I read a book back in middle school that I recently wish to read again. Unfortunately I can not remember the title of the book. What I remember is simple. It was a fiction book with a cover in which the main character seemed to be kneeling/punching the ground.
What stood out in the cover art was that the main character (a boy) was wearing a leather jacket which was given to him by his elder brother later on in the story. The main character was also Hispanic and wearing a blue medallion of sorts which really stood out.
The book itself was about a being in a different dimension wanted access to the main character's world. But the being was too powerful and would distort space unless someone of equal power was swapped into the being's dimension. As such the being sent his agents into the main character's world in the form of robots capable of creating projections of real people that felt solid to the touch. So solid light. It was explained that the agents were capable of traversing the worlds because they were weak and could swap with a normal human. These agents infected the main character with a type of virus which was explained to have awoken something within him to change his body. It was described as a black virus of sorts that made the inside of the character's body a swirling darkness.
I remember the main character having friends and somehow went to an underground amusement park in which they raced cars, miniature toy cars but it took a few chapters so it may have been important. It was here that he awoke to his powers and was found to be invulnerable to everything except weapons coated with the main character's blood before he had been infected with the virus. There was also a point in which the main character was warped into the other dimension and swapped with the evil being. In this alternate dimension it was possible to have every desire made reality. In the form of an illusion, a powerful one.
The main character was described as being rather chubby, not large but not skinny. It was said that he had wanted to be a cook and looked up to a very famous chef. In the alternate dimension he made contact with the chef and wanted to learn how to cook from him. He was also about to learn the secrets of the universe but stopped himself through willpower.
That is all I really remember. If I were to list all the other little details I would take much longer. Though I believe I read this book in 2005-2007. And it had a modern looking cover so it is not an exceptionally old book. I hope for the best and I wish everyone who tries to help luck. I will continue my own search.
-Additional Information- 9/17/15
The chef the boy was trying to be like was named Wolfgang Puck. The story seemed to be a standalone novel at the time. Yet it ended in a sort of cliff hanger with many questions unanswered, as such it wouldn't be surprising to imagine the author writing a second book to the series. It was a middle school book, so most likely a young adult novel.
The boy apparently had a large sum of money saved up in his bedroom. When he needed the money for one reason or another, he found it gone. In its place a note from his elder brother saying that he had taken the money but had left him a present in return. The present was the leather jacket the character dons for his final fight with the evil being. The novel itself stated in the character's inner voice that he was confident enough to go into battle wearing an expensive leather jacket as his invulnerability was like a shield around him.
In the underground amusement park, the evil being attempted to break into the main character's world in the amusement park itself. The evil being could only stick a hand through the dimensions but had the effect of distorting the world around the amusement park, causing a few malfunctions to occur.
When the boy got warped into the alternate dimension, he asked questions pertaining to the center of the universe. The response was that of a video of an ongoing war, with a presence saying that it would take thousands of hours for a full explanation of the center of the universe. It was about this point he escaped the alternate dimension and fought with the evil being. As the boy was beating the evil being, the evil being got his subordinate to attempt to kill the boy with a dagger coated with the blood of the boy from before the virus infected him.
-This next bit may or may not have happened in this novel- The character was capable of lightning attacks, which he used to great success in a specific scene of the novel in which he uses a sort of chain lightning attack in his school playground, a jungle gym being a key focus of the playground as the main character may or may not have been bullied in the jungle gym earlier in the novel before the infection of the virus occurred.
