The young crooks chased the older man down the lamp-lit streets of Miracle City.

If there’d been just one of these teenagers, a middle-aged man such as himself could have confidently handled the situation. However, even if they were all underaged, taking on a pack of eight was too much to ask of anyone short of the most dangerous people on Earth.

The older man questioned why the streets were empty of anyone who could help him as his lungs burned. Complaining about it wouldn’t do him any good, though. Instead, he turned down the nearest alleyway. Throwing down garbage cans to slow his mad pursuers, the man thought back on how he ended up in this situation.

|X|

Alex Frank was on his usual walk home from his office job. He’d had a hard day dealing with his up-tight boss and was eager to return home to his wife’s cooking and his eight-year-old son’s cheerful attitude, which always put him in better spirits. Because of this, Alex decided to take a shortcut through Hive Town, a low-income neighborhood.

His wife never liked him taking this path, but unlike her, he had grown up near this neighborhood. Alex hadn’t lived in Hive Town, instead growing up a few blocks over. Regardless, he had made this neighborhood a regular stop of his youthful adventures. From his elementary to high school days, he’d made a number of friends in Hive Town as a result of his frequent visits and never felt frightened to be there, despite the town’s notorious crime rate.

To be fair, though, the level of criminal activity in the town had only gone up since Alex’s younger years.

Regrettably, during his youth, Alex had had a few occasions in Hive Town where he’d been confronted by hooligans and thugs. However, he’d always been able to get out of these encounters relatively unscathed, thanks to the friends he’d made or by showing these thugs the respect they demanded and explaining to them that he never carried actual money on him. Alex had lost a pair of shoes or a valuable trading card here or there because of this, but he’d never been hurt. After all, those men had never been the kind to be out for blood; they just wanted money.

There were some rare occasions, though, where Alex lost nothing. These times were when the local Masks arrived on the scene to frighten away the muggers. Masks being the term used by popular culture for the U.S.A.’s costumed vigilantes. The term had been around since the 1800s and was still readily applicable by the 2020s.

However, the horror Alex found himself in now was far different from anything he’d ever faced in his childhood.

These punks came out of nowhere, yelling for money. Alex did his best to give them the reverence he’d always used before, but that had cost him a metal pipe to his now broken arm from the lead crook.

These kids didn’t just want his valuables. Unlike the petty crooks of Alex’s past, they actually were after his life.

|X|

Although it did nothing to justify their actions, it was only natural that these kids were looking for some sort of outlet. After all, each of these hoodlums came from the broken homes of Hive Town’s deteriorating economy. In such a town, one would find no shortage of abusive or neglectful parents. And for these teenagers, an older man such as Alex easily reminded them of all their own problems at home.

Watching such a man jogging down their streets while carrying a valuable-looking suitcase was more than enough to get the kids’ collective blood boiling. Not to mention, it presented the youths with an easy score on top of a way to work out their frustrations.

Running down the alley, the natives of Hive Town knew better than their target that they were headed for a dead end. To be fair to Mr. Frank, though, this alley had led out to an open street in his childhood. But he hadn’t been there to see the construction of the convenience store that now blocked his path.

|X|

Once Alex made his way down the alley, he was hit with shock and horror by the brick wall in his way. He asked himself if he’d gone the wrong direction or if some construction had been done over the past few decades. Regardless of how it happened, Alex understood that he’d put himself into a corner, and there was nowhere left to run.

Then, as he heard the laughter and hollering of the pack of mad dogs in the shape of teenagers getting closer, Alex felt his blood turn cold.

Frantically, he examined his surroundings until he found a wooden plank amongst the alley trash. The plank wasn’t very sturdy and, unbeknownst to Alex, would likely break after hitting something once. However, the man lacked any other options, even if he was better at judging the quality of materials.

|X|

Stampeding down the alley behind Alex, the gang of adolescents all wore bloodthirsty grins when they saw their target was ready to put up a fight.

Most of all, the lead kid, Don, tightened his grip on his lead pipe and began chuckling hysterically. Don’s target may have escaped after the first swing, but he was cornered now.

Then, as Don looked at this man holding a wooden plank with rage in his eyes, memories of his father standing over him, lashing at him with a belt, raced through his mind.

Unable to restrain himself as belt scars ached, Don rushed at his victim, wildly swinging his pipe. In turn, the old guy clumsily swung his plank back at him.

However, before he could get very close to the man, everything in Don’s vision went black and white as his pipe got stuck mid-swing. At the same time, he heard the sound of the old man’s wooden plank shattering to splinters.

For a moment, Don felt phantom pains before realizing that the board hadn’t actually hit him. And as his bloodlust died down ever so slightly, he was able to focus on what exactly had appeared in front of him.

Initially, all Don saw was a weird-looking, white star on a chest made of pitch-blackness. Looking to his right, he saw the end of his pipe being held in a white-gloved hand attached to a muscular arm in a black suit. Turning his head to see the head attached to this body, Don felt his blood freeze in his veins as he saw a monstrous face staring back at him.

The boy couldn’t tell if this creature’s head was made of shadows or if its hooded cloak kept its features darkened. From what he could make out, Don saw a pair of glowing white, inhuman, glaring eyes and a mouth with a pure white interior and large, pitch-black, razor-sharp teeth.

As he broke out into a cold sweat, the monster easily pulled the pipe out of Don’s hand. He then heard the sound of creaking metal before the creature released its grip on the now-crushed pipe. And just as Don was about to stumble back in fear, the beast tightened the fist it used to render his weapon useless and threw a punch aimed at his face.

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Instantly, Don felt his nose shatter as he flew back into his friends from what he thought had been the hardest hit of his life. Unbeknownst to Don, however, the monster had actually stopped its fist short of making contact, and it was just the wind force of the halted blow that he’d felt.

As the monster let out a grunt while staring at its fist, one of Don’s friends, who hadn’t already run away, asked nervously, “What the Hell is that thing?”

Focusing back on the pack of teenage assaulters, a burning voice came from the monster’s face in response, “I am the angel with the face of a demon, the Shining Darkness. And you should all run home before I actually try to hurt you.”

It was only then, when the Shining Darkness’ mouth failed to move with its words, did Don realize this monster was actually a very large man in a Mask costume. At least, he assumed it was a man under that mask.

Whatever this Shining Darkness thing really was, its voice was bizarre. The best way to describe it was that it sounded like he was breathing fire with every word. As if a mythical Dragon were speaking as it roasted a knight alive.

Aside from Shining Darkness’ odd voice, the fact still remained that he seemingly appeared out of nowhere and crushed solid metal with his bare hand. Whatever was inside of that all-concealing costume, neither Don nor his friends wanted anything to do with it. Following the Shining Darkness’ advice, the group ran away as fast as possible.

|X|

Once the teenagers were gone, the figure in the black and white Mask costume turned around, allowing Alex to look at this thing whose back had shattered his improvised weapon.

The Shining Darkness was easily over six feet tall, and his muscles were so well-defined they showed through his outfit. The costume itself had a rather striking design.

The main body of the suit was all black, with a white belt that holstered throwing knives, white boots, and white gloves. And on his chest was a segmented white star. The Shining Darkness’ black mask, designed with a fanged mouth pattern, completely covered his head, the only exception being his eyes. But even then, his uncovered eyes glowed a fierce white making it no easier to discern his true appearance. Finally, this whole ensemble was covered in a hooded cloak with a black exterior and white interior.

“Are… Are you…?”

Before Alex could finish his question, the Shining Darkness asked one of his own, “Are you alright, sir? Do you need to get to a hospital?”

Throughout all the excitement, Alex had genuinely forgotten about his wound. Putting his good hand on his broken arm, Alex realized it was only the adrenaline keeping his pain subsided.

Even though his words were those of concern, since they were spoken with such a blazing and powerful voice, Alex wasn’t sure if this Shining Darkness character was actually here to help him.

“Hold on. Are… Are you a Mask? I’ve never heard of you before,” Alex asked while trying to ignore the pain he was in.

Nodding, Shining Darkness replied in a surprisingly accommodating tone despite his burning filter, “Yes, I am a Mask. A Super Mask, to be specific. You could say I’m new. But, more importantly, sir, I could get you to a hospital very fast if you need me to.”

Realizing that this Super Mask, despite his ghastly getup, was sincerely worried about him, Alex answered, “Yeah… I should probably see a doctor.”

Nodding, Shining Darkness asked one more question, “Alright then. But first things first, could you tell me why those kids were chasing you?”

“What? Why?” Alex blurted out, perhaps a bit too impatiently.

Folding his arms behind his back, the Shining Darkness explained calmly, “It’s important information for my mission. It would help me clean things up more to understand motivations.”

Scratching his head with his working hand, Alex replied, “Um… Well, I don’t know specifics, but I think they just wanted to beat and mug me.”

The Shining Darkness seemed to study Alex’s face for a brief moment after his answer.

Just as quickly, the Super Mask relaxed and said, “Alright. Thank you. Now, if you let me carry you on my back, we’ll get to the E.R. in no time. I’m very fast, after all.”

As Shining Darkness crouched down and offered his back to him, Alex wasn’t sure how he felt about being given a piggyback ride at his age. However, as his pain started coming back to him in full swing, he realized he’d be foolish not to take the offer.

Once Alex was held firmly in place, Shining Darkness told him, “Alright. Keep your eyes closed and your head down. You don’t want bugs to splatter on your face.”

And just like that, the Shining Darkness jumped high enough to get on top of the three-story building at his side and began running at speeds that would put most cars to shame.

|X|

Minutes later, the Shining Darkness and Alex had arrived in front of the E.R., with Shine having leaped from the top of a roof to clear the last leg of the journey.

The sight of a monstrously costumed man appearing from the sky somewhat panicked the staff standing ready by the front door. Regardless of the black-clad individual’s superhuman feats, when the staff saw the injured man being let off his back, they rushed out to help.

“He says he has a broken arm. He was hit with a pipe by someone looking to kill him, so it could be a serious break,” The darkly dressed man explained with a voice like a flamethrower as the wounded man was lowered onto a stretcher.

“I… Uh…” One staff member stuttered.

It was clear that Shine’s voice disturbed the E.R. workers, but even so, one was able to ask, “I’m… I’m sorry. Who are you exactly?”

Turning away while keeping his face toward the one asking him, Shine answered, “I am the Shining Darkness. The Super Mask.”

After his proclamation, the Shining Darkness jumped back to Hive Town’s rooftops, followed by the wounded man shouting, “Hey! Thank you! Thank you for saving me!”

|XXX|

Arriving at an old warehouse, Conner gracefully threaded his falling body through an open window and landed with only a slight thud followed by a roll. Flipping to his feet, Conner walked away from the window and further into the building.

He came into a backroom outfitted with weapon racks, crates of supplies, and a few loose furniture pieces. Once there, his posture relaxed, and Conner removed the Shining Darkness mask, revealing a face that couldn’t be any older than seventeen or eighteen, and took an exhilarated deep breath.

Running his hands through his shoulder-length, white hair to smooth it out, Conner closed his glowing eyes and took a seat on one of the crates.

“So, how’d your first night out with your powers go, Incognous?” A gruff voice from across the room called out.

Turning to face the one asking this question, Conner was greeted by a gritty, muscular middle-aged man sitting in a worn-out sofa chair. The man wore black body armor with hints of yellow and had a helmet under his arm with a logo on its face that resembled a death head moth.

Stretching out slightly as his body suddenly shrunk by half a foot, his hair turned black, and his eyes stopped glowing, revealing their natural blue color; Conner answered with a normal voice, “Great test drive, I’d say, Death Head. But I gotta learn not to throw out punches so readily anymore. If I’m not careful, I could end up killing someone by accident.”

Leaning forward in his chair, the man going by Death Head asked harshly, “Did that happen tonight, Incognous?”

Shaking his head, Conner replied defensively, “No. I stopped short of actually hitting the guy, so I just broke his nose by accident… By the way, boss, remember that it’s not Incognus anymore. I’m the Shining Darkness now.”

Relaxing, Death Head replied in a more casual yet snarky tone, “Okay, okay. Don’t get your cape in a twist, Shiny. I’m just glad you didn’t kill anybody. But like you said, you have super strength now, so you have to be careful. That’s the whole point of our training these past few months.”

Getting up to walk to the bathroom, Conner replied, “Right, right. Look, I gotta take a leak, so we can talk more once I get back.”

Taking a drink of his coffee on the table beside him, Death Head replied, “Fair enough. It ain’t exactly like we get bathroom breaks out in the field.”

As he made his way to the restroom, his now baggy costume dragging under his feet, Conner walked past the case that held his old uniform. It was a suit of armor similar to Death Head’s, but with red highlights instead of yellow ones, and a red question mark on the helmet’s face instead of a moth.

Running his hand along the glass case, Conner allowed himself to think back to the early days of how he first met his Mask mentor.