Always Was The Better Shot

Chapter 2

Ashe hesitated, taken off guard by the sudden, and personal, question. That was the moment that Cassidy was waiting for. He spun around, knocking the gun out of Ashe's hand before diving towards the bar counter where his Peacemaker revolver and flashbangs lay. He managed to snatch them before Ashe recovered her weapon, and dove behind the counter just as the top of it exploded, blasted to bits by Ashe's coach gun.

"Well, doesn't this feel familiar?" Ashe yelled from somewhere over the counter.

"Sure does. It'll be the same outcome too." Cassidy replied, checking the chamber of his gun before snapping it back into place. The odds were in his favor; the Deadlock leader didn't have her gang with her, or her rifle, or B.O.B. Hell, if B.O.B. were here, she'd have had him smash through the entire diner, and possibly make good on her threat from their previous encounter. "I'll rebuild B.O.B. and have him rip off your other arm!"

"You still smoking McCree?" he heard Ashe scream shrilly from somewhere in the diner, "Here's something else to smoke on!" That's when he heard a ticking noise and saw a bundle of dynamite fly over the counter, landing in his lap.

"Damn!" Cassidy kicked the explosive as far away from him as he could, before being forced to roll out from behind the counter. He was immediately met with buckshot from Ashe's shotgun, which, while inaccurate, still grazed him in various parts of his body. Cole quickly overturned a weather-beaten yet sturdy oak table and waited for the impending explosion.

BOOM!

The explosion blew out the windows and shook the entire diner, along with sending fire everywhere. Given how dilapidated the establishment was, it wouldn't take long for it to be claimed by the flames.

"There's more where that came from!"

Cassidy carefully peeked around the furniture to figure out where the white-haired she-devil was. Nowhere in sight, which meant she was probably hiding in one of the tattered booths, prepping another explosive. Just what he needed.

"Simmer down Ashe," Cassidy yelled around the table, "Before we both go up in flames!" Her response was another explosive, which flew through the window behind Cassidy. Clearly, her anger was messing with her aim, despite the excellent shot she was.

"It's a price I'm willing to pay, just to get payback Jesse McCree!" More shots blasted the table, this time making cracks appear in the tabletop. Cassidy's barrier wasn't going to last much longer, and neither was the diner, from the looks of it. Flaming pieces of timber and plaster were falling from the ceiling, and the walls were starting to shake. It wouldn't be long before the fire ate up the diner and the two duelers within it. Not a bad way to go, but Cassidy wasn't planning on dying today.

And that's when the entire front wall of the diner exploded.

The good news was, enough of the ceiling had either already fallen or burnt up that the entire diner didn't collapse on Ashe and Cassidy. The bad news was, the fire was still raging, and with the diner rapidly deteriorating, the odds of the fire being contained weren't looking good. Arizona was a dry place already, full of dead or dying shrubbery and hot gusts of wind. A wildfire would make it hell on Earth. Sure would look like it too. Cassidy groaned and sat up, squinting in the newly introduced sunlight and brushing off the pieces of the wall that landed on him. From across the diner, he could hear Ashe doing the same.

"Well if it isn't my lucky day!"

Cassidy knew that voice. So did Ashe. Apparently, destiny decided to step in and make the day worse for the both of them. Cassidy didn't have to look out into the dusty parking lot to identify who was speaking.

Marco, former leader of the Diamondbacks, the gang whose remnants were now a part of the Deadlock gang. Conniving, deceitful, and probably still full of loathing for the pair of them. After all, it was thanks to Ashe and Cassidy that he lost his gang, his territory, and had to spend a stretch in prison. In Cassidy's experience, whenever you thought something couldn't get worse, it usually did. And it had just gotten worse. A lot worse.