Nothing Face

Nothing Faces are a humanoid shapeshifting species, two of which, Ug and Lee, served as bounty hunters for the Intergalactic Council, best known for hunting Crites.

Biology
In their true form, Nothing Faces bear Human-like proportions, but most notably, their heads have no face, giving this species their nickname, just smooth skin, although they appear to have somewhat skeletal outlines of eye sockets and mouths. Regardless of lacking ears, eyes, and mouths, they are able to see, speak, and hear, although they do not need to breathe. By default, the skin on their heads is green and softly glows, but the skin on the rest of their bodies, or at least their hands, have Human-like fair skin tones. It is unclear if Nothing Faces have distinct sexes, but the only two known Nothing Faces had male bodies and voices, albeit with a robotic tone, in their default forms. As Nothing Faces are shapeshifters, they are capable of morphing their bodies to replicate the appearance of individuals of other species, regardless of the subject's sex, such as Humans, and are even capable of drastically changing their size, such as when mimicking Crites. They can remain in a morphed form for an indeterminant amount of time, possibly for their entire lifespans.

What the Nothing Faces mimic depends on what they can see, meaning that if they copy the appearance of an injured Human, they will replicate the injuries as well, and one Nothing Face who morphed into a model in a Playboy magazine copied a scaled-up version paperclip that was present in the image's midsection, where the magazine's pages came together. Also notably, that instance demonstrated that Nothing Faces are capable of harmlessly removing parts of their bodies, presumably just extremities, as the Nothing Face was able to remove the paperclip-like protrusion. To help with their disguises, Nothing Faces are able to change their voices to mimic that of whatever species and/or sex they morph into. Nothing Face shapeshifting also appears to rely on their emotional state, as a Nothing Face going though grief rapidly flashed through different faces and then reverted to his default form. Internally, Nothing Faces have red blood, and also possess enhanced strength, able to effortlessly toss adult Humans around and throw bowling balls hard enough to completely shatter bowling pins. Additionally, Nothing Faces have longer lifespans than Humans, as they, or at least whatever visage they take on, do not visibly age after 50 years.

Culture and society
Little is known of Nothing Face society, but they appear to have been members of the Intergalactic Council, and some served the Council as bounty hunters. Nothing Face clothing, at least for bounty hunters, consists of red coats that can have air tanks and other gear built into them. Nothing Faces tend to remain in their default form until they find a visage they like, which they tend to adopt for the rest of their lives. Nothing Faces that have not found their desired visage continuously shift faces between subjects, regardless of the subject's species or sex, sometimes for merely disguising their alien appearance. Nothing Faces also appear to have no care for modesty or public indecency, as a Nothing Face who morphed into a Playboy model nearly entered a town nude, ignoring the fact that their clothes ripped off during the transformation. Due to their shapeshifting's integrity relying on their emotional state, Nothing Faces usually display no emotions and speak in simple, technical ways, although their bounty hunters are known to create very strong bonds with their crew. It is unknown what became of Nothing Face society after the Intergalactic Council dissolved, but at least one ran a multi-planetary corporation that operated in Human space. The only known Nothing Face bounty hunters did not display much concern for the lives and property of other lifeforms, often throwing civilians out of their way and destroying property in pursuit of targets. Despite being well-versed in advanced alien technologies, Nothing Faces have displayed little knowledge of how to operate relatively underdeveloped machinery, such as common Earth cars and pump-action shotguns. The Nothing Face language is identical to English.

Technology
Nothing Faces have access to highly advanced technology, including blocky spacecraft capable of holding at least three occupants and able to cross the Milky Way, known to be equipped with cryogenic storage containers, real-time interstellar communications, and holographic displays. Nothing Face armaments include tube-shaped handheld energy cannons, which extend their barrel when armed and fire large and destructive bolts of energy, capable of instantly vaporizing Crites. Another notable example of Nothing Face technology are handheld communication devices, which can also be used to reconstruct destroyed buildings using invisible energy.

History
For some time prior to 1986, a duo of Nothing Face bounty hunters, named Ug and Lee, served clients of the Intergalactic Council, although they were known to be quite destructive in their methods. In 1986, a group of eight Crite prisoners escaped from Prison Asteroid-Sector 17, and the alien warden, Zanti, called in Ug and Lee to find and eliminate the Crites, having had tracked them to Earth. Wordlessly accepting the job from Zanti, the Nothing Faces took off for Earth, cutting off a transmission from Zanti that asked them to be less destructive this time. As they approached the planet, they went through Intergalactic Council records of Earth and its inhabitants, seeing many aspects of Earth's culture, with Ug focusing on a recent music video featuring a Human singer named Johnny Steele, performing the hit song "Power of the Night." Ug then took on Steele's appearance, and decided to use it as his visage even beyond the mission. After transforming, he ordered Lee to transform, but Lee hadn't found a visage he liked, so Ug told him to find something when they landed. As the duo entered the atmosphere over Grover's Bend, a town in the United States where the Crites were detected, their ship was seen by a Human named Charlie McFadden, who believed them to be Martian invaders.

The bounty hunters landed near a road to isolated farms, finding the remains of a police officer who was killed by the Crites. Lee took the officer's appearance, but replicated all the injuries left on the corpse. Taking the officer's car, the two figured out how to make it drive, but in reverse, also blasting a hole through the roof with a shotgun that Ug poorly handled, making their way to the nearby town of Grover's Bend, where they began to search for Crites. They first searched a church, crashing their car through the building's porch and destroying it, before entering and demanding the location of the Crites. As none of the Humans knew what they were talking about, the Nothing Faces confronted the priest, with Lee changing his appearance to that of the priest, before blasting a nearby piano that he heard go off when the player accidentally pressed a key. Ug stopped Lee from firing again, and they then left to a bowling alley. Within the alley, Ug watched Humans bowl, and tried it himself, throwing the ball hard enough to shatter the pins, before him and Lee entered the alley's bar, meeting Charlie McFadden within. Lee changed his appearance yet again to Charlie as the two questioned the bartender about Crites, becoming increasingly aggressive, before the sound of gunshots on a nearby TV made the two start firing at it, destroying most of the bar.

Later, Ug and Lee drove back down the road to the farms, coming across Bradley Brown, a boy from a farm that was being overrun by Crites. Brad, mistaking the two for Charlie and Johnny Steele, entered their car and directed them to the farm, where the Nothing Faces began to destroy Crites with their guns. After clearing the house and leaving to look for more Crites, a few surviving Crites, grown larger than Humans by eating enough, used their ship to destroy the Brown house, before in turn being destroyed by a bomb left on their ship by the Bradley and the real Charlie. With the Crites dead, Bradley thanked Ug for their help, and Ug left him with a communicator, which also had the capability to reconstruct the house. As the two Nothing Faces left to collect their payments and take off, Charlie followed them, asking to come with them, and was allowed to join their crew.

Over the next two years, Ug, Lee, and Charlie ran a number of jobs for the Intergalactic Council, with Charlie being trained as a bounty hunter. Ug kept the visage of Johnny Steele, but Lee reverted back to his default form, as he had not yet found a face he liked. In 1988, the bounty hunters had secured the heads of a large number of alien bounties, culminating in a vermiform creature living on a desolate planet. During that hunt, the alien nearly killed Charlie, but it was blasted by Ug. Then, they were contacted by Warden Zanti, who informed them that Crite eggs were detected on Earth, and hired the hunters again. On their way back to Earth, Ug reassured Charlie that he was a good bounty hunter. Arriving back at Grover's Bend, where the Crite eggs were detected, the trio came across a discarded Playboy magazine in the dirt, where Ug ordered Lee to transform, and Charlie held up the magazine's centerfold model, which Lee transformed into, ripping apart their uniform with the body shape changes. After fully transforming, Lee noticed that they had copied a paperclip present on the image, removing it and declaring "Kill Crites" before walking towards the town, not caring that they were now nude, although Charlie managed to catch up with Lee and give them back their uniform's remains.

Within the town, the bounty hunters were soon summoned to the location of Bradley Baker, who had returned to the town to visit his grandmother, and was currently under attack by a Crite. Blasting their way in, the Nothing Faces obliterated the Crite with their guns, reuniting Charlie with Bradley as Ug and Lee set off to find and kill more Crites. The duo found the Crites openly terrorizing the town, cornering a large group of Crites in a burger restaurant, blasting as many as they could, although a few escaped. Outside, Lee changed visage again to that of a male worker of the restaurant. The hunt continued until nightfall, the hunters separating, where Lee found a poster of Freddy Krueger. Charlie, finding Lee and seeing Lee about to transform into the monster, quickly put the Playboy magazine in his way, making Lee turn back into the model. Deciding to remain the model, Lee once again declared "Kill Crites" and set off to find more. Lee then found Crites in an alleyway, but before they could fire, a multitude of Crites emerged from the dumpsters, quickly swarming and killing Lee. Ug, hearing Lee cry out, found Lee's remains, which was just a ripped-up arm. Stricken by grief, Ug screamed to the sky, reverting to his default form, to the surprise of a group of civilians that followed him. Depressed, Ug went to a church that the surviving civilians were using for refuge, where he refused to transform again, although Bradley and Charlie tried to console him.

Knowing that the Crites were ready to launch an assault on the church, the Humans organized a plan to lure the Crites into a burger factory on the outskirts of town and use explosives to destroy them. To help with the plan, Ug helped pass out weapons from the nearby army surplus store to the survivors, and then shapeshifted into a large Crite, using his disguise to lead the other Crites towards the factory. On the way to the factory, the wind changed direction, making the Crites lose the scent of the burgers and instead smell the Humans, but Ug managed to get them back on track to the factory by telling them that the burgers had boneless meat. After getting all the Crites inside, Ug went back to his default form, but was attacked by one of the Crites, which bit onto his foot. Managing to kick the Crite off, the Humans sealed the doors and ran off with Ug, blowing up the factory. However, the Crites survived by joining together into a large ball, and rolled their way to the church, only to be stopped by Charlie ramming the Nothing Face ship into the ball, destroying all the Crites and seemingly dying in the blast. As the town recovered from the invasion, Ug took on Charlie's appearance in his honor, contacting other Nothing Faces to retrieve him. Then, Charlie was revealed to be alive, having had ejected from the ship, meeting Ug and Bradley again. Charlie decided to stay on Earth as the new sheriff of Grover's Bend, as Ug, still with Charlie's appearance, was taken back into space by another Nothing Face ship.

Over the next two years, Ug reverted to the appearance of Johnny Steele, but changed his hairstyle. While he still cared for Charlie as a friend, he did not contact him and remained in space, presumably still a bounty hunter, but became more business-oriented. In 1991, Charlie was about to eliminate the last two Crite eggs in the universe, located in the remains of an apartment building, only to be contacted by Ug. Ug informed Charlie that the policy of the Intergalactic Council now decreed that no species can be rendered extinct via termination, asking Charlie to place the eggs inside of an automated pod the Council was sending his way, and take care from there on. Ug then signed off, just before the pod arrived. However, when Charlie placed the eggs inside the pod, the pod abruptly sealed with him still inside, and Charlie pressed several random buttons while trying to escape, causing the pod to shoot into space, somewhere near the orbit of Saturn, meaning that the Crites never made it back to the Intergalactic Council, and Charlie was presumed dead. Not knowing what happened to his friend, Ug eventually became selfish and greedy, presumably caused by lingering grief from losing Lee and Charlie, and possibly by the dissolution of the Intergalactic Council, which happened sometime between 1991 and 2045. Taking on the name of Tetra, Ug either formed or joined an interstellar corporation known as TerraCor, which operated within the Sol System, becoming a high-ranking executive in the corporation by 2045, where he focused on the creation of bioweapons made from alien creatures. It is unknown what became of other Nothing Faces after the dissolution of the Intergalactic Council, but the Council was known to Humans by 2045, so it is possible that Nothing Faces opened up relations with Earth.

In 2045, a deep space Human salvage vessel, the RSS Tesla, found the pod with Charlie and the Crites within, reporting the find. Hearing the report, Ug contacted the Tesla and offered them triple the usual payment for the pod being delivered to a nearby TerraCor station, where the bioweapons were developed, but did not inform them of the station's purpose, nor that it had been abandoned some time ago. After the Crites and Charlie were reawakened on accident, the Crites killing a few of the Tesla 's crewmen and multiplying, Ug arrived on the station, along with a detachment of TerraCor security troopers. Ug demanded the Crite eggs, but when Tesla engineer Al Bert refused to comply, Ug shot him in the head. Charlie, who had tried to talk to Ug when he entered, demanded to know what happened to Ug, but only got "things change" as a response. He held Charlie and Tesla pilot Fran hostage in the hangar while his soldiers searched for the Crite eggs, but they got locked in a room with the Crites and killed. Ethan, Al Bert's engineer apprentice, then entered with three Crite eggs, juggling them before smashing two. Ethan then tossed the last egg at Ug, and while Ug was distracted trying to catch it, Fran knocked him out with the butt of a revolver. Ug remained down for some time, allowing Fran and Charlie to take Ug's ship, but Ethan lagged behind to mourn Al, only to be attacked by a Crite, then held at gunpoint by Ug when he woke up. Then, Charlie returned and aimed a revolver at Ug, where Ug expressed his doubt that Charlie had it in him to shoot. Charlie only responded with the same thing Ug told him, that things changed, before killing Ug with a shot to the head. The surviving Humans used Ug's ship to escape, and Ug's body was vaporized shortly afterwards with the rest of the station when its reactor went critical, which also rendered the Crites extinct.

Appearances

 * Critters (1986)
 * Critters 2: The Main Course (1988)
 * Critters 3 (1991)
 * Critters 4 (1992)