Mac Mini - Disc Warrior - Will not respond to new startup Disc

Problem:

I ran disc warrior and rebuilt and replaced the directory simply as maint and to deal with a few crash issues. After quitting Disc Warrior I held the option key (on a new low profile Apple Keyboard - wired) to open startup disc assistant. Computer continues to boot from the disc. I cannot find a single way to change the startup disc from within Disc Warrior either.

I then determined that there is no power going to the keyboard until after the time period needed when holding the option key or even trying to use the firmware keyboard shortcut. I determined this by pressing the caps lock key. The green light on the caps lock does not come on until well after the initial startup sound.

Is there a way to open terminal when the computer is booted from a disc? Is there a way around this? I've tried unplugging every peripheral except the keyboard and the power issue still persists.

No matter what I do, the computer still boots from the disc. I tried opening system prefs from the apple menu but it is grayed out.

Any help would be great. Thanks