The top floor of the grand tower was incredibly messy but still had a wealthy atmosphere to it. Marcus probably wanted it to fit multiple functions, a cozy bedroom and a high tech workshop. One half of the room had a white bed with warm lights hanging over, with hardwood floors and carpet, but the other side was completely different. Only separated by a thin wall, the workshop area had cold tiled floors with tables and machines, tools and various pieces of technology littered the area in a choking mess.
Chase never liked it here, but then again he never really liked being anywhere that made him feel trapped or disordered. Taking a deep breath, he entered the working area of the room and path-found his way in the darkness to what looked like a steel armor stand with wires around it. He was about to attach the wires to himself when he heard the door slide open.
“Chase?” A lanky man in a white t-shirt and jeans with a black suit over his shoulder stood at the door, looking at him with tired but surprised eyes. The man adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat, “Well fancy seeing you here.”
“Marcus,” Chase greeted him.The CEO of Zone Technologies and self-proclaimed genius was standing in front of him, but to Chase he was mostly a doctor.
“You know, you should’ve warned me that you were gonna come over during the middle of the night.”
“I told your secretary.”
“You did? Oh, right, she did say something.” Marcus yawned, “Oh, well, at least you’re not an assassin.”
“You’ve been getting assassins?”
“No, but you hear tons of stories about rich people getting assassinated.”
Chase stared at Marcus before slowly turning his head away; he knew that fact well. “Right. How was your meeting?”
“Terrible,” Marcus said bluntly before giving an exasperated sigh. “Those idiots don’t know a thing.”
Chase stared at Marcus’s fit and questioned whether he should ask him what's wrong, but if he did that then Marcus might actually tell him and then he would have to stay here for much longer. He sighed. “What happened?”
“My investors called me across the city to talk about the direction of sales of the company,” Marcus emphasized “direction” in a mocking tone.
“And you don’t want to discuss that?”
“They act like I don’t know how to run my own company! I mean, sure I majored in engineering and not business but still! Those buffoons have no idea why I refuse to sell my tech to just anyone.” Marcus took a deep breath and sighed.
“Then why don’t you tell them why?”
“Because I don’t trust them. They’re just a bunch of suspicious investors bent on money and fame, nothing else.”
“And you’re not?”
Marcus was about to respond before stopping himself to stare at Chase with an almost hurt expression. “What?”
“You’re a wealthy business man too who has a monopoly on the most powerful form of technology in Eurona, possibly in all of Coresia.”
“Chase, I have morals you know. And I try my best to control my tech, strictly because I know how powerful it is.”
“Well, your best is lacking.”
Marcus narrowed his eyes, “Where is this coming from?”
“I just stopped a robbery from the Black Dragons today, and one of them had shotgun fists that almost took ME down. You don’t happen to know where they managed to get something like that, do you?”
“I didn’t sell it to them if you think that’s what, in fact I don’t remember even making ‘shotgun fists’, although they do sound interesting. But anyways, I check all my sales. Well my computer does.”
“I wasn’t saying you sold it to them, but there are other ways of getting things. And you should also know that another one of your factories was just attacked a few hours ago. By some…” Chase struggled to find the words, “thing that was strong enough to...rip apart machinery and break through everything I sent at it!” Chase practically seethed out the last of his words out with boiling rage flowing through the vibrant rings on his mechanical body, but that rage was more like a frustration of not knowing, or not being strong enough, along with Marcus’s ignorant arrogance.
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“So, that’s why you’re here?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, alright, you don’t need to scream it out.” Marcus sat down on a chair near his computer and rubbed his temples before going over to the large computer and started working on it. “You got video footage?”
“Yes, sorry.” Chase did feel guilty for blowing up, and even though he did still have his suspicions, he didn’t mean to accuse Marcus out of the blue. But he couldn’t bring himself to say any more than a mere sorry, he was too preoccupied with the assailant that attacked and he made yet another mistake. Chase sent over the video automatically through his body’s system. “This facility was in the Industrial Sector of the city.”
“Already in the city? Geez.”
“I’m also gonna need an examination, I fought the assailant but,” Chase paused, not sure how he was going to explain it. “The assailant wasn’t like any other criminal I’ve fought.”
Marcus finished his drink, “That doesn’t sound good. Alright, well I guess I could run a quick scan. Get hooked up, okay?”
“I already am,” Chase said, standing on the steel armor stand with the various wires attached to the phosphorescent rings on his body.
“Okay,” Marcus activated a few commands and a green light flashed across Chase’s body followed by a beep. “Hmm, well other than a few dents, scratches, and burns, nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Are you sure? There has to be more.”
“Nothing I can see. But I can still fix up some of your damages.”
“Then how would you explain me suddenly freezing in battle?”
“You froze?”
“Yes, right as I was about to take down the assailant, I just suddenly stopped moving and felt frozen on the spot. It almost got me killed.”
“Maybe you just got scared or something.”
"You really believe I would get scared in the middle of battle?”
“No, not really, but maybe you miscalculated since it was a new threat you were facing?”
“I can’t miscalculate, Marcus, you of all people should know that.” Chase was growing more and more annoyed at the man, who was dismissing everything he said and barely looked like he cared despite always saying that he’s got morals.
“Okay, fine, no need to get so worked up. Let’s just look at the footage and see if we’re missing something.” Marcus grinned and pulled up the video Chase sent and played it.
The same scene of the metal figure in a lab coat destroying and absorbing the factory and its machines came up, with Chase’s voice being heard clearly through the mic, and then the fight started.
“Is he wearing one of my lab coats?” Marcus said, “And is he eating my stuff?!” The fight eventually led up to the part where Chase froze right as he struck at the figure, and ended with a cloud of dust and a fizzle of the video. “Oh, so that’s what you meant.”
“Do you know what happened?”
“I’ve got an idea. That thing has some weird ability with technology, and since your whole body is just technology, maybe he has some kind of influence over it.”
Chase wasn’t sure what to think, of course he had also thought of that but he didn’t want to believe it. “Are you sure?”
“No, but it’s a possibility. If it’s true then that’s really bad for you, but I’m gonna need some more information to figure out what exactly his power is.”
“Right…” Chase unhooked himself from the armor stand and started pacing around the room. “What do you need?”
“Well, first I think we should come up with a name for this guy. He doesn’t already have a name does he?”
“Not that I know of, but isn't ‘assailant’ enough?”
“No, a villain needs something cooler,” Marcus said and Chase rolled his eyes which were hidden behind his helmet. “Hmm, let’s see, how about the Technician?”
“I don’t care.”
Marcus sighed, “Party-pooper as always, Chase.”
“I just care about doing my job, if it helps, then I will care.”
“Well, at least we’ll have a proper name to identify him with.” Marcus looked through his computer again, racking his brain again for something. “Oh, and I guess you can try to find him again and see if you can get more information.”
“If I do find him again, do you have anything that could potentially work against him?” Chase said.
“Hmm, well I don’t think so but maybe we could test some things.” Marcus walked over to a metal compartment and took out three glowing blue and silver balls. “These are what I call Shockers, small grenades that can release a controlled explosion of electricity that stuns any tech within its radius. You can just press the button in the middle and chuck it at the Technician.”
“Something that stuns tech?”
“Yup, these are only prototypes though. But I figured we should have something that can counter my own stuff.”
“You just think of everything don’t you, Marcus.” Chase sighed and took the Shockers, slotting them neatly in his belt. Then he remembered something, “Could this be useful?” Chase took out the vial of mysterious substance that looked identical to the strange material the Technician used.
“Ooo, yeah, this’ll do. But I could probably use more.” Marcus took the vial and examined it.
“Right,” Chase started walking out and he was about to reach the door, which automatically opened, before looking back. “Marcus.”
“Hmmm?”
“Watch your stuff a little better. Please.”
Marcus looked up at Chase, narrowing his eyes before his face softened. “I’ll try my best.”
[Battery: 30%]