48 Evershifter (1/2)
In actuality, Gerald really was here to visit Alex as he was passing here to go to Mindanao as they were called upon by Rose, the 1st Seat of the Walong Sinag ng Araw.
That was until a few minutes ago when he received news from Anthony through the wristwatch he was sporting.
”I also don't know.” Alex shook his head, shrugging. ”All I know is that one of our best talents in years is missing, encountering a Level 3 wielder, with Zeke returning to make a report of a mole inside Puting Araw. It may be a mistake, but our field Blue Agents are all meticulous, lowering the chances of that. This suspicions are solely because of a singular entity, Butcher.”
Alex fiddled with his computer for a bit and rotated the screen, showing the fake Butcher's face on the screen.
”To make it all worse, Daniel was the leader of this mission, and Daniel opted to not use a Sensory Link. Not like he was at fault as physical assistance do typically doesn't use Sensory Links, especially in crowded places such as Paraiso, a club.” Alex explained the feasible dilemma they were in. ”It's probably safer to have a meeting with Anthony first.”
”Agreed.” Gerald's ferocious eyes and enraged expression persisted, infuriated. ”Let's go.”
With that, the two went to Anthony's office. Hayden, who was in front of the Missions Board of the inner area for Third Rank Special Agents noticed the two exiting the office with hurried steps. Regardless of Gerald wearing a mask, the atmosphere surrounding him was incredibly fierce, as if a pack of wolves is glaring back at you if you even took a glimpse at Gerald.
Hayden, as someone who disliked sticking his nose in other people's business, wondered for a wee bit of time prior to throwing this to the back of his mind. ”Ahh, yes, this will be a pretty good mission for me.”
In the corner of his eyes, Hayden noticed a mission on the screen of the Missions Board that suited him perfectly. According to it, the bounty was for a person who wandered around Pateros committing terrifying murders.
Apparently, this person wasn't as simple because all her murders are considered serial killings. What's horrifying with that? It was that she committed all this using different guises, hence, to the public, her killings were all distinct!
To sum it all up, she was a shapeshifter that stole the faces of people, complete with DNA replication through an unknown method, allowing her to access their Identity Numbers. What's common with all her identities was that she has killed them all, which were enough for Blue Agents from Puting Araw to investigate, ultimately discovering that she was indeed a wielder.
She wasn't that powerful, nevertheless, her identity keeps changing, thus, she couldn't be tracked down the second time, probably learning from being caught. Since then, her kills were indistinguishable from regular grisly murders. To the mass populace, she was termed as a demon and a nighttime terror, while in Puting Araw, she is known as the Evershifter, or the Face Stealer.
Anybody who has accepted this mission in the past has failed on tracking her down as she was not just too evasive, she was also good at covering her tracks! It was fundamentally a nigh-impossible task.
It was a task that merely Third Rank Special Agents and above can accept, though no Level 2 wielders desired to waste time on this deemed-to-be-impossible mission, what more, Level 3 wielders and above.
”I'd take up a challenge.” Hayden shrugged. He wanted something to do for the remainder of his Christmas vacation, it was much better to do so with a challenge versus without. ”It's getting late…”
Approaching a terminal, the one mentioned by Gerald. The terminal scanned his handprint and retinas before he got to access his account.
The user interface was intuitive, allowing Hayden to go to the missions file and accepted the mission for hunting down Evershifter. Done with that, Hayden exited the Ghost Unit division. There was no hurry executing this mission as there weren't much leads except that Evershifter's area of operation is in Pateros, and one exclusively probable lead that could even possibly be unrelated: rumors of a white lady in Pateros.
On his way to the basement of the apartment complex, a young man with rushed footsteps were running to his direction, probably to the Ghost Unit. Hayden sidestepped to give way as the word 'urgent' was written on the man's face.
Watching the man's departing back, Hayden shook his head and directly went straight to his motorcycle. That was when his phone rang.
It was a call from Eun-ha. Taking out an earpiece, Hayden sat on his motorcycle whilst connecting the earpiece and answered the call.
”Hey, noona.” Hayden enthusiastically answered. Mischievously, Hayden asked, ”Missing me?”
”Of course.” Eun-ha's sweet voice rang in Hayden's ears. With a jokingly angry tone, Eun-ha asked, ”Why? Do you not miss me? How dare you not miss me!”
”Of course I do!” Hayden exclaimed as if he was a victim. Subsequently, the two laughed. ”So, really, what's up?”
”We're flying there tomorrow.” Eun-ha informed of Hayden. ”Got any plans?”
”Yo,” Hayden was surprised. ”This early? Isn't the first concert 19th of January? And the fansign at 12th?”
Nicole has already sent him the fansign ticket right at December 30, hence, he already knew of the dates of the fansign in Maharlika Hall and first concert at the Philippine Arena.
”Yeah, early preparations. Rehearsals at the arenas, practice for the schedule of the fansign, all those stuff.” Eun-ha talked of her career. ”Anyhow, are you free tomorrow?”
”About that…” Hayden couldn't think of a plan to get out of this one. On one hand, Evershifter, a serial killer, was on the loose, on the other, his girlfriend was coming. What the hell should he prioritize!? ”I just accepted a mission earlier for hunting a serial killer… I didn't know that your flight was this early…”
”You mean to say that you're hunting a serial killer?” On the other line, Eun-ha was at her room in their dorm, her eyes blinking with surprise. ”Is it a wielder?”
Hayden agreed with an 'mhm.' He was in a serious dilemma as both were… Well, needless to say, time with his girlfriend was important, but… It's a serial killer! Was he supposed to just let this Evershifter make a move?
'Wait, no, I can do that…' Hayden thought. 'I mean, there's no leads on her, right? If there's no leads, I cannot possibly start hunting… No, wait, am I sincerely thinking of sacrificing a human being solely to spend time with my girlfriend… What the fuck is wrong-'
”That's fine with me.” Eun-ha interrupted Hayden's thoughts. The first half of her sentence nearly killed him with anxiety, yet, the second half turned his mouth agape. ”Sounds fun! There's not much action going around here, and considering that it's a rest day tomorrow, I guess I'll help you! Sounds fun!”
”What?” Hayden was repeating Eun-ha's words in his head. It's not that he didn't process it, it's just that he genuinely didn't predict this. ”A-are you okay with that? I mean, there's not much leads on her… Plus, wouldn't it be overkill if I bring you?”
”Nah, don't worry about me.” Eun-ha laughed. ”I'm simply going to watch you working, maybe give the perspective of a bystander, you know?”
”Okay.” Hayden agreed. He couldn't see anything going wrong with her suggestion. ”Want to come to my house before?”
In that instance, Hayden heard a door creaking and a familiar cutesy voice disrupting Hayden and Eun-ha's conversation. ”Eun-ha-yaaaa~ Who are you talking to?”
”Oh god…” Eun-ha's face darkened. She attempted to cut the call, yet was stopped by Sayuri. ”Noooo!”
The phone lit up as it left Eun-ha's ears, the name 'Hayden-ah~' showing up on the screen. ”Ohooo, it's Hayden-ah! Guys, our little Eun-ha is flirting with her boyfriend!”
”No!” Eun-ha panicked, wanting to get the phone out of Sayuri's hands. Agitatedly, she activated her powers and swiped the phone out of Sayuri's hands prior to her exiting.
Chaos descended on Eun-ha's room as Sayuri wrestled with Eun-ha. With the loud commotion, the other girls doing their own things around the dorm sensed something was up and rushed to Eun-ha's room.
By the time they got there, Eun-ha has already thrown Sayuri out of her room and got her phone back from her hands, leaving a giggly Sayuri on the floor.
”What is it? Is there something wrong?” Jin-ae's eyes were alert as she eyed the room. She saw Sayuri standing up, all smiles, while Eun-ha was walking back to her bed with a grim countenance. ”What happened?”
”Eun-ha's flirting!” Sayuri laughed, pointing at Eun-ha on the bed agreeing to Hayden's proposal discreetly.
On that note, the other members joined in on the conversation, smiling at Eun-ha knowingly with Sayuri leading the 'tease party' targeting Eun-ha.
”Get out!” Flustered, Eun-ha's eyes flared up with blue fire, her voice booming all throughout the house. She was still one of the more powerful members of Lunar Assembly, hence, with this, the ten members stopped their teasing as they jokingly shrieked, screaming things such as 'The fox is angry!' and 'Oh no, she might seduce us!'
”Jeez, those people…” Eun-ha mumbled, sighing and smiling to herself. Putting back her phone to her ears, she apologized. ”Ahh… So sorry about them…”
Meanwhile, on the other side, Hayden heard everything, snorting as he strained a laugh. ”What happened?”
”Don't worry about it.” Eun-ha dejectedly spoke. ”I'll see you tomorrow. Pick me up, we're staying at Rain Sanctuary Hotel in Manila.”
”Sure, noona.” With that, the two bade each other goodbye. Taking off the earphones, Hayden mounted the motorcycle and headed out to go back to his house.