Ch. 248: Masterpiece

When they reached the shelter, the staff said no new animals had been brought in today.

Mo Fei looked around, but there was no sign of the kittens anywhere.

One of the staff noticed the black cat at his feet. "Sir, and this black cat is...?"

"My cat."

Phoebe ignored the bystanders and wandered off, burrowing deeper into the kennels.

Just as they were about to leave, Mo Fei spotted a familiar face in the yard: the young volunteer who had given him the ribbons on the street that day.

He strode over. "You said that if there's a ribbon, you don't catch them. I tied them on. So why were they taken?"

The volunteer's expression changed in an instant. "Th-the ribbon rule is real. We steer clear of them when we go out catching... I don't know how this happened either."

He paused. "Oh, r-right. Our wagon came by this morning and took some animals away. I think I saw a kitten with a ribbon, but the wagon was already far down the road, and I figured someone would sort it out once it got where it was going..."

"Where did the wagon go?"

The volunteer shook his head. "No idea. We volunteers don't ask where the wagon goes. All I know is it didn't head into the city. It went off the other way."

Mo Fei looked down. Phoebe was circling back from the kennels to his feet, her tail drooping low.

"They're not here." Mo Fei turned to Barney. "There's an abandoned mine outside the city. I saw wheel ruts running all the way into it, and there's an iron gate built in deep inside. The kittens were most likely taken there."

"That mine is packed with rat-hound monsters. Did you try the rat poison I gave you last time?"

"It works," Barney said. "We scattered it in a few places, and some of them died."

"I'm bringing everything that's left."

Barney rounded up the Brotherhood's guys as well.

---

By the time they reached the mine entrance, the sky had already darkened.

Mo Fei raised his lantern over the gravel slope. Beside the wheel ruts from last time, there were several fresh ones.

Everyone put on masks. Mo Fei took the lead with the lantern, and Phoebe stayed close at his heels.

As they rounded the bend deep in the tunnel, a field of eyes lit up in the darkness, and a swarm of rat-hound monsters pounced.

"Hold the line!" Barney roared and met them head-on. One swing of his mechanical right arm sent the lead monster flying. His guys pressed in behind him and formed a wall at the mouth of the cavern.

Mo Fei tore open the rat poison and flung it at the swarm by the handful. The monsters that caught the powder lost their footing mid-lunge, and one after another they collapsed onto the gravel, twitching.

On the left, one of the guys was knocked flat, a rat snout already at his face.

A bright green tentacle shot out from Mo Fei's feet, wrapped around the man's ankle, and yanked him back. The rat-hound monster's incisors snapped shut on empty air. Prototype No. 1 darted forward, puffed up its body, and slammed into the monster, sending it tumbling away.

Barney glanced at it. "Nice work."

As the Brotherhood pushed forward, the lantern light finally reached the brick wall at the very back of the cavern.

A huge hole had been punched through the middle of the iron gate, and the sounds of fighting came from beyond it.

Mo Fei stepped through the hole, Phoebe slipping in after him, and a gust of grayish-white smoke hit him in the face. The sharp medicinal stench stung his eyes.
He waved the smoke aside and finally saw what was going on inside.

A man was holding an oddly shaped mechanical weapon, and every time it went off, someone on the other side dropped.
Not far away, someone was laughing while hurling vials into the pile of chimeras, and the smoke was billowing out from there in clouds. A few more people with knives guarded their flanks.

Facing them were several robed figures, a crowd of chimeras around them.

Deeper in stood two silhouettes, one gripping a staff, thin sparks of electricity jumping at its tip.

Is that Locke?!

The man with the mechanical weapon looked back, his gaze landing on Barney's right arm.

"Brotherhood?" He scoffed. "Who attached that arm? The welds are thick enough to hang laundry on, and the joints creak every time they move. That's the best you've got?"

Barney's mechanical right arm clenched with a creak. "Big mouth."

"A big mouth beats clumsy hands."
"Flashy."
"Flashy is what hits the target." The man turned back and pulled the trigger. "Watch closely. This is what craftsmanship looks like."

"More intruders! Stop them!"
One of the robed figures shouted, and the chimeras around them all turned as one, surging toward the newcomers.

Most of the chimeras had the bodies of cats and dogs, but with legs and tails that didn't belong to them, and some even had heads twisted to one side.

Barney led his guys head-on into the surge. His mechanical right arm caught a lunging claw head-on and flung it aside.
The mouthy man picked off the robed figures who were commanding the chimeras, while the vial thrower laughed even louder, smashing vial after vial into the pile of chimeras without caring who stood nearby.

Mo Fei didn't dare approach the front line. Following Prototype No. 1 through the gaps it knocked open in the melee, he squeezed his way up behind Locke.

Just as he got close, he heard Locke speak. "I'll ask one more time. Where's Valk?"

The woman facing Locke answered coldly, "I have no recollection of the gentleman you mean."

Mo Fei saw her face clearly.

"Lecturer Tacksha? What are you doing here?"

Tacksha glanced at him, her gaze lingering for a moment, then settled back into the composed expression she wore at the Academy.

"Good evening, Mr. Mo Fei," she said. "What is being done here is research into urban pest control. You've seen the rat infestation in the Undercity yourself. Someone has to deal with it."

"Urban pest control?" Mo Fei glared at her. "So you made a pile of pests yourself? The Undercity's rat problem still isn't solved, and you've already packed the entrance with rat-hound monsters!"

"Only what can be controlled can be dealt with."

A vial exploded nearby, and a few chimeras screamed and rolled away.

"Enough talk." Locke took a step forward.

Tacksha stepped back, and her hip hit the procedure table.

The tray on it tipped over with a clatter, and its contents scattered across the floor.
Scissors, curved needles, a roll of bloodstained suture thread, and three cut ribbons.

Mo Fei's eyes locked onto the three ribbons.

"These ribbons..." His voice tightened. "Where are the kittens who were wearing them? Where are they?"

Tacksha glanced down at the ribbons on the floor, and the corners of her mouth curled up.

"Ah, those three."

Her fingertips trembled slightly, and her voice quickened.

"They were so adorable. You know, the young ones are truly wonderful. The tissue grows fast, the sutures heal fast, and the rejection is astonishingly slight... The younger they are, the more readily they accept new parts. Putting those faces on the finished work was simply perfect!"

Mo Fei tightened his grip on the lantern.

"That's enough!" he cut in. "No wonder the Academy expelled you."

The smile froze on Tacksha's face.

"Expelled?" Her voice shot up. "What do those people know! Just because a specimen got out, they said I violated some kind of bioethics, that this sort of thing was unfit to be seen!"

"Unfit to be seen? Then I'll make something nobody can bear to look away from. I'll show them what it means to be adorable!"

Click.

The door behind Tacksha opened by itself.

The anger on her face drained away in an instant. She turned around and spread her arms wide.

"Perfect timing. Come, witness my masterpiece!"

Something walked out from behind the door.

It was a huge body, covered in heads. Puppies, kittens, bunnies... packed tightly together, stitched along the shoulders, neck, and back, the seams so fresh they were still oozing blood.

In a conspicuous spot, three kitten heads were stitched side by side, one of them topped with orange fur.