The Powerful Girl

Chapter #5 Mission

The PF class that Vince had was not with Veronica, but he still managed to encounter something off. As his class had to do a warm-up run Vince was ahead of the rest like he thought he would. He was ahead for a while but came to a sudden stop when he felt his foot hit something making him trip. He fell to his knees with his hands catching him as the rest of the class went running without him.

"You ok?" One of his classmates Zack asks stopping behind him to help. "Yeah." He groaned as he stood back up.

"Damn." Zack gasps at the scraps on his knees with lots of blood coming out. Vince groaned and didn't say anything about it.

"You should get it checked out," Zack suggests.

He sighs. "Ok."

"I can walk you if you'd like?" Vince looks around, seeing the office just a few feet in front of them.

He tilts his head. "Sure. Why not." Zack helped him walk to the office and while Vince was getting treated Zack told their PF teacher Mr. Sanchez about the incident. Vince didn't have to do anything after that during the class. He didn't mind the cold that was coming in and just wore shorts. He got a chance to tell Andy and talk about it for a while as they got food from the hot lunch line. Once they were walking to their usual spot Veronica wasn't talking to Harley or Claire because she had no interest in what they were talking about.

"There wasn't anything!" Vince says, nearly getting angry.

"Are you sure?" Andy asks.

He nods. "Yeah, I swear there was nothing in front of me and there I go, fell right onto my knees."

*Veronica's POV*

Hearing about Vince's incident made me question what really could have caused him to get hurt with what he is saying that there was nothing even in in front of him. I decided to go to the library, so I could talk to Jake about it. I head into the library looking around if anyone was still there.

"Jake?" I whispered.

"Jake" I start getting louder.

"Hello, Veronica." Jake appeared behind me sitting on the librarian's desk.

"Jake I need to talk to you, something happened..."

"Vince?" Jake guessed looking at me.

I looked at him confused. "Yeah, wait, how did you...?"

Jake stood back on his feet. "I heard conversations, about a weird object that he felt when he suddenly tripped?"

I was stunned by him already knowing the situation. "Yeah and many others from other classes including mine. But the strange thing was that all of them were very good runners." I start pacing.

"What do you mean?" Jake asks, trying to follow.

"They had good mile times, and ran faster than all of their own classmates, but not the ones who are slow or lazy to even try."

Jake stares away thinking. "Ok, That does sound weird."

"Maybe..." Jake snaps his fingers making the Magical Book appear on one of the library tables.

"We could look into it?" Jake suggests as a page glows and appears as the last page. "And I was also hoping this would help."

I started at the top of the page and read the heading called "The Running Man." After skimming through his backstory his past was really sad and upsetting to see that he was bullied by potential insecure boys who were on the running team. The story told that the running man was an innocent kid boy who passed away in the 1960s while being stomped and running over by scared citizens in an apartment fire in Europe. During the situation, he thought he was fast enough to make it out with the rest, but soon failed. He never got the chance to show the bullies that he was better and better than them at running.

"They never even figured out his name?" I mentioned, really shocked.

Jake shakes his head. "I guess not, he was so scared of the bullies that he decided to keep it hidden from everyone, so no one would ever remember him as the bullied child."

"And no one did. So he is getting his revenge? But on what?" I asked while reading through the book.

Jake sighs. "It is said that he is apparently stuck in the same time period he died in because he didn't do the task we swore to do."

"Beat the bullies in a race?" I joked.

Jake keeps a serious look and shakes his head. "No, that's what he said he wanted to do in the beginning, but what he really wanted to do was what all bully victims want."

I start to think and immediately say. "To get revenge." Jake nodded.

"But if he is still thinking he is in the 1960s, that means he is trying to kill the 'bullies' in this time period," I explain and close the book. "That means he is going to kill all of the 'best runners' since the bullies were the best runners during that time," Jake explains.

I lean on the same desk, "Well how do we find this 'Running Man'?" I asked.

"If he is targeting people who are extremely good at any sport, then we should look into schools, and professional teams that could maybe have something happen to them that is 'abnormal'?"

"Good point. Nice Job, Jake." I said happily.

"I am learning what you humans call 'lingo', on how you speak." I took out my iPad and looked up some middle schools that I have heard that are around here to see if anything has happened to them. Turns out there were a lot.

"Oh wow." I gasped at the amount of news articles that popped up after one search.

"What?" Jake asked.

"So many schools had to cancel their sports teams' first games or tryouts from the number of injuries students are getting at, before, or after tryouts."

"Are there any dead?" I did find that question weird, but I guess he had to ask that.

"Uh, Not that I can see."

"Well, we better get Running Man now."

"And how do we do that?" I asked.

"Since he is technically a ghost, there is a spell that can draw him here with your power."

"What's the spell?"

"It's cal-" A sudden ding from my phone interrupted Jake. I picked it up and saw that it was my dad, saying that mom wanted all of us home. What is going on now?

"Sorry, Jake. I have to go."

He nodded. "It's alright."

As I gathered all of my stuff I did notice Jake quietly chuckling. "What?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Nothing, nothing. It's just...it's your first official mission as the Ultimate." I had not realized that since Jake said it.

"Yeah, I guess it is," I say. I also realized what Jake called it. "Mission? Really?"

"What? You got a better name for it?"

I hate that I didn't. "I'll see you later, Jake," I say before walking out of the library.

"See you, Veronica." I heard Jake say.