Arriving late is always interesting (open)

For as long as he could remember, every time Alexander Mafi transferred into a new school, he was always a late arrival. He enrolled late to primary school due to the... Interesting circumstances of his past. He got into Combat School late because his credentials had been lost by the school for a brief amount of time. And he was now VERY late for Beacon, because he had taken some time to work for a bit, to build up some spending money of his own, should he ever need it. Alexander didn't mind being late, though. It always provided adventure and intrigue.

"When you arrive late, you get a vastly different experience; the campus is more open and less organized," Alexander thought. "Sometimes you even have to find your own way to the dorms."

With that in mind, Alexander started towards the school, the rising sun framing the rifle slung across his back, the large duffel on his shoulder, and the katana at his hip, as he walked into the grounds of Beacon, ready to meet whoever he chanced upon.

"Ahhhh!!! Why are people always chasing me?! All I did was steal and accidentally break their stuff! That's not a good reason for chasing a poor girl1" Melissa said, mostly to herself as she ran, looking back from time to time to make sure she wasn't about to be caught. Or shot in the back, considering the kind of students in the school.

'People really need to get a sense of humour around here! It was funny! At least I thought it was funny...' Melissa thought, not wanting to waste any more breath on complaining aloud.

Unfortunately, her thoughts distracted her from the road ahead of her and she tripped on an inconveniently placed rock, her momentum sending her flying forwards to the ground, skidding to a stop right next to Alexander with a groan of pain.

Alexander had reached what appeared to be a nice courtyard, with a nice fountain in the center. As he entered the courtyard, a girl with brown hair, moving all too fast for Alexander to notice anything else, comes screaming around a corner and trips, sliding to a halt in front of him.

'Well,' Alexander thought to himself, 'I knew things would be interesting. I did not expect this. Extra points for the landing though.' Chuckling inwardly, Alexander checked his bag quickly - he always carried a small first aid kit in a side pouch, and was pleased to see he had not forgotten it in his nervous packing frenzy. He crouched down next to the girl, and offered his hand.

"My name's Alexander. I'm new here. Need a hand?"

Walter was sitting on a chair on school campus when he saw Alexander walking along the ground with a gun and Melissa running desperately. He was no Beacon Guard wannabee, but he knew how this was going to turn out. "Hey. You. Stop" he said referring to Melissa's running. And of course Melissa would trip and fall right to the ground. Walter resisted the urge to laugh.

"No time! They're coming!" Melissa said, scrambling to her feet desperately, "Oh no, they've seen you too now! Run!" She said, seeing a few black specks on the horizon moving towards them. She grabbed the man's hand and began trying to pull him away at a sprint.

Strangely enough, she didn't seem to have any injuries from the fall. Or perhaps not too surprising considering Aura...

Alexander had a decent amount of strength, but the girl screaming in his face who was now trying to pull him somewhere was surprisingly strong as well. Using a classic maneuver to pull out of the grab, Alexander looked around, and then took stock of the girl again. She seemed to be quite worried about something, and had to have been moving quite frantically when she fell. She seemed to keep looking back at some point on the horizon. Alexander quickly glanced over there. There didn't appear to be anything initially. After focusing a bit, however, some black specks appeared to be moving towards them. With their current speed though, Alexander still had plenty of time to figure out what the hell was going on. He was kind of amazed, though. If the girl was fleeing from the specs, she certainly managed to put quite a bit of distance out. Nevertheless, Alexander turned to the girl.

"Alright. I don't know who you are, and I haven't even had a chance to put my gear down yet. If you want me to do something, please start with telling me what the hell is going on here?"

Melissa stopped hesitantly, although she continued to jog on the spot as if she really wanted to keep running away (she did).

"I said there's no time! But fine!" She took a deep breath, "Imayhavepissedoffastudentbytrickinghimintothinkingthegirlsbathroomwashisroom-soheendedupgettinginalotodtroublebutnowhe'schasingmewithmurderousintent-andafewfriendsandheprobablysawyoutryingtohelpmeupsoisuggestyouruntoo." She said, all in one, very quick, barely understandable stream of words.

Upon seeing the fleeing kids as if they were culprits, V shot out from his chair and slapped his hand to his hip in his ready-to-draw posture. IT was an instinctual movement when he reacts to potential danger. Yet, the two students seemed to be on the run. Walter followed them, taking a stealthy approach so he would not be detected. When he was within 6 meters of them he said
"Hey. You Two. Stop!"

((OOC: they're specs because they're far away! And they're students!))

Ooc: I read it as specks as if they were projectiles coming at y'all. Makes much more sense to me now

Alexander was at this point thoroughly confused. But he had caught a few words in the strange girl's story that seemed to indicate that good things would NOT come of trying to debate the issue. Alexander quickly worked out a plan: move off somewhere semi-hidden, then talk to this girl under more sedate circumstances. He could probably get her to show him to the dormitories if he needed her to. Alexander opened his bag and pulled out a strange looking backpack- his own thruster pack. Through trial and error while designing it, Alexander had discovered a few interesting tricks. For example, if the fuel source was loosened by just the right amount, the result would be not a blast of force, but a huge cloud of thick smoke. Turning to the girl, Alexandr said "Be ready to run for that structure there," indicating a small structure of pillars and arches, probably a recreational area of some sort, but a good place to go to nonetheless. Just before he can execute his grand plan, however, Alexander caught another figure, much closer, and this one definitely with a gun. He anticipated the person' s words before they were spoken.

Wanting to sort this out as much as anyone, Alexander pointed towards the building he had indicated before, told the new figure to meet them there, and pressed the button on his thruster pack. As the thick cloud of red smoke began to expand, Alexander took off running, hoping the other two would follow.

Melissa saluted seriously, preparing to sprint off towards the building. As the smoke came out and clouded the area, she began sprinting towards the building, the smoke hiding her movements well.

Unfortunately she completely ruined the entire point of the smoke covering her escape by shouting, "FOR FREEEEEDOMMMMM!!!!!" Extremely loudly. Hopefully her pursuers wouldn't hear...

She continued shouting all the way up until she arrived at the building the random man had pointed to, and paused there, panting after her long battle cry.

Walking through the school, Arthur heard what seemed like some kind of cry and then he saw lots of smoke appear as he saw a student he had never seen before shoot off. Arthur already knew that going to find out what happened was a bad idea, but his curiosity got th better of him.

Arthur started to walk over to where Melissa had stopped in front of the building. Fantastic. He thought as he noticed Melissa.

"What are you doing?" He calls as he draws nearer to the girl.

"Shh!!" Melissa said, putting her finger on Arthur's lips to shut him up, barely even turning around to look at him. In fact she didn't even know who she was shushing.

"I'm on the run! I'm like a notorious criminal, fleeing from the harsh, cold justice of the ruthless police, simply wanting freedom to do what I want, when I want, how I want! I'm just a free soul, being crushed by the vice grip of capitalism crushing my dreams! I JUST WANT TO LOVEEEE!" She said, getting close to sobs at the end.

"So nothing out of the ordinary then?" Arthur says.

"But really, what's going on? You've got me interested, who's trying to take your freedom?" Whilst saying this Arthur looks around for someone normal who can explain this weird situation to him.

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Alexander quickly noticed the new person who had just arrived. He quickly introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Alexander. I just got here, and I was on my way to the dormitories to get situated, when this girl falls to the ground in front of me and starts screaming something about trickery, students, and being chased. I too, would like to know what precipitated that, among other things. So what's your name?"

As he said this, Alexander slid the empty fuel cell from his thruster pack, took a brush from his bag, and cleaned the inner workings of his thruster pack. The smokescreen trick may be handy for making an escape, but also tends to make the inner workings of the pack very dirty, something that can be very bad in a machine made to launch humans in full battle gear 30 feet in the air.

"Hey, I'm Arthur King. If you didn't know, this is Melissa," Arthur gestures at the small Melissa to the side of him. "If you hadn't already guessed," Arthur leans in towards Alexander and whispers in his ear "she's a certified crazy"

Arthur places the bottom of his shield on the ground, "Welcome to Beacon Alex, where everyone is a crazy." Arthur leans on the top edge of his shield. "If you need anything, you can talk to me, I may be the most sane person around here" Please let this guy be normal, please.

Walter's eyes followed the rocketing student as he sped off. "So unruly," sighed Walter. After a half minute, he arrived at the recreation point to see the two students that he followed and a new person. "Finally, I caught up to you", he said.

Alexander noticed the man he had waved over earlier. Again, he introduced himself, though he could tell that this man already had a negative impression of him. "Hi, I'm Alexander,", Alexander said, "I'm new here, though I didn't expect to get caught in any shenanigans this quickly. I was on my way to the dormitories to get situated when Ms. Melissa over here hits the ground in front of me and starts talking really fast. I think she may have pulled the wool over the wrong people's eyes, judging by things."

Alexander then turned to look at Arthur. "Arthur, you said your name was, right? Pleasure to meet you. Could you grab one of the red cylinders out of my duffel? It's fuel for my thruster pack. Careful with it. During testing, mishandling the fuel gave effects ranging from a smokescreen like you just saw, to spontaneous combustion. And don't shake it - this thing goes on my back, after all, and that is not a good place to have spontaneous combustion happening."

Alexander then decided it was time to ask for answers to the question probably on everyone's mind. "Alright, now that we're all in a nice, calm area, I think there's one question most of us would like answered. Ms. Melissa, how is it you came to be frantically running from a group of people? Slowly this time."

As Alexander awaited an answer, he considered Arthur's words, and Melissa's actions. 'Looks like this time, arriving isn't going to be the only interesting part of this school,' Alexander though. He smiled inwardly. All life should have a little bit of crazy. Alexander could tolerate more than a little.

He was going to love it here.

"Those damn commies, stealing all out freedo-" Melissa cleared her throat, "Ahem. I'm not sure why actually! All I did was tell some random new guy that his dorm was in the girl's bathroom, and he walked in, got shrieked at and beat up by an angry teacher and almost suspended! And then for some reason, that guy seems to have some problem with me now, like it was all my fault! And so he seems to have gathered some companion to come get his revenge! Actually I recognize some of them, not sure why they're mad at me, all I did was introduce them to some girls!" Melissa said thoroughly confused as to why she was being chased.

Arthur grabs one of the red cylinders, "Hmm, interesting way of getting around, if I do say so myself," He remarks to Alexander. Then looking over at Melissa, "Please, try and be normal and polite to the new people, the last thing they need is a bad impression on the academy."

Walter's eyes darted from Alexander to Melissa to Arthur, and then back at Melissa as he hears her story. He chuckled and smiled at the 3 students that were in front of him, looking at no one in particular. "It is also common courtesy for students to help each other. If you give me the name of this guy that you screwed with, I can talk some sense in to him!"

((OOC: I'm thinking it might be beneficial to move this over to the new general arrivals thread. You guys want me to come up with some context for doing that?))

((OOC: I don't think that's necessary really, given that this thread was made before. It's just easier to stick to this one. Also if we move to that one then there are 2 Melissa's in the same place at the same time...?))

"I am normal! And polite! I don't know what you're talking about!" Melissa said in reply, all smiles.

"Umm... I don't know his name... But I don't think he'll listen to reason, I tried! I told him it was his fault completely and how he shouldn't blame me because he was stupid, but he didn't listen! Don't even bother!" Melissa replied to the random man.

(OOC: For the sake of the beacon space-time continuum, and all of our souls, let's just have the one Melissa, aye?)