The soldier tried to rush to check the loud noise by stepping over Ashe. His gun retreated from Ashe’s head, giving her some relief and something she wanted— an opportunity. She wasn’t sure what the noise was either, but she hoped it would make her escape easier. Ashe quickly used her now free legs to trip the soldier back onto the floor then used her elbow to land a powerful strike on the back of his neck. A loud popping noise came up from his body and he laid lifeless. She stood up and let out a relieving sigh, realizing her freedom was close.

“Looks like you won’t be needing this anymore.” Ashe picked up the high-caliber pistol and checked to see if it had any ammo in the clip. She ran out of the brig with the soldier’s gun drawn in front of her. The other guards’ attention would be stuck dealing with the explosion.

“Call for reinforcements!” The pilot’s voice yelled throughout the ship.

“Must not be good.” Ashe whispered to herself about the ship’s sudden breach.

Another guard ran to the brig’s direction, but Ashe quickly ambushed him from behind the corner of the corridor; she pistol-whipped the unsuspecting guard and put a bullet into his head. The gunshot wasn’t exactly quiet, but it seemed she was in the clear. She continued on her way to locate an escape plan since Reves had his remaining men search for the breach and now with reinforcements on the way she wasn’t going to waste any time than she needed.

A few loud footsteps grew louder and louder getting closer to her location. She knew it was the Golem that Reves activated to deal with the intruders.

“This isn’t going well. I’m not going to be able to deal with that guy alone. I still have a chance to slip by and maybe I can avoid fighting it altogether.” Ashe quickly dashed away from the oncoming threat and proceeded through an alternate path.

The shadow of the Golem revealed itself to be Ragnar with its new armor and Deacon following close behind. The new updates returned Ragnar its flying abilities and used its upgraded speed to chase down the Shadow Cannon ship.

“Do you think Ashe is still alive?” Deacon looked around the corridor of the ship.

Ragnar whirred and shrugged.

“Glad to see your attitude stayed intact.” Deacon peeked through the corner, but as expected it was empty except for the dead soldier that Ashe left behind.

“Yeah, I think he answered my question.” Deacon knelt down to inspect the body. He shivered from being uncomfortably close to the lifeless body with blood oozing out of the wound left by the bullet. Deacon noticed a gun still in the holster of the now-dead soldier’s holster; he slowly reached for it then pulled it out from the soldier’s possession, loaded and ready to fire.

He never handled a gun let alone a military-grade weapon that he was now holding. He just hoped that the adrenaline would kick into high-gear allowing him to squeeze the trigger easily at his targets. At least, that’s what he would imagine his adrenaline would do.

“We need to find her and get out before the reinforcements get here.”

An alarm rang out giving Deacon a sudden chill down his spine. His instinct was to look out one of the ships windows and view if his worst-case scenario had appeared.

“I spoke too soon, Ragnar.” Deacon saw another ship unload a few more soldiers and Golems into the already growing vacant ship. “Let’s hope Ashe has better luck than us.”

A loud, deep beeping noise appeared from behind the duo. It sounded familiar and made Ragnar turn around as quick as its improved chassis would allow. There in front of him with all its infamous glory was the same Shadow Cannon Golem that defeated Ragnar in their last battle. Now looking for a rematch against Deacon’s friend.

Ragnar sent Deacon a message: Go find Ashe.

The Golems walked up to each other and then began to increase their foot speed until they began to sprint toward each other. Deacon took Ragnar’s word and escaped the scene before the rest of Shadow Cannon got to their position and saw him as a sitting duck.

“Get him, Ragnar!” Deacon threw his words of encouragement before running off to search for their friend.

The Shadow Cannon Golem shoulder charged at Ragnar, but the improved speed allowed it to dodge its opponent’s tackle and counter with a throw of its own. The whirring noises between them were soon drowned out with the sound of their punches connecting to their bodies and faces. Ragnar’s new armor managed to shake off a few punches, but the relentless fury of the Shadow Cannon machine still made Ragnar stumble a few times; it only proved effective for a few seconds before Ragnar regained balance and kept his footing against the raging Golem.

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Ragnar whirred to the enemy Golem.

The Golem aggressively communicated back to Ragnar along with some pointing gestures to make its point.

Ragnar whirred back in response, but its electronic words went unheeded.

The enemy Golem charged again and Ragnar readied itself with its fist up by its head in a defensive stance. The Shadow Cannon’s robot delivered a powerful punch, but Ragnar strafed then returned a punch combo causing its opponent to fly off the ground of the ship then slamming into a wall of the corridor. Ragnar picked up the Golem and delivered another two punches before kicking it through another corridor wall.

The damage was done.

The Shadow Cannon Golem was down and out. Not a single motor made a sound and Ragnar could relax itself to locate Deacon and Ashe.

A soldier’s throat cleared to get Ragnar’s attention; the winning Golem looked to the side and gave a sad sounding whir. Another group of Golems stood by the soldiers, ready to pounce on the lone Ragnar.

It shook its head in disbelief and raised its fists for a new rumble.

#

Deacon found himself inside the ship’s engine room, still trying to find Ashe while Ragnar dealt with the heavier trouble.

“Ashe!” Deacon shouted for her to see if she would answer. The lack of a response gave Deacon enough of a reason to search further inside the room. The loud humming noise of the turbines made him have to yell out Ashe’s name even louder to avoid being drowned out.

“You’re not going to find her here!” A deep voice yelled over the loud turbine noise.

“I really hope Ashe just has the flu. Why else would her voice be so deep?” Deacon turned to face the owner of the voice.

The man, Toomes, stood by the entrance blocking it with his large, muscular frame and an assault rifle aimed right at Deacon. He was looking for an overkill, most likely as personal retaliation for his partner, Yusef.

Deacon didn’t have a hand in Yusef’s death, but to Toomes, it didn’t matter; his job was to eliminate him either way. The disadvantage fell on Deacon’s lack of combat experience and without Ashe or Ragnar to back him up— he was as good as dead. His escape was blocked and the engine room being constricted as it was made his fear weigh down heavily on him.

Toomes cocked back his rifle and began squeezing the trigger, unloading his clip toward Deacon.

The scared man dived behind one of the rapid-spinning turbines to avoid the hail of gunfire. The pistol he was holding dropped to the ground by his frantic motion. Bullets ricocheted around the room; a few bullets managed to get through the interior of one of the engines causing it to go haywire and sparks to fly off the damaged engine. Toomes slowly made his way toward the engine turbine to hunt down Deacon, who was still trying hard to hide from his view.

“Is this guy crazy?” Deacon stayed behind one of the functioning turbines and slowly peeked out to make sure Toomes didn’t catch him off-guard. He wasn’t sure how long he would be able to avoid the madman inside the tight space, but with any luck, he could make a quick dash to the exit.

“Got you!” Toomes popped around the corner with his rifle’s barrel aimed right at Deacon.

Deacon tried a last-minute attempt to dodge the barrage, but his speed wasn’t enough to avoid one of the bullets; a round found itself burning through the flesh of his left calf, searing in a newfound pain. One that he hoped never to discover in his lifetime.

“Damn it!” Deacon looked at his bleeding wound. He’s going to kill me.

In an act of desperation, he crawled as quickly as he could, leaving behind a trail of blood. He was scared, his heart pounded relentlessly and the pulse in his head echoed its tempo.

Before Toomes could finish the job another gunshot sounded and blood spurted on the floor of the engine room. The man grunted in pain as he looked at his bleeding arm caused by the mysterious gunshot. He looked at Deacon, who still couldn’t handle the pain. He turned to see Deacon’s gun still laying on the floor, still not fired. Toomes then turned to face the entrance of the engine room where he saw a familiar form facing him.

“How in the hell did you get out?!” Toomes gritted his teeth at the trigger-pulling mystery person.

Deacon turned as well clutching onto his bloody leg and to his relief, it was Ashe with her gun aimed at Toomes with the barrel still smoking from the last gunshot. He saw the anger in Toomes and Ashe so he took it as a cue to roll out the way as the pair traded bullets in the tight, compacted engine room.

Ashe quickly fired a few shots at Toomes, who slid behind another turbine to avoid getting hit.

Deacon crawled toward his own gun while Toomes was distracted with a trained combatant somewhat of his caliber. He winced with every inch he got closer to the gun then stretched as far as he could to pull the gun toward him.

“Get the hell away from that!” Toomes yelled at Deacon while he turned his gun’s attention toward the wounded man.

Ashe charged toward Toomes and fired a few rounds at his leg to stagger him then followed it with a flying knee to his head to send him toward the floor.

“Need a warm up?” Ashe smiled at Toomes, who was wiping the blood from his bottom lip.

Toomes didn’t give her a response; he instead charged at her with a taste for blood. She quickly pulled up her gun to fire at him, but she was quickly caught by his brute strength. Toomes slammed her down to the ground with his hands over her neck, squeezing the air out of her.

“You see this, kid!” Toomes smiled with a bloody grin, “This is what separates the men from the—”

Two gunshots rang out and Toomes’s grip loosened from Ashe’s neck. Deacon looked over his iron sights of the gun while he tried to calm his breathing. Toomes slumped over Ashe as the wounds on his back bled him dry.

“Get off!” Ashe pushed the lifeless Toomes away from her and stood up, rubbing her neck. She looked at the body and then to Deacon who was still staring as well.

“Are you alright?” Ashe asked the shocked Deacon.

“Yeah, I mean… What am I supposed to say?” Deacon sighed and wiped the sweat from his eyebrow.

“You’re supposed to say something corny.” Reves’s arrogant voice appeared from the entrance of the engine room, “Like I guess you can say he’s been fired or at least we gave him a shot.”

The humor Reves found in the darkest of things gave Deacon the chills, but not as much as Ashe got. That was her flesh and blood, her brother.

“I gave you a chance, Ashe.” Reves looked at the dead Toomes, “But I guess you really want to join dad.”

“Wish I could say the same to you!” Ashe aimed her gun at her brother. The Shadow Cannon leader.

“I won’t make this easy for you,” Reves pulled out his tanto knife. “I promise.