Advanced Defense Class: Intro

[Tzu Mei]

Out on the lawn of the school grounds, an obstacle course seems to have sprung up overnight. It contains sheer walls, walls with ropes on, tightropes, and innumerable other things whose only purpose is to hinder. Some may in fact be booby-trapped, non-lethally of course. In front of it, Tzu Mei paces back and forth, muttering to himself and with his head almost completely in the clouds. He seems to have anticipated this mood, because there is a large sign sitting near the entrance to the course.

The sign reads thus: ENTRANCE EXAM. If you cannot complete this course, you may not be able to keep up with the rest of the class, and it is recommended that you either move to a less advanced class or find a tutor. This course is to test your agility and determination. NO FLYING OR SKIPPING SECTIONS. This class will be recorded for review by myself.

((Despite the tone of the above, the obstacle course is by no means mandatory, and if your character fails it he or she may still attend the classes. Feel free to make up your own obstacles.))

[Malakai Meir]

Malakai eyed the obstacle course that had sprung up on the lawn overnight. Now this looked like fun!

He was glad he had pilfered the kitchen last night, so he still had enough energy to do this before breakfast.

First up was a a thirty foot tall vertical wall made of widely spaced logs. He was up and over it in short order. On the other side was a pipe bridge over a large mud puddle. The light was still low in the sky and highlighted several suspiciously shiny spots. He was careful to avoid them, and made it across to the end. At the end of the bridge was a climbing rope to reach a monkey bar type obstacle.

He crossed that and ran about one hundred yards to the next obstacle, which was a zig zag run through posts. Next up was a wall with a window in it. He jumped through and fell on his face, as their was a pit on the other side.

Well, maybe no one saw that. A shower before breakfast would be a good thing. He vaulted over a low fence, climbed up a solid wall that had a climbing rope hanging down, and swung over another large mud puddle. Then he went down on his belly and crawled under barbed wire. He negotiated his way through an odd looking obstacle that was like a series of wooden W's interlaced and reaching about waist high. That was followed by a jump over a pit, and a climb up a cargo net.

Then he crawled through a pipe to an elbow, and climbed a ladder to another elbow and more pipe, and then down a ladder, and finally out. This time he hesitated before barreling out and was able to miss the mud pit. He jumped over it, and started up a large triangle made of widely spaced logs. He soon found that they only looked solidly in place, but in fact, each of them were free spinning. This took some time to get over, and at one point he ended up hanging from a log near the top. He did finally make it over, and headed for the last obstacle before the sprint back to the starting line.

It was a series of ropes to make him pick his feet up high to avoid tripping. Simple enough, right? There were also heavy punching bag size bags waving back and forth over it with pretty impressive force. He took a deep breath and caught the timing. He had one near miss, but came through it. He turned to run back, feeling quite proud of himself.

Back at the line, he stood catching his breath hoping that the Professor would have some comment on his performance.

[Tzu Mei]

Fortunately for Malakai, the professor had recovered from his little bout of insanity and was appraising him. "Decent,' Tzu Mei said, nodding his head. "There's still room for improvement, however. Your speed could use a little work, and your balance." He started casually tossing a grenade from hand to hand. "There are a number of exercises you can use to improve each." Catching the grenade, he began to demonstrate one such exercise while gesturing at the student to copy him.

[Michelle Wilcox]

Michelle arrived and began her run of the obstacle course. Her military instructors had called her lazy and undisciplined (though that didn't stop her from graduating), but when she felt like putting on a show she was nearly unstoppable.

She quickly scaled the wall of logs and used the balance she had developed at sea to cross the pipe bridge. She to the highest point on the rope that she could reach and climbed the rest of the way up to the monkey bars. Instead of negotiating the monkey bars the normal way, she demonstrated her specialness swinging to the top of the obstacle, then running across it, putting her feet on the rungs. The zig zag run required no skill except stamina, and Michelle had plenty of that.

Michelle reached a wall with a window and did what she intended to be a diving role through the window. It would have been perfect...except that the floor wasn't at the height she expected. Michelle fell head-first into the pit on the other side of the window, and everything went black.

[Malakai Meir]

Malakai copied the Professor without too much trouble; although he wasn't quite as smooth.

[Malakai Meir]

He noticed that Michelle was making her way through the course, and smirked when she fell into the same pit he had. But when she didn't quickly come crawling back out of it, he said, "Uh, Professor...I think something might be wrong."

[Tzu Mei]

Tzu Mei swore loudly in Urdu and immediately ran over to the pit. With a grunt he slung the unconscious girl over his shoulder and hauled himself out of the pit. "Meir," he ordered. "Go get some blankets, fresh water, and a bag of ice and bring them to the empty classroom on the first floor. I'm turning it into an infirmary. If you can find the headmistress bring her as well, but the supplies are your first priority."

[Malakai Meir]

Malakai took off running toward the kitchen.

[Aidan Logan]

Aidan had been about to start on the obstacle course when Michelle fell. He looked on in concern as Professor Tzu Mei rescued Michelle from the pit.

"Is there anything we can do?" asked Aidan, after Malakai ran off to get help.

[Somariel Lamaron]

Narrowly avoiding smacking into Malakai as she approached the obstacle course, Somariel picked up her pace to a run. Reaching the group, she identified the person slung over Professor Tzu Mei's shoulder as the other military girl, not Rena. Michelle. That was her name. "What happened to Michelle?" she asked worriedly.

[William Jason Fredericks]

Fredericks shuffled up to the edge of the mud pit, a rake propped on his shoulder. He looked over the expanse of mud:

_{"...bloody mud pool....just planted that grass..."}

He seemed to not even see Professor Tzu Mei or the form over Tzu Mei's shoulder as Tzu Mei climbed from the pit. He turned and started to head off.

[Tzu Mei]

Distractedly, Tzu Mei answered, "There's been an accident. Logan, stay here and tell any students who come that they can only take the course if an adult shows up. Lamaron, get the headmistress. I'm making an infirmary on the ground floor."

[Rena Thompson]

Rena stood in the distance, watching some kind of drama unfold. Deciding that she didn't want anything to do with this, she walked away. There would be other times to run an obstacle course. I've run the same basic thing hundreds of times... She thought. What could cause this much of a problem anyway? It's just an obstacle course. What, did someone snap their leg falling off a wall? Heh. That would be funny actually. Injured on the first day. A great start.

"What to do now...?" Usually, there was no eating until after morning practice, but now there was no practice either. Rena decided to go back to the dorm and wait until things settled down.

[Somariel Lamaron]

Somariel turned around and started running back to the main building.

[Tzu Mei]

After the mess with the injured student was over, Tzu Mei came back to dismantle the obstacle course and fill in the pits. It would take some time, but even so he was going to wait around afterwards to catch any students who might still be interested in his class.

[Damien Griffiths]

Damien hurried outside from History class, arriving just in time for the Defensive Fighting class. He didn't have high hopes, and when he saw the obstacle course his heart sank. No way he was getting across that. But something was strange - it seemed the teacher was filling it up again. Hm. Oh well. Maybe not then? He decided to wait, standing next to the others that had arrived earlier.

[Tzu Mei]

Since one of his strange moods was beginning to appear again, Tzu Mei did not immediately notice that he had company. Anyone who happened to be in hearing range might notice that he appeared to be arguing with himself about the benefits or lack thereof of magnetic therapy via hematite bracelets. Oddly enough, he also seemed to be losing said argument.

"There's no metal in my arm, so how could- Oh, hello Griffiths. There was an unfortunate accident, so all I have for you students now are some exercises." He paused for a few seconds, then suddenly shook his head violently. "Shut up, shut up! Don't give me that magnetic fields crap; it just won't work, I tell you. Griffiths, do what I do." Tzu Mei promptly began a basic exercise, but the single-sided debate continued without pause.

[Damien Griffiths]

Damien, confuddled by the strange conversation, tried to imitate the professor as best he could. This could be fun. Was he going to be the only sane person left in this school?

[Tzu Mei]

"This exercise is designed to improve balance," Tzu Mei explained suddenly, ignoring that he had just been involved in an intense debate not more than a second ago. He stopped and began walking around Damien, appraising his efforts. "Keep your back straight. I want you to practice that for the next class." He began tossing a grenade from hand to hand absently.

[Damien Griffiths]

Gulping at the sudden emergence of a hand-grenade so close to him, Damien nervously righted his posture in the hope it wouldn't land near him. For him, rather than the risk of death, there was exposure - and the shockwave of a grenade would do damage and send him flying nonetheless.

[Tzu Mei]

Fortunately for Damien and anyone else in the vicinity, Tzu Mei had no intention of throwing the grenade. Unfortunately, he also had no intention of stashing it in one of his many pockets. As such he kept tossing it from hand to hand without noticing the discomfort of the student. He intended to use it in a demonstration in a later class, so he even had the pin fixed so it could not be pulled accidentally.

"Good. For the next class I will check for improvement, so practice that exercise at home. You may either leave or help me dismantle this." With that he switched to tossing the grenade up and down in one hand while the other pointed to the remains of the obstacle course.