Well, this was definitely her last (and first) kidnapping and she was very glad for her disguise when she accidentally fist-pumped in victory when her boss POP!ped away with their... victim? Why were they even doing this again? Some kinda beef with the MLE department? They didn't like aurors or something? That's cool, as long as Sephy was getting paid, she was happy.

Nodding at her fellow ninja she pushed off from the tree and focused. Apparating was never easy and not exactly her idea of fun. She usually splinched. Once she'd left a toe or two behind and kept bloody falling over with the balance. No way was that happening again. Not dressed like this. Ninjas just didn't fall over. It had to be against the rules.

She was spinning on the spot and had risen an inch when the red spell hit her, straight in her chest. She didn't even have a chance to widen her eyes. She just fell backwards onto the leaves, not even aware enough to be thankful that her ninja costume was protecting her hair from the moss.

That was the cue to get outta there, now that stuff had happened as they'd been told. So this Ninja went and scooped up that other one, the unconscious one, and apparated them both outta there with a pop.

..... hazard pay, right?

Catch you later, MLErs.

He heard a thud. Kennedy was one-hundred percent sure he heard something thud. They SO got one, right?

The YATI jumped down from the branch he was perched on, and went to stand next to Simon. "I think we got one." He wasn't sure who's spell had hit the ninja...or whatever they were. But they got one. That was some sort of victory, right? Or not really since they managed to lose their Head Auror. Damn it.

Still on guard and with his wand arm at the ready, Kennedy glanced around. Well as much as he could in the fogginess. "Everyone all right?" The team was still here? Anyone else kidnapped? Kennedy still had that sense to make sure everyone was okay. Three years of Prefect duty and one of Head Boy did that to a person.

One moment Simon believed he saw something go down, the next it had seemingly gone quiet. The puffs disappearing in the familiar form of apparition. They were alone again...right? The auror slowly and cautiously straightened up to his full height, his gaze skimming around to take in the new scene amongst the fogginess. He looked back as someone approached spotting Kennedy as he spoke making his presence known from whereever he had gotten off to.

"I think so too. I'm okay...you?" he asked, returning the question to the YATI. Emily was gone, that much was sure, so they were without their leader. So for now they needed to regroup and decide what was next. "Josh...Genevieve...Aspen?" Simon called out to the rest of the team,looking around for sign of their presence. The young man thankfully remembering the new trainee's name so he didn't have to call out something randomly.

Genevieve carefully pushed herself back to her feet, rubbing dirt out of her puffy coat as she spun slowly in a half-circle. Wand out, looking for motion, trying not to hex Kennedy or Simon or anyone as she looked for another ninja. She saw the blur of movement out of the corner of her eye, a HUGE dark figure reaching for their Head Auror.

She leapt at Emily, wand out and incantation on her lips, when something reached out and grabbed her ankle. The stunning spell went wild, and Genevieve slammed into the ground face first without her arms free to break the fall. Something broke, though, and she ignored the pain in her face and the blood streaming from her nose as she cast a Severing Charm over her shoulder at the tree root around her ankle.

They were down a Head Auror. The ninjas had disappeared, taking their fallen comrade with them. And Genevieve's nose was broken. SUPER FUN CAMPING TRIP, GUYS. "Who is second in command? What's the protocol if we have no Head? Keep to the path and finish the hike? My vote is to keep going until we find a defensible campsite and then set up a magical perimeter. And quickly."

Kennedy nodded at Simon. "Yeah, I'm fine." He'd acted fast, that's what helped, though he had been taken by surprise. Kennedy was ready for more.

He glanced around and out of the fog came Genevieve. Kennedy squinted his eyes at her. Was that dirt or blood on her face? It was too bright to be dirt. "Do you need some help with that?" He's good at healing broken noses since he's given his best mate a few and had to repair it. Not that he did it on purpose. Everything goes in practice.

The YATI glanced down at the path. He didn't know about anyone else being in charge. As long as they got to wherever their goal was, then he had no problem. "I say we keep going, too," he said agreeing with Genevieve.

Tucked behind a rather huge tree that was the perfect distance from the path, a few plants flaming beside her, Roxanne watched as the 'ninjas' kidnapped Emily. She had to admire that one's spellwork, raising the roots like that. Quite impressive. Anyway, the ninjas had gone now, which meant it was her turn. She tossed some more Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder towards the remaining Aurors, enough that they wouldn't be able to see the roots now sticking out of the ground. That is, if it worked.

Simon nodded as Kennedy answered to the positive, good news that at least two of them were uninjured. However as Genevieve approached through the cloudiness, it was clear she hadn't been so lucky. About to offer assistance, he deferred to the younger man. He beat him to it, switching instead to thinking on their next action as they awaited the other two to respond.

At Genevieve's question on leadership, he gave the only response he could think on. "Technically it would be whoever replaced Emily as YATIL but no one was appointed. So it would defer to Josh and I as senior aurors I believe." That news reminded him of being pulled of captain out of nowhere. Alright...he could do this.

As for whether to continue on or not, Simon had this feeling that what had happened wasn't random. Emily had mentioned this exercise was to find strengths and weaknesses so how better then to test them under the circumstances of attack and loosing leadership. "Then that's three votes for moving on. That's our best bet so once secure we work on what else we need," he replied looking between the two trainees.

"Wands stay out and shields up," he instructed even though he hoped it had been redundantly. That was what they needed to learn after all. " I'll take point and Josh with take the tail with the rest in between." Simon was about to start them moving when they were suddenly in darkness once more and he switched back to high alert even if he couldn't see anything.

So much for a break.

"Tergeo..." He cast, attempting to repeat some clearing of the area.

With all the stressing events around him lately, Josh tended to easily get angry and having his shoelaces tied together during all the commotion did not help him with that. Every time he tried to move he found himself on the ground yet at least it luckily helped him avoid some of the rays of magic.

He did not like ninjas. Especially those who invaded forests. Yeah....forests were no place for ninjas. While he struggled to fight he tried to make sure the ninjas understood that, that he did not like them in this forest, but it was all a mess then Emily was kidnapped.

Once everything was all calmed down again. He tried to take a step towards the YATI whose nose was broken, he tripped over his shoelaces again and fell over. A loud curse escaped his mouth at the very moment. With an angry face, he sat up and took off his shoes and stood up. Yeah...he was going to do it with his bare feet and he did not care about it.

''They circle us. We should be circling them and there are enough of us. Apparently they rely only on magic. We should surprise them with something else.''

The thing about teamwork.... is that if you're not part of the team, you're easily forgotten. Or, that was what Aspen had been hoping for - to be forgotten, stay behind the main group, observe her fellow Aurors.

And when the group moved forward, she went backwards. So when .... ninjas... attacked, she wasn't part of the group.

So, it was an amusing and confusing few moments watching the melee, the parts she could see anyway through the flashes of red. And it seemed like she was going to get away without joining the scuffle, too - just by simply not moving. In fact, before the NINJAs disappeared, Aspen even managed to cast a silent, fairly well-aimed-in-the-dark TRACKING CHARM at those last-to-abort ninjas. It was this that got Aspen though, for as she stayed perfectly still, the roots and limbs were busy at work. Her ankles were completely engulfed before she even felt them around her thick boots...

...and then around her thighs,then quick around her hips... Aspen's panic was creeping nearly as fast as the vines. So, as she let her shield down to attack the vines, a stray obliviate hit home --

....

....

.....????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????

All chaos broke loose once more. More darkness powder, people taking off their shoes, all that training junk. Though, Kennedy had expected training differently. Sort of the kind his father put him through when he was younger. The kind that got you sweating the first five minutes and dragging yourself across the ground. That sort of thing.

This...this was new. New was...exciting. He heard Simon's incantation and decided to tryout his other senses instead of relying only on sight. Since sight was pretty much a fail right now. As he concentrated, Kennedy heard some rustling. If that was from his co-workers or more ninjas he wasn't sure.

He heard Joshua. Hmmm. "They've got the element of surprise and obviously know the grounds better than us. We should concentrate on where they come from." Like listening. Listening was good. Besides, they weren't being shot at with spells, yet, so they could take this as their chance to channel where more company was. "Then attack." Attacking was good too. But that was his opinion. He turned to Simon.

Whatcha think, buddy?

For a brief moment, he turned around away from Simon and Genevieve. Just like that Kennedy got lost in the fogginess and his foot tripped over an uprooted root, and bumped into something (Aspen). At first he thought it was just a tree. A small tree. Then...it wasn't a tree. He squinted his eyes, then they widened in surprised.

"Aspen?" She was drowned in vines and...stuff. He would have compliment on what a great tree costume she was wearing had it been close to Halloween or if this wasn't a training exercise.

Kennedy poked her with his wand. Aspen looked kind of...clueless? Confused? "You okay? Come on, ninjas are out to get us." He cast a severing charm, concentrating enough to just cut the vines and roots. No need to cut the newbie on the first day.

Plus, he wouldn't dare harm this Odessa. He might end up getting headbutted by a Slytherin.

Awesome. The darkness powder had had it's intended effect, clearly, since there were now two Aurors down. But, uh-oh what was it Kennedy was saying? He wanted to see where the attacks were coming from? Oops. Good Auror instincts, yes, but totally bad timing for her. Roxanne cast a silent silencing spell at her shoes and crept along (hidden behind bushes and ferns and other underbrush) to the next tree over, leaving the bushes she'd brought with her behind the previous tree. The tree she was behind now was hidden from the view of the other tree, but still within casting distance, thank goodness.

She cast another silent spell, this one a simple Wingardium Leviosia, and floated the fire seed bushes towards Simon and Genevieve, setting them down a few inches away. Hope you paid attention in Herbology, you two!

Where they come from...

Where the attacks came from...

That was some good resolution the YATI had brought up. The problem was how...how they could spot where the attacks came from. They seemed to be running on the team everywhere. Josh's dark eyes, as much as he could see from all the annoying fog, swept the area around them. As he did so, he tried not to see the ones that were in trouble. None of it were fatal or highly harmful and helping others distracted them so it made it harder to spot where the ninjas attacked from.

Of course it did not mean that he thought they should not help their fellow Aurors. Quite the opposite, the pain of guilt upon seeing the Odessa girl trapped like that and not helping hit his heart yet he had to focus on the task ahead if he wanted to be useful for the team. To his relief the YATI was off to help the girl so he focused his attention on somewhere else. His brown eyes spotter a rather large tree and at the same time, he thought he saw some...stuff...flying towards where Simon was. What they were he had no idea but it could not be good with whatever had happened so far.

''Simon! Be careful!'' he yelled before putting his wand between his teeth not really knowing for what he had warned his friend and fellow Auror for. The next moment, he jumped at the large tree with all his strength and grabbed a far branch. He pulled his body up and hugged the branch, trying to climb the thing. His bare feet hurt against the hard trunk of the tree yet he managed to climb onto the large thing. Then...he took his wand back in his palm and stared down to see the source of the threat. He watched like a sentry in command.

.........?????

So..... Hm. Hmm. Aspen remembered waking up. She remembered jotting an irritatingly formal and cryptic note to Joao. She remembered reading the comics from the paper over breakfast. She remembered pickpocketing Legend Chosen's sandwich before heading down to the Atrium......

.... but....? Beyond that.......?

She recognized Kennedy, and though she was clearly having some MAJOR trust issues at the moment, she let him cut her free. Then she thought seriously about stunning him and running away to figure out why it was dark, cold, and like.. floating fire or something. Naturally, Aspen Odessa didn't answer Kennedy's question. She wasn't REALLY alright, not really, but he didn't need to know that. So he got a nod. Sure. She was fine. Nod.

"...when you say ninjas...." What? You know, like, what? Was that literal? And why was there a man in a tree? Simon? Oh good Merlin, what?

The spell had made some difference but it was still foggy around them all making ita challenge to see anything clearly. Simon did his best anyway focusing on his , finally spotting his best friend as he spoke and made his way over to the group. The familiar voice identifying him more then sight. His barefooted friend. Yeah... Simon wasn't even going to ask about that. He nodded at Josh's suggestion about circling their enemy to try and surprise them like they had surprised the. A plausible option, they just needed to get a better idea of where said enemy was.

If they were even all still around. The powder could have been set as a trap after the rest left after all. Everything had to be considered. "If only we had a better idea of just how many there actually were," he mused quietly. That would be a help but they would have to do without.

Kennedy's idea was good as well. "Yes...spells or anything else have to originate from some point."

Josh's words alerted him to a shadow as it moved closer to him and it was no person but an item. He turned his wand, ready to shield it but it stopped a few inches away from him. Strange...had his shield worked this time around? However the sudden heat was an answer to the negative and Simon quickly stepped back, across a uprooted root and tripping backwards. When he could focus on the object having stopped moving, he identified what he thought he remembered from descriptions of the Triwizard Tourniment.

A fire seed bush...two if the shape by Genevieve was another one.

Now he just had to remember how to deal with them.

"Glacius..." Simon finally cast the freezing spell at the bush. Ice had to deal with fire...right?

"Yeah. Thanks," Genevieve tipped her head up in Kennedy's direction to let him fix her nose, although she kept her wand out and her eyes were constantly tracking over his shoulder. It really wasn't very safe... nor realistic. Go be out here without back-up and without any idea of who was against them or their mission... was that was Auroring was going to be like?

It went dark again, and Genevieve swore like an Auror. Well, she was an Auror, so that was fitting. Oh, hmm... maybe they wouldn't be able to tell who... except there weren't many girls in this group and Aspen was the quiet and deadly type. Maybe it wasn't the safest of ideas, but Genevieve went still and tried to sense what was happening around her. Kennedy in front of her, Aspen behind him, Simon and Josh behind Genevieve...

So who was moving in the woods?

She didn't have enough time to bring that thought to fruition before the darkness was lifted. Genevieve stepped over the protruding roots, only to find herself face to face with a fire seed bush. Hello, there, stranger... this isn't your home. How was it that she was supposed to deal with fire seeds? Water? Push it into the snow drift?

Oh, wait! "Glacius," she jabbed her wand into the thick of the bush and watched the branches ice over. Something smelled sorta... smoky. Was Simon on fire? Oh. Nope. Puffy coat was on fire. Genevieve helpfully fell backwards into the snow bank and lay prone in the slushy mess.

And what was this? Aspen...? She stared up at her friend, making upside-down faces at her. "S'okay, Asp. We're playing a game is all."

Distractions. Everywhere. Kennedy was, indeed, a person who got distracted very easily. Sounds, smell, the thought of his girlfriend. Though, this was NOT the time for the latter because...spells, shouting, smoke, shoe-less co-workers and oh so many things. He cleared his head and returned Aspen's nod.

"Black suits. Shiftiness. Fancy moves. All that fun ninja stuff." Though it was getting on his nerves, the not being able to see properly. The YATI gave Aspen a What kind of ninjas did you think? look. Right at that moment something coiled around his ankle. Kennedy almost let out a GAAAH! but you know, he was a YATI.

He stumbled backward, but managed to aim his wand at the vine around his foot and send a severing charm at it. Mess with him.

Then Genevieve was on the ground making faces. Hello, there.

"Guys," he said to his co-workers. "I think we should keep moving. The more we stall the more...attacked we get." Move it, yes?

Kennedy didn't like being the sitting duck. He. Hated. Ducks.

Human. Tree. Human up a tree. One long, thin tentacle followed the human up the tree, snaking along the trunk. Once it caught up to said human, the tentacle wrapped itself around the person's ankle gently, as if testing his awareness.

If plants could grin, this one would be wearing a huge, Cheshire cat style smile.

.....right.

Fancy moves?

Aspen was pretty sure you didn't SEE ninjas, so her guesses were that... Merlin, who even knew? She didn't actually know where she was or how she got here, so who was she to judge the quality of so-called "Ninjas" described by Kennedy.

A game, Vi said. A game. Well, she certainly seemed relaxed enough... "A game in which Aurors get eaten by venomous plants?" she made a vague movement towards Man-In-The-Tree.

If that was the game, then cool. She'd even relax. She'd never actually seen a man get eaten before. She should probably take notes.

Or move on, like Kennedy said..... is there a goal here?" One that she should remember but was totally like in the literal and philosophical dark.

From his point on the thick branch, Josh looked around carefully balancing himself by holding on the trunk with one hand while his wand was in the other. Narrowing his eyes a bit, he monitored everything his eyes could see but it looked like as if there was nothing. He let out a sigh of frustration. He grew up wandering in the forests and had been thought many things like tracking in a forest, plants, animals. He was supposed to see if there was anything out of ordinary in the forest but no. He could not see any ninjas or other sings that had anything to do with them. This was a disappointment for him.

For a moment, he looked down at the others to see what they were doing. Hopefully he could very well hear what they were saying and the thing the Kennedy lad said about going on seemed reasonable for him. Seemingly no one was around anyway. Probably they waited for the team to advance further into the forest. For the last time, he decided, to make sure that he could see nothing, the young man observed the whereabouts again as much as he could see from the spot. ''Can't see anything, people. I think it is a good idea to keep going'' Time to jump off this tree then...

But...

His bare feet already a tiny bit hurt from pressing all his body weight on the hard branch but what now he was feeling around his ankle was something completely different. It was moving. Quickly, he looked down only to see a plant trying to hug his leg. No...probably not. It surely was not expression his love to him. Leaning down a bit, he pointed his wand at the tentacle and whispered the severing charm. ''You should look for something else to satisfy your appetite, my green and slimy friend.''

As the plant in front of him froze due to the effects of his spell, Simon got his way back up to his feet. Back in a better position to see Genevieve or at least hear her own spell, the auror could tell her own attacker had been neutralized as well. Nice to see whoever was attacking them was not just using magic as Josh had said but using foliage as well. He couldn't help but be reminded of the role of plants in the whole zombie escapade but there were more important things to dwell on.
Like them moving on.

"Right..." Simon said agreeing with Kennedy. "No matter the way we move, its better to be a moving target than a steady one." Made sense...right everyone? He couldn't help furrowing his brow slightly at what Aspen was saying, however at the mention of dangerous plants and the vague motion to the tree, he followed his gaze to see something near Josh.

"Your turn to look out Josh" he remarked, echoing his friend's earlier statement. Seeing the spell cast, he hoped it was enough, not aiming his own spell unless necessary because they needn't anger the plant more then it would likely be already. Not to mention he risked hitting the other auror with his vision cut down that far away.

"I think that would be more clue its time to move on."

Thats right people...one step and then another would be the way to go.

Ouch! Human-In-Tree was mean. Very, very mean. Alas, the plant was forced to let go, as it's poor tentacle was suddenly and painfully severed. But that didn't stop the plant from using one of it's other tentacles to reach up and take a nice WHACK! at Human-In-Tree before slithering it's way over to the group of humans on the ground to search for some other unsuspecting person to snag.

As confused as Aspen obviously was, she was first to step forward and onward. That whole who is in charge now nonsense need not apply, she hadn't heard it and wouldn't have heeded it anyway. She gave Vi a nudge with her boot on the way.

...and also a wave to the Venomous Tentacula. She wouldn't have minded one of those as a "pet" ... but maybe another day. Bye for now!

So she proceeded onward, quiet, utterly confused, but with her wand ready. Concealed, but ready. It was bewildering that she was the ONLY one that was seemingly lost. And furthermore.... ninjas? "They can't have been very good ninjas if you saw them." Just saying.

"That's the point, yeah. Other people get eaten, but you and I will live to laugh about it over very very warm drinks later," Genevieve struggled off the ground and moved behind Aspen to propel the girl forward.

Because now, instead of ninjas, they had to deal with dangerous plants. Which wasn't what Genevieve signed up for. She had her wand out, looking for signs of that plant or ninjas or pirates or zombies or hipsters or anything. She was ready.

"Yeah, Asp, that's the thing. They were rubbish ninjas. Totally took me out of the game," she muttered quietly, sending a blaster into the underbrush where something may have just moved. Possibly.

So Josh was free and the green menace moved away from him...closer to the group on the ground.

Okay not so good.

Simon knew enough to keep an eye out for the plant's action as well as any other person's against them. It could be considered another adversary to be dealt with with a quick spell if need be even if he had been taught to respect plants. But then again that only worked with said plants that didn't try to eat you or other people you felt responsible for.

Which reminded him...they were getting a move on.

"Josh...I think you can come down," he mused, hoping his friend would agree to. Now wasn't a time to hide up on trees...not when the dangers still could reach there. Simon then turned back to the other three taking charge of the situation. Someone had to given they were short one leader who they might just have to find out about later on. When they were someplace they could hold up with protective enchantments of their own.

"Come on you three," the auror instructed, waving them on to move along with him.