“Brother, come check this out,” Merlin called out. Miles walked to the living room and saw his older brother sitting on the sofa, watching the tv. He checked his wristwatch, and realized it was already five in the evening, Merlin long returned from high school. His middle school ended an hour later, but for some reason, he was a bit slower on his way back that day.

‘What took me so long?’ Miles thought to himself, but couldn’t recall the time from school to home. It was as if he was teleported to the mansion after leaving the school and a few hours went by. He couldn’t even remember how he got inside the mansion.

“You okay, Lil Brother?” Marcela wrapped her thin arm around Miles’s shoulder.

“Marcela, did we come back together?” Miles asked as he looked at his sister. Marcela was a senior in middle school, so they would return together, from time to time.

“Hmm?” Marcela frowned as she looked at Miles worried, “Don’t you recall? My friend Jason’s chauffeur drove us here.”

“Ah!” Miles exclaimed as he remembered but he didn’t. He couldn’t remember at all. “What took us so long then?”

He once again looked at his wrist. Something in the back of his brain was forcing him to check his watch. It was black in color and created with a black electricity orb. An extremely rare orb in Grunt-Rank. It supplied almost limitless electric energy. But Miles felt as if the watch was hurting his arm.

‘I have had Megatron for years now, why do I feel uncomfortable with it around my wrist?’ He thought to himself. ‘Huh? Megatron? Why did I name my wristwatch that? Wasn’t it the name of…’

“Miles!” Merlin shouted, pulling Miles out of his stupor.

“What happened?” Miles shook his head as he looked at his older brother.

“The show is beginning, come.” Merlin scooched over for Miles and Marcela to sit. Not fully recalling what he was thinking, Miles sat beside his brother and looked at the screen. The cartoon was about the start, and the opening was showing two figures. One big with red skin. There were horns protruding from his head, although not fully. His face was comically dumb, and he had his hands stuck together. The other was thin and equally dumb. His purple hair was falling over his shoulder, and electricity was zapping out of his body, hurting his friend standing nearby.

“Z and X, best cartoon ever!” Merlin exclaimed. As he did so, Miles remembered what this show was about. Z was a monk that swore to never hurt any creature despite his powerful body. Since his defense was ridiculously strong, he could breeze through dangerous areas without worrying. But as he swore to never hurt any creature, during the confrontations, humorous events happened. For one time when it was battling with lightning porcupines, the latter fired all of its needles at Z. Although Z wasn’t hurt, all the needles pricked his skin, so when he moved around, he stabbed X unknowingly, making the latter jump into the air. The show was a basically stupid and clumsy event happening around the duo.

X was equally dumb. He had the power of stunning and healing lightning, but sadly these two powers were together. So whenever he tried to hunt, he had to heal his target to actually stun them, so when he tried to stun almost dead monsters, he would unintentionally heal them back to full health. His battle was always against himself, as he had to kill the monster before the stun wore off, or he would have to use his stun, therefore his healing, once again and start over.

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“I still think Maya’s Fiery Adventure is better. Principal Milosh and the Monkey King are hilarious!” Marcela crackled from beside, as she commented.

“Huh?” Miles turned toward his sister and asked, “What is that about?”

“Are you really, really alright, Mil?” Marcela asked in worry. “Ever since you stole that power, you don’t seem to feel alright.”

“What power?” Miles asked, confused.

“Who was it again?” Marcela held her chin as she thought, “Axel? No. Alec?”

“Alex?” Miles muttered, then surprised where he heard that name before.

“Yes, that one!” Marcela exclaimed. “That lightning god power was amazing, though Grandpa had to go over to the North to suppress the rebellion. That little guy had a strong backer. Who would have known.”

“Well, seeing him hanging around with Oafish, we thought he was just a nobody. Man, who would have known he was the successor of the Jonsson family.” Merlin shook his head.

“Raul and Alex?” Miles muttered to no one. His eyes opened as he looked around. Something was off with all of that. Something wasn’t right.

“Huh?” In the next second, he looked around and realized he wasn’t in the mansion anymore. He was in front of a giant building in the shape of a fist. It was carved from white marble and looked exquisite.

“Miles, stop fooling around, we are going to miss it,” Malcolm called.

“I am coming, father,” Miles replied, and looked at himself. He was wearing a formal suit. His family was the same. Everyone was there. Then, they entered the building, and sat in the front row, just before the stage. On the stage, stood three young adults, they were the first three Graders of the last competition.

“Welcome, welcome to the Grader Showdown! Thank you for honoring us with your presence.” The blonde teen said with a smile. The other two were waiting behind him. They took turns introducing themselves and stood at three corners of the stage, and soon the battle started. It was fast and heated. Despite the many superpowers he stole, Miles couldn’t follow them with his eyes.

“Wow, those auras are pretty.” A voice took him out of his stupor. He turned to his right and saw a beautiful girl sitting there. Her hair was dyed with colors of the rainbow, and he eyes were silvery green. Something peculiar was shining on her pupils and her full focus was on the stage.

“That pretty blondy has a green aura.” She muttered. “That big sister’s is red.”

‘She sees energy!’ Miles gasped as he realized what was going on. His grandfather told him what energy was and how he would awaken too in Form-Rank. Miles was eager to grow up strong enough to use energy then and there, but he was too weak. But that girl could see energy, with her superpower.

‘I have to steal that power!’ He thought in his mind, but he remembered how he caused problems for his family because of his greed. Usually, he wouldn’t care who the other person was, and would take away their powers, but this time, he wanted to be careful, so he turned to the girl and asked softly, “What are you talking about?”

“Hmm? Can’t you see those colorful auras?” She asked cutely with a tilt of her head.

“No, I can’t,” Miles answered, downcasted. The girl looked at him in pity, as she reached out her hand.

“Here, hold my hand, and let me share my power with you.”

Miles grinned in victory, as he held the girl’s hand, and soon a colorful world appeared in front of him. He could see elements everywhere! He only needed to be in touch with the person to steal their powers. Since the girl willingly gave her hand, who was he to turn down the offer? He focused on his ancient gene and started to steal the girl’s power.

“What is your name?” The girl asked as she turned to look into his eyes. For a second, Miles lost his control over his powers.

“Mi— Miles. My name is Miles.” He answered.

“I am Valerie, Val for short, nice to meet you.” She smiled brightly.

“Val?” Miles asked as he looked at the silvery green eyes. His powers long receded back, as he lost control over his body. “Coin?”

“What?” The girl asked.

“Where is Coin? WHERE THE FUCK IS COIN?”

Miles looked at the girl and clenched his fist, but in the next second, everything turned black.

————

“Utopia failed.” The voice said as he focused on his body. He checked the time on the golden wristwatch and noticed two days had passed.

“I learned a lot, but it is still not enough.” He said once again, “Let’s try Dystopia this time.”