What a terrible day.
Raymond Salazar looked down at his stained clothes, wincing at the pain within as he listened to the damned laughter of the idiots that had just thrown a whole lot of juice over him. Here he was, having a peaceful dump in the comfort room, and now, some jocks had decided that pranking the little scrawny kid in class would make a nice vine. He hated them. He always had. They have been causing him misery for the last few weeks, taking every opportunity to make fun of him. It was so bad that Ray was feeling physically sick whenever he saw those faces; proud smirks, wry smiles filled with sadistic glee.
"Take that, mutt!"
Oh, if only. If only he could lash out and destroy them, wipe those ugly smirks off their faces and watch as they beg for mercy while having their breath drawn out of their lungs! That would be so satisfying, so nice, a glorious end to the mind boggling suffering that these rich kid bullies have subjected him to.
Except that he was better than that. Vengeance is not his to take. It is not the answer.
As such, Ray only sighed in resignation, leaning back on the toilet seat as their derisive laughter faded away from earshot. He had a solemn expression on his face; he had enough of crying some time ago. He had learned to simply accept this cruel treatment and let be. After all, these kids were the children of some of the more influential people in town, and messing with them meant messing with their parents. The latter was something the school did not want to court at all, as they could lose their funding, or worse...
Ray simply stepped out of the cubicle, and stared at the mirror.
What a mess.
The fruit juice had done quite a number on his appearance. Ray's brown eyes hurt as the sweet stuff dripped and streamed down from his head. His grey shirt was stained with purple blotches, and the raven black hair was soaking wet. Luckily, his bag was not affected by the torrential downpour of the juice. If the contents of the bag were drenched, his grades for the next subject and the rest of his mood for today would be done for. His art project, the novel he was reading; his phone; they were all there, vulnerable to destruction by a pouring in of liquid. Whether through luck or divine intervention, they were not destroyed.
He'd have to change his clothes soon, or else he'd have to walk into art class with the smell of grape juice wafting all over him. Hell, the stuff was still dripping all over the place, leaving purple drops on the white tiled floor. The janitor is going to be so pissed once he comes in to work on the comfort room. He already had to deal with unruly kids spilling their piss on the wall instead of the urinals, and now, there was a pool of sticky fruit juice coming out of one of the cubicles. It won't be long before the teachers have to remind everyone yet again not to pee on the walls like a bunch of uncivilized barbarians. But of course, that is what they act like. They're all plebeians, said Ray to himself as he went towards the door to go outside.
Stepping out of the comfort room, Ray would be immediately be greeted with the hissing voice of one of his friends; well, one of two, because hardly anyone wants to socialize with the new kid. This one, however, was quite friendly, and had also been subjected to the bullying of the rich jocks. The difference between Ray and Nikolai Sapohznik is that the latter never backs down, and always fights dirty to even the playing field. The end result was that he was able to stop them from harassing him any further through blackmail; apparently he had threatened to show everyone the scandalous videos that he had somehow dug up from somewhere that featured these jocks being involved in things one cannot unsee. How he did it was anyone's guess, as no one was able to figure out how he got his hands on these pieces of groundbreaking evidence.
The answer to that question was the same as to the thing that gave Ray the temptation to literally take the bullies' breath away: powers.
"Ray!", Nikolai ran over to his friend, eyes filled with worry for Ray's mental and physical wellbeing and righteous fury at the people who did this heinous crime. He held Ray's hands; he was quite worried, and was never afraid to show the other boy his intimacy. "Who did this to you? Is it them again?"
"Yeah, it was them.", Ray shook his head. "As you can see, they threw a whole lot of fruit juice on my head while I was having a dump in the comfort room."
Nikolai gritted his teeth, looking at the squad of jocks pranking another kid across the hallway. "Despicable! Absolutely despicable! Should I release those videos so that those morons would get expelled already?"
Ray gave out a sigh, thinking that it would bite them in the ass if that happened. "...I don't think it would be a good idea."
"Still.", Nikolai frowned. "I-I-I can't stand seeing you get messed up like this over and over and over! I love you, man, and it hurts to see you... well, get hurt." It was clear that Nikolai had a deep bond with Ray, having been his friend for the last year. Some have mockingly called them a couple, but Nikolai just can't care less about other people's opinions. Ray was his best friend, along with their other friend that was still nowhere to be seen. They were known as the Three Wierdos; a label they wore with pride. Better yet, the three of them were all mutants, and birds of the same feather flock together. The government officially extended protection for people with genetic differences, but society itself was a whole other story. They first appeared in China back in 2019 in the wake of the pandemic, and when it spread to the rest of the world, people with powers started popping up all over, most of them being high school kids. Heroes and villains were yet to make an appearance; after all, all the world had for people with supernatural abilities were scared teenagers. Sure, there were would be a teleporter committing petty theft here and there, but never were there mass destruction by the so called Mutts anywhere. But that did not stop the average moron from discriminating against people that are different.
"I told you. I'm fine."
Nikolai's grey eyes immediately dilated, and he began to raise his voice. "Seriously? You get splashed with juice and you aren't going to say anything about it? You're not fine!"
"Nick, please." Ray responded, his eyes starting to well up. "Just... stop... just bring me home for now. I'll change..."
Nikolai paused, immediately regretting getting too agitated at Ray. He tended to emotional when it came to him. "Sorry for raising my voice on you... I'm just concerned. You know how much I care for you... and Cait."
"I know you are."
He then brought Ray back into the comfort room, but not before looking if anyone was watching them get in. Well, not like anyone would notice, as this was a very big school. Either way, once they were inside, Nikolai locked the door behind him and looked at his friend at the eye. He then held out his hand... which began to glow blue and purple, energy radiating out of it in a corona of starlight. In front of him, a tear in the fabric of space and time opened up; a portal. On the other side of the breach was Ray's bedroom; it was neat, orderly, and filled with black and grey. What an edgelord.
Ray then nodded to Nikolai, and together, they jumped unto the portal and into the former's room. Nikolai then quickly closed the portal behind himself, dusting off his hands once he did so.
"I remember spooning you when we had a sleepover.", Nikolai commented as Ray took out a brand new shirt from his drawer. "Very fuzzy feeling. I loved every moment of it. Your mom said we were so cute together."
"It's because you're so sweet.", Ray answered, taking off the juice stained shirt and replacing it with the new one. "Have you seen Caitlin yet, by the way?"
Nikolai perked up. "Nyet, I haven't. She did text me that she was going to be late today."
Ray scratched his head as he picked up his bag from the floor. "Four hours late? That's not like her."
"Yeah, right. Something isn't right."
"Can't you, mmm, use your visions to find out?"
"Nope... sometimes they work, sometimes they don't." Nikolai took another pause, collecting his thoughts. "If she doesn't show up in the next and last class, we ought to pay her a visit."
Ray nodded profusely. "That's exactly what I was thinking. Anyway, let's back there, can't keep the comfort room locked up too long, can't we?"