Last chapter, King Metallica and Kodan officialy became "pals", and soon afterwards Kodan got Metallica to tell him about his Emperor form. Kodan realized that the form could be the key he needs to take down the Hopian Army, and after discovering that Metallica is fairly rich- the two decided to start their revolution against the army. And of course that started with creating a massive base, and recruiting a few hundred people to their cause...

Kodan's P.O.V.

"Alright- Hice, wanna open it up for us?" I shout down to our gatekeeper himself, as me, Metallica and the other recruiting squad members are at the top of the ladder that leads to the outside-inside world. But as of now, like it should be, the entrance above us is just solid green Hesalo.

"What's the magic word?" The jerk asks as he slouches back on his chair way down below us,

"P.L.E.A.S.E. pal!" Metallica says as his head is right below my ass,

"Your paycheck." I shout down to Hice which makes him scoff, normally I wouldn't be so mean but- I've gotta be with him. The guy likes to walk over people. And especially since I'm the leader here I can't let that happen. He is being payed well though so I don't feel bad, well- payed a lot better than his old job.

Anyways I can see him mumbling something, and at the same time the Hesalo above us disappears- and now we can see the darkness of the basement that's way above us. Yeah I realized pretty quick that Hice's Blessing would be a MUST for our base, it can revert objects back to their original form, and the other way around too. Meaning that, we have an unbreakable and pretty well unfindable entrance, since it's made of the whole ass ground itself above us.

Well that depends on Hice I guess but, he's been pretty good at his job so far. Before I invited him to the base, I knew Hice as just another fellow hobo who pranked people for fun. He reverted parts of their body, or even clothes to their older states which- yeah wasn't too fun for the pranked person. Saw a girls clothes turn into literal sheep at one point due to it...

I've straightened him out though, or the money I've given him has at least.

Either way me and my other friends climb out of the hole and into the abandoned basement above us. Time to head out- wonder who we'll meet today!

Six hours later...

"Alright- that's nine new members so far, nice." I confirm as I finish writing the status of the last member we just recruited on my fancy clipboard. My writing is uh, not the greatest to say the least but it is readable.

Shitty education aside though, by status I mean what trackers we've got on our new members. The main one being emotional trackers- or... I think that's what they are? Hard to say exactly but that's about right. Using Metallica's crazy amount of Herin, as well as my connections to people here, I was able to meet with a pretty lowkey old man who's Blessing is- well to locate other people with Blessing's that have certain attributes.

...That sounds confusing. I mean ok, like for example, a guy could ask him to find someone with a Blessing that can make him smoothies or something. ANYWAYS, in my case, I asked the old man to locate someone who's Blessing can measure a persons loyalty. There were a few options, but I ended up choosing one woman who wasn't too far away-

"Blegh, that guys breath smelled like crap... not like the poor guys can afford mouthwash though. How many more people are we picking up today?" The girl herself complains as she spits onto the white neon lit up sidewalk we're walking on. Laya's her name, she got her Blessing from one of those lotteries that happen pretty often, which let's someone get a Blessing for free. Not me though, of course- thank you government.

Ahem- so yeah, the power itself lets her view peoples' emotions in relation to ANOTHER person. In our case, that person being me. I won't get too into the small stuff, but pretty much Laya just has to touch and have eye contact with someone for a few seconds, say "I Love: Kodan", and poof. Just like that, from that point on, she can always see a colored aura around a person in relation to their intentions with me. If it's white, they're planning nothing, there's more colors but most importantly- a red colored aura around a person, means that they're planning something that'll harm me. And I'm hoping that extends to harming our group as a whole since I'm the leader. So far- no reports from Laya about red auras around my people, so that's good.

Anyways, the long story short? We can make sure that the snitches who rat us out to the army get stitches, since we make sure Laya uses her Blessing on every single new recruit that joins us. Actually- she's technically our biggest threat, since I would never be able to know if she herself was betraying me... hence, even though I like everyone in our gang, I make sure she's payed and treated ESPECIALLY well here.

Speaking of, the redhead gal in a skirt used to work for a pretty big gang around here, but after I told her about our cause and what we could give her- she joined us. She also wanted to rub my abs before she joined which was pretty funny.

"Should only be a few more recruits for today. Thanks for your work." I say back to Laya as I stretch my arms and crack my neck. Metallica said he was going to go for a bit to find a "certain type of pal" and ran off somewhere... it's been a while, maybe I should try to find him. Wait no, knowing my luck he'll probably show up in front of me right... now!

...

Damn.

"We should probably go and find King-"

"H.E.Y. Kodan come and take a look at this cool ro-guy I found!" Hah- of course. Maybe God is blessing me or something, I mean they did say they'll always love their followers.

Anyways, I jog over to Metallica who's walking out of a dark alleyway ahead of me, while dragging something along with him, oh it really is a ro-guy, he found another bot! But getting a closer look I realize,

"Yeesh he looks awful... you sure he's still alive King Metallica?" I ask with a bit of a frown, as I can see a lot of the robot's wires sticking out of it's limp bronze body, hell some of them are even sparking.

"Certainly! Come on pal speak up!" King demands as he kicks the robots back which makes it jolt,

"Please stop- the H-H-H-H-H-Hopian- objective complete- Army- will arrest- happy will be." My excitement dwindles down as I hear that mumbo jumbo. Poor bot... some idiots must've vandilized it for fun, from the looks of it it seems like one of those lower class worker bots.

"See! He's funny isn't he Kodan, we've gotta keep him! I want another mechanical pal! Pretty please?!" King Metallica asks me as he tries to drag the robot up to his feet, but he slips out of Metallica's arms and falls limp to the ground again.

"I've worked a little on bots before. I could try fixing it up if you want boss. Otherwise the fella's definitely gonna get scrapped." Our hefty friend Dante says as he slowly walks in front of me in his brown leather jacket and sweatpants,

"Really? ...Alright- sure then. He can join u-"

"S.W.E.E.T.! Thanks pal, I promise I'll take good care of him." Metallica says as he drops the bot, and quickly shakes and squeezes Dante's hand which makes him wail in pain, then King runs up to me and gives me a hug and pats- or more so slaps my back.

"Ha- no problem. Should be neat having another robot around. Hmmm... what kinda name should we name him though..." I say as I start rubbing my fingers through my beard. ...Oh! Got it.

"I have an idea! Ok so we found the bot when he was knocked up and couldn't move right? So we could say say that means he was resting- so bang, Restroid! What do you guys think? Sounds techy too." I declare as I start nodding my head and looking for approval- but no one seems too happy about it.

"...Eh. Your the leader so- your call. Doesn't sound too bad but wow that inspiration is awful, no offense." Laya says from behind me, and looking back I can see her running her hands through her red perm- hah I'll take it.

"Sounds fantastic Kodan! Now then, we've got some more pals to find so let's get to it!" Metallica exclaims happily as he swings our new twitching bot Restroid over his robe covered shoulders.

"Thanks and yep- though you and Dante should get going back to base, wouldn't our new sleepy pal to short circuit for good, would we?" I ask which makes Metallica's jaw drop- and not even a second later he grabs Dante's hand and starts running off with him right past the rest of us. Though Dante's screaming as he can hardly keep up as his big feet are dragging along the ground, "Take it easy on your human pal too!" I call out which thankfully makes him slow down a bit.

I take a deep breath and think to myself, "Man- I think I've gonna slow down on the recruiting for a while soon. Haven't been paying as much attention to the Five Kings and my training as I should be for a few months. But now I'll probably have super boring jobs to do since our members just keep on increasing... can't complain though, I signed up for this. It'll be worth it in the end once I can see everyone here happy again. Or- well the one's who aren't miserable for no reason at least."

With that, me and the other recruiters head off.

One year later...

🍿📽🍿

"HAHAHA! ...Wait what did she mean there pal?" Metallica asks as both me and him are lying on the small bed in my dark room, with a bag of buttery popcorn sitting between us. I was watching a movie on my own before, you know on the old school flat screen TV attached to my wall. But I got bored really quick so I called Metallica over too.

"The girl was just telling Lock to man up basically- or get stronger I guess, always hated the "man up" stuff." I explain as I take a handful of popcorn and shove it into my face. Metallica is interrupting me a lot less than normal today, maybe because I was the one who invited him over?

"I see! Indeed so many people need improvement, that's why I'm here for ya." Metallica says as he gives me a noogie which makes me scoff- he really is a good sparring partner though. ...Oh crap I should probably pay attention to the movie, but wait first-

"Yo Restroid. Can you tell me who the actor that plays Lock is?" I ask as I remember that Metallica brought him into my room when he came in. We put him on the bed too at first but he ended up hopping off and just standing next to us.

"I will search the internet for the answer. ...The actor who plays Lock Johanna in this film is: Mikas Valerez. Should you not get ready for your day yet Kodan?" Restroid replies, had a feeling, the guy looked similar. One of the last actors left on this continent- everything's just animated now.

"Cool- and yeah you're right I will soon." I say back to him as Restroid gives me a nod. He really has come a long way. After Dante fixed him up a year back, he started off only doing manual labor for us, since we found out he was originally a construction robot. Normally like other robots we have (besides Metallica, of course) he would hardly be able to hold a conversation with us. But Metallica talked to him so much this past year that he's pretty well on the same level as a human now. Guess robots can adapt pretty well.

"Aw why leave so soon? I was having fun spending more private time with you two dang it!" Metallica complains with a pout which makes me laugh, yeah no this movie's kinda lame- I'm moving out now.

"Well me and you are pretty much together every day anyways. Restroid can hang out with us too if he feels like it." I say as I kick myself off of my bed, walking to my dresser to slap on some pants.

"Yes: being with you would be preferable. I wish to learn all about you Kodan." He says- well that sure sounds creepy as shit. Eh he doesn't mean any harm though.

A/N: To be continued in part 2!