Skull was lying motionless on the gym floor, and finally, it didn’t look like he was going to get back up. The brutal exchange of blows had ended, and although the man was still, there was one thing Aron knew for certain, Skull wasn’t dead.
Aron took several deep breaths, trying to steady his racing heart, but each one caused a flash of severe, stabbing pain in his side. When he had been fighting with the Batons in those final moments, the only way he was able to take the pain was by holding his breath through the exertion. He bared with the agony now and just hoped that Skull would stay down for good. He was at his limit; if the man stood up again, Aron really didn’t know if he could keep fighting or not.
Looking around the quiet room, Aron could still hear a faint buzzing noise. That was when he noticed the drone was still hovering in the room, watching the aftermath.
"Vivian, you’re watching this, right?" Aron said, his voice strained. "Can you deliver me some Zip ties? Or the Fortis group has handcuffs as well, right? If you can get me some of them, that will be great."
The drone moved slightly up and down, signifying it was nodding and understood his request. Then, it turned and moved quickly away toward the supply area.
"Didn’t that drone have a speaker?" Aron muttered to himself as he watched it go. "Why did she make it move like that? I have to admit, it does look kinda cute."
While Aron was waiting for the delivery, he moved slowly to a lifting bench that was closest to Skull and sat down. He just stared at the man on the ground, keeping a wary eye on his chest to ensure he stayed down. With how much Aron had pushed himself to finish the fight, he was utterly exhausted. He wouldn’t be surprised if it was days until he felt he could get up properly again.
But as he sat there in the silence, he also couldn’t help but think about what Skull had said during their struggle.
’A fight to the death is the only option because of who we are... if either of us are alive, then it makes it harder for the other person, since the two of us are escapees,’ Aron thought.
He looked down at his hands, which were still trembling slightly. It wasn’t too long ago that he had used them to kill again, something he didn’t want to do. He didn’t like doing it unless he absolutely had to, yet the shadow of the Black Hand always seemed to pull him back toward that violence.
It didn’t take long for the drone to return, and this time it had returned with a pair of Handcuffs dangling from its underside. Right after it dropped them, Aron dragged Skull’s heavy body across the mat. He handcuffed him securely to one of the heavy pieces of machinery in the gym. The only way one would be able to move that equipment was if they were superhuman. Although Skull was talented in fighting and a former member of the Black Hand, he wasn’t superhuman.
’For now, it’s best to leave you like this here,’ Aron decided. ’Doing anything else right now could cause bigger problems, but I don’t want you exactly escaping while I’m not looking.’
Aron then started to search Skull’s pockets, and eventually, he found a phone. He took out his own phone and started to touch both of the screens together a few times, transferring data or marking the device, before placing it back where he found it.
Right after he was done with the task, he sat back on the lifting bench, holding his side again as the adrenaline continued to fade.
’In this state, I’m not any good to anyone,’ Aron thought bitterly. ’Even if I went up those stairs right now and tried to help Max, with this injury, I think I would end up being a bigger burden.’
He could see the scene playing out in his mind. ’Max would get hurt thinking about me or trying to protect me while I’m slowed down. Damn it, if only I had been more careful. I should have known those exoskeleton suits were dangerous.’
The power of the suit was unpredictable, and he wasn’t sure that Ramon had even figured out how to fully utilize it yet. In a way, he realized that if Max had a chance of beating him, it would have to be early on in the fight rather than later. As the fight went on, his opponent would only get stronger as they grew accustomed to the suit’s output.
The biggest issue, however, was that Max would be fighting against two people rather than one.
"Vivian," Aron called out again, looking up as the drone flew back over to where he was sitting.
"You’re watching everything from the cameras, right? So you should know everything that’s happening. Tell me... how is Max doing? Isn’t there any way you can help him with the situation he is in right now?"
Vivian, back in the control room, quickly shifted her attention to the other areas of the building. The fights between the other Rangers were just ending up, but there was almost a new wave of people that had rushed into the building. They were now scaling the other floors, pushing past the initial defenses.
This was mainly because Stephen was too tired to fight in the courtyard anymore, and the members there were focused on protecting him rather than stopping people from entering. This left the others to deal with the new wave of attackers that had entered the facility, meaning she couldn’t call on any of them to go up and help Max.
And then there was the situation with Max himself.
"I’m not going to lie to you," Vivian’s voice finally came through a nearby terminal, sounding heavy. "It doesn’t look good."