The Beatdown

The rowdy students refused to leave the gates. Aayla had no idea what was in their heads. Rocks? Flowers? Air, or maybe nothing at all? In any case, provoking the Disciplinary Committee was a very bad idea. The trial grounds would be opened to the public in a few days. They must have a damaged brain for causing trouble over such a minor issue.

"Who gets a preview of the trial grounds? On what basis? That's not fair basing it on some mysterious criteria! I placed in the top 50 during the last ranking tournament, and I didn't even hear a word about this beforehand. Shouldn't there be an application process or something?"

Junius gazed down at the angry student leading the grumbling mob.

"Those selected are members of the Student Council or those who will help manage the trial grounds. The public opening is only a few days away. You can visit them. This is your final warning. Move aside and stop causing trouble."

The student gnashes his teeth before moving to the side. The crowd parts with him. Junius motions for Aayla, Daren and Chris to come forward. Renee stepped forward from behind Junius.

"Nice to see you back, Ms. Glowery. The gremlins have really missed you."

Aayla snorted. "The gremlins, or those of you who had to handle them?"

"Guilty as charged. Can I see your university ID? Sorry, it's just procedure. I'll need to see the IDs of the rest of you, too."

The gate squeaked open behind Renee. Branches from a nearby willow reached over to gently tug on Aayla's arm.

"That works. What about the rest of you?"

Another tree reached out for Daren, as if to beckon him inside. Several seconds passed, but nothing special happened again. Aayla smirked and glanced at Chris.

"Someone doesn't really care about you, Mr. Vear."

Chris feigned an aggrieved expression as he passed his ID over to Renee.

"Oh, Dormi! How could you? I thought that we had a special relationship. A true bond. A connection."

"Just stop, Mr. Vear, and get inside."

Junius clicked his tongue in disdain. Theatrics like that annoyed him. Apparently, Dormi shared those sentiments. Roots shot out of the ground and threw Chris inside the gate. He landed on the soft stone pathway.

Renee glanced over his ID then tossed it to him.

"Everything looks good to me. Have a nice day, but try to stay inside the gates as much as you can. Things might get a bit crazy out here."

The gates opened wide behind the Junius and his officers. Just as Aayla stepped inside, she felt a breeze blow by her into the residence grounds. In a flash of light, one of the officers disappeared. She heard a loud scream inside.

The officer had viciously pinned one student down onto the ground. The student's face was practically kissing the stone pathway.

"HALT! You are under arrest for violating university law and the direct command of the Disciplinary Committee Chair. You will be detained until further notice."

Daren and Chris looked at the idiot with disdain. Did they really think that they could just break through the blockade? Even if they could, they would be easily stopped by Dormi or tracked down by the committee. There was no helping some people.

Junius didn't even bother to watch as the officer dragged out the offending student. The rowdy crowd cooled when they saw the officer casually take down the delinquent.

"Take that one to the security station down the road and write him up. Also, take an officer back here when you're finished."

"Yes sir."

The gates snapped shut after Aayla and Daren walked inside. Chris rubbed his aching head and waited for them to catch up.

"Just imagine what the gates are going to look like later today when people finally realize that the trial grounds are over here. People must be really stressed out. Otherwise, I don't know why they would so blatantly oppose the Disciplinary Committee."

"Isn't that student officer going to get in trouble? They can't really do that, right?"

Aayla always wondered why people were so afraid of the Disciplinary Committee. She's mostly seen them talk people out of fights and issue warnings. There's no way that the university and police would actually let them arrest people. Slamming students to the ground should definitely be unacceptable.

Daren gave Aayla an odd look while Chris looked at her as if he had discovered a new animal.

"What world are you living in? If anything, that student got off easy. He still has all of his teeth and nothing was broken. Well, maybe not his nose. There's still some blood on the ground."

Stones stained with a red liquid quickly turned over on the ground in front of them. The path looked as good as new once again.

"But still, that's a student. Isn't there a zero-tolerance policy towards violence or something?"

Chris burst out laughing.

"Hahaha! Oh, that's hilarious. A disciplinary committee that's forbidden from disciplining. A 'zero-tolerance' policy. By the Celestials I need to tell that joke to others. That's brilliant. I love it. I should put that in the Student Council suggestion box one of these days."

"Are you serious, Ms. Glowery?"

"Wait, what?"

Both of them stared wide eyed at Aayla. She began to blush under their gazes. Was what she said really so strange.

"You're actually serious?"

Chris closely inspected Aayla.

"Are you feeling alright? You didn't eat anything from strangers, did you?"

Aayla pushed the nosy jerk out of her way. Her checks somehow got even more red than before.

"NO I DID NOT!"

Daren lightly coughed and pulled Chris back.

"As a famous wizard of old once said, fighting is part of training. One must learn how to handle it, whether by avoiding it or excelling at it. That's fairly standard all over Tellus. Even if people get hurt, most injuries can be healed with magic.

"The university only cares about serious, permanent or life-threatening injuries and property damage. To properly handle sudden situations and enforce Student Council decrees, the Disciplinary Committee was given certain policing duties and power."

Chris seriously nodded his head as he pried himself out of Daren's grasp.

"Meaning they can basically beat up anyone causing trouble. It's the same outside too. It's too difficult to crack down on every little crime or keep officers safe, especially with magic involved. The police prefer for those involved to settle things 'peacefully' amongst themselves. Of course, they would still step in to solve those disputes as needed."

Aayla's eyes opened wide. They could do that?! Why is she only learning about this now?! Police officers beating civilians or giving students the power to beat and arrest other students would cause wide spread outrage on Terra.

Daren scratched his cheek and turned his head away.

"Don't worry about it so much. You rarely leave the residence hall anyways, so you shouldn't get into any trouble. Even if you do, this guy is good at bailing others out."

"I can, but why would I want to help this clueless idiot?"

Aayla puffed up her cheeks and glared at Chris. Daren shot a look towards him.

"Because she is our committee chair and takes care of most of your work."

"I would love to have the honor of helping the lovely Aayla in her time of need."

Shortly after they returned to the residence hall, Chris's prediction of chaos came true. The crowd near the gate slowly got bigger and bigger until the university could no longer ignore it. The Disciplinary Committee was filled with competent fighters, but no one wanted a blood bath.

The Student Council quickly arranged for their visit to be held the next day. They had to get the trial grounds open to the public as quickly as possible. Fortunately for Aayla, she didn't have classes or residence hall duties until next week. So, she avoided any harbingers of work by hanging out in the basement.

Correction, she wasn't 'avoiding work' Aayla was supervising the gremlins. Those sugar loving troublemakers had gotten a bit high and mighty after she left so Aayla needed to find a way to bring them down a peg.

The resulting chaos was heard throughout the entire residence hall. The residents learned very little about the conflict. Occasionally, Aayla would be seen walking to the medical ward then right back down into the basement. With a strange glint in her eyes and a slightly deranged look on her face, the resident advisor would carry strange boxes down the stairs while giggling uncontrollably.

"Hehe, this will show those tiny little b***ards. Do they really think that I was a pushover? Let's go with this for now, Dormi."

The conflict ended in a few days. The exact outcome remains a mystery as neither side would reveal what happened. However, all of the residents agreed not to mess with their head resident advisor who was probably very crazy when pushed to far. There was only one notable exception, who was beginning to take notice of her existence.