Disclaimer: I do not own MagnaCarta 2. I only own the characters, places, objects, ideas, and such from my "Project Bluefield" concept.

from "To Seize A Chance"

May 19, 2011 — 11:06

017 "Bluefield"

Counter-Sentinel Unit + Zeroes

Cota Mare, Lanzheim - MagnaCarta 2 - "StorySide"

"Oh, I am so pissed! And the fact that there's no guards makes me even more pissed!"

I looked at Crocell. "What about Olivier, Chisari, and I being 'immune' to that paralyzing incense?"

"Hey, don't even go there," he warned.

Olivier cut in: "Oh, don't worry, man: we aren't going anywhere for a while."

And we weren't, either. With all four Counter-Sentinel Unit members paralyzed, and our squad "tied" to them, we were practically anchored to this side yard.

"Well, this certainly explains why the Northern Forces haven't taken Cota Mare," Argo said.

Juto looked around from his spot, apprehension clear on his face. "The Mare…" he said. "What do they intend to do with us?"

If Crocell could've shrugged at the time, he would've. Instead, he settled with saying, "I dunno, beats me. I doubt they'll kill us, though."

I sighed, stood up and started pacing. "Either way," I said, "they must've known who you guys were if they'd let us in that easily."

I looked at Zephie and stopped. She had this pensive expression on her face, as if something was bothering her.

Chisari noticed, too. "Zephie, what's wrong?" she asked the princess.

Zephie looked up at her, surprised. "Oh…well… It's about what the Mare cheiftain said."

"Which part?"

"'This is retribution, for your barbaric act of war against the Mare'." Zephie shook her head. "But, that makes no sense. What could the Southern Forces have possibly done to the Mare?"

A young voice behind me piped up: "Well, for starters, you kidnapped some Mare!"

I whirled around. Celestine herself was standing 10 feet behind me, hands on her hips, glaring at us as if we'd just hit her grandmother or something.

I stepped aside. "Who did what, now?" I asked, bewildered.

"Celestine?" That was Zephie. She looked shocked and confused, staring at the bringer of unexpacted news. "What do you mean?"

"So, you're playing dumb, huh, Zephie?" Celestine crossed her arms. She looked really mad—a stark contrast to the normally-cheery girl who fell in love (with Argo) at first sight. "You're trying to trick us Mare, all right!"

"I'm sorry we deceived you. We were desparate. I truly apologize! But, what do you mean, the Southern Forces took some Mare away with them?"

Instead of answering Zephie's question, Celestine went "hmph!" "The Southern Forces are nothing but a bunch of Mare-kidnapping cowards!"

Which didn't help with elaborating on the situation whatsoever. I looked at the others, but they looked just as lost.

I was about to say, Again—what are you talking about?, when Argo asked Celestine directly: "I don't blame you for not believing us, Celestine. Still, could you explain this to us? To be honest, this is the first time we've heard of the Southern Forces kidnapping Mare."

Celestine looked at him, and I saw her face finally soften. She uncrossed her arms. "…Well… Since it's you who's asking, Argo, I guess I'll tell you."

Huh. Whether or not he'd meant to, Argo had found a loophole.

Celestine started: "It was about a month ago. A group of Mare on patrol were attacked by soldiers from outside the marsh. They were wearing armor from the Southern Forces. Most of them were human soldiers, but there was one Trewa with them."

My brow furrowed.

"A Trewa?" Argo sounded as if he were trying to keep the surprise out of his voice. "Did this person, by any chance, have black skin?"

The rest of us exchanged confused or uneasy glances.

Celestine shook her head. "No. He wasn't my type, but he did kind of look like you, Argo."

Argo didn't say anything for a few seconds.

"Argo…" Zephie said. I couldn't quite pin down what emotion was in there.

Finally, Argo told Celestine, "Please continue."

"The soldiers took the Mare with them into the Undersea Tunnel. They demanded food from us, using the Mare as hostages."

A fair arrangement, wouldn't you agree?

Not!

Zephie looked dismayed. "But, why would the Southern Forces…?!"

"Zephie," Argo cut in, firmly yet gently. "I know you might not want to admit it, but it is possible. This incident may have been caused by a group of cowardly deserters from the Southern Army."

Argo turned back to Celestine. "Are they still holed up in the Undersea Tunnel?" I got an inking feeling that I knew where this was now headed.

"Yeah," the Mare girl replied, nodding. "They got a lot of our food yesterday. I wonder how long they're gonna keep this up."

"Not for very long," I muttered.

Chisari looked at me. "What?"

"Celestine, will you show us the way there?" Argo asked. "I will put an end to this."

I'll admit: coming from him, that sounded pretty cool.

Cel's eyes widened. "You will?"

—-•-–•–-•-–•–-•-—

from "[Rescue Ops on Short Notice]"

May 19, 2011 — 11:18

017 "Bluefield"

Counter-Sentinel Unit + Zeroes

Undersea Tunnel (Cota Mare entrance), Lanzheim - MagnaCarta 2 - "StorySide"

"Hold on—didn't you try using paralyzing incense on those guys?" Juto asked.

"Wow, I didn't expect you to make such an astute observation," Crocell said, dripping sarcasm. "What's next? Will La Strada fall tomorrow?"*

Juto glared at him. "Shut up."

I looked at Olivier and sighed, shrugging.

"Well, we did try it once," Celestine answered. Then I saw her mouth lose its smile, her eyes now with lingering disappointment. "But when you light incense in a place like this, the smell gives it away instantly. They plugged their noses, and threatened to kill the hostages unless we stopped."

"That's wierd," Juto replied. "We didn't notice it at all."

"Maybe that's 'cause the kidnappers never actually entered Cota Mare," Olivier guessed.

Argo nodded. "The Mare constantly burn incense in the village. That would explain why we didn't smell the paralyzing incense—by then, all the other smells had dulled our sense of smell."

Cel nodded, smiling again. "Believe it or not, incense is a really powerful means fighting that only we Mare use. That's why even the Northern Forces don't attack us."

Crocell scowled. "Paralyzing people without 'em knowing is hardly fighting."

Cel looked offended. "Hey! That's hardly the only incense we use!"

Crocell made to say something else, but right then, he was interrupted—this time, not by Argo, but by me. I grabbed Crocell's shoulder with my right hand, Cel's with my left, and pushed them apart.

I didn't let them speak. This couldn't wait.

"Enough already!" I snapped, exasperated. "We can learn about the wonders of Mare incense later. Right now, you two kids need to pull it together. The hostages aren't gonna rescue themselves, and that's mainly why we're here in the first place. So if we wanna save 'em, we've gotta work as a team. Okay?"

Celestine paused before nodding, her lips slightly pursed. Crocell glared at me for a few seconds more before sighing and saying, "Tch… All right."

"Okay, then." I released their shoulders.

[Vaire] said that recording "World mutations" was going to take a little getting used to. I didn't know if World mutations gave us any wriggle room with the laws.

And as we headed further into the tunnel, that thought scared me the most.

The four human "soldiers" weren't even wearing genuine standard issue Southern Forces gear.

I could tell even before they could see us. Last I checked, the Southern Forces' main colors had blue-green and yellow, not brown—which was the color of their helmets' "crown" piece. Plus, the armor looked like it was missing a few parts from the original uniform.

Cel was walking right next to Argo (she kind of insisted, but we didn't care). As we approached their "spot" at the end of the tunnel, I could see her right hand clench as the human "soldiers" noticed us.

One "soldier"—a lookout, I guessed—approached us. One of the ones guarding the hostages—five or six Mare, hands tied behind their backs—looked up and asked the guy checking us, "What's up? They bringin' us more supplies?"

If—if—we'd been pretending to do that, they wouldn't've been fooled. "I don't think so," said the lookout. He drew his sword—like an untrained slop—and pointed it in my face, nearly grazing Juto and Olivier. "Who're you people?!"

I took an indignant step back. "Hey, put that thing away before you cut yourself!"

Argo stepped forward, ignoring my outburst. "We're with the Southern Forces Counter-Sentinel Unit. What unit are you attached to?"

Apparently, that was the last thing they'd expected to hear.

The imposter soldiers all looked at each other in shock. "Wh-What's the Southern Forces doin' 'ere?!" exclaimed the one who'd spoken first, horror in his voice.

I looked at Olivier, Crocell, and Juto in disbelief, then looked at the imposters again. "Really…?" I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose.

Crocell shook his head. "Oh, come on! These guys are fakes, no two ways about it!"

"I can't believe these bastards managed to fool the Mare," Olivier muttered, his British accent in mild exasperation.

"Yeah, join the club," I sighed.

"Y-You people—!" The imposter on lookout duty got ready to swing his sword two-fisted. Juto, Olivier and I all took a step back, weapons primed. I stole a glance at Cel. She'd pulled out her bow, with a look on her face that said she was so going to beat these jerks a new one.

Just then, a new voice said, "Hold it."

The imposter stopped and looked behind him.

We all turned to see the fifth member of the Fakes: their leader, a Trewa with stone-grey horns and brown-ish skin. His yellow eyes were focused on Argo as he approached us.

"Well, well, well," he said, stopping less than 10 feet away. "It's been a long time, Argo. Still serving as another Southern Forces dog now, are you?"

If Trewa could look shocked, Argo most certainly did. "Rutan…?!"

Cel looked at him in surprise. "Huh? Argo, you know him?"

"'Know' me?" the Trewa, Rutan, repeated. "Oh, we go back a long way. Argo is the one responsible for the destruction of our homeland!"

I heard Juto mutter, "Huh?" I glanced at Argo. What was this Rutan character saying?

Argo, however, wasn't going to let an old "disagreement" stop the mission. "Why are you pretending to be Southern Forces soldiers?" he demanded.

"It's this war." When Rutan said that, he spread his beefy arms out, as if he had no control over the situation, as if the civil war was an all-encompassing burden to everyone. "After losing our homes, after being turned away at the gates of other towns…this has become the only way we can survive."

Argo shook his head. "Release the hostages," he said—I could hear pain in his voice, as if seeing one of his former kinsman like this was unbearable. "How can you hold innocent people like this? Have you lost your pride as part of the Trewa? The free folk?!"

Rutan scoffed at this. "'Trewa pride'? Bah! The former chieftain of the Bluemoon Trewa, now another lap dog for the Southern Forces, has the nerve to tell me about pride?!"

I brought one hand to my chest. This wasn't getting us anywhere good, but my curiousity and impatience were getting the better of me. I gripped the hilt of my sword—an invisible rod, sticking out like a model skyscraper in the middle of nowhere.

But I didn't draw. Not yet.

Argo said. "It's been two years since the Blackhorn Trewa joined the Northern Forces—joined Schuenzeit—and destroyed our tribe. What they did to us then—that's why I'm working with the Southern Forces."

Rutan shook his head. "How low can people like you sink, Argo? There's no point trying to shift the blame. It was your fault! You didn't take the initiative to destroy them first! You were the weakest link in our chain!"

Argo said nothing. Somehow, I knew that, to some degree, Rutan was telling the truth. But I also knew that he couldn't restrain his anger any more.

"I never thought we'd meet again like this." And as he said that, Rutan brought out his giant axe. It was a little bigger than the ones Argo used, but this one was black, brown and red. "Take your weapon, Argo!" he snarled.

The imposter soldiers drew their swords and, with an incoherent roar, charged us, hostages forgotten.

That was our cue.

Crocell's gauntlets lit up like torches.

Celestine drew her bow, aiming for Rutan.

Olivier pulled out the ZeroMagnum, ready to fire.

Juto drew Kaito's sword from its sheath.

And as my right eye flared red, I drew the ZeroSword from my chest, the blade glinting in the light of the tunnel.**

Argo brought out his hammer—he didn't want this, but there we all were anyway. "Rutan…" he said one last time.

But Rutan wasn't backing down. "Say your prayers."

I locked eyes with Juto, and we both nodded, understanding.

"Now," I said.

And we all charged.

* Attached Message from Noan: I CERTAINLY HOPE SO

** You'll understand in time.