Good Will Hunting

Another day, another country. How many was it now? She looked in her journal, hoping for a clue. The woman found none; she did see copious notes on various folklore though. It still amazed her just how many creatures this vast world held; and all the painstaking detail going into describing them. Cyn should know; she was doing it right now. From what she had gathered so far, the entities encountered today seemed...nymph-like. Maybe a bit of mermaid too? That didn't seem quite right either. The woman settled on Lady of the Lake; though there were a few of them. From what she glimpsed they were breathtakingly beautiful, yet painfully shy. As soon as they were aware of her, the trio disappeared into the depths. The woman had waited around for hours in hope they were reappear, but she didn't catch a ripple. Hence, Cynisca trudged on through the terrain, ending up at her current spot.

Looking up, she saw the stars appearing. It reminded her that already a week had passed since she touched down on this nation's soil. Cynisca had sailed here on a journeyer's whim after about the nation's existence from people in the Western Continent. So far, it hadn't disappointed, yet being here reminded her how far away from home she was. Maybe she would write something to her kin tomorrow; Timesa always liked to see where Cyn had been after all. She yawned, stretching as the moon gradually came into view. Yes, that's what she'd do tomorrow; send a letter/postcard to her kin and see if she could coax those lake ladies to the surface. Propping up her bazooka against a tree, Cynisca pulled out a sleeping bag. Unrolling it, she could already feel her eyes closing. With a sigh, the woman lay on top, moving it so her propped up weapon would be within easy reach. As soon as her head hit the sleeping bag's surface, she was out, snoring gently.

From afar, a set of binoculars poked through the underbrush, spying Cynisca just as she began to drift off. “Captain…?” The man behind the binoculars whispered. He waited a moment, but no response came. “Captain Andrews?” He spoke a little louder. “We have a situation.”

Just behind him, a small contingent of Rune knights readied themselves for an approaching battle. One of them, a black-haired woman with soft red eyes, turned away from the others and approached. Crouching down next to him, her red eyes cast a gaze up the side of the valley. “What is it?”

"I think that sniper just fell asleep on the job.” He muttered, handing her the binoculars so she could see for herself. “Guess she didn’t expect to see anyone tonight.”

Looking though the glass, Hanna found the woman asleep on the ground, her long, overlarge rifle resting against a tree not too far away. A small smirk formed on her face, and she passed the binoculars back to the scout. “Lucky us then.” Pressing the small communications lacrima in the collar of her jacket closer to his mouth, she began to relay orders. “This is Captain Andrews, all forces prepare to engage on my lead.”

Slowly standing up, the Captain looking back to find the faces of her subordinates all waiting for the order. She drew her sword and pointed the tip at the ground, where a string of runes began spreading out before them. “Dark Écriture: Silence.” A dull purple glow lit up the way before them, ad with one final nod to her solders, she charged through the bushes.

Her footfalls made no sound however, even as dead leaves and branches broke under her feet. Nor did any of the other solders who passed over her runes. The Captain kept her eye on the woman as she approached, but only until she passed her. Even if her spell hadn’t masked her presence, the three knights surrounding her would deal with her in short order.

Farther up the valley, a stone building came into view. A little haphazardly constructed, sturdy enough to form a reasonable defense should someone have the knowledge of an impending raid. Not that she was willing to give them that option. The plan was a blitz strategy, catch them off guard with an overwhelming force, then force a surrender. With that though, she’d need something flashy, and she’d already discussed that with her partner while they where planning this raid.

As she drew close to the door, a pair of large, silver suits of knight’s armor jumped into existence on either side of her, large golden swords at the ready. In one fluid motion, the pair of them carved a large X mark into the front of the structure, shattering the door and much of the wall around it. From the debris, the Captain burst into a large round room full of surprised characters. “I’m Hanna Andrews of the Magic Council, you’re all under arrest!”

Before the shock could wait off, eight more suits of armor popped up around her in a phalanx formation. Smaller than the last two, standing only three feet tall, but armed with small round shields and spears. Despite this, a number of individuals all dove for cover. Many popped back up a second later with weapons, improvised or otherwise, and some in the midst of casting spells.

As the battle kicked off, a short, scrawny man peered out of one of the back rooms, hastily shutting the door ad the violence ensued. He hastily returned to a large desk in the center of the room, cursing under his breath the entire way. He scooped as many papers off the table as he could carry on one armful, then waddled over towards a large open furnace in the corner of the room. He returned for a second, but tripped when the building began to rumble. He crawled over to the desk once more, and ripped a whole drawer out and threw it to the fire next. Just as he returned to make a third grab, the door he’d locked burst open, and a familiar visage loomed in the light of the next room.

“Shit!” The man cursed, grabbing a small ledger off the desk and pulling a pistol out of his waistband. He blindly threw the ledger towards the furnace, then opened fire on the figure. She, in turn, threw her sword at the furnace, knocking the lid closed to just catch the ledger before it was fully consumed by fire, then dodge rolled to the side to avoid the oncoming bullets. She rose again, pulling her scabbard from her belt and using it to strike the back of the man’s shooting hand before he could fire again. He cursed again, moments before the Captain cracked the end of her scabbard down on the top of the man’s head. He dropped with a soft grunt, unconscious before he even hit the ground.

Hanna quickly turned back to the doorway, still on guard, but found a pair of rune knights looking back at her. One of them gave her the OK sign with his fingers, and the Captain smiled. “HQ, this is Captain Andrews.” She spoke into her communicator again. “Mission successful. You are clear to land the Ramora.”

After about twenty minutes, the valley had become an internment camp. A large airship, barely small enough to fit between the valley walls, sat as it’s center. Solders led dark mages and criminals away, while investigators poured over everything they could find and making a log of it all. Back at the hideout, the scrawny man sat handcuffed to a chair, where the Captain was personally interrogating him. “What was so important that you felt the need to burn?” She demanded, clutching the half-incinerated ledger in her hand. “You didn’t fight back, you prioritized destroying this. If you tell me why, I might be able to grant you some leeway.”

The man only scoffed at her attempts to reason. “I panicked, what can I say? Logging is a cutthroat business, after all.” He spat a wad of blood out at her feet, returning a bloodied smile. “Some crazy broad attacked me and my cohorts. I thought you where goin’ to kill me.”

Despite the defiance, Hanna smirked to herself. “Loggers, you say?” She folded her arm under her chest, absentmindedly flipping through the ledgers remaining pages. “Strange, it says here that you’re guarding a weapons cache for Crooked Cross.”

The man’s eyebrow twitched, and a cold sweat began running down the back of his neck. “B-bullshit! Only think you’ll find there are surveys and-.”

“Hey, Hanna!” A voice shouted from the other room. “W think we hit the jackpot here.”

Hanna grumbled, turning just in time to see a man with dark hair tired up in a braid appeared in the doorway. “Captain… Florz” She grunted through gritted teeth. “When we’re at work, call me captain.”

Rune knight snickered, but bowed respectfully. “Sorry, sorry, Captain. But we hit the jackpot here.” From behind him, he tossed a lacrima into the air and caught it like a softball, grinning like a dog that had just retrieved a ball. “Think this is what we’re looking for?”

Her red eyes winded slightly. Bomb Lacrima, a fairly large bomb lacrima at that. “How many?”

“Found about four in the first bag. Including this one.” He shrugged, carefully tucking the stone under his arm and peering back out into the main room. “The others have pulled about four more bags out from under the floorboards.”

The two mages slowly turned to look at the other man, who was really beginning to sweat now. “I want a Lawyer…” He growled.

“Officer, take this one to the airship.” Hanna ordered to the men standing guard.

As one knight led the man away the other retrieved the bomb lacrima from Florz. He, however, could sense something was wrong with his partner, judging by the slight scowl on her face. “So… What’s wrong?” She ignored him, continuing to stair at the ledger like she hadn’t even heard what he’d said. “What is it?” He asked a little more concerned. “What does it say?”

“Nothing…” She huffed, dropping her shoulders and showing it to him. The pages where all gone, either burned away or charred beyond recognition. “I was to late; he destroyed any evidence that might lead us to another hideout.”

Florz took the ledger to inspect for himself, but it practically crumbled in his hands as he turned the page. “So… that bit about you finding something in here…”

“I bluffed…” She said with a heavy sigh. “I remembered hearing something about weapons in the briefing… So I thought…”

She trailed off, but Florz understood. “Damn… Well… Still, we’ve got this place.” He said hopefully, tossing the useless ledger aside. “Let’s not forget, they had a hell of an arsenal here. I’m no expert, but the eggheads here said that just one of those bombs could take out an entire building.” Hanna appeared no better, which got on Florz’ nerves a little. “C’mon, give yourself some credit. We did a good job here. Focus on that.”

Patting her cheeks, Hanna finally looked up at him and put on a weak smile. As the two of them strolled out into the early morning sunlight and admired the scene before her. As far as she could tell, none of her troupes had been injured. Despite their initial show of bravado, most of the dark mages had surrendered without a fight. “OK… I suppose your right.”

“Captain!?” One of the troops called to her, drawing her attention farther down the valley to where they’d made their initial charge. Approaching them was one of the Rune knights, who stood at attention once he was close enough to address them without shouting. “Captain Andrews, one of the scouts here would like to speak with you.”

The two exchanged a glance, then Hanna said. “I thought I ordered the scouts to maintain a perimeter?”

“Not one of ours, Captain.” The knight shook his head. “One of the dark mages claims she’s not affiliated with any of this.”

“Yeah, of course they would.” Florz huffed, crossing his arms in irritation. “How green are you, solder? Pretty much everyone we brought in tonight is going to tell you something like that. You know that, don’t you?”

Raising a hand to stop her partners berating, Hanna slowly approached and motioned for him to be at ease. “Can’t you deal with this without me?” The Rune knight remained silent, but Hanna had a gut feeling that this was something she’d have to deal with personally. “OK… Take me to them.”

It was a pretty damn rude awakening she had. Roused and handcuffed while half-asleep? Where was her bazooka? Then a bunch of guys running around in metal skirts hammering her with questions; through the fog her sleepy state, Cynisca noticed their uniforms were somewhat familiar. It then clicked: Rune Knights. Why did she have to run into Rune Knights at this hour? She was just trying to sleep. Had Cyn been on her home continent, she wouldn't have worried about a thing; she was smart and resourceful with allies everywhere.

Here though, was a different story. Sure, she could break out these cuffs in seconds; she wasn't some snot-nosed brat. Hell, she could lay low any of these Rune Knights in the time it took to eat breakfast. But, the woman was on foreign terrain; she didn't know this land nearly as well as Ishgar. Which meant she could go from a bunch of MC cronies grilling her to a bunch of dark mages grilling her.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I have no frigging clue what you're talking about? You're dropping names I don't know and places I've never seen. So how about you get it through your thick skull that I'm not a part of this?" Cyn spat, her mood worsening from a lack of sustenance.

"Or are you those bad cops that like forcing false confessions from innocent people? Cause I can tell you where to shove it if that's the case."

Hanna and Florz could hear this ranting even from outside the prison area that'd set up, and the two exchanged a nervous glance. "Uhg... I can't deal with this..." Hanna moaned, running a hand through her long, black hair. "I just want to sleep in my own bed for once... Is that too much to ask?"

Despite the continued ranting, Florz glanced at his partner. "Then let's just go back." He shrugged, his eyes turning towards the large airship in the center of their encampment. "We have investigates to deal with this kind of thing. If she wants to proclaim her innocance, let her do it to them. Our job is done here."

Letting out a long sigh, Hanna considered it for a moment. Florz was right, they'd done their job. Yet at the same time, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was a little off. "It wouldn't have been the first time someone tried to claim innocence in the face of overwhelming evidence, but she was quickly becoming one of the more outspoken. Compared to the rest of the people they'd arrested that night, who remained silent the second they realized the fight was lost, She was practically becoming a one woman protest.

"Just..." She muttered, remembering a time when her superior had berated her for allowing herself to become overly personal with her cases. "Let's just hear her out, OK?" Florz rolled his eyes, but didn't argue further. Patting her cheeks to wake herself up a little, Hanna strolled around the privacy curtain that enclosed the area where they where holding detainees. A large circle of runes acted as a cage, trapping everyone they'd arrested within a sturdy magic barrier. One among them was a silver haired woman, glaring out at any Council Member present, and turned this glare to Hanna when she approached. "I've... Been told you want to talk to the one in charge?"