Amirah has been acting...odd lately.

Dray sneaked a glance from over his mug. Amirah was busy typing away at her computer, chatting to someone else from the looks of things. It was an early Saturday morning and Amirah apparently opted for a day off today. Ever since 'Omnipresence' made their revival known, Amirah had been acting rather strangely. Randomly running out of the house after a text message, spending most of her time on her personal laptop and brushing off his questions. Well, her excuses were really only worrying to Dray. But for Technus, looking over his arch nemesis Talon, he could piece together a possible reason.

But...why would Talon want to go after Omnipresence?

Dray knew how dangerous Omnipresence was of course. Forgoing any individual identity, they instead acted as one unified group. They were scarily efficient, 9 times out of 10 trying their hardest to avoid any sort of conflict or even contact with people outside the group. Technus knew this well. They had been a pain in his side for far too long while they were still active. Intercepting his robberies and putting their name on them was especially irritating for a villain of rising notoriety like he was. So, he came up with a solution.

After monitoring Omnipresences' activity on the Web, he eventually found the backdoor in their communications and infiltrated them. After which, he found out about the big haul they were going after next. An exceptionally large weapons cache. At that point in time, Dray was a middling force. He was neither as powerful as he is now nor was he weak, having amassed a small squadron for physical endeavors. He thought of numerous ways to interrupt and possibly get rid of them for good but he decided against it, noting that he didn't know anything about the group and thus could not come up with a concrete plan. So instead, he filed a simple noise complaint.

He wished he could've been there to see the look on their faces when the police arrived with heroes in tow. Apparently, they were just on patrol and ran into each other. A most unfortunate coincidence for Omnipresence. As it turned out, their 'team' were really just a bunch of nameless mercenaries. The true brains behind the team were 4 black hat hackers who met up on one of the various dark web forums that villains visited. They hired the mercenaries on the promise of riches and power which they were definitely skilled at obtaining. However, the mercenaries were never really keen on loyalty it seemed as the black hat hackers suddenly disappeared off the Internet despite being so active before. It didn't seem possible for them to suddenly be back and yet apparently, here they were.

It might just end up being some copycat. Some very talented copycats but still copycats nonetheless.

Dray had not received any news from Emi on whether his operations were interrupted by Omnipresence as they were before which made him inclined to believe these were not the same people. Still, that doesn't explain why the more confrontational Talon would want to go after them. He looked over at Amirah again and watched as she huffed and messed her hair up in annoyance. ...Let's snoop around for a bit.

Dray walked over to Amirah and sat next to her.

"What's got you so...stressed? Difficult client?" he asked, a bit of his actual worry for Amirah's health leaking out. Amirah merely sighed in response.

"No...I'm...helping a friend with a report."

"Oh, the reporter?"

"Yeah, Jana. She's doing a report on the new Omnipresence threat."

"Ah cool..."

Dray looked over at her 'report' and quickly scanned the document. An underlying message of 'I know nothing' was quite evident. Dray sighed.

"Yeah...Omnipresence back in the day was apparently very slippery. I am...actually kinda impressed," Dray laughed. "Imagine losing a thousand weapons because your employees can't recognize a fake email." That little jab earned Dray a giggle. Dray smiled back in response.

Dray's feelings on Amirah were still a bit...complex. He wanted to support his superhero wife as much as he could but he realized quite early that the best thing for him to do...was turn himself in. He couldn't help her by eliminating villains and villain groups because those achievements would be held against Technus. He couldn't provide Talon any new gear or equipment as it would mean risking his identity as just this simple freelance scriptwriter working from client to client. He also kept having conflicting feelings on his relationship as a whole.

The two of them had been through a lot in the early days of their relationship that forged the almost unreasonably loyal relationship they have today. One particular incident was the whole reason Dray decided to marry her despite fully understanding how dangerous being at his side really was. Even now, after finding out his own wife was his biggest threat, he was still stubborn enough to want to keep her around. Whether out of his own selfishness or longing, he still wanted his wife with him. Dray scoffed internally. If Mirah knew about the kind the person I am...would she stay too?

At the end of the day, Dray was still a villain to his core. In spite of all his caution with hurting others, it was more of a way to save himself trouble rather than out of some righteousness or 'code'. Going around and leaving a blood trail behind him meant more focused, coordinated attacks against him. While he doubt the first few attacks would faze his operation, the Hero Association getting more aggressive against him would mean he was running out of time. And he needed to buy as much time as he could, even if it meant years before he could enact his plan. For now he'll act as the big scary cyber thief that was only really in it for the money of course.

Dray sat next to Amirah and wrapped his arm around her waist only for her to flinch away. He could feel his heart drop to his stomach. ...huh? She...she never did that before.

"Wh-what's the matter?'

The two of them stare at each other for 3 whole seconds before Amirah finally broke the silence. "Sorry...sorry I'm just...a little pent up right now," Amirah replied with a laugh. Dray felt a little like crying but held back. "You don't have to help your friend right?"

"No. But...I owe her so, I'm going to."

The two of them sat awkwardly for the next few seconds before Amirah snuggled up to Dray, moving down slightly to rest her head on his shoulder. "Sorry." she whispered. Dray covered his mouth. This scene of his wife being so vulnerable around him made him smile uncontrollably. However, he thought that it probably wouldn't be too appropriate to do so. I can't deny that having the Talon acting like this around me is...exciting. Dray reattempted his daring stunt from earlier, successfully putting an around Amirah's waist and pulling her in.

They both sat comfortably together while Amirah continued to do research on Omnipresence. Or, more accurately, as Amirah struggled to find anything about Omnipresence. Dray quietly watched, unsure if he should really be contributing anything to begin with, lest his cover is blown. After about an hour and a half of them enjoying each other's company, Dray gets a text message on his 'work' phone. He read the message and clicked his tongue.

"Sorry Mirah, I need to head to my office now. A client wants to chat apparently."

"Oh...I was kinda hoping we could spend today together."

Dray felt in an immense tightness in his heart which he endured to the best of his ability.

"It won't take long, don't worry," he assured. With that, he plucked his backpack from his room and left.

-------

Dray once again dressed as Technus, carrying around his usual two longer melee tasers with him. Emi had called him in earlier for a meeting. A meeting about Omnipresence. Apparently, they wanted to chat with the great Technus themselves. Dray noted that this was completely out of character for the old Omnipresence.

Dray stepped into the meeting room to find his closest employees there, already waiting for his arrival. There was Emi obviously, his secretary that took care in monitoring most of his team's movements. Her short, straight black hair paired with a fox mask of her own was how most people recognized her as she acted like a ghost. Only popping up when someone was done. She stood next to Dray's seat at the head of his massive meeting table. On the right of Dray's seat, Fillian the beastman was seated as well, slowly sipping on cup of black coffee. He was Dray's best and longest employed 'general'. A man nearly 2 meters tall, he was hairy, grew sharp claws made of keratin on both his hands and feet and wore custom-made clothing that could fit his bulky size. Dray noted however, that he always looked eternally tired, perhaps out of his inability to find a proper bed that could fit him.

Directly across from Fillian was Riley, his resident tech genius. While Dray mostly focused on the hacking and networking department, Riley focused her attention on R&D. Technus' custom-made weapons came from her and she was also Dray's 'safety net' during technical online raids. Constantly having someone second-guess your every decision was what kept Dray afloat as he took on more risky scores. She looked up and adjusted her glasses, raising a hand up to greet her boss. Next to her was Dray's third general, Maxie. He was a younger fellow, just barely younger than Dray himself. Maxie was Dray's espionage expert. His powers allowed him to walk through any form of solid matter. He could also carry whatever he was holding with him through walls so long as he concentrated hard enough. Unfortunately for Dray, Maxie's powers had the drawback of making his body numb. Too much use would eventually lead him to lose control of his muscles. As such, he saved Maxie for his more important raids.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Finally, Dray's fourth and last general seated next to Fillain was Eliza, the "Blood Witch". Able to control and puppet anyone that she consumed the blood of, she was Dray's newest member to the team. Her striking red hair and black dress she frequently wore put her apart from her team members more modernised and plain attire.

"Afternoon boss. I heard an old friend wants to chat." Fillian started as Dray sat at his seat.

"You referring to Omnipresence? Did Technus have anything to do with that?" Eliza questioned

"Don't talk about Technus like they're not here." piped up Maxie

"Pfft, you just did." Eliza countered

"Alright shut it." Dray commanded.

Eliza and Maxie stopped bickering and quietly settled back in their seats.

"So, Emi, when will they call?'

"We have to call them, Technus."

"Huh. Bold. Maxie, Eliza, do either of you have anything?"

"Uhm, you can just call me Blood Witch please. I'd rather not spread my name around like that."

Dray slowly turned and looked at Eliza.

"Eliza Zachary. Did you get any useful information from your contacts in Jing Avenue? That place is not too far from your apartment so I assume it was not too difficult for you to try?"

Eliza swallowed.

"No, boss. Omnipresence are a slippery bunch."

Dray could practically hear Emi's smile from behind him but he continued.

"I see. Thank you for your help Eliza. Maxie?"

"Nothing from me either. I kept checking those forums you asked me to and it looked like they either deleted their posts or never had any to begin with. The only discussions on Omnipresence were shock or confusion at their return."

"Hm...then they must be recruiting physically."

"Or, they could be some pre-existing group that took the name of Omnipresence?" Fillian suggested, yawning right after his sentence.

"That seems most likely. They're knowledgeable and skilled, that's for sure. However, the mere fact that they want to contact me means they know the old group at some level."

"Or...maybe the original hackers were never really found? As far as I know they only disappeared but we don't know for certain if they got arrested right?" Riley chimed in, finally looking up from whatever gadget she was tinkering.

"Hm. That's also possible. You've done your research Riley." Dray stretched in his seat, his fox helmet hiding the uncertainty on his face. This could end up bigger than I thought...I hope Amirah is not thinking of doing this alone

"Technus, should we begin the call?" Emi asked.

Dray took a deep breath and nodded. Emi opened up her laptop and followed Omnipresence's instructions on how to contact them. A simple online correspondence through an anonymous chat site that the people 'underground' frequently used. She did all of this on a virtual machine over two VPN's of course. The second Emi selected the call button, someone picked up. A disembodied voice started speaking on the other end.

"Good afternoon Technus. I trust you're free at this current moment."

"Just say what you have to say and leave. I don't have time for this."

"Okay, okay don't worry. I won't be long I just came with...a proposition."

"And what would that be?"

"See, the weapons cache we stole, they were some real premium merchandise. State of the art, designed specifically to incapacitate super-powered individuals."

"So you wanted to chat just so you could brag?"

"Oh no, on the contrary. I actually want some cooperation."

Cooperation? Since when were Omnipresence so buddy-buddy?

"You see, we're not the same Omnipresence as we were before. Well, more accurately, there has been a change in management. When the first Omnipresence were caught and their brains were sold out to the police, those same brains came to me for asylum. I'm putting them to work. In fact, this isn't really about Omnipresence per se but...well, I needed to get your attention somehow without betraying who I am. Omnipresence is my puppet. My name to throw around whenever I want. As of right now, I'm offering you, with the aid of Omnipresence, some...respite."

"Respite?"

"Yes of course. A little bit of breathing room so I could meet you at the top I suppose."

Meet him at the top? Is this guy some bigshot?

"I think, as a show of comradery, I will take out some of your more annoying thorns. Simply put, I'm offering you the head of Talon."

What?

"Are...are you telling me you already killed her?'

"What? No, of course not. You of all people know that's not very simple. What with all the Hero Association's protections on heroes nowadays. Let alone one of their rising stars. I'm offering this to you because...well, you ran into her before didn't you? It won't be long before she shuts you down. You know that much."

So he knew about the weapons raid I conducted a week ago...Who is this guy?

"...Talon can't completely run me into the ground. She's never seemed to be most tech savvy in all our encounters."

"Ah but you see, that doesn't really stop her either now does it? For all your pruning as this untouchable shadow, you're still just a human. You exist. Talon will find you. Besides, why are you so against it anyway? Isn't she starting to become a problem for everyone is our fun little community?"

"If you're planning to get rid of her anyway, why tell me?"

"For your cooperation Technus~ I already said so. I need your competent thieving skills on my side. It helps that your generals are also quite the valuable bunch"

The air in the meeting room felt very stale by that point. The person speaking right now was talking big. Too big for some random run-of-the-mill villain. Dray is hesitant to call their bluff just yet but his annoyance probably felt tangible. His generals all looked at him with a scared look on their eyes. Dray didn't know if it was for the person in front of them or for Dray himself. At this point, he didn't care.

"How exactly are you going to prove you're not some small-fry trying to act tough?"

"Was the weapons stealing not enough? Tsk tsk, alright...I'll give you something a bit more to bite on."

A call could be heard being made. Once they were the done, the voice returned.

"Well, I hope you're going to be watching the news tonight Technus. Please do contact me again if you change your mind."

And with that, the call ended. Dray clenched his fist and clicked his tongue.

"I'm leaving."

"What? Boss, we need to discuss this-"

"No Emi. You handle discussions in the meantime. I'm leaving now."

Dray quickly stood up and left the meeting room, his generals looking on in confusion. I swear, if I find Amirah dea-...if I find Amirah hurt, I find whoever this is and kill them myself.

-------

Dray burst through his apartment door drenched in sweat. Inside he found a surprised looking Amirah eating some soup. Dray heaved a sigh of relief as he walked up to Amirah and kissed the top of her head.

"Wha- hey! Urgh, go take a shower! Why are you so sweaty anyways?!"

"I-...whoo, I ran back. Sorry." Dray used this rare height advantage to hug her close to his chest much to her chagrin.

"Oh m- Dray please! At least use a towel to wipe yourself off! I'm trying to watch the news here."

"Oh, cool. I wanna watch to-"

Amirah pushed Dray off of her.

"Shower. Now."

"...Yes Ma'am."

-------

Dray quickly finished his shower and rushed to Amirah's side. Amirah understandably gave him the stink eye so he kept just a tiny bit further away than usual. Soon enough, the news came on.

"Welcome to Channel 5 news. Today's top story, Omnipresence makes their intentions known in a most gruesome way leading to the tragic deaths of 5 heroes."

Dray's eyes widened. He peeked over to see Amirah's fists clenched tightly.

"Omnipresence has once again made an appearance earlier today in the form of of a senseless killing. 5 heroes who will be remembered as Gust, Lotus, Killjoy, Ambimax and Jumpstart were all murdered and their bodies dumped in a pile nearby a Protection Max weapon warehouse. Drawn in blood next to the pile was the Omnipresence symbol with the word 'Proof' over it. We here at Channel 5 news make this urgent announcement for everyone watching to stay indoors as much as you can and stay away from any suspicious persons. Omnipresence has been listed as a fatal threat to all citizens. I repeat, the villain group Omnipresence has been announced as a fatal threat. The Hero Association will do all in its power to stop them. Until then, please stay safe."

On that end, the news continued on to the weather.