"Chase? Chase! What's going in there?" Alice tried contacting him through her bracers, but all she heard was grunting and loud crashing sounds. Seconds later, she saw the Technician walk out of the vault, bouncing over and breaking into the other vaults. "Chase! The Technician's getting away—" Alice cut off as she saw the guardian flung out of the vault and skid on the concrete ground, with a tail of smoke following. "Chase!" Alice cried out. Then a loud rumbling noise came out of the vault and screeching mechanical sounds gave rise to a giant, four-legged robot crawling out with cannons aimed at him. "Oh, boy." Alice clicked on her bracer again and tried talking to Chase. "Chase...you might wanna look out for that giant robot."

Chase managed to zip back up and she could hear his gruff voice coming from her bracer. "I know."

Alice gave a sigh of relief, "Great. But, um, the Technician is in another vault probably doing bad things. What should I do?"

Chase stayed silent as he battled the giant machine before finally saying, "Just keep an eye on him while I handle this thing.”

"K!" Alice said, climbing down her hiding spot and sneaking her way to the next vault where she saw the Technician run into. Another explosion rang from outside as she glanced back to see Chase dodging a spray of laser blasts from the giant mech and striking at its legs. "Sheesh," Alice whispered.

Looking back inside the dark vault, the Technician had already opened this one up and Alice snuck in as best she could, trying to find him. She knew this must've been way closer than Chase wanted her to be, but she wouldn't be able to 'keep an eye' on him without getting closer. The dangerous part would be if the Technician found her, which would not be good. Hopefully, her bright pink hair wasn't going to be a problem.

She ducked around a wooden crate and peaked behind it, there she saw the Technician's green glow outlining his figure in the darkness - which oddly made him look way more sinister. He was casually walking around, lightly dragging his hand across all the fancy tech, some of which glowed red.

He picked one of the items up, a black circular object that glowed a menacing crimson through what looked to be cracks...or grooves? It wasn't smooth, in fact it was more of an oval-like sphere, with bumps all over, and a long pin at the top...it was a grenade. Alice’s heart sank as she was hit with a scary realization, this must be the explosives vault. The Technician crushed the device in his hand which disappeared as he absorbed it, and moved on to the rest of the vault.

Out of all the vaults, she just had to follow him into the most dangerous one. From what she remembered about explosions, they were extremely deadly, in fact she had been caught in the middle of one before during one of her father's rallies, and saw plenty on TV.

One bad move could send this place off into a blazing inferno, that or just a huge crater, assuming that every device in this building was some kind of explosive. Now that she thought about it, why did the so-called 'smartest man in the world' think it would be a good idea to put all the things that can go boom in a single medium-sized building. He must be really confident in his security, and seeing how easily it was broken, Alice found herself doubting Chase's friend a lot more than before.

Although this could be an interesting opportunity, Alice took another peak over her hiding spot but creepily didn't see the Technician. "Where did he--" Alice thought but suddenly a green blast hit the wooden crate she was hiding behind and it exploded, sending her flying back with a scream and a groan.

"You again?" The Technician's voice rang out, and there he was standing before her with an outstretched arm, ready to fire again.

"Hey!" Alice tried to sound cheerful. "Um, fancy seeing you here."

"Curious. How did you get past the security here?"

"Uhm, how did YOU get past the security?" Alice tried to stall.

"I destroyed it. Of course it wouldn't be enough to stop me, but I'd have expected for it to be competent enough to stop a random little girl who can't control her own curiosity. And I made sure no one was following me, so you couldn't have come after me. Which would mean...oh, now that can't be, could it?"

"What?" Alice said, growing more and more anxious as she looked around for anything that could help her.

"Silverwing was here before me, and if you were here before me too…" Gears were turning in the Technician's mind as he connected the pieces quite swiftly. "You came here with Silverwing, but I quite remembered him being more of a loner, I suppose I may have misinterpreted such a fact. Although that would make sense as to why you made such a stupid act to save his life."

"Hey! I’d consider that very heroic, thank you very much!" She said indignantly.

“There’s a fine line between heroic and stupid.” The Technician paused to stare at her before looking back at his hand, "Even so, what makes you so special? Why would he keep you around? Are you useful in any way?"

"Uhhh, I couldn't say. But here’s a question. What even are you?" Alice tried to change the subject, now things were just getting uncomfortable. But then, Alice spotted a little grenade that had fallen near her, probably got knocked off a shelf.

The Technician ignored her and went on to say, "I wonder how he'll react if something really tragic happens to you. A man who has already been broken, will only be shattered until there's nothing left of him. Yes...and then once Marcus is out of the picture, all those experiments, who knows what the possibilities are. Perhaps, an army of superior cyborg soldiers, combined with the powers that only humans could gain, all under the influence of the Network. The perfect mix between life and machine!" The Technician's body started to glow brighter as he chuckled to himself, dreaming of all his plans and what they could entail.

Alice started to panic. "Uh, y'know let's not. I mean that really doesn't sound like a good idea!"

"Does it look like I care what a dumb child thinks?" The Technician snapped. "No, I don’t. But this is what I deserve, what I’ve earned after all the time and gruesome pain I’ve had to endure. You don't know the lengths that I'll go to achieve my dreams, no one knows the knowledge that I hold, let alone a child who's naive enough to think she or her father can change the world, not with his background."

His words were like a splash of cold water just hit her, as chills ran down her spine. What did he even mean by that? Not with his background. No, what did this crazy robot know about what they were trying to do. She shook her head, she had to focus, because right now her skull could have a burning hole straight through it at any moment.

"I see I hit a nerve." The Technician noted the look of shock and anger in her face.

She glanced at the grenade sitting at the edge of her vision, if only she could just reach it. But it would be so easy for him to see what she was trying to do, and a conversation wouldn’t be enough of a distraction. Then she remembered the sparkling darts on her bracers and a plan started to form. One wrong move could send this whole place ablaze, but what if that move was right? Hopefully, this works and Chase doesn't get too mad.

"Well, this has been a nice chat, but I believe it's time I've started my first experiment. Unfortunately, you will have to die for this." The Technician started to aim his hand back at her head, the green circle in his palm charging up for a final blast. But luckily, Alice was faster. Aiming her bracelet at the same time, Alice fired a stun dart that hit the Technician right below his arm and sent a trail of electricity around his side. Moving quickly, Alice got up as fast as she could and scrambled to grab the grenade. The Technician, literally shocked and stunned at what just happened, struggled with his arm before simply letting his arm drop out from his body and fired a laser shot with his other arm which only ended up hitting a nearby crate that also exploded.

Alice was knocked back by the explosion but managed to snatch the grenade just in time and scrambled over to another crate for cover, this time it was steel. Unfortunately, without any real experience with activating grenades, she struggled with the pin and with the Technician closing in on her, she didn't have much time. The Technician fired several more shots at Alice, which were luckily blocked by the steel crate, but he was basically right on top of her in a few seconds.

Knowing this, in an act of desperation, Alice just tossed the grenade right at the Technician and made a run for it. The Technician spotted whatever object Alice threw and reacted quickly, but didn't notice the pin still on. The next few seconds would be the most chaotic seconds of one of their lives, it would only be a reminder for the other one.