[X] Periwinkle Flowers

"It's fine." The girl in blue said, speaking over the sound of the alarm blaring. She had to speak a bit louder than she was really comfortable with, but really, that was the least of her worries right now. "I'm fine, at least. Nothing wrong on my end."

"I see..." The voice on the other end of the phone noted, loud enough to be heard, though Peri still had to strain to listen to him over the sound of the alarm. "Where are you right now, exactly?"

"In the Schnee library, father." The girl replied. "Out of sight of all the windows and doors, but close enough to the windows that I can run to jump out those if I need to. Doors are shut so I'll hear if someone opens them, window is opened enough that I won't hit the glass if I need to jump out."

There was a relieved sigh from her father, even if Peri knew that he wouldn't be completely relaxed just yet.

"Stay hidden." He advised. "I can't try to come and get you, not with a security breach on the location, but if you manage to avoid drawing any attention until this blows over, you'll be fine."

"Understood." The girl nodded, wiping some sweat from her forehead. She was a bit worried, but her father had seen a lot of situations like this, so if he was approving of the measures she had taken to stay safe...

"Make sure you're prepared for the worst case scenario." He advised suddenly. "Do you have any weapons on you?"

"...No." Peri admitted. Then she realised that the alarm blaring was louder than that word, so she cleared her voice, and repeated herself. "No, I don't have my weapon with me."

"...Peri, what have I told you about being prepared?"

"I thought you were being paranoid." She admitted, hanging her head. "You know, like I was after you insisted I have my scroll modified to work off a direct link to yours and mothers? Except I was wrong again, it seems."

"It's okay, Peri." Her father assured her. "This isn't too bad, and I understand that you find it awkward to carry around weapons. You still have your emergency Dust, right?"

"Right." Periwinkle confirmed. She really needed to get into the habit of taking her wand with her when she wasn't preparing for combat. Even if she was more of a Dust user than a shooter or a melee combatant, she kept thinking that it was fine to go unarmed because she wasn't going to a fight, and kept being on edge when she did go around armed because of the association.

She was the only one of her classmates who had that problem, too. Blast always had a gun hidden away somewhere under his mess that he called an outfit, Piran always had something on his gloves even if he could just turn any random rock into a weapon, and Peri couldn't recall a time she hadn't seen Yang without her Ember Celica.

Still, that emergency Dust of hers would have to do. It wasn't the highest quality wind Dust, but it was enough that she could prevent any unintended reactions by keeping it isolated, in the small pocket of clothing in front of her heart, and if she amplified it, there was enough there that she could blow away some projectiles, or a person if she used most of it.

If she had her wand on her, she'd at least be able to make it last. It was connected to a cable leading to a rather basic Dust generator, and even a small amount of Dust like what she had was usually enough to keep it going and leave the effects of the dust available to her for to make use of. It wasn't as effective as the Dust generators used in Atlas automata to give them a battery life that was comparable to Peri's own life, or the even more expensive versions that could generate multiple kinds of Dust while being small enough to fit on a pistol rapier, but it was the best Peri had.

Well, not that she had it right now, but the point remained.

"Keep the Dust in hand." Her father suggested. "If someone comes in, throw it and run. Or use it to throw yourself out the window faster. It will save time, if you have it ready now."

Following the suggestion, Peri used her free hand to unbutton the pocket over her heart, pull out the Dust crystal, and grip it tight. The energy in the crystal connected with her Aura after just a second. In this one area, at least, she was better than most of her peers. Using Dust, and manipulating her Aura to better use that Dust.

Her father tried to say something else, but the alarm was blaring too loud, and he was speaking too softly. Whatever it was, Periwinkle couldn't make out a word of it.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear that over the alarm." She called out. "It's hard to hear over it."

There was silence for a moment, before her dad replied.

"...And your plan was to listen for the door opening?"

A chill ran up Periwinkle's spin, as she took a moment to crane her neck around, looking past the book shelf she was standing behind to look at the door to the library.

The open door.

Without wasting a moment longer, Periwinkle ran, turning towards the window in the process. She knew the path, she had seen it a moment ago, and she knew it well enough to start running before she properly turned her head.

As a result, she only had a split-second warning of the figure stepping in to block her way, before a boot kicked up like a gunshot to throw the Dust crystal out of Periwinkle's hand. She cried out, in shock more then pain, and before she could react, the boot swept around in a circle and slammed into Peri's other hand, knocking it into a book case and smashing the Scroll held in it.

The book case toppled over, as the figure jumped back, and Peri only had time to see a flash of silver hair on top of the vaguely boyish frame before the attacker was gone.

In the span of three seconds, Peri had lost her Dust, her Scroll, and sight of the mysterious enemy that had attacked her for some reason. Because she didn't think her plan through, and relied on listening to hear a door open while she was already straining to focus on the call over the sound of the alarm. And she hadn't even remotely been prepared to defend herself.

Taking a breath immediately, to try and calm her mind, Peri started focusing on her Semblance. It wasn't much, especially with a lack of Dust, but it was all she had right now. Even if her mother and father had given her some basic melee combat training, and Signal had given a bit more in her second year to drive in the need to be prepared to fight without a weapon, those were training exercises and lessons where she hadn't done well.

She wasn't good at fighting. Not a remarkable thing for a Hunter in training to be, even if she wasn't that far below average. She could probably beat Cardin or Sky or any of the others that she didn't know overly well three or four times out of ten, and they were closer to the baseline.

The problem was that those odds assumed she was ready to a fight and wasn't unarmed. Which wasn't now. She may as well be back in first year, for all the good she was now. She wasn't Blast, who could probably kick over a book shelf and watch them all bury the attacker. She wasn't Piran, who was able to turn anything in the environment into a weapon. She wasn't Yang, who could probably fight better with her bare fists than anyone else in the year could with a weapon.

They were good. In Yang's case, exceptional. And Peri... Wasn't.

If Yang were here, she wouldn't have been disarmed and lost her Scroll in the first exchange of combat. Hell, by now, she'd probably be beating the attacker into unconsciousness, and not be standing around wondering why she wasn't as amazing as the people around her.

The realisation that she had barely moved prompted Peri into action again, as she focused on her Semblance enough to start projecting her Aura around her. If she had her wind Dust, this would be the point where she started making use of it to try and replicate telekinesis, or just blow really hard against her attack if she couldn't afford that level of finesse. If she had any other element of Dust, she could have started setting the books on fire, or let some lightning arc around her.

But for now, all she could do was feel around with her Aura, try to detect a disturbance in it, and when she did-

Something cleaved through her extended Aura behind her, aiming for her head. Letting out a frightened cry, Peri ducked down, covering her head as she did so. She looked up for a split second, in time to watch the foot shift momentum unnaturally and slam downwards into Periwinkle again. Her more immediate, skin-hugging Aura cracked under the force, as Peri was thrown into the ground. She cried out as the foot jumped back and disappeared, the air forced out of her lungs by the impact, and it took her a moment to breath in again.

Whoever had attacked her was gone again. They could have easily pinned her down after that last hit, but they had retreated instead. Why-

"How lucky." Drawled a voice on the other side of the book case near Peri. "I found an easy target. I was worried I'd have to put some effort into this, for a moment."

The girl ignored how that stung at her pride, in favour of slamming into the book shelf to topple it over. It creaked, for a moment, before a leg kicked through it. The high quality wood shattered, splintering off into every direction, as Peri was thrown away. Her body landed on he other toppled bookshelf, and a few books slammed into her as she moved to stand.

She got to her feet, slowly, before she looked up. The moment her eyes turned towards her attacker, a knee hit her in the stomach, causing her to kneel over. The air in her lungs for forcibly exhaled again as the impact shook through her, and as she looked down, she saw a flash of movement, as one leg hit the ground and the other rose.

The other leg slammed into Periwinkle's chin, throwing her into the air. She landed on the book shelf again, and the wood slamming into her spin splintered under the force of the impact.

This time, the girl rolled back instead of standing forward, getting to her feet on the other side of the book shelf. She nearly lost her footing on one book or another, but managed to recover before the boy with grey hair pushed the attack.

...Actually, he was gone again.

Where had he disappeared to this time? Just how fast was this guy? She didn't get a good look at him, but he hadn't seemed that much older than Periwinkle herself. What was he doing? Why was he fighting her? He obviously could have ended this by now, he had moved fast enough in that initial encounter that Peri knew that the only reason she wasn't being juggled on his feet and knees was before he didn't see her as a threat.

She needed to get away. The question was, how?

The window was open, but her assailant had been between her and it when she first tried to escape. Did he know that she intended to go that way? Had he entered the room early enough and eavesdropped in on the conversation until he knew her escape plan, so he could block it off?

The door was the other option, since he had left it open, but also the more obvious one if he hadn't heard her plan. It didn't involve jumping out window a storey or so off the floor, however, and perhaps she could find help if she ran.

Or maybe she could make enough of a noise for the help to find her. She'd have to make a sound louder than the alarm, but if she tried to fight, she should have a chance. Try to push her attacker into shooting, or try to find where her Dust crystal had gone and use that to cause some chaos to try and get some attention from the floor above or below, or a room near here.

She didn't have much time, she decided. The attacker might have been playing with her, but she needed to make up her mind quickly, before he got bored of her. She had to-

[X] Make a break for the window.
[X] Run for the door and escape.
[X] Find the crystal and make some noise.