Chase woke up on the ground beside Griffin's dumpster, looking up only to see the sun blazing in the center of the sky, and hearing the loud tavern-styled music blast the streets of Seh Jenah.
He also quickly noticed that Griffin was still awake, tinkering with something inside of the dumpster and letting out several curses aimed at several different gods, some of which Chase had met...
He wiped his eyes, forcing his body to stand as a sudden rattling of metal filled the air below him.
His shackles... Had simply fallen off his arms... Huge chunks missing from each of them.
"Is that your doing?" Chase asked, raising a grateful eyebrow at Griffin, who wore the look of a madman, several box-sized contraptions filling the dumber that Griffin stood within.
"What... The... Hell?" Chase asked, unable to even process what it is that he was actually looking at.
Griffin looked up, deep eyebags were swollen beneath both of his golden Irides...
His pale golden hair looked as if it had not been washed in weeks, and his armor was ripped and battered in terribly impossible ways... And his face was covered in several scars he had not recognized from the last time they had met.
"What happened man?" Chase asked, tilting his head to the right staring at Griffin's state in shock.
Griffin scowled.
"I'm fine." He said, picking up one of the large black mechanical boxes with a heave.
"Help me get these out real quick!" Griffin requested, already picking up another one of the heavy contraptions.
And so Chase ended up helping Griffin carry the dumpster machina all the way to some unknown shop, which appeared to be owned by a man named Lennox. Chase figured it would be a bother to dig further into Griffin's predicament and Griffin himself would much appose it even if he were in a healthier state of mind.
Chase followed his route, walking through alley after alley in order to avoid any guards or knights, until he eventually found an old bunker door hatched closed behind an abandoned house.
Chase set his hand upon the deformed metal lock... Slowly feeling the heat as he molted the lock down to a liquid...
Luckily, he had learned a new trick for this sort of thing, and began to manipulate the heat around the liquid lock... Lifting it into the air and holding it in place while he was able to descend into the bunker, letting the liquid land back where it had once been, so that it could slowly return to something akin to its original state.
He had already begun to hear loud voices as he quietly walked through the claustrophobic hallway, seeing a lantern lit far ahead, as he began to eavesdrop on a loud argument currently taking place.
"No! This was stupid! The whole thing!" Poppy yelled, probably pointing at the other voice.
"He litterly just broke out." Jack protested, clearly trying to avoid Unity finding out about their plan that would take place later that night.
"Yeah! But you said that it wasn't even your doing..." Luna followed up, supposedly taking the side of Poppy.
"It wasn't." He agreed, before Equan cut into the conversation.
"Guys... That's not the point... Do you both know how much five hundred million platinum is...?"
Chase froze just before exiting from the hall and making his appearance.
'How much?' He thought back, knowing full well that Luna could hear him clearly now.
But she didn't answer... But neither did she reveal him... Simply letting him eavesdrop on what information was about to be revealed.
"The reveal wasn't even his own doing, it broke before he could ever take it off. And how were any of us supposed to know that Phillip himself would place such a large bounty on Chase's head?!" Jack yelled, looking around the room in hopes of support.
"It's not just Chase though... Every single identified ally of his is wanted dead or alive... Our posters are scattered through town like its become some kind of cultural thing..." Gideon pointed out, apparently having also been identified as one of Chase's friends...
Chase frowned.
'How the hell do they know so much about us...?'
Suddenly Chase turned, and standing behind him with wildered expressions were Kaylynn and the same strange man whom he had seen one time briefly in his kitchen.
"You're still alive?" The man asked as if The Grand Court were actually as impending as they spread themselves to be...
Kaylynn on the other hand, patted Chase on the back with a sigh.
"I am glad that you are alive and all, but I'm sure you've just heard that we have quite a big problem..." She said with a grim expression.
However, the man's name whom Chase had learned was Andrew, simply shook his head.
"No, I may have an idea..." He said, causing Kaylynn to glare at him with denying confusion.
And so the two of them led the way for Chase, letting him wait a minute or two before he stepped into the room.
Chase took a couple of breaths and finally stepped forward into the room, greeted by Gemini standing between a Poppy and Jack as their weapons had drawn.
Luke, Justin, and Equan even with his injuries, were all also trying to calm everyone down.
Luna was panicked behind a stack of boxes, holding her hand over her face as she muttered something.
Hans was sitting on a terribly torn gray couch, paying no mind to the chaos taking place around him.
Gideon trying to speak over everyone but only getting interrupted each and every time by either Jack or an even angrier Poppy.
Jacob was the first to notice Chase, as he threw his head back in thanks.
Chase sighed as everyone suddenly looked at him.
It was all a mess.
Poppy immediately started berating him, and Jack began to plead for answers on how he had gotten out before planned.
But it was Hans who had stepped up from the couch, quaking the entire room with his casual force as he stepped in front of Chase.
"You good?" The Panda asked him, as his face wore no specific expression.
"I think I have a cold..." Chase chuckled, grateful that Hans had been the cause for everyone's nerves cooling off.
When suddenly, Andrew called out.
"Everyone!" He bowed... A complete ninety degree bow with his eyes pointing straight at the ground.
So, everyone was quite shocked to see this random announcement with such formality.
"I get that now it has become quite hard for a lot of you to attend the Fireworks Festival tonight... However! I have a proposition... If you will just allow me to have the honor of showing you Seh Jenah's most prized tradition... I will offer anything in return..."