Rise of the Omnimage

Kyrain hugged his mother the following morning. They had spoken at length last night after he delivered the news.

He could tell his mother wasn't pleased with him leaving and he felt bad. As soon as it showed on his face she jumped in letting him know that he shouldn't. It's just that a loving mother never wants her children far from her or outside of her reach.

She hugged him tightly then stepped back as he put on his new mask. As it touched his skin it sort of magnetized to his face and he couldn't remove it. He would have to ask Eclipse how to remove it later.

"I will contact you when I can with updates. I love you mom." He said as he headed out the door a swirl of emotions.

He opened a rift to the front of the guild and walked in. The few users there, turned and looked at him.

"Punctual. It's appreciated Erebus. We have a lot to get done. Our ride is here. We will be moving to Nashville for a target." Eclipse said as she walked over to him.

She ushered him outside to a waiting car. They got in the back and the car took off destination already known by the driver.

"We are on our way to the Hunter training facility. In the meantime we will be picking up some low threat targets. Take a look at this file and pick out things you think are important." Eclipse said handing over the referenced file.

Kyrain opened it up and began to read.

Warrant of Capture

Name: Gregory Lee Eastman

Status: Alive

Crime: Grand Larceny

Bounty: 5 B Rank Cores

Path: Light manipulation

Last known tier: 3

Threat level: 1

Notes: Person of interest does not have a known current address, but is often seen around the White Bridge Pike Target in Nashville, TN. He has not resorted to violence or threats of violence. He is capable of focusing light or scattering it in order to hide himself, but could be able to use it in an attack both with aether and/or physical.

Kyrain looked over the form and noticed a few things. "First this is a warrant, which allows us to legally apprehend this person Ma'am."

Eclipse nodded. "What else?"

"Status I assume is the state in which the individual needs to be brought in. It would make sense considering his crime is grand larceny and has no record of violence. Which implies other warrants can read like the old western posts of "dead or alive." Kyrain reasoned.

"You are correct. Now that status can change very quickly based on the actions of the person in question. If they present a clear danger to the apprehending hunters or people around them, they are authorized higher amounts of force, even lethal force." She said then tapped his forehead.

"In our masks are recording devices that store data then transmit it to HQ at the end of the day to each of our serialized databases for evidence to protect us or even hold us accountable. Should greater force be required, the camera is our evidence of that force escalating when it is taken to court."

Kyrain nodded. "Understood ma'am. Is that why the mask is hard to take off?"

Eclipse nodded. "Correct in part. We will go over removal procedures later tonight in privacy." She said.

"What else have you noticed about the warrant?" She asked.

Kyrain read it over one more time. "This gives a brief overview the individuals path which correlates with the threat factor which is given a score of 1 which i assume is the lowest."

Eclipse nodded again.

"Correct. It's that simple. The rest of the warrant has a bunch of nice to know information." She said as she handed him a picture.

The man looked to be around as tall as Kyrain based on the background and was around 180 lbs. Brown hair, brown eyes, haggard, gaunt look suggesting some drug use.

"Pretty simple in theory right?" She asked him.

"Seems so ma'am." Kyrain said

"Not in practice. The people we go after know they have broken the law and expect a hunter to come after them sooner or later. The more dangerous ones usually have safegaurds against us that we must navigate to get to them. These can include other people, traps, use of still lethal weapons like guns and explosives. So we move intelligently on each and every target, even one such as this who appears to be a thief." Eclipse explained.

It all made sense to Kyrain except for this target. "Ma'am, this guy's description doesn't seem like he is that great of a threat. Why so much extra caution?" He asked.

He couldn't see it, but under her mask, Eclipse was smiling. "Two reasons primarily. First, he could be working for someone who actually is dangerous and on that note the second reason is threat of a hunter trap. Users that have taken to crime naturally hate hunters. When they can make us disappear or kill us it's better temporarily for them as they get more time to work and prepare for a stronger hunter, hence why they use weak front men." She explained.

Kyrain was shocked by the level of planning in this very subtle war that was going on without many people knowing.

"So how would we go about this Ma'am?" Kyrain asked thoroughly stumped. He felt paralyzed with indecision and lack of options.

"We wait and watch. You will recieve a class when we reach Quantico, VA called "Behavioral Prediction where you will learn to reach humans better. Everything a living creature does is NEVER random. There is some cause to it. Violence can ALWAYS be predicted if you pay attention. For the next couple of days, if not longer, we will watch our person of interest or POI as we say in the program."

Kyrain absorbed the information like a sponge. There were so many new things in the world and he had barely gone a half hour out of Clarksville where he had spent most of his life.

"What do we do if it turns out this person is a front man?" Kyrain asked.

"We begin surveillance operations." She said as she reached down on her leg to a pocket near her ankle. Tightly packed into it and padded was a small device. She unfolded it into a camera.

Kyrain nodded. It made sense.

"This camera sends all pictures directly to the US government path registry for recognition. Once we identify all persons and we get a job threat level, we adjust accordingly. If this job escalates beyond Level 3, we pull back. I'm only qualified to level 3 jobs, but even then I might pull back even at 2 because I have a trainee. If this is just a thief as indicated in the warrant, we will make the apprehension." Eclipse explained.

Content with the information he had recieved, Kyrain read over the warrant a few more times and looked at the POI's picture. In the next half an hour they reached their scheduled stop. The driver was paid and they moved to the Trader Joe's right next to it.

They walked into the store and found a manager. Once Eclipse showed her credentials and after a suprisingly polite conversation that didnt seem the down to business brutish sterotype of hunters, they were shown to maintenance area that had a set of stairs and ladder than led to the roof.

Once out of the roof, to Kyrain's shock, Eclipse just sat down, laid back, and crossed a leg over her knee and began to wait.

"Uh....Ma'am? What are we doing?" He asked.

"Waiting. Sit down and wait. We keep a low profile on arrival in case there is surveillance over the area. We need to wait for the human condition to kick in. Keep watching the sky and looking around. Tap your right temple. Your mask has built in binoculars. Look for anyone constantly watching this area. Keep your sensory skill open too." She said.

"Yes ma'am." Kyrai said as he did as instructed