When the night turned dark again, Chase gasped for relief. The pain still lingered but he felt refreshed and exhausted. The Giant Mech seemed to have just completely disappeared, reverted to a disintegrated pile of metal and ash. Traces of electricity still sparked throughout the street and especially on Chase as he collapsed onto the ground in a heaving mess, but for the first time, he was smiling underneath his mask. “...I did it…and I’m alive…”

“CHASE!!!” Alice yelled out as she kicked open her car door from the inside and stumbled out before running over to him. Kneeling over him, Alice’s upside down face covered his vision as she looked him over. “Are…are you okay?”

“...Yeah,” he managed to wheeze out.

“I’m not sure what that was, but you were amazing out there! Taking on that blast!” Alice gushed. “I mean, what’s your sword even made of?!”

“...Storm Dragon’s compact Aurainium design allows it to endure damage that my armor wouldn’t even be able to take. It’s also literally an extension of my being, which allows me to absorb and channel energy through it.”

“You named your sword Storm Dragon?”

“Yes, it’s…a long story.”

Alice smiled, “Well, you’ll have to tell me all about it later.” She looked up when the other police and Lion’s Grove civilians were coming out of their hiding places. Many were groaning from pains and limping.

Rowan lifted up a giant piece of stone off of one of the officers and pulled them out, before walking over to Chase and Alice. “Well, that was…worse than I expected.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Alice said irritably.

Rowan glanced at Alice and sighed. “We’ll handle recovery and damage reports later, but at least the giant robot’s gone. Great job, Chase.” He tried to muster a chuckle.

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Remembering that there was still more to do, Chase winced and tried to stand up before his body collapsed again from exhaustion.

“Hey, easy there,” Rowan helped support Chase along with Alice. “You’ve done enough for one day.”

“We’ll need to get the injured safe and in recovery,” Chase said. “The Technician’s damages were heavy on the city and people could be dying or dead. Recovery can’t wait.”

“Like I said, we’ll handle that. Let’s just get you back to base so you two can rest.”

Chase looked up and stared at the broken buildings and streets that littered their surrounding area and the Altarians that fearfully peeked over at them. Who knew how much more damage there was throughout the city. At least, he prevented more damage from coming. However, he couldn’t help but feel a tinge of despair when he noticed scattered movement crossing the streets. Blasters and broken vehicles disappeared into green and black metal that zipped towards a center figure in the middle of the mech’s ashes. The Technician was still around.

“No,” Chase wheezed. “Guys, be on guard!” The three of them turned to stare at the Technician reforming in front of them. Loose wires realigned themselves and metal plates slid into place to rebuild a new frame, and the Technician aimed blasters at Chase. This was never over.

“Quite the spectacle you pulled, Chase,” The Technician's metallic voice echoed through the street. “But it doesn't matter how much energy you absorb. I’ll always win in the end.” Then, he suddenly jolted and then jolted again. Small electrical sparks could be seen appearing at mixed times on the Technician, becoming more frequent by the second.

Chase wasn’t sure what he was looking at, but he seemed to also feel the sparks. He looked up to see water droplets come down from the dark clouds, and with each raindrop that hit his electrified armor gave him a tingling jolt. It was then that Chase realized what was going on. The Technician was practically burning by now as the water from the rainfall battered his delicate metal body and seeped into his exposed circuits.

The Technician screeched and took one last furious look at Chase before breaking down into an amorphous body of black and green technology that slithered into a storm drain to escape the rain.

Before Chase could react though, he heard a tiny “ow” from Alice who let him go and he suddenly slumped over and fell halfway to the ground with Rowan still holding onto his other arm.

“Sorry!” Alice exclaimed. Chase winced as the rain was also hurting him at this point.

“We need to get out of the rain first, we’ll figure everything out later,” Rowan said and Chase couldn’t help but agree.