The United Kingdom
Wiltshire

The British Isles were old, ancient, suffused with the power of magic. Druids had spun their circles and then came civilization and the advent of modern magic. The dark and the light had long been at war over the country's hidden places, long before the Ministry had codified what it meant to be good and evil in the world of the Arcane. Of all the regions of these isles, Wiltshire held many such hidden places, in the shadow of Stone Henge, the forces of magic had gathered for untold centuries.

Not all of it was friendly.

The rain beat down in a fierce torrent, even for the notoriously damp England, it was particularly noteworthy. The countryside was awash with flooding on a dramatic level. The kind that swept away the odd car, house and unfortunate cow like it was nothing. Thankfully they found themselves in a relatively protected locale, among the hills, valleys and woodlands of wild Wiltshire. This didn't improve Izaiah's mood much, as a fat droplet of rain rolled off a leaf above him, splatting on to his form. He internalized a moan as he crept forward. They were approaching their target, and any noise now, despite spells dampening such, would be to put them all at risk.

Stone Henge was the most prominent druidic site in the nation, but it was not the only one, especially not in the pagan heatland of the Southern United Kingdom, many more were hidden away, some were still in use, and not all for peaceful reasons. The Aurors of the UK's ministry of magic had located one such community, of wild witches and wizards practicing arts beyond the law of the land, and beyond that, potentially either risking exposure, or the lives of any muggles that would stray near. Izaiah had a particular dislike for those who looked to use magic upon those utterly unaware and helpless to it, and as they had trudged through the cold and wet, that dislike had burned into hatred. He slunk his way up one more hill, slowly crawling forwards on his front, hood pulled up, until he was on the crest, still shielded by the forest, looking down into a clearing marked with stone circles and carvings. A host of figures gathered in the clearing, despite the weather, some chanting, while others placed ingredients of a sort into a large cauldron bubbling at the centre, the circles of stone and grass converging on spot.

They did not anticipate great difficulty, but the life of an Auror was a dangerous one, even on their first true mission. Izaiah knew that the rest of the team would soon be in position, around the forested edge of the clearing. He'd drawn the short straw, so it was up to him to attempt their first ever peaceful arrest as a team. He paused pensively for a moment, before pushing himself to his feat, his wand immediately lighting up in a grand display, projecting the crest of the ministry.

"This is Auror Izaiah Perntide of the Ministry of Magic, you are hearby ordered to-" He was interrupted by a cascade of shouting, and one particularly important, particularly illegal, spell being cast. He had only a second to react, diving forwards as the green bolt of power shot over him.

"Ah, well, I never did enjoy boring." He muttered to himself, before rising up, immediately ready for what confronted him, as the rest of the Auror team leaped into action.

Bastards Dex would think to himself as the rain pelted the ground. The sound of the rain emulated his heart beat as his mind spread open like a book thrown asunder.

All of them are decent shots but we need to confuse the enemy. Thanks to these hills... his mind trailed off as his eyes scanned. Hill to trough repeated until Dex saw one opening near by.

"Iz keep at it, I will go around the left," shouting as he got to his knees. Raising his wand above his head and encircling his being he began to chant Disillusio. The tip of the wand acted as the handle of a streamer, wrapping his body in a mirroed cloth that made his essence into whatever was around him. From there he took off. Head was hung low just to be sure a camoed outline breaching the ridge didn't alarm any eyes on the other side.

These damn heathens don't deserve a court case here. What would a peaceful arrest gain us?! Just another couple of loonies locked up. Just biding there time before coming back out and doing whatever outlandish thing they want again. Whatever. At least we can have an excuse to put the poor bastards out of their misery, or rather, our misery.

As the thought left his brain Dex reached the side of the hill. Ideally on a proper flank from these nut jobs he smacked his body to the side of the hill and peered his head around it.

Who is going to get it first, who first, who first...That one a wizard, to the looks of him from the cloak he wore was about 3 meters from him. Just to make Iz happy, I will try and show a little tact while taking them down.

Dex let his right knee hit the ground, swung his left leg to the front, planted it with wand in toe and shouted, "Expelliarmus." As though a roped had been tied to the assailants wand it flew forward from him a few paces. The person's body went rigid as their head whipped back and forth to see where the sound came from.

"Night, night you monster," their eyes would briefly meet as Dex announced, "Stupefy!" Just like a sack of potatoes you try to help your mom with but she just barely misses your hand's, he dropped. An old quote from his father back in his younger years whizzed into his brain fast as could be ," Just because those around you seem to be evil, or have bad intentions does not mean they were always bad people. Some times, our past makes us into..." blah blah blah, lecture me some other time.

Even for Dex, these missions were a test on his brain. Sure, we all had dealings with intense situations growing together from our primary schooling to Auror training. However, the test of a being is how they handle themselves against the chaos factor. The chaos factor, in this instance, is a bunch of out of their mind wack jobs that none of us could, morally, control. There for, Dex's mind was being trained little by little to deal in situations that were out of his control. All he could do was move as a team, communicate as a team, and make damn sure that Iz knew Dex's dominance amongst us. I mean, amongst these situations. It would be selfish for him to just want to beat out a friend with...ah screw the maturity of it all. Dex wanted to dominate as best as possible without endangering others.

He may have a heart to win, but damnit he couldn't live with himself if others fell over something routine as a crazy cult. Blinders on, breathing deep, now it is on to the next one.

Keira grumbles under her breath. She hates the rain. Utterly despises it. She glares up at the sky. "Why did it have to rain tonight?" she mumbles under her breath. She sighs softly, and waits for Izaiah to start it all off. She watches as Izaiah stands, and projects their crest. She shakes her head. Things weren't going to go well. She releases a small gasp as she sees how Izaiah was cut off from the spell cast towards him.

As soon as that spell was cast, she moved swiftly. Her first target was a group that were huddled together. Flicking her wand, she sends a Ventus Jinx towards the group, sending them flying. This made it easier to use stupefy on them and Petrificus Totalus; her favourite full body-bind curse. She yelps, lunging for the ground, barely missing the Avada Kedavra curse sent her way. "Damn it," she hisses. "I hate rain!"

She sends a Confundus Charm in the direction the Avada Kedavra curse came from. She didn't want the others to be hit by the witch or wizard, as they were quite the sharp caster. She continues to move, wondering where the others were. She had come in from the opposite direction to Izaiah, so she was actually behind most of the enemy, making it easier for her to stun them. Even though she loved changing up her spells, she was getting quite bored, so she stuck to Stupefy.

She feels someone coming up from behind her, and she ducks down, narrowly missing the person. She lunges for the stumbling person now in front of her, knocking them to the ground. "Who the hell do you think you are?" she snarls, using Lumos. She glares at the witch below her. "Are you stupid? Who in their right mind would try to tackle someone in a fight like this?" Keira looks so incredulous at that moment. "You people must be dumb. That's how we easily found you."

She points her pine wand at something in front of her, muttering "Everte Statum," before pointing it back at the witch. "I'll see you in a few hours," she says flatly, before saying "Immobulus." She stands up, and stretches a little, feeling rather sore. She hated being knocked to the ground, and hated knocking others to the ground even more. It couldn't be helped in her line of work though. She sighs, and moves on.

Stay safe, Izaiah, Dex, Demi, Celio, Lucrica... she thinks to herself, not even bothering to add Mandy to the list. She really doesn't like that girl. The others, however, she wouldn't wish anything bad to happen to them.

Lucrica ran a hand through her soaked brown hair as the rain continued to pour. Unlike what was probably a couple of her… were they colleagues or teammates? Sure, they ‘worked’ together hence making them colleagues but teammates seem more… how should she put it? Kinder? Co-operative? Lucrica shook her head. Not time to focus on such things, she definitely will ask the others on their opinion later.

Crouched in her spot behind a small collection of low green bushes. Their leaves swayed in the breeze as they were shot by the bullets of fierce rain from the heavens. Iz stood seemingly lonesome. Lucrica almost wanted to stand behind him in silent support. Almost. Sure, her skill of Apparition hand served her well thus far, putting her ahead to silently survey the area prior to the scene, she knew she would be of little use in this part, the beginning. As her fresh-faced and fierce team erupted out of their hiding spots she would stay in her place, awaiting something useful to do. Sometimes she worried she wasn’t the greatest asset in such a job, she was probably right, but her role head importance too! Right? Lucrica shook that thought out of her head. Another thought for another time.

Iz’s speech, as expected, was not effective. They were dark witches and wizards, fat chance they’d go so easily. The rest of her group jumped into action as Lucrica stayed put, watching as her group fought the collection of witches and wizards. She gripped her wand (ebony, unicorn hair core, 13 1/4”, rigid) and pursed her lips, awaiting a useful task to do. For the meantime she looked around at her group and silently hoped for their safety, trying not to flinch and their every new bruise or fresh cut.

The rain didn't seem to be letting up, which really, was fine with Celio. He was crouched next to a fallen tree towards the top of a low hill. He'd never really minded the rain, and it usually gave him an excuse to warm up in front of the fire with a glass of wine. The rain would probably keep the Muggles away too. The last thing they needed was a bunch of defenseless Muggles to get curious and come check out the light show that would surely happen soon.

He watched and waited as the rest of his team took their positions, wand at the ready in his left hand. He didn't envy Iz's task. He was just going to make himself a target. Celio's eyes wandered back to the cauldron at the center of the circle. It was hard to see exactly what was going on there through the downpour, the Impervius charm on his head only helping slightly. Nobody on his team seemed to have any idea what this group was up to or what they were brewing, just that it was illegal and drawing attention.

As Iz walked out to try and make the arrest, Celio popped a Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean into his mouth with his free hand. He'd become fascinated with them on moving to Britain, and had taken to eating (or attempting to eat) one before each training exercise. Though he was more excited than nervous, the ritual helped ease his tension. His face contorted and he immediately spit it out. Wasabi. As expected, the wild group didn't bother to let Izaiah finish, and the fight began.

Celio stood up and pointed his wand at the fallen tree next to him and cast a Banishing Charm which set it rolling down the hill. He calmly followed after it, smirking as it knocked over two unsuspecting wizards before rolling to a stop. He disarmed them both, then increased his movement. His opponents weren't exactly expert marksman but he wasn't going to give them a clear target for any curses. The rain meant eye contact would be difficult, which would make it that much more difficult to use his Legilimency. Best to not waste time trying it.

Mandy couldn’t help but marvel at the prehistoric stones, protected by an impervious charm cast the second a droplet fell on her face, she was a lot less miserable than the others, and could only wonder why they didn’t learn such magic in order to make their lives easier. She felt that by being more comfortable she could concentrate on the task at hand. Whilst slightly scared at their first mission and what it might reveal, Mandy was confident in her own abilities and despite her personal issues with them she knew that she had been placed in a fairly competent lot. Dex made her feel fairly safe knowing he’d do anything to protect the rest, and having Izaiah step in first seemed like the only logical thing to do, he was the only one mad enough to want to do this. The whole team was beautifully talented, and she could only hope they would all come together at the right time.

As they edged closer and first saw the mysterious cult, she couldn’t help but think it looked like fun, except perhaps the potion making, she always was terrible at potions…
*Crack*
“Damn!” she whispered as her left heel had broken from getting caught in the mud, snapping her out of the dark train of thought. With a small flurry of her wand beneath her robe the bright red heels snapped back into place and dirt flew off the surface. “I really must work on my unbreakable charms” she thought to herself. Annoyed she had let this distract her she saw Izaiah move forward and her heart skipped a small beat with excitement.

Mandy sparked into action the moment Izaiah had opened his mouth, although the team had startled the opponents, she saw the dark wizards immediately defend themselves with magic she would only dream of attempting.

Mandy saw Izaiah head into the action and anyone be damned if they thought she’d leave him to fight it all out himself. “Always the glory hunter!” she muttered shortly before sprinting towards him.

Izaiah darted behind a column of moss covered stone as he advanced towards the centre of the clearing, keeping his footing despite the mudslide of their increasingly damp surroundings. The din of conflict was all about him, the other aurors had struck and seemed to have their individual battles well in hand. He was now going for the centre, to see what lurked between the increasingly dense spread of stone monoliths.

He was swiftly joined by the robed form of Mandy, 'of course' she didn't appear even remotely wet or sodden. For a lesser wizard, he'd probably see fit to chastise her for bothering with such magic in the situation, but he knew well enough she could still function at the peak of her ability. Shortly after her arrival the other side of their cover was struck by a pair of magical detonation, shuddering through the rudimentary structure. At least two hostiles then.

"Pincer then, strike fast." He nodded to her, before shifting around the stone. For all their conflicts, the two wizards were intuitive together in a way that would suggest years, not hours, of mutual experience. As Izaiah turned the corner, drawing the fire of the two dark wizards deeper into the clearing, Mandy apparated, becoming as much a ghost as anything short of being one, darting past him in the low light undetected.

"Expelliamus!" Izaiah's wand was up and ready before the twin bolts of magic struck him, rebounding instead off the defensive shield of his spell, just about holding under the onslaught. That was all it needed to do, for in the next moment, the twin dark magi found Mandy appearing in their midst, caught off guard, they were made short work of.

"Good work, we should make-" Izaiah jogged towards her, speaking as he went, before a scream cut him off, and his eyes were drawn further into the centre of the clearing, right to the heart of it, now in view of both the Aurors. Among the ritualistic markings drawn into the ground, knelt an adolescent girl, one of the robed figures of the dark wizards standing over her, a wand pressed to the side of her neck.

"One more step, and justice comes to this one."

Time seemed to churn to a crawl for Izaiah as he watched the scene play out, almost as if he were an observer, not an integral player. His mind regarded the scene with a detachment born of desperation, noting in every minor detail the young auror could hope to perceive.

One Target
One Hostage
Uncertain Surroundings.
Subject deranged.

Thankfully his wand was already in hand, a drawing motion would likely be enough to set the madman off, this way he could negotiate from a position of strength. If negotiate was even what he intended, looking into the eyes of the assailant and his would-be-victim, insane surity versus unquestioning fear, Izaiah only found the rage building deeper within him. All the gifts that life had bestowed on this wretch, and this is how he chose to use them. It was a hot rage, burning within him like liquid metal, enough to override any sense he might have for the situation, and so a new plan formed in his mind.

His wand was moving before even he had registered it, his lips spelling out the letters of a spell, he saw his counter begin to react, but it was too slow, he was only half way to finish the killing curse before the golden bolt struck him in the face, sending him tumbling away from his potential victim, who subsequently screamed. Izaiah was moving in the next moment, vaulting over a worn table, complete with potions set, as he dived forwards. Quickly interceding himself between the cowering girl and any reprisal, it was only then that the extent of his position became evident. While the original hostage taker recovered from the magical blow to his temple, others had assembled nearby, and soon let the exposed Auror mage know the extent of their wrath.

Izaiah's wand darted back and forth as he defended both himself and his charge. He was one of the better duelists of a bright generation of Aurors, but outnumbered as he was, it was only a matter of time before the angle of his block was slightly off, with a hiss of pain, his wand was shot from his hand. He swore as one leg buckled beneath him, plunging him to his knees, he was up quickly, but only in time to hear the killing curse uttered. The green bolt of light seered through the air towards him. He contemplated diving aside, but that would leave the girl exposed to the full force.

So. This is it then.

No.

He snarled as he put one hand up, all his rage and energy in one motion, a simple refusal to die, and leave another in the same danger as him. A surge of magical energy pushed through his hand, a wordless outpouring of power, and with a brief detonation, the curse was turned aside. Izaiah could only stare in disbelief at his own hand for a moment, a reaction no doubt mirrored by those trying to kill him, if only that could buy them enough time.

"Up, quickly now." He pushed the girl behind him to his feet, practically carrying her as they tried to escape the next retribution of the dark magi.

Lucrica gripped her wand, wiping raindrops from her forehead as if it were her own sweat. Her brown hair glued itself to her neck as she allowed the rain to pound her petite body. She watched her group spread the area while she remained concealed by the bushes. Small. Invisible. Observant. Just as she liked it. She looked over at the scenery. The structure of the rock that were probably in a formation that assisted their potion. She watched her group in turn. Finally, her eyes rested upon a young girl. How old was she? Young, definitely. Probably younger than yours truly.

She watched the wizards around her, the evil witches and wizards mainly distracted. She pulled the hood of her robe (she had handmade and sewed it weeks prior) over her head and swiftly and carefully ran across the battlefield, attempting to remain unseen. She gripped her wand tighter but, somehow, managed to get rather far without being noticed. As she approached Iz and the young woman, however, her cover di not last. She muttered "Lacurnum Inflamarae," under her breath and a small fireball flew out of her wand, hitting one her attackers. It didn't do much damage more than push him to the ground but it did temporarily frazzle the wizard. Lucrica ran behind Iz, muttering an apology in his ear on her way past, and stopped at the young girl.

"Don't worry, you're safe now," she mutters in her Irish-tinted accented, inspecting the girl for major injuries and wounds.