Smoke on the Radar

It was a normal night in London, as normal as it would get anyway. Smoke was practicing his parkour on the rooftops of flats and houses as he moved swiftly through the night, making barely any sound. There were still plenty of cars maneuvering through the roads, no doubt full of people heading home from their 9-5 work shift, Smoke always used to wonder to himself why people would put themselves through the same thing every day, it just seemed like repetition and boring to him, he much preferred stopping crimes, at least there was some kind of variety in this line of business.

Smoke had worked out for a few hours now, he decided to take a seat on the nearest building and rest, he caught his breathe whilst looking across the Thames river and stared at the London Eye that had ceased moving. The weather was the next thing to come onto his mind, just like any Englishmen lately, it had been suprisingly sunny and hot over the past few days, a nice change to the constant rain that England is known for, but it did make his training more taxing.

He spent several more minutes on the rooftop, watching civilians casually walk to wherever they intended to go, Smoke found it hard to know that he risks his life on a daily basis for the safety of these people, and he does not get thanked in any way, but perhaps when people know his name, he will receive such rewards.

Smoke pushed himself to a standing position, he turned to the left and began to walk forward, a sharp scream was suddenly heard behind him, causing him to turn around immediately and start running in that direction. He jumped from rooftop to rooftop, using his Shadow Teleportation ability to his advantage and make his travel time cut considerably. He reached the roof of a building by an alleyway, the screams were much quieter now, but still in ear range of him, he peered over the edge and looked down to see a man dressed in all black and a facemask on threatening a woman in a business suit with a knife, a classic mugging in the middle of the night.

Smoke placed his hand down by the edge and pushed himself up and over, he landed on a metal staircase and looked down on the mugger is he was startled by the noise, the mugger did not wait around however, as he began to run at the first sight of trouble. He began running down the alleyway, throwing bins and boxes behind him in an attempt to slow down whatever was following him, but to no avail as Smoke had returned to the rooftop and was following him up there. Smoke found it amusing how scared this man was, he wasn't as tough as some of the enemies he had faced before, it seemed like the tough exterior he had in place when mugging the woman was only hiding a scared man who would run from anything.

The mugger may not have been tough, but Smoke did have to admit that he was quick, especially when running through the London alley ways, it seemed the mugger is experienced with these shortcuts. Smoke stood still on the rooftops with his ears open, waiting for any kind of sound to ring around him....... There. A loud crash was heard to his right a few buildings over, it had sounded like a garage door being slammed shut which made it easy to find.

Smoke landed quietly in front of the garage door, it looked like an abandoned warehouse of sorts, however there were no remnants of a company ever owning it before, only some scorch marks on the side of some of the walls. Smoke walked to the door and placed his ear against it, he could hear murmurs on the other side and plenty of footsteps, it appeared a welcoming party had arrived to greet him. Smoke took a step back to scout his surroundings, an open window up high seemed like a great alternative route in for a surprise attack, he could easily teleport up there, but he decided to test his parkour skills. Smoke ran to a tall stack of boxes and run up them, turning around in the process to jump off and grab onto a beam, Smoke then continued to use his strength to pull himself up and balance on the bar. Smoke looked forward to see the open window to his right, he leaped from the bar and grabbed onto the window ledge with one hand, almost slipping as he quickly placed his other hand onto the ledge for support, he climbed in quietly and peered down to a small group staring at the garage door, pipes and knives in hand.

"Are you sure there was someone following you Ryan?" one of them asked with an English accent, clearly the muggers story did not seem very trustworthy at this time.

"Well... I heard a bang and then I turned and ran..." after repeating his story, it appeared Ryan realized how far-fetched his story was.

"For god sake Ryan, you wasn't even followed!" one of them shouted as he eased out of attack position.

"Oh no, he was followed" Smoke said as he landed behind the small gang, all of them turning around with a shock. "If you don't mind, I'm going to have to take that bag back" Smoke asked politely, it never hurt to be polite once in a while.

All of the gang members looked at each other and laughed, it was one man in a slightly padded outfit against a gang of five people with weapons, they seemed fairly confident in themselves. "You and what army Lame-Man?" they all laughed at the gang members poor joke.

"I don't need an army..." Smoke said as he advanced forward with speed, defending himself from all five members at once, both dodging and blocking their attacks as well as dealing damage of his own. Two gang members swung poles at either side of Smoke, he read the attack and jumped in the air, laying out flat and spinning sideways as the poles both flew under him, hitting both members at the same time, seemingly knocking them both out. Three were left and two had knives, this time they appeared to be smarter and circle him, at the same time, they all jumped forward and attacked, Smoke blocked and dodged their knife attacks, he grabbed one of the knife wielders hands and twisted it back, he then launched his foot of the ground and kicked the opponents arm, causing it to break, he fell to the floor in agony and started crawling away as the fight continued. The last two enemies ran at Smoke head on, they both swung their fists towards Smoke's head, they were sure of their target until he disappeared into a cloud of smog, their hands flying through it and the smog entering their lunges, causing them to cough deeply. He turned to see Smoke standing still, undamaged, the sheer sight of this illusion caused them to break down, they were no longer willing to fight him, they were looking for their nearest exit. Smoke had cleared out the entire room full of enemies, his greatest achievement to date. He lifted the women's bag off of the ground and began to walk away.

"What are you?!..." the gang member with the broken arm was still conscious and curious as to what he was looking at, Smoke simply turned to him and said "I'm Smoke" he immediately disappeared in a cloud of smog and landed on a near rooftop. Smoke then began his return to the distraught women. It did not take long until he returned to her, just a few feet away from the scene of the crime, she was on the phone to the police as Smoke approached her, he held out her bag and asked "Does this belong to you?" with a small smile on his face, she immediately snatched the bag from his hand and gave him a big hug for his effort, it was not much, but it did mean quite a lot to him. She pulled away after thanking him enough and asked "What is your name?"

"My name is Smoke..." he quickly turned his head to the direction in which he could hear sirens approaching, he then turned and ran to the nearest dark alleyway to stay out of sight, he did not want to be a national hero just yet, that sort of popularity puts a target on your back...