Last chapter, Erucid was severely injured by Kodan- and afterwards the Hopian Army swiftly rescued the Commander. Prósopsi seemed quite worried about the attack and what it could mean for the continent, however Commander Ontarus seemed fairly confident after realizing something he can do with powers...

One day later, two days until the Red Fist's revolution...

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Kodan's P.O.V.

I sigh as I'm pretty zoned out of my and Metallica's training session, in our open roofed and ended arena. I should be happy considering we have a great way to train King for a bit now, which is due to a new recruit's Blessing. It lets him give "life" to inanimate objects (which doesn't make sense scripture-wise due to the soul of the universe), but either way it's handy since Metallica's spheres can normally only work on non-living things. Well when he isn't in the Emperor form at least. So basically we can mimic the power of the Emperor during our training- for two days at least.

I tried asking the guy if he can bring Restroid to life- but all he said to me was 'it doesn't work like that dumbass' so I guess that was that.

But anyways, with all this I should be happy but- I'm just not feeling i-

"You've been seeming down pal, so I must ask- W.H.A.T. is up with you?! Surely you know I'm fantastic at comforting people, I learned that from my Kings- so feel free to chat. Oh and here ya go-"

I can hear a screeching sound as King uses his "Wait don't Go" sphere to slide a big chunk of "living" Hesalo at me at a crazy pace. I jump over it too slowly though and end up getting my armored ankles and feet slammed by the rock, and almost fall face-first onto the rough green surface beneath me before I slam my hands in front of my face.

"Shit that hurt. Nice one King." I think to myself as I push up off the ground, and can hear the giant piece of metal that hit me sliding back to King at the same time. Yeah- turns out a chunk of Hesalo can beat my Hesalo armor, who knew.

"Ow- and yeah... I just feel shitty after reflecting on my self for a bit. Killing Commander Jaxonite was fine- but traumatizing Erucid like that just felt wrong. There hasn't even been any reports on his status for a day now which is scaring the shit out of me. We set things up so that Erucid would get medical help ASAP but still, he could be dead for all I kno-"

"WHAT?! You said he would be our pal you bastard and you dare try to kill him?!" Well damn King swears for once- hah wonder if he got that from me, anyways,

"Hah- I obviously didn't TRY to kill him, chill out. I'm even praying that I didn't. No offense but you're kinda sucking ass at comforting me right now." I say with a small laugh- guess King did a good thing there at least.

"Oh! My apologies for the misunderstanding. Yes praying to our Lords may help! Hmmm... would a hug be a satisfactory repayment for my unsatisfactory-for-only-you services?" King asks as he stares me in the eye- or eyeslots of my armor with his own wide eyes as he frowns.

"...Sure." I say with a small scoff, not gonna bother arguing with his pride- and I'm always up for a hu-

*CLANG!*

Metallica crashes into me and wraps his arms around me, course I don't even flinch expect for hugging him back of course. "Now you can experience affection like I do with your metal body, YASHASHASHA! It is indeed strange to not be able to squish you with that armor on though..." King says as he keeps on holding on to me.

"So you crush us on purpose huh..." I think to myself with a grin, jerk- but hey it's probably made the bones of the Red Fists stronger all together. ...Oh! Right I forgot.

"Yeah- and thanks. I'm feeling a little better now, or my mind's off of this for now at least. We gonna train some more? If you do well I've got a gift to give you." I say which instantly makes Metallica nod and let go of me, and he tries to jump back but I keep my arms wrapped around his back. Then he ducks out of my grip, slaps his hand onto my chest- and sends me flying across the arena. But before he can knock me out of the ring I rip his sphere off of my chest and regain my footing.

"That's one hand I can't use much now. But still, bad move King." I think to myself as I keep the sphere trapped in my left fist- while King's standing still and spinning his arms around. "Is he planning something- oh!"  King starts speed walking towards me with his fists in front of his face. 

I raise my arms and spread my legs to get into a proper fighting position, no clue what King's gonna do here. Don't think there is anything he CAN do, since I've got one of his spheres trapped here. Regardless though he runs at me and swings his left fist at my face, which I grab even though it couldn't hurt my face regardless- since that's what Prósopsi would do.

I furrow my brows as Metallica spins his entire leg up to try to kick my arm away, which I easily block by letting go of his wrist and grabbing his leg instead. Then I start to spin myself around, dragging King with me by the foot as he flails in the air, until he slams his palm onto my hand-

*FWOOSH!*

I gasp as I'm suddenly sent flying into the air. Glancing down though- I can see our bright, green floored city, as well as King who's laughing and flying with me since I didn't let go of his foot.

"That must've been his catapult- he can use two spheres at once?! Oh shit-" I stop thinking to myself as I remember that I'll need to stop us from crashing here, and so I quickly find where Metallica stuck his catapult sphere onto me- and I yank it off of my arm, which immediately makes us stop midair, then start to fall straight down.

"You can use two spheres at once?! Why'd you never tell me that before?!" I ask King with a laugh as I use my gravity manipulation to launch us down onto the ground- course I stop us just before we hit the surface though. Then I just drop King less than a foot and plop my feet down, hah we've sure got a lot of eyes on us from our civilians now.

"YASHASHASHA- indeed I can use two at once! I've never told you because it's almost always pointless to use. Since once I launch out the second sphere- the darn thing doesn't come flying back home unlike the first! A.K.A. to my arm. And I obviously wouldn't want to lose one of my precious spheres! Regardless, I suppose that was a draw since we both zoomed out of the arena- but may I still get my gift?" Metallica asks me with a pout as he tries to guilt trip me.

"I was gonna give it to you regardless so yeah, hah. Really- nice job though, you sure caught my ass off guard there. Only thing was that you should've made sure I wasn't holding onto you- since yeah like you saw, I took you flying with me. Anyways, using two spheres at once could be handy as a last ditch effort- so I wouldn't completely take it out of the question. Now to your gift, you're gonna love this." I say to him as his frown from me being a bit harsh gets turned upside down.

20 minutes later, inside of a clothing store in the Red Fists base...

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"Ohhhh- this is amazing pal! I did enjoy the fuzzy-heavy feeling to my old fantastic, purple royal robe, but this one feels nice too- mainly since it came from my very own pals! And also because it has pockets- something I DESPISED my old attire for not having. Thanks a bunch!" Metallica exclaims as he admires himself in the new red robe I gave him, or more so that our few designers made for him that I requested.

"Glad you dig it, thought it was nice to represent our group too and all with the red. You're gonna be using the Emperor in our revolution anyways so- don't worry about adjusting to the new weight of the robe for now." I explain with a smile as I untuck one of the curled up sleeves of his robe, it really does suit him- looks a bit more humble than his last outfit which I'm a fan of.

"Right..." King says as his mood dips down real quick,

"Hm? Not getting nervous now are you? I'd get if you wer-"

"N.O.! Not at all, I'm just being selfish and not looking forward to my bolts getting rustier after I use the Emperor again. ...Say, on to you now- you're getting fairly old now, so are you ever going to duplicate yourself?" King asks which confuses me, not like that's new though. Just hope that he wasn't trying to change the subject to something random because he really is scared though... I'll ask him more about that later. For now though,

"Uh- duplicate? You mean like cloning or... oh! You mean having a kid don't you- like a baby?" I ask and King nods his head once super fast.

"Yeah you're not the first one to ask me that, gotten a lot of members here who've wanted to date me even. But it's weird, I've looked online and seen all the tits and dicks I could ever want- I've even been flashed by some of our own folks before. But none of it just seems... what's the word, attractive- or arousing- hah nah that sounds too fancy for me. But yeah, it just doesn't do anything for me. The same with romance... been like that since I was a kid too, I'd rather hang out with some close friends like you, than be in a relationship with someone. You getting me? Probably not. Long story short- no I don't think I'll be having babies." I explain as King gasps in surprise,

"You don't think we're in a relationship? But I have done S.O. much for you, like what about that time I shoved my retractable-lower-rod in your mouth- to smash that tracker that was in your throat?!" King exclaims which makes me laugh, but the people around us who made Metallica's new robe in our nice, brown carpeted clothing shop just seem super confused.

"By "relationship" I mean romantically. 'Course you're my best pal. And everyone may have THOUGHT what we were doing then was lovey-dovey. But like you said- it was just to crush that stupid thing that got shot into the back of my throat, since your hands were too big to reach in. I still laugh whenever I think of Laya's reaction, you know to when she saw you thrusting into me in that alley- she looked traumatized." I chuckle at the end there. Pretty sure she still thinks I have a thing for robots, and that I'm gay.

"Ah. I see. Well who needs those lousy "relationships" then anyways?! Hm... ah wait, don't we have a lovely training session coming up today with our many gun-wielding pals?" King asks me as he loudly taps his chin at an insane pace, which I nod at- he's not quite right with it being a "training session" though.

A few hours later...

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"Sir! Was our shooting solid- I mean acceptable, for your standards?" One of my soldiers ask as he stands in formation with another hundred people that are next to him. All of them are holding either old school rifles that are smoking now or machine guns. And a distance away from them in the empty area we're training in- are a bunch of fallen training robots that they just shot down.

Each of the bots had guns on them too which makes this even more impressive. They seem ready for our revolution. But man...

"The second we take over Hopian, I'm helping everyone. Gunning down and destroying bots like this like nothing- how much money did we waste on them that could've gone to people who needed it? ...Well I did offer almost every poor person a chance to join our group, so I guess... nah. Shouldn't think like that. I'll pay everyone back who isn't with our group after this is over." I think to myself as I take a deep breath, which seems to fill up the pit that's in my stomach. Don't want to discriminate against anyone like the government does.

I then grin super wide,

"That was awesome shooting! Great job you all- you put on quite the show there. I'm sure you all know the plans by now for our revolution, but I'll say them again anyways like I did to our other soldiers- you know to make my selfish ass feel more smart." I say which makes most of the people here laugh as they lower their guns.

"About half of you all will be teleported with me to take down Comman- nah just Ontarus, who should be sleeping at the time we arrive at the building he should be staying in for "Hopian Day". The hacker peeps we have should be able to deal with Ufisator, if not- after Ontarus we take him down too, no problem. Then finally after Prósopsi is dead- we patrol the continent in groups wearing our invisi-wear, and take out any officers and below that we stumble across. Understood?" I ask, but some girl raises her hand- I nod at her in response.

"What will the rules be for killing or simply taking down our enemies- besides the big, big ones? How do we decide which to do, self-defense?" The girl asks which confuses me for a sec- but I think I get what she means. If so, kinda worried since we've been over this a lot already.

"Like we've talked about before, we don't want to look like tyrants to our new citizens. So yeah we won't be offing every Army member we see by all means, same as what we're doing now with our prisoners. Kill when doing so is the best way to save some other Red Fist member's life, or your own. Either way a shot to the head is the only way to confirm a kill considering the healing tech the Hopian Army has access to, so don't worry too much about shooting someone in the chest- who seems to be a big threat. They'll live. I'm getting hungry so I'm gonna head out, unless there's any more questions?" I finish, then ask with a furrowed brow.

Suddenly about thirty more hands go up... haaaah.

"Sir Kodan- what if we all ate lunch together at the food court, and asked you our questions there?" One of the younger brown haired girls, who's wearing glasses asks me. Oh- I'm pretty sure that's Whitney, she's got a Blessing actually. It lets her pretty well get a birds eye view of a huge area around herself from above, even if she's on the ground. So yeah- she's not one of our main attackers but she'll sure be helpful leading a squad of her own. Or well- helping her leader maybe with warning for ambushes and all.

Anyways, "Don't call me "Sir" Kodan, not a knight even if I'm normally in shining green armor. But that's a good idea- you all up for it? Not everyone though, not enough room- just the few who have questions." I say which gets a few laughs and a blush from Whitney- though I am glad that they do respect me enough to consider me a "Sir" though, even if it's not my kinda thing.

One day later, one day until the Red Fist's Revolution...

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Head Commander Prósopsi's P.O.V.

"...Hey. Are you feeling o- never mind." I stop myself from asking Erucid how he's doing as he lies in his hospital bed, how would anyone feeling after getting all of their limbs crushed?

"I should have seen him sooner." I think to myself- but stop myself from frowning for my friend's sake. He must look awful with all of that cloth and tech wrapped around his limbs under his blue sheets.

"Hey. Glad you came, been itching to talk with a friend. Apparently the doctors told me they can replace all my limbs with prosthetics in time but... it's been rough. Having no independence at all for the past while, I can't even- hah. I can't even fucking wipe my tears away, go to the washroom... Sorry. You took the time to see me and I'm a mess. Is the continent ok- any more attacks?" Erucid says as he starts to cry, and so I instantly walk up to him, and take a tissue out of the box on his bedside table and wipe the tears away that I can see.

"Not so hard!" He grunts and so I yank my hand away.

"Remember that you've got the strength of like- a bazillion men next time you touch your friend, idiot." Aphrodite scoffs which makes me clench my fist- I don't do anything though since I can't tell if she's trying to be helpful or not.

"Sor-"

"No no, it's alright- really. I'm just a bit shaken up is all. I hope you can understand." Erucid says which makes me feel better, but worse in the sense that I'm pissed now. Not at him of course.

"I certainly do. I couldn't imagine going through what you did. And I've been on patrol pretty well nonstop for a day now, and we've got the continent in a lockdown. No more attacks have happened recently, don't worry. We have some information on the suspect and their accomplices too. We're in a good spot now." I lie- partially at least. There's still been some soldier and sargeant disappearences in the past 24 hours. And we still have no clue where any of the culprits actually are, just WHO they are.

"Well. I've got all day- or night, I don't even know the difference now. So go on if you have the time, it'll make me feel better- hopefully." Erucid says which makes me smile, just a little so that I don't offend him- hopefully.

"The group that ambushed you is most likely the "Red Fists"- maybe for revenge, but we don't know for sure yet. Unfortunately all of our interrogations on the members we've caught have led to nothing for a while now. Until a few hours ago- where some member we gave a huge bribe to finally spoke up, and so we put him on our lie detector. He "truthfully" confessed that the "armored man" is actually the leader of the group themselves, and has the name Kodan Pilroy. AKA- an ex Hopian Army member, or more specifically he was part of the secret services, or special- same thing." I explain which makes Erucid's eyes open wide.

"Blonde hair?" He asks which surprises me, I just slowly nod in response though.

"I've seen him a lot on my patrols- even years back. He talks to everyone. I even gave him some free food and spare change a while back, since he was homeless and all. Bastard. This makes too much sense to be false though... the Red Fists have intercepted our patrol routes over and over. Kodan should have them engraved into his mind by now, if he was with the secret services as a kid- which would explain the route... stuff." Erucid says with a sigh.

He continues, "But still- why would he do all of these horrible things? Killing civilians, sexually assaulting innocents, abducting and killing army members..."

"Yeah. The lie detector could still be wrong but- this does make a lot of sense, even if it is disturbing to think about. The Hopian Army's secret services also abducted kids back when they were a thing, so if that happened to Kodan... no wonder he would hate the government." I say which makes Erucid's face cringe in disgust. Crap I'm stupid- that information isn't meant to be known to Commanders.

A/N: Only one day remains until the Red Fists revolution...

Hope you all consider voting or commenting if you enjoyed, and see you next chapter when the day of the revolution finally arrives.