Arthur shot Morgan a displeased look. "Well, yeah, I'd hardly be surprised," he muttered. "Everyone here is totally overreacting if you ask me."
Morgan may had been on Arthur's 'team' but Arthur barely held any of them in much high regard. He was fairly sure they all thought him a useless guy who wouldn't ever make it to the New Guard. "Whatever," Arthur eventually said, continuing to his room and leaving his girlfriend alone.
As for Nathan, unfortunately for him, Miguel was not in the dorm room. Whether that was due to the incident at the fair or some reason was unclear...
October 22nd
In the days that followed the fair, it was business as usual for the majority of students at Arthur Grey's. The seniors, or at least those who were currently in training for the New Guard, were waiting patiently until they could get back to work. With the mall incident from earlier in the month behind them now, it was not long before they would be called in again.
On the 19th of October, a member of Seattle's City Council by the name of Isaac Hughes was set to do a talk in support of a pro-Courser charity. That day, Hughes had been targeted by a failed assassination attempt and the vehicle he had been set to travel in exploded via a car bomb of some sort. The bomb had gone off without Hughes being even near it, though few believed he was out of danger.
Isaac Hughes was known for being particularly in support of Coursers, even among the other council members who were generally on the side of Courser sympathy. He had become a symbol of disdain for anti-Courser groups who made claims that he regarded Courser lives above others and that he secretly had powers himself.
The event on the 19th had been canceled, though Hughes insisted they reschedule for he did not want to allow hate to beat him. Or so he said. In just three days, Hughes was to attend once again, but this time things were different. He had requested that Coursers be added to his usual security detail as a show of trust between himself and Coursers.
The New Guard had been tracking the source of the bomb for the last few days and hoped that another event meant that those who wanted to hurt Hughes would come out into the open. Of course, they would have their hands full investigating, so the in-training students were assigned to protect Hughes.
Due to his rash actions, Arthur had been barred from attending any New Guard activities until the end of the month, which only infuriated him once it seemed something new was coming up.
The charity event was to be held at the Gwendolyn Concert Hall, with Isaac Hughes coming in near the end to give his support. The event had an air of unease about it, for few felt entirely sure about what could happen after the attack on Hughes a few days earlier. It was generally believed that an attack on the event itself was unlikely, though no one could truly say for sure.
The building was essentially divided into two halves, where the main building housed the actual event and a side building to hold team members and anything that needed to stay behind the scenes. It was the side building where Hughes, his security detail, and the in-training students were to wait, the majority of them packed into a dining room that was currently not being used.
"Is everyone settled?" echoed the voice of Aaliyah Taylor into everyone's ears via a communicator. A few had already met her as the new professor at the school, though she introduced herself the day before the mission as their New Guard contact. "We have New Guard members within the main building in case something happens there, but you guys don't have to worry about that. Focus on Mr. Hughes."
After a moment, Aaliyah spoke again. "Oh, and I have one of your classmates with me. Min-a won't be joining you guys on the field, so she's shadowing me and whoever I rotate out with." Min-a's power had very little utility on the field, leaving her to train with the New Guard in a different way.
"This is stupid. Whatever, let's just get this over with," Ayako grunted. Though her cantankerous attitude might have been considered routine by others, she seemed particularly irascible today even by her usual standards. None too eager to even be here for whatever reason, the dark-haired woman placed a hand on her hip. "Nothing's even gonna happen, I bet."
"Be professional. This is an important job we have on our hands," Kylie responded to Ayako, matching the latter's attitude with rectitude. To Aaliyah, Kylie spoke next. "We're all good here, I think. Please keep us updated if anything about the situation changes."
"Kylie's right," Sam said to the others, looking overly concerned. After Arthur went and got himself in trouble, she worried that it would impact their performance on this mission. A part of her was rather upset that another student's foolish actions might impact her future in some way.
Meanwhile, Hughes himself simply remained silently where he was. His expression indicated a feeling of agitation or uneasiness; one might have imagined it was natural given the tense situation he was in, despite the fact that he was the one who insisted the charity go through, and for his security detail to be accompanied by Coursers in the first place. If there was something else on his mind, he wasn't about to let anyone else know what it was. There were other, more important things at stake here, and he had to stay focused.
@MaxIrvaron @Redfork2000 @Space_Candy @Yun Lee @Gummi Bunnies @Sark @Jeremi @Takumi @Sanity43217 @Capri @Crunch @Lucky @Chaos Sphere @Ver @Adore Angel
