"Private?" Moss objected. "What the hell is this? This is treason!"
"You are correct, sir!" Dwayne said as he pulled the hammer back on his rifle. "And we are not going to stand by any longer as it takes place."
Moss looked dumbfounded, and then turned his attention over at the other recruits. "Are you all sure about this? You can all walk away, right now, with your lives and careers intact."
The recruits seemed to grumble among themselves when he said that, making Dwayne start to get worried.
"Do you really want to risk your lives for a bunch of roughheads?"
Lee decided not to wait for an answer, instead she opened fire on Moss' head. Moss quickly unsheathed his weapon and revealed a giant rock club attached to a wooden stick. The rock was covered in, you guessed it, moss that had been stained red. Moss covered his face with his weapon and the bullet bounced off of it.
Whether the recruits were considering Moss's deal or not now didn't matter, as Lee's shot decided for them and erupted the base into a battlefield. The would-be Rangers clashed with the recruits, using bayonets at the ends of their rifles to cut at each other. The recruits seemed to have more training than the fake Rangers, but their bandana armor closed any gap, making it a fairly even fight.
"Lee, I have an idea." Deacon said as he pulled his lasso out, "Do ya trust me?"
Lee didn't see much alternative, so she just nodded her head in agreement. Deacon looped his lasso around Lee's legs and spun her around in a circle with blinding speed. Lee didn't seem to bothered by this as she took the chance to aim her revolvers and she opened fire. Together, the two became a spinning torrent of death as bullets flew out of them at rapid speeds and gunned down several of Moss' men with headshots. This gave the recruits an edge in their battle, and also left a clear path to Moss.
Deacon was about to bull rush the Major, when Lee put a hand over him to stop him.
"Moss is mine." She said confidently. "I need you to get me the Goldenwood rifle."
"The what?" Deacon asked.
"It's in the Major's office over there." Lee said as she pointed to a log cabin looking building to the southernmost side of the base. "You'll know it when you see it."
"If you say so." Deacon said casually before running off and respecting her wishes to face Moss alone.
As Deacon peeled off from that confrontation, he noticed Bandanawicz seemed to have recovered from his earlier beating, and was now strangling Dwayne with his bandana powers. Deacon hurriedly rushed over and delivered a superman punch that knocked Bandanawicz back and freeing Dwayne from his grasp.
"Thanks, Deacon." Dwayne gasped as he held his throat. "I was trying to go free the Buffalo soldiers when I saw him free himself with his powers and he attacked me. Those Tye-serpent powers are really strong."
"You let me worry about the banana man. You focus on saving Lee's friends." Deacon said as he dusted Dwayne off. "We're counting on you."
With those words of encouragement, Dwayne mustered up the courage to press on and find the prisoners. He knew at least that the brig where they were being held was likely in an underground structure below the base, due to Fort Tuskegee being designed like every other fort in the West.
With Dwayne now out of the picture, Bandanawicz crept toward Deacon, using his bandanas to create spider-like legs that lifted him off the ground.
"Wow, you're a lot tougher than you look." Deacon said, "You can really take a beating, and boy did I give ya a beating."
"Don't get cocky, cowboy." Bandanawiz replied angrily. "I didn't take you seriously earlier and paid the price. But I won't make the same mistake twice."
"Alright, deal. I won't hold back against ya either." Deacon said confidently as he began to stretch his muscles before getting in a boxer's stance.
Bandanawicz lashed at Deacon again with his bandana whip, but Deacon chose to dodge instead. Ducking under the whip as it lashed past him and carved into the wall behind him. Deacon ran forward as fast as he could but was met with another whip. He jumped over this one and spun past it, not losing any momentum and finally getting within arm's reach of Bandanawicz.
"Not so fast." Bandanawicz said coyly, as he lifted his poncho, revealing many more bandana whips that flung forward and all slashed into Deacon.
Each whip tore into his flesh and ripped up his already tattered overralls into raggedy shorts. The force of those many blows knocked Deacon right back where he started, groaning as his wounds stung with a sharp pain.
Bandanawicz made his bandana whips dance menacingly above Deacon as they snaked back and forth. "Each whip is normally strong enough to cut a man in half, but you're no ordinary man, are you?"
Deacon was on the ground, embracing himself to put pressure on his many lacerations. He had to grit his teeth to get himself up before finally letting go of himself. While his wounds were many, they weren't deep, which frustrated Bandanawicz.
"Even you have to have a limit. I just have to keep beating you until I reach it." He threatened.
Bandanawicz then lashed another tendril at Deacon and wrapped it around his wrist before slamming him hard against one of the log walls, splintering the logs in half and collapsing that portion on him.
Lee wasn't faring too well either. As she and Moss clashed their weapons, it was clear he had the strength advantage. His swung his club hard at Lee, who used her rifle to block the incoming blow. She could feel the weight of the club crack into the wood of her rifle, and with a follow up swing, Moss' club splintered her rifle into pieces. The force of the second swing caused Lee to fly backwards onto her back. Moss then ran at full speed and jumped up to bring his club down on her. Lee quickly spun out of the way and launched herself back to her feet. The club smashed into the ground, kicking up dirt and leaving a small crater. Lee grabbed her second rifle and opened fire, but Moss easily swatted the bullets away.
"You just don't get it, do you roughhead?" Moss taunted as he menacingly marched up to Lee. "I wasn't promoted to Major through nepotism, politics, or to be some token roughhead. I was promoted because I AM STRONG!" He swung his club mightily as he swatted Lee's rifle away from her guard like it was child's play before spinning his body around rapidly to smash Lee across the face, sending her spinning back and stumbling to the ground.
"Yes." Moss said enthusiastically as Lee's blood seeped into the moss of his weapon. "It wants more roughhead blood.
Lee could only groan and spit out blood as she recovered from the blow. She hated to admit it, but Moss was indeed tough, probably too tough for her to beat without some kind of advantage. She looked over to Deacon, who at his moment, had just been sent flying himself by Bandanawicz. She watched him crash into the wall and the wooden logs that broke off collapse on him.
"Deacon!" Lee yelled out. "The rifle, remember?"
Deacon pushed a large log off of him with one hand as he gingerly rubbed his head from the impact. "oh. Right. My bad, I got distracted."
"You mean you're getting your ass kicked?" Bandanawicz corrected as his spider-like bandana legs stabbed into the ground as he creeped forward. "It's only a matter of time before I put you down for good."
"I don't plan on dyin' today, banana man," Deacon grunted as he lifted one of the large logs over his shoulder. "Catch!" With one mighty toss, Deacon speared the log at Bandanawicz at high speed.
"Shit!" the outlaw snapped as he made four of his tendrils spiral together to form a cork screw, and the log split in half as it collided into them.
Deacon, however, used that distraction to sprint toward, and then past Bandanawicz over to the Major's office.
"You clever son of a bitch!" Bandanawicz yelled as he rushed after him.
With the battle raging, and the outlaws seeming to gain the upper hand, Dwayne knew that freeing the Buffalo Soldiers could turn the tide. He snuck his way past the commotion and was able to make it to the base's dungeon unbothered. It was when he got to the holding cells, that he finally ran into some resistance. Two of Bandanawicz men were guarding the cells, jumping anxiously over every shot and sound from the battle above. Dwayne saw his opportunity and decided to take the same bandana he had been carrying around, and tie it around his neck like a neckerchief. He then stumbled into the holding cells dramatically, getting the attention of the guards.
"Oh man. We are getting our asses kicked upstairs." Dwayne said in a fake pained voice. "We need reinforcements." Dwayne then pretended to pass out after saying those last words.
The two guards suspiciously walked up to Dwayne and tried moving him with their foot, but Dwayne played stone dead. They then looked at each other nervously before deciding to rush upstairs and join the fray.
With the coast all clear, Dwayne stopped his opossum impression and ran up to the Buffalo Soldiers, who watched him eagerly. "I'm here to help, who's your commanding officer?" He asked.
"That would be me." Major Booker coughed. "What's the meaning of this? What's happening on my base?"
Dwayne just looked impatiently at the entrance making sure nobody was coming down. "Relax, I'm here to get you guys out of here. But you need to go straight up to fight back."
"Fight back?" Private Bryce questioned.
Dwayne looked at them all intensely. "There are some Rangers who hadn't forgotten their oaths, and they are risking their own lives and careers to save you all. But we can't beat them alone."
"Is Lee fighting?" Booker asked.
Dwayne just quietly nodded his head.
"Alright men, I know you're tired and hungry, but now we have to do what we should've done a long time ago," Booker announced as he gingerly got up from his seat, his hands still bound to the wall.
The other Buffalo soldiers all nodded their heads. "Yessir!" They said in unison, giving Dwayne a much needed confidence boost over this whole endeavor.
Without missing a beat, Dwayne pointed his revolver at the cell lock and opened fire.