Cliff

Because the virus-outbreak happened over 50 years ago, later generations weren't born with abilities. To combat this, every human, by the age of 10, was infused with a part of the X-Virus, which forcefully awoke the ability that lied dormant within their cells.

The ability one got from this procedure was usually a mixture of the parents' ability, and that was the primary reason powerful ability wielders usually married and copulated with one another.

Lachlan, who was one of the sons of the acclaimed Grayford family, wasn't as fortunate as most when it came to getting his ability. When he finally turned 10 and was looking forward to getting an ability like his siblings, something happened which turned his fate on its head.

He wasn't affected by the artificial infusement and was consequently not granted an ability.

He had become an ability cripple, a small minority of people comprising 1% of the population, that wasn't affected by the X-Virus.

His parents that had given birth to him, loved him, and raised him through his adolescence. Abandoned him to an orphanage on the other side of the planet when they found out that he was an ability cripple. Lachlan was deeply hurt and had many sleepless nights when his parents abandoned him. But, he quickly outgrew it through his arduous circumstances.

He had been moved to a new school and home, with no one being aware of his previous life, and perceived as only a cripple and an orphan. This made it so he was regularly bullied to the point where it wasn't even considered bullying anymore. It was more of a full-frontal assault by any, and every student that had a slightly more powerful ability than his.

Lachlan was currently lying sprawled out on the ground, bruised and bloodied, in the school's back alley, where only the school's powerful ability wielders came.

Around him, in a circle, were a group of students with broad smiles plastered on their faces.

"I can't believe the Infamous Punching Bag was this weak!", said one of the students, in between laughs, while kicking Lachlan in the stomach with his steel-tipped boots.

The students in the circle were punching, pummeling, and unleashing their mixture of abilities at Lachlan, which led to him sporadically coughing up blood, and grunts of pain to occasionally escape his lips. The students didn't stop at his sounds of protest, if anything — they only swung harder and intensified their abilities output.

Lachlan wanted to scream, but he knew they wouldn't discontinue their abuse even if he wailed at the top of his lungs or fell unconscious. He knew that from experience. After all, they had taken him out here every single day and used him as a punching bag each time to vent their anger.

He initially chose to just suffer through their beatings by covering his head with his arms to reduce the brain trauma. However, it usually only caused the students to chuckle and mock in unison at his futile attempts and inevitably thrash him harder for it. So he painfully tried to endure it till the end when he could finally go to the infirmary.

As the punching bag of the school, Lachlan suffered through the worst of humiliations, and one — that was constantly on his mind, was when they had made him ingest a dead rat in the cafeteria while the entire student body watched. He especially remembers that because the girl he had a crush on, who was as pretty as a dime, laughed and belittled him with the rest of the students when his throat was being stuffed with the carcass of a deceased rodent.

After the incident, he was traumatized, depressed, and hospitalized for weeks. But even in his bedridden state, no one visited. It's not like he expected anybody to come. Even at the orphanage, he had lived in for most of his teenage years, he was dubbed as a failure and had only been gawked at as nothing more than just an outsider who had been left by their doorstep.

He had no status, no wealth, nor did he possess any kind of ability — he was an irrefutable loser in everyone's eyes, a bottom feeder of society that had nothing, not even a family to speak of.

Royce, one of the students in the circle around Lachlan, who stood closest to his head, spoke up in his silvery voice. "Let's do something boring this time."

Royce was a wiry teenager with wavy blond hair, bushy eyebrows, and a snub nose. He was fairly handsome and was one of the most popular students in his grade, which wasn't a surprising feat considering that he was one of the most powerful ability users in school.

He was the second-born son of the Sapsford House, a notorious house for their ability to slow downtime in their immediate periphery, making it appear like one had superhuman speed, acceleration, and instincts. It was truly an enviable ability that Lachlan, and many others, could only wish for in their wildest dreams.

Royce's comment caused the curvaceous girl around his arms, who was the girl that Lachlan had a crush on, to laugh and ask. "What do you mean, baby."

Royce smiled wickedly and said, "This is getting repetitive… Why don't we try something new?"

The curvaceous girl, whose name was Laura, was clueless by what Royce was hinting at, but knew from experience that it would be playful and amusing, which prompted her to ask while sporting a coquettish expression, "And what would that be, darling."

Royce's already wicked smile contorted, and he spoke up so the entire group could hear. "Why don't we throw this cripple off a cliff?"

The surrounding group, who had kept thrashing Lachlan incessantly with broad smiles on their faces, abruptly stopped at Royce's comment and peered at him with dazed expressions. Even Laura was momentarily stupefied by Royce's commend and gazed at him with wide-eyes.

One of the students questioned while alternating his gaze between Royce and the trash on the pavement, "Yo... You mean... we throw Lachlan off a cliff?"

"Yes.."

"B— But.. Isn't that murder?" said another one of the students, with a worried expression on his face.

"Well, it's his fault if he doesn't survive.", added Royce nonchalantly.

Layla, who had been initially dazed like the rest, broke out from her stupor and spoke up, "Darling, kicking and pummeling this trash is one thing.. Bu- But murder? Won't we get In trouble?"

"No, we won't get in trouble," said Royce, with a quizzical smile.

Laura couldn't help but stammer out "Ho- How's that?"

Royce stared into Laura's eyes and exchanged gazes with his group before confirming, "I know of a cliff that's owned by one of my father's companies where we could throw this crippled orphan out."

The group didn't know what to answer with and only gawked at one another for someone to speak up and say it's a bad idea. After all, bullying a trash is one thing, but killing one? That could lead to another thing entirely.

Finally, after a minute of uncomfortable silence, Laura spoke up, causing the group of students in the ring to peer upwards at Laura like she was their savior.

Unfortunately, what they thought she would say wasn't said.

"Let's do it, darling."

"After all, It's the last day of school before summer."

Royce's smile that had been faltering regained its vigor, and he french-kissed Laura in joy, practically burying his tongue in her throat in front of the entire group to see.

Lachlan, who still laid sprawled out on the ground, was oblivious to what was being said in between the surrounding students. Because his ears were ringing, and his bloodied face was affixed to the pavement.

When he noticed the beatings had stopped, he didn't immediately look upwards. He was waiting for a couple of minutes before doing so, in fear they were baiting him to look up so they could land a closing hit, knocking him unconscious. But before he could, he was grabbed by his arms and legs and was carried by a couple of students.

He wanted to open his mouth but thought they would just throw him into one of the nearby dumpsters like they had done before when they were done with him.

Alarmingly, they passed by the adjacent dumpster, which caused Lachlan to worry a bit, but he kept his mouth shut, hoping they wouldn't do anything too drastic.

Before he noticed, his mouth was covered with duct tape, and his vision had turned pitch black.

'What's going on' thought Lachlan. He could feel vibrations tickling his front side like he was riding inside of a car. He immediately became panicked and flopped his mauled arms around but was immediately shut down when a powerful force connected to his jaw.

The next second, he had passed out.

They had put a black bag over his head and thrown him into a limousine owned by Royce that stood next to the back alley, decisively riding to the cliff.

After Laura had said her prior affirmation, the group had become even more anxious but followed Royce's orders nonetheless as they were aware if they disobeyed. Then they might become ostracized from the group, or hell, maybe even end up dead. After all, Royce had just said he was going to kill a student right in front of them. If they were to leave now, then they would probably be hunted down by the Sapsford family to cut off any loose ends.

They didn't want their fate to end up like that, so they decidedly followed Royce like dogs. It was a better option than leaving, and it's not like they cared for the cripple; they were just scared of the consequences.