Last chapter, Metallic awoke from his trance of memories which allowed him to come to a conclusion about his faith- which was that he would no longer be following the Five Kings. Meanwhile, Prósopsi and the three current "Holidays" have a relaxing meeting at the pool about King Metallica and company. That is until Prósopsi and Aora have a spar, with the leader of the Hopian Army obviously winning, however the outcome made him realize he needs training to control and become skillfull with his strength.

Inside of the New Red Fists hideout, inside of a rundown building...

Elio's P.O.V.

"Elio. Class is starting soon: please hurry." Dad- or Restroid says from outside the rusty washroom stall door as he knocks on it... meanwhile I'm (not literally) shitting myself in here.

"Fuck me..." I mouth to myself as I continue to shake heavily... that kid, Nancite. The one we took after Restroid fought King Metallica... I... I fucking killed his mom... that wasn't even self defense. But- no, I'm smart, A+'s all throughout school, Restroid made me kill her for the greater good of this place. The best way to fix this whole territory is by getting rid of the privileged pieces of fucking garbage who ruin their fa-

"Elio? Come outside now please: I'll administer you your medicine: I sense you are stressed." Restroid says and so I look up at the mirror in front of me, seeing my light brown skinned face, eyes, and my terrible looking partially red dyed black hair. I always liked the look of a curly bowl cut on me but- shit without a hairdresser like before I'm starting to hate it...

*CLICK- CREEK!*

The door behind me opens with a loud click and swings open, to where through the dim flickering lights of our base I can see Restroid's shiny bronze body standing behind me. His pink humanoid eyes... I kinda like his true appearance here over the Kodan disguise he wears when we go out. It's like I know he won't be disappointed in me when I see his real body.

He takes my hand and gently pulls me out of the room towards his smooth chest- it's hard but, it really doesn't feel that way.

"My apologies: I meant to say take your medicine if you will. Due to your current pulse: I highly recommend you do so: it is your choice however." Of course Dad says as he backs away from me and holds out a needle filled with dark yellow liquid.

"Y-yeah I will, thank you." I say with a smile as I take it from his hand, and at the same time his mouth clicks as it forms a jagged smile... haha, it IS funny.

"I will delay the start of class for you: please do come as soon as you are ready however. We must greet our lucky newcomers such as that young boy Nancite suitably." Restroid says as he smoothly spins his body around and starts to walk down the cement floor of our brick walled hideout that's covered with our younger members drawings.

I-I'm glad I came here. Sure I'm not feeling great right now after... my kill but- that'll fade soon enough I bet, I just need to take my drugs- no, medication and that'll be all I need. Restroid... I refuse to acknowledge the people I used to know as my family... he's what I needed all along, and he knew that...

1 year ago, in a "registered" apartment near the center of the Hopian Continent...

Elio's P.O.V.

"Haaaah... crap, man." I say to myself with a sigh as I lean back on my brown leather "office" chair in my red walled bedroom. I crack my fingers as I raise my hands into the air, since of course they're hurting from all the code I've been typing. As per usual, I've been typing on my PC's mechanical keyboard for the past 6 horrid hours... I think I can afford a BIT of time off now.

"Alright- yep I'm feeling it, I'll think of some more lines as I sing on." I mumble to myself with a slight smile as I lower my hands back down to my white rimmed slim computer's keyboard. However this time I'm (secretly) using it to search up the base beat I've been using off the web for my new rap. ...Not like I'm recording or anything yet but- hey I've got to start somewhere right?

"Right." I mumble as I look back at the white door to my room behind me to make sure no one's coming.

I then put on my headphones- well only on one of my ears but still, right after that I click play on the video- shoot it loaded fast.

The beat starts playing so I start to quickly rap,

"Yeah- it's way too abysmal, far too predictable- every single day going through the same shit ahhhh- repeat repeat, can't do what I love can't ever beat. And on the days that I can't foresee, man they're even more stressful to me- my life's on the balance every fucking test- want love? Better be the best!" I sing with a smile but end up shouting the last verse- crap crap they probably heard, this place is so tight-

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!*

"Hi- Elio, nice song by the way. But since you don't seem busy dad wanted me to tell you he wants to show us something. In the living room I mean." Luckily only Xalen, my older brother says from even better- OUTSIDE the door.

"Oh ok coming." I respond immediately but groan internally as I close off the song tab I was on, gently place my low quality headphones down and speedwalk towards the door.

I open it- to be greeted by my brother with his short black curly hair and black short sleeved shirt who's standing outside the door and staring down at me now with a smile. Hah, ok then, yeah he's always been a bit weird... then again who am I to say that. He's smarter than I am though for sure- even if it's because he is older than I am.

"What do you think he'll show us?" I ask as I gently close my door and after that me and Xalen walk down the boring black carpeted and brown walled hall of our apartment.

We turn left to enter the living room with our red leather couch and TV attached to the wall, "Don't know, we'll have to see-"

"HANDS UP!" Dad shouts as he jumps up from the living room carpet pointing a handgun at us- which makes me gasp but Xalen screeches and falls back.

"Hahaha- seems like I got you guys good! But seriously come here look at this thing, you guys never take the time to learn about history. A beautiful weapon isn't it?" Dad says which makes Xalen shakily get up as he starts to laugh. Me and him then walk forward to see the pistol- thankfully with it being aimed down now. Dad as always is wearing his white robe which contrasts his dark skin- since yeah it's not like we ever go out much except for when we meet with our neighbours next door... or room.

But anyways looking closer at the gun, it's color is a pure white with curly gray lines covering it too... neat.

"Wow... and hey that looks really old and cool Dad- how did you find it?" Xalen asks in awe as Dad flips the gun over in his palm to show us the other side of it.

"It was in your Grandpa's old stuff he left us, I've got no clue where he got it from though." Dad says with a laugh as he places the weapon back down on the clean looking wooden table next to him.

"So how far are you two in your homework for today? Becoming top software engineers takes hard work in this day and age of robots you know. You've done at least up to question 28 of the practice ones right?" Mom asks from behind us which immediately brings my mood back down to reality.

"Yeah." Me and Xalen both say- I'm not lying but I'm not really proud of my work either... I wonder how my brother is handling his work, he's two years ahead of me in his online university studies after all. His work must be stressful.

"Hmm? You don't sound so confident there Xalen, come on let's check out your work bud." Dad says as he swings his arm up to roughly grab his shoulder and shake it as they walk out of the living room.

"...Ah right- Elio we have to go through the job catalogues for you, let's do it now ok?" Mom says...

"Yeah sure." I reply- with me wanting to say something along the lines of "I'm 19 you know I can look through it myself control freak". Like I still haven't even started my internships yet and she already wants me to confirm a LONG TERM job for where I want to work... every day we've been researching it- alongside me doing my schoolwork.

🖱🖱🖱

An hour later...

"Alright- good progress today Elio, try and get some more work done please and thank you." Mom says... I hate that term, "please and thank you". Basically a hardly even nice way of saying "You had better go do what I'm asking" really when you think about it- which yes is pretty rude to me.

"...I'll see what Xalen's doing." I then think to myself as I nod to mom and walk away from the circular glass kitchen table that all of my lists of potential life long careers are on...

I internally smirk as I can already hear some classical music playing from the distance from his room door. I wonder if he likes it or just plays it because it's the only kind of music mom and dad find suitable for studying... I hate it myself- but as a beginner song writer I have to appreciate the effort put into making it. Knowing Xalen though he may actually like it... maybe.

Either way I knock on his door, "Hey, can I come in?" I ask, and in return he just mumbles... oh man dad must've given him a run for his money then.

"What are you up to- studying or no? I won't snitch on you if you're not hah- you heard me rapping myself. Wait on that no... never mind." I was about to ask him what he thought of the song but, after I enter his dark room with no lights on except for his computer I get the feeling that's not important right now.

"Ugh... yeah studying now at least. I lied about being on question 28- so dad wanted to punish me and get rid of what was "distracting" me. ...Looked through my history and found my vlog channel... and then he deleted it." Xalen says which makes my heart sink as I sigh... seriously? Yes he never got a ton of views on it in the first place but- still he's been uploading videos to it for about three years now.

"Jeez...... I'm sorry. I mean... hey, that was overkill but- as much as we hate studying, at least this'll help you focus on your tests right?" I say uneasily... I mean I don't think that was too mean. Plus he should've known to hide the stuff he does for fun... still sad and mean of Dad though. I just know how the system works.

"Hah. Yeah- true, I suppose. I just have to think of the positives to this, make sure you hide your own stuff properly though. Anyways for school- what about you Elio, how is your work coming along? I'm assuming good if you weren't lying about the practice questions." Xalen asks as he spins the cool green and black chair he's sitting on towards me so that I can see him looking into my eyes with a furrowed brow.

"Yeah- I mean fine I guess, just super boring is all. But when exams come... "insert stress here", haha right?" I say with a grin as I raise my hands to my head and point my fingers to my head... he doesn't react.

"Do you not get it? You know, like, stress in my head? ...Ah never mind ha- well uh see you later." I try to awkwardly explain myself as Xalen lets out a chuckle and shakes his head with a smile.

Can't tell who's more awkward now, me or him...

A/N: To be continued in part 2! And yes sorry- but it won't be published this week.

Hm... I'm curious about something. Would you guys want the normal length chapters but with an update every 2 weeks, or shorter chapters like these with the same schedule as before? Don't know if I'll go with either or yet but- in case I have to I wanted to know your guys opinions on that.

Anyways, I hope you all consider voting or commenting if you enjoyed- and see you next week!