She is now MIA... We suspect that she was captured by some enemy faction... In the end, she must have broken under torture..."

It did not matter now, whether or not who had betrayed them, whether or not it had been intentional, what had happened already happened. "We'll only talk about this after the operation, Red Dragon out." It was not Ryuka saw that information as unimportant; it was that there was something stirring in the depths of her hearts. Somewhere, someone was watching them, she just knew it. It was just like four years ago in the Middle East...

"Talk, what has al-Asad planned besides killing the president?" Ryurei asked the Arab that had been tied to a chair, while her sister looked for any incoming enemies from outside the little mud-hut they were in. Unlike Ryuka, she was also fluent in Arabic, making it easier for her to interrogate anyone they had captured.

"Only the downfall... of... you... Western dogs..." the man replied, spitting on the ground, right next to Ryurei's feet. "You... will... all... die... Shadow... Zhakaev... promised..."

What did those words mean? What was he saying? The US invasion that they had come with was among the biggest throughout history... The primary force, the backbone of this invasion, had been thirty thousand US Marines, led under one Lt. Gen. Shepherd.

Why of all places, was this man hiding here? In this run-down little village, filled only with orphans and the old? Unless...

"It's a cover, Blackie, he's hiding something from us!" Ryuka shouted. And then, something started to beep, and the beeping got louder and louder. Following the source of the beeping, Ryuka moved over a chest that revealed a little hole built into the wall of the mud-hut. "What the hell is this?"

How ironic, that she could read Russian... It was a Russian weapon, not only that... It was too powerful to be more a mere warhead... It was... Ryuka's eyes widened as she read what was laid out on the screen of the device. There was something wrong with this...

"They have a nuclear bomb!" she shouted to Ryurei. The man had already activated the bomb before the two of them had managed to interfere. "Shepherd, we have bad news..."

"I know, I'm sending a chopper to your location, get there in 30 seconds, or you'll be yaikitori!"

The Shadow of Zhakaev... This man was the one who provided Khaled al-Asad with the nuclear bomb that had destroyed more US soldiers than any enemy had done. But if not for her sister and herself, more could have been sacrificed needlessly. If Ryuka and Ryurei could have found that person out, surely this Shadow of Zhakhaev could have surely done the same as well...

"Reddie!"

A voice broke Ryuka from her concentration. "What is it, Roach?" she asked the owner of the voice that racked through her mind clearer than a bullet across the dry, desert air of the past.

"The Captain and Meat are down!"

"Toad, Archer, secure this position, I'm going in!" Ryuka instructed. She did not know what was going on, nor did she know what will happen. All that she knew was that she had to go in, and get her teammates out of there before it was too late.

HAN: I hope that by now, you can see what this spin-off is for. Yes? A cookie for anyone who guesses right. Thanks for reading, and please review!