NIXIE I

Difficulty level: -

Status: prepare for next mission

The members of branch Alpha were awoken the next day to some terrible news. At seven in the morning, their smartphones were bombarded with messages from the Enigma team officials.

"Operation Nixie, difficulty level five:

A Nixie is a water spirit of humanoid form. With the ability to shapeshift, it lures unexpecting forest wanderers into its lair, drowns and consumes them.

Reports of missing people have been sent to the police stations in the surrounding areas of the Bavarian forest, Bayerischer Wald, Germany for a consecutive fortnite. Due to the difficulty in neutralizing the Nixie (information collected from past battles), the board has agreed to send Branch Alpha to deal with the situation.

The negotiator would be the only one talking to any encounters in the forest, human or creature, as it is difficult to determine whether the human is the Nixie or not. This is to minimize the risk of enchantment on the team members.

Once the target is located, send the negotiator to strike a deal with the Nixie in order for it to be brought back to the Berlin base. If peace through negotiation fails, engage in combat. Minimize casualty and keep the Nixie alive.

Five clean up officers will be sent into the forest with Branch Alpha in order for the Nixie's body to be retrieved as quickly as possible.

WARNING: Do not get separated.

Best of luck,

Enigma."

These were the messages sent to them.

"Honestly, why don't they just send it in one big text? The notifications are annoying as hell." Dominique complained as Jay rolled around on his bed. He got up, grabbed his luggage and was about to head out when he was pulled back by his temporary roommate.

"Where are you going?"

"Alchemy room."

"You're not gonna shower?" He shook his head and pulled his hand back from Jay's grasp before finally leaving through the door. He pressed the button to the thirty first floor and entered the lab.

"Shapeshifting? How do I stop that…" He walked over to a nearby bookshelf and looked for shapeshifting. Dominique has always been a book orientated person, even when all the information is available for view through a facility tablet and smartphones, there are many occasions where some information is omitted from the original script as the headquarters think it is unnecessary information that would just take up space. Dominique doesn't agree, he believes that it is the small details that really makes people understand these creatures better, and can therefore come up with the most efficient counter attack.

Prior to the crash, Dominique was a junior majoring in biochemistry. He lived a very boring life. Everyday was taken up by studying and looking at microbes in the university lab. He was what people would call a typical nerd, he's been like that ever since he was little. But thanks to this, he excels at his role in the team. Of all of the team members, Dominique was probably the one who saw the most change in his way of living when the meteor hit.

"Cell differentiation is probably why someone can shapeshift. It would have to happen very quickly, so the pH and temperature has to be exactly optimum with some sort of catalyst that only appeared after the crash. Stem cells have a pH of slight alkalinity, so I should make something acidic." He grabbed a lab coat and goggles, took a few flasks, bottles and tools from the shelf and started conjuring up multiple vials of potions and chemicals of different purposes.

They had qualities like petrification, dizziness, magic resistivity, rapidly increasing or decreasing body temperature, pain relief, et-cetera. Not only was attacking the target important, he had to make sure that he had potions that would aid his team too. It took Dominique around five hours before he finished up and aligned the vials and bottles carefully into his luggage.

His luggage was not what a typical one looks like. It had separate pockets of different sizes, belts and cushions for the glassware, so it took him quite a long time before everything was secure in the baggage. He dragged the filled luggage with him up the elevator and back into his room, where Jay was patiently waiting for his return. Well not actually. He was munching on some takoyaki when Dominique entered the room.

"Welcome back!" He greeted with a smile, showing off his dimples.

"I'm so hungry, give me some!" He left the luggage near the entrance and dashed at the table in the living room area.

"No way! These are mine! I ordered you some, they just arrived so they're probably still warm." He pointed to a new plate of takoyaki lying on the kitchen counter.

"You're my saint Anderson." Dominique's eyes glistened as he made his way over to the dish. He took it and sat down across the table from his teammate, quickly eating them.

"Do you want water?" Jay asked. He nodded in response and a few seconds later his glass of water was presented onto the table. It was cold and refreshing.

"How was the brewing?" Jay asked as he sat back down, clasping his face in his hands, watching Dominique eat.

He swallowed before he started speaking, "my back hurts from bending so much. I might need to make a back pain relief potion one of these days." He complained.

"Tell me when you make one, I'll be your customer."

"I'll charge you a lot." They laughed even if it wasn't that funny. The taller man laid back on his chair and sat watching the other eat silently.

Dominique was someone Jay looked up to. In terms of books and knowledge, Dominique was the smartest in their team. As opposed to Jay's masculine style of living, engaging in physical fights and hitting the gym everyday, Dominique was someone who would stick to intelligence to gain an advantage in a fight. Evidently from their latest combat, Dominique was brave and quick witted, and maybe a little crazy but that's missing the point.

"Good work today, Mr. alchemist." He patted Dominique's head and smiled warmly.

"What did you do while I was gone?" He was guessing that Jay probably didn't just lay in bed for the past five hours.

"I went to the combat practice area." And he was right. Jay had a slight scent of sweat, which wasn't bad in its slightest.

Jay is very sanitary. He has a strict skincare routine and takes very long baths. Every few days he would scrub his skin and shave his beard. He carries around a tube of hand cream because he doesn't want his hands to become rough from all the fighting, and his luggage is dominated by cosmetics, like packs of face masks for long trips which he constantly stacks up. This means that everyone wants to room with Jay so they can leech off of his stuff.

"You practiced alone?" Dominique finished up his last takoyaki. Jay grabbed both the plates and took them to the sink.

"Yeah. Well with the robots, but yes, alone, as in like, I was the only human." He turned on the tap and started washing them, humming a tune in his throat. Dominique laid his upper body across the table and closed his eyes, listening to the melody.

Jay is a year younger than Dominique. Before the disaster happened, he wasn't enrolled in a university; his education was at a highschool level and he worked as a fighter in underground boxing clubs. He was quite famous around the area, not exactly as his club's strongest fighter, but he had exceptional techniques that gave him an advantage. That and his young age raised the interest of many gamblers, putting him where he was.

When Jay finished up with the dishes, Dominique had fallen asleep. Worrying that his teammate would get even more back pain, he lifted him up gently and took him to the bedroom, where he laid him down and placed a blanket over his body.

In a few hours, they would have to pack their things and head for the airport, so Jay laid down on his bed, set an alarm clock and fell asleep.