At Seastar High, a run-down school in the eastern district of Starlight City, most of the students go about their days like any other school would. They're just an average school that is pretty average all things considered. That is until someone from Starlight High, their rival school, steps foot onto their school grounds.
Unfortunately for The Miracle Clinic, they only get to learn this fact as the whole group gets out of Amnestor's car. As they do so, they notice a man with a mullet & bomber jacket making their way towards them.
"Well well well, if it ain't a bunch of Northerners up in our turf!"
Ronnie, Alex, Elizabeth, Marcus, & Amnestor all look confused as several other students follow closely behind the one with the mullet. All of the students seem agitated by the group's presence.
The man who's leading the group has a mullet with way too much hair gel and a bomber jacket that has a dragon on its back.
"You must've thought you'd be lucky, well you were wrong!" The man in the bomber jacket yells as he gets up in Ronnie's face, "Prepare to meet your maker since I, Draco Maleby, will strike you down!"
Ronnie can't help but laugh as he looks toward Alex, "Do all people here talk like that?"
Alex shrugs as the large group of Seastar High students all prepare to give them the 'Eastern Greeting'.
THE MIRACLE CLINIC
Marcus & Amnestor try to settle things down but they get interrupted by someone yelling "HEY!"
Everyone looks to see an upperclasswoman making their way to the group. She has white skin, brunette hair in a long braid, green eyes, and is wearing a beige-colored aviator jacket over a red turtleneck, blue jeans, a friendship bracelet, and black boots.
"I-IVORY?!" Draco yells surprised.
The upperclasswoman, Ivory Dutchingson, walks over and sighs, "What do you think you guys are doing?!"
"I-I was just trying to teach these Northerners a lesson," Draco sheepishly replies.
Ronnie, Alex, Marcus, & Elizabeth look confused at how Draco and all of the other kids are treating Ivory with so much respect, however, it begins to make more sense when Ivory walks over to chat with them.
"It's been a while Uncle," Ivory remarks, "How have you been?"
"I'm doing good Ivory," Amnestor remarks, "Is your father, Principal Ian Dutchingson, around right now?"
"Yeah, I told him you were looking for some files on a few students," Ivory remarks before looking over at the miracle clinic, "Are these your students?"
"Yeah, they wanted to do a school project with those students," Amnestor explains as the group all begin to make their way into Seastar High.
As they do so, Ronnie can't help but ask, "So Amnestor's your uncle?"
"Not biologically but close enough," Ivory explains, "Uncle Amnestor & my dad have been friends ever since they started working in education around the same time."
"I see," Ronnie remarks.
The group reaches the door to the principal's office, Amnestor & Ivory head inside while the rest stand out in the hallway. And as soon as the door closes, several seastar high students including Draco Maleby proceed to get up in the group's face.
"Not so tough without the Princess around, eh?" Draco teases, "I think it's about time we put you in your place!"
Draco places his arm on Ronnie's shoulder while two large students size up Alex & Elizabeth, all the while Marcus looks a bit confused at all the attention he seems to be getting.
"Darwin, was it?" Ronnie remarks as he lightly grasps Draco's exposed wrist, "You should know that I'm not exactly the one to go out and start fights."
"What are you, a wuss-" Draco begins to say before he feels a sudden throbbing pain as Ronnie's grip on Draco's wrist tightens.
"But, I am the one to end them!" Ronnie remarks.
As Draco writhes in pain, he looks to see that Alex is getting into a perfect boxing stance while Elizabeth isn't frightened at all by the aggressors.
"They need to turn down the heat," Marcus remarks casually as he takes off his jacket, which causes several of the Seastar people to see his tattoos by accident.
It was at this moment, Draco & the other Seastar High kids came to a wild conclusion. Ronnie's strength…Alex & Elizabeth's composure…Marcus' tattoos. These weren't any ordinary high schoolers.
This was a gang.
Draco admitting defeat manages to break free from the grip as he then bows down.
"I'm so sorry! We promise we didn't know you were affiliated! Just don't hurt us!" Draco pleads.
Ronnie, Alex, Elizabeth, & Marcus all look dumbfounded as the Seastar High students all begin to plead for their lives.
"What a bunch of wimps," Alex groans in confusion.
Draco begins to crawl toward Marcus while still bowing as he remarks, "Let me shine your shoes, sir! I'll promise I won't harm your gang ever again!"
"Gang?!" Marcus reacts, "We aren't a gang!"
"Y-y-you a-aren't?" Draco questions shriveling.
"Oh," Draco begins to say as he stands up, he then quickly goes back to his old aggressive attitude as he remarks, "Why didn't you say so earlier!"
Draco and all the other students quickly turn back to being aggressive towards the guests. However before things can further escalate…
Clamp.
Clamp.
Squish.
Squash.
Looks of pure confusion fill Ronnie, Alex, Elizabeth, & Marcus' faces as none other than Seastar High's mascot, Blobby The Blobfish makes their way through the halls holding a sign that reads 'School Is Out!'
The mascot is covered in some sticky slimy clear paste-like substance that drops each time it walks, with it sticking to surfaces with ease. Its soulless eyes slowly sink into the fleshy rubber skin of the costume, getting smaller and smaller until whoever is under the costume has to push them back up. Each slight movement of the blob causes a loud uncomfortable moist squishy sound to reverberate out of its pores. From the corner of your eye, you'd have easily mistook it for a horrific lab experiment that meshed several bodies together with the skin melting away. But no, instead of that, it's Seastar High's own mascot Blobby The Blobfish.
Seeing the sign Blobby is holding, all of the Seastar High students begin to walk away out of a mixture of wanting to leave the school and get away from Blobby.
"Hey just because I didn't fight you guys today doesn't mean you're safe, capeesh?" Draco says as he walks away.
Whoever is inside the costume stops and looks at Ronnie for a while before waving and walking away.
"I think I need therapy," Ronnie remarks as several beads of nervous sweat drip down his face.
"You still think it doesn't look bad?" Elizabeth asks Alex.
"Blobby's an…acquired taste," Alex sheepishly defends, "He looks better on the t-shirts."
"Whatever that was, I hope I don't see it in my nightmares," Marcus remarks, "Why did it even have that sign?"
The door to the principal's office opens as Ivory, overhearing the last bit of conversation, remarks, "Oh you're talking about Blobby? Yeah, our bells stopped working earlier this month so we've been having our mascot walk around to let people know when it would have run."
"I- uh- see," Elizabeth remarks.
Amnestor also exits the principal's office carrying two files on Vanessa Deli & Blanko Deck.
"It was nice getting to meet you all!" Ivory tells the group of students before turning to Amnestor, "And sorry that we couldn't find that file on that Graham guy."
"It's fine, thanks for helping me out on such short notice, hope things are going well for you," Amnestor replies.
"Oh yeah, they definitely are, I'll see you later," Ivory says as the group walks away.
"Wherever you're going to meet those people, I'm going to head over there with you," Amnestor says.
"What? Why?" Elizabeth asks as the plan the miracle clinic had seems to be going to waste.
"I just want to have a discussion with some of those kids as a teacher," Amnestor remarks as he looks on his phone for the nearest general store.
As the group walks towards the exit of Seastar, Ronnie looks back down the hall and notices that Ivory has a somber look on her face as she looks at the friendship bracelet on her wrist.
___________________
Mesto-Presto holds his wrist as he walks down the street with Hunter & Andy Nibble.
"You okay?" Andy Nibble asks.
"Yeah, my wrist just got a cramp all of the sudden, I guess I've been working a bit too hard at my job," Mesto admits.
"Ouch, hope you feel better soon," Andy replies.
As they walk down the street, Hunter glances around and notices that several of the shops have a sign on them that reads 'D.F.A.'.
"What does D.F.A. mean?" Hunter asks.
"Ah, that stands for Dirty Fang Authorized," Andy says, "Things aren't exactly the safest in the east so a bunch of places end up signing deals with the biggest gang in town, Dirty Fang."
"What kind of deals?" Hunter asks.
"Nothing much, just that if anyone tries to rob their store, Dirty Fang will track them down, and in turn, the business will look the other way when Dirty Fang does their thing," Andy explains.
"Don't you guys have the police?" Hunter asks.
Andy laughs, "The police? Man, I can't recall the last time the police have been helpful out here."
"What?" Hunter remarks.
"Besides, don't you go around beating up thugs?" Andy deflects, "If those in power were so good at their jobs, then why do you have to take care of all those rats? North, South, East, West, hell even Central is all the same. Only difference is in the East, they're not as good as hiding their dirty laundry."
Mesto keeps silent as the group continues to walk down the streets. As Andy Nibble leads the group to where The East Side Express is, he suddenly stops as his stomach gurgles.
"What's wrong?" Hunter asks.
"I uh…" Andy begins to say, "may have had a bit too much to eat for lunch."
Hunter & Mesto look at Andy.
"It means I need to take a-" Andy tries to explain.
Hunter & Mesto cut him off by saying "We know."
As Andy rushes inside a nearby store in hopes of a bathroom, Hunter spots a group of Seastar High Students all being led by Draco Maleby. Draco passes by Hunter as he flaunts his achievement to his fellow Seastar peers.
"Yeah those losers from Starlight High were kissing my feet once they realized how strong I was!" Draco remarks, "Even that kid with the tattoos didn't stand a chance and was cowering in fear."
Pffft!~
Draco looks over to Hunter and notices that he's trying to stifle a laugh.
"What was that you punk?" Draco remarks as he gets up in Hunter's face, "You laughing at me?"
Mesto, a bit wary of what he suspects to come of this encounter, tries to have Hunter shut up but it's too late.
"Yeah, sorry, it's just a force of habit when I hear a bunch of bullshit," Hunter cockily responds.
Infuriated, Draco yells, "What? You think you're so tough you can challenge me, Draco Maleby?!"
"Yeah, I do," Hunter admits as he rolls up his sleeves.
Mesto rolls his eyes as he realizes there's no helping what's about to come next.
"Kissing your feet and cowering in fear?" Hunter questions before responding with, "Like hell he'd do that to the likes of you!"
"If you're so tough, how about you prove it!" Draco remarks.
"Y'know what Burrito Boy, I can see why you like your job so much," Hunter says to Mesto, "Because it feels great giving people their just desserts!"
___________________
Outside The East Side Express, a brick-and-mortar store with stained glass windows, The Miracle Clinic stands ready to enter the building. Amnestor has a plastic bag with some items in it.
"Looks like we got here first," Ronnie remarks, "He'll probably be here soon so we don't have much time to waste. Let's show these guys who we really are!"
See You Next Chapter!~