NOVPUBThe group remained in their battle stance for about a minute until Nika broke the formation to take a look at their surroundings. To say the workshop was messy would have been an understatement, but despite the piece of junk laying around and the many unfinished stored in plastic boxes it was difficult to find a spot where a cryptid could hide.
"Listen, Luna, you got us to stop fighting, but you can't play with that."
"If you cry wolf too many times, people will stop believing you even when it's the truth." Medusa added.
"I am familiar with that child's tale and I didn't say it to stop the fight." Luna glared at them.
"Are you implying that there really is a cryptid nearby? Why hasn't it attacked us yet?" Nika asked.
"You were the one who said there was a ghost in the ship. What I said instead is that there is a possibility that there might be a cryptid nearby. It would explain the strange noises you heard and it would also explain why Medusa can't fix the communication thing."
"That's ridiculous, everyone knows ghosts are not cryptids. Cryptids are... they're cryptids, you get me?" Nika attempted once more to explain her twisted logic to no avail.
"Wait, she might be on to something. Cryptids emit fields of disruption that disable all electronic devices, but back in college, professor Fermi worked in a project to measure cryptid's field of disruption verus electromagnetic pulses."
"I don't see how that could be useful, the technology to counter FODs already exists, it's just too expensive." Nika was certain about this information because she used to drive a Nikola which is the most luxurious car money can buy. They not only were fully automated, but they were also capable of driving right besides cryptids without stopping or having its components affected by cryptids.
Unfortunately, they were also too expensive to be used casually during incursions, but she had seen it withstand FODs in the past.
"Yes, we already know different ways to counter FODs. First is the Faraday cage which is a conductive wiring surrounding electronic devices so EMPs and FODs alike can't disrupt them. There's another way, which is more simple, to seal them inside an enclosed environment surrounded by insulating materials, such as reinforced alloy.
I mixed those two techniques when building this zeppelin and it can withstand FODs without problems which is why I always get mad when it gets damaged. If it receives enough hull damage, both the wiring and the insulating layer would stop working." Medusa explained in the simplest way she could, though Nika lost her after she mentioned the 'EMP' acronym for electromagnetic pulse.
"So I was wrong. If we are protected from fields of disruption, then even if there was a cryptid it shouldn't have an effect inside the ship." Luna lowered her gaze, somewhat disappointed that there weren't any new cryptids to discover.
"Maybe, but maybe not. Of all the devices in a ship there's one that can't be protected from neither EMP nor FOD because it needs to stick outside the ship in order to work. As you may have guessed, it's precisely the communication array. Most likely, the reason why I can't get it to work is because there's a cryptid inside the ship. It's also why it started working when I channeled my flux energy."
"So, flux energy can protect electronics from FODs?" Luna asked after finally hearing something she was actually interested in.
"We'll need to run a few tests in the comms room, but if there really is a cryptid among us it might be dangerous. Especially if it's a skinwalker, we can't go poking at everyone with a silver coin without alerting it."
"I have a solution for that!" Nika blinked in and out of the shadows, returning with a pale face once more. "I heard it again."
"Stop using your trait, you moron!" Medusa scolded.
"How else was I supposed to find that annoying milk truck without people noticing?" Nika grunted leaving Medusa wondering what did she meant by that until Seiren announced her presence by knocking on the door.
"You called for me, Miss Winona?" Despite her formal tone, Seiren seemed distracted and her face told the tale of someone without a purpose. After Jon left she had nothing to do but to blankly stare at the walls and wait for him to return.
Jon caused her so much trouble, got her in life or death situations so many times and flirted way too much with her, but now she found herself missing even his inappropriate comments just out of boredom.
"Milk truck? Seriously!?" Medusa nagged at Nika who just looked the other way with a prideful look. Nika didn't want anything to do with Jon, but she was on Seiren's position for a while during her stay at the Mapple corp. and couldn't help but see her as competition. 𝙣𝒐𝙫𝙥𝙪𝙗.𝙘𝙤𝙢
"That is very demeaning, bad Nika, apologize." Luna said, finally getting some sense into Nika's stubborn head and got her to immediately apologize.
"I'm sorry I called you a milk truck." Nika seemed sincere, but repeated the slur just to annoy Seiren.
"It's fine, I'm used to worse." Seiren heaved a sigh, uncaring of what Nika had to say about her. She was so bored, even if all they wanted was to make fun of her was actually an improvement. Her entire demeanor changed as soon as Medusa poked her with her silver crucifix as she understood the meaning behind that gesture.
"Follow us to the communication room and let us know discretely if someone lies." Medusa commanded and picked up the panel she had been trying to fix so many times before.
The way to the communication room was short, but due to most employees staying at the Pegasus to save on the living costs it was filled with people. They were all employees of their company, but instead of friendly their faces seemed foreign and distant making Nika question herself if she had actually seen them before.
Needless to say, it was only Nika's imagination. Medusa knew each employee by name and she also knew how they looked, though she couldn't offer any input due to her being unable to use her sense of sight.
"I really need to find a way to recover my sight." Medusa blurted out.
"I could give you a hand with that." A woman whose eyes could only be described as beautiful declared.
"Stand back!" Nika hissed like a cat, then fired questions like a machine gun.
"Don't you know me, Miss Nika? I'm Stella." The engineer replied with a wry smile. Of all the employees in the Dungeon Raider, she was the first one to meet Nika since they both worked under the Mapple corporation. Nika took a glance at Seiren confirming that she wasn't lying, but still checked the crew list on her phone.
"There's no record of any Stella in our ship's log." Nika said as she placed her right hand on her holster.
"That's because her name is Constellation, you idiot! Sometimes I wonder how does Uriel manage to stay sane with an assistant like you." Medusa dismissed Stella and stomped her feet in frustration.
"Speaking of him... we should," Luna's sentence was cut short by both Nika and Medusa replying with a prolonged 'no'.
"He's been through a lot lately and needs to rest. He's been through a lot lately and he even threatened to kick me out of the company if I disturbed his sleep tonight."
"He always threatens you when you sneak up on his shadow while he sleeps." Medusa chuckled.
"Yes, but he usually spits exaggerated things like he's going to kill me or beat the crap out of me. This time I could tell he was being serious." Nika explained making a pained expression.
Medusa installed the panel in less time than it took them to arrive at the communication room and as soon as it was done she started channeling flux energy through her hands increasing the intensity little by little until the lights were turned on and the noise of static coming from the radio filled the room.
"This is the Dungeon Raiders' Pegasus, does anyone copy?" Medusa said through the speaker. Everyone fell silent waiting for the reply while Medusa kept a steady flow of flux energy enveloping the area, until someone replied.
"This is Global airport, go ahead."
"What is my signal strength? over." Medusa asked.
"Five by five, Pegasus." The voice replied and Medusa ended the call. Usually, after performing a successful radio check they should have been more relaxed, but the opposite happened and everyone became distrustful of their own shadow, especially Nika who went as far as to glare at it.
"This confirms there's a cryptid inside the ship. What should we do now, Luna?" Medusa declared.
"Nothing, if there really is a cryptid in here it has yet to attack anyone. If we at different to our usual selves it might notice and take action." Luna's obsession with cryptids also made her the most reliable when it came to understanding them, which made everyone agree with Luna and they walked together back to their rooms saying goodnight right before closing the door.
