The hot water from the shower fell on Adam, dragging with it the memories of what his life was like before all this. About a year ago he had a loving family, his parents were kind and respectable people who filled him with love and made him feel loved. he was just a normal young man attending his last year of high school.
his family also was quite wealthy, his parents owned several buildings in New York, as well as a real estate company that prospered. But everything changed in an instant.
******* retrospective scene*******
After a hot summer on the early fall, Adam's family had decided to take a trip together, a weekend getaway to enjoy the outdoors and get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. After packing for a long weekend, Adam and his parents got into the car and drove to the outskirts of the city.
As the car moved along the winding road, surrounded by trees and mountains, Adam was sitting in the back seat, looking out the window with a smile while his parents chatted animatedly in the front seats, Happiness filled the vehicle.
Just at that moment, the roar of an engine became present. Adam looked up and saw a huge truck coming out of a curve in front of them at full speed. The driver seemed out of control and was coming at a high speed taking Adam's father by surprise and leaving him with no time to react and ramming into the truck. side of the family car.
The impact was devastating. The car spun, slid to the edge of the road, and plunged into the ravine. Adam was thrown through the window, feeling the glass shatter as his entire world became blurry.
In the middle of the intermittent haze of his consciousness, Adam could still remember moments when he rolled down the ravine hitting stones and some trees, until he fell into a river at the bottom of the ravine.
The River flow dragged him, hitting him against rocks and branches. Adam struggled to stay afloat, his mind fuzzy and his lungs burning. Little by little the world became dark and confusing until Adam fell into unconsciousness.
Fortunately, some locals found him downstream, while he was floating unconscious. He was taken to the hospital where his bruised body and dazed mind began to recover.
But something had changed; On the verge of death, strange changes began to occur within his soul, a completely dark energy began to fuse with his spirit, creating a connection with something beyond the physical realm and thus triggering the beginning of Adam's evolution without him suspecting anything.
A week after the accident, Adam woke up in a hospital room. surrounded by Fluorescent lights flickering, and the smell of disinfectant filled the air. His head was dull, and the pain in his body was constant. He tried to remember how he had gotten there, but everything was a whirlwind.
While he was trying to calm down, a doctor entered the room, his face was serious, and Adam knew that he did not bring good news.
"Mr. Adams, I am glad you woke up, your body was severely injured during the accident, but thanks to some locals who found you downstream you were able to receive help in time, I must say that you are very lucky in that way. " The doctor said as he read the notes next to Adam's bed and offered him a glass of water.
"My parents, where are my parents?" Adam asked, his throat dry as he desperately tried to drink some water. Upon hearing his question, the doctor's face changed to one of pity, and waiting for Adam to finish drinking water he answered.
"I am sorry to inform you that your parents did not survive the accident... We did everything we could to save them, but their injuries were too serious."
Adam felt the world crumble around him. His parents, those who had always been there for him, were now gone. He couldn't help the tears.
"How…how did all this happen? "How long have I been unconscious?" Adam asked with a trembling voice.
"I know it's shocking news, but try to calm down for a moment" the doctor suggested. "Unfortunately, you have been unconscious for eleven days. A small funeral has been held for your parents. It seems that everything was arranged by your family lawyer. He will be here later so you can ask him all the details." The doctor assured him.
"Regarding the person responsible, the truck driver ran away, and the police are doing everything possible to find him."
Adam nodded, his mind still confused. He hadn't had the chance to say goodbye, to hug them one last time. Sadness enveloped him like a shadow.
After the doctor finished his routine checkup, a pair of investigators entered the room, introducing themselves as Detective Smith and Detective Rodriguez, both in charge of investigating the case. The detectives surrounded Adam's bed, their faces imperturbable, One of them, Detective Rodríguez, spoke first "Mr. Harker, I am very sorry for the loss of your parents. "We understand that this is an extremely difficult time for you, but we need to ask you some questions about the incident."
"I understand," Adam whispered, his voice shaking.
"Can you describe what happened?" Detective Rodrigues asked to which Adam proceeded to tell what he remembered while Detective Smith took some notes.
"Thank you for your cooperation Mr. Harker, we will continue doing everything possible to find the truck driver that caused the accident, unfortunately, the man left the scene." "We have been investigating, but so far we have not been able to locate him." Detective Rodríguez explained
"Why? Why would he run away after causing something like that?" Adam questioned, confused.
"We don't know for sure, but we believe he could be involved in illegal activities. "We are following all possible leads." Detective Smith commented.
"There is also another matter that we want to consult with you. There is an individual who claims to be your legal guardian and executor of your estate. His name is Jonathan Crane, is this name familiar to you? "Detective Smith added to which Adam shook his head.
"We assumed, Mr. Murdock, your family lawyer has insisted that his parents did not mention any of that in their last wills. We are currently investigating his background and connections. But we recommend that you consult with your lawyer," concluded Detective Rodríguez.
At that moment, the door to the room opened, and a tall man with a cane for blind people and a briefcase entered. "Good afternoon, gentlemen," he greeted the detectives. "Is Mr. Harker here?" he asked.
"That's me, how can I help you?" Adam greeted the man.
"Adam, right? I am deeply sorry for the loss of your parents. My name is Matt Murdock, and I am here to enforce your parents' will, as well as to discuss some other matters, which I would like to discuss in private."
Adam, still a little dazed, said goodbye to the detectives and proceeded to talk to the man,
Matt soon explained the current situation, as well as everything related to Jonathan Crane, the man who claimed to be the legal guardian and executor of his estate.
Later that night, when the hospital room was plunged into darkness, only moonlight filtered through the window. Adam lay in bed, his thoughts revolving around the dispute over the ownership of his parents' company. But that night, something else lurked in the shadows.
A man entered his room silently, his figure was hidden in the shadows like a ghost slowly approaching Adam's bed.
Sensing the strange presence in the room, Adam, who had not yet fallen asleep, pretended to be while slowly stretching out one of his hands to take the pen that Matt Murdock had left next to his bed that same day, preparing to confront the intruder.
At the same time that Adam prepared himself, the intruder's voice echoed throughout the room:
"This will be an easy job. The boy is helpless and no one will suspect anything, almost like it's free money." said the figure in the shadows.
Adam, pretending to be asleep, watched the man approach.
The assassin leaned over him, hands ready to attack. At that instant, Adam pounced. The pen sank into the man's shoulder, making him gasp. They both rolled on the ground, struggling desperately.
The killer pressed Adam to the ground and put his fingers to his throat. Adam struggled to breathe, his mind panicking. But then, in an act of desperation, he grabbed the pen from his attacker's shoulder and stabbed him in the heart.
The killer collapsed and Adam was left shaking on the ground in shock at what had just happened. On the brink of a panic attack, Adam felt a warm current of energy course through his body, from the tips of his fingers to the soles of his feet, seemingly healing his wounds and strengthening his body.
At the same time, a set of confusing images invaded his mind, causing him a huge headache.
After a few minutes of pain, Adam finally managed to regain the clarity of his mind and with it he realized that the images he had just glimpsed were actually memories of his previous life. Adam remembered his old home, a small single-family apartment where he and his mother lived, his family, a family torn apart by alcohol like many others led him to take refuge in his studies, glimpses of him becoming a doctor and being part of some surgeries, memories of another life in a different New York, one where people like Captain America, Toni Stark and Norman Osborne were just characters from comics or movies, it was then that he knew that somehow he was now living a second life, a Life in a different world, full of heroes and villains.
Adam stood up, still in shock, and looked at the dead man at his feet.
At that moment, something else clicked in his head, almost like an instinct, Adam felt a deep connection with the darkness in the room; The shadows surrounded him as if they responded to his very presence, then he knew it, now he had the ability to enter the world of shadows, as if it were another dimension that he could access and in which he could move to the world. content of his heart, at the same time he also noticed that his shadow little by little became a small pocket dimension that only he had access to and that would accompany him wherever he went.
With a strange calm caused by the warm current that was now in his brain, Adam saw the body of the murderer again and realized that he was the target of someone else, someone who intended to take his life, perhaps to obtain the inheritance of their parents or perhaps for other reasons
Perhaps the entire accident had been planned by a single person who was now trying to finish the job by murdering him, Adam knew how twisted this world could be and he knew that the most likely thing was that this was all a plot orchestrated by someone else. Then, little by little, the panic and sadness turned into relentless anger.
At that moment Adam decided to use his new abilities to discover the reason behind his father's death and take revenge for them if necessary.
With this new resolution in mind, he proceeded to hide the body in his shadow then began cleaning the room to remove all evidence of his recent nighttime encounter.
The next day, the doctors, amazed by his rapid recovery, decided to discharge him. Once back home, Adam began his investigation into Jonathan Crane and quickly discovered that he was the mastermind behind his parents' accident. He contained his anger and thirst for revenge as he continued to investigate everyone involved with his parents' death. Once he gathered enough names, Adam unleashed his fury, starting a wave of murders, little by little he realized that with each murder he committed the same current of energy flowed into his body, strengthening it and healing his wounds and deepening his connection with the shadows. and the darkness.
In this way, without knowing it, Adam ended up embarking on a spiral of revenge and murder that would lead him to face Kingpin, one of New York's most infamous crime lords, and Matt Murdock, his parents' last friend who turned out to be a vigilante. and that he tried to stop him and take him off the path full of destruction and death that he had chosen.
******* end of flashback *****
Coming out of the shower, while looking in the mirror, Adam once again affirmed his will to change, he had left behind a wave of chaos and revenge and was now trying to recover his old life, or what was left of it. she. He had decided to move to a smaller apartment and leave the house where she had lived with his parents and which had served as her base of operations during his revenge for him; He moved to a small apartment in a new neighborhood, enrolled in a new high school, and decided to start over.
With his new goal in mind, Adam finished drying his hair and dressed in a black t-shirt and worn jeans. He took a backpack that he had prepared the day before, put it on his shoulder and left his apartment heading to his new school.
When Adam left his apartment, he felt the weight of his actions. Revenge had not brought him the peace he had hoped for. He now had to face the consequences; Repeating his last year of high school was perhaps the least of his worries, but it was still annoying.
In the lobby, Adam called the elevator which arrived a couple of minutes later, after going up and just as the doors were about to close, a figure ran towards him. A girl with blonde hair and bright eyes.
"Wait! Please stop the elevator!" the girl shouted, gasping. As she hurriedly approached.
Adam pressed the stop button and she stepped into the elevator. "Are you OK?" Adam asked, somewhat taken aback by the girl who, after catching her breath, straightened up and thanked him.
"Yes, thanks for that, I'm in a bit of a hurry, my father is waiting downstairs," she explained.
"No problem, although it is my duty to remind you that it is dangerous to run in the hallways," Adam replied jokingly.
"You caught me, haha," the girl smiled. "Are you new to the building?" "I've never seen you here," she asked.
"I just moved in two days ago. I'm Adam Harker, your new neighbor." Adam introduced himself as he extended his hand.
"I'm Gwen Stacy, nice to meet you," the girl introduced herself, a flash of surprise crossed Adam's eyes when she heard her name.