He immediately dropped to the floor to avoid losing his footing and meeting the same fate as at least one of his enemies had moments ago, and as soon as the shaking was over, he rushed over to the Clockwork, who was ready to take off. As he hopped on, a deafening buzzing tore the ship in half vertically. The front of the ship plummeted faster than the back, the portion that had most of the tethers for the balloon, which had also been eviscerated.

The Clockwork lost his own footing, and Orion held on for dear life as his body swung around the side of the mechanical beast.

The gunfire ceased for a moment, giving them a chance to adjust to their new situation. The front half of the ship carried forward and threatened to smash into a building on the ground below. Right as Orion regained his grip on the Clockwork, they took off for the front half of the cloudship, and the Clockwork grabbed it with his arms above him.

He clearly strained under the weight of half of the ship, but with his efforts, its fall was slowed, and he landed on the roof of the building below, carefully setting the ship down. Once he was sure that was secure, he flew back up to the other half, which was floating down more calmly.

At least, for the moment. A few more mortars launched their way, colliding with the middle cloudship and the hull of the one they were still on. The whole thing crumbled apart and debris fell to the city below, where people were now scrambling to safety, but a large portion of the ship was still tied to the balloon and now floating upward with its lessened weight.

The middle cloudship roared into a burst of flames, and moments later, a loud explosion completely obliterated the bottom half of the ship. Orion figured it was the engine overheating. The balloon of that ship had a hole in just the right spot to send what remained in a death spiral to the ground below at an incredibly fast pace. The Clockwork soared directly for the balloon and wrapped the two of them in it, continuing on his trajectory until they crash landed on top of a building. The landing jostled Orion a bit, but he was otherwise unscathed.

A screeching sound filled the air, and Orion immediately recognized it as a missile headed their way. The Clockwork did too, and shot vertically into the air, hoping to keep it away from the buildings and people below. Unfortunately, right above them was the third and final cloudship, and as he pierced a hole through the bottom of its hull and the deck, the missile went off, completely obliterating the entire vessel. Nothing significant was even left for them to shield the population below from.

“We need to do something about this ship!” Orion yelled against the wind and sound of chain gun fire, which had started up again. The bullets trailed behind the Clockwork as they flew, looping around to the other side of the Nullen.

It was the first time in a long while that Orion had seen an airship of this size, and definitely the first time he had been this close to one, let alone fired at by it. Another missile launched, and the Clockwork, clearly getting tired of them, fired off a plasma shot at it, which arched through the air toward the artillery attack and connected with a fiery explosion. Using the coverage of the blast, the Clockwork took the chance to get a head-start on ramming the ship, which didn’t recognize what was happening until a hole was punctured in its hull on one side. The shield was then turned on, and the Clockwork connected with the opposite side of the hull, blasting through, but smoking as he did.

“I’m going to guess you’re not going to be able to puncture that shield very well,” Orion said.

The Clockwork whirred.

“Are we still able to get in through those holes?”

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He whirred again.

“Assuming you said yes, that’s the plan. Get in there and destroy the engine, and therefore the generator.”

With the plan solidified, two missiles and a third barrage of bullet fire soared their way, and the Clockwork once again did his best to dodge the three attacks by looping around to the other side of the ship again. Then, he carefully aimed for the hole already created, darted that way, and—

Thunk.

A cannonball blasted out from one of the artillery machines of the Nullen and connected with the Clockwork’s chest heavily. The sudden change in velocity smacked Orion’s face against the Clockwork’s back, which hurt significantly, but didn’t break anything, as far as he could tell.

They spiraled down towards the ground for two seconds before the Clockwork regained control and bolted right back up for the ship, landing inside. Then, in an attack that seemed sort of personal, he marched up to the cannon and smashed it to bits with heavy fists.

A group of men accumulated around them, some armed with guns, but Orion knew how dumb of an idea it was to fire off guns in an enclosed—

They started firing, poking small holes in their own ship and occasionally hitting a friendly. The Clockwork did what it could to protect Orion, which meant spinning his torso around rapidly, and by pure odds, his metal exterior was the only thing hit.

Once they all needed to reload, the machine plowed them all over, then turned to the generator, fired yet another plasma blast, and fried the machine. The purple glow of the shield disappeared again, and as more people gathered to try to deal with the two of them, he bolted out of another new hole in the wall before immediately turning to add another hole.

And another. And another.

They tried desperately to fire another set of missiles, which only worsened the damage to the hull when they followed him to an unbroken spot, and in a matter of seconds, the ship was losing height and momentum.

And then the guns turned to the crowds below, who until this point had been watching the battle in worried awe. The first bullets erupted out and pattered against buildings, asphalt, and a few unlucky victims.

The Clockwork seemed to panic, which was directly in line with what Orion was feeling. He went down the row of guns from the outside and smashed each of their barrels in, and slowly but surely, the firing died out. Judging by a few unmoving spectators down on the streets below, there were a significant number of people hit by the random, atrocious act.

The ship was now in flames, and its trajectory was going to put them safely out of the way of the city and in the hands of the ocean, just off the shore. For reassurance, the Clockwork went back around to the rest of the weapons and took those out, too, until the all-too-familiar sound of a missile streaking through the air sounded off. Orion braced for another chase again, but noticed something different.

The missile was headed for the crowd below, not the two of them.

Without another thought, Orion pointed to the missile, and the Clockwork responded, rushing to catch up with it and prevent it from hurting a large group of people. The actual “how” of stopping it was a problem for later Orion, but later Orion had arrived in exactly three seconds.

Unfortunately, the Clockwork had already decided what that looked like for them. He pivoted to face the front end of the missile as it collided with them, and it exploded midair. The force of the impact sent Orion and the Clockwork barreling toward the ground, but the Clockwork still had enough control to angle them in a way that he would take the brunt of the impact. As he hit the asphalt, Orion’s grip was removed, and he soared about two meters high and five down the road, before crashing down on his knee and arms. His knee took the brunt of the impact, and he felt an incredibly sharp pain as it broke.

The momentum continued to carry him for a couple more seconds before he came to a stop, clutching at his knee in complete agony.

The crowd quickly gathered around him, and once they’d determined he for sure wasn’t going to be moving himself, called out for doctors or people to help him.

A group of ten people emerged from a building nearby, all wearing similar garb, and three of them grabbed different unbroken limbs to carry him. Two men stood in front, sunglasses on, and addressed the crowd.

“We will take care of Orion,” one of them said. “Have no worries for our heroes today.”

The other approached the Clockwork, which slowly got up. There was significant damage to his body, including discoloration from the heat and smoke, but it didn’t persuade him from stomping over to Orion, who was gritting his teeth and crying from the pain.

“We’ve been waiting for the two of you,” the other said. “We’re going to get you to safety, Orion Muldane.”