Rise of the Omnimage

Whatever Kyrain was expecting over the next few days was not rotating shifts of watching a store and parking lot with the surrounding area.

A few hours after their arrival Eclipse set up small short range cameras all over the Target for monitoring. The amount of items she kept in her pockets and in her bag were astounding.

A small tent went up behind a HVAC system on the roof hidding it from the main points of observation where they watched the cameras and then they would slink out and watch the surrounding area.

The back of Kyrain's head was getting sore from the slaps to the back of it from growing what Eclipse called "complacent." He would grow so bored of looking at everything. To keep his mind engaged, he started counting different cars that went by on the road and people watching.

What she said would be a couple days turned into a whole week until something finally changed. He was on his break dozing in the night when she nudged him.

"Look." She said pointing the camera.

There was a flicker on the high resolution. A shadow moved unnaturally along the ground independently of the back lot streetlight.

"Ma'am, aren't we going to move in?" Kyrain whispered.

She shook her head. "Not yet. We will let what's happening continue. We will just follow him when they are done and see where he goes and what he does. We want to make sure it's just greed and doesn't go any further than that." She said.

Kyrain continued to watch the screens. With a small flash a small beam of light projected from the shadow onto the lock of a door. The brief light revealed the gaunt face of a man. The lock melted and fell away allowing for the latch and deadbolt to slide back easily with nothing stopping it. Then he went inside the store.

"Let's move. He came from the far side. We will put ourselves on the other side and see if we can't follow him."

Kyrain looked at the other roof and created a rift on the floor in front of them that allowed them to crawl onto the roof on Target.

A silent breath out in a laugh came out of Eclipse. "Useful." She said quietly and then continued to move silently to the other side of the building and waited.

It was approximately a half hour before a shadow slinked out of the back door it had gone in this time with a high priced wagon filled with boxes.

"Keep up with that shadow if you can." She said as she dove into a shadow and vanished.

Kyrain quickly shook off his suprise and watched the shadow head across the street to the college. He opened a rift to the roof he could see and dove through. He found the shadow again and watched it move to the White Bridge Pike road. Kyrain saw the man come out of the shadow and get into a car after loading everything, but the wagon.

The car began driving away down the road, it turned on the highway. Kyrain dropped into a rift and had the opening appear on the top of the car where he waited half in, half out as the car sped along. Eventually it took an exit and went down a road before turning off at an autoshop. Kyrain redirected his rift to the other side of the street to be able to watch from the back slope of a roof.

He watched a bunch of cardboard boxes be offloaded and stored into the shop. The man got into the car and drove off after locking the shop. Kyrain however, didn't follow. He went to the shop and found a window where he could see in. He watched inside for about five minutes. After not seeing any movement, he opened a rift and went inside.

Looking at different containers and boxes. Some were labeled as Acetone, Painthinner, draino, and even ammonia. He had looked through some of his dad's old HAZMAT textbooks and recognized some of the chemicals as being required for the creation of methamphetamine.

His eyes went wide and he opened a rift out as fast as possible. Meth labs were always explosive and extremely poisonous to breathe. He took a good last look around, remembering the location before he took a rift back to their makeshift camp on the roof of Trader Joe's.

"Find anything interesting?" Eclipse asked with a smug tone.

"Yes ma'am, I went in after he left and found a ton of chemicals I believe are what my dad's old HAZMAT books called precursors to methamphetamine ma'am." Kyrain explained

"Good! What's the next step?" Eclipse asked.

Kyrain crossed his arms and looked down.

"Going off what you said to me earlier. We still need to figure out if he is working alone or if it's a bigger operation." Kyrain suggested.

"Top points. Our next course of action would have been further observation, but luckily I'm here and my path let's me follow and observe extremely efficiently. This guy has a few other people he has deal for him, but he is no real threat to anyone. He is too high on his own supply to get what he needs properly and gets too much. We move tonight to get him." Eclipse said starting to load the equipment from the makeshift camp back into her bag.

She dropped back into a shadow and a few minutes later returned with the cameras.

"We are going to go back to the autobody shop then walk away couple blocks down the road and get him." Eclipse said.

Kyrain furrowed his brows behind his mask. "Ma'am, how did you get back here like I did if you don't mind me asking?

A giggle escaped Eclipse. "I rode your shadow of course. I didn't actually know if it would work until I tried it. Turns out you actively have to nullify things you want to stop. Convenient to say the least. Once I followed our POI I shadow jumped back to you, then caught a ride. Again, nifty little ability that portal thing." She said.

She zipped her bag up then stood. "Mind opening another back to the roof across from the autobody shop?"

Kyrain nodded and waved his hand creating the dark rift showing the other side. He walked through followed by Eclipse to the rooftop.

She darted off silently moving so that Kyrain could keep up, until they reached run down house with junk and trash all over. They snuck up to the window.

"Do that thing you did at the shop where you got in passed the doors?" She said as she dropped back into his shadow. He found an unblocked window then peered in. After checking for movement or any obvious traps, he opened a rift in and stepped through.

The first think Kyrain noticed was the stench. It physically hurt his nostrils it was so bad. He held his composure, but only barely. With the mask over his face, he couldn't even plug his nose. He tried to breathe out of his mouth, but he could taste the stench. He vowed to develop a power to destroy smells in the air.

Kyrain opened up his aether sense which spread throughout the house and helped them locate their target, he was asleep in the room next to where they were in what resembled a living room, but was hard pressed to be that with the amount of trash.

"Do you want me to lock his path down ma'am?" Kyrain whispered. Eclipse looked over at him.

"What does that entail?" She asked quietly back.

"No path at all. Anyone under tier 5 once I'm, what I call, locked on them, they can't use their path." He replied.

"Do it." She said as she slowly made her way to the room he indicated to her their target was in.

Kyrain extended a tendril of antimatter and enveloped their target. As soon as it locked into place he gave a thumbs up.

Eclipse darted into the room and had Gregory Eastman on his face with only a squeal leaving his mouth. A pair of handcuffs went on and then she spoke.

"Gregory Lee Eastman. You are under arrest for Grand Larceny and are suspected of drug possession, manufacturing, and distribution. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to have a lawyer present when questioned, if you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you. Do you understand?" Eclipse said.

Rather than respond Gregory scrunched his face and moved his hands trying to do something.

"What have you done to me?! I can't use my path?!" He screeched in terror.

"Do you understand your rights?" She simply replied with shaking him a little to get his attention.

The man nodded like crazy this time oddly a blubbering mess which Kyrain chalked up to drug use.

My name is Agent Eclipse of The Hunters. We have a warrant for you. The last thing you need to worry about is your path. Now stand up and walk." She said lifted the man to his feet and pushing him out of the house.

Once outside, she sat him on the porch steps and made a call. In about 10 minutes a few police cars showed up.

"Good evening officers. I am Agent Eclipse working on authority of this warrant for the capture alive of Gregory Lee Eastman. He has been arrested for grand larceny, but i suspect that he has been making, using, in possession of, and ether distributing or assisting in the distribution of methamphetamine based on the chemicals from this address." she said showing them pictures obtained from the investigation.

The officers looked over her license, the warrant, and the pictures. "Thank you Agent Eclipse." Said the senior officer with two stripes on his arm after running her license to verify she was in fact a legal hunter.

"I assume these will be available to our department by the usual timelines between the program and law enforcement?" He asked.

Eclipse nodded. "Absolutely officer. Upload then forward to your office will be done within 8 hours per Program operating procedure. You will also have access to my body camera footage for the case within that forwarding of information."

The officers shook her hand and collected Gregory who was drooling from shock at still being locked down under Kyrain, even though he didn't know it was him.

"He has a light manipulation path. He can create beems of light hot enough to cut locks like a torch and can create a sort of shadow active camouflage." Eclipse said.

The officers turned on a mirror feature on the glass in the back of the car that would stop beams of light and stuffed him in.

"Thank you again Agent." The police officer said placing his thumb on a pad held by Eclipse. With a beep, she thanked the officer and they both left.

"What was that last part ma'am? Kyrain asked.

"That was police confirmation that the job was completed and the hunted suspect was apprehended and delivered. It's also how I just got paid.' She responded happily.

She began walking to the road as another car pulled up.

"This is our ride. It will be a longer one. We don't have a job until we reach Virginia." She said getting in.