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Chapter 972: Faceless Threat

Officer Pike had a small smile on his face as he looked at the kind old woman sitting in the hall. “How are you doing today, Ms Habberdy?”

“Oh, I’m fine dear.” The woman said with a warm expression. “How was work? I’m sure they must be keeping you busy.”

“It’s not bad, just some cases. Some of our faceless friends need a bit of a nudge. I heard you had unexpected guests today?” He asked, the woman’s eyes glossing over for a moment as they briefly went unfocused. However, she quickly recovered, nodding her head.

“That’s right. A couple of girls came in to look for apartments. I managed to give one of them the full tour, but the other was called back by her family before she got a good look. A shame, really.” She let out a faint sigh of regret, shaking her head.

“Do you need any help with the cleanup?” Pike asked, but the woman shook her head again.

“No need. Wallace already took care of that. We sent her on her way back to her family.” The woman spoke with the same kind smile, despite the morbid topic of their conversation.

Officer Pike simply nodded his head. “I’m going back to the lab. Make sure to tell Wallace not to head out for the afternoon.” He said, his body briefly shrouded in pale blue light before taking on an entirely different face. Even his voice had changed. “They’ve made some good progress, but I need to make sure that they don’t get too reckless.”

The old woman simply nodded her head as the man turned to leave. He walked out of the building naturally, passing through the streets as if he was just going about his day. He had long since memorized the different security cameras along his route, and made sure that they wouldn’t see anything suspicious from him.

Once he approached the research lab, he ducked through an alley, his body shifting to turn into a stranger he had passed only moments prior. Approaching a door tucked away in the alley, he knocked three times. A voice spoke from beyond the door, delivering the coded greeting. “Twilight approaches.” 

“But the sun never sets.” After giving that response, the door opened and allowed him in. Only then did his appearance return to Officer Pike, rolling his shoulders. “No abnormalities at the den.”

Hearing Pike’s report, the door greeter nodded his head, closing the door and locking it securely. “The researchers told me to ask you to pick up some groceries when you come back tomorrow.” He said, handing a written list to Pike, who clicked his tongue in annoyance. “If you’re bothered, let them go and get it themselves.”

“No, they don’t know how to properly stay hidden. I’ll get it taken care of.” Pike shook his head, pocketing the list and walking inside. There was a large stairway leading down into a room with dozens of beastkin, all discussing the potential uses of this new energy that they had created.

Unlike what their original bosses had suspected, they had no intention of harming the Keeper. They merely posited that their disguise energy could be used in such a way, which led to the unfortunate series of events that brought them to this more rundown lab, hidden beneath a dark alley. Even now, they harbored no hatred for the Keeper himself, only using their powers to ensure that they stay hidden to carry on their research.

Unfortunately, in order to remain hidden, they had to use some underhanded means. Means such as replacing a large number of public individuals. Once their research was concluded, they were sure that they could convince the ninja clans to accept their results and reinstate them.

“Brian!” One of the researchers called out, waving towards Officer Pike. “Good news! We discovered a defensive use for the Masked Soul!” This researcher was a beautiful kitsune with long red hair and a bright, joyful smile.

“Oh?” Brian walked over to the woman with interest. Until now, the main use for the Masked Soul energy was interrogation or infiltration. They had yet to find a true offensive method. “Tell me more.”

The researcher nodded her head quickly. “It’s a bit of a delicate process. The Masked Soul energy specializes in adjusting the wavelengths of energy. That’s how it does the basic infiltration. Reading memories is merely an advanced analysis of the target’s mana, overlaying it onto the user’s.”

“Now, if the Masked Soul is applied in a thin film across the body, the user can identify attacks coming their way. If they are aware of the energy type behind the attack, the Masked Soul can adjust its own wavelength to provide the optimal defense against that type of attack.”

Pike nodded his head, thinking it over before smiling. “An adaptive defense method. That’s definitely a praiseworthy accomplishment, my faceless friend. This makes the Masked Soul not only a good infiltration energy, but also a practical tool in combat. Have you tested to see if it can be used offensively in the same way?”

The eyes of the researcher briefly glossed over, as did the eyes of those listening, before quickly returning to normal as if nothing had happened. “We’re still confirming the results of those tests. The defensive method was only just confirmed before you arrived.”

Pike gave a small nod. “The others deserve to know. I plan to send out a report through the message system.” It wasn’t unusual for major breakthroughs to be reported. After all, they had defected from the ninja clans as a unified research group. Although Pike’s job was mostly security, he understood the need for the research results to be shared with the rest of the group.

The researcher herself gave a small nod of approval. “I’m sure they’ll be thrilled! Once we identify a few more uses for the Masked Soul, the clans should be more than happy to take us back!”

Pike’s smile grew a touch softer at that, opening up the messaging system and preparing the report.

Chel’s eyes were all but glued to the projection, as if afraid she would miss the slightest change in the map. Ever since the first burst of activity, there was only a very limited spread in the same apartment complex. Three of the dots had moved out of the building, one of whom was Officer Pike.

She watched that dot move to the district of the city where she always lost sight of him, seeing how it ducked into an alley. There was a pause for a minute, before a large cluster of dots appeared around it. Chel’s eyes widened, a smile forming on her face. “So that’s your base.” She muttered to herself, nodding her head in satisfaction.

She grabbed a notebook, preparing to mark down the location, when her face suddenly went pale with fright. The red dots exploded in numbers, almost covering the entire screen. Her hand froze, eyes trembling. “No, no… this is too much, too fast.” Her voice was quiet, her eyes slowly closing.

From his own desk not far away, James glanced over with a worried expression. He stood up, making his way over to her. “Everything alright, Chel?” He started to ask, before freezing when he was only a few steps away.

“Everyone out, now!” He shouted loudly, startling the other researchers in the room. They looked over briefly, before rushing to the door. “First security bunker, until further notice!”

The seriousness in his voice brokered no argument, and they hadn’t heard such a harsh tone from him in a very long time. James slowly closed his eyes, focusing his thoughts. Udona, quarantine Ashtanu. Disable the Fairy Gate. Nobody in or out. Media blackout as well. No information.

Wait, what? What’s going on!? Udona asked in shock. Chel’s hand was still trembling, but her eyes hadn’t opened. No… her eyes had been covered by a layer of smooth skin, as had the rest of her face, becoming an empty mask. Behind her, James was quickly being converted into a similar state.

Don’t ask specifics. Unsure transfer method. Ask Chel in the Administration Room. James swept his energy out of the lab, covering the entire city of Ashtanu. Thousands of individuals had frozen in the streets, their faces empty. Those who saw them were initially horrified, starting to run before suffering the same fate. Temporarily nonlethal.

In the Admin Room, Udona rushed out of her room, all but sprinting for Chel’s. When she arrived, she found the smaller kitsune covered in a cold sweat, her palms shaking. “What’s going on?” Udona demanded.

“I fucked up. Bad.” Chelsea cursed, shaking her head and jumping to her feet. “There weren’t supposed to be that many of them.”

“Summarize!” Udona narrowed her eyes, snapping Chelsea to attention.

“I created a void script to track down a group of rogue ninjas. I made it as stable as possible to prevent mutations. However, it wasn’t supposed to spread to more than fifty thousand people at once! The information overflow forced an immediate mutation.”

“Can you fix it?” Udona asked simply, Chelsea hesitating.

“Not by myself.” She shook her head, an almost panicked look in her eyes. “Not fast enough, at least. If you gave me a week, I could make an anti-meme. We don’t have a week, though. Without a mouth or nose, people with physical bodies will start dying in minutes. I need Leowynn.”

Udona didn’t say anything. She turned and left the room, running to Leowynn’s room. However, Leowynn was already walking out of her room, a serious look on her face. “I know the situation. I need to hear the parameters for the script from Chel.”

Thankfully, Chel had followed behind the two of them, and immediately cooperated. “The original script functioned with the phrase ‘faceless friends’. It was a benign phrase fitting the group that could be slipped into casual conversation. Once the phrase was used, the identified recipients would be marked by the script, and send out a special void signal that I tracked on my terminal. It wasn’t supposed to mutate like this.”

“I’m not assigning blame.” Udona spoke firmly. “I know the circumstances behind this group. You just wanted to protect Dale. But right now, we have to deal with the fallout, before it evolves again.” After she said that, she turned to look at Leowynn. “Can you do it?”

Leowynn let out a small sigh, nodding her head. “The script isn’t too complex. Now that I know the parameters, I should be able to deal with it using the least amount of energy.” As she said that, Leowynn’s body vanished from the Admin Room.