“Hehe... Gonna find me some treasure in this baby today!” A local vagrant happily hummed as he lifted the dumpster lids in an alleyway.

He lifted himself inside and started to dig around inside. Looking for any scraps of food or items of worth that could be sold to suckers on the street or other hobos like himself. This week hasn’t been looking too good, so he had to find something of worth here, or things weren’t gonna look good for him. He might have to actually beg with some real desperation in his actions.

As he was digging for gold with a smile on his face, he heard some noise from outside the dumpster he was diving in. He stuck his head out and saw a group of brats bullying some other brat. He clicked his tongue in disappointment. Even if the world has changed and people got powers, problems like this still persist. But it wasn’t any of his business! He didn’t care about the problems of the youth! He cared about getting money!

“Mind your own business, old man.” One of the punks glared at him.

“My pleasure! Don’t mind me at all! Beat that little punk black and blue. I don’t care!” He happily responded.

This response caused a look of hopelessness to rise on the poor victim’s face. As if all of his faith in adults and humanity had been crushed and there was nothing more to expect from this world. The delinquents looked at each other in confusion, not expecting the hobo to give them the green light and just look the other way. They knew what they were doing could be seen as wrong but at least expected him to at least scold them a little bit.

“Haha. Looks like there are some sensible adults in the world after all.” Was their take on the hobo’s words.

“Yeah. I didn’t want to teach him a lesson too. He smells like cat piss and garbage.” They laughed as they began beating the stuffing out of the scrawny punk.

The dumpster diver ignored the pained groaning, crying, and laughing from the brats as he continued in his search for loot. He was still near the top of the dumpster before finding something shiny within the piles of rotten and spoiled food. His eyes practically changed into money signs as he desperately clawed his way towards the golden object. The bum grasped the object in his hands, laughing maniacally as he held it.

But just as he was laughing, he accidentally fell and landed on something soft that made an “ughhh” sound as he landed. He looked down and realized the little brat from before was under him. Man was this kid’s luck dog shit!

“Thanks for breaking my fall, kid. You are not having a good day.” The vagabond laughed before hearing something above him.

He looked up and saw a shiny yellow light headed straight down towards him.

“What the fuck is that!? A meteor!? I gotta get the hell out of here!” The local hobo was about to run out of the alleyway at his fastest speed, but just as he got off the kid, the little brat grabbed his ankles with the grip of a tiger!

He stared at him as if he was the one who just spent 10 minutes beating the shit out of him and taking his money!

“Let go, you stupid fucking brat! They don’t call me Mud Stomping Logan for nothing!” Logan began stomping on the kid’s head to force him into letting go.

But the punk decided he was going to hold on with everything he had. Since he didn’t want to help him before. He could die together with him. It wouldn’t be as satisfying as if one of his bullies was here with him, but it’ll do. After today, he didn’t feel as if there was any reason to live anymore. And since this useless adult just watched him, he could watch them die together.

“You crazy little fucking kid!” Logan continued his kicking with even more desperation and violence.

Then the light consumed them both. The light intertwined with both of their bodies, inside and out. Filling them with heavenly knowledge of the blessing they both received. Ferociously flowing through their internal organs and mortal body, they began to mutate into something higher than a human. An esper. Beings on par with mutated beasts that have nearly driven humanity to extinction in the past century.

“JACKPOT, BABY! THIS BUM JUST FOUND HIS TICKET TO THE GOOD LIFE!” Logan shouted with all his heart.

The kid couldn’t handle the transformation process and fainted. Logan danced his way out of the alleyway as if he had just won the lottery. Many looked at him strangely and frowned at his lack of talent in the art of dancing. But he didn’t give a hoot! He continued dancing his way to the whorehouse until he bumped into a businessman.

“Get out the way, you disgusting bum! Can’t you see some of us are actually trying to improve our lives!?” He spat.

“Sorry, my good man! It’s just such a beautiful day today, isn’t it?” Logan smiled with missing teeth, a horrible smell, and shabby clothes.

Logan made his way past the man, who looked at him as if he had just eaten a turd. And as he walked past him and the man continued on his way to work, Logan pointed his finger towards the prick’s leg and pulled his finger back. Everyone watched as the man’s leg was suddenly taken from under him, and he fell face first onto the pavement. He cursed to the heavens as Logan snickered on his way to the whorehouse.

Once he arrived, he was almost immediately kicked out because of his appearance alone. But once he showed all the cash he had on him along with some sweet talking with the beautiful boss, he was allowed in. But he was forced into taking a bath before meeting one of their girls, a condition he was completely fine with.

Normally Logan wouldn’t spend money on prostitutes, but with the ability, he just gained, there was no reason not to celebrate with a good woman! And getting money with it will be a piece of cake! Any idiot with a brain could make money with powers! Logan just got one of the best ones!

“You actually don’t look that bad when you clean up a little...” Boss lady complimented.

“I can look even better in the bedroom. What do you say?” He winked.

“If you can fork up the money, sure.” She smiled, knowing he didn’t have enough money to afford her.

“Why talk of money, when we can talk of pleasure? One round with me, and you’ll never wanna let me go.” He grinned.

“Mhmm. We’ll see. Go to room 203, and your escort will be waiting for you.” She was no longer interested in just words.

“See ya in a bit, baby! You’ll be seeing me here a lot more often!” Logan proudly proclaimed.

The next few hours were spent with both Logan and his escort enjoying themselves. Logan also decided to play around with his ability while in the bedroom and found it to be very useful in making sure his escort was pleased beyond a doubt. So satisfied, in fact, that she had to beg him to stop. Of course, Logan didn’t stop and drove the attractive mature woman to the point where she passed out by the end of their session. If he had a cigarette, he’d smoke it, but they were too damn expensive nowadays. One cig was valued the same as a decent meal in today’s economy.

Logan left the brothel with a big smile on his face. After playing around with his ability in there, he realized he really had to figure out how this shit worked if he wanted to make it rich like he planned. That yellow light from before blessed him with the ability of puppetry. From his fingertips, Logan could shoot out invisible strings to manipulate whatever they hit. His mind raced in thinking of all the possibilities with these strings as he walked to one of his regular begging spots. It was still early in the afternoon, so there was plenty of time for some begging.

He set up shop in a busy part of the sidewalk where people regularly walked. Making sure not to take up the sidewalk and being in anyone’s way. Angry folk do not want to spare some change. But you know who do want to spare some change? Happy folk! Entertained folk! Logan decided to put on a show with his new ability to get some quick cash.

“Spare some change for a nice magic trick?” He said to the people passing by.

No one took him on his offer for a magic trick at first. People just thought of him as a lying desperate bum. But there was always one. Some just dropped some change into his cup because he didn’t stink to high hell. So, that was nice.

“Mommy, I wanna see a magic trick.” A little girl said, holding hands with her mother.

“We don’t have time for this, sweetie. I can show you all the magic tricks you want on the internet.”

“I wanna see a real magic trick! Not a fake one!” She yelled and stomped her foot.

“Ugh! Samantha!” She locked eyes with him.

“It won’t take much time at all, Miss. It’s a really quick one, I promise.” Logan smiled.

“See! It’s a quick one, Mommy!” The little girl was the best wingman.

“Fine! Show your little trick already.” She huffed.

“And now! You will witness the unbelievable magic of Levitato!” The random garbage Logan picked from the side of the street began levitating in the air.

The mom let out a gasp, and the little tyke screamed in joy. A satisfied grin painted Logan’s face as a black banana peel, a half-broken glass plate, a headless toy horse, and a crushed plastic water bottle rotated in a circle in the air. Logan did some exaggerated hand movements to add to the magical atmosphere. More and more people began to watch his performance and plop nice juicy coins into his cup.

“This is pretty amazing...”

“How is he doing that?!”

“Could he be an Esper?”

“Like an Esper would be begging on the streets. Are you stupid? It’s just tricks.”

“No, it's magic!” The little girl from before yelled.

“Sorry. Yeah, magic...” He apologized to the girl.

Logan decided to put an end to his show as his begging cup had overflowed, and coins were literally piled around it. He had the trash circled around the spectators before returning back to his mat. With a half bow from his seated position, Logan excused himself.

“Thank you all for watching the astounding fantastical magic of Levitato! This magician shall return another day to show you all a trick just as amazing as this one!” Logan’s mat rolled itself into a ball and gathered all of his belongings together in one sack as he walked away to the applause of the audience and the scream of a very satisfied little girl.