The Hunter and the Predator

Trail of the Broken and Empty
Rubie and Hunter had arrived at their destination within a brisk five minute jog. Passing by the others, Rubie had the decency of informing the rest of their team they were on an ongoing investigation into a potential A Rank Alert in the City. After receiving authorization to keep going on knowing she was with Hunter, the two made their way to a series of demolished stumps and holes to where a lush forest used to be. Beyond their sight they could see an immense crater where the madman, Swartz, had done battle and was felled in this very spot. Ash was still fresh and pungent through the air.

More than that, the air itself felt hot and the Ethernano was wafting around like a hazy choking sensation. As she wiped the sweat off her brow, she reached for her hat and began to fan her face.

"Okay, we're here," Rubie stated obviously, turning to look at Hunter, knowing he was the expert tracker between the two of them. "I know I have my methods but I'd like you to be the first to direct us where the bread crumbs are, Hansel."

As they trekked to the forest, and the resultant crater, Hunter felt some form of relief when Rubie made the smart choice to at least tell the rest of their team about the fact they had a possibly high-level threat to the city that was happening. At least if things went south, they could call for backup.

When they reached the edge of the destroyed section of the forest, Hunter felt the effects of the excess Ethernano and it made him sick to his stomach. He had heard that being in areas like this was a risk, the human body wasn’t built to survive in such dense concentrations of magic particles, and the effects weren’t still fully understood entirely. Even for professional mages, it wasn’t the safest place to be, he didn’t want to imagine the damage it could do to a regular human being.

“Whatever you say, Gretel.” he said, slowly walking forward. He kept his head low, looking for anything that could provide any evidence as to where the people could have been. The thick layers of ash and debris made the job somewhat easier than he had thought. To most people, it would appear like just winds had disturbed the matter, but he saw subtle marks and patterns that served as tell-tale signs that someone, a lot of someones at that, had come through the area, some willing and others not. Drag marks and footprints, and bad attempts at covering them up, it was all obvious to him. The only difficulty was that so many of them criss-crossed and overlapped in ways that it was hard to tell which would lead where, even to an experienced tracker. Whoever was behind the kidnapings was smarter than he gave them credit for.

“Which way...which way...” he kept muttering as he traced the paths, finding after what felt like minutes of effort that a majority of them melded together to form only one, one that was far more trampled that the rest. “Jackpot. Rubie, stay close. We’re about to enter the thick of their domain.” As he spoke, he undid the bindings on his giant sword and carved a cross pattern into the ground. “And if we get lost, we have a way to tell where we’ve been.” With that, he took to following the unified path that he discovered.

"I could always find our way back," Rubie responded with a confident lean against the back of her hand against her right hip, waving the other with a smile on her face. "I just prefer your old school methods in the event our kidnapper masked his presence. I'm better at detecting signatures than I am following leads anyways. Finding this exact spot is easy. Where he's hiding can be anyone's guess."

Taking off her hat, she reached within it and pulled out what looked like an ebony hued broom, whose thistles seemed to resemble barbs rather than ordinary straws. After putting her hat back onto her head, she leaned the tool over one shoulder as she gestured to her now visibly armed comrade. "Lead the way, Partner."

Hunter eyed his partner as she pulled out her broom-like implement. Her choice in weapon always baffled him in the long run, not that he could decry it as an effective weapon, just a confusing one. Not many people could attest to a broom being useful in combat, but seeing became believing, and he knew firsthand that the broom Rubie carried was in fact far more potent than the eye could see, and to underestimate the strange black broom and the girl who carried it was a death sentence waiting to be carried out.

“He’s this way” he growled out as he forged ahead, watching as all the mangled paths became one not far ahead of where he was, a dead giveaway that his hunch was on the right track. “If you sense anything out of the ordinary, be sure to speak up. I don’t care if it seems like nothing.” If there was one thing Hunter knew better than anyone, it was that Rubie was one of the best at reading the flow of magic in an area. Her skills had saved his backside on more than one mission, and he owed her more than he ever cared to figure out.

After a few minutes of walking, it became obvious that someone was using the area as a base of operations, a perfect choice if he ever saw one. Secluded and labeled as a danger zone, so few people would dare venture out this way willingly that the odds of being discovered was slim to none, and had the council not sent them, the odds would be far worse. After all, nobody in their right mind would come out to what was basically the focal point of a natural disaster. Ahead, the path branced out again, left or right and only subtle clues gave away that the left path was the correct choice, there was more disturbance along that path, just enough that a normal person would pass it off.

Not long after, the path he had followed disappeared entirely. If it was an illusion or not, he couldn’t be sure, it wasn’t his forte, but a dead trail left him with little options. “Rubie, can you follow their magical energies? The physical trail is dead.”

He had to give the criminals some credit. To make an entire trail go cold like that out of thin air was no mean feat, even if it was a mere illusion. He just hoped that he had set himself and Rubie on the right path to their destination.

"Sure, give me a sec," She replied, finally relieved that they made some headway where her head didn't throb. Lowering down to scoop up the earth between where the trail was and where it disappeared, she sifted it through her gloved grib experimentally. After charging a fraction of her Ethernano through her pores she got a lime-colored spark that followed a silver glow. Lasting only a few seconds, it told her all she needed to for the most part. "It seems a couple of spells were used there. If my guess is right, something akin to telekinesis or a form of barrier, followed up with spatial directive passageway"

Twirling her broom in the air she tossed it up to hang in a suspended form while reaching into her hat and pulling out a much larger object than should be possible; a black cauldron with many etched symbols. Grasping the earth and placing it into the pot, she began shifting around for some other vials, dabbing a few while pouring some others. When she finished the concoction, she clasped her hands and then spread them outward, unleashing a fantastic spiral of rainbow light that shot up into the sky before arcing around to paint a flashing line above their heads right towards a valley near the base of a more proximate mountain.

"Well then," She remarked with a smile, fanning out the fumes coming from her cauldron before 'pocketing' it back into her hat and retrieving her broom to rest over her shoulder casually. "It seems that the spatial fabric wasn't mended properly when he or she -or it for that matter- performed the teleport. While not everyone would look, it shows that our kidnapper didn't think it could be followed. Still a surprising distance to jump from just to get to a recovering town. Wonder what the real endgame is?"