“So, what's the point of this again?” a chestnut haired man questioned his shorter companion. The taller of the two was slim, dressed in nicely tailored cloth; a blue tunic with black pants. It wasn't the fanciest clothing, but it still spoke of an attempt to look nice. After all, what if he met a beautiful girl that needed saving? He couldn't look sloppy. He had a reputation to uphold. The playful glint in his hazel eyes never seemed to go away, despite the frown that currently marred his features.

His companion was much different, his darker brown hair falling just slightly over his forest green eyes. He had a loosely fitted white jacket with a black stripe reaching up from the middle, all the way up to the hood. A black tank top was worn beneath the opened front of his jacket, matching black sweatpants worn to complete his outfit. It was distasteful, in Ricard's opinion, to go out in such a manner, but Leo always dressed for comfort and maneuverability, especially when out on a mission. “I told you this five times already,” the younger man said with an exhausted sigh. “There are bandits out here and the bigger guilds are too good for such a small group. Will you shut up and keep looking?”

Ricard rolled his eyes in response. “Oh, come off it. You're just as bored as I am,” he complained, letting out a small yawn as he placed both hands behind his head. “Our skills would be better suited at home with the lovely ladies. I can introduce you to-”

“No,” Leo cut him off harshly, rolling his eyes just as Ricard had moments ago. “I'm not like you. Can we focus on the mission now?”

Ricard let out a sigh as he gazed out at the landscape. It didn't seem all that out of the ordinary. A small walk from their city displayed farmlands and plains for miles, only a few smattering of trees around the area. Well, in this direction at least. Nothing was different, though. Plants growing. Animals scurrying about. Large thugs cornering a young woman.

His eyes darted back to the last bit. Several large men had surrounded a young woman. They did not seem at all friendly, the lecherous smiles being clear from Ricard's position down the road. The pink haired maiden was alone with no weapon in sight.

Well, he couldn't have that. Raising his voice, he picked up his pace. “Come along, Leo! Duty calls!” he shouted, causing his partner to roll his eyes again. Of course Ricard would get serious when a woman was involved.

Regardless, he had the right idea. These were probably the bandits they were looking for. Placing his left hand over his right, he let out a small breath as he picked up the pace. “Enhance.” Red lines trailed over the man's right arm, shining dully in the sunlight, but forming intricate circuits from his finger tips to his shoulder, most of them hidden beneath the sweatshirt he wore.

Slender legs carried her short frame across the road. There was a spring in her step and it looked as if she was bouncing as she walked, though that may have been an illusion to make her five foot two frame look taller. Saya was definitely strange looking with her bright pink hair and odd blue eyes. She was wearing a black gothic Lolita style black dress, patterned black tights, and black mary jane style shoes. She was also wearing a black, leather, chocker necklace that had a pink, metal, feather hanging from it, something that no matter what else she was wearing, was a constant in her wardrobe. It was special after all.

A smile was plastered to her face, despite the fact that she was out there looking for trouble. A group of bandits were out here somewhere terrorizing the poor townspeople. The worst part was, the guilds weren't doing anything about it. So she had taken it upon herself to do something. It was part of the reason she hadn't joined any guilds yet, despite being a gifted mage. The other part was because of her magic type. Dark Make, something that was usually seen in Dark Guilds. People saw her magic type and instantly made assumptions. An extremely frustrating detail, considering she did want to join a guild. Even if she wasn't the most social creature out there.

Today she was wearing one of her sexier dresses, something that showed a little more skin than usual. A flash of a thigh, a hint of cleavage, even if she assets weren't the biggest around, she was hoping the bandits wouldn't be able to help themselves. And she was right, because it didn't take much longer for her to be surrounded. There were four of them, all much larger and taller than Saya herself. The looks on their faces made their intentions incredibly obviously. Her ruse had worked without a hitch. "Hey there darling, what are you doing out here all alone?" One of them, a guy with a Mohawk, asked.

The smile still graced Saya's lips. "Looking for you." She said simply, hands already coming up in order to cast a spell.

But before she could do anything, she caught a glimpse of two people running at them. The smile dropped for a moment, being replaced with a look of irritation, before quickly returning once more. She had to act quickly before anybody else got involved. Still taking advantage of the bandit's confusion by her statement, she brought her hands up. Her right hand was splayed open with her palm facing up, the left was curled into a fist and placed in the center of her right hand. "Dark Make: Hammer!" She said, channeling the dark energy coming off of the bandits.

Within moments, Saya held a giant hammer in her hands. One that was made from glowing, dark purple, energy. Taking a small step forward with her left foot, she swung the hammer horizontally at the bandit directly in front of her, throwing her entire weight into the strike. It connected solidly with bandit number one, cracking ribs and knocking him flat. With a grunt and strength that seemed impossible with her frame, she switched the hammer's direction and bashed bandit number two in the head. Both were out before they even had the chance to react. Saya was satisfied by the sounds made from the connecting of hammer and person, it was exciting. Though she did like the whip and spear more as weapons, the hammer was still fun to use.

Ricard kept moving, despite the hesitance in Leo's steps. Though, it did make him wonder. Dark Make? Most dark related abilities were taught to those who decided to join Dark Guilds. Of course Ricard didn't care. A woman was involved, evil or no. He would go to hell and back if it was for a woman's affection. Leo, however, was more cautious, specifically because of this. All the easier for her to get the jump on them if one of the two were smitten with her.

Leo picked up the pace even as Ricard grabbed hold of one of the remaining two by the arm. "This...is no way to treat a lady," he said, slightly winded from the run. The man, having been prepared to attack the girl in revenge for his two cohorts, spun around, fist primed to punch him. The lithe man ducked under the first punch, landing one of his own to the man's stomach. The man grunted, but it didn't seem to have much effect. This was going to be a problem. He had no offensive magic and he had charged straight in without thinking. At least, hopefully, it looked cool enough to the maiden he was currently trying to save. Despite the fact that she clearly needed no saving.

As the man threw a second punch at Ricard, his wrist was grabbed, Leo finally having caught up. With a swift punch to the man's side with the mage's glowing arm, he crumbled, collapsing to the ground in pain. Another swift punch to the face knocked him out entirely.

Ricard grinned at the pink haired woman, the disruption being plenty of a distraction for her to finish off the last goon. "Are you alright, m'lady?" he asked with a more grandiose expression, as if he had been the one to take out all four. "I came as quickly as I could to your aid! I hope these fools haven't hurt you at all."

Saya had the situation under control, almost completely in fact. These four bandits didn't know who they were going up against. She was strong enough to take these guys on. Even if they had twice this number. All she was having to use was one of her weapons, when there were dozens she could make. She smoothly dodged out of the way of bandit number three's attack. What she didn't have control over though was the two guys running towards who. One of which threw himself at the fourth and final bandit. He didn't seem to know what he was doing. But right now she couldn't worry about that. She had her own bandit to deal with. Besides, his help was on the way in the form of guy number two.

Bandit number three was a little bit better than the other two. He managed to dodge one hammer swing and retaliate with an attack of his own. One that Saya easily moved around. Then it was a matter of one more hammer strike, slamming directly into his ribcage. Three hits, three down. That wasn't bad. But if she had been using a different weapon, she probably could have taken out two in one shot. She also could have killed them, but they weren't worth it. It wasn't worth putting their blood on her hands. She only killed people who she couldn't afford to leave alive. Otherwise it left a bad taste in her mouth.

Saya let the dark energy that was creating the hammer disappear, it burst into dark purple sparkles before disappearing completely. She turned when one of the two guys spoke to her, talking as if he had been the one to defeat all four of them. As if she was some sort of damsel in distress. The smile dropped for a moment before it reluctantly returned. "Aid? I took out three of them and your partner took out the other. Doesn't sound like aid to me." She said, keeping her voice as calm as she could. But there was quite a bit of sass in there. She was small and cute so people immediately thought that she was weak, that she couldn't defend herself. Jokes on them, she was tougher than people who were much bigger than she was.

Ricard's smile didn't falter, placing a hand to his chest as he bowed his head slightly to the woman. “Oh, but I beg to differ. I distracted him so my colleague could take him out with ease!” he said, though it wasn't clear if he was joking or not. He sounded serious, as if it were a real contribution.

“Though, you could have clearly taken them yourself,” Leo cut in, giving his partner an exasperated sigh. “I apologize for my partner. He likes to think he's more important than he is.”

“On the contrary!” Ricard turned to Leo. “I like to put the people we intend to save as the most important.”

Leo just shook his head in response. “You can ignore him, miss,” he stated. “He's an idiot.”

“Your words hurt, Leo,” Ricard said, a mock look of pain on his face as he clutched his chest, though it was clearly all for show. “You cannot slander me so in front of the beautiful maiden. You'll ruin my stellar reputation.”

Leo just placed his head in his hands, clearly not wanting any part of this behavior that Ricard seemed insistant on putting forth. “You ruin my reputation with your behavior,” he mumbled, deciding to heed his own advice and ignore him after this. He looked up at the woman. “I apologize for our intrusion. We did not realize that the people of this village offered this job to another guild.”

Saya stared blankly at the guy who had probably been dropped on his head when he was a baby. Did he really think that he had been helpful in this situation? She doubted his colleague had needed his so called help in the first place. Despite the fact that the second guy looked pretty tough, Saya thought she could take both of them if needed. For all she knew they were more bandits, guy one did seem like a bit of a perv. No real gentleman was that over the top, because they didn't need to be. Guy two seemed to be smarter than the other one, he seemed to know that she could have taken them on her own, and apologized on his partner's behalf.

Saya took guy two's advice and ignored the pervy one. Though the words beautiful maiden still reached her ears. Man he was lucky she had good control. Or he might find himself being punched in the face. She instead purposely turned away from guy one for the moment and focused on what guy two was saying. She had to admit that it confused her. Another guild? Were these two part of a guild? If so, why hadn't they done anything sooner? "Guild? I'm not part of any guild. None of them were doing anything about this, so I decided to take matters into my own hands." Her left hand went up to her throat, where her chocker necklace rested. "There aren't many guilds who would accept someone with my type of magic anyway."

Saya's magic type wasn't something she could control, it was something she had been born with. Just because she had dark magic though, didn't mean she was a dark person. "Oh, I'm Saya by the way." She said, both changing the subject and remembering she hadn't introduced herself yet. She probably shouldn't have been bashing guilds around two people who seemed to be part of one. While there had been some good ones in the past, the Magic Council made it so hard for them to really do some good. Guilds like the legendary Fairy Tail were few and far between.

Leo snorted in response to her comments about the Guilds. It was true that no one had done anything, but it was likely the large name guilds writing off each of these incidents as beneath them. Villagers wouldn't find help with mundane tasks, especially those that didn't pay well, unless they lowered themselves to the smaller guilds. "It probably helps that our guild isn't very...large," he commented. "We only received this job..." He paused a moment, considering it. "Four days ago? This was the first sighting we had." He shrugged after his explanation, glancing towards his partner before regarding the woman before him again. "My name is Leo. The idiot is Ricard. We're both from Fairy's Blossom." The guild was not very well known. It only had a handful of people in it, not enough to take the major missions that large, well known guilds would take. In this area, though, it was known a little bit. They were trustworthy in their sincerity to help, just not in their abilities to get the job done.

Ricard didn't help matters on that end, harassing any woman who came in to make a request. "These words are very hurtful, Leo," Ricard said, crossing his arms. "You know very well that I would have been useful if we followed through with our plan."

"A plan that can't work with a group of four here." Leo paused in his retort, looking down at the four men. "Mm...maybe it can still work." He grinned a bit, looking over at Saya. "This isn't the full group of bandits. We'll finish up the mission from here, though. You can rest assured that the guilds are taking this seriously now." He reached down to lift up one of the thugs, hoisting the large body effortlessly in his one glowing arm, seeming to dismiss the girl in order to continue with their mission. After all, it wasn't her job to do this. It was their's.

Saya put her hands on her hips and she listened to guy two, Leo apparently. As she suspected, they were in fact part of a guild. One by the name of Fairy's Blossom. She hadn't heard of it before, but then again, she didn't usually pay attention to guilds. She had more important things to do than follow gossip. Rumors on the other hand she cared a little more about, because those could lead to bandit groups like this. This wasn't the first time she had taken out a group that guilds didn't care about taking out. There were probably more in the area though, four was pretty small for a group of bandits. Looks like she wasn't done hunting for the day.

Her eyes narrowed, her usual happy self and smile disappearing, as Leo seemed to brush off the fact that she had been the one to take these guys out. Excuse me?" She said, stepping in front of Leo. "You seem to have forgotten who it was that took out most of these guys. You aren't just going to finish up MY mission and take credit for what I started. I got here first and the only reason you're trying to take credit is because I'm not part of a guild. Well guess what? I don't need to be. I can obviously take care of things myself." She wasn't usually like this, ranting about missions and credit. But she also hated it when people brushed her off like this. It was usually because of several different reasons. First because of her gender, then her size, then the fact that she wasn't a member of a guild.

No matter what the reason was, they weren't just going to brush her off like this. For once in her life, she stood still, hands on her hips, with a total momish scolding look on her face. Saya wasn't afraid of blocking their path, of getting into a fight with them if necessary. She had already seen what the pervy guy, Ricard, was capable of, not much. And Leo had some kind of fancy strengthening magic, but that didn't do you any good unless you could manage to hit the target. She'd just have to keep her distance, the whip was one of her favorite weapons after all. It would do nicely in a situation like this.

Leo returned her scowl. This girl was going to jeapordize their mission if she kept things up like that. "A few points," Leo retorted. "We've been searching for four days. Just because the bandits are more likely to come out to a seemingly harmless lady over two mage doesn't mean you were here first. Second, who gives a crap? People are being hurt. We're going to stop it. You said it yourself. You stepped in because the guilds wouldn't. Well, our's is willing to." Leo didn't drop the thug during his rant, holding the body towards Ricard. "Do your thing."

Ricard hesitated, looking between the two. "Why do we need to fight about this? We could work together," he suggested. Even as he spoke, he touched the thug's face, a spark coming from his fingertips. Slowly, his own features began to change, shifting until he looked exactly like the man he was touching.

"We're going to trick the bandits to lead us to their hideout. Leo's our only fighter, so we could use the help." Ricard's voice had shifted as well, matching that of the unconscious goon.

Leo's frown deepened. "We don't need her help," he replied. "These bandits are worthless. Besides, it's our jobs. The villagers submitted it to us themselves."

Saya stared down Leo, not flinching at all. Four days? That was it? She had been in the area for weeks fighting bandits for various villages. They were always extremely grateful to her. They tended to like her more than the guilds too, because she didn't charge for her bandit hunts, she did it because it needed to be done. Sometimes they tried to pay her anyway, but she never accepted it. In fact, she usually gave them money afterwards, because she tended to empty out the bandit's storehouse when she was finished. She had grown up in a little village like one of these, she knew how hard it was to get help.

"I bet if we went to the village right now, they would rather I hunt the bandits for them. I don't charge when it comes to saving people." She would have continued but Ricard was suddenly changing shape. She took a few steps back, the fingers on her left hand were splayed out and she was ready to make one of her weapons at any time. Saya had never seen any magic like that before. It made her really nervous. She was still in the way of Leo moving forward, but now there was a little distance between the two of them.

Ricard spoke and it sounded just like the bandit he now looked like, yet again it made Saya uncomfortable. Bandit Ricard suggested that they work together, because Leo was the only fighter of the two, sometime she had already figured out. Leo didn't seem to like that idea. "Like I said, the villagers would rather have me to the mission than you." After that, Saya ignored Leo, though still kept her spot in front of him. This time she focused on bandit Ricard. "I'll work with you on one condition, you don't take payment from the village. If you don't accept the terms, I'll go to every village in the area and tell them not to use Fairy's Blossom for anything. Trust me, they'll listen to me before they listen to you." Saya was one of them after all. Not from the same village of course, but she what it was like. She could empathize with them.

Leo's frown deepened. "No way," he replied. "First of all, you have no way of finding the bandit leader unless he seeks you out. Secondly, I refuse to do this for free. Our guild can't live on charity, as much as I want to help these-"

Ricard's hand came up in front of Leo, causing him to pause in his tirade. With a small sigh, he bowed his head to Saya. "What my friend is trying to say, miss, is that our guild needs money to function. If we did this kind of stuff for free, our guild would collapse. Especially when faced against these larger, more prestigious guilds that do things for extravagant payments." He paused a moment, glancing at Leo before regarding Saya again, his look softer than it had been when he flirted with her more openly. His over the top antics had been shelved for this purpose. He couldn't have their guild defamed for this incident and he didn't want Leo to start a fight with the girl who more than likely had the most experience with the bandits and this village. "The villagers only stooped low enough to request our help a week ago. They were overcharged by other guilds in the area and didn't even request our help until they were out of options. Leo and I were returning from a mission two days later and accepted the job immediately. They are offering a very small sum, considering the number of bandits we're up against. Our intention was to take half of the bandits' earnings for ourselves and give the rest of the village to make up for the payments. We have no intention of overcharging the village for our services. However, we simply cannot do this for free if we hope to continue to thrive as a guild."

Leo looked over Ricard, a mixture of confusion and surprise in his eyes. However, the heat died down within them as he turned away, crossing his arms and not adding to the explanation. He was getting too frustrated. Ricard was in the better position to negotiate here.

That was where he was wrong. Saya had ways of finding the hideout on her own. This wasn't her first bandit hunt after all. She had methods and plans of all different kinds. She was already formulating a response in her mind for when Leo finished, but he never did. Ricard stopped him and tried to mend the situation. He explained things to her. About how they were from a small guild and they needed the money too, and how the village was only paying them a small amount. The thing about taking the bandit's earnings really got her attention though. Considering she had been planning on doing something very similar, though the village would have gotten more money than she would have.

A small sigh escaped her lips and she looked away for a moment, thinking. Her dominate left hand went up to her necklace again, fingers running along the metal, pink, feather that was attached to it. A habit of hers from whenever she was thinking, or nervous, or anything really. She had always kind of been against guilds, after all her only experience with them was big name guilds trying to screw over her little village. That and the fact that they wouldn't even consider her because of her magic type. But now she had the chance to see one in a different light. But she wasn't sure if she wanted to.

She was quiet for another moment or two, then finally she spoke up. "Okay, I believe you. But that doesn't mean I trust you. You have my help, for now at least." She turned back to face them, shooting a glare at Leo before her eyes settled on Ricard's. "If either of you do anything to betray me, you'll find my spear shoved up your ass. Got it?" She was putting on the tough girl act mainly to protect herself. The thought of going anywhere with people she didn't trust was frightening. But she had to admit, they had gotten her curiosity.

Leo glanced towards Ricard skeptically. "We don't need her help to do this," he argued again. "I can take the bandits myself if need be."

Ricard waved it off. "I know we can, but it doesn't hurt to have a beautiful woman along, now does it?" he asked with a small grin, though it was more tame than his usual ones. Not that anyone could tell the difference on the face of this bandit. "Okay, here's our plan then. You guys will hide a fair distance from us. I'll wake them up and they'll lead me right to the bandit hideout. You two will trail me. Once you get there, we rout them completely. I'll aim for the bandit leader while you guys take care of his followers." He crossed his arms, smiling a bit at Saya. "You have every reason to not trust us. I'll make sure you don't regret giving us a chance, though."

"This is a waste of our time," Leo grumbled, passing this off as another one of Ricard's fancies interfering with the mission. "Just don't slow us down. I want to be done with these bastards as soon as possible." He started to walk away, pausing only to lift the bandit up again, dragging the body away. He kept his eyes averted from the rest of the group. He didn't trust the woman, just as she didn't trust them.

Ricard let out a small sigh. Leo was too protective sometimes, but it wasn't always a bad trait. "Try not to fight with him too much," the man said softly. "He's abrasive and argumentative, but he means well. You don't trust us. He doesn't trust you. He'll warm up to you if you hang around long enough." He offered a small shrug, moving to sit where the bandit had been laying before. "He's just being protective."

Saya glared at Leo again, he didn't have a choice, because she wasn't letting them take the credit for something she had started. Whether they needed the money or not, it was just plain rude to take something that somebody else had already started. She stood with her hands on her hips, waiting for them to stop talking. Ricard seemed to be okay with the fact that she didn't trust them, at all, even seemed to understand it. Saya decided that she liked Ricard more than she liked Leo, but still didn't trust either of them. Even if Ricard's magic made her incredibly uneasy. Taking somebody else's shape like that seemed, taboo, going against nature. People were supposed to be unique, not copyable.

Saya snorted at Leo's attitude. If anybody was slowing down anybody, it would be them. "Likewise." Was all she said, but there was a lot of venom in that one word. She didn't take kindly to people brushing her off like that. The plan seemed to be plausible with three people, but with just two, it probably wouldn't have worked. Too many chances for an ambush, and if just one person got trapped alone, it would bad news. Saya could get out of something like that, but not without injury. She didn't want to have to stumble back to the nearest village for help, again.

She sighed when Ricard spoke again. It was true, but that didn't mean she had to like it. [color=9400D3There's a fine line between being untrusting and being an ass. I know, I walk it all the time."[/color] Suddenly, an idea popped into Saya's head. What if something went wrong and Ricard had no way of telling them that. They were going to be a fair distance away. Now, what shape should it take? Saya grinned as she came up with something perfect. "Oh, here, take this." She said as her hand splayed out. In a moment she had created a small flower, a rose to be exact, out of dark energy. "If something goes wrong, crush this and I'll know."

Before he could say anything else, Saya turned around gracefully and started walking over to where Leo was. There was a bit of a bounce in her step like usual, but she was obviously more guarded than usual. Her shoulders were tense and her fingers were splayed out, as if ready to cast magic at any time. She crouched down next to Leo and shot him a single, dark, look, before pretending like he wasn't even there. She could feel the negative energy coming from the Dark Make: Flower she had just created. No matter how far away they got, she would still be able to feel it, since she had used her own negative energy to create it. It was basically a part of herself that she had just given a complete stranger.