"Car #856, calling all cars in the area of downtown Main Street. I am in pursuit of the criminal, Omnificent! I repeat: I am in pursuit of the criminal, Omnificent! Requesting back-up for his immediate apprehension...this ends tonight!"
The police officer behind the wheel put down the radio and sped up. His name was Charles Knight, a 32-year-old cop living in eastern California during the mid-80's. He looked tough, his strong jaw often intimidating those he arrested, and was a dedicated man at heart. He was most dedicated to his family, with a "police" button on his hat that his daughter Debbie had made, but he was also very dedicated to his job. He took up every investigation thrown his way, no matter how difficult, and saw them through to the end.
The place he worked in was a mixed city in terms of social status; the upper part of the city belonged to the upper and middle classes, and the lower part was fittingly held by the lower class. Despite the year being 1986, the architecture and styles were quite dated; everything on the upper end of town looked like it was stuck in the 50's, while the buildings downtown were relics of the 30's. Ironically, the fashion designs worn by people downtown were actually very modern. Downtown was also known simply as the "Dark End" for one obvious reason: the buildings were always in the shadows of the skyscrapers. Charles had patrolled this area his whole career and gone up against a lot of criminals who came from this neglected place, the nest of the local criminal underworld.
However, he had no way of knowing exactly how difficult this newest case would be...
Four months earlier at the police station, Charles had been standing off to the side in the briefing room and watching several of his fellow officers put together a diagram on a board. It was compiled of dozens of notecards and crime scene photos, connected in order with string.
As soon as they were done, the Chief walked up and tapped the board with a sort of baton to get the room's attention.
"All right, settle down now..." he commanded behind his thick mustache. "I have called you all here today because the mayor has requested that we bump this man up to #1 on our Most Wanted list..."
He pointed the baton to the center picture on the wall. It was a security camera image of a man with sunglasses and a mohawk robbing a bank. The peculiar thing about it was how he was holding the teller up; not with a gun or any other kind of weapon, but with his fist that looked like a white smudge on the grainy image.
"His real identity hasn't been revealed, but if we're to believe his calling card..."
His baton switched to a purple-colored buisiness card.
"His alias is 'Omnificent', which, on its own, tells us that he thinks highly of himself. He's no ordinary criminal, nothing like any type we've dealth with before. It might sound unbelievable, but witnesses say he has powers 'like those out of a comic book'. There are also reports that he may be at the head of the underground syndicate we've been attempting to track down for months...We still don't know how to stop him, but there's no question that he's an extremely dangerous man! Who is up to the task?"
Charles slowly raised his hand.
"I will, Chief..."
Charles pulled out his radio communicator again as the officers headed onto a busy road.
"Omnificent is on the highway now! Where's that back-up?"
"Car #856, reinforcements are being dispatched to your location now; keep on his trail!"
Asking on the streets for information, the investigation trail had eventually led Charles to the Technoclub. It was a seedy dance club in Dark End, a dimly-lit place that was perfect for criminal discussions. Charles still remembered two years earlier, when this had only been an empty lot for drug dealers, but someone named John Jones had bought the space and built the club from the ground up.
"What're you talkin' bout, dude?" John yawned as he was questioned. "This 'Omnificent' cat has super powers? You sure?"
John was a bit of an odd man: very tall, wearing shades despite the club being perpetually dark, a nose that stuck out a bit, the most out-there clothes Charles had ever seen, and a large poofy hat.
"We don't have enough evidence to jump to that conclusion, but it would help if you can tell us anything you know about this man..."
Charles pulled out a picture, to which John simply shrugged.
"Never seen him before in my life!"
Pulling back the photo, Charles examined it closer, then looked at John.
"Please, take off your hat..."
John tilted his head. "Why?"
"Just take off your hat."
Reluctantly, John took off his hat; underneath was a glossy-smooth bald head.
"You happy now?" he grumbled.
Charles sighed as the beeper on his waist turned on, telling him that Omnificent had been spotted near the bank up the road from Technoclub.
"If you hear anything suspicious, call the police station immediately...Thanks for your cooperation."
Hurrying into his car and up the road, Charles rushed to the bank. Inside, everyone was on the ground as a man with red rockstar clothing and a large blue mohawk held up the bank tellers with a gun.
"Freeze! Police!"
The man turned around with an expressionless look gleaming over his face.
"Put your hands behind your head now!"
"W-Wait!" the man pleaded. "Don't shoot! I'm not the bad guy here!"
He pulled off his face, revealing it to be a mask.
"I'm just a decoy; he threatened to kill me if I didn't..."
Suddenly, the safe door blasted open like an explosion, and a similar man, this time real, floated out with a mountain of money. Charles fired his gun several times, but each bullet seemed to melt before touching him.
"You can't hurt me, I am 'Omnificent'!"
Like he was toying with Charles, the villain allowed a few more shots before flying otu of the bank unharmed.
"Wh-What the hell was that?"
Several more times, the paths of Charles and Omnificent crossed, each time ending in humiliating failure. He had had enough; this was to be their final showdown. Twenty cars were behind them now, barreling down a long straight stretch of road.
Charles fired his gun; Omnificent dodged. He tried to ram the villain, but he just flew faster.
"Damn it!"
Charles threw down his fist, accidentally throwing on the high-beams. Omnificent slowed down, weakening and panicking.
"Wait a second...Everyone, throw on your high-beams!"
As they did, the villain fell to the ground in pain, and their chase stopped.
Within seconds, Omnificent was surrounded by the police, with Charles at the front.
"You surprise me, Charles..." he coughed as his skin dried up, and the mohawk vanished. "Even in our first meeting, you figured out my identity, but you still never realized my origin."
As the sun rose in the distance, the body of John Jones crumbled into dust.
Later that day, Charles was back home, grabbing a beer from his refridgerator.
"What was that...Who was he?"
He sipped the beer and looked at a drawing on the fridge that his daughter had made two years before, of a criminal she had imagined him catching.
"What...It's not possible! We didn't even know about him back then!"
The criminal in the drawing was Omnificent.
