Riding back through the City of Horizon, Chase ran through the evidence that he had gathered: photos that he took, the strange metallic green substance, and Alice. He wasn't sure why the girl was there but he didn't believe that she had anything to do with the incident, although she seemed suspicious in a way. It didn't matter how innocent things might look, he couldn't let anything slip seeing as the threat could very well be in the city already and whatever it was, he needed to stop it.
Suddenly, Chase heard a loud crash to his left which stopped him with a skid. He turned to scan the streets and sensed something was attacking a nearby factory, and rode off towards it.
He arrived at the entrance to a factory and parked his motorcycle in a corner and ran into the building where he saw workers running out, screaming.
But there was another thing, he saw some figure wearing a lab coat with a hat blasting the people and strangely...absorbing the machinery? The attacker seemed to be touching the various machines which changed into a green and black color similar to the substance at the destroyed facility and then moved into the figure like some sort of...Chase couldn't even describe it. It was nothing he's ever seen.
"What the…" Chase muttered before shaking his head and then threw a pair of handcuffs at the figure. He could question them after he detained them. The handcuffs quickly latched onto the figure's hands and bound them with a tight chain of energy. "Stop! As Horizon's Guardian, you're under arrest," he called to the metallic figure.
[Battery: 52%]
The figure turned to Chase, revealing a diamond-shaped face with a single green orb in the middle, perhaps a mask. "Horizon's Guardian?" The figure said in a robotic voice. "I don't believe I'm the one you should be arresting." The figure then did the same transformation that they did on the machines to the handcuffs, which turned green and were absorbed into the figure's hands somehow - the chain of energy binding them broke off and disappeared.
"What?" Chase backed off slightly, and then pulled out his hand-blaster. "Who are you?"
The figure reached out to a nearby machine with an arm that seemed to stretch out abnormally, ripped it out of its station, and chucked it at Chase. "Call me what you want. It won’t matter."
Chase jumped out of the way and fired several blue laser shots at the assailant, who formed a giant metal shield from what seemed to be out of nowhere. Some of the lasers bounced off the shield, but a few managed to burn through and hit the assailant in the chest.
The assailant growled and threw the shield, slamming it straight into the floor in front of Chase, who had to jump over it as he ran. The assailant then raised up his arm and fired green blasts of energy at him, and he fired back. Chase scanned the strange figure, trying to find any weaknesses, but hardly found anything normal.
And before he knew it, the assailant started mixing up his blasting rhythm. He fired an array of lasers which seemed completely random. Lasers coming from in front of Chase, and others coming from behind; Chase could barely keep up, and it was all too perfect for the assailant. The figure then finally aimed a powerful laser blast right at Chase and fired hard. The blast hit Chase squarely in the chest and slammed him into a brick wall.
[Battery: 45%]
A cloud of dust formed in Chase's wake as the Technician started walking towards Chase, his blaster arm still outstretched. "You may believe me to be the villain here, but I'm simply taking back what was supposed to be mine and---" The Technician's words were cut off as a blue laser came streaking out of the dust and burned right through his face. "Argh!"
As the dust cleared, Chase leaned against the wall with his gun outstretched and ready to shoot again. "I don't care what you think you're doing. You're attacking the people of my city, destroying public and private property, and I'm not about to let you get away with that," Chase walked forward with a visible scorch mark on his chest. "But not only that, you're the one responsible for what happened to that laboratory outside of these walls aren’t you?" He said, piecing together the connections in his mind.
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"I grow tired of you…" the figure snapped his head back towards Chase, his blasted face seemed to heal almost instantly as green and black substances moved around his face and settled.
"What?" Chase said.
"That blaster of yours is a nuisance." Suddenly, the assailant lashed out his hand which stretched terrifyingly fast towards Chase and latched onto his gun. He tried to struggle away and even pulled the trigger, but his gun changed colors just like all the other machines and he could feel the weapon melt in his hand and get absorbed into the figure's metallic body.
"How?" Chase whispered before shaking his head again. He had to stay calm. This was a threat unlike anything he's ever faced, which meant he had to be smart about taking them down, and he had to take them down now before things got worse. Backing off, Chase took out three pairs of his electric handcuffs and chucked them towards the Technician, who batted them away with an abnormally stretched arm.
However, he only needed one of them to connect, one of the handcuffs managed to clasp onto the assailant’s wrist which immediately pulled the other one to him. “What?” The assailant struggled against the cuffs as one of them smacked him in the face as it violently tried to trap his other hand.
Chase then aimed his arm at the distracted assailant and fired a sparkling black bola that wrapped around him, sending a wave of stunning electricity through their whole body. The figure screamed as its whole body contorted, unable to move or do much of anything, and Chase breathed a sigh of relief - thinking that he managed to detain the wild figure. Unfortunately, he was wrong.
Despite being actively paralyzed by the electricity, the assailant was still standing as it screamed through the shocking experience. Shifting through each jolt of lightning, trying to break free from the bola’s grasp, and eventually he did. With a surge of furious energy, the assailant spread out his arms past the grip of the bola and ripped it apart. The electricity stopped but Chase could still see that the assailant was severely weakened, at least he hoped.
Then something stranger happened, the figure then seemed to completely sink to the floor. Its whole body turned into a green and black substance and then it broke down into some kind of puddle, with the white lab coat lying on top. But before Chase could investigate, the puddle then shot back up and reshaped itself back into the figure’s robot form. Chase watched as the assailant reformed itself and then snapped his head to look at him, this time a murderous glare shined in its center orb. It was almost like nothing happened.
Readying himself, Chase jumped out of the way as the assailant fired a laser blast at him and snuck away to another part of the factory. Using some of his old training to give himself some more time to think. He could hear the heavy metal clanks of the figure’s footsteps as he searched for him, the robotic shifts and turns as the assailant moved. "You think you can hide from me?" The robotic voice said.
The conveyor belt that he was hiding behind suddenly exploded in a green smoke cloud, but that’s when Chase made his move and jumped out from behind it and threw another pair of handcuffs, of which the assailant shot those down immediately. "Not again."
However, right behind him, Chase zoomed in the air and charged the assailant. Seeing this, they blasted at Chase but he was ready. Chase grabbed the hilt of his sword and sliced the energy blasts out of the air, causing a cloud of explosions that he harmlessly passed through.
[Battery: 30%]
The figure backed away from Chase and morphed his arms into blades, stretching them out to strike at the guardian from a distance. But, Chase dodged the strikes, and when one of them was about to cut him down, his sword flashed as it sliced the metal arm off. "Gah!" The assailant cried out as the arm retracted with sparking wires poking out, but it wasn't long before it completely repaired and he was back to his normal state.
But, Chase took his chance and rushed at the figure again, preparing one final blow. His rings started to spark and glow, blue lightning coursed around his body and led towards his sword which crackled with power. With a swift move, Chase struck at the strange figure with all his might and the entire scene erupted in a blinding light.
Unfortunately, the strike never hit.
When the dust settled, Chase's curved blade was only inches away from the figure's exposed metal head. “What?” Chase felt his entire body freeze beyond his control and he struggled to move. All the charged up power fizzled away as the attack was stopped.
"Hmm?" The assailant mumbled as his hands were raised in defense. The attack he had anticipated never came, why? He didn't know, nor did he care. Quickly, he took his chance and a glowing green circle opened in his palm which blasted Chase in the chest and sent him across the building, slamming him into the wall.
"How odd." He stood up straight and fixed up his white coat before staring at his hand with renewed interest. But, before he could do anything else, loud voices came from the entrance as a group of Zone Technology security marched in with blasters raised.
He scanned the building once more. "I already have everything I need from here," the assailant said, and then turned to Chase. "If you value your life, don't cross me again." And with that, the assailant stretched out his legs and hopped out of the factory with ease, just as the security guards started shooting him, but to no avail.
[Battery: 15%]