High Priority Excursion [Private with Vera and Bartok]

[Al Ciendra]

Al went over the details in her head again, her and her team's task was to, make their way, from the landing point to Ragnhill, a town on the outskirts of Vale and take back the town from the bandits that had captured it while also protecting the townsfolk.
This was it, her first mission, far away from home, from Beacon's protection, a mission that had actual stakes and one that she could not afford to fail.
To say that she was nervous was a major understatement.

Al had all her usual combat gear, having gone over it meticulously, her armor was as durable as it could be, Al had cleaned her mask and even gotten her cloak checked at a seamster.
Yet along with that she had brought more pockets, they held more reserve ammo, both dust and normal, a few ice dust shells to cool herself down and of course, most importantly her scroll.
She was prepared as she could be, even surprising herself with how careful she had been.

But she still felt nervous.
The thought of rescuing someone, rescuing a town, terrified her.
What if she and her semblance made things worse? Sure, she had gotten better in the year she had spent at Beacon, but she'd still have to be careful.

As these thoughts, race through her mind, Al felt her shoulders and ears slump, as she leaned to the right.
At least this mission had one upside, Bartok was with her, Bartok whose shoulder she had just leaned against.
They were seated next to each other on the airship, that was taking them to the entry point.
The only other people on board were the pilot and the professor who would be guiding them, Professor Noire, both currently in the cockpit, giving Al and Bartok some alone time.

Al laid her arms around him, her head still against his shoulder.
"How do well do you think we're going to manage ?"
Al asked, her voice was clear as her mask laid to the seat at her side.

[Bartok Evergreen]

First mission. It was exciting to finally get to do some real Huntsman work, be a hero. And it was far away from Beacon, with only his wits and allies to accomplish the task. The challenge would be real he was sure, and maybe he'd get a new scar or two, but the realness of it all made it all the more exciting. A real adventure!

And to top it all off, he was going on this adventure with Al, his girlfriend. He'd get to see her in real action, not just watch the training tapes later. He knew she was scary strong with that Semblance, so he hoped she could stop herself from burning down any houses. That's why he brought extra Ice Dust arrows, just in case. And the mission? To save some townsfolk and their town from bandits.

There were a lot of bandits these days, people choosing to make their own society outside the protection of an established city's walls. He honestly didn't understand the logic of doing so, but people were free to choose he supposed. And when they chose to bully townspeople? It was people like Al and him who would step in and put the boot to their faces.

Al wrapped her arms around him, leaning against his shoulder before asking him a question. She wasn't as excited as he was. Nervous, he could feel it in her pulse and hear it in her voice. Her mask was off, her bare cheek against his shoulder. His hands lifted, one to touch her hand and the other to scratch one of her ears. "We're going to manage just fine. We're going to save those people, beat back the bandits and take their stuff back. And maybe you get to blow up their hideout or something. This'll be fun, I promise." He said before giving the top of her hair a small kiss. "Is something worrying you?"

[Al Ciendra]

Al visibly relaxed as Bartok brought one of his hands to her ear, leaning into his touch as her other hand squeezed his.
She smiled a bit, he really did make it sound so easy, his enthusiasm was pretty infectious.
But him asking what worried her did bring her back to those thoughts.
"I'm just worried about how I'll do out there, what if my semblance and I make everything worse ? I don't even look heroic at all...what if I'll scare the townsfolk and summon more Grimm ? Worse yet, what if I actually do good and all those people approach me, I can't handle crowds... I just... I'm not nearly as confident as you, Bartok."
She hugged him just a bit tighter, yet feeling just a bit of relief as she got her thoughts out there, venting to him just felt good, especially because he usually knew what to say to help her.

[Bartok Evergreen]

He frowned and his eyebrows raised as she told him her worries. He stroked her face, the unmarred side, gently. His finger caught her chin, holding her face still. He kissed her, pressing his lips softly against hers for a long moment.

"If you scare them, then I'll just have to cheer them up. And if you get a crowd then I'll be there to sign autographs. Don't you worry, Al." He gave her ear another scratch, then hugged her tightly. "That's what couples do, yeah? Cover eachother's bases. I do what you can't, and you do what I can't."

[Al Ciendra]

Al gasped as Bartok kissed her, her ears stood at attention and her eyes were wide open, until she closed them leaning into the kiss, still hugging him.
As they stopped, she could finally feel some relief, Bartok really did just know what to say to make her feel better, a smile tugged at her lips as she cuddled up to him again.
"Yeah, that sounds great, thank you, Bartok. I'll make sure to kick plenty of ass while you're busy babysitting the townsfolk."
She giggled at her own joke, giving him a swift kiss on the cheek.
This mission now sounded a lot more do-able, she had no idea what she would have done were it not for Bartok here with her.

[Vera Noire]

Véra was leaning against the doorway as they finished up their conversation, a knowing smirk on her face. "If you kids are done flirting, get ready to land. We're approaching the drop point." As usual she was dressed like a Victorian duelist, however instead of just her usual metal cane, she also had a rapier sheathed on her hip, her old weapon that she had stopped using when she became a teacher. Anyone who knew Professor Noire was well aware that she only used her rapier, Eclair Noire, whenever she felt she needed to fight seriously. She pulled her gloves tight and flicked her cape with needlessly dramatic flair, which is probably where Vee learned a lot of his behavior, and began walking towards the back of the airship, her metal cane tapping away with every other step.

[Bartok Evergreen]

"That's my girl~" He answered back before he heared Vera speak. The constant humming sound of the airship really did dull his perception, he wasn't entirely sure she had been there.

Landing, right. Time to land. He turned to Al and nodded. "Don't forget your mask. Now lets do some good, huh?"

In just a couple of minutes the back of the airship opened to a ramp down to the green grass of the forest outside of town. They'd have to make their way on foot the rest of the way.

[Al Ciendra]

Al flinched as Vera entered the room with the theatrical flare that the student body was used to from her by now, it still spooked her in this case though, as Al was still maskless.
So she hid her face by using Bartok's body to hide it, only looking up as Vera had passed and then quickly putting on her mask again.

Al was the first to exit the ship, the ramp had not even fully lowered itself, yet before Al was outside, she waited before saying anything, carefully looking around to make sure there were no Grimm to greet them, at least not yet, shame it would have been nice to get a warm-up after being stuck in the plane for so long.
Al sighed, swirling around on her heel.
"Area clear, we should be safe to proceed."
She denoted and simply waited for Vera's response, as she got to stretching, if there were no Grimm to get her to loosen up, Al would just have to do so herself.

[Vera Noire]

Véra smiled at she walked off the ship, her cane tapping at the metal beneath her with each step before suddenly going quiet as the pointed tip sunk into the soft grass and dirt beneath them. "Let's see, the drop point should be west of the village," she said, looking up at the sky before pointing to her left. "We need to go that way."

[Bartok Evergreen]

Al zoomed off the ship, flying outside before the ramp had touched the ground. He, however, waited. The ship would kick up wind and dirt and grass, and didn't want any of that on his clothes. He waited to walk down with Professore Noire. Her tapping cane made it so he didn't have to produce any sound of his own, easily mapping everything out for him as he came down.

And then the atmosphere changed as he stepped into the open air. He clicked his tongue a couple of times as his ears twitched and rotated like hyper radar-dishes. Just as Al had reported, no Grimm around. He smiled, proud of her and grabbed her hand. He felt like touching noses with her or kissing her before the Professor spoke up.

"That way?" He asked in a joking tone, pointing his own finger opposite where Vera pointed. "Is that west or ea-" His ear twitched and turned in the direction Vera pointed. "...I think I just heard a... a horn?" He listened for a moment later. "Aaand I hear screaming. We should move." He pulled out Coiled Sting, the two metal stakes that were his weapons, and shot the sharpened ends at a tree branch. They dug in and began to pull Bartok towards them, and off he went zipping into the forest.

[Al Ciendra]

Bartok's antics were appreciated as always, she'd give his hand a gentle squeeze but leave it at that, considering the professor was still there.

She would walk toward the direction pointed, having to giggle a little at Bartok's joke, it did well to ease the tension a little.

But that was ultimately squashed as he pointed out the horn and screams, neither of which Al could hear, great, this just put to show how much better his hearing was than hers.

As Bartok sped off, Al looked toward Ms Noire, before then speeding off herself, at first simply running to not splash Ms Noire, and then she took off with two jets of flame coming from her hands, staying right behind Bartok.

[Vera Noire]

Véra watched the two students take off towards the distant sound of horns and battle. "Don't get yourselves hurt, I'll catch up!" she called as she began walking in the direction they were headed. She couldn't very well keep up with the two given her semblance was internal and her weapons were meant for fighting rather than multi-purpose tools. Not to mention her limp slowed her down as well. She just hoped that Bartok and Al would be smart enough to not get themselves into trouble they couldn't handle, especially if Grimm were involved.

[Bartok Evergreen]

The clicks of Bartok's tongue, the clear metallic snaps and clicks of his weapons as he used them to swing through the trees, even the wind rushing by painted the picture of his surroundings. The horn had gone quiet, but the sounds of panic had turned towards despair, laughing guffaws, clanging of metal and shouting got clearer. He found a low-hanging branch of a tree and hooked onto it from far above. He turned his body to not hit the ground and instead sligshot up above the canopy a few dozen feet. The sounds became much clearer on the wind and open air.

He clicked his tongue several times as he slowed and then descended once more. The town wasn't far, and people were running everywhere. He came back down to keep up the pace with Al. "Town isn't far, I think the bandits are attacking! And that's a lot of fear..." They both knew what that meant. "Have to beat the bandits and calm the people as fast as possible, or we'll have another battle on our hands."

It wasn't long before they exited the treeline like two rockets shot from a cannon. One trailed fire more than the other. Bartok's ears narrowed forward on a farmhouse while mid-air. He threw his grapplehooks and they dug on both sides of an upper window. The motors and metal wiring whirred as they yanked Bartok to sail over the fields. His feet crashed through the window and found the grinning jaw of a bandit. The man was flattened to the ground with a huge thud, but Bartok hadn't been able to clearly see the furniture in the room. He hit a chair as he tried to further slow himself down and wound up on his butt, head banging on the wall.

A woman shouted in fear cowering in a corner while the bandit was groaning in pain but not moving. "Jerome!" Came a voice from downstairs. "Don't rough her up too badly now! For goodness sake man!"

[Al Ciendra]

Al was quick to follow Bartok, soon reaching the treeline she could hear what Bartok meant, but also see.
The town was surrounded by a thick wall, spikes all around, but the big wooden door was smashed open, there was no real damage it to it, it simply looked as if something had simply taken them off its hinges, a few bandits were guarding the main town exit and entrance
She could also see the townsfolk running around below, the guards didn't seem to be fairing well, they would have to hurry up.

Al was hesitant to follow Bartok, he could handle the farm house, but she reminded herself that they should not split up without a plan, seeing Bartok's elegant entrance up top Al took the door, she could hear a gruff man yelling and made her way through the entrance, finding a disheveled middle-aged man carrying a box full of valuables, he had his turned to the staircase, so Al had an easy time approaching.
He turned, his expression shifting to fear as he went to pull his gun, Al was faster, slapping the gun out of his hand and spinning around to land a blow to his gut.
He wheezed, dropping to the floor in a coughing fit.
For extra reassurance, Al stepped on his gun, breaking the weapon.
As she then headed upstairs looking for Bartok.
"Bartok are you okay ?"

[Bartok Evergreen]

Bartok rubbed the back of his head, hearing clearly his girlfriend whooping whoever was downstairs, and stood up. "I'm fine Al, thanks!" The woman pushed herself further into a corner. "Don't worry ma'am, Huntsman and Huntresses are here." He gave her finger guns, kicked the downed man in the side for good measure. The woman seemed a little less scared at least. He grabbed the man's arms and dragged him down the stairs, stopping to look at the woman. "I'm going to need your help tying these guys up, if you wouldn't mind." The woman slowly got up and followed him down the stairs to regroup with Al where Bartok dropped him on the hardwood floor, his head making a heavy thunking sound.

He dusted his hands off. "Alright, there's a lot more people in trouble. If we can nuetralize them and let the villagers handle their tying up, we should be able to move faster. What do you think?" He asked, turning to Al.

[Al Ciendra]

After making sure that Bartok was okay, calming herself down just a little.
She saw the woman, she was scared and as her own masked face came into view seemed to flinch back a bit more, Al was tried to reach out to her and calm her down, but Bartok was already doing a good job at it.
She followed along, propping the two men against one another, the man she had downed tried to struggle but Al simply tightened her grip around his wrist, making him flinch and look even somewhat scared under her cold stare.

Upon his question, Al looked at the scared woman and how her hands were shaking, she wasn't getting near these bandits who had threatened her peace and hurt her, let alone tying a rope.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
Al said as she pulled out Armis, changing the rounds, the conscious bandit looked on in panic as he tried to get up and reach for her weapon, but Al simply kicked him in the chest, knocking him against his colleague, Al raised her gun and fired...

The bandits were unharmed, as their hands were tied together by rock, Al having chambered some earth dust rounds.
"I don't have many of these, we should look for something else on our way through town."
Al holstered her gun, as she went to step out of the building.

[Bartok Evergreen]

Bartok frowned in thought, wondering why it might be a bad idea. He couldn't see the woman's shaking hands, only hear her fast breathing. And then Al loaded up some bullets and shot the bandit on the ground. His ears folded back and his hands went to cover them at the sudden loud sound, though not the crack of a projectile breaking the sound barrier. He too was a little surprised at her actions, but quickly understood she didn't shoot him with a slug. He heard the faint cracklings of rock finishing it's formation.

"That's not a bad idea." He said after a moment. Not wanting to waste one of her bullets, he grabbed a loose apron that had been tossed on the floor and tied the second man up with it. "Professor Vera might also have a solution when she arrives. For now, let's get back out there." He put a friendly hand on her arm, smiled at her, then rushed out of the house.

The village was still in chaos, people running and others chasing. It was pretty easy to tell who was on what side though. Bartok let his weapons fly, hooking onto bandits to send either them or Bartok flying, his dress-shoes pounding into chests and faces, his stakes pounding and beating a group in a flurry of attacks, dodging with spins that took blades and bats less than an inch from his body.

[Al Ciendra]

Al was right behind Bartok, well at first, she was mostly playing defense, using her flames to stop bandits from just charging at her, singleling out lone bandits, disabling them by destroying their weapons using her axe and then kicking them to the ground, leaving the poor guys and gals wheezing on the ground.

Al was also covering Bartok, her flames taking care of his backside with some bursts of fire here and there stopping the bandits from moving freely.

Yet Al was actually falling behind, she was slow and taking great care to not to permanently harm her opponents.
Al called out to Bartok as the bandits took their chance to start surrounding Al, who was hesitant to use her fire for anything else than keeping them at bay.

Until a particularily brave bandit ran trough the flames, a burly man much larger than Al, with a grin he grabbed the surprised huntress, pushing her down on the floor.
Al struggled against him yet with her arms pinned to the ground she couldn't do much, Al panicked she hated this, images of a Griffon holding a little girl in a similiar position flashed before her, fire coalessed at Al's mouth as Al growled in anger, she was about to fataly burn the man above her.

[Vera Noire]

There was a sudden, sharp metallic thwack above her that resulted in the man slumping to the side next to her, unconscious and unable to hold his grip on her. His falling away revealed Professor Noire standing over them, her cane in hand. "Sorry I took so long. I'm glad I made it before you got hurt," Véra said as she offered a hand to help Al to her feet. Several of the other bandits that had been trying to surround Al were also lying unconscious with quite a few bleeding slightly and one man even clutching a broken arm. "I trust Bartok is around? I've taken care of the Grimm that were headed this way, so we'll have more time that we need to deal with this scum." She looked slightly tired and she had a gash or two in her clothing that told of fierce conflict on her way, though her Aura had already healed any wounds she'd suffered. "Now, what do you say we finish the job?" As she spoke she drew her rapier, holding the sword with her right hand and her cane with her left, evidently having forgotten about her limp in the heat of battle. As two of the bandits charged at her together apparently hoping to avenge their comrades, Véra's Aura flashed black for a moment and she rushed to meet them, perfectly parrying their attacks with her rapier and countering by whacking them with her cane and swiftly incapacitating them.

[Bartok Evergreen]

A cry came from a nearby building, a bandit being thrown out of a window to collapse on the ground. Bartok swung out of the window up onto the rooftop. "I'm here, Professor!" He saluted cooly before his ears twitched and he jerked suddenly. An arrow had hit him in the back, blocked by his Aura. He bared his teeth and turned to a nearby watchtower, overtaken by the bandits. Bartok turned his takes into a bow and drew an arrow from the quiver on his lower back. The blind faunus clicked his tongue, stepped out of the way of another arrow coming at him, and fired. The arrow hit the man in the tower, and the small room exploded with Ice, trapping the man inside. He turned and jumped down to Al and the Professor.

"You ok, Al? I heard the scuffle but you're good, yeah?"

[Al Ciendra]

Al was just about to release her attack with a growl, but the "thwack" made her stop, she got a little scared, lifting her hands protectively, as the man slumped to the side, but Al recognized what had happened, professor Noire had come to her rescue, sighing the flames dancing around Al's mouth extinguished with an almost disappointed sizzling sound.

Al took the professor's hand, dusting herself off.
"Thank you professor."
She said hastily before her attention was turned to her boyfriend, watching him quickly dispatch the archer was impressive, Al was just a bit concerned though.

As professor Noire started battling again and Bartok approach her, Al took the chance to just quickly hold his hand.
"Please stay close, I'm not used to fighting like this."
She gave his hand a quick squeeze, just to feel a bit better herself.

Al then took a bit of a look around, professor Noire and Bartok had dealt with a good part of the bandits, she could hear much less fighting at this point, and it seemed that the bandits had wised up, there were no reinforcements coming, for now.

Al looked to the professor after she had dealt with the last two bandits of this group.
"Where should we go next, Miss Noire ?"

[Vera Noire]

"Now that their ranks are thinning we should focus on protecting the villagers," Véra answered. "You two start rounding up the villagers and saving them where you can. They'll be easier to protect if they aren't scattered."

[Bartok Evergreen]

Bartok squeezed her hand back and touched her arm. "I'll stay close. Sorry."

At Miss Noire's instructions, it seemed like it may be hard to fulfill the promise he just made. "Right, round them up." He squeezed Al's hand again. "I'll stay close. Let's go."

And out they went to round up scared villagers and those still being attacked by them. It wasn't hard to send them packing with broken noses or left tied up somewhere. The villagers began forming up in the middle of town, gathering more of themselves as it became safer and safer.

[Al Ciendra]

Al sighed as she heard the instructions given by Ms Noire, right, the hero part she dreaded.

She steeled herself as she then headed off into the opposite direction of Bartok and Ms Noire.
It was easy to find a few more bandit stragglers simply wanting to make off with loot they had already taken from somewhere else, Al was quick to swoop in, swift kicks or elbow jabs were delivered to the fleeing bandits, Al had would spare her earth dust rounds for now as she had another idea, using her semblance to melt the stone and simply tying the bandits to the ground by their ankles using some quickly formed stone shackles, she of course made sure they were cool enough to not melt their flesh.

Yet there was that one moment Al could hear the struggle of two men, one was much more passive, pleading with the other.
Al rushed over and could soon make out the sight of a bandit, a middle-aged man and a young girl in a tug of war over a bag full of valuables.
Al was growing impatient as she saw the bandit reach for the gun at his hip.

She was on him swiftly, using her momentum from her sprint and a swift leap from a nearby wall to drop-kick the bandit to the floor, she heard a few cracks as she hit his gun holding arm, which as she fell Al could see bend in a few strange angles.
As he was scrambling on the floor, Al was on him again, pushing him to the floor using her gun to quickly pin him in place with rounds of earth dust pinning his still working arm on the floor.

The bandit was dealt with, now for the hero thing.
Al whipped around to the old man and girl, way too fast and aggressive, as the adrenaline was still floating through her veins, darn, Al put away her pistol, as she just kind of stared at them for a bit, the two looked increasingly worried as Al wasn't saying anything, what was she meant to say again?!
"Oh right uhm...uh here!
Al gave the man his bag, which he grabbed after flinching back.
"Please make your way to the center of town, we, the hunters, are rounding up all the townsfolk there to protect you better, I-I'm sorry for the scare...I'm new to this."
Al's head sunk a little as she rubbed the back of her neck, the two townsfolk looked at her, then each other, the old man sighing.
"Thank you kid, truly, but maybe ditch the mask next time...now lets go Molly."
He said before dragging the girl, Molly, with him, who as the two were leaving turned to Al.
"Thank you huntress lady, I like your mask!"

Al was just left idly waving after them, having to take a second to recover from the emotional whiplash of the contradicting comment about her mask.
In the end, she carried on, looking for more townsfolk.

Soon enough Al was done, she didn't feel done however, she had saved plenty of town folk but with the scale of the raid she heard from outside the town the amount of bandits she encountered later just didn't seem right, way too few bandits seen and even less heard, the latter part was the most concerning considering she could quite comfortably listen for them in the whole town, maybe her fellow hunters had just mopped them all up?

She was now back in the town center, overlooking the gathered townsfolk from a nearby roof.
They were all quite happy to be back together and see each other safe, yet she heard mumbling, something about missing people and the guards...looking at the crowd there were only very few people in what Al assumed to be guard gear, did this town have so little protection besides the walls?
Al didn't know what to make of it, she really just thought back home to where the guard regiment of Azmarine had shrugged off attacks like this many times, guess no town was built equally or had so many people willing to risk their own hide to protect others.
Al shrugged it off, simply taking a swig of water from her canteen as she waited for Professor Noire and Bartok.

[Vera Noire]

Véra returned last, escorting the last family she'd rescued to safety. "This can't be all of them," she muttered, looking around. "A village this size would have a much larger population than this. People are missing." She approached the nearest guard and asked for a situation report on what had happened before their arrival. Surely there were more guards defending this town, but there seemed to be so few here and there were very little casualties if any so surely they couldn't be dead... at least not here.

[Bartok Evergreen]

With the amount of work to still be done, it wasn't practicle to stay too close, but Bartok made sure to keep an ear on her as he worked. Some jabs, some pride-humbling, a little acrobatics and shouting, and the people around here were a bit safer. Still scared, he could tell that much, but the more people gathered in the center he expected some happier tones, more cheerful and hopeful. Some did, most weren't.

Most of them spoke of those missing, asking for their children or wives or husbands, and getting answers of them being missing, or being dragged away by one of the bandits. A couple of them were even talking about Al, but negatively. That she should show her face, be more open and not so scary. They earned a frown from him.

Vera and Al had both joined in the middle, he was the last. People taken, general fear and anxeity around the town...

He raised his fists in the air, his ears stood up straight, and a smile plastered itself to his face as he cheered, walking into the center. "WOOO! We sent those guys packing! And those who weren't smart enough are ready to be packed into cells!" He happily announced over the noise of the crowd to the two Huntresses as he walked up. The noise grew quiet besides the whispers and side-talk. "But we got some people missing, don't we Miss Vera?"

"Yes!" Cried an elderly woman. She hobbled forward on a worn but trusty cane. "My husband, and our son and grandson! No one has seen them anywhere!"

Bartok turned to her fully, as if he could indeed see her. "Don't you worry ma'am, we'll find them. And everyone else that is missing." He nodded to her and to the crowd. "What do you say?" He asked his companions. "We do some more Hunting?"

[Al Ciendra]

Al couldn't help her shoulders from slacking as she could hear more people bad-mouthing her appearance and behavior, she was doing her best, before and here now, to keep up a good appearance, but Al was faltering.
She was nervous when she arrived, she couldn't fight the way she liked making her feel more than useless, she hadn't really found anyone, the people didn't like her and now more people were missing.
This was all going so horribly wrong.
Maybe she should just appease their wishes?
Take of her mask, show them why she hid her face in the first place?
Maybe that would shut them up...or make them hate her even more, or worse, look at her with pity, like some broken thing playing pretend for approval.

Yet, Bartok's voice shook her out of it, his enthusiasm was infectious, just him being here was making it so much easier on her, Al had not even really realized what she was doing, but she moved her hands from the back of her head, away from the strap keeping her mask in place, instead thrusting one up in a cheer.
"Yes, let's go do some more hunting!"

Soon enough, they were a bit further away from the crowd, Al having joined hands with Bartok the second they were out of sight, she was a fair bit clingier than usual.
"Where should we go first, the bandits seem to have holed up somewhere with their hostages it seems, considering none of us could really find any of them or the missing people."
Al mused, with her head leaned against Bartok's shoulder.

[Vera Noire]

Véra nodded in agreement with Bartok before addressing the crowd while the two students walked away to talk. The Huntress started making a list of everyone identified as missing, wanting to be able to get an accurate headcount once they found them. She wouldn't let anyone be left behind. Not again, not ever. This gave Bartok and Al the time they needed to talk before Véra went to find them so they could leave to find the bandit camp.

"Ready to go?" She asked them, leaning on her cane with a confident smile. "The sooner we find those bandits the sooner we can put an end to this."

[Bartok Evergreen]

Vera began making a list(the boring stuff) and Bartok walked away a little with Al's hand in his. She wasn't normally clingy like this, but he liked it when she reached out to touch him. He had to reach out to touch too often, someone willing to do it back was affirming, told him without words that she loved him.

She asked a question, and his smile had to turn into something more business like. He took an extra few seconds to listen, his ears twitching this way and that. "Well, the fact that neither of us can hear them means that they are close by, I think. If the bandit's hideout was far away, they'd still be traveling and we might pick up the sounds of them moving through the forest or over the hills. But nothing. That means they either took people immediately when they arrived, or they went to ground. My money is on the hills, some cave that they've claimed and fortified."

Vera arrived and Bartok turned the pair towards her, keeping Al's head on his shoulder. "What do you think, Vera? Cave in the hills?"

[Al Ciendra]

Al thought about this, the hills were still a fair bit off and too small to make an underground base, they'd simply collapse if they were used in such a manner, so the bandits should stilll be visible if they were hiding behind the hills.
Al took a few steps away from Bartok, finding a nice and empty stone square, before the surrounding air began to warp as she flames roared to life under her hands and feet and with a WOOOSH she was airborne, flying straight up Al stopped at the 100 meter mark, it only took her a few seconds, and now she was hovering in the air, slowly spinning in a circle, even with her bad eyesight she could make out something like a base and people moving from this height and sound also reached her better with no buildings diluting the sound, over the roaring of her flames Al could not hear anything and neither could she see anything besides the hills, tree and grass, a few deer were fleeing into the forest as they spotted her.
No...they must be in the town.
Al landed, falling most of the way and only breaking her fall with a last second blast of flame almost entirely halting her momentum about 3 meters off the ground, then landing back in front of Miss Noire.
"I couldn't see or hear anything resembling people or a base, they must still be in town, Miss Noire, what kind of position are most of the missing people in, job, familial or otherwise, maybe we could narrow down the search radius if all the missing people had some common denominator."
Al mused, as she looked between the cat and bat.