Rise of the Omnimage

Kyrain and Nyx saw them coming from a ways off. The last few days they had noticed a rotation of people watching the house and them almost all the time.

Kyrain had a few clever ideas that quite frankly surprised Nyx at their effective simplicity. They already had a baited trap. Everyone knew the compensation that US government and the guild paid out to adventurers of the guild. So with two cripples with severe looking wounds, the payout must have been nice.

Kyrain took it a step further. He not only had a small safe delivered to the house, but asked a money truck to stop by and pretend to drop off money while the group was watching the house.

Kyrain also opened a rift to the Clarksville jail and set up an arrangement with the police that he could just drop wanted people directly into the cell they designated specifically for him to do it with the request they go into the cell bound if possible, with all evidence being sent from the program to their office in the usual time frames. Kyrain naturally agreed.

It was a small group of four and they came from multiple different angles. They didn't want them to rush the house as a group so Kyrain left a window open in plain view to try and funnel them in one at a time seeing the path of least resistance.

They still split up and circled the house, which suited Nyx and Kyrain just fine. Nyx froze one of the people long enough for her to sneak over and knock him out by a swift strike to his carotid artery. Meanwhile Kyrain dropped down on another, cutting her path off and draining her core of any aether it had, but was careful not to crush the core while cutting off any air aether to silence her from warning the others.

Once she was cut from her path, she gave up quickly. She was zip tied and dropped into the waiting cell. They would gettheir miranda rights read to them in the jail on arrival per the negotiation too.

Nyx and Kyrain met up back in the house through a rift. They set up decoys in the master bedroom bed as a married couple would look sleeping.

These two did not do the predicted thing and go through a window. Nyx had heard them refuse the window as it was too easy. The apparent leader activated an ability and his flesh began to flatten and stretch allowing him to unlock the door and slowly move inside.

As he entered, Nyx accelerated the time of the wooden floor beneath his feet and with a snap, he fell into the floor up to his waist as the one behind startled and jumped back.

"What?! We saw them remodeling this place...how could it have a bad floor?!" The clearly young teen said pushing up with his hands starting to extract himself from the hole and giving up all plans of silence as the floor was loud enough.

He was pushing up, when all of the sudden his arms went limp like noodles and he slammed his face into the wood with a crack and moan from the impact and his body lost all its control. He couldn't access his path any longer.

His partner behind him, was gone.

"You coward!" He yelled back thinking he was abandoned, but another voice came in its place.

"A letter my dad once sent me had a rule in it about hunting. It's actually the number one rule of hunting. It's make sure that you are in fact the hunter and not the prey." The man said coming into his vision wearing a hunters mask.

The next thing the little thief knew, he was dropped into a cell with the others of his gang.

"Keep an eye on that one, he can change his size and works like that one DC character 0 the rubber limbs." The same masked man said.

"Thank you Erebus. Here is your completion status." The officers said followed by an electionic beep.

Nyx and Kyrain went back to the house and crashed out for the night, job well done.

- Meanwhile -

Austin, TX

Henry Pulsing and his wife Jennifer had a problem on their hands. They had just been appointed the Wardens of Texas and Oklahoma by the current President after a tournament for the job. Henry and Jen possessed extremely potent paths that were, on their own, on parr with the Tidecaller if not stronger in many ways, and even Todd Robinson the former SecDef.

Together as a dual Warden team they were as powerful as Josh and Amy of the Tennessee/Kentucky region. They feared little.

Henry had the path called "Blessing of Thoth." His path gave him the ability to teleport both short and long range to places he had been before. With his path he absorbed information and had an umatched control over aether boasting an insane mind stat allowing him to create physcial constructs with aether.

It was developed and powerful, he could do it insanely quick with the limit only of what he could imagine. It was an absolute nightmare for people especially when paired with his wife's path.

Jen obtained the path called "Sacred flame of Vesta." She had unimaginable powers over flames, but not your average flame. The flames, commonly known as ghost fire, were pale white and translucent. It could burn, should she desire it to burn, but they burn in reverse from the inside out. These flames were incredibly damaging to the undead and those who have commited objective evil as it left mark on them visible only to Jen as a mark of depravity.

However, as her namesake suggests, she could use the flames to heal and comfort in equal measures which had come in handy when she would help out in the hospitals and clinics from time to time when they were swamped.

They were unstoppable in the selection tournament for warden. Between Henry's adaptability, mobility, and ingenuity; their opponents were nearly outmatched with him alone and they were sitting ducks when Jennifer joined the fight making them the clear choice for regional wardens.

After their appointment, they had hoped for a slow learning curve and minimal problems, but that is hardly ever the case. This time, bodies began showing up every morning with their throats cleanly sliced to the bone.

It was always women who were up to nightly activities or had the appearance of those types. The strange thing is, they never had any blood in their bodies either save for the remnants around the wound itself.

Henry and Jen were meeting with the the Texas guild master Neil. Neil was an extremely potent toxin user known as the Hydra for possessing the path of Lernean Hydra from the legend of Hercules that boasted extreme regeneration and beyond venomous.

"These attacks are on a rotation. The first appeared in Boston, then New York, then Miami, New Orleans, now here in Austin. If I were a betting man, Santa Fe would be next followed by Phoenix." Henry said as Neil looked over the reports of the murders.

"I've sent requests to dispatch hunters. I recieved word from Grandmaster Robinson that his highest level hunters are actively working around the nation to figure out anything, but the perpetrator has us feeling like we are chasing shadows Warden." Neil said flipping through the files in his hands.

Jen let out a sigh of frustration feeling a headache coming on, which should not be a thing anymore since both she and her husband regressed in age like everyone else looking in their early 20s. Old aches and pains, injuries, and other maladies had vanished so she knew it was nothing, but a stress headache.

"What clues do we have?" She asked.

Neil closed the files and set them back on the desk, before turning to the Co-Warden.

"From what everyone is theorizing in the Program, it's like they are copying the 1800's Jack the Ripper. That's not even the craziest thing though." Neil said letting the Wardens think and re-engage the conversation.

"There is something more crazy than a copy cat serial murder?" Henry asked not amused by anything they had discussed.

Neil just nodded his head.

"In England, we just recieved word that someone by the name of Morganna appeared who began ripping through the guilds there and seemingly on a vendetta to destroy everything that even may have a connection to, get this, King Arthur and Merlin. If that wasn't bad enough, in Russia there is a necromancer....guess his name." Neil said with a smile that was anything, but happy.

Henry looked at Jen then she spoke after a laugh.

"Don't tell me, Rasputin from Russian history." She continued to giggle, but stopped when Neil just raised his eyebrows.

"You're kidding?" She asked growing extremely serious.

"No, we have confirmed reports about him. He is what the nerds are calling a Litch. He is ripping through Russia and China easily as the corpses that fill those two countries are beyond anything we ever imagined between Stalin, Hitler, and Mao. We were able to identify the corpses from the clothing. Its all the 30s through the 90s." Neil said pulling his phone and forwarding the files to the Wardens who pulled them up then began to shake their heads.

"So...let me get this straight. Are we dealing with the possibility this is the actual Jack the Ripper?" Henry asked flatly.

"That would be the going idea. When they get more data, it will be pushed to the guild masters and the Wardens. The ripper was never caught in the late 1800's and with everything we have seen so far with the system...I wouldn't be suprising if that asshole was back like the other two claim to be. It just scares me as to what South America, Africa, and Australia are dealing with." Neil explained

"Ok...well we will wait for more information and issue a statement with what we have. Perhaps we can force the murderer to change behavior and maybe make a mistake for the hunters." Henry said getting up and shaking hands with the Guild master.

"As always, you both have my support if you just ask. The guild, as always, is at your disposal." Neil said as he headed out.

Jen and Henry looked at each after the guild master left for a long few seconds.

"What in the actual hell?!" They said to eachother at the same time.