Callidus Rising | Complete ✔️ | Book 1

20: The "Bash"

As soon as he was done, he gestures for us to come over, and a trail forms in front of us through the bots.

Lukas carries me over to Dark and our new friend. He looks at me in my odd position and motions one of the bots over.

Lukas drops me right onto it, and I push myself into a sitting position so that my feet are resting a few inches above the ground.

I cross my arms and look up at the people (and AI) around me. Suddenly I'm feeling extra short.

The boy's cheek is still a little bloody and bruised, but aside from that and the gash on my hand, we aren't super injured.

I pull my hand up to look at it and wince.

My open wound, just like the boy's, had exposed us. And if our chances weren't already pretty bad, we just had an army of putrid plague-breathing Victims try to eat us.

So, now the air is even more contaminated.

Oddly enough, Lukas isn't panicking.

He is standing there like I hadn't just declared I would soon turn into an evil eat-everything-in-sight zombie on steroids.

We are kind of just standing there awkwardly before the boy turns around and begins to walk back towards his makeshift home: the place where we thought evil human-killing bots live.

Instead, a boy who appearing no older than 15 lives here with those same bots... And seems to control them. Charming.

The bot I was sitting on turns and begins to follow him, and soon Dark and Lukas come as well.

The door slides open and we step back inside the place we tried so hard to escape.

After we go back in and the younger human shows us to a big room with comfortable plushy seats and shells, he sits down with us and begins to ask some questions.

"So, why did you attack my bots?"

Lukas is the first to speak:

"They were pursuing the one person I am sworn to protect. I would apologize, but I am not sorry for trying to protect her."

He narrows his eyes a little bit.

"Why do you have a Nation officer with you?"

"I can speak for myself," Dark says in the almost robotic voice that his helmet manifests.

He pulls off his helmet and the familiar and wild sandy brown hair frames his face.

His hazel eyes sparkle with intensity as he answers.

"My name is James Sebastian Nicholi. I'm with them because I saw an aberration in her blood and was attempting to bring her back to the Revolution with me before the Nation's current consuls were alerted."

My eyes grow wide.

He was trying to save me? The Revolution? Aberration?

"Wait a minute, you are Bash?"

The boy's face gets really excited really fast.

"The Revolution agent that went into deep cover years ago? The Prodigal Son? The-"

"Alright, alright," Dark cuts him off. "That's enough about me. Do you have any other questions?"

His teeth are grinding together with what I can only guess is irritation.

"Yeah! Didn't you know that the specific Jumper you landed in would lead you to my base of operations? It's hidden there so agents like yourself can escape in case of emergency... So why did you freak out and start killing my bots?"

I answer this time:

"I'm sure he didn't because Lukas," I pause to point to my AI bestie, "gave me the specific Jumper. Dar- Bash here just chased me."

Dark's eyebrow ticks up just a fraction at "Dar". I hope he doesn't remember what Lukas said earlier.

"I was just told that this was a Revolution base of operations... I was not expecting bots, so I immediately assumed I had been betrayed. Now that, I am sorry for," Lukas states.

The boy nods.

"Well, my name is Monty, but my friends call me Carlo," he says and winks.

"Just one more question," he pauses and looks at me.

"You want some shoes?"

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Hey again guys. I'm not doing too much so I thought I'd give you another chapter. The pic above is Monty (or Carlo). I know, I'm super funny. Jk 😂
Anywho, this one is just over 1,000 words so I hope you all enjoy!! Keep up the feedback and don't forget to ask questions if your lost. 331 reads!!!!
As always my friends and dear readers:
Thanks for reading!! ♥️♥️♥️