“Grandpa, Grandpa!” The four years old boy with sky-blue eyes jumped on the one-armed man. The man had a military uniform with many insignia on his shoulders. He was one of the three generals of the army, Mercer Cross, also known as, Cruel Heart. His usually stoic face was now painted with a wide smile, at seeing his smallest grandson. From his birth to his growth, he always felt that this grandson was special. There was something different about him.

Sometimes he would wonder if it was anything to do with Evelyn and Malcolm’s changes. After all, Merlin conceived when the duo started their hunting careers, and both were still at Grace-Rank, newly awakened with their superpowers. Marcela came a year and a half later. Malcolm was already at Form-Rank and created his ultimate and even used a couple of serums, but due to midway pregnancy, Evelyn was a tad weaker, and haven’t used a serum yet, but even then, Marcela’s power could be considered above Merlin’s.

But Miles, when he was made, both parents were already strong in their rights. Evelyn too created her ultimate, and used serums, thus strengthening her whole being. That made Mercer wonder, would the kid be stronger due to that?

“My pride, Miles!” Mercer said lovingly as he held the boy in his arm. “Come and let grandpa see you.”

“I missed you, grandpa,” Miles said as he hugged the one-armed man. “You said you would be back in a week, but it has been a month.” The toddler pouted cutely. The gaze of the old man was soft as he looked at the pouting child.

“Sorry, sorry. You know your grandpa is the strongest person in all Unity. I had to deal with the threats.” Mercer said lovingly.

“Woah! Grandpa, what did you kill this time?” Miles looked at the old general with stars in his eyes.

“Some walking dead, some mutated animals. Nothing worth mentioning.” Mercer started, but soon a beautiful woman entered and took the Miles from Mercer.

“Mil, leave your grandpa alone. He just arrived. Let him change at least.” Evelyn berated softly.

“It is fine. It is fine. I wanted to catch up with my pride anyway.” Mercer laughed and held Miles's hand. “Let’s go to study.”

Mercer’s study room was the biggest in the Mansion. The walls were covered with bookshelves and rewards and medals he earned throughout his life. At the desk was a woman smiling amiably. She was Miles’s grandmother he had never met. She died after monsters invaded the Earth. As a doctor on the front lines, she sacrificed her life to save a soldier.

Mercer sat on the desk and Miles sat across from him. “Not another lecture, please. Please grandpa, tell me the monsters you fought.” Miles begged.

“Miles, you have to learn the way of Cross,” Mercer said with a stern face but a soft voice. “We Cross are the savior of Earth. We are heroes of the innocent.”

“Do you remember our history?”

“Yes,” Miles nodded with pride, as he recounted. “When the traitor Cross Empire wanted to destroy Earth, mother figured out their ploys thanks to her superpower and told father and grandpa. You had two choices. Either succumb to their ways or sell them out in exchange for billions of lives. You, father, mother, and Uncle Adam collaborated with the other two powers to save the world.”

“Yes!” Mercer said with a smile. “We Cross are heroes of the world. Don’t forget that Miles.”

“Remember son, our character is our strength. You have to be courageous, witty, and headstrong.” Mercer urged. “We, Cross, are the strongest bloodline on this planet. Strength begets jealousy. When you enter Portal World, many people will try to kill you. At those times, remember the education you had been through. It is us, never them. Kill without hesitation!”

“I am not that weak-willed, Grandpa. Anyone who crosses a Cross can only die.” Miles pouted.

“How come our character can define our powers, Grandpa?”

“When you grow up you will realize the world is much broader than you've ever seen. Superpower awakening is just the beginning. When we grow stronger, then we really awaken our ultimate forms.”

A month later,

“Are you ready, son?” Malcolm asked the excited toddler jumping all around the house. His eyes were beaming with yearning despite the dark circles under his eyes proving his lack of sleep. It was a wonder where he could find the energy to act this naughty, but be it his parents or his usually stern grandfather let him be, as the day was the most important day in his life.

“Today, I will get to learn my superpower! I have been waiting for this day ever since I learned about them, so hell yeah, I am more than ready!” Miles said with his fists clenched, his eyes shining.

“Where did you learn that word, young man?” Evelyn held his ear as she asked.

“Ow, ow. Sorry, mother, Merlin taught me.” Miles snitched immediately out of pain. Merlin waiting nearby shrank his neck in fear as he cursed under his breath. Seeing their mother eying him with promises of painful hours, his curses doubled as he averted his gaze.

“Since today is special, I will let it slide. Let’s go.” Evelyn helplessly sighed, as the family boarded the military jeep. Only Mercer remained as he had things to do.

Soon the family of five with the guards was at the science center in the capital. Miles was the favorite grandson of the General and thus had been taken to the best laboratory in Unity, although the procedure was an easy one. But no one thought the family was overreacting. After all, all the high-standing members of the big families would be injected with awakening serums in the safest locations possible to prevent any mishaps.

“Welcome…” The Doctor greeted the family as they chatted. He was working with Evelyn in the science center, but he wasn’t someone special. After all, most of the high-ranking scientists were part of big families by now. Only the small-time lab assistants were ignored, thus he was chosen.

Miles was taken to the isolated room in the center and the doctor strapped him to a bed. After injecting a Superpower Awakening Serum, he waited for an hour and cut a piece of tissue from a certain part of his body where the Ancient Gene was most active. The tissue was placed in a machine that was developed by Mother AI after her arrival, and soon the results were out. But as the doctor saw the result, he gasped in shock. Not believing it, he ran the test another time to only see the same result.

“This is taking too long.” Malcolm frowned as he entered the isolated room and coincidentally saw the result on the screen. As he did so, he smiled proudly at the same time worried about the future of his son.

“Colonel Cross…” The Doctor mumbled in shock as he pointed at the screen, “I run it twice, it seems like your son is truly special.”

“It seems like,” Malcolm muttered. Soon, the rest of the family walked in and saw the result. All of them have similar reactions until Miles woke up hours later and asked what his superpower was.

————

A year later, in the most prestigious kindergarten in Unity,

“Leader, we found these two love birds at our place.” A feeble-looking kid with sparky hair approached the blue-eyed kid sitting at the back of the class. Although this was a kindergarten, it wasn’t anything like its pre-invasion counterpart. Nowadays, most schools taught hunting, monster anatomy, and the expertise one would need in Portal World. As the scions of the richest and strongest people in Unity, kids in that class were more mature than normal five-year-olds and had already stepped up to the game known as politics.

The children had been taught the value of “friendship” by their families. Being acquainted with a strong or rich person would be beneficial for the future and the family, thus being an underling for one of the rising stars of Unity wasn’t disgraceful. On the contrary, it was something expected from them.

Although Tian Ling was also proud of his power and identity, he knew he was a bit worse than the kid in front of him. Be it physical power or superpower, he long accepted his inferiority. It didn’t come easy, no, he had to be beaten down first, but he realized and adapted pretty quickly, thus earning a place near this person.

“Who are they?” Little Miles asked as he was watching something from the wristwatch he stole from the school. On the screen was a cartoon, its name was Coin and the Marooner. It was about a hunter who failed to awaken a superpower. Despite that, he was trying to carve his path in Portal World. Although he was weak, by bearing through the pain and struggle, he got stronger step by step. It was one of the most famous cartoons in Unity, but Miles was watching for another reason. To mock this stupid Main Character. Despite being a weak, powerless nobody, he would bleed day after day just to prove his worth. It was one of the biggest laughingstocks in Miles click.

“Carl and Mae.” Tian Ling said as Mihr Orril pushed them through the front door.

“Oh, them.” Miles didn’t even glance at them. They weren’t worthy of his notice. He was the most popular kid in the school. He was the grandson of Mercer Cross, son of Evelyn and Malcolm Cross, and brother of Merlin and Marcela Cross, he was the owner of the most overpowered superpower in Unity. He was special, a chosen one as his grandfather said. Of course, he didn’t have time to play with nobodies.

“Beat them up and remind them not to step up in our special place.” He waved his hand lazily as he leaned back.

“Mil, how about we beat them up a little?” The blond near him asked cutely.

“Porseila, do you want to dirty your hands with them?” Miles asked.

“I am bored, this cartoon is boring. Such a pitiful dog.” Porseila pouted.

“Fine, let’s thrash them a bit.” Miles accepted as he got on his feet. Tian Ling and others made a way for him and his princess to walk. Miles arrived at the two, who were looking at him in fear. Mae was the more courageous one as she yelled; “Who do you think you are? Do you own the school or Unity? Who are you to decide where we can walk or not?”

“Hehe.” Miles wasn’t angry, instead, he was amused. “Of course, I can.”

“If you know what is better for you, apologize and promise you will be respectful from now on, or I don’t mind stealing your power from you.”

“You can’t!” Carl shouted, “Our families wouldn’t let you go.”

“Would they cross a Cross?” Miles asked with a smirk, “I doubt so. Even if they do, I will just steal their powers too.”

As he said so, Miles raised his two hands. On the right-hand lightning mixed with wind crackled and on his left-hand fire with darkness fluttered. “These are the powers of the heads of two big families. I stole them when my grandfather gifted those heads to me. So tell me, are your families as strong as those two families? Are your families sin-free for my family to unearth?

If not, know your worth, maggots. Kneel, apologize and promise that you will obey me!” Miles looked at the duo from above with his dark blue eyes shining.

The rest was as usual. He threatened most of the children in the school. He knew how their small minds worked. They cried in panic and fear while obeying his unwavering authority. Never to step into his special place on the school grounds.

‘Boring.’ He thought in his mind.

After he arrived home, he decided to walk to the basement where her mother would usually work at this hour. Merlin and Marcela were at the school at this time, and his father and grandfather were probably saving the normal people. Ungrateful maggots. Worthless garbage who couldn’t even awaken powers or fail to awaken anything worthy.

Filthy people who diluted the gene pool with their worthless genes. If Miles could, he would kill them all to do Earth a favor, but Mercer said Unity needed normal people as well. Oh well, they weren’t his problem yet.

“Welcome, Lil Lord.” Kenway greeted as he always did.

“I am not Lil, nor little. I am your Lord.” Miles scoffed. His father had a soft spot for this man, so he couldn’t fire him, but this worthless guard was bothering him a lot.

“As you say, my lord.” Kenway politely replied. Huffing angrily, Miles walked to the basement and saw his mother playing with a wristwatch. It was golden in color and looked like a big, shiny coin.

“What is that, mother?” Miles asked as he approached.

“A faulty wristwatch,” Evelyn said without taking her eyes from the screen. “Your uncle, Adam, gave it to me to find a way to crack the strange language on it, but I can’t find a solution no matter what. I think I will destroy it.”

“ARGGH!” Miles fell to the ground as he held his head. His head was throbbing as if thousands of snakes were slithering in his mind. He held his head in pain, as he grunted. Evelyn dashed to his side, as she checked on him in worry.

“What happened?” She asked.

“I don’t know.” Miles barely said. He was gritting his teeth in pain. In a rush, Evelyn ran to her side with the wristwatch in her hands. Miles looked at his reflection from the gold surface. His pain multiplied. He didn’t know what was happening, but in a fit of anger, he grabbed the metal device and threw it at the wall. The watch was resilient as it was created to assist hunters in their endeavors in Portal World, so despite the full power throw, it was still one piece without a scratch on it.

“Stupid thing.” Miles cursed as he got up, “I am better already, mother. I guess I am sleepless lately.”

“Go and let Gordon check on you.” Evelyn insisted. With no other choice, Miles nodded as he left the basement. The AI in the wristwatch on the ground watched everything that happened, then removed its existence from the watch. When all was completed, the light on the screen dulled for the last time as Miles and Evelyn walked out.