6 The Run
"Ray, are you ok?"
Walking past and shaking her head, Miley looked over Ray panting heavily on the floor. The floor was turning stickier by the minute due to Ray's overflowing sweat. She knew that Ray was training because of how defenseless he felt that day when he tried to protect her, but surely it would do no good to burn himself out!
Maybe we shouldn't start with a full on 3.635km, Slippy thought worryingly. That was the distance from the gym to Ray's house. Most high school students his age would have been able to run this distance in about 20 minutes, but Ray took a good hour due to his poor stamina after working out at the gym. If Ray wasn't so tired from his workout earlier, then he might have only needed 40 minutes to run home. Slippy didn't actually expect Ray to run the entire way home without taking breaks, but Ray actually pushed through. Then again, it's good to see that Ray is hungry for improvements. Either that, or he was too stupid to know when to stop and rest.
"Ray, I measured the distance you ran. It was 3.635km."
Ray turned his head to look at Slippy, thinking, "Slippy, how did you even measure it?"
Slippy nonchalantly replied with, "magic!".
…
No, retard. I'm a system, don't you remember?! Slippy was just joking around, but it seems like Ray actually believed the soap bar.
Miley was still standing above her brother, wondering why he still hadn't moved and stayed silent for a while. She sighed and decided to lift her brother by the armpits and drag him to the bathroom. As she dragged, Ray's body left a steamy sweat trail.
Turning into the bathroom, Miley dumped Ray into the tub, clothes and all, but not before taking off his bag.
"You can figure out the rest," she said, before she left him alone in the bathroom.
--
Feeling fresh from his shower, Ray found Miley at the dining table.
"Ray, dinner's ready" she pointed at the plate set out for him.
Ray's stomach growled, and digging in he noticed that he had a bigger appetite than usual.
Maybe it was because he was working out now? Ah who cares, thought Ray.
Slippy silently nodded in the corner.
….
"DAMMIT!" a voice roared through a dark room.
Guy slammed his fist against the wall, scaring the other underlings who had gathered in this hidden warehouse for a meeting. Guy still hadn't gotten over his defeat at the hands of the new student, Ray Sung.
"Yo bro, stop that shit or else you're going to get whooped by yours truly."
Guy's face paled as a familiar voice sounded behind him. He made a mistake in thinking no one would see his act of frustration.
A handsome fellow with a high nose bridge and straight, dark eyebrows walked into the room.
His hands clasped behind his back, he strode into the room with a relaxed presence.
"Yo, Brother Wu," greeted the people around Guy.
Wu looked around the dirty room. About 17 members were present but the boss and the other elites were away.
"Woo woo!" Yelled a cheeky looking guy . He got smacked lightly on the head, but was still grinning from head to toe.
Wu ignored him and looked at Guy. "So I heard something about you getting your ass kicked by this um, ghost freak?"
Guy looked at him and nodded his head.
"Yeah, that little bitch pulled a sneaky headbutt on me while I was pounding him. If I got my hand on him I-"
Wu interrupted shortly, "Shut up, fucking weakling. No excuses from your sorry ass." Guy promptly shut his mouth at the order from his Senior. Brother Wu paced around a bit, "Who is this ghost freak?"
Guy continued, "well, I thought he was just another rich kid from the Betelgeuse region. I didn't expect him to do a headbutt."
"Falling for a headbutt is such a bitch ass way to lose." Brother Wu said haughtily,
��Your loss against this freak is as sad as having to eat a ketchup sandwich, Yours Truly will cover your massive bitch ass hole and beat this ghost freak until he is sent off into freak ass hell. Get ready."
"Get ready for what?"
"You'll see."
"..."
The next day at the second block of math (semester school with 4 blocks, one break, and one lunch).
Ray walked into class this time realizing that the crippled kid was sitting by himself.
Ray somewhat awkwardly walked up to him and took the seat beside him. The crippled kid reading on his phone.
"Your name is Ray, right?"
Ray shook his head with vigor, "um, I don't know your name…"
"Oh! I am Dyson Gung. You can call me Gun."
He turned and looked up at Ray with a smile and a glint on his glasses.
Offering his hand forward, he said, "I heard you beat Guy. That's pretty amazing. Looking at you I could hardly believe that he lost to you."
"Yeah I can't believe it myself." Ray shook his hand.
They both dropped the conversation quickly. They sat next to each other in silence for the rest of the class.
"By the way Ray, you should take care of yourself around here."
Ray stared at him with a befuddled look.
Gun went back to his phone, leaving Ray awkwardly sitting there thinking of a response.
The school bell rang, signaling the start of the second block.
--
The evening arrived quickly and the students were let out. Taking advantage of the time that the school was mostly empty, Ray could talk to Slippy openly without people thinking Ghost Freak was at it again.
"Slippy, where do you think Gun went?" Ray was hoping to get to know him better.
"I don't know Ray. You're the one who's friends with him. Speaking of Gun, he may have a point."
"... Have a point about what?"
"A point that you may be forgetting that this is gangster territory and that Guy is more likely than not part of them. It may serve you well to not go home immediately. There could be gangsters trying to find out where you live."
Ray: !!
Ray was still not used to living in the Bellatrix region and was still used to the nicer Betelgeuse region. As such, he still hadn't gotten over the fact that someone intended him harm nor did he fully register that he had gotten in a fight.
Slippy, seeing Ray's unstable internal state, sighed. This is going to be a real piece of work.
…
While Ray and Slippy were conversing, little did Ray know that a shadowy figure was already watching him. Slippy already sensed the presence, but decided to wait and see before notifying Ray. (Slippy, you're a system! Do your job!)
…
Nearby a dude whispered into his phone.
"This Ray guy is still within the school. Now's our chance to get him. He's in the B wing hallway by the exit."
Multiple figures started to gather in the twilight shadows around Ray.
Meanwhile Ray was walking at a relaxed pace to the exit. As the figures started closing in from behind, Slippy jumped out of the bag and slided across the floor like a ping pong ball, effectively separating Ray from the crowd behind him as he jumped back into Ray's bag after bouncing around the hallway.
As expected of people who had just seen a bar of soap act in such a shocking fashion: several people including a teacher opened their mouth wide in shock.
"It's a ghost! Holy shit what was that!? Take it down before he haunts us!"
Ray, suddenly alerted to several voices around him, "Huh?"
"Run Ray run!"
Shocked, Ray took a second of pause to take into account what was happening when a masked gangster charged towards Ray.
"Ray, dodge to the side!"
The guy stepped on where Slippy had just slid his body earlier, and slid like a skiing coach, before losing his balance and rolling forward like a human bowling ball.
Ray was scared as fuck and fell to the side with his hands up protecting his head. As the guy slammed into the door and out into the courtyard, Ray caught a glimpse of the human bowling ball slamming into Guy Law and company waiting for him.
Ray wasted no more time made haste into running the fuck out. With superhuman ability unmatching his current ability and training, he jumped over the toppled group of people as Guy tried to grab onto his foot only for a sentient bar of soap to slam into his reproductive system.
Ray ran wildly in a mad dash for freedom, managing to make his escape with the aid of his soap system.
….
Huff, huff, huff.
Ray had run into the local crowded mall, hiding in a "Save the food" store. Ray checked his bag to see if he lost anything as Slippy had jumped out of there when he realized that Slippy had disappeared.
…
A handsome figure watched him as he ran towards the mall.
….
A grimy bar of soap tiptoed and slid from wall to wall as it observed a scary looking kid dressed in a camo-green vest walk around the mall with a group of boys. Each of them looked like someone you see from the rougher neighborhood with frequent gang violence and belonged to the tough crowd.
Slippy scanned for any notable character that seemed like the leader. He noticed a particularly handsome fellow with a seemingly relaxed yet tense body language compared to the others. The leader feels as much pressure as the lowest beta male. Not completely true, but it does make certain sense. Slippy thought to himself as he followed them.
…
The handsome fellow smiled, "Yo, yours truly thinks that we should split up into pairs to cover more ground. I mean, surely that Ghost Freak won't win against two people. We should cover bigger stores like Wallcart, Save the food, Sunbuck…" He turned around to face his gang. "As we already have people guarding the stores' respective entrances, it won't be necessary to find him. Instead, we will smoke him out of the mall."
Every one of the gang members split into pairs. Slippy chose to follow Guy Law and the cheeky "woo woo" gang member as they walked off to Wallcart.
…
Meanwhile, Ray is having a minor breakdown. He sees a girl and boy from the gang just around the corner from where he is hiding. Ray tries to calm down by taking deep breaths, but to no avail as the anxiety gets to him. He sat down hugging his legs.
Why is everyone after me? What have I done wrong? What about Slippy? What am I going to do! All of these thoughts rushed into Ray's mind as he grew more panicked. He kept taking deep breaths as his therapist told him until Ray finally calmed down. Just as he started to get up, he heard a wicked voice:
"Found you."
He was surrounded on each side by a teenage gangster from Guy's group and they were slowly closing in. Ray swiveled his head frantically as he tried to think of a solution to escape when he suddenly stopped moving.
The pair of gangsters looked at Ray weirdly and ignored his weird reactions as they thought he was in a state of shock. One of them called their phone informing the others of the situation.
Ray curiously kneeled down as he realized what he wanted to do.
...
Ray had given up.
…
The gang started gathering around Ray and as they did, Guy ran out from behind the wall of people and kicked Ray in the ribs. Ray sprawled onto the floor, glaring at Guy. Guy returned the glare through his tattered eye patch.
"You piece of trash! You think you could get away with headbutting me?"
Guy grabbed Ray by the neck and attempted to smash his head onto Ray's. Ray evaded by moving forward to the side and closely clinching Guy.
"Get off me! You fucking freak!"
Thud! With a fierce headbutt, Guy went still. Ray got out from under Guy quietly huffing at what he did.
"So that's what got Guy in the first place. You have piqued up the interest of yours truly."
A grinning handsome man strolled out from the crowd of gangsters.
"Why did you wait here for us to surround you? Surely you could have escaped and ran? With your headbutt skills, you could have used that moment to run for it."
They stared at each other. Ray stared with intense hate while the man smiled.
Ray stood up. "Are you the leader?"
The man keep his smile, "Yes how did you kn-?"
"Then I challenge you to a one on one duel."
Wu stopped smiling.
Ray has given up on running away!
