Zak was smiling long after the chat with his parents. Amber and Francis were unable to be found though. He hoped Francis hadn't told her. His birthday was an awkward time for him. Being a time to celebrate, and a time of separation. He almost hoped his parents would realize where he was just for his birthday. He walked toward the training room. Abbey had upgraded a lot after Van Rook died. He sighed. The only thing that was left was the group training. On the ceiling was a dangling ball. The whole point was for everyone to hang from it without falling.

You had to grab the arms of the people next to you and lean forward. If everyone leaned forward then everyone would stay up there. You had to do this for hours at a time to build a trust between everyone. He liked that training. But he was alone so he'd have to use the newer equipment. He went to the treadmill. He put it up on ten miles per hour. He ran with it pretty well.

It didn't distract him like he hoped. Emmerett. That was his name now. Sure he could go by Zak when he was alone with Amber and Francis, but he had to get used to life as Emmerett. And even so as Abbey's son. She would get such a laugh. She loved saying ridiculous things like that. Especially when she told her sister.

He stopped the treadmill. He decided to work with Cryptid powers. Mindless running wouldn't help. Something to focus the mind would. He walked to the Cryptid room. He thought about how mad Ulraij would be if he saw him now. How heartbroken Fiskerton would be. How upset Wadi would be. He sighed. That was his life. Now he had to focus on what he had now.

Maybe later in the future, he'd be able to unite them. Create one family. Under the Saturday name. No, right now he was Emmerett Grey. And as it was, Saturday and Grey just don't mix. Well, not very well. He remembered a lot of what he'd been through because of her. He just couldn't remember how they met. He knew she was his babysitter. But he couldn't believe he used to have a crush on her.

He could see Doyle being a bit of a lost puppy for her though. He was never a romantic guy, buy she wasn't a romantic gal.

He went to see the Cryptids. He saw numerous creatures. He couldn't even name them all. And to think he was supposed to be the embodiment of their king Kur. He walked over to the poison tongued flashlight frogs. One was easy to control. Twenty five on the other hand was trickier. He let himself relax. He thought back to the time he messed with them when he was younger.

"Hey mom look at this! Lights on. Lights off. Lights on. Lights off."

"Zak, stop playing with the frogs," his mom said with a smile.

He smiled at that memory. But he was smarter now. He used these frogs for Morse code. It was funny as hell to see them flash 'I HAVE A FLAMING CAT IN MY PANTS!'

Of course after that Francis would spray him with a fire extinguisher. And that was not fun, despite the cartoons. He remembered that he did look Santa Claus though. Abbey turned it into a Christmas postcard. She sent it to a big shot company and they sold it everywhere. Luckily no one could tell it was Zak.

He made the frogs all scatter. He then made them turn on their lights. He used it for shadow puppets. It felt weird not using the hand. But there was nothing he could do. Nothing short of stealing it. But stealing it was not an option. He knew that if he stole, then his family would hunt him down. But that doesn't mean I would hate it, he thought.

He thought back to when he first started living with Epsilon. He and Francis didn't have a mom. Zak was so depressed that he looked up mom on the internet.

"Why are you typing mom on the internet?" asked Francis with a dry tone.

"Because I miss mine," he said with tears in his eyes. Francis flinched.

"Do you remember her?" he asked. A tear fell from Zak's eye.

"No."

He clicked on the first thing. It said I want a mom. It turned out to be a song.

'I want a mom that will last forever,

I want a mom to make it all better,

I want a mom that will last forever,

I want a mom that will love me whatever,'

Zak looked up to see a small tear form from under Francis's glasses. He was just as lonely as Zak. Zak put his hand on Francis's shoulder. They didn't get off on the right foot, but Zak could tell they were closer than he first thought.

Tears formed in his eyes. Not like he wanted anyone to see, but he wanted Francis and Amber to comfort him. They all knew what it was like, to know that they have a living breathing "parent" and have to stay away from them. Francis was trained not to feel anything and Amber never really got to know her dad but they still would understand. He released his control over the frogs and cried. He wanted his mom and dad. He wanted his life to be pulled together.

Not separate chapters. Not here is normal life, here is Kur life, here is no power life, here is frozen life, here is Epsilon life and here is mercenary life. He wanted his life to be all together. He fell asleep in the Cryptid room. His face stained with tears. Amber and Francis walked in when he was deep asleep. Francis got on one knee and Amber put Zak on his back.

"Our little brother," said Amber.

"Yeah," said Francis as they walked to his room.

"You think he put a flaming cat in your closet?"

"Why?"

"He seems so tired. Maybe even sad. But the cat so it would get in your pants," she said evilly.

"Gross," he said.

"So how are we going to keep Zak from finding out about his surprise sweet sixteen?"

Francis gave her a devilish smile, "Leave it to me."

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