Chapter 1: Adam Black
As the world came into view, one could see a dank alley lit only by the bright blue sky above, the light from the sun shining down directly on a dumpster within.
As this dumpster comes into view however, one can see the contents within it being sifted around as well as the mutterings of a young boy, "Come on, I know there has to be some food in here somewhere. The Old Man from the shop out front always dumps the leftovers out here after he's done," The voice muttered to itself with clear agitation within it, the sound barely travelling and coming across as rather muffled with the trash bags that were surrounding the boy's face.
After a couple more moments of sifting through the contents of the dumpster, the young boy lets out an exclamation of joy, "Aha! I finally found it." The boy shouts to himself with a voice full of vigor before the teen hurriedly hops out from the trashcan, his eyes now scanning his surroundings with wariness.
Now that the young teen was finally out in the open, his figure came into view. He looked to be around ten years-old with dark matted black hair that appeared unkempt, sharp blue eyes that seemed to contain a perceptive gaze within them, pale white skin that seemed unhealthy in its pallor, with sunken in cheeks.
Altogether, the young man's appearance was reminiscent of that of a street rat.
What would be most shocking for people to learn however, was that the young boy was actually around 13 years of age, his appearance seeming younger than that due to the malnutrition he suffered from.
This young boy had suffered through many hardships in his young life, his parents dying at an early age leaving him to fend for himself.
While his parents carried a rather large sum of money to their name that could've given him a comfortable life, this money was quickly taken by those greedy confidants they had leaving none to their young and vulnerable son.
Yet, even this wasn't enough to some of these rather evil men. Feeling uncomfortable with the existence of someone who may one day be capable of taking away their ill-gotten gains, one of these rather wretched individuals had the kid forcefully moved to another state wherein he knew nobody - the state of Nevada, more specifically to the city of Los Vegas.
Being placed in such a large and unfamiliar place, it wasn't long before the then even younger Adam found himself afraid and alone, living on the streets. It was only thanks to his sharp wit and the perceptive gaze he had discovered himself to have that helped keep him alive till today.
Using his smarts, the young Adam would find the best places to settle down at, leaving whenever he felt trouble show up that he couldn't properly handle.
And with the perceptivity of his eyes, the young Adam always managed to find the best spots to get food. This culminated in where he was now and what he was doing. He quickly realized that some of the best places to look for food were the dumpsters behind restaurants as they often had strict policies that led to food being thrown away before it would actually expire.
The dumpster Adam had just been digging through was exactly one of those, the old man he was referring to actually being a local restaurant owner.
The Old Man would always leave food out in his trashcan, enough for the young Adam to survive off of rather comfortably. As a result, this had quickly become a place he would frequent quite often.
Now as the young Adam looked down at the food within his hands, he couldn't help but to let out a silent curse to himself, "Damn, there's some patties here but they seem to still be frozen. There's no way I can eat frozen beef." As he was muttering to himself, Adam's eyes scanned the other remnants of food he had found, finding he still had some buns from the restaurant as well as some lettuce and tomatoes.
It seemed the old man had just finished throwing out the food used to make burgers, giving Adam ample food. Yet, with the patties still being frozen, Adam had no chance to enjoy some actual burgers to himself.
With intense regret, Adam was just about to throw the patties back in the trash can when something seemed to spark within him.
As he stared down at the patties, Adam felt a subtle smirk slowly spread across his face as he glanced around, the world around him turning into a puzzle of-sorts.
This puzzle was as if a quest he had set for himself, something he wished to accomplish - this specific one being on how to properly cook the patties.
As he glanced around, Adam took note of his surroundings, taking into account everything in his immediate surroundings. The first thing his eyes landed on was the dumpster that was littered with trash, he then continued to look around seeing a brick fence that had been broken and dilapidated from a lack of care, to even the stones that littered the ground.
As his eyes spotted certain things such as the bricks, to the branches fallen from the trees, and even some lighters that were within the dumpster, he could feel it as a glow seemed to suffuse them.
As he looked at these glowing items, it became very apparent to him what this glow meant - they were the pieces to his puzzle.
It was very apparent to him how to solve the puzzle now that he had collected all the pieces, his mind working a mile-a-minute as he reached out, grabbing everything he needed. First, he placed the bricks in a circular pattern on the ground, before then placing the sticks inside of the circle.
He then grabbed all of the lighters and placed them into a pile, pulling one of the working ones out and testing it to make sure it was working properly. Afterwards, Adam broke the lighters before dumping the liquid from within out and onto the sticks.
After all of this, Adam finally finished his plan by using the lighter he had separated from the others to light the sticks ablaze.
Due to the gasoline he had dumped onto them, the pile of sticks were soon ablaze in a rather large fire. The reason for this was that Adam felt a normal fire wouldn't be strong enough to fully cook the frozen patties.
Finally, Adam prepared himself to cook the burgers. However, as his nose burned with the smell of gasoline, his brows furrowed as he realized a problem with his plan - there would be trace amounts of gasoline in his food. This caused him to frantically search his surroundings, realizing he was missing a piece to the puzzle that was stopping him from fully solving it.
Soon, his eyes came to rest on the leaves from the tree, staring at the warm glow that seemed to suffuse them, half-hidden by the light from the sun.
Eyes now alight with joy, Adam picked these leaves off the tree, his bright piercing blue eyes closing for a moment as he mentally stared at the puzzle in his mind, the final piece now slotting into place.
He then used these leaves as a form of wrapping, encasing the patties within before placing them within the fire. Watching as the burgers cooked, Adam mentally counted the seconds, recalling a long time ago when his father was cooking on the grill, teaching him how to cook out.
"Listen carefully now Adam, certain different meats take different times to cook. For example, a hot dog will take the shortest time to cook." As he got to here, he reached out with his spatula before flipping the hot dogs on the stove over, only now continuing his lesson, "They take the shortest time, only needing about a minute on each side. However, something that takes a much longer time would be burgers, something that takes around six-seven minutes..." After a long while, the man's lesson came to an end, the young Adam giving the man his full undivided attention the entire time, deep admiration in his eyes.
As he finished with his lesson, the man reached out before patting his son on the head, a small smile adorning his rather stern face.
As he recalled this memory, Adam could barely restrain the tears that were starting to build up in the corners of his eyes.
Even to this day, his father remained as Adam's biggest hero, someone he looked up to with the bottom of his heart. After a minute of silence, Adam wiped his eyes using his sleeve before focusing his attention back on the burgers, his mind starting its counting once more.
After a while of counting, his hand shot out with some cloth wrapped around them to keep them insulated as he took the burger out of the fire, flipping it over and repeating the process for another seven minutes.
After taking the burgers out, he left the patties to cool a bit while he rested with his back against the wall of a building, his mind a blur of thoughts at the moment. 'What was that sudden feeling as if I were solving a puzzle? That's not something I've ever experienced before.' The young Adam thought to himself, mind abuzz.
Not able to come to a conclusion however, Adam eventually shook off these thoughts.
After a while of contemplation with no answers coming to mind, the young Adam eventually shrugged off the situation before pulling the leaf coverings off the patties and looking down at them, finding them to now be a much more comfortable warmth in temperature.
As he looked down at the patties, Adam couldn't help but to look in admiration at the sheen that seemed to radiate off of them. It appeared that the burgers had been thoroughly cooked but not overly so.
After a while of just staring, Adam's stomach let out a loud rumble that let him know it was ready to do much more than that. With mouth salivating at the smell released from the meat, Adam hurriedly cobbled together the necessary materials to put the burger together.
After doing so, the young teen finally brought the burger up to his mouth, the only thought in his mind, 'I can't wait to have a taste!'
As his teeth finally sank down into the burger, Adam couldn't help but to widen his eyes, a wave of happiness washing through him as he got his first good meal in a while. However, Adam soon noticed that there was something off about the burger.
As he thought deeply about this, it was as if a new puzzle appeared in his mind, this one much smaller. However, as he glanced around, it appeared that the answer to this one wasn't something physical. After a while, Adam began to wrack his brain on what could be wrong, his mind once more coming back to that time with his father.
As he thought of that moment, he remembered the smoky flavor of the burgers as well as the crunchiness to them.
Eyes widening in realization, Adam raised his burgers above the fire with a thin leaf in-between them so as to stop any gas contamination to his food. What he was doing was simply charring the burgers, adding that crispiness to it that would finally bring his meal to a satisfying completion.
As he picked the burger back up and put it into the bun once more, Adam bit into it. As his tooth sunk into the patty, he finally couldn't control himself as tears fell down his face uncontrollably, his body shaking as it shook from his uncontrollable sobbing.
Eyes closed as his mind flashed with the stern visage of his father once more, Adam couldn't help but to mumble to himself, "This tastes just like Dad's!" His mind a mess as he stared ahead, still shoveling the burger down his mouth.
Soon, the young boy was scarfing the burger down, barely spending any time to savor the taste of it. Before long, the entire burger in his hands disappeared, his appetite seeming insatiable as he reached out to grab another one.
However, as he did so, Adam was shocked to find empty air in place of his other two burgers. A look of shocked bewilderment overcame him as he began to search around, unable to find his missing patties.
Now with narrowed eyes, Adam looked around with a simmering fury in his chest for just what could've taken those precious burgers from him.
Soon, his eyes came to rest on a figure that was currently behind him, seemingly paying no mind to the young boy. This figure belonged to that of an old man in his late 60's who had short grey hair and a wrinkled face.
As he looked at this figure however, Adam's eyes couldn't help but to widen as he recognized who this was, 'The shop owner of 'Dono's Eatery'?' This old man was none other than the shop owner for the restaurant out front.
As he stared at the old man however, Adam soon noticed the attention of the old man had finally shifted to him.
"*Ahem*, Hello there young one," The old man exclaimed, coughing into his fist as he stared at the young boy before him. As the old man spoke to him, Adam felt a sense of fear overcome him. This was caused by previous encounters he had been forced through due to his unfortunate situation.
Even though Adam had never stolen from someone before, always taking from what others had thrown away, he had soon found that people still held a strong distaste toward him for his homeless state, treating him as though he were a scourge.
As a result of this, Adam had found himself being brutally beaten or kicked out of areas when caught in the past, quickly learning how to fight in order to survive in certain areas.
Due to this, Adam could only let out a resigned sigh as he stared at the old man before him with a look of terror on his face, 'I shouldn't have been so careless. I must've gotten too comfortable in this area and let my guard down.
Maybe it's a good thing I'll move on from this area after all." The young Adam thought to himself, mind swimming with self-deprecating thoughts as he awaited the dreaded words of the old man before him.
However, what seemed to instead send him into a state of shocked silence was the words he heard from the old man once he had finally started paying attention to him once more.
Staring deeply at the young boy, the old man spoke to him in a rather serious tone, "You know, those burgers of yours were rather tasty for something made in such a primitive manner," The old man started, now having Adam's full undivided attention as he continued to listen on. "So, that got me thinking. How would you like to work under me? It should be better than your current situation anyhow, huh?" The old man questioned, now turning toward the form of the young Adam that was currently shaking, his face scrunched up as he barely resisted bawling his eyes out on the spot.
"I'd love to, Old Man!" Adam exclaimed, his arm now raised as he wiped away his tears, the old man before him now sporting a much more distraught appearance as he was caught off-guard by the sudden change in situation.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone