Name: Darren Hawkens
Aliases: The Smith
Alignment: Neutral
Identity Status: Secret
Age: 18
Height: 5' 11"
Weight: 120lbs
Eye Color: Hazel
Hair Color: Brown
Powers & Abilities: Darren has what experts call an eidetic memory. After reading something once he can almost instantly recall what it was word for word at any time along with being a savant went learning complex and abstract theories.
Weapons: Designs everything from slinghots to improvised projectile weapons and explosives.
Base of Operations: Peaceful Meadows Mortuary
Occupation: Mortuary assistant
Education: GED, Self-Taught online College
Group Affiliation: Organized Crime
History: Darren's story is just one of millions that deal with hardship and loss, but like so many others it was what he chooses to do with his life that brings his story to light.. His father, a well respected surgeon at a local hospital and his mother a mathematician at NYU had been well off when he was born. In a household were he was loved and encouraged to expand his horizons, he knew little of the hardships of life. When he turned 5, his mother had been stricken with cancer. Desperate to save his wife, his father put all of their money into treatments that seemed to be doing nothing to save his wife. When their money had finally run out, his father had taken a second job at a little Mortuary preparing bodies for their services. The owner, a sympathetic man, had offered to front the struggling doctor money in advance. Desperate and with no other source to turn to, he accepted the money without thinking about why the man had been so generous. Despite all their efforts, Darren's mother finally died when he had turned eight. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in dept, the doctor now found himself at the mercy of organized crime. The owner of the Mortuary had been a front man for the mob, and a doctor was a great investment for them. It was not long till they had him forging documents and making false orders at the hospital to put cheap drugs out on the street. The hospital had easily found the mistakes and had chalked the mistakes up to grief. All the same, they had to let the man go. Too poor to afford a babysitter, young Darren came with his father to work, spending all day in the windowless rooms of the mortuary. At first he had been terrified of the bodies, of all the death that seemed to be at every turn. But with the help of his father, he learned that the dead needed to be taken care of as much as the living. they spent hours talking about the people that came in and out of that small room, making up stories about their lives and making morbid jokes that would have shocked normal people. When he was fourteen, he came into his father's work room to see rather large men in suits guarding the door. Allowing him to pass, he saw a man on the embalming table but was very much alive. It seemed that he had been shot multiple times. When his father called for him to help, he did not hesitate to put on a pair of gloves and assist his father who seemed to have aged well beyond his years at this point. That night, he asked his father what that man had done to get shot. Ashamed to admit that he was helping murders and crooks, he told him that they were bodyguards for high ranking goverment officials and he was contracted to help these men if required. Accepting the lie was much easier than pressing his father on what appeared to be a painful subject, he just nodded his head and promised to help however he could. What had actually been said was that he had to help them or they would break his legs and kill his son. Numerous times over the next four years this happened. Wise guys would bring in their wounded to be patched up or operated on, so Darren took to reading up on such things and by learning at his father's side became more than adept on taking over for his father. Around seventeen he found that he had a unique gift. Picking up a book on physics and memorizing it came as natural as breathing to him. Being of a curious nature, he began to tinker and build things. Over time, the Mob saw uses for Darren, and with his father's reluctant urging, began to make weapons to be used against innocent people. Of course Darren did not know this, he was simply given a piece of paper that told him what they wanted to be made, he made it, and then burned all notes he had made at that time. With each new job that passed, he thought he was making his father proud of him. After all, it was just the two of them. Soon his work began to consume him. Making thermite explosives with magnesium triggers became more important than school. Dropping out and getting his GED, he switched his classes to internet based colleges so he was able to keep at his work. The Mob henchmen that came by for either medical assistance or weapons began to call him 'The Smith'. No matter if you needed a weapon or medical help, he could provide it with no questions asked. Little did he know that word had started to circulate to both villains and heroes of his unique talents. Soon fate would require him to make a choice.