The car arrived in a mall parking lot filled almost completely. Two people stepped out; the first, Benjamin Arys, a tall, but somewhat lanky thirty-something year old Greco-American man and the other, Claire Voight, an averaged-sized dark haired (though it had probably been dyed; her real hair color is a mystery even to her coworkers) Canadian woman, whose lean muscle showed that she was definitley the more athletic of the two. A police helicopter circled them from above. They had traced the theft of the Iranian ambassador's strong box to this unremarkable mall in Raleigh, North Carolina.

"Really, a mall? God damn it, I hate the mall," she commented sharply.

"Look, as representatives of Interpol, it's our job to track down high-risk targets, and this sometimes lead us to places we don't want to go, even of that means the mall. I'm sorry if this fact inconveniences you," he retorted.

"Shut up, Ben."

He sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"Omni, we're in public. Use my callsign. You can't just go shouting my name around like that."

"Fine, whatever, Spectre" Omni said distastefuly.

"Hey! Stop messing around out there, and fet thr wily bastard before he slips away again!" A British voice, the voice of their other partner, agent Caleb Burns, or in the field known as X-Calibre, said on the comm lines of the helicopter into their ear pieces.

"Right, err, sorry, X-Calibre.

"What's the situation?" Claire asked.

"I've notified security. They're aware that there is a criminal hiding in there. But as we don't know what he looks like, so play things normal until the two of you can find and apprehend him with minimal collateral damage," X-Calibre instructed.

"Standard track and grab. Simple Enough," Omni stated confidently.

"Watch yourselves. We don't have info on what he can do yet. I'll scan the area from above and see what I can find. If things get too hot in there, I'll provide cover fire," X-Calibre said.

The rustling of him readying his sniper rifle echoed in over the comm line.

"I can handle myself. You guys just stick to the plan and we'll catch him," Omni affirmed.

And with that, she finished stretching, turned the safety off on her pistol, and headed inside. Spectre tucked a tablet into his carry-on bag and quicky scurried to catch up to Omni.

The mall was not a large one, having only a couple department stores and a few stretches of miscellaneous shops. But, despite its smaller size, it was still densely populated...something that would be problematic if and when fighting broke out. Spectre pulled out his tablet and its various screens began changing and performing operations without him even having to touch its interface.

"The trace on the ambassador's stolen strong box indicates that our thief is on a bench near the food court, presumably waiting for a client," Spectre began.

"Good. I'm going to head there now. How quickly can you get hooked up to the security system? I could use a reliable camera feed," Omni asked.

"I'm already there. I finished syncing with their network as you spoke," Spectre boasted, taking pride in his work.

"Yes, yes, we get it; you're a computer geek," she said dismissively.

"Computer Guru," he corrected her.

"Eh, semantics. In the end you're still a nerd," she taunted.

"Whatever, Omni. Just go get the target. I'll wait here and assist you with my camera feeds. I'll be of much more use to you staying put anyway," Spectre explained.

"Sure you will..." Omni muttered before leaving him by the entrance and heading off to the food court.

Upon arrival, it was a densely packed area from the oncoming lunch rus. It was, certainly a bold choice to hide in broad daylight in around heavy crowds, but unfortunately for Omni, that boldness was rooted in cleverness.

"Alright, Spectre, I don't see shit. What am I looking for?" she prompted, rather callously into her comm link.

"Curious... I see him on  four different cameras right now. He is wearing a leather jacket and a bright red baseball cap. Frankly he sticks out like a sore thumb. Either he is an amateur, or he is taunting us."

"Well he's not here! Your cameras must be wrong!"

"My electronics don't mess up.  Check again. He's on that bench by the stairs, no more than twenty feet away from you," Spectre emphasized.

"For the record, I see him too. He's not exactly inconspicuous," X-Calibre chimed in.

"I don't see anyth-," she began.

"No. Shut up and use that oversized brain of yours. He must be able to hide from you somehow. Just go to the bench, you'll figure the rest out. But he's there. Trust me,"

"Okay...whatever you say," Omni said unenthusiastically and made her way to the bench.

She saw nothing out of the ordinary at first as she approached, so she decided to plop herself down on the bench, making an effort to be as obtrusive as possible. There were some vibrations to her right, and she heard the sound of a faint grunt. She still could not see anything out of the ordinary, but she knew he was there. And he could hide from her, maybe, but she still had an ace up her sleeve.

Omni took a deep, controlled breath, shut her eyes, and held this for a moment. With a slow, smooth exhale, she released the mental blocks she put on herself, and let go of all inhibitions. When her eyes opened back up, she could see the world around her in all of its truest entirety.  The crowds of people before her were intricate moving systems of veins, muscle, and bone lit up by complex electrical networks all working together in harmony. Colors flashed all around like a luminescent rainbow, indicating the various emotions of the crowds. The finer machinations of everything in the area became known to her. The blueprints of the universe.

She focused her attention on one of the security cameras and understood the beauty in how every part came together to form this machine; she could even see the faint anomaly in the system that represented Spectre's impressive wireless hack of the camera feed. Scanning the area, she detected a silent beeping coming from underneath a nearby garbage can and understood every part of its source device: the outer bulb, the wiring, and even the tiny circuit board synced with a G.P.S. that allowed them to trace their target to the mall in the first place. It was something that would otherwise be nigh invisible to the naked eye, but not for her. The Iranian ambassador's strongbox had been located.

"I've found it," she whispered to her peers in as subtle manner as possible.

With that, there was a stirring next to her. She turned her attention back to the spot adjacent to her, and saw the outline of a figure, as if he were sitting in the shadows, and was someone who did little to reveal any emotion. He had managed to perfectly embody the term "still and silent as the grave". His penchant for being inconspicuous made it so that she looked right at him over a dozen times and never even began to notice his presence. To hide in plain sight us the most deceptive feat of stealth. She confirmed this was her target and so decided to be the first to speak up.

"This game of hide and seek is over."

The figure turned his attention to her, and he suddenly became as visible as the rest of the crowd. His body flashed a dark red and then yellow, indicating anger, frustration, and even a bit of fear. But it was brief, as this man seemed to have a very collected head about him, and even being found by Interpol was little more than a mere annoyance to him. The reds and the yellow colors then faded and in their limelight combined to form a vibrant orange, representing energy, enthusiasm, adventure, and passion. A smirk ran across his face.

"Actually, babe, our game is just about to begin..." he challenged.

A faint southern accent hugged his words and a full grin was now on his face.

Fortunately for Omni, she was well on guard and managed to procure but a moment's reaction as the thief quickly lunged at her with a stun gun. At the precise right moment she deflected it with her right arm, only taking a brief shock to her side. It was enough of an effort where she wouldn't be paralyzed, but it still hurt like hell. Shrugging off the pain, she countered with a right hook, but he too seemed to be no stranger to fighting and easily blocked her wide punch, countering with a fist to her gut. She spat out all her breath in a gasp of pain as his fist connected. Out of reflex, she reached for her sidearm, but a light fingered thief he was, and he snatched it away before she could get a hold of it. Once it was out of her grasp, he pistol-whipped her in the side of the head in retaliation. While she wailed out with pain and dropped to the ground bleeding, he took this opportunity to run off towards the crowd and make his getaway.

"Omni... did you just get hit? I mean are you okay, but you actually just got hit?" a surprised X-Calibre asked, unable to hide the slight amusement in his voice.

"Claire! Talk to us!" a concerned Spectre clamored.

A moment passed and she groaned on the comms.

"Shut up... It was two wild blows, neither of which had any real form or technique. Unpredictable brawls like that... they're harder to stop," she spat.

"Sorry," they apologized.

Omni looked up and saw no sign of her mark, and her vision was blurry....But she had to focus.

"Shit! If we lose sight of him again we may lose lose him for good!" X-Calibre warned .

Omni shivered, despite the warm trickle of blood crawling down the side of her head.  Her senses became perturbed and muddied. For all her coarseness, she always struggled with pain.

Immediately, she resumed pursuit of her target, doing her best to ignore her injury for now. The crowds, having witnessed the events and cleared space... and began to panic when they saw him aim a pistol at her. Omni froze in place but stared him down intensely. She weighed her various options but each seemed more bleak than the last. With little places to hide behind cover, it was clear that at this range, any shot would be lethal, if he pulled that trigger. By this point, they had made quite a commotion and most of the mall had eyes on them. Security guards began taking notice and slowly called for back up on their radios, while the common folk ran for safety.

"Caleb... help me out here..." she whispered into her comm link.

"I've got him, dead to rights," X-Calibre replied, ready to fire.

"We still need him alive..." Spectre protested.

"And we need her alive more. Worry not, I've got this," X-caliber assured with a cool confidence.

He took a deep breath and steadied his aim. Through the roof of the mall he peered at his his target. Conrete and stone meant nothing to his gaze. With a squeeze of the trigger, the bullet spiraled out of his rifle and broke through the roof of the mall, hitting the target in his leg. A suppressor quelled any sound from the gun that might further spook the masses. That was the last thing X-Calibre wanted, especially with Omni still down there. The shot was enough to stun and injure the thief, but had slowed down enough in passing through the roof that it was not enough to disable.

The thief dropped to one knee and grimaced in pain. Omni seized this opportunity to go back on the offensive and make a break for him, but a hardened professional he was indeed. Favoring his good leg, he quickly stood back up and instead of shooting the pistol at Omni, he unleashed several rounds above her. Glass from the ceiling shattered, causing large shards to fall between them She managed to jump back in time to avoid becoming a human pincushion. The clamor of broken glass and gunshots alerted the crowd to the maximum, and everyone began running around wildly in a panic searching for the nearest exit. Taking this distraction as a chance to get away, the thief turned tail and hobbled into the stampeding masses, and almost seemed to vanish instantaneously.

As the crowed screamed and ran around in a panic, Omni's face twitched in discomfort... And then she let out a yelp, almost reflexively so, immediately dropping to her knees, throwing her hands over her ears. Her eyes clenched shut as hard as they could. It had become as if someone had taken an instrument and began playing loud, sharp, discordant notes directly into her head. The sound of hundreds of panicked emotions filled with adrenaline and fear absolutely overwhelmed her senses; to be able to read, feel, and entirely understand every single person in the area at their most fundamental parts in this heightened moment, not only made her connect to all of that on an intrinsic level, but it made subjected her to massive senory overload. Tears derived from a thousand panicked emotions streamed from her shut eyes.

"CLAIRE!" Spectre shouted in the comms.

"Claire! Are you shot? Talk to me! Damn it, that's an order!
Come on Claire! Snap out of it and talk to me!" Caleb cried, dropping most senses of formality in concern of the safety for his friend.

She heard them but couldn't process their words among the chorus of  fear echoing in her mind.

A moment passed and she muttered to herself through gritted teeth. She was stronger than this, and she knew it. This wasn't like when she was a kid and had no self-control. She gathered herself and began taking deep breaths from her diaphragm, slowly lowering her hands.

"Stop feeling, and think!" she repeated the mantra that had been ingrained in her over her youth.

It was something she could always tell herself to help regain control. After a few moments of this, she was able to collect herself and stand back up, facing the waves of people without being phased.

"Omni, you okay?" Spectre asked.

"I'm fine," she shrugged it off.

"Good... I knew you would be..."

Omni huffed, "Do we still have eyes?"

"I lost sight of him in the chaos. It was odd, he was there and then he just vanished...." a bemused X-Calibre noted.

"So he turns invisible?" Omni pondered.

"I don't think it's quite so simple. I still see him with my cameras. If were invisible he wouldn't show up," Spectre commented.

Omni pondered in thought for a moment.

"When I first managed to finally get a good read on him, I noticed an anomaly- some very wild and rapid brain activity. I think he's some sort of psyhic, a telepath, perhaps, manipulating our own minds... It's just a hunch, but I theorize he's tricking what our eyes are telling our brain. While we may physically be able to see him, he overwrites it so our brains regard that as useless, nothing-out-of-the-ordinary information so we don't notice him sitting there right next to us. To us, he's just another blank face in the crowd," Omni explained.

"That makes sense, actually. It would explain why I can see him on my cameras but you two can't; he's aware of your presence and can manipulate your attention. Omni, you were entrapped the moment you walked by him, and X, you gave yourself away after, well, you shot him,"

It was at that moment that security guards flooded the food court and began chauffeuring people. Several of them surrounded Omni with weapons drawn. She held her arms out passively and spoke in a calm and concise manner.

"Listen. I am not the one you want. I'm bleeding down the side of my head and just had a pistol shoved in my face a moment ago. Do I really seem like the one at fault here? No,"

"Shut up!" one of the guards shouted.

"Listen! My name is Claire Voight, and I work for Interpol. You spoke to my captain already. My team and I are here tracking a high-profile thief. He can very easily hide among the crowds and vanish from sight within a literal blink of an eye. So every second you stand about here is another second he gets closer to escaping!"

With a bold thrust, she pulled her badge off her necklace and tossed it to the the guards. The guards stood there for a moment, hesitant, but ready for action if need be. They examined the badge for a moment, then made a quick call on their radio. One of them spoke quietly to what seemed to be the head of security.

"Sir... Her story does check out. Not long before the commotion went down, your office did get a message from R.P.D. that Interpol would be sending some Trackers,"

The head of security thought for a second and grunted as he lowered his weapon.

"Just get him out of my mall as fast as possible. We'll already have to shutdown for the day," the chief sighed.

An impatient Omni raised an eyebrow at him, and he looked away petulantly.

"We need your help. Stop anyone else from leaving the mall. Help me catch him. Spectre, do you still have eyes on him?" Omni commanded.

"Barely. He keeps shifting around, and with all the people in a panic it makes it hard, but I know he hasn't left." he replied on the comm.

"Good. If you guys could make sure no one leaves and the rest of you watch my back while I scan the crowds for our thief," Omni addressed the guards, having now essentially taken over security detail.

The [former] guard in charge grunted reluctantly in acknowledgement as they all went about their duties quickly. Several pulled out walkie talkies and called more guards in, to handle the doors while the rest provided, in laymen's terms, security detail for Omni.

Cooly and confidently she made an effort to look at each person in the crowd, as the guards began grouping and detaining them. It was hard to discern him out of the crowd from an emotional sense like before, as there were too many people with all sorts of emotions that his was drowned out. But she wasn't looking for hormonal or chemical reads anyway. No, instead she observed peoples' legs. And after a brief moment she found a hastily bandaged leg, inside of which, she could detect an anomaly that came to her like a blip on a metal detector: part of a bullet fragment, specifically the bullet fragment from a Remington M24 sniper rifle, the same one X-Calibre was using.

"Here!" she shouted, closing her eyes in blind faith and jumping into the middle of the waves of people, tackling one of them.

She opened her eyes to see she had found her mark again despite his illusion. The people around her immediately jumped out of the way clearing a space as she charged through. But the moment her body made contact with his, his technique changed from random brawler of a petty thief, to the highly trained martial arts maneuvers of a master criminal. Using her own momentum against her, with a flick of his wrists, and a quick shift of his body weight, she was tossed through the air several feet away, hitting the ground with a hard thud. Stunned once again, she coughed several times, but this time a smirk ran across her face. He had just given her the key to beating him, but for now it was the guards' turn to act.

Two of them retaliated almost immediately, pulling out their batons and swinging with broad strokes. He grabbed the wrist of the first guard, pulled out the baton, twisted the guard's arm around so he flipped to the ground, and finished this combo with a baton strike to the poor guard's stomach, causing a visceral scream and writhe of pain in reaction. The second guard charged him, and he responded with a baton strike to the stomach, causing the guard to keel over. Another group had now all but closed the distance, with many other guards following not far behind. He grappled the stunned guard in front of him like a body shield, and then quickly pulled out the guard's taser, firing it at the new group. The one in front dropped to the ground like a sack of bricks and writhed in place as electricity cracked through his body.

"Damn it, I can't find a shot. That bastard's concentration is insane to maintain an illusion on me in all of that. I'm afraid I won't be able to provide cover fire right now," X-Calibre apologized.

"X-Calibre, leave this to us for now. If the area clears and he forgets about you, then you can take a shot. But for now, just keep an eye on things for us," Spectre prompted, and X-Caliber agreed.

Omni slowly pushed herself back up to see  two more would-be pursuing guards chase the thief down one of the halls... Only to have him jump out from a small group of cowering civillians they just ran past, and quickly felled them with his close quarters expertise. He gathered up their tasers and looked back at Omni who was about to begin her own pursuit. With a squeeze of both triggers, four electrified prongs raced through the air towards her. However, at the last moment, the security chief managed to lunge his way in front of her, taking the shock from the tasers in her place.

A faint expletive could be heard from the thief. She looked down at the security chief thankfully, but remorsefully. The thief dropped the used tasers and ran off further down the hall.  Omni gathered herself and pursued him as fast as she could into the department store at the end.

Once inside, due to the clutter of clothing, mannequins, people, displays, and everything else one would expect to see in such a store, he quickly gave her the slip. But that was part of the plan. She realized that while he may be skilled, he is also becoming predictable.

"Do you have control of systems and operations?" Omni asked Spectre.

"I do now. The rat has entered the maze," he responded cooly.

"No one-liners, please," Omni sighed.

Spectre replied with a dissappointed grunt.

As the thief gave Omni the slip, he ran for another exit in the department store, only to have the metal bars of the security doors come down on all exits and entrances. He kicked the bars in frustration. As Spectre has so eloquently put it, he now truly was trapped like a rat in a maze. Static echoed from the speakers that ran throughout the store, and then Spectre's voice could be heard through it.

"You like that? You can hide, but you can't run!" he taunted.

Omni shook her head.

"Spectre!" she shouted.

"Sorry. He's all yours. Go do your thing. Camera feed last caught him over in the men's department," he publicly announced.

Whispers from the people left in the store took away what silence there was amongst all the commotion.

Omni sighed and began cautiously searching around the store for any signs of him. She had to be extra careful, having lost her sidearm to him, but this didn't worry her too much. During the food court brawls, she noticed that he favored fighting up close with non-lethal tactics. In hindsight he didn't even seriously hurt anyone, only stunned them. It was evident he much preferred flight to fight. Apparently there is some honor among thieves.

Up and down the seemingly endless rows of clothing she searched for him. It's unlikely he had moved very far, and is more likely she has just overlooked him. After ten minutes of looking carefully (though it felt like an eternity) and even going as far as using her ability to understand the very structures of the clothing racks themselves, she finally found a clue... blood drops leading to the internal parts of a rack, the parts that kids normally play in despite their parents' wishes. Omni looked at the spot and then let out a chuckle.

"You don't think I'm stupid do you?" she asked, not expecting answer, but got one anyway.

"Not at all. You've found me twice already. That's two more than the highest record, ever," he mocked, knowing she'd be unable to locate him from just his voice.

She searched the surrounding area until her attention turned to three mannequins on a table modeling clothes. A wry smirk ran across her face. Well, it was as obvious a place to hide as the last one. It's where she would hide if she could go unnoticed and had a penchant for insulting people by using this ability to hide right in front of their faces.

"Spectre. Do you think you can turn on the sprinkler system?  Not everywhere, I just need it over here," she requested.

"My pleasure," Spectre echoed over the intercom.

Immediately water began pouring in the area as if in a heavy rainstorm. Omni studied the statues carefully, observing  not the mannequins themselves, but rather how the water ran off of them. And immediately she saw one that was out of place. Water seemed to cling to it better or be absorbed entirely... Like it was made of thicker clothing, hair, and skin, as opposed to smooth plastic that causes it to run off.

"Found you." she playfully taunted, cracking her knuckles.

He took a deep breath and jumped down from him perch, looking at her face to face.

"Well played," he congratulated respectfully.

"Hiding among statues and coming to life... You're a little Gargoyle, aren't you?" she inquired sarcastically.

"Gargoyle... Is that going to be your new name for me, Omni? Seriously, what is it with you Tracker types and giving people code names. Omni, Spectre, X-Calibre... all a little silly isn't it?"

"I can't say I agree with it, but it works," she shrugged.

"Really? Oh well. Have fun with that. I had fun playing with you all, but I have places to be."

He readied himself to leave. Omni straightened her posture implying he would literally have to get through her to leave.

"Look... It's against my way to hurt a woman...unless it's absolutely necessary. Err, sorry about the pistol bit by the way. Heat of the moment and all. Anyway, I've beaten you in a fight twice already. Don't make me go three-for-three, dear. I was holding back before,"

"So was I," Omni retorted with a quiet confidence.

"Is that so? Hmm. Shame. Don't say I didn't warn you, though," he warned her as he took a fighting stance.

Omni smiled and instantly recognized this stance as one of the more advanced forms of Krav Maga. She already knew he preferred Krav Maga though, as her plan of tackling him earlier revealed this, and it worked to her advantage.

As soon as he made his first strike, he was doomed. She understood every aspect of that specific technique; every bit of its positioning, the application of strength, the distribution of weight, the central points of the strike, and even the closing position that best sets up for another strike. He was better off using wild, unpredictable brawling like in their first encounter. The moment he brought something highly technical with lots of aspects to explore, learn, and understand, is the moment he lost any advantage he had.

The melee exchange was short, much to his surprise. He couldn't understand what was happening. Despite her obvious lack of formal style, she knew exactly where to move and when. Every move he made was blocked, countered, or avoided altogether. Wherever his fist was, her arm was there to block. When he went for a jab, her fist met his elbow. When he tried a grapple, she easily maneuvered out of it and knocked his feet out from underneath him, finishing with a fist to his face.

He hit the ground with a hard thud. The pooling water did little to soften the fall. His eyes were shut as he coughed out his breath. He tasted blood on a split lip and heard a clicking noise with something tightening around his wrist. He opened his eyes back up to see she had handcuffed herself to him. Instead of anger or despair at being caught, he started laughing out loud. She amused him greatly.

"Well there's no escape for me now I guess!" he chuckled, admiring her skill.

"You're going to prison, you know," Omni said, stern.

"You're not the first woman I've been handcuffed to, you know," he retorted with a wink. Omni rolled her eyes at him and went to punch him again.

"Omni! That's enough!  He's down!" Spectre interrupted her from over the intercom.

"Ugh," she rolled her eyes and returned to a reserved stance.

"You know, I'm starting to pick up on your patterns, just like you did mine, love," he asked in a pedantic tone.

"Trust me, you gargoyle, I don't need any special abilities to tell me you're lecherous,"

"Ah you've got me there," he admitted.

Their banter, however, was cutshort by X-Calibre over the comms.

"Good job, Omni, Spectre. We have new orders though. Higher ups want us to take him back to Interpol for further questioning. I'll see you outside," he closed out, and at that moment all of the security doors opened back up as Spectre disconnected from the computer system.

Omni looked at her prisoner with  discontent and groaned.

"Get up, then." she said, pulling him up and heading towards the exit, dragging him along.

He hobbled along behind her, still injured from their fight, especially considering he had been shot in one leg.

"I've always wanted to go to France. And I get to meet the rest of the Trackers? Getting arrested just got even more interesting. You know, I hear it's the country of romance. Is that true, Omni?" he teased.

"Shut the hell up," she grunted as she pulled him out the door.

"Whatever you want, lovely" he smiled, intentionally annoying her.

"God I hate the mall..." she muttered.