It was September 1st, 2015 as the sun was settling and their assignments were complete, recent crimes solved for their own police department, the recent and young head of the Presence family, kin that's in the private investigation business begun by their father who is now too ill to remain in the business. Alongside his colorful, loving and talented siblings, they made their way to visit a wise-woman, a seer and psychic for a very special but mysterious commission. All Dustin knows is to always be at the ready the few times that she calls on them and remain respectful.
"You wanted to request us, Miss Lisha?" Asked Dustin Presence, the eldest but fairly young head of the business as he entered her strange home with his younger siblings following close after him, all quiet.
"I want to hire you guys for quite a grand assignment. The world is dependent on your success." Miss Lisha replied with an assertive voice towards the end.
"If we leave it up for the best then?" Dustin asked respectfully, "The defeat of the Enenra Enotocin shouldn't be gambled, you're not the best but you hold a far more important role. I can see two outcomes, one with your success and the other filled with bloody failure." Miss Lisha responded with a harsher tone. Years of reading the old stories and news articles, Dustin knew who she was speaking of but that's as far as he got.
"Right, his cult was defeated ages ago by a hero who then disappeared on us, you want us to locate the hero of smoke?" Dustin asked as he bowed to her and spoke with utmost respect and curiosity. The seer laughed and chuckled quietly.
"Not quite." Miss Lisha replied as she held her mouth.
September 3rd, 2015 in the small town known as Chaelb...
In his very first and very own tactical combat suit modeled after his father's costume, the designer and creator listened to Derek's request but made a few minor tweaks, as he didn't know what look would match Derek's personality equally as well as a smaller sized version of his father's, except with a few noticeable differences, his domino mask was smaller and made his entire eyes into a dark-ish smokey shade of gray followed by the rest of a tactical suit colored Gray, beige pouches on his belt and black accents, the Wiley family's colors for generations. The family's signature wrapping around his shoulders kept him warm during the cold days but acted as a symbol from the Brotherhood they belonged to, heroes located in other towns.
Feeling the brisk Chaelbian weather fly past his dark locks of hair while he held out his arms wide open during the sun's descent on the great city lulled his nerves. Recently fitted for his brand new official super suit, tight but perfectly snug enough where he could take full advantage of his speed and mobility over his tremendous strength as he's a bit smaller than he heard that his father was at his age, he was promised he could get his first suit when he turned 15 but it came and was accidentally delivered too early. He's aware that he wasn't supposed to be wearing it, especially be out in public yet. The years before felt too long for him, with his new suit, it meant time for field work experience to him.
He saw a dark figure made of smoke darker than the night with a small headache before he actually looked down and saw rioters approaching a local store, 8 of them dressed in apocalyptic gear that didn't look very protective, carrying spiked bats, some barbed wire, they began vandalizing the local shop. Though you can't see his eyes through his dark eye mask with gray aesthetic lenses, anyone could tell that he was disappointed in these guys through his body language.
Derek remembered to stretch, stretching his short legs, his arms and shadow boxing. Everything his grandad and his experienced friends had taught him over the years, before he confidently walked off the tall rooftop, feeling the wind pass through his strong, dark hair with his favorite rock song playing in his head as he fell and gravity took hold.
"Heh, guys, I can't wait to see this doofus' reaction though, when he walks in tomorrow morning and realizes he should have paid us!" The leader of the gang says, "Yeah, it's gonna be absolutely priceless!!" The next member replied, laughing harder.
"What the fu— Guys! looook at that!!" A female member yelled while pointing at a costumed kid in the air shifting in and out of smoke behind them, the other members started staring his way, deeply confused and baffled. Then the kid disappeared and transformed into smoke for a longer moment as he was close by, puzzling the weirdos even further as they couldn't see him, then the kid dropped flat on his face practically at their feet.
The kid quickly picked himself up and dusted off himself and his suit, the scrawny child in the knock off outfit of a nuisance for crime from another city initiated a fancy martial arts stance, having the leader of them thinking a child is squaring up with these dangerous criminals and he's unreal, "C'mon!!" Derek shouted fiercely while cars went past behind them and a crowd began showing up.
The gang stood in place thinking he couldn't be serious, while Derek stood confidently, their leader began scoffing and sighing, still heavily confused and looking around for Mist-Affliction since his costume reminded the gang of his signature suit but he's been missing for years, leaving this petty gang even more lost.
"What's this little can of garbage, man?" One of the members said with an attitude, "I don't know but he's cute, a wannabe superhero, still idiotic as hell!" One of the female members replied.
"Yep. Except calling me a superhero is way more genuine than any man that complimented you on your looks, ma'am!" Derek fired back as he was out of breath, "Hang on, doing that trick takes some out of me and I'm just getting over my fear of heights!" Said Derek as he continued to bend down to catch his breath.
The female member smacked her lips and threw her barbed bat at Derek but he effortlessly dodged.
"By the way, who are you, little dude?" The tallest member asked as the 8 legitimately just watched him catch his breath, "I'm— Mist-Affliction, y'know?" Derek answered genuinely while his stamina began to return, "Yep!" He finished.
"No, really kid." The leader slightly chuckled, "What's your name, who are you, are you lost, need a ride home or something…?" He finished while still laughing at him but genuinely worried deep down for this kid's safety.
Derek stood up more assertively and confidently, "I'm Mist-Affliction reborn, and I'm here to stop this vandalism!" He claimed loudly, attracting the attention of a few folks nearby who got out their phones to record.
"Mist-Affliction's been dead for a while, little runt, you ain't him!" Someone in the back yelled out "Uh, sir, he said reborn and rebirth means—" One of his underlings replied before his leader gave him a deadly glare that shut him up, made him put his head down and move to the back.
"Hey everyone, we got a copycat of that jerk, over here!" Some other guy in the crowd that belonged to the gang yelled out louder, "Wrong city also, doofus!" The final guy yelled out.
The crowd around them gathered close enough for all of them to see and record what's going on but it didn't restrict Derek in any way.
The leader of the gang looked around during the crowd who were hollering their opinions, some negative and some positive at Derek, who just stood glaring and analyzing the gang's members, the leader took notice and let him.
"You don't have to do this, kid, you could simply just go back to your warm home!" The leader said louder while the crowd conveniently settled down around them, Derek paused and got out of his stance and pondered on those words while looking down at his palms. "What's the point when it's a broken one...?" Derek replied with a lowered and more serious tone of voice eventually after he got all the information he needed.
The leader of the gang nodded, signaling his subordinates to go all out which they did as soon as he signaled them. Derek just by a hair dodged the first attacker's punch having gotten caught off guard, remembering why he's doing what he's doing.
Derek dodged the first punch, tripped and leg swept him. The female member who's been wanting to take him down was next and tried, a single spinning roundhouse took her down, before he knew it, the remaining members were three in numbers then one.
Face to face at a distance again, Derek and this gang's leader were staring at each other again, one was feeling thrill and excitement, the other was feeling extremely antagonized and irked.
"So, ya see I'm the real deal now?" Derek started, he asked confidently with a slightly smug smile on him, "First, Affliction wouldn't have smiled or talked to us, he didn't have the ego, his fights wouldn't have lasted minutes or even half of one, I still wouldn't even be standing here unharmed. Second, Taking down a couple of petty ninety-nine percenters proves absolutely zero anyway, if this is your start of trying to live up to him or poorly mimic the bastard you little fanboy, you've still got centuries to go." The gang's leader commented on his arrogance.
Derek became the antagonized one as the gang leader's reply struck a deep nerve in the young hero, he rushed up like his father would have, with the intent to hospitalize the man, except he heard sirens so the man realized he didn't have time to toy with Derek anymore, he dodged all of Derek's attacks with ease and a single knee stopped Derek dead in his tracks afterwards. He fell to the ground stuck in true pain while the gang's leader and the rest of his underlings ran off, scattered and escaped the scene.
The police got out of their cars and grabbed and arrested the members Derek knocked out but they also tried to grab him, pulling himself together quickly, Derek shoved the cops off of him and leaped into the air transforming his body into smoke to escape the scene himself.
Having a hard time believing what they just saw, they were stumpt and didn't expect for him to be hiding on top of the roof because his power exhausted him too greatly, they had assumed he escaped and didn't give chase as he flew high and away. Derek's phone began ringing but it was on vibrate, Derek answered it after 3 rings.
"Grandpa…?" Derek asked, answering his phone, his grandpa revealed news that left him depressed. Derek was lying on the building holding his stomach but after hearing the news, Derek dropped everything and sighed heavily.