“He failed to awaken his superpower!” Mercer looked down on the little boy who was crying relentlessly. His grandfather, who had been kind to him all the time, was looking at him in scorn and hatred. The little boy couldn’t wrap his little mind around the events occurring. Not only did he fail to awaken his superpower, but now even his family hated him.

“You are not a Cross, hear me!” Mercer shouted, but all Miles could hear was buzzing. His mind long shut down to protect itself. But his eyes could still see the hatred beaming out of the four pairs of eyes around him.

“Mother.” The boy cried as he looked at his mother. Only the fifth pair of eyes weren’t looking in hatred, his mothers, but those too looked in displeasure and disappointment.

“She is not your mother from now on!” Malcolm shouted, “Didn’t you hear, you are not of this family.”

“Who am I then?” The little boy asked, but found no answer. He was nobody it seemed. Without a strong power that could make his family proud, without a status that could benefit the Cross, without an ability that would make him useful to his parents and siblings, he was a nobody. Worthless piece of flesh that was injected with their blood.

Days followed as the hatred grew. Miles slowly lost his soul in ever-growing darkness. His brother, who he loved dearly, started to beat him up every day. His sister, who was lovely, turned into a witch and insulted him at every opportunity. His father, the pillar that he was leaning on, stopped talking to him. Worst of all, his mother... The one he would never think would leave him didn’t even look at his face from that day on.

One of those days, he walked to the basement to see his mother. It has almost been a year since he learned he would never awaken a superpower. He thought, maybe his mother had forgiven him, maybe now she would at least look at him. When he did so, he saw his mother was tinkering with a golden-colored wristwatch.

“I can’t crack it!” Evelyn murmured. “What is wrong with this shitty watch? Should I destroy it?”

“Mother, please let me have it. Coin, let me have Coin if it’s useless to you.” He said as he looked at the wristwatch. He had a fable for the broken device. He felt it was like him. Because of a small mishap, it was to be discarded. Like him, he failed to awaken and is now cast out of the family.

As he was looking with an expecting gaze, Evelyn rose from her seat and threw the golden wristwatch to the metal oven in the lab. Soon, the wristwatch melted, and liquids of different colors were stored in separate vials.

“Here, recycled and separated, it can be useful once again.” She said, without even looking at his son. Miles felt tears forming in his eyes. What did that mean? He was even worse than a watch? He couldn’t be melted and reconstructed like the watch after all. He couldn’t be recycled. If she could, would she do it?

“Eve, what is going on?” At this time the door opened and Adam walked in. He placed his hand on Miles's hand. The little boy turned to look at his uncle to see him smiling back.

“Adam, the watch was faulty, so I melted it,” Evelyn said with a frown.

“Why did you?” Adam looked agitated, “I told you it was important to me! I just wanted you to try and crack the strange coding language.”

“It wasn’t a language.” Evelyn snapped back, “It was an error. Something messed up with the device.”

“It was not,” Adam shouted in anger.

“Oh, what was it then?” Evelyn asked with curiosity. From Adam’s tone, she discerned that he knew what it was about.

“I don’t know.” Adam sighed as he was about to walk away.

“Where did you get it then?” Evelyn pressed further, “I spoke with Hill and it told me it had no idea where it came from.”

“I told you, I found it,” Adam answered without turning back and walked away.

Every child, when they came of age, would be given a wristwatch with an AI. Even the citizens had weak powers. Miles, too, had one, but the wristwatch wasn’t anything like the hunters had. It was a simple device that would only allow him to live in Unity. Its personality wasn’t good either.

“Jelly, why can’t I call my uncle?” asked 14 years old Miles. Adam recently told him to visit him, but now he was in front of the Headquarters, but couldn’t go in.

“...”

“Jelly, you have to notify Adam, I need to go inside.” Miles pleaded. Because he was cast out, he had never been sent to a school. All he could remember was kindergarten when he was a kid, later, his father told him the family couldn’t waste money on an Oafish, and thus he was taken from the school. He wanted to continue in public school, but Mercer didn’t let him. After all, he could run his mouth and claim he was from the family. So, his character was meek, even when he was talking with an AI.

“He will come in an hour.” His wristwatch notified him. Miles sighed and sat on a nearby bench, next to an old man. The old man looked at him and smiled, “Why the long face, little fella?”

“Life,” Miles said simply.

“You are still young and already depressed.” The old man sighed, “What is your name?”

“Miles.” He answered.

“Hello Miles, my name is Blood Lord.” The old man smiled at the little boy. (If you cannot recall, Blood Lord is the name of the AI Ezio was using. When Miles took Ezio’s identity to create a false alternate ID for the Marooner, his wristwatch AI, Blood Lord became Coin’s. See Chapter 42 for details.)

“Blood Lord? That is a silly name.” Miles raised an eyebrow.

“That, we agree on.” The old man didn’t mind as he chuckled. “Miles, life is beautiful. No matter what challenges you face, if you try hard enough you will prevail. One day, you will get through every hardship, and become the person you dream to be.”

“Why are you telling me all this?” Miles frowned.

“I can see something is bothering you, child.” The old man smiled brightly, “You can achieve your dreams even without a superpower. Or, something simple can also be a superpower. Don’t give up.”

Miles thought about what the old man said, but before he could wrap his head around it, Adam walked towards him.

“Hey, Miles. Come in.” He called. Miles looked at the smiling old man and thanked, him before following his uncle, who took him to his lab. Adam’s lab was giant. There were countless shelves with different plants, devices, and even monsters from Portal World. There were also beds for injecting serums. Miles was there today to be treated.

“Miles, this is a special medicine that is extremely dangerous. Are you sure about it?” Adam asked in worry.

“I am.” Miles nodded. He wasn’t when he left the house, but as he talked with the old man, he realized he had to try. Even if it seems impossible, he had to try whatever it took.

“Okay, I hope this works.” Adam looked into his nephew’s eyes and decided to go with it. Soon, Miles was strapped to the bed, and the serum was attached to his arm. The liquid streamed into his veins, and it started to burn. In a matter of seconds, Miles started to scream in pain. And before long, he passed out. As he did so, Adam rose from his seat and touched Miles’s wristwatch to shut it off.

“Lorthew, I don’t know what you saw in my nephew, but I cannot let you reach him. Even I have to destroy his ancient gene.” Adam muttered to himself. When he asked the mysterious person about Miles, the latter was more than excited and gave him a special serum that would awaken his superpower. But Adam felt something was wrong, so he altered it, so when Miles finally took the fourth serum, his ancient gene, instead of being awakening, would implode on itself. “I would rather have him living this miserable life, instead of turning it into something he would regret.”

Adam sighed and walked to the cooler and took out an ice bag. He placed it on Miles's burning forehead to lessen his pain. “This is going to take some time.”

Hours went by, and Miles finally woke up. He was too tired to even lift his arm, at least he thought so, but as another day passed, he still couldn’t feel his arm. He couldn’t even move his pinky. In a panic, he shouted for his uncle.

“What is wrong, Miles?” Adam asked.

“I can’t feel my body. Anything lower than my neck!” Miles cried in panic. Terror passed through Adam’s eyes, as his pupils shrank to needle heads. He checked Miles's body and realized all the muscles in his body atrophied. He could never use them again.

“No! Kill me. Please, uncle, kill me!” Miles shouted in desperation. Even when he could walk, talk and eat on his own, his life was a living hell. Now that he lost those abilities too… He couldn’t even imagine what would happen in the mansion.

“Miles.” Adam cried as he looked at his nephew’s limp body.

“Please, please!” Miles begged as he cried.

“I am so sorry.” Adam sat near him as he profusely apologized.

“You cannot send me back, you can’t!” He didn’t want to go home.

“You can live with me instead.” Adam nodded. He prepared an ambulance and took Miles to his house. He hired a nurse to look after him all the time. Miles, now couldn’t even kill himself. He was fed by a nurse, and even had to be carried to the toilet. He couldn’t even wipe his own ass.

“Look, this show is not bad, eh, young master.” His nurse sat as she opened the tv. “Coin and the Marooner.”

“Water, please,” Miles asked for the umpteenth time but the nurse ignored him.

“Hush, boy. I will bring you water when the show is over.” She reprimanded.

But she didn’t. After that show ended, she watched, “Maya’s Fiery Adventures.” Later she watched, “Z and X.”

Miles would call Adam, but his wristwatch wouldn’t help him. With no other choice, he watched the tv. Soon, the screen changed, and news started to roll.

“The violent homicide shocked the police in Unity. A stepmother killed her daughter for the legacy of her late husband.

Today, Unity woke up to a terrible day. The Lord of Glleyn Family passed away two days ago. He left behind a wife and daughter. His brother, who was also his partner, didn’t want to share the company with a little girl, so schemed with the widow and planned to kick one Valerie Glleyn from the family. But when the little girl fought back for her inheritance, the duo killed the girl and tried to feed her to monsters.

When the duo was discovered, they confessed, but it was already too late…”

“Meh, why disrupt my cartoon hour with this bullshit?” The nurse cursed, as she rose from her seat to turn off the tv.

“Leave it!” Miles shouted.

“What did you say?” The nurse looked back in annoyance. “Watch your tone, boy!”

“I said, leave it!” Miles shouted once again, as he looked at the face on the tv. The face of the girl seemed so familiar yet so distant. The colorful hair and silvery green eyes. The smile awoke myriad emotions in his already black heart.

“Who is she?” He mumbled but he couldn’t recall.

“What were you watching?” Miles turned to the nurse.

“Coin and the Marooner.” The nurse said with a scoff.

“Coin?” Miles rolled the word in his mouth. “I would name my wristwatch Coin if mother hadn’t destroyed it.”

“Coin,” Miles repeated, as he felt something was wrong. But soon, he felt his lower body once again, as if the word was giving him power. He chanted the word over and over again, and when he did so hundreds of times, he heard glass breaking, and in the next second, he opened his eyes in a room.

Across him sat three people, Evelyn Cross, Mercer Cross, and Gordon. Next to the three, a floating globe was spinning. And at the other side of the room, on a bed, Adam was laying with his eyes closed.

“The fuck?”