Last chapter, Metallic fought Restroid and was able to both defeat- and kill him. He then turned Restroid's remains in for his bounty, but Metallic's temporary joy was interrupted- as electronic billboards all around him started displaying strange messages asking for help.

He soon realized that these were from Amandeath due to the nickname used in the messages, and ran off to the location stated on the billboards.

Metallic assumed that Restroid's soldiers may have kidnapped her, however little did he know that Amandeath already killed most of them. She also took one of the more capable members, Elio, as a hostage- who's Blessing allows him to manipulate electronics.

One hour earlier, in a temporary Hopian Army HQ near the center of the Hopian continent...

Head Commander Prósopsi's P.O.V.

"Alright- thanks for being on time again everyone. Let's make this quick, I do actually have a few important things to note this time though." I announce as I take a seat in our "meeting room", which is really just my office with a few chairs next to my small desk... hey I mean, it's not like formalities are much of a concern at this point.

Ontarus plops down onto one of the metal chairs in front of me, Ufisator stands obviously due to his size- but Aora stays standing as well surprisingly. ...Eh she's been stranger before. Like how she's wearing her blood-stained uniform during our meeting right now. Blegh. Whatever.

"But first- any concerns from you three?" I ask and get a quick response,

"These shifts are fucking killing me man. It's nice that we're helping to keep this place safe- but shit, I don't know how much more of this I can take. This past week I've worked like 16 hours a day, which is all constant patrols and taking down baddies." Ontarus says with a sigh as he adjusts his neon fedora. He's barely been smoking as of late- guess he's taking the job more seriously now, good.

"I understand. These conditions are pretty awful for all of us. Which is why I have an idea I think you all may like. Now that King Metallica and his group are probably scared of the buffed up security, we can potentially lower the amount of patrols-"

"Are you a fool? A decrease in the army's prescence is what caused this problem in the first place. All of this territory's problems are caused by a lack of protection and enforcement of the law. King Metallica is unpredictable, which I discovered from the audio recordings I was able to listen to of his group, before Karia tore out her implanted audio recorder. He potentially killed some of his old allies for- biz... bizorre reasons." Aora tries to say which makes me smile a tiny bit,

"Bizarre- and you're right. A lack of troops in the Hopian Army is a major problem. But keep in mind, our conscription program has already started- which will give us the extra patrollers we need in a few days. Also- I was thinking we could make fake news reports that SAY we're patrolling as much as before, but really we'd lower our shifts by a bit." I explain- yeah I kinda had a feeling Aora wouldn't like this idea.

"You believe "soldiers" trained in a matter of days will be of any help to us? Increase my patrols if you can't handle your jobs then." Aora says with a scoff as she glares at me, Ontarus just laughs in response as he puts his face in his hands.

"The new recruits won't be perfect, but our recent virtual training programs are incredible- compared to what we had even just a year ago. All we really need is patrollers who can call us if they see King and co., and anyone with a gun and bit of training should be able to handle petty crimes decently. Sorry Aora, but I'm not increasing your hours- I know you're strong, but a lack of sleep is dangerous considering our jobs. We can't afford to lose you." I respond.

"No no, increase her hours sir- she'd be humbled real quick after she passes out on the streets." Ontarus continues to laugh which starts to annoy me.

"Cut it out. No one's passing out-"

"Passing out? You mean becoming unconscious? I swam for hours after my ship was destroyed months ago. My body can function almost perfectly with a lack of sleep. If you all decrease your "shifts", and refuse to increase mine, I will have to break your rules Prósopsi." Aora says as she quickly glances at a now meeker Ontarus due to me using my powers on him, and then she looks back to me.

"...That's not a good thing to say Aora, especially now. I'll pardon you for that this once- but anyways. If it makes you feel any better, I'm not planning on decreasing my hours by very much at all. I understand why you're worried, I feel the same way. Millions of lives depend on us. But please Aora, I can't monitor your free-time- I'm not your dad but-"

"Obviously you're not." Aora interrupts me, which makes me pause and shake my head.

"Whatever. Long story short, I'm not increasing your shifts Aora- do what you want with your free-time, but don't overwork yourself or we'll know. Any other complaints?" I ask with my mood a bit sour now... maybe I WILL need to somehow track Aora if she's working way too much. Hmm... maybe that's a bit much though... I'll think about it.

Anyways- no one responds to me so I continue,

"Good. Next- about two days ago, we may have had a spotting of Amandeath near the outskirts of the continent. This was by Xalini Street. She seemed to have been in a confrontation in an alleyway, as some of her blood was identified and found on the ground. So for today's patrols, keep to the boundry between the center of the continent, and the outskirts of the continent." I explain as I turn on a hologram projector on my desk- and point to the location on the map of the Hopian Continent.

"Is that all? I... havebusinessto attend to if... so." Ufisator asks as he stands completely still, with his golden arms by his side and his big legs stuck together.

On that note Ufisator's clock eyes are still as creepy as always. What's even creepier though, is that when the army did an eye replacement for him recently- the clocks covering his eyes came back. AND that wasn't even in his blueprints... so we're thinking he came across some weird Blessing user a while back, and they did something to him. He doesn't remember any weird encounters before though, which makes this case harder to crack.

But anyways, weirdness aside I reply to him- "Almost done yep. Wanted to mention something interesting though. I doubt you all have had any confrontations with her, but a young woman has reportedly been randomly helping out our troops lately." I say, then continue,

"Apparently she seems to have some sort of mind-reading Blessing, as she was able to predict criminals movements as she took them out. She also reportedly knew things about our Officers, like Blessings and other personal habits which definitely should have been private."

"So a bounty hunter?" Aora asks, sounding uninterested.

"Maybe, but it doesn't quite seem like it since she's specifically hanging around the Hopian Army. Some guys even thought she was flirting with them, but most of the girls were saying she was just being friendly."

"Definitely just being friendly, if she was flirting with army guys- she obviously would've come to me first." Ontarus says with a smirk which makes me roll my eyes.

"The reason why I'm bringing this up though- is because she seems really capable. She also passively mentioned joining the army- reportedly. The Officers who she helped out even said that she outclassed pretty well all of them in combat- and was a huge help on lowering casualties. Her warnings about the criminals thoughts she helped take down were extremely helpful. So, we may have a new Commander on our hands- hopefully." I explain as I yawn and rest my hands on my desk.

"The help is appreciated, but should we not put her through the proper training before giving her such a high rank?" Aora asks me with a furrowed brow.

"Of course she'd still have to go through a lot of training to become a Commander, I'm just mentioning it for the future. But the woman seems like she may be like you Aora- a natural. Keep in mind that you became a Commander while you were still a teenager." I say which doesn't seem to effect Aora much. Oh- I know what will-

"If it makes you feel any better Aora, the woman reportedly helped with stopping one of Quilline's purges a few weeks ago. The reports even say that she was completely immune to that monster's Blessing." I explain which makes Aora's eyes open wide.

"Seriously? ...Good. We should recruit the vigilante then. But let's stop talking about that other woman, or I will have to leave." Aora explains as she subtly balls up her fists.

"That day still hurts her huh..." I think to myself with a frown. After her "fight" with Quilline a year ago, Aora hardly ever tries talking to citizens. Guess this confirms the reason for that- though I kinda had a feeling it was anyways. I brought up getting therapy to her a while back but she refused. Anyways, time to change the topic.

"I think that's about it for this meeting then. Oh- and the woman has the alias "Mrs. Magic", has dark skin, and apparently wears a unique outfit. Kinda like one of those superheroes from TV shows now that I think about it. Just mentioning this in case you ever see her on your patrols. That's it for real this time, good luck on your patrols today. Any last minute questions or troubles? I don't mind talking- I don't have nice conversations very often." I say which makes Aphrodite elbow my side and makes me squint my eyes in pain.

"Ok I guess that was mean." I think to myself, since Aphrodite has actually been being much nicer to me lately. She even encouraged me to watch the weekly episodes of my shows when she saw I was overworking myself. She also spent more non-sex time with me once I mentioned that I felt weak.

"Nope that's all I need to know. See ya. Oh! One more thing. I thought all Commanders were meant to know top-secret info, so when are we gonna tell Aora about what happened to the Red Fis-"

"THAT will be discussed at a later date. Why are you bringing it up? We're better than that now anyways. I'm putting myself in the line of fire this time, so something like that won't ever happen again." I respond as fast as I can- since I don't think Aora is even close to ready to accepting the big mistakes the army- or I have made in the past.

I glance at Aora to see her looking at Ontarus with a puzzled face... just hoping she doesn't get too curious here.

"If Aora knew, she wouldn't have to hold back as much anymore. All I'm saying. Bye again." Ontarus says as he quickly walks out with a wave- guessing I sounded mad there.

"...This continent has already been far worse off than I imagined. Please don't disappoint me any further." Aora says as she walks right in front of me, then suddenly turns around and walks towards the door Ontarus just opened- which makes me feel pretty bad.

Ufisator leaves as well once I nod at him, and wow his steps vibrate the room. I forget how big he is sometimes.

The door automatically shuts and so I sigh and lean back into my desk chair.

"So you don't enjoy our conversations huh? Jerk. I'm ignoring you for a day now." Aphrodite says which makes me smile for a second-

"Don't think you're getting out of your payments to me though." Aphrodite says which makes me curse to myself

But hey- things are looking up now. I even have some training planned with Aphrodite soon to get me stronger for when I fight King Metallica.

30 minutes later, just on the outskirts of the Hopian Continent...

🔫⚡🔫

Amandeath's P.O.V.

I yawn as I lead the way up a dusty flight of stairs. Our newest hacker-man that I forced into our group, Elio, is following behind me. More specifically though, we're inside of an abandoned building I used to like hanging around in. Or well on, since we're heading up to the roof right now.

The good thing is this place hardly has any windows- meaning it's pitch black in here. So yeah it would be hard for anyone to follow us- or spot us from outside. And obviously me and Elio have night vision, I've got my cool glasses- but I don't really know how his night vision works for sure. He obviously has it though, since he was able to fight me in the dark just a bit ago.

Anyways I think to myself, "Wonder if coming in here was a mistake, Metallic may be done his fight with Restroid by now. Eh. It probably won't be easy for him to give in his old pal for his bounty anyways. Plus if I want to get into Elio's pants, may as well take him on a quick "date" with a nice view on the roof." I think to myself as my stomach starts to feel even worse and growls- ha charming.

Either way we reach the top of one of many flights of stairs. I twirl a bit too fast to head up the next set of stairs next to us and- ohhh shit, I hurl and throw up.

"The hell is wrong with me, ever since I used those techy-bandaids Metallic gave me I've been feeling off..."

"Oh shit- you ok? That wasn't blood was it?" Elio asks as he walks closer to me.

"Dunno. Been feeling pretty funky for a bit, no clue if it's anything to worry about. Still strong enough to take you out though by the way, so don't get any ideas. And oh yeah blood, let's see..." I look down closer at the mess I made on the floor, kinda hard to see color with my nightvision- wait... are those...

"What the fuck? Haha- whoaaa, come check this out- just threw up some robots apparently." I tell Elio as I when I look closer- I can see tiny shiny metal things wiggling on the ground.

"Huh? Oh- those most be microbots, cool!" He responds and walks up to me, then kneels down. I feel a bit awkward after realizing I asked a guy I'm into to look at my puke, but hey I guess he's into it.

"Oh yeah, wow. Those must be from the bandage-pads you used. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure the Hopian Army has an exclusive brand of bandages that they use for their troops too. Those also use microbots to heal people from the inside, but they're meant to come out of your body naturally. The ones you got must've been offbrands- which originated from people scrounging garbages for the REAL versions, so that they can mimic or reuse the army's tech." Elio explains as he stands back up again with a smile.

"Neat. But uhhhh- wait how did those things get from my arm to my chest then?" I ask.

"Your glasses must be zoomed in- the 'things' are super tiny. Also the bots have limited- ah what's it called. I forget the name. But they can phase through some things I'm pretty sure. Haven't learned about that tech for a long time though, really complex stuff. ...Anyways. That's all I have to say. Let's keep moving." Elio says which bums me out, was kinda curious to hear him talk more.

Actually I'm pretty sure that phasing-through-stuff technology is what saved me and Karia during King's rampage...

Anyways- good to know, Elio's into tech. Guess that matches up with his Blessing. But it seems like he got uncomfortable at the end there, the guy's probably still conflicted about me killing his cult friends and all... oh well. He'll come along.

20 minutes of walking later...

🏢🌙🏢

"Cool place huh?" I ask Elio, as we're both standing on the edge of the flat roof of this 20 story building. Hah- I can see the grafitti I sprayed here years ago. It's a big middle finger painted onto the ground next to me. My edgy days, but hey maybe I'm still edgy now.

"Not bad. Why are we here though?" He asks me in a dull tone. Damn.

"This is a decent place to stay low. Also you seemed uncomfy so I wanted to show you something nice. We'll head back down in a minute." I say as I look at Elio's tanned face- but he's just looking down off of the roof and away from me.

"Eh... maybe I'll be able to break the ice later." I think to myself as I start to look off of the roof as well, to see the empty ground down below us. I can see a few hobos on the street though, as well as a few soldiers. That may make getting to King tricky...

Oh- also there's white train tracks standing above the ground below us. Glancing to the right I can see a train is coming along on them. That's why I liked this place I remember, used to think the trains were cool because of their sleek metal navy blue designs. And I used to try to figure out how they're so quiet...

On that note, I try to listen carefully to see if I can hear anything. ...Nothing from the trains, but I think I hear something small behind us.

I glance back- and my jaw opens wide, as on the roof I can see Commander Aora running right at us. On instinct I grab Elio's hand- and jump off of the building while dragging him with me. We just barely miss the silver-haired hunk's arm as she tries to grab my long shirt.

A/N: No rest for the wicked it seems, as Amandeath and Elio are somehow found by a Commander!

Thanks for reading- see you all in the next chapter titled "Stall and Pray to God".