Chapter 7: Smoke Fella
-Kings High
Daniel walked to his class but along the way he heard students talking about what had happened on the weekend, specifically on Saturday night. The failed bank heist incident the. "Dude! That one guy who was traumatized and was so delusional he thought he saw a smoke demon!" Says one student. "I wonder how'd that van was flattened, it was as if some one drop a heavy object from orbit!" Says another. "Do you think that the smoke demon's real!?" "Probably dude!" "No! the dude must've been high!" That was what Daniel could hear the entire day. 'Great I'm a smoke demon now! Well at least people won't focus on my mutation! It's a win-win! they focus on the smoke demon fella and I get to blend in the background again!' Daniel said mentally. '(sigh) I can finally return to no-' "woah!" Someone pulled him around the quiet corner of the hallway. "Daniel! So! I've been anticipating about your doctor's appointment result! Is it something serious?" It was Elise. "Okay, okay, just relax take a breather, breath in and breath out, I'll tell you everything." Daniel said "Okay listen, I have this thing called heterochromia, but you don't need to worry, I'm perfectly healthy!" He finished with a smile. "Okay that is good to know!" Elise let out a sigh of relief. "Okay so we should get to class." She said. "Okay, you go first." Both of them walk to class but, Daniel let Elise go in first and waited for a minute then he followed.
-Lunch period
Daniel went to the cafeteria to grab a sandwich, all he can hear is people talking about the bank heist incident, and about the smoke demon. Right after he bought his lunch he walked to the rooftop, but right before he could exit the cafeteria Edward blocked him. "I've heard rumors about you and my girlfriend seeing each other behind my back!" He asked angrily. He then grabbed Daniel's collar and slammed him into the wall near the cafeteria entrance, it didn't really hurt Daniel just stunned him a bit. "W-well those are just rumors." Daniel stammered. "Oh yeah? Well what about this then?" Edward showed Daniel Pictures of him and Elise hugging on his phone. 'Oh shit that was last week! I was such an idiot for doing that!' He said and slap himself mentally. "It's not like th-" Edward threw a right hook at Daniel and a knee to the stomach. Daniel Fell to the ground, he didn't expect Edward to throw such a strong punch and kick. Daniel coughed blood, Edward on the other hand wasn't finished he stomped Daniel's head 4 times and then grabbed Daniel's water bottle he opened it and poured it all on Daniel's Face. "Know your place worm!" Next thing he did was step on Daniel's sandwich. "Enjoy your lunch asshole!" Edward step back a few steps. "And oh another thing. You stay away from Elise! I don't want you near her, and I don't want you to even look at her! You think just because you have highlights on your hair that you're now good enough for her?! Pfff! As if you'll ever be good enough for someone like her, or even any girl at all! Stay away from her! Otherwise this will happen." He charged at Daniel and kicked him on the rib, the force of the kick sent Daniel slamming to the wall again. "Just a little taste." Edward finished and entered the cafeteria with carol. Carol was watching with satisfaction, all the students in the area just watched him get beat up, you could say Edward timed it right because there was not a single teacher or school staff on sight. Daniel sat on the floor and leaned the back of his head on the wall and sighed deeply. 'Well that sucked! So much for "Enjoying Lunch" I don't even have food for lunch to begin with!' He said mentally. Daniel stood up holding his stomach and slowly walked to the rooftop. When he reached the rooftop he dropped to the floor leaning his back against the wall and just sighed. He looked at his right hand and started to use his smoke powers. "Huh, well that's new. When I first got my powers the smoke was grey, and then it's a mix between grey and black, now it's still black but just reddish." He then heard the rooftop door tuned, so he quickly stopped using his powers. The door opened and it was Elise with a worried expression, Elise ran towards Daniel but he just raised his hand to stop her. "What are you doing here?" Daniel asked in a calm voice. "I heard about what happened! He kicked you pretty hard they said! I'm so sorry!" She rushed to Daniel to give him a hug but Daniel just backed away. "Don't, that's the reason we're in this mess, and don't worry I'm fine." Elise just looked at him with teary eyes. "I'm the one who should be sorry. I'm sorry I hugged you, it was not my place to do so." Daniel apologized. "I didn't mind it Daniel! So don't apologize!" She exclaimed. "I actually liked it. A lot." She admitted. "Part of me is glad you did, but. I don't really think it's right." Daniel said "So. It's for the best that we go back to the way we were." Daniel walked for the exit and stopped right in front of the door, he then looked back at Elise. "I don't wanna drag you down to my level. I don't ruin your reputation. And most importantly I don't wanna be the reason of why you and Edward break up, you two are too perfect for one another. Again I'm truly sorry." Daniel left the rooftop leaving a crying Elise.
-Bill's Shop
Daniel was sitting on the counter and was moping when Bill Suddenly appeared around the corner. "I know that look, did you break up with you're girlfriend?" Bill teased. "Not now Bill." Daniel replied in a low weak voice. "Oh come on! Don't be like that Dan! It'll be alright! I'm pretty sure things will go back to normal!"Bill said. "Tell you what kid, if you don't want to deal with this right now, do something to keep your mind of it, but! sooner or later you have to face this. This is just a temporary fix for your current predicament, a 'Band aid' per se." Bill finished. "Cheer up kid, it's gonna get better, don't worry too much." Daniel sighed and gave Bill a sad smile. "Bill I gotta tell ya, you sure have a lot of wisdom in you. Thanks." He said, Bill gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry, If you're ready to face the problem I'll be with you 100% of the way, you don't have to face it alone." Bill replied. "The question is what should I do now?" Daniel asked. "Anything. Do something, study for your exams, build something, or train! Just do something that would keep you're mind off of your problems." Bill advised. "Okay, I think I have a few ideas." Daniel said. "That's the spirit! Oh and for starters you can help me out with this!" Bill handed him a paper filled with orders. "Okay then this should keep me busy for the time being."
-Streets of Kings City
A hostage taking is taking place, Daniel smoke dashed from roof to roof to get an aerial view of what's happening. There are crowds of people watching the situation controlled by the authorities from a safe distance, a hostage negotiator speaks in the megaphone. "Alright man, what do you want?" He asked. "STAY THE FUCK BACK! I'll BLOW HER HEAD OFF! STAY BACK!" The hostage-taker shouted. "P-please don't do this Elwood!" The woman said crying. "Shut up! you never knew how much you and the others mistreated me! But you're an office slut Karen what do you know about mistreatment! Yes, I know everything about you and the boss!" He said. "Okay just let the girl go and uhhh, we'll talk about it." The negotiator said in a calm voice. "SHUT THE FUCK UP! I WANT TO SPEAK TO MY BOSS!" He shouted. "Okay, we'll get your boss to talk to you." The negotiator said and shut off his megaphone. "any idea where or who his boss is? I've gotta feeling we might not have much time." He said to a S.W.A.T. member next to him. "I don't know but we can send someone to look for hi- wait who's that!?" He saw a reddish smoke morphed into a man. "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?! STAY BACK!" The hostage-taker shouted. "No one important my friend." Daniel said. "Just let her go or I'll do something I might regret." Daniel replied in a non threatening tone. "You're the smoke demon I've heard from the news!" The man said finally realizing who he was. "In the flesh, although I'm not really much of a demon, more like a, pfff let's see what am I a-" He was cut off by the hostage-taker. "JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU'LL RUIN THIS FOR ME!" He shouted at Daniel again. "Now now that's not very nice, you know it's rude to cut off people mid sentence." Daniel said. "Is that gun even loaded?" Daniel added. "You wanna find out!?" He threatened "I'd love to but there's a swat officer behind you." Daniel lied, as soon as the hostage taker turned around to point his gun at no one behind him Daniel smoke dashed to the hostage-taker and as he morphed back he pushed the woman away from the hostage taker and slammed the hostage-takers face to the ground, not too hard but hard enough to incapacitate the man. The swat team then moved in as the crowd cheered for Daniel, some of the unit arrested the hostage taker but some pointed their gun at Daniel who had his back turned to the swat team. "Who are you!?" The team leader asked. "Put your hands behind your head! Now!" He ordered. "Is that the proper way to say thank you to the guy who did most of your work for you? Wow! Is this really kings City's finest? Oh and by the way you can call me Smoke, and I'm not in a mood for this officers so." He shot a smoke ball to the ground to cover his escape, and smoke dashed to an ally near the crime scene, as he reached the end of the alley he then smoke dashed to a vent and came out to the roof. He went to the edge of the roof looking down at the swat team and whistled at them to announce his location. When they had sights on him he gave them a sarcastic salute and dashed away from roof to roof until he's clear of view while the crowds cheered even harder.
-Daniel's Home
Daniel got inside through the window of his room and landed on his chair and started using his computer to begin studying. After he was done he still has a couple of hours before dinner so he decided to go down stairs to take a shower and he saw his aunt watching the news regarding the hostage taking and the smoke guy. "Daniel?" His aunt asked. "I didn't see you go through the front door earlier?" Daniel then thought of a quick lie and said. "I'm pretty sure I did.. you were probably just to focused on the news to even notice me come in." "Hmmm.. By the way have you heard about the news?" She asked. "The hostage taking and this smoke fella? it's all over the social media so yeah I've heard." He replied trying to hide the fact that he was indeed this 'smoke fella' "You see a thing like that happening you turn around and run do you hear me Daniel?!" She said with a worried tone. "Y-yeah! yeah why would I even try to be a hero?" He replied lying again. "Anyways I gotta go take a shower." "Okay dinner will be ready in after you're done." After he was done showering he ate dinner with his aunt making casual conversation and brushed his teeth and went straight to bed. He was staring at the ceiling thinking about the event the occurred that day from Edward beating him up, to him telling Elise that they shouldn't be friends anymore, and to the heroic thing he did at the hostage taking, he couldn't help but smile at the feeling of the good thing he has done, sure he was about the Elise thing but somehow he felt good about saving the day. "Is this what you want from me dad?" He said while looking at a picture of his father and him with their guitars in their arms smiling at the camera. He sighed happily as a single tear drop ran down his right cheek. "I hope I made you proud dad."