Marcus finished his story, recalling the horrific events of the Zonar Disaster that killed the entire Project Zonar team, except Marcus, resulting in millions of damages. The event was a complete mystery until now, and Chase was also reminded of his own tragic disasters.
“After that, well…you know the rest…” Marcus was still shaking and the tears kept flowing.
“That’s horrible,” Alice squeaked.
“I’m sorry, Marcus,” Chase said. “But do you think Adrien is…”
“I’m not sure…” Marcus said, “And I really don’t want to think about that.” He held out the syringe to Chase again. “I’m sure you want to talk more…but please, just take the Technician down first, and then I’ll…try to explain more.”
Chase looked at Marcus, unable to muster much more anger or even a want to find answers from him, since he felt like he’d be no better in his position. Nodding, he reached out to take the device.
A spark of electricity pulsed out of the large computer from behind Marcus as nanites sprouted everywhere. Chase instantly shoved Marcus out of the way of a blade that shot out and hit the tray of syringes off the table, causing Chase to stumble back.
Marcus grunted as he hit the ground. They all heard a steel laugh as the Technician crawled out of one of the vents and reformed in front of them, the glass vial on Chase's hip shattered as the nanites inside crawled to the Technician.
“I don’t think so.” The Technician said as he fired a laser blast at Marcus, who sat defenselessly next to his computer.
[Battery: 80%]
“Technician.” Chase growled and before the laser hit him, he tackled the robot and redirected his arm laser to instead hit the wall beside Marcus. The Technician heaved and slammed Chase into the wall before blasting him further into it.
[Battery: 75%]
Alice came up from behind a table with a Shocker in hand and chucked it at the Technician. He attempted to block the device, but the electricity burst onto him. The Technician shrieked and jolted around as its robotic body was surrounded by the storm of electricity, but this time it seemed to fight through the shocks and slowly recovered as its metallic body adapted. However, just as quickly, Chase launched out from the wall and slammed the Technician to the ground, some of the electricity coursed into his body.
[Battery: 80%]
"Alice! The syringes!" Chase shouted, pointing to the fallen table with the syringes scattered all over the floor. The Technician blasted him off and snapped back up. The electricity sizzled around him, but instead of paralyzing him anymore it looked like it was being absorbed into his core and through his robotic veins.
“You’re not the only one who can absorb electricity anymore.” The Technician turned his attention to Alice, raising his arm at her with malice. But then he decided to turn his attention elsewhere, sensing Chase moving behind him, he turned around just in time to catch his arm with a high tech syringe raised to stab into him.
Chase grunted at the sudden motion and with him trapped, the Technician transformed his free arm into a cannon and blasted Chase's chest with a beam of green fire. Sending him back into the already damaged wall, but the Technician wasn't finished yet. He used his powers to grab hold of the Zonar Core installed deep into Chase's chest and pulled on it, which brought the rest of Chase towards himself and then quickly slammed him into the next wall, right next to Marcus's cowering figure.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
At the same time, Alice stood back up, after frantically searching on the ground, and had a handful of the syringes. "Chase! I got the Syringes..." Her voice trailed off as she saw the tattered body of Chase lying on the ground and looked back at the Technician.
"Congratulations." The Technician raised his palm at Alice, who didn’t have any time to react, and fired.
[Battery: 65%]
Chase heard the dangers and mustered enough strength, the adrenaline and lightning flowing through his body carried him further as he got up just in time to Alice about to be blasted away. In the split second, Chase unsheathed his sword and dashed in front of Alice, blocking the blast with his sword, but he didn't have any time to think. The green blast flashed as it collided with Chase's blade and the immense power pushed them both far back into the big glass window of the tower that faced the city, shattering it.
Falling and falling. Chase could barely feel the constant stream of wind that was blowing around him. His vision was blurred and interchanged with blackness. But the power surging threw him wouldn't allow him to die now, he opened his eyes as his senses returned to him and he looked around. He was falling beside the Zone Tower with glass shards around him. He craned his head back to see Alice falling with him but her eyes were closed as he could only assume she was unconscious. He needed to do something quick. Pushing against the wind, Chase reached his hand out to grab Alice's hand and pulled her close to himself, then he used his other arm to aim at the glass walls of the building, launching his grappling hook through the glass. The hook managed to get a hold as Chase used the leverage to pull himself to the building and his legs to slow his fall, with Alice still clutched to his side.
[Battery: 62%]
Hitting the ground, Chase drew back his hook and set Alice down, who winced and opened her eyes.
"Wha--?" Alice grumbled, but then a surge of pain struck her back as her face winced even more.
"Are you okay?" Chase asked.
"Everything hurts…”
Chase looked back up at the tower, shattered glass was everywhere on the streets as pedestrians watched in horror. "Can you still move?"
"Yeah I guess." Alice shakily stood up and tried to stretch a little but more pain surged through her, causing her to collapse back onto Chase.
"Keep it easy." Chase said, looking around as his heart sank further when he heard some more explosions go off in the tower. "Alice, get to safety."
"What?”
Chase started tearing off some of his damaged armor. His shoulder guards, legs, and the large burnt chestplate, revealing a glowing blue circular core on his chest.
"What're you doing?"
"I'm gonna go back up there and end this."
"But won't that make you more vulnerable?"
"My armor's already damaged and it'll only weigh me down. I'm gonna be relying a lot more on speed."
"Oh, then you're also gonna need the syringes…" Alice trailed off as she saw the broken needles on herself. "Oh no."
"It's fine. Call the police and get help, you need medical attention."
"But I’ll heal! Don’t worry, I can still help.”
"Calling the police is helpful." Chase looked around at all the people watching them. "But you can also help evacuate as many people as possible. Get them far away from here, before things get even more dangerous."
Alice stared at him and then nodded. "On it. But there’s gotta be people in there too." Chase looked uncertain at Alice, but seeing her unwavering expression, he nodded and ran into the Tower with a burst of speed. The woman at the front desk yelped in surprise as he zoomed past in a flash of blue, ignoring the elevator and instead taking the stairs.
As he ran up the stairs, he couldn’t help but think about everything that’s happened. Everything that’s led up to this disaster. And yet, he didn’t feel despair, he was worried, but that gave him strength to push forward. He didn’t feel constantly weighed down with every step a constant plea to do better, instead he felt the wind and light was carrying him to do what he always wanted to do.
He made mistakes in the past that cost so much, and for all these years he felt like he didn’t deserve a second chance, that he didn’t deserve any mercy or kindness, because he was useless if he couldn’t do his job properly. But despite all that, people still kept showing him such. Alice, Marcus, Calvin, and Rowan. They had all helped him when he didn’t realize how much he really needed it, and it was time he stopped looking at those mistakes as his labels. He was Chase Silverwing, Guardian of Horizon City, now. It was time he truly looked to the future and stood by that name.
[Battery: 60%]