At the Horizon City Police department, the building was bustling with people as the task force came back from the recent gem robbery. Calvin and the other officers walk in with several handcuffed goons and head into another section of the department building where several jail cells sit tightly together. Chase, on the other hand, goes up to an office door with a large plaque that reads, Chief of Police.

"Rowan, we're back." Chase called.

"Chase? Come in."

Walking into the office, the room was fresh and cool with dark wooden furniture, silver figurines lining the shelves, and a large central desk gleaming with high-quality carpentry.

Chase had taken note early-on that Rowan had an expensive taste; he never quite understood it, but he trusted him enough not to question it. At the large desk sat a large, muscular man in a police uniform with a golden star badge. "Glad to see you back, Chase," Rowan said, his bushy mustache shifting with his mouth. The man was working on a stack of papers.

"The robbers have been detained sir," Chase said. "However, there was some collateral damage including: city buildings and our own police vehicles…"

"Well that's not good, what about the stolen jewels?"

"All returned intact."

"Good, is that all?"

"There was another thing that you might want to be aware of," Chase showed Rowan a video of his battle with the mini-gun, invisible barrier, and the big shotgun brute through a screen that popped up on his arm. "It seems like the Black Dragons have gained access to some advanced weaponry."

"The Black Dragons were behind this?" Rowan raised an eyebrow.

"When we searched them, we discovered that they all bore the mark of the Black Dragon. It may seem that the syndicate has become much more active over the years, and if they have access to these kinds of tech then that'll be detrimental to the entire city," Chase said gravely.

"Hmm, that could be bad. But hey, I'm sure we can handle it."

"You don't plan on doing anything about this?"

"We'll just stick with what always works. Not much else we can really do."

"Couldn't we increase the security on all the weapons?"

"That's mainly up to the producers and distributors of those weapons, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about."

Chase sighed, "Zone Technologies."

"Exactly, but come to think of it, don't you have a friend there?"

"I wouldn't consider him a friend."

"Well friend or not, he's your connection there. If you're really worried, then how about you go talk to him about it."

"Are you sure there's nothing else we can do?"

"You come to me if you've got any better ideas. Now, do you have anything else?"

"No, sir."

"Then you're dismissed."

Without another word, Chase walked out of the room, conflicted, his mind still lingered on the prospect of the city getting overrun by criminals and gangs attacking citizens with blasters and other deadly weapons.

He glanced uneasily towards his own gun holstered at his side and the blasters that almost every member of the police force had so casually on their person.

Chase wanted to take action, but he needed to just trust Rowan. He knew what he was doing, Chase reassured himself. And he didn't want to make things worse acting on his own, not like last time.

Chase walked over into the large garage section of the department, hoping to distract his mind by repairing his damaged body. That fight with the mini-gun and the brute really did a number on him, even with his strengthened armor. He walked over into a room that was with a sign labeled Guardian at the side of the door. He grabbed a black scanning device from the shelf and started evaluating his body for damages, and at the same time his screen was giving instructions for appropriate repairs. He wouldn’t be able to do much but it’d at least be enough to keep him functioning smoothly until his next check-up.

He respected Rowan. He was the Chief of Police after all, but it wasn't just that. Technically, Chase wasn't actually a police officer, so he didn't need to answer or follow Rowan's orders. But Rowan was one of the main people who helped him through his troubles. He was the one who offered him a future in Horizon City, to follow a dream he never even knew was a possibility for him, he was the one who helped him train and learn the ropes of his new job, and even helped him through the pain of losing his body.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Even though that was two years ago, Chase would have those memories ingrained in his mind for years. He owed it to Rowan to trust him, even if his thought process seemed a bit passive.

While fixing a few wires and patching up one of his rings, which was leaking a bit of blue liquid, something caught his eye. Chase glanced from his room’s window where he saw a small group watching a TV screen; the news was on where a woman, dressed in a red news reporter suit, was talking with a sullen expression. Curious, he looked through his helmet to connect to the Internet and pulled up the same news feed.

"...A Zone Technologies facility, recently suffered what seems to be an accident, resulting in about twenty deaths... authorities are still investigating the case…" The reporter said.

"Twenty deaths?" Chase muttered. He paused his repairs and got out of the room to call over to the group. "Hey, do any of you know where that was?"

The group turned to Chase, bewildered, a couple of them were eating donuts, crumbs all over the floor, and coffee in their hands, an evening snack these days. "Uhh, what?" one of them asked.

"The accident that was just on the news," Chase said impatiently.

One of them looked over at the TV and then turned back to Chase. "Oh! Right! Outside of Horizon. I think it was in Farm Valley?"

"That close?" Chase muttered to himself. "How many were sent there?"

The group turned to each other, muttered something, shook their heads, and then shrugged.

"I'll just ask Rowan," Chase sighed.

He finished fixing up his body and got up. He took a quick moment to recheck his system. He looked at a screen, through his helmet, where his body's shape was in a corner which then moved to the center of his vision. The process was quite high tech, with digital labels popping up to showcase his various parts, their conditions, etc.

[Battery: 56%]

He had also taken the time to charge up a little, grabbing a couple of battery packs from a shelf in case he needed a boost.

After checking up, Chase walked out of the garage and back into the main area of the department where there were a significantly fewer number of police officers left in the building. Most were packing up to go home, but there were still some left on duty overnight - much to their distaste. Although, one of the officers packing up was Calvin, who called over to Chase. "Staying here as always, huh Chase?"

"I have my duties," Chase said.

"Of course," Calvin was already out of his armor and was wearing a sweaty uniform with a small string bag filled with some personal belongings.

“How’s everyone else?” Chase said.

“Well, Mike’s the only one staying in the infirmary,” Calvin pointed to a hallway with a red cross sign labeled at the top. “The others are mostly shocked and bruised up but they’ll recover, this ain’t the first time it’s happened.”

“Will Mike be alright, then?”

“He’s also mostly bruised but he’s got a twisted ankle and possibly a concussion. That fall he took looked brutal.” Calvin grimaced. “I think he’ll recover too, but it’d be a lot worse if he hadn’t had that armor on. I gotta say, these new digs are really coming in handy.”

Chase looked around at the other officers still wearing their armored uniforms and the armor stands in the armory with full-sets on display, used and unused. All of which were basically identical, blue and white colors, a helmet with a mask that also had high-tech features similar to his, the hard plates used were made of the same material as his own armor but less optimized because these things were expensive, and flexible cloth in between the plates for easy movement and comfort.

It was hard to deny that the armor didn’t save lives, in fact, he’d be more than dead if it weren’t for his. At least some advanced technology did more good, but he’d be a fool to not notice the unsettled looks of civilians who saw either him or his masked comrades.

“Yes,” Chase said. “The Black Dragons are also getting stronger. But it’s been a while since the last time they did a large-scale robbery like this, and why gems?”

“Probably money.”

“Likely but they're usually more calculated than that.”

“Hmm, did you talk to Rowan about that?”

“I did.”

“And what did he say?”

“To just wait and see.”

“Seriously?”

“We can’t really do much about it now,” Chase trailed off.

“I mean, I guess, but do you really believe that?”

“Of course,” Chase snapped. “If Rowan says so then that’s what we’ll do.”

Calvin gave him a strange look before turning back to his bag. “Okay. Well, while you worry about that. I’m gonna head home.”

Chase recovered himself with a guilty expression that Calvin couldn’t see through his mask. “Right. See you tomorrow.”

“Cya,” Calvin gave a wave and headed out the door.

Chase watched the glass doors swing open and shut as Calvin left. He looked at his hands and clenched his metal fists. He seriously needed to stop doing that. Rowan's voice cut into his thoughts as he called over to him.

"Chase! Are ya free?" Rowan said, walking out of his office towards him.

"Yes sir?" He said.

"Have you heard about the recent incident at the Zone Facility outside of town?"

"I just heard about it on the news."

"Right, well I was hoping you could go on over there to check things out. I sent a few guys over there to investigate and clear the scene, and other than the basics, they found a few other weird details there. I'm a bit short staffed right now and I would wait until tomorrow, but I've got a weird feeling about this."

"You want me to investigate?"

"Yes, see if you can figure this out."

"On it, sir." Chase saluted the chief and marched off back toward the garage to retrieve his ride.

"He works fast," Rowan commented, before going back into his office. And Chase would get to work, he had no complaints, because this was his life. Unfortunately, he didn’t have his previous motorcycle, which was destroyed during the robbery, and so he just took another police bike. He’d have to be careful with this one, they were already running on a thinned out budget and he didn’t want to cause anymore problems.