Chapter 226

Calliope gave her mom a quick heads-up, then took Brandon and headed out. Just as she hit the elevator button, Angelina showed up. Her left arm was still in a thick cast, strapped around her neck - she looked like a mess. But the look in her eyes when she saw Calliope was nothing but smug. The elevator dinged open. She followed Calliope in, one step behind. Then, she let out a light laugh. "So, Aether's getting pulled down, yeah?" There was a nasty sort of glee in her voice. "Shame, really. That's the only halfway decent thing you've done." "Word is the Astra Global AI Challenge's doing extra checks to weed out the hacks. No Aether means no entry for you anymore, huh?" Calliope glanced at her hand in the cast. "Arm's already busted, and you still wanna press your luck? Not worried I might have someone deal with your other arm too?" She paused, lips curling into a cold smirk. "Let's be real, kinda hard to compete in an AI tournament with both hands busted." Brandon immediately moved for