Noseless peered into the room from behind the door. However, he couldn't see if there was anyone due to the clouds of smoke inside the room.
"CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING?" Earless yelled. Everyone else grimaced and pushed Earless into another room.
"Nope, maybe Eyeless will have better luck." Noseless replied. Mouthless smacked the back of Noseless' head.
"Haha, very funny," Eyeless replied. "Just go and shout for Boss, I am sure he is in."
"How do you know that?" Noseless asked.
"Easy, I can smell him." Eyeless grinned.
"Oh you little f- AHHHHHHHHHH...." Noseless yelled as a hand condensed out of smoke suddenly shot out from the room and pulled him in. The door closed slowly afterwards.
"WHAT HAPPENED?" Earless yelled again, still loud yet slightly muffled from the other room. Annoyed, Mouthless opened the door and dragged Earless out.
Boss pulled Noseless into his office, Mouthless gestured with his hands.
Oh, why didn't you say so, Earless gestured back. Mouthless rolled his eyes and flipped Earless off.
"By the way, I have always wondered why do we call Boss 'Boss'. Can't we just call him hairless since he has no haaaAAAAAAAAAA..." The smoke arm appeared again and violently squeezed Eyeless before dragging him inside as well. The door slammed itself shut.
Both Earless and Mouthless looked at the door and shrugged. They quickly left before Boss changed his mind.
* * *
"Hi Nose." Immaculately dressed as usual, Boss was leisurely puffing on a cigar as he sat on a couch. While the room was filled with the disgusting stench of smoke, Noseless didn't seem to mind for obvious reasons.
"Hello Boss," Noseless smiled. He sat down on the opposite couch.
Noseless heard someone screaming just as he was sitting down. A few seconds later, Eyeless tumbled out from the smoky haze and landed face-first on the ground next to Noseless.
While Noseless was briefly surprised, he quickly recovered as he guessed that Eyeless must have said something which angered their boss. Boss just gave Eyeless a side-glance but didn't care to explain. None of them said anything as Eyeless sheepishly stood up and brushed himself.
"Now then," Boss started once all of them were seated, "what do you have to report?"
"The target has moved." Noseless said. "Our members were keeping tabs on them while they noticed, and I quote, 'feeling oddly repetitive and surreal' around 5pm yesterday."
"Sounds like the time-distortion effects of a dimensional realignment." Boss puffed on his cigar.
"Yes." Noseless nodded. "Eyeless was the first one to reach the scene. He can explain it better." Noseless nudged the guy next to him.
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"Ah, yes," Eyeless smiled tensely. "Sorry about the whole ba-" He stopped talking as a slim tendril wrapped around his neck.
"Anyway," Eyeless quickly continued, "I tried rewinding time to see if I can get some clues, but everything there was distorted with plus-minus a century, give or take. None of the locals nearby seemed to even remember he was staying there."
Boss tutted and placed the cigar tip in the ashtray. "Well, the Immortal couldn't have survived so long if he didn't have this level of carefulness. Anything else?"
Noseless took out a picture from his breast pocket and handed it to Boss. Boss waved his hand, clearing the smoke slightly thus allowing a beam of light to shine in from the window.
Inside the picture was a video of a shimmering bubble-like dome nested in a valley. Moments later, the barrier popped and created a spherical black void in its gap. The black sphere eventually shrank. While Boss was expecting a damaged piece of land, he raised his eyebrow when he saw that nearly everything within the sphere was completely intact. None of the trees, plants, and soil were damaged, except for a rundown house covered in ivy.
"So ostentatious." Boss looked at Noseless and Eyeless. "When was this from?"
"3 hours ago. We sent people in to check the hut but it was literally a trash heap." Noseless replied.
"Well, we can ask several men to remain there, but honestly I don't think they can find anything else." Boss sighed. "Do we have any good news?"
"While I am not sure if this counts as good news," Noseless frowned. "Two weeks ago, some of our members felt their magic weakened drastically during a heavy rain. We had to find substitutes as their magic was being undone on a physical level."
"I also noticed something else when I was there." Eyeless quickly interjected. "While I couldn't find traces of them leaving, there are traces of an elemental purification due to the rain from earlier."
"Casting divine spells with nature...." Boss leaned back in his couch. "Seems shamanic. That's odd."
"I looked up on the Immortal's history and travels, but there aren't any records of him casting any shamanic magic anywhere." Noseless commented.
"The only history we know is the history he wants us to know." Boss snorted. "I'm sure there's lots of stuff that he keeps hidden."
"Well, at least we now have something. Nose and Eyes, I want you to look into what happened two weeks earlier and see if there's any rituals with similar effects elsewhere. Meanwhile, tell Mouth and Ears to head for Dalmuth tomorrow as I need their help with some things." Boss stood up.
Sensing that their meeting has ended, Noseless and Eyeless stood up and bowed. Boss waved his hand as they left, clearing a path for them through the clouds of smoke.
Boss picked up the photo again and squinted his eyes. He noticed earlier that the hole of the door in the picture resembled someone pointing a middle finger.
Chuckling, Boss unleashed flames from his hand and swiftly burnt the photo. As the ashes drifted to the ground, he walked into the clouds of smoke and disappeared.
* * *
Noseless and Eyeless found Mouthless and Earless lounging in the nearby hall. Earless seemed to be yelling something at Mouthless, but Mouthless could only stare back in annoyance.
"Shut up Earless." Noseless walked in front of Earless and snapped his fingers.
Mouthless heaved in relief when he saw them walk in. How was it, he gestured.
"Not bad, at least I didn't get chewed due to Eyeless' stupid mouth." Noseless rolled his eyes while Eyeless grinned.
"Boss has assigned us some tasks. Eyeless and I will continue tracking down the Immortal and some other clues from a recent incident. Meanwhile, Boss asked the two of you to go to Dalmuth tomorrow."
With him? Mouthless gestured in disgust. He quickly covered Earless' mouth just before he could yell.
"Better than travelling with this idiot," Noseless glanced at Eyeless.
I will need some of your tools just in case. The job Earless and I will be doing needs some special equipment, Mouthless requested.
"Sure, come to the lab later. Just make sure you don't bring Earless along or he will startle my specimens." Noseless twitched his eyes when he saw both Earless and Eyeless cartwheeling down the corridor.
Too bad we are the only adults here. Mouthless dryly remarked.
* * *
Lee felt his ears itched as he drove the modified truck and suddenly sneezed, startling his passengers.
"Are you okay?" Tabby asked.
"Should be fine, someone must be missing me." Lee smiled. Tabby rolled his eyes.