A gun fired, a body on the floor, the firearm in question tossed aside. Max had seen and heard this outcome four times now, and it was four too many. She leaned more towards being introverted and was as normal as any person could really be. Being a standard teenage girl, the sound of that overly loud, echoing firearm followed by deafening silence in that enclosed bathroom on its own shook her to the bone and had her in a stunned silence of her own.
Oh yeah, the lifeless corpse also hitting the floor following that didn't help matters either. Nor the fact that she was more or less being held against her will and forced to be helpless and watch this unfold. Her eyes and Michael's were placed to look right around the corner of that last stall in the row, allowing the pair to remain mostly hidden as that blue-haired girl on the floor began to produce a gradually expanding pool of blood. She was still, and seemingly not even breathing. The well-placed shot hit her chest quite near her heart by the looks of things, if not directly. Though even the most novice of shooters would have a hard time missing with the barrel of the gun less than an inch from its target.
The aforementioned shooter was seemingly losing his mind at this stage, mumbling aloud in slurred speech as his immediate thoughts spilled out of his mouth with no filter or structure. He paced left and snapped right then back again rapidly, hands fidgeting with themselves as he looked to the corpse before himself then away again. Max and Michael could've been standing out in the open and he probably wouldn't have noticed.
"Pretty pathetic sight if you ask me, should've come up with a backup plan..." Michael whispered into Max's ear, his words and the proximity of his mouth to her causing the girl to shudder and try her best to move away from him slightly, but to no avail.
Moments later, the bathroom door was suddenly and violently kicked open - causing Max to twitch. Entering the room promptly was everyone's favorite annoyance - Security Officer Madsen, his own gun drawn. A quick scan of the room caused him wide eyes as he found the recently shot girl on the floor, followed by the presence of a male in the girl's bathroom. The fact that this male was Nathan Prescott didn't help things, and as the clearly guilty boy didn't do much more than flinch and stand there when the officer arrived, that allowed Madsen to very quickly and easily put the pieces together.
"You!" The veteran growled, grabbing Nathan by one shoulder and spinning him so that his back was facing the officer - promptly slamming his face down on the counter afterwards. Roughly, the Security Officer grabbed both of Nathan's hands and put them behind his back before restraining them with some zip-cuffs. Maybe not as elegant as standard metal handcuffs, but they worked just the same.
Directly following this, the ex-soldier was then on his walkie-talkie, "Principal Wells, I'm issuing a lockdown of the school right now, we have a shooter on-premises," He stated as he glanced over with a tinge of visible pain towards the lifeless body still laying on the floor. Following a one-syllable acknowledgement from the principal, the security officer was then quick to call the relevant local authorities.
During which time, the intercoms of the school soon came to life with the voice of Wells. "All students and staff, remain on school property - we are in a state of lockdown. This is not a drill. Repeat, no-one is to leave the campus at this time. Anyone in violation of this lockdown will receive summary discipline afterward." Perhaps not the most thorough of announcements, but as long as it did what it was supposed to...
Hearing the distant sound of police sirens getting nearer, Michael tensed slightly. "We need to get out of here," was the only warning Max got as time moved to stand still once again and she was almost lifted off the ground and carried out of the bathroom by Michael - her back pressed to his chest in the process. The girl didn't so much as wriggle as a state of shock began to set in on her, her head turning to take in the full sight of that blue-haired girl on the floor. There was a guilt welling further up inside of her now, and the feeling that she somehow knew this girl. It was right on the tip of her tongue, but she didn't quite get it.
She remained in her own stunned silence as they exited that bathroom and she was placed back down on her own feet and time was seemingly moving forward once again. She was also given relative freedom, as Michael had moved to her side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to keep her moving forward. Max didn't have any objections as she was corralled onward, even if the pair of them seemed to get looks from the other students on their way down the halls and out the front door. It was near the end of the day anyway, so regardless of the lockdown people were about to be heading towards their dorms or else wait in general to head home. Staff were quite prevalent to make sure nobody left school grounds, and were pointing students towards their dorms or else the main office to wait to go home.
This had the effect of pushing students to move more quickly and orderly than normal in whichever direction they were supposed to be going. Something which irritated the students, but was overall helpful for organization. Especially as multiple police vehicles pulled up to the school in addition to an ambulance - the first responders marching quickly across the school yard to rush into the school building itself, which was at this stage mostly empty.
Michael looked back over his shoulder at the officers marching off inside to secure the premises and, presumably, apprehend the obvious suspect. He looked ahead and exhaled in relief as he and Max passed the threshold into the dormitory yard. At the same time, Max somewhat snapped out of her state of relative shock and introspective conversation with herself to look around frantically for a moment - trying to pull away fruitlessly from Michael as they walked along.
"Where.. What-" She began, only to be cut off by a chastising "Good, you're back, now maybe you can help direct me to where your dorm is," from the man who was walking in step beside her.
She gritted her teeth in annoyance, and whispered up at him, "They're separated by gender, idiot, they'll never let you in." There was a clear hint of poison in her voice, she was unhappy with this situation and he was going to know it.
He rolled his eyes, "Ohh, but can't I just say I identify as female and then they'll let me in?" He replied. In glancing to her, he was met with a sideways expression, seemingly mixed with disgust and mild confusion. "Nevermind," was all he quipped back with. "I'll find my own way in and meet you at your room."
In the blink of an eye, Max had been freed - her eyes widening for a moment as empty air surrounded her. She wrapped her arms around herself in a hug as she got brief respite from Michael, a man who had already made quite the impression on her in the twenty minutes or so they'd known each other. She did her best to continue on into the dorm, however, only to be stopped not a few steps past the entry doors by an all-too-familiar voice.
"There's the retro-zone hipster now!" Came the searing voice of the one and only Victoria Chase, and it was one that you couldn't just ignore. At least, Max couldn't.
Thus she instantly fell prey, and stopped walking, only to turn to face Victoria and her little posse, "What is it, Victoria?" She asked simply. A move that was perhaps a mistake.
"I'm glad you asked!" She replied cheerfully - and a cheerful Victoria was always a bad sign, "Don't act like everyone didn't see that guy walking with you just now. Looks like the hipster loser finally found herself a boyfriend!~" She chided.
Max's eyes went wide and her face flushed a dark red, "H-Hey-! It's not- He's-!" She stumbled over her words, though she couldn't even form a proper rebuttal in her head before Victoria fired her next volley.
"And how befitting of Claufield to be paired up with some nerd dressed like -that-! His clothes looked like a genre-bash of the last five decades thrown randomly together, I don't even know how he got into the school with fashion sense that bad," She continued, quickly being backed-up by one of her cronies.
"Maybe that's why we've never seen him before, it took the school this long to decide to let him in!" Then following this came a brief chorus of snickers before the trio continued down the hallway and passed Max.
"I don't even need to sabotage your reputation, the world is doing it for me," Victoria left off as the group soon vanished down the semi-busy hallway likely into Victoria's dorm room.
Max's heart was racing in a fit of embarrassment, frustration and genuine anger - her face even still red as she marched down the hallway to her own room, opening the door before slamming it shut behind herself. Pressing her back to the door, she soon slid down it until her butt met the floor - her knees bet and feet still planted on the floor right in front of her.
Her face rested in her hands for a moment, until she heard the twanging of her acoustic guitar. It was playing a song she didn't recognize, but even given that she could tell it was a less-than-stellar rendition. Uncovering her face, she looked to her desk, where in the chair Michael was sat - he was indeed the source of the bad playing, and soon enough he paused and looked over to her from across the room.
He just silently waved, waiting a moment before speaking. "Heyy, you took your sweet time. Why's your face red? You okay?" Another poor choice of words.
"Am I okay?" She asked back, before slowly standing upright, "Am -I-, okay?" She closed the gap between them, though Michael stayed put. "No, I'm not fucking okay!" She said in a barely contained whisper, "Because of you, I saw a girl get shot and probably die in the bathroom, and I couldn't stop it, and now thanks to you Victoria's got even more dirt to kick up at me!"
His brow furrowed, and he set the guitar aside - leaning it against the girl's desk before he stood up, "Did I pull the trigger?" He asked flatly.
Max paused, "No, but-"
"Then why are you acting like I killed that girl and made you watch?" He continued.
The girl tried to find her resolve, "Because you directly prevented me from saving her!"
Michael gave a long nod, "Oooh, I see. I stopped you from having your hero moment."
"Hero mo-... No! That's not what I-"
"Look, you need to stop thinking linearly," He cut her off once more. "You have the power to control time - at least somewhat. You need to stop thinking like time only goes forward. The past isn't just the past to you anymore, you've got to understand and embrace that fact if you want to build on this power and do anything with it beyond correcting short-term mistakes."
She merely blinked at his lecturing, standing in silence once more as she tried to let the information sink in. It was at this point that Michael moved to look around her slightly messy room, Max taking this moment to plop down on her bed.
"This is, way too much..." she said to no-one in particular, looking at the floor.
However, her moment of thought and contemplation was soon shattered as there was a knock on the door - Michael and Max looking to it in sync.
A voice soon followed, "Police, open up, we just have a couple questions."