You know that one kid in your class? The nerdy one who always scores perfectly on tests and does book reports for fun. The one who's only friends are books, textbooks, and dictionary.com. That's Luke. Of course, geniuses like him aren't properly appreciated in this day and age. He could be smarter than Einstein, come up with more laws than Newton, program better than Steve Jobs, or invent something that far outweighs all of Edison's work, but none of that really matters to the people of The Earth anymore. In fact, the people of the world had grown so cold that they wouldn't care if someone tore down every last plant, slaughtered every last animal and destroyed the world, as long as they had WiFi. The Earth had grown into such a horrible state.  That's why the The Trials began a few decades in advance.

Despite his nerdiness, Luke was quite a lucky boy. The "nerd boy with no friends" had become the "nerd boy with a single, popular, out-of-his-league friend." He had found one of the few people who still actually care about anything other than their profile picture and thigh gap. She still was a bit rash at times, but Luke wasn't one to complain. I guess this story isn't entirely true. He didn't find her, she found him. Marzetta, or Marzi as her friends called her, was the most popular girl in Kantō, Japan. She knew everybody, everybody liked her.

Our story starts in Amaterasunia, a small town in northern Kantō, Japan, dedicated to the ancient god of the sun, light and warmth. After a full semester of perfect scores by Luke, and not quite as perfect As for Marzi, the two decide to go to America Town and "experience some foreign culture." At least, that was Luke's excuse for it...

* * *

"So... where should we start?" Marzi asked, scanning the bright lights and interesting scenery of America Town, excitement shining in her eyes.

"Uh, I dunno," I stammered, "I'm -um- a little hungry"

"I guess I'm a bit peckish too. How about a nice, juicy, hamburger?!"

"A ham-burger?"

"Here, let me show you...!" She said, a glint in her eye as she grabbed my arm and yanked me forward. I lurched through the small crowds of people on their phones, and we ran towards a rounded building of pure steel. It was shorter than all those around it and stood out in sharp contrast to the others. Like the Pythagorean Theorem in a book of Quadratics. It's red stripe stood in sharp contrast to everything around it. An old fashioned American Dinner.

As we reached the sliding doors out front, a man on a Segway scooted in front of us. "Hey kids! No running, this is an outdoor public area!" He waited until we both quietly nodded before rolling aside to go scold more innocent kids, or not since they were all on their phones.

"Marzi!!" A voice boomed as we entered.

"Uncle Robonaro!" she squealed, running up to the register. A burly man stood behind the counter, smiling at Marzi. He was intimidating, but extremely welcoming and comforting at the same time. It was like he would protect you until his death bed, but yours wouldn't be all that far away if he was angry. He was fairly round around the stomach region, like Santa Claus from those old christian folktales, long before my days. He wore a long, greasy, used-to-be-white apron tied over a red shirt with a winged black emblem hidden by the apron.

"A friend of yours?" He asked, gesturing to me.  I picked up the hint of an Italian accent in his American sounding voice.

"Definitely!" She responded, "And it's his first time!" She winked.

"In that case, It's on the house, a friend of my niece is a friend of mine!"

"Thanks Uncle Robonaro!"

"Anything for my favorite niece! What would you like?"

Marzi pulled me to one of the stools along the counter. We sat and she responded with, "Let's start with two cheeseburgers and two milkshakes, Chocolate Banana for me and how about, French Vanilla for Luke."

"Coming right up!" He said and he turned to the grill behind him. Two minutes later, dinner was served. A huge glass of thick, white, glossy liquid and the greasiest slab of bread, meat and cheese I'd ever seen were placed on a ceramic white platter in front of me.

"Don't worry Luke, It's amazing!" Marzi commented, noticing my hesitation and snarfing into hers.

It smelled amazing.  I picked up the humongous burger, grease trickling through my fingers, and took a bite. Or rather, I died.