Marcus backed as far as he could against the wall, huddled down with fear. "....Adrien? Is—is that really…you?"
The Technician’s blaster glowed dangerously as he slowly walked over to him, eye staring daggers into him. “...yes, I am.”
"But—but how?” Marcus stuttered.
"Even after all this time you still haven't figured out what you did to me?"
Marcus shook his head, “No…no, I saw you get destroyed in that beacon!”
“That beacon wasn’t what you thought it was,” the Technician flexed his hand. “It was a portal to the Network.”
“Portal? What?”
“The severe damage to the original Zonar Core made it so unstable that it temporarily tore through our own realm. Its direct connection with the Network made it the perfect destination. However, because of how vastly different the realm of data is to our material realm, anything that passes through must be appropriately converted. That’s what you saw and thought was burning.”
Marcus’s eyes widen with disbelief. “So…you—”
“When you let me fall into that wretched beacon, my body was TORN apart. My limbs, my skin, my face, eyes, tears, and brain. Every single cell and molecule in my being was converted into mere bits and bytes of ones and zeros within milliseconds! Fortunately, my mind somehow stayed intact through the process, which was how I was able to eventually control it.”
“I…” Marcus wanted to say something, but the words were never formed. There was nothing he could really say. His old friend that he left for dead had suffered an even worse fate than he realized, and now he was back with so much power. It made sense why he would want revenge. But anger still welled up inside of him. “Well, maybe you deserved it after you killed Yvonne and wanted to destroy everything else we worked for!”
“You say that, and yet, I see so many weapons and devices that can hurt people. You built a company around our project and sold weapons to organizations. Isn’t that hypocritical.”
“Those organizations are governments, the Guardian Academies, and security forces,” Marcus protested. “I’m not selling them to terrorists!”
“You seriously think that makes any difference. If any, you’re just as much of a criminal as me, except you hide behind a mask. Just like how you hide behind that metal puppet of yours.”
“He isn’t mine and I don’t hide behind any mask!” Marcus stood up to face the Technician. But the Technician quickly blasted Marcus in the leg, sending him back to the ground with a cry. He clutched his burnt leg and squirmed.
“You’re pathetic.” The Technician loomed over him. “Your weapons are easily stolen. The organizations that you think will use your technology for good are often lying or misled. Lives both innocent and guilty are taken every day, and you alone have raised the power ceiling tenfold for every one, and the danger levels have risen. You claim that I’m a monster when I’m just trying to accomplish a dream, but you’ve taken advantage of all our deaths, and used them for your own gain. Tell me, what good have you actually done for the world that you so claim?”
Marcus tried to respond, but the pain was too much for him to even think. But as he looked around at the weaponized devices, something did click in his head. He realized that he did become similar and he wasn’t even confident in his company anymore. Did he cause these problems? Adrien had gotten this power from his technology, and he dreaded checking if his technology was stolen or used for crimes. Eventually, he just hung his head in defeat, in acceptance.
"Tsk, tsk," the Technician looked down at Marcus coldly as he aimed his blaster at his head. "Nothing more to say? Well, that's a first. I've thought about this moment for years ever since you threw me down in that searing beacon of light."
"I did what I had to." Marcus simply whispered, not looking up.
The Technician stared at him for a couple more seconds, until his arm fully charged. "Hmph, well now there's nothing left for you to do."
The Technician released the green blast of energy, but not before a crack of steel as a long curved Aurainium blade shot through his chest and carried him up in the air, causing his energy blast to be redirected at the wall and ceiling just above Marcus.
"Ahh!" The Technician screamed in pain as the blade also pierced through the core of the robot body he possessed.
And with several more swift moves, the blade - radiating with electric power - turned within the chest and viciously sliced the robot body into pieces and eventually knocked it to the side. Marcus looked up, shakily, as dust fell all over him but he still felt intact. Standing before him wasn't the Technician anymore, it was the glowing blue outline of Chase with his sword blazing with energy.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Chase…" Marcus whispered.
"Go." Chase said, pointing to the broken door of the room that he had promptly sliced open.
Marcus stared for a second more before nodding and tried to crawl to the door, but his damaged leg was stopping him hard with the pain. Fortunately, Alice came running in through the door, panting hard. “Geez, these stairs are rough!”
“Alice! Get Marcus out here!” Chase shouted.
She looked up and saw Marcus’s prone body, and nodded. Rushing over she picked him up by the shoulder and they limped out together. “You good?”
“Barely,” Marcus grimaced.
“Heh, this makes up for the car, right?”
Marcus glanced at her, before giving a light chuckle himself. “I guess so.”
Chase watched them go before returning his attention to the Technician, who was reforming quickly in front of him. He gripped his blade in anticipation, as the Technician rose back up to his full form.
"Even after all this, you still want to get in my way?" The Technician said.
“My responsibility is to protect the people of this city from any threats. And right now, you are the biggest threat here."
[Battery: 55%]
"Is that so? And how do you expect to defeat me? Without your little virus, the chances of you winning are slim."
Chase flexed his mechanical parts, preparing to fight with everything he had.
The Technician glared at him, finished reforming his robotic weapons. “We really aren’t so different. And I hate that.” He raised his blaster and fired an energy blast at Chase. He felt the hot light blaze toward him, but with a swift cut of his blade, the energy bounced back at the Technician.
The Technician dodged the blast and fired more blasts at Chase, who dodged and blocked through the blasts with exceptional speed before moving in to slash and cut through his defenses. The Technician moved to dodge and strike back, but Chase was too fast as he managed to strike the Technician's legs and side. But the damages were miniscule compared to what the Technician could do, he countered back with a powerful beam of energy that hit Chase right in the chest. With Chase's core exposed from the lack of armor the damage was critical as he was struck back into the wall with a shattering crack.
[Battery: 40%]
His mask's HUD flashed with warning signs of critical damage to several areas of his body and his battery was being drained from his constant boosting, but he ignored it. He couldn't stop. The Technician fired another blast of energy at Chase, but this time he made sure to block it with his sword to prevent more damage, and absorbed the energy from the blast, partially recharging himself.
[Battery: 55%]
But suddenly, Chase felt a pull on his chest as the Technician had his hand raised with a grip at his core. The Technician pulled his hand backward which pulled Chase out of the wall and then proceeded to slam him into another.
Chase winced at the impact and tried to escape, but the Technician pulled him into his grip again and lifted him back in the air, ready to smash him again. Then he got an idea, with a swift but strong move, he used his legs to break out of the Technician's grip for a second and pushed off the wall, right at him.
In surprise, the Technician failed to react in time as Chase used his pull against him and crashed like a lightning bolt.
[Battery: 45%]
The Technician's arm was ripped from his side and fell on the ground as Chase landed with a thud. Then he turned around and kicked the severed metal arm out of the broken window. He hoped that losing materials would prevent the Technician from regenerating so quickly, but he heard a cry of rage as the Technician was back up and with a reformed arm. He clearly had a lot of resources to work with.
The Technician roared with rage as he slammed both his hands against the walls behind him. Chase watched nervously as the wires, computers, machines, and just about every bit of technology in the room transformed into the green and black nanites that quickly formed together and around the Technician. The lights in the room were immediately shut down, and the room plunged into a black darkness, with the only light sources being the green and blue glowing outlines of the Technician and Chase.
He watched with his nightvision as the Technician clenched his fists which caused the clusters of nanites to tighten into two giant green and black arms with fists. Chase tried to move away, but he felt a grip freezing him in place as one of the giant arms smashed into him. Punching him through the wall of the workshop and causing him to crash into the bedroom area of the floor, Chase shakily got up as the Technician crashed through the wall with his giant arms looming behind him.
This time, however, Chase didn't waste time waiting as he summed up the energy to run around faster than the Technician could catch him. Dodging and weaving his grasp, Chase took out his automatic handcuffs and threw them strategically at the Technician. One of the handcuffs clasped right on the Technician's hand, but the other handcuff didn't go to his other arm, instead Chase had aimed to throw it at the leg of the bedframe in the room. And it immediately clasped on, and with that the Technician's handcuffed wrist reacted with an energy chain pulling him and the bed toward each other. The Technician's sudden movement caused the giant arm to react the same - being pulled toward the bed. Of course, the Technician would break free of the grasp quickly, but it would give Chase enough of an opening.
"Huh?" The Technician resisted the cuff's pull but was too late to see Chase coming at him with his sword.
With another quick strike, Chase sliced off another one of the Technician's arms, and then proceeded to combo him with another flurry of slashes, ending with Chase slicing off the Technician's head and crushing it against the wall. But the Technician retaliated by grabbing Chase with a free arm and used his strength to send him crashing through the wall again and back into the workshop.