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Norman led Kade to a side rack and pulled out two items.
The first: an auto-tracking boomerang blade. Compact, razor-edged, capable of locking onto a biological target and pursuing it through evasive maneuvers. Powerful enough to cut a man in half. Silent in flight. And it returned to the thrower's hand automatically.
Kade tested the weight. Perfect for silent elimination. Unfortunately, the AllSpark confirmed it lacked the energy circuit required for robot activation — useful as a weapon, nothing more.
That reminded him of what Violet had said: only devices with a functional energy circuit could be activated. The standard was still a mystery, and there was no way to tell just by looking.
He took three blades.
But it was the second item that changed everything.
A mask. Paper-thin, translucent, almost weightless. It looked like a sheet of cling film with a faint iridescent shimmer.
"I call it the Face Simulator," Norman said. "One hundred million nanoscale light-reactive elements. It bends light across your facial structure to alter your apparent features. Like this."
Norman pressed it to his own face. He blinked — and his features shifted. The angular Osborn bone structure softened, reshaped, realigned. In two seconds, Norman Osborn's face had become Kade Lawson's face. The body was wrong, the hair was wrong, but from the neck up — perfect. Every angle, every proportion, indistinguishable from the real thing.
"Three-hour battery life per charge," Norman said, peeling it off and handing it over. "It reads your facial muscle movements automatically — expressions and eye motion sync perfectly as long as you don't speak. To capture a new face, look at your target and blink three times rapidly. It stores up to seventy-two faces."
Kade held the mask in both hands.
And the AllSpark lit up.
[Face Simulator. Structural completion: 100%. Non-metallic special mechanical construct. Activation cost: 675 AllSpark energy. Additional 1,350 energy available for specialization enhancement. Recommended enhancement: Infiltration/Assassination.]
Specialization enhancement. That was new. Kade had never seen that option before — either it had unlocked when his energy cap increased, or the Face Simulator itself was unique enough to qualify for advanced activation.
His Stage 1 AllSpark had room for one more Cybertronian unit. And an infiltration/assassination specialist, born from a device designed for disguise and deception, felt like exactly what this mission needed.
Kade put the mask on, tested it — blinked at Norman, and watched his own reflection in a glass panel transform into Norman Osborn's face. Flawless.
"Norman. With this, I guarantee I'm bringing Harry home."
"That's all I needed to hear." Norman's voice was steady, but his eyes were raw.
Kade took the mask off, pocketed it alongside the three boomerang blades, and followed Norman to the tunnel exit. They parted ways — Norman back to Oscorp to play the role of panicked father, which required no acting at all.
Kade slipped into the night.
He found a dark alley, deserted, no cameras. Then he held the Face Simulator between his palms and pushed nearly two thousand points of AllSpark energy into it.
The activation began — and Kade gasped.
Pain. Sharp, sudden, radiating from the center of his palm. He looked down: a half-centimeter wound had torn open across his hand. Not a cut — a rupture, as if something inside had expanded too fast and burst through the skin.
The mask clattered to the ground.
[WARNING: Excessive instantaneous energy output detected. Physical damage to host confirmed. Exercise caution during high-volume energy transfers.]
"What the —" Kade stared at his bleeding palm. "The AllSpark energy is physical?"
The wound wasn't deep — a surface tear, already clotting. But the implications were terrifying. Two thousand energy points had split his skin. What happened when he needed to channel ten thousand? Twenty thousand? Would his arm shatter? Would it kill him?
His body was ordinary. Human. Unenhanced. He'd been operating under the assumption that AllSpark equipment could compensate for his physical limitations indefinitely. That assumption had just been violently corrected.
Body enhancement. He needed to move that up the priority list. Tony Stark could wear a suit of armor and trade punches with the Hulk because his body could survive the impact transfer. Kade couldn't even push energy through his own palm without bleeding.
He was wrapping his hand with a torn strip of sleeve when a voice spoke.
Not Violet. Not Blitz. Something new. Low, measured, with a theatrical precision that turned every syllable into a performance.
"There is no art to find the mind's construction in the face. Masque — infiltration specialist. Reporting for duty, Commander."