The group of thugs all stand surrounding Ray Ramirez & Sam Penningberg in complete and utter shock. Laying on the ground is a gang member who was knocked out with just one singular attack from this utter beast of a man.
"Two hundred and six," Ray says.
The group of thugs stands there confused.
"That's how many bones are in the human body," Ray continues.
Suddenly Ray grabs two people by the neck and lifts them into the air.
"And that's how many bones I'm going to break in all of you!" Ray finishes as he slams the two into the ground before stomping on their legs.
As the two cry out in pain Sam sighs and goes, "At least you remembered basic biology."
"Of course I do, I'm your assistant and you teach biology," Ray remarks as he grabs a thug, and drags his face on the wall before slamming his head into another thug's head as he adds, "and if I didn't know biology, how would I be able to know the best ways to bring pain!"
"All of us attack at once!" A thug yells as he and several others rush towards Ray.
However, Ray slams his elbow into one of the thug's backs before slamming the same elbow into another thug's face. When two get close to him, Ray drops to the floor, kicks their feet in, and as they fall to the ground, he grabs both of their legs and swings the two into each other.
As Li-Wei stands there, hearing noises no bones should ever make, hearing cries from grown men as if they were young children, he remembers hearing from someone that the man didn't fight like a human, but more so an animal. And seeing him up in person, he could see how true that was. He didn't use any thought-out plans, the way he fought was sloppy and unrefined.
But none of that mattered.
Because the thing that made Ray Ramirez a force to be reckoned with was his untouchable strength.
As Ray finishes knocking out many of the thugs in his way he says, "Who's next."
Li-Wei Zhang, The Arrow of Club Azure, answers his question by punching him in the face.
"You really do live up to your reputation," Li-Wei remarks as he continues to punch Ray repeatedly, "Unfortunately for you, I'm someone who never backs down from anything, and always moves forward."
However as each punch continues to land, a smile begins to creep onto Ray's face. A smile that only grows bigger the more Li-Wei punches him. Eventually Li-Wei is tired out by trying to hit him and when he looks at his fists, he sees that he's started to bleed due to punching Ray.
"My turn," Ray Ramirez replies.
In that one instance, Li-Wei felt pure fear. Almost as if he was a rabbit being hunted by a ferocious tiger, one that just devoured him whole.
Ray grabs Li-Wei and as he grips him tightly, Li-Wei's bones start to snap under the pressure. Ray then performs a tackle that sends Li-Wei's head careening into the asphalt below him. As they land, Ray lets go of Li-Wei and the unconscious man falls to the ground defeated.
"That was a nice warm-up," Ray says as he wipes his bloody hands on his shorts, "So who's next?"
All of the Club Azure gang members there grab their unconscious brethren, including Li-Wei, and retreat.
"Well that's anticlimactic," Ray groans, "This is why you never trust a dude from California."
"California?" Sam Penningberg questions.
"Uh yeah, they had 'C.A.' on their jackets, isn't that California?" Ray questions.
"I thought that was supposed to mean Central America," Penningberg adds.
"It's supposed to stand for Club Azure," Tim-Tom explains as he lies on the ground next to his motorcycle.
"Oh hey, you're awake!" Ray Ramirez says with a smile on his face, "We need an oil change on this bad boy. Amnestor said you guys are great at car repairs so can you do it?"
Tim-Tom looks to see Ray & Penningberg standing next to the ugliest-looking orange jeep he's ever seen.
"Uh, sure we can get it done in half an hour," Tim-Tom answers as he gets up and starts to work on the jeep.
"Awesome," Ray says as he pulls out his phone and starts to scroll through it.
As Tim-Tom and eventually Tim & Tom start to work on the car, Tim-Tom starts to think of how it's only a matter of time until Club Azure comes for revenge. And their plans of bringing the fight to them clearly won't end well for them. They're only still standing thanks to the sudden arrival of Ray Ramirez, and even then the guy isn't going to be with them all the time.
"Hey dude, you wanna be our employee?" Tim-Tom asks.
"Me?" Ray Ramirez questions before laughing, "Fuck no, I already have a god-awful job, why would I want another one?"
"...fair enough," Tim-Tom says.
"If you hate being my teaching assistant so much, how come you spend time with me after work?" Penningberg jokes.
"Tch, you're just mad I didn't leave any for you," Ray remarks.
"My days of fighting are behind me, remember? And besides you can save your complaints for later since tomorrow the new school semester starts," Peningberg remarks.
"It does?" Ray asks.
"Yeah, you didn't know?" Sam questions.
"........fuck," Ray groans.
___________________________________________
The next day, the doors to the newly refurbished Starlight High are open as several teachers and students alike enter the school, ready to start their new semester.
Entering the school wearing a black compression shirt, baggy gray sweatpants, flip flops, and having their shaggy long dyed green hair in a ponytail is Crunch Backson.
"Man winter break was so much fun, don't you agree Suzy?" Crunch asks.
Standing next to him is his fellow sophomore, Suzy Dark. She now has pale white skin, dyed white hair, heavy eyeliner, and black lipstick as well as an all-black outfit with a black parka jacket and black boots.
"I finally got to dye my hair so it wasn't horrible," Suzy states.
"Awesome, maybe I should dye my hair white so we can be twinning!" Crunch chuckles.
"Please don't," Suzy replies.
They aren't the only ones entering the school as walking past them is rebel freshman Hunter Huntingson. He's now wearing a black cap, a half-red half-black hoodie, blue jeans, and his backpack has a brand-new weapon in there.
"Oh sup Hunter! You wanna go to Burrito Bistro after school!" Crunch yells.
Hunter just looks at him confused and then ignores him.
"Man, what a party pooper," Crunch sighs.
Down the hall freshman Carli Kim is chatting with fellow freshmen Harry 'Hamster' Martin, Bennet the Hamster, & Christopher Wrinkle. Carli is wearing a white beanie, pink hoodie, blue jeans, and pink tennis shoes. Hamster is wearing a big black hoodie, gray sweatpants, blue sneakers, and his pet hamster Bennet has a tiny blue scarf and beanie on. And finally Christopher, despite it being in the middle of winter, is wearing a black tank top and gray shorts.
"So what did you guys get to do over break?" Hamster asks.
"I got to go sledding, I've never gotten to do that before," Carli remarks.
"Bro that's awesome," Christopher replies before answering Hamster, "I've been at the gym and got a new max at the bench press."
"Really?! What is it?" Hamster asks.
"360 pounds," Christopher responds to the pure shock of Carli, Hamster, & Bennet.
Rebecca Jenksin, a popular girl who's wearing a black sleeveless jacket over a white sweater, blue jeans, and brown boots, walks by the group.
"What did you do Rebecca-" Hamster asks only to get ignored.
And in the teacher's office, Aken Amnestor is in his chair stretching while the culinary teacher Zesti Champion, biology teacher Sam Penningberg, math teacher Wilsten Jefferson, teacher's assistant Ray Ramirez, & random student who somehow got into the office X Locke are getting ready for the day.
"How come you're not putting your hair in a bun anymore?" Jefferson asks Ray.
"I just like it long," Ray responds.
"It's not very teacher-like of you," Jefferson scoffs.
"Wow, congrats on realizing," Ray responds.
Zesti chuckles and mentions to Sam & Aken, "Say, I think we should add Ray to you-know-what."
"Oh yeah, I forgot he wasn't there," Sam Penningberg says.
"I don't understand how you can add someone to it," Amnestor mentions as he sips his coffee.
"What are you guys talking about?" X asks as he approaches Amnestor.
"Nothing much, just grown-up stuff," Penninberg says, "what brings you here?"
"Well since Amnestor assigned me homework over the break - for no reason whatsoever - I decided to turn it in right now," X says as he hands Amnestor the papers.
"You got assigned that because you need to boost your grades," Amnestor says before taking a sip of his coffee and looking at the homework.
However, as he sees the homework he realizes that it's completely blank. When he goes to scold X he sees he has already dashed off.
And just like that, the new semester was in full swing, despite the new school and the new year, a lot stayed the same. But one of the new things this year brought with it was something new for everyone in The Miracle Clinic.
And that new exciting thing would come in the form of a box on Amnestor's desk. A box with an open slot at the top and some words written on the front of it. The words on the box being 'Mail-In Requests'. And that box just so happened to be full.
See You Next Chapter!~