Boss

The logo was quite developed and the text was in red across a pale white background. What was cool about the logo was that neon lights glowed a scarlet red to further emphasise the sleek text. The shop was a simple brick building embedded in a row of several buildings, where some were houses and others were stores.

Entering the convenience store, blue lights glowed at the side of the door as his body passed through the doorframe. There was a new technology that scanned the microscopic details in a person's face and appearance to determine if they were someone identifiable in an active police case or an escaped fugitive for example. After this device was installed into more than 75% of stores, the crime rate toppled to near the rate of the other cities of Helion.

"Hey there!" The man at the till greeted politely, who was a man with a large ginger beard but also large muscles.

He had quite a lot of fat but also muscle, giving him a striking burly look. He was clad in a red and white chequered shirt with kaki pants, finishing the outfit off with some casual white trainers.

Brandyn approached, taking down his large red hoodie while doing so.

"I would like a non-contracter." Brandyn asked quietly and passively, with his eyes drifting off the man.

"Hmm. Okay, what's your name first, boy?" The man asked, squinting his eyes to try and get a little more information about him.

"Brandyn. Brandyn S-Santiago." Brandyn replied, trying to quieten his voice purposefully upon saying Santiago.

In Helion, people's families were given a special ranking and each family was actually given a special term. Dynasties. Some of the strongest dynasties, with the most advanced and powerful abilities, were of A-Rank while the very most powerful were listed in the elite S-Rank. The Ranks consisted of S-Rank, A-Rank, B-Rank, C-Rank, D-Rank and finally F-Rank. If someone was from an F-Rank dynasty, only ridicule and mockery awaited them.

However, there was an even lower position. A dynasty so weak and feeble that they weren't even granted the luxury of a ranking. Unranked. Unranked didn't necessarily mean that, by fact, each dynasty inside listed as unranked was below F-Rank. Actually, some dynasties were left unranked because they simply weren't recognised as separate dynasties or because they were so weak or small that they were left unranked.

Both Brandyn's parents were murdered in a terrorist attack against regular-borns 8 years ago by a terrorist group attempting to, as they foolishly claimed, 'cleanse the human race'.

His family was small, and more than 70% of the members were regular-borns, meaning that the dynasty was left unranked and even more derision and contempt was aimed at the family. This made it almost instinctive in Brandyn's mind to hide his surname, to hide his powerlessness.

"Alright. I've got a few jobs you could do. You could clean the floors, work in the back, I'll just get it up on this monitor for you but you'll have to come around the counter." He said, without even paying attention to the name. He simply started typing swiftly on his keyboard, causing small electrical sparks to flitter and crackle off his moving fingers.

"I-I said Santiago." Brandyn said louder this time, just completely unbelieving in the fact that he didn't react harshly to his name.

"I know, the unranked family. Come on, I've got it up here." He insisted, paying no attention to the surname once again.

Brandyn was dumbfounded. Truly dumfounded. Nobody had ever reacted to his surname in even a neutral way, let alone a somewhat positive way. Just the sound of the surname gave him a weird feeling as he remembered all the past, traumatic experiences after saying it. He had been beaten, mocked, insulted and practically ostracised for simply speaking the word. Of course, the shopkeeper wasn't exactly praising him for his dynasty, but what he certainly wasn't doing was acting in contempt towards him for it.

"O-okay." Brandyn replied, involuntarily stuttering as the shopkeeper's reaction was simply so alien for him.

"Here. If I make you clean the floors, I can give you 3 Marks every hour that you work. I might even increase it if you stay here long enough." He replied nicely, giving Brandyn an odd feeling of peace and harmony in his mind.

Instinctively, after hearing this warm reply, he smiled and nodded. Brandyn then started blinking profusely as he felt some weird, warm fluid accumulating in his eyes.

"I'm crying? I've never started crying from just talking to someone before. Wow." He asked himself in confusion, wiping the tears away from his eyes.

The shopkeeper was a little puzzled at first but, of course, he was able to put the pieces together swiftly. He patted the short teen's shoulder happily in an attempt to comfort and calm him, smiling at him with not only politeness but with respect.

"Don't worry. You'll be at home here." He said, making Brandyn laugh uncontrollably as he started crying even more.

"T-thank you.." Brandyn said, more aggressively wiping the tears from his eyes.

"I'll get you started now, if you like. Just clean this place up for a while and I'll just give you the payment right now. After this, I'll be paying you every Saturday." He explained, opening the counter to sort the notes and coins that were inside.

"Of course. I'll begin now." Brandyn replied, nodding with respect.