A Toast

[SR Park]

Seung-Ri inhaled deeply, taking in the fresh, crisp breeze coming in from the not so distant coast. It was much more temperate here on the west-coast then it was in New York, which the Korean was grateful for. That meant the girls wore more revealing clothing, and that's not even considering the beaches. The outdoors were also a lot more welcoming when compared to New York; there would very rarely ever be any snow or hail, and seldom would it rain. There was going to be a lot more skateboarding being done down here than there was back home.

However, something was missing in this almost picture-perfect setting, something the east-coast had that the west-coast currently didn't. It was imperfection. Those flaws that Public Highschool 552 possessed were what made it all the more comfortable and inviting to Seung-Ri. This... Moral Crest High, a name which the former pillar could only scoff at, felt too alien and distant to him. For this reason the Korean was accompanied by a school bag full of welcoming gifts, which no doubt help him warm up to his new environment rather quickly.

With his school bag slung over his shoulder, speeding down an open path toward the science building on his skateboard, Seung-Ri felt nervous as the sound of glass clinking against eachother could be heard in his bag; he hoped he wouldn't find anything broken once he opened it up. Skidding to a halt in front of the science building, he kicked the skateboard up into his left hand and gently placed his school bag on the ground next to him.

What were festivities without guests? Turning to the student nearest to him, the sophomore shouted out in a non-threatening tone, "Hey, you! How much do you like your school?"

[Pine]

Pine was making decent time to his second class of the day. So far he had no problems with any students or faculty, but the day was still young there was plenty of time for trouble. All Pine had to do was make it to science, then gym and finish off the day with English. Overall, not a hard day to begin with and the ecology unit in science was a breeze.

Though Pine's eyes were hidden by his bangs he could still see. His eyes were always looking around and taking in his surroundings. His ears picked up the sounds of students talking and even a skateboard come to a halt to his left. Then Pine heard something he didn't expect, the student yelled out a question. Pine turned to see the student looking directly at him. Interesting that someone would ask such a question.

"How much do I like the school?" Pine said the question out loud again as he thought about it.

It was the sword that jumped out at the moment due to the circumstances of the meeting. Had the kid not just stopped and yelled at him Pine would have held his usual stuttering tone. Even if the yell seemed non threatening that did not mean the person yelling wasn't.

"Been to better, been to worse though the name is a little bit of an oxymoron." Pine replied and peered through his long bangs. The kid looked to be of Asian decent either Chinese or Korean by look. Still he couldn't help but wonder why the kid would ask such a question.

[SR Park]

The student Seung-Ri stopped seemed to hesitate for a moment, repeating the question out loud to himself as if to give himself time to dwell on it. The response that came shortly after made the sophomore grin, and he said back to the long-haired student, "So you don't care much for Moral Crest High, huh? That's good." the skateboard clattered to the ground and rolled a few inches away from the Korean when he released it to bend down and open up his school bag. Before reaching into it, he looked up at the student and shot him another question, a rather mischievious smirk on his face.

"Since you don't seem to hold much regard for what happens to the school, what do you say about having a little fun?"

[Pine]

"So you don't care much for Moral Crest High, huh? That's good." The boy said and Pine tilted his head slightly to the left in a puzzled manner.

He was actually interested in what this kid was up to.

"I suppose you could say that." Pine replied and took a step toward the boy who had now dropped his skateboard and began to reach into his bag. It was a nice skateboard and it came to a stop right in front of Pine. Pine having some experience with boards, flipped it back over with his foot and picked it up to examine. It seemed like a pretty decent board, of course it had the usual signs of wear but all and all it looked to be in pretty good shape.

Pine continued to play with the board in his hands as the kid looked up and asked Pine another question. His tone on the word fun and the smirk on his face told Pine it was probably going to be something he would later regret. Come to think of it, Pine really didn't care. He did however hope the kid didn't pull out a pair of 9mm and start shooting the place up. For Pine that would be a no no. However if he pulled out some spray paint or a stink bomb or something along those lines Pine saw no problem with it,

"Depends..." Pine said and placed the board on the ground. "What your idea of fun is."

[SR Park]

A chuckle nearly escaped Seung-Ri's lips when the fellow had questioned his definition of fun. "Well, I'm new to Moral Crest High. A transfer student, if you will. And I've decided to celebrate my arrival with a toast!" the Korean proclaimed cheerfully, that mischievious grin ever-present on his face as he reached into his school bag and brought forth a dark brown bottle with a strip of tattered cloth stuffed into its mouth. "With the cocktail of my choice, of course!" Passer-bys glanced at the improvised incendiary bomb and quickened their pace; the more intelligent students refrained from entering the Science & Tech building altogether. For the most part, he and his acquaintance were ignored. Just another pair of students loitering around in front of the building.

"So what do you say?" Seung-Ri asked the student, offering him the molotov, "Why don't we give Moral Crest a warm welcome?"

[Dirk]

Dirk was having an entertaining day at his new school, having just finished scouting the Chemical lockers in the science department and finding them rather pitifully protected. It wouldn't be excessively hard to steal some keys or find a way to bust open the lockers, Dirk only hoped that there would be good materials within when the time came to steal it's contents.

Upon exiting the burned boy would come upon a pair of peers, such a thing would normally not solicit much attention from Dirk, but the clink of glass as well was the visible Molotov would only cause Dirk to shake his head and walk over.

"You're doing it wrong."

A knowing grin would grow on the crazed man's face as the image of a lolcat picture entered his mind. He could just imagine it now, cat trying to put a cloth into a bottle with a big caption.

Terrorisms UR DOIN IT WRONG!

"You'd be better off dumping Sulfuric Acid into distilled water and putting the container in a main vent. It'll weaken half the school and take them hours to remove."

[Pine]

(OOC: Apologies for making you wait)

~HOLY FUCK!....Is that what I think it is?~ The little voice in Pine's head asked the mind in control.

~Yeah...Most likely a perfectly good waste of perfectly good alcohol.~ The sword replied.

In truth Pine would have preferred to drink the contents of the bottles if they were booze then drop a match in the bottle and drop the bottle off the roof. That way when the hall monitors came and kicked his ass he would be too drunk to care or feel it. People would have been scared and he would have been drunk, a perfect combination.

Still part of him had thought he would pull spray paint, fire crackers, cherry bombs, stink bombs, or any other manner of practical student anarchy device. Before he could speak someone came and interjected. The interesting part was they did not come to stop what was about to happen but to chide them on lack of originality.

Yeah...For sheer mass effect your idea is better. For initial effect and student response nothing beats a little fire. Besides, it's never good to start that big when you're just trying to say hello. Once people begin to know you, then you play with the big dangerous stuff. Keeps em guessing and keeps em even more scared." Pine replied to the new student then pulled out his red Hellsing Zippo and began to play with it.

[SR Park]

Just what he needed; some smart-ass to come along and shit on his parade. With a sneer he responded to the boy, who, much to Seung-Ri's surprise, appeared to be covered in charred flesh. It wasn't easy on the eyes; that sneer was lost to a subtle cringe at the sight of the student. "I believe you're mistaken about my intentions," he said clearly, handing a bottle filled with petrol to Pine, whose name Seung-Ri was still unaware of. "So if you're not here for the welcoming party, take your ideas and scram. I've got my own. Otherwise, pick up a bottle and join us for a toast!" The enthusiasm was present in his voice, and the former pillar pointed toward his bag, which carried a dozen more of the firebombs.

A smirk returned to the face of the roguish Korean as he made a final provocative comment toward the burned boy. "'less you're scared of getting burned... again." Seung-Ri's hand dipped into his bag to retrieve another cocktail, which he turned upside-down a few times in order to get the wick (a piece of torn cloth) soaked in the flammable solution of gasoline and sugar. "So, comrade," Seung-Ri said, turning to Pine while igniting the molotov with a solid blue bic, "a toast to our arrival."

Seung-Ri raised his flaming cocktail in the air, gesturing for Pine to clink bottles with him, after which he would cock his arm back and grunt as he propelled the molotov forward and through the window of the first-floor entrance. The incendiary would shatter within and set the hallway ablaze, cutting off one of the fire escapes.

There must be more than one exit... and then there's the ground-level windows. I should have picked a smaller building, he thought to himself, once again reaching into his bag. Pulling out three bottles, he placed a foot on his skateboard and looked over his shoulder at the two other students. "I'm going to go around the perimeter to check for other escape routes. I trust you guys will play safe?" And with a grin he pushed off of the ground, rolling away from the front of the building at an increasing speed toward the back of the building.

[Allen Daughtry]

OOC: Pine and Dirk, I've been asked to assume that the two of you either left or moved to another part of the Science Building's perimeter so that the bag is left unattended. Please excuse it, but Park needs to move this along.

IC: Another casual day in San Francisco. Clear skies, warm air and plenty of sights to see. It was the one thing of consistency that Allen Daughtry had as he - once again - grew used to another new school. From Mugen Hall in Philly to Hircine High here in San Francisco, the transition had been difficult, as the man had to restructure his entire life in order to adjust. But now that he was used to the city, he could at least fall into the sway of the city night life after a hard day at school.

For today's schedule, he was assigned to attend his honors Physics course, something that constantly brought him a challenge. The class was a fairly pleasant break from the usual course of fearful sheep and rebellious pricks clashing amongst one another and against their own teacher, no matter if they were skilled at their job or too drunk to give a damn about the bruises they inflict. In contrast, his class was filled with abnormally intelligent and restrained juniors and seniors who were actually ready to learn, and the educator never rose a hand against anyone - because whomever chose to act up were suddenly broken down by the biting tongue of Daughtry or one of his fellow classmates with enough of an ego to fear no reprisal.

He liked the class. So when he noticed a suspicious cloth bag sitting idly by the building's main entrance, his eyebrows rose in concern from behind his gray-shaded sunglasses. There were no others standing around the bag, and no passerby for him to interrogate regarding the thing, so Daughtry was essentially forced to investigate first hand.

Standing over the bag for a moment, Allen considers his options as a growing breeze swipes at his blond spikes, washing them across his bangs and teasing his forehead. He kept his hands firmly planted at his hips for a moment as he tried to discern any obvious signs of danger, and trying to separate the bag from any sort of stray case of clothing that might have been lost by a drama student or a janitor. But nothing seemed to pop up, and the junior merely sighed as his left hand slipped into his worn leather jacket to retrieve a pair of old brown leather gloves. Pulling them over his hands, since he had no idea if the contents were harmful to the skin, he crouched down on both legs and slowly opened up the bag's mouth with his right hands, delicately keeping the contents open to air with his fingers before reaching in with his left hand to touch the contents.

What he found made him think that he came across a cloth bag of used glass beer bottles, which surprised him since alcohol was not even permitted on campus. He tried to fiddle around a bit, seeing if he could find anything different, and suddenly felt the slippery end of a piece of cloth bound to the mouth of a bottle. The sensation brought a stir of dread to Daughtry's stomach, who knew all too well what it could mean. Deciding that he needed visual proof, Allen's left hand tucked around the bottle's neck and slowly dragged it out, before revealing the object in the light.

There he sat, bottle in hand, his shades staring in disbelief at the bottle as he realized exactly what it was. He was schooled enough to know improvised weaponry, and it didn't take much to recognize a Molotov cocktail in an instant.

He didn't even need to ask the reason for why a bag of incendiary weaponry would be sitting in front of a science building, a target all too prone to sabotage. His mind immediately jumped to whom, but even as he glanced around in search of a potential perpetrator, his nose caught the scent of something that dragged his mind from its former concerns. He sat poised for a moment, letting the bottle in his hand drift downward to the ground, then glanced toward the interior of the building, fearing the worst.

"Is that... smoke?"[/font]

[SR Park]

He stepped off of his skateboard and onto the asphalt path sandwiched between the science & tech building and the arts building, his murky brown eyes taking a brief glance around to ensure his anonymity in the events that were about to occur. Not that he wanted to remain unknown; he knew that, one way or another, he would be identified as the culprit responsible for this supposed "terrorist attack." When that time came, should it be within the next ten minutes or within the next ten weeks, Seung-Ri would be prepared.

There was nothing planned; the former pillar was proficient at adapting to the immediate situation. It wasn't that he lacked foresight or could not handle commitments; to him, there was a certain satisfaction about making efficient spontaneous decisions. Life was a game of speed-chess, and the Korean was a skilled player.

One of the cocktails was placed down beside the skateboard, which was left leaning against the outer wall of the science building next to the door. Seung-Ri stepped into the building, and with a flick of his bic and a motion of his arm, one of the building's stairwells was ignited, cutting off yet another escape route. Though the 552 transfer was not aware of the fact that all of the classrooms were located above ground level, he knew that most people would not want to leap from a second-storey window.

Down the hallway he could see where the initial bomb had landed, and it was still burning strongly, a result of the sugar-petrol mixture. Sugar thickened the flammable agent, causing it to burn at a much slower rate. Another side-effect of thickening the fuel would be that the smoke produced by the burning fuel would also be thicker. By the time Seung-Ri ran down the hallway, lit another stairwell on fire, and ran out the way he entered, the smoke alarms would have already triggered, with the sprinklers following shortly after. Not that water did much to hinder a gasoline fire.

Before fleeing the scene, Seung-Ri dropped the last molotov on the path he was standing on just moments ago, cutting off not only exit from the science building, but also from the arts building. There was no discrimination between buildings; the science building had the misfortune of being the first building to fall in his sights upon stepping into school grounds. Now, the former pillar sped around the building on his skateboard, heading toward where his bag of goodies lay.

Upon his return, the 552 transfer spotted, in the distance, someone standing over his bag. Not only that, but the two fellows that were with him before were nowhere to be seen. He hoped they had run off and proceeded to set the campus ablaze, since they seemed to forget his intended target was the science building. "Hey!" the Korean yelled out as he quickly approached the blonde student, the scraping of wood against asphalt signifying him screeching to a halt.

"Do you know what's going on?" he asked, feigning innocence and glancing over his shoulder to witness the fruits of his labour: rising obsidian pillars of smoke making the sunny California sky seem more bleak. There was a look of genuine concern and confusion on the ex-pillar's face, while he was grinning on the inside. As soon as Seung-Ri turned his head, his eyes fell upon one of his cocktails, now in the blonde's hand. It looked as if he was placing it on the ground, but only he would know that; to any ignorant onlooker, it could appear as if he was picking it up as much as he was putting it down.

Immediately, Seung-Ri's face scrunched into an expression of suspicion, his wary gaze eyeing the bottle and attemping to pierce through the student's opaque shades. "Wait... is that a bomb? Are you responsible for that?!" he accused the blonde, throwing his right arm behind him to point at the smoke billowing out of the building, which was accompanied by the shrieking of the fire alarm. While his expression got less pleasant, that inner grin widened.

It was all a game of speed-chess.

[Pine]

(OOC: Sorry people I was waiting to see if Dirk was going to post. So I'll get mine up now....)

Pine watched the boy light his make-shift bomb with a small smile on his face.

"So comrade, a toast to to our arrival?" He said and held up the bottle.

Pine stopped playing with zippo and closed the lid. He was not going to light this yet, not just yet, he wanted the students in the hallway see him do it. He wanted them to be shocked, he wanted them to see him throw it, and then he wanted them to scream and flee with the realization of what had just happened. There was a little part of Pine that knew this was a bad idea but none of the voices were interjecting and they were all that mattered. It was just like old times, the nostalgia was intoxicating. Actually, the hall would probably be a bad idea so instead he had another place in mind. If Pine was caught he would go straight back to juvy and he didn't want that.

Pine tapped the boys bottle with the bottom of his and made his way in the entrance closest to him. The explosive was hidden in an inner sweatshirt pocket, his cologne covered most of the smell of the bottle. He made his way through the semi-busy hallway and casually placed on his beanie to cover his hair and his hood came down over his nose hiding his face. Pine slipped his lighter back into his pocket as he walked into the bathroom.

Many people would ask why the bathroom? The answer was simple, it was an enclosed area, the stall doors and dividers were made of wood which burned well, so did the toilet paper which made a half decent accelerate, and the walls were thinner and had holes because of piping. Not to mention the smoke had limited exits and would quickly begin to fill the area and the hall. Pine smiled and uncorked the bottle so to speak. After he checked the bathroom of course, no one in there he went about his business. He poured about a quarter of the contents around the bathroom and placed the rag back in the top. He then lit the bottle and rigged it to the door before taking a seat in one of the stalls. He removed his hood and his beanie. Now he had to play the wait game.

Pine was waiting because the moment someone touched that door the cocktail would fall and smash setting the bathroom alight. If it was done while he was in here, there was less suspicion. There was also a small chance Pine could be killed. Sure enough what felt like an age had passed then he heard the door swing open and the sound of breaking glass.

Pine held his breath as he heard the whoosh the fire made and bolted for the door. He caught it as it began to close and threw himself out into the hallway and quickly put out the small section of flames on his clothing as others just stood there. He got up breathing heavily then yelled at the top of his lungs.

"FIRE!!!!!!!!!!! EVERYONE OUT USE THE OTHER EXIT!"

The smoke began to leak out of the bathroom and people began to scream and run to the opposite exit which was farther away from the fire. Of course at the time there was no knowing another was a cocktail blocking the way. Pine quickly walked out of the building and back to where the bag was waiting.

Pine saw both his comrade and another standing there he could hear what was going on. This kid was smart, he was accusing the other boy of starting all this.

~Now what?~ The shield asked.

~Just watch.~ The sword replied calmly and set Pine into action.

"IT WAS YOU?!" Pine roared and slammed the boy he did not know from behind. The kid was larger but Pine had the element of surprise oh his side.

"IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU I ALMOST GOT TORCHED IN THE BATHROOM!!!!!" Pine's screaming was beginning to draw a crowd. If he could help put enough blame on this kid then he could easily pass it off as this kids doing. Pine was clenching and unclenching his fists seemingly seething in anger. Heavy breathing, burned clothing and a bright red angry face helped sell his accusations.

[Allen Daughtry]

'That's right, let's all blame the first guy we see at the suspicious looking bag. Real smart you bastards.'

Having just smelt the whiffs of intense smoke that were starting to billow out of the billow, Daughtry found himself in shock. Another fire at his new school? That was insane! He had just escaped death from the terrorist attack on Hircine High, and he arrives at a new school to have the same circumstances?

He kept his tight grip on the bottle as his shades stared into the building in fear, suspecting the worst. If there was really a terrorist attacking schools run by the System as the Director had claimed, then it made sense for them to strike another local school in San Francisco. But why now, and why here? And why use Molotovs for the deed if the typical use seemed to be mass detonation?

But it wasn't caught him off guard. What surprised Allen was the sudden arrival of another student that came from the building's rear. An evident escapee of the fires, the other boy's sincere fear seemed to match up, but what annoyed Daughtry was his sudden assumption that he was the attacker.

'Like anyone's that dumb kid, really.'

He was about to retort that merely investigating the bag wasn't incriminating evidence when another stranger appeared, this one much more frantic than the first, a fact that infuriated Allen to the limit. He glared over at the hooded man with dark-eyed menace, his teeth gritting in anger and his nostrils flaring with the desire to strike back...

And with those flaring nostrils came a new scent. The new arrival reeked of gasoline fumes. It wasn't the sort of smell that could instantly attach to someone, much less if they were merely burned by the fire, and the strength of sour gas that came from his cindered clothing was far too strong to be the product of a split-second getaway. It would have taken at least a few minutes of manipulating one of the Molotovs to even hope for a similar smell.

He couldn't prove it, but the idea that the sudden accuser had something to do with the fire certainly matched up with the sheer coincidence of the fact that he had just miraculously escaped the bathroom and simply run out of the building without anyone else. It wasn't incriminating either, but Allen wasn't going to take shit from someone with just as likely a guilty charge.

Keeping his glare of anger, Daughtry dropped the glass bottle down onto the ground and stood upright, waving his left arm across the air in a vagrant act of defiance, "Oh really? Then why is it that you reek of Molotov while I'm clean? Let's not even try to explain how I started all of those fires myself, including the one you'd have surely caught me doing."

He nodded, ignoring the whispers of the small crowd that had grown near the building's entrance, who were splitting their attention between the argument and the growing flames, many frozen still. At this, Allen turned on his heel and growled at them, his fists clenching, "Stop standing there and get the fucking Pillars! What the hell's wrong with you people?!"

Disgusted, Daughtry merely glanced over at the first accuser with a deep scowl, before shoving past him and making his brisk way towards the door, making sure to drop a final retort on his way to rub the insult in the face of the other suspicious man, "Frakking impulsive idiots."

Unlike the other who would merely stand by and watch, Allen had no intention to sit idly by and let the building burn to the ground with students inside. He may have been taken down by Hircine's explosion, but he would certainly not make the same mistake again - he'd stop the bloodshed, and break the face of those who even dared to commit it. Fixing his gloves and jacket, he kicked down the front doors without hesitation, only to find that the main halls beyond were covered in red flame and filled with black smoke.

Covering his face with his arm, Daughtry would curse to himself, contemplating on an alternative.[/font]

[SR Park]

The 552 transfer looked taken aback by the blonde's fiery outburst, but he couldn't blame him; he wouldn't take very kindly to being wrongfully accused either, especially without a sufficient amount of prosecuting evidence. However, most of the student's ill will seemed to be aimed toward the fellow who had assisted him, which wasn't surprising. While Seung-Ri had made the accusation a little more civilly, his accomplice had just thrown himself into the situation wildly, even going as far as getting physical with the blonde.

When the blonde turned and addressed the crowd, which was steadily growing in number as more and more students gathered around to watch in awe and disbelief the science & technology building slowly kindle away, he only maintained the Korean's inner grin. He had told the crowd to run off and fetch the pillars. The pillars were one of the items on his agenda, and he intended on drawing them out to reveal their identities with this attack. Even if they did not show their faces, it would work to his advantage. A win-win situation, if you must.

"Wait up!" he called out behind the blonde, quickly catching up to him with the aid of his skateboard. Seung-Ri knew that the entrance he was heading toward was ablaze, but in order to maintain the veil of innocence he held his tongue, letting the blonde find out for himself. "Looks like we'll have to find another way in," he suggested, his sentence cut short by a spastic coughing fit brought on by the thick black smoke. With his throat and voice slightly scratchy, he continued, "There should be a window on the other side of this building. Follow me."

Peeking inside the window first to confirm it was safe, Seung-Ri used his skateboard to smash the window and allow their entry into the building. He also used the board to brush off the fragments of glass remaining on the windowsill to prevent getting cut when he and the blonde hauled themselves over the ledge and into the building. Once inside, the Korean could already see smoke seeping beneath the door and into the room. "You know, we're probably going to need masks or something if we don't want to choke out there."

Now clad only in a pair of indigo jeans and grey-on-white Nike high dunks, the former pillar folded his t-shirt into a crude triangle and tied it around his face as a makeshift mask. He waited to see if the blonde would do the same. When (and if) he followed suit, Seung-Ri would kick down the door and motion for him to follow. Immediately they were greeting by a hallway full of thick smoke and a blaring fire alarm. And let's not forget the sprinklers that would be drenching them and progressively getting the floor more slippery and wet.

Seung-Ri entered the hallway with caution, crouching low in order to avoid getting smoke in his eyes and soot in his lungs. There was something wrong with this picture; shouldn't there be more people on the first floor? Isn't that where everybody fled in order to exit the building? Maybe they saw that the entrances were cut off by fires and found an alternate route. Not that the 552 transfer was unaware of this. The stairwells were set on fire for a reason.

The air was thick and heavy, and the Korean found it difficult to breath despite the fabric around his face. "Don't you find it weird that there's nobody on the ground floor!?" he said, looking back and forth at the hallway on either side of him. "I hope you can navigate this building better than I can!" Everything that was said must be exclaimed if they wanted to be heard over the fire alarm.

[Allen Daughtry]

The flames that engulfed the building's main entrance was easily enough to freeze Daughtry in his tracks, both in his goal and his fears. Pressing his right arm over the slip of his lips and mouth, the worn brown leather helped to seal off any intake of toxic fumes, but it did nothing to stop the sensation from reviving in Allen's brain. He had not been conscious for long after the detonation at Hircine High, but there had been just enough time that elapsed where he truly felt as if Hell itself had taken him. Shattered rubble, broken bodies, stained walls, burning flame and suffocating fumes all around him - it was enough to drive any survivor mad. And for a moment, Allen simply stood there idly, staring wide eyed into the arson, bewildered in memory.

It wasn't until the first boy from earlier called out to him did he finally regain proper control of himself. The man glanced back abruptly to see the younger Asian standing there, skateboard limply in hand, mentioning a possible alternative entrance at a back window around the other side of the building and telling Daughtry to follow him. The shaded man watched the former accuser briskly lead the way, and though at first reluctant to trust him, eventually accepted the fact that if he was to try and find some way to help those trapped inside, he'd have to take whatever help he could get. Thus, he stepped away from the licks of heat at the building's gate and followed the boy's trail.

Once the two were at the back window, Allen's companion broke past the glass by using the brunt of the skateboard to shatter the obstacle and clearing the way. Following his lead by stepping over and through the window frame, Allen did his best to inspect the surroundings of the room he now stood in, only to be bombarded by an overload of sensations. Though he wore close-fitting sunglasses, the sting of ashen black smoke brought tears to his eyes, a choke to his breathing, and a ringing in his ears from the consistent irritation of a nearby fire alarm. Daughtry instantly covered his face with his right forearm once more, but recognized his companion's point of finding an actual mask - he couldn't keep his arm over his mouth the entire time, after all.

Taking a moment to scan his surroundings, Allen quickly realized that the two were standing in one of the building's faculty offices. It was modest - two simple desks pressed against opposing walls with some personal effects and plush fabric chairs - but he saw that a light sweater lay out in the open nearby one of the stools to his right. As the Asian boy prepared his own tee shirt for a makeshift mask, Allen grabbed the discarded sweater and ripped off one of the thick sleeves and tying it across his cheeks. It was only temporary, but the cloth would keep out the harmful smoke, and it would keep him moving.

Glancing back to his companion, Daughtry nodded, before taking a step forward and kicking down the office door. He was relieved to see that their path - for the most part - was clear ahead of them, and following the Asian closely, Allen made his own way down the adjacent hallway with a crouched walk as his sunglasses scanned the area. When the man spoke his observations, Daughtry agreed; it was more than odd considering the nature of fire alarm protocols. Though he had no idea how advanced the fire had become, he couldn't imagine that all of the students were trapped in their class rooms. Why weren't they making a hasty escape?

"I think I heard somewhere that this building uses the first floor for faculty only," Allen yelled back over the alarms, his shades glancing over to the other man, "That means the students should all be upstairs. I don't know if the stairs are blocked off or not, but if they are, we might need to find a maintenance closet - they usually have entrances into ceilings and such."

Naturally, Allen Daughtry would have some affinity to the structure of buildings both public and private due to his career as a thief. It was fairly common where he'd have to slip past security systems unnoticed through a similar circumstance. So if the staircase was truly blocked off as he feared, then they'd be forced to use a less comfortable alternative.

Waving his companion to follow him around a corner, Allen slowly trekked around the school's perimeter, intent on trying to see the interior end of the main entrance fire. It wasn't long before his eyes caught sight of the arson that was caused around the school's main staircase, and it became obvious within seconds that the main escape was effectively blocked off. Whoever the arsonist was, their goal was more than just scaring a professor or doing some property damage - they meant to bring harm to the entire school population. Pondering this, Allen grit his teeth in disgust.

'To think I could be compared to bastards like that.'

So Allen glanced back to his companion, nodding, "Stairs are blocked. We'll need to find that maintenance closet after all. Any ideas on where it could be?"[/font]

[SR Park]

The t-shirt-turned-mask on his face wouldn't be able to compensate for his deceptive veil all the time. For this reason he refrained from grinning openly, and instead contained his sense of satisfaction within. If he allowed himself to cover up his mistakes because he had a second mask, who knows when he would slip up again without its cover? The stairwell fires were far more effective than the sophomore had anticipated, for little did he know that all of the classrooms were above ground level. His blonde compatriot had informed him of this, which showed that he did have more knowledge about the school's layout than he did. Which was to be expected; it was Seung-Ri's first day at Moral Crest, after all.

Following the blonde around the corner, the pair found the main staircase, which had been set ablaze by the Korean. He shrugged when asked of the whereabouts of a maintenance closet, and added, "This is a pretty big building--there should be more than one staircase in it. And like I said before, I know the layout of this building like I know quantam physics. I say we search this floor for alternate staircases, and in the process we may stumble upon that maintenance closet."

It was by his hand that the building's staircases had become inaccessible. Seung-Ri hoped that his antics today weren't malicious; he wasn't a malevolent person, he was just... really bored. And perhaps just a touch narcissistic. He craved the spotlight--but at the same time, he wanted to avoid it. These contradicting desires was just a taste of Seung-Ri's complexity. It was difficult to gain insight into the former pillar's thoughts and motivations, and near impossible to pin his personality down.

Moving as quickly as possible in a crouched position, he passed the main staircase and motioned for the blonde to follow. The location of the next burning stairwell was fresh in the Korean's mind, and upon finding it, he would curse, "Goddamnit!" He turned his head to look at the other student and asked, "Did you see the closet on the way here?"