There were scant few heartbeats that seemed to drag on in agonizing silence as Logan could only watch Riordan coil like a spring before, with a thunderous crack, he shot forward like a blood red cannonball. Crossing the distance between them in the blink of an eye, Riordan lowered his shoulder to charge into Logan’s chest. To his credit, Logan was able to get his shield up into time to protect his cockpit, but that wasn’t enough to keep the crazed pirate from cracking the massive slab of steel in two as if it was a wafer, before slamming into Crusader’s chest, knocking it back several meters.

“Gah! Fuck!” Logan said, gasping for air.

“Are you alright Sir?” Vic asked, “Your heart-rate is spiking.”

“Fuck no Vic!” Logan bellowed, “I’m pretty sure he hit me so hard it momentarily broke the synaptic link, so I felt ALL of that!”

“Oh…” Vic said, sounding for the first time worried, “Oh dear.”

“Ya think?”

Logan tried to scramble to his feet, but Riordan was faster, appearing above him, blade held high, as he went in for the kill.

“Don’t quit on me now, Crusader!” He cried out, slinging his blade down, aiming straight for Logan’s chest. Logan push a hand up, gripping his attackers wrist, and managed to stop the blade from caving in his cockpit. Unfortunately however, Riordan was determined to inflict pain on his opponent, and to Logan’s surprise, chose wisely, bashing the pommel of his cleaver into the ocular lenses of Crusader’s helm, causing Logan to reel back in agony, as his vision doubled and warped, like he was looking through a broken spyglass.

“My eyes!” Logan cried out in pain, trying to blink away the black splodges that clouded his vision as Riordan pinned him to the ground.

“Best to put a wounded beast out if it’s misery, wouldn’t you agree?” Riordan growled sadistically.

“My thoughts exactly,” Cameron’s voice came out of nowhere, giving Logan a stay of execution as Riordan looked up, trying to pinpoint where the voice came from. His answer came in the form of a thunderous crash, as the Headsman’s black blade bashed the Cleaver with the force of a freight train, lifting it off its feet before Cameron flipped around and pancaked Riordan with the full force of an industrial press.

“Why you little-” Riordan growled, pushing off the ground with his good hand to stand back up and staring down Cameron as he dashed and jumped, still fending off the three axes he had tossed his way earlier.

“You’re supposed to be dead!”

“Yeah, funny thing about what’s supposed to happen versus fact, dickhead,” Cameron shot back, twirling laterally over one axe while deflecting the other two with his sword mid spin. He blasted forward the moment he landed and blade met blade as the two clashed.

“Fair enough,” Riordan cackled, “Seems I overestimated you, little alpha. I suppose I can extend to you the same courtesy I gave your friend over there.”

“Over where?” Cameron said, the snark came out clearly over the mic.

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“Over… there?” Riordan said, sounding confused as he looked towards the empty space where Logan had been only moments ago. That was when the massive gauntleted hands of the Crusader wrapped around the Cleaver’s torso, pressing its arm tight to its side.

“Looking for someone?” Logan said, laughing for the first time of the fight as Riordan struggled to free himself.

“Gah… Let me go!” He cried, wriggling and howling with fury.

“Oh he will,” Cameron said, “In about ten seconds.”

With that, Cameron broke free of the clash, blasting himself high into the air and back flipping over the three cleavers that were barreling down on him. This time however, they didn’t have time to follow him. He’d waited for just the right moment to clear the way and now Riordan had a front-row seat to three massive spinning cleavers screaming towards him at top speed.

“Oh, fuck m-” Was all he managed to let out before all three buried themselves into his cockpit with overwhelming force. His cleaver dropped from his hand as he his mech and Logan’s crusader were flung back twenty meters from the force of the impact. With a heavy thud and a clearing of gas, Cameron watched as Logan toppled over, trapped underneath the weight of a powered down mech and a dead pilot.

***

There was a moment of quiet as Cameron looked at the aftermath of his intervention, admiring his handiwork. Eventually, Logan filled with silence with conversation as he struggled in his attempts to free himself.

“Took ya long enough, kid.” He said, teeth grit as he tried and failed to move out from under the Cleaver’s immense weight.

“I was waiting for the right moment to make a dramatic entrance,” Cameron said, shrugging as he strode over and began to roll the unmoving mass of Riordan’s mech off of his comrade.

“And what an entrance it was, sweetie!” Thelma chimed in, “Going over the after action report, I’d say you were operating the Headsman at approximately eighty percent peak efficiency. Not bad for your first time at all!”

Couldn’t couldn’t help but smile, “Thanks Thelma, I appreciate the kind words.”

“Oh they’re not just kind words!” She said excitedly, “I’ve upload the kill feed of Riordan Red to the central A.R.M.S. database and well… perhaps I should just show you.”

With that, there was a sharp jabbing pain directly behind Cameron’s eyes, before everything went black. Suddenly, with a bright flash of scrolling blue ones and zeros, a screen appeared in Cameron’s vision, looking like the same screen he’d seen when he had been threaded, but with some noticeable changes.

PARAMETERS SUCCESFULLY MET

PILOT PROMTION AUTHORIZED

Name: [REDACTED] AKA: Cam Ket

Pilot Registration Number: 1128212

Pilot Rank: Alpha (Primus)

Co-Pilot: T437MA (Thelma)

Company: N/A

Unit Type: Headsman (Assault Variant)

“Well would you look at that.”