JOON

    Here is another adventure of Sonny and Joon at the Golden gate Park.

     "Life is just not fair", - Sonny thought as he ran through the Golden Gate Park toward the California Academy of Sciences. Today he was supposed to be researching this new tourist attraction for his class in Communication. As once before, the clear directions to the place turned out to be useless on the paths of the gigantic park. 
     Sonny passed a lady with a poodle. The tiny dog was excited to be outdoors. It refused to listen to the owner and jumped all around her, hopelessly tying her legs up with a leash. Sonny thought it to be an amusing situation, but he saw that the dog's owner was for some reason terrified. 
     Joon emerged into the sweet sunshine and breeze with a joyful heart. But somewhere very close he could feel another being's distress. Before he could orient himself, though, he was assaulted by tiny clawed paws. "Beware, stranger!" - the lady lying tied up on the ground yelled at him - "this is not what you think it is!" 
     As if on cue, the dog's appearance began to change. Gone were the puffs of fur from around it's head and ankles. The paws that harmlessly scratched at Joon's jeans grew to frightening proportions, as did the whole body of the animal. He still looked goofy and friendly, but everywhere where the saliva from his impressive jowls fell, the grass died. The very friendliness of that "dog" was a threat, because it didn't seem to understand anything and aimed to lick and rub itself on Joon. 
     Joon quickly climbed up a stout tree. He needed time to find the way to subdue the obnoxious pup. The lady informed him that she was a part of IASCTDAHWTWDNH - an Intergalactic Agency that Specialized in Catching and Transporting Dangerous Animals to some Habitats Where They Would Do No Harm. The animal which now beseechingly barked at Joon on the tree and pawed the ground while wagging it's behind up in the air, was a Solomoan Groat. Someone, probably, brought it to Earth as an exotic pet, but couldn't deal with the growing monster.
     Joon couldn't think of anything he could use to restrain the Groat, but the lady called out to him and said that in her bag there was some expanding tarp, big enough to wrap around the Groat. Joon just had to get down to the ground and avoid the pup while he retrieved tarp. 
     Joon jumped down from the tree. The Groat was right there, thinking that it was a great game. The only thing that Joon could do to escape being trampled and burned by the drool, was to duck under the animal's belly. He emerged from the other end and desperately sucked fresh air into his lungs. The other end of the Groat smelled worse than refuse pits on Kloagmora! 
     It took only a few moments to get the tarp out of the bag. Once it was out, it expanded considerably. When the Groat hopped over to make new advances on Joon, our superhero grabbed it from the back with the tarp and wrapped it securely in it. Joon and the intergalactic officer could hear the Groat start mournfully howling inside the tarp. They did not care!
     Sonny could not believe his bad luck. How did he get his jeans all torn up and burned? And what was that slime on his shirt? OW! 
     The line to buy tickets to the California Academy of Sciences was too long! What's more, it didn't move for the last forty minutes. 
     Sonny couldn't figure out, why people in front of him were stuck in one place. Weird! Some of them looked like they were frozen! As he pushed his glasses to their rightful place at the top of his nose, the light blinked and became brighter.
     As soon as Joon awakened in Sonny's body, he felt cold go up his spine. Everything looked fine: the sky was blue, the grass and trees were green, people... people were too quiet! There was no usual clamor of voices or movement of any kind! Joon crouched where he stood. He saw that some men were moving. They were on the steps of the Academy's building, filing into the doors at an unhurried pace. The only unusual thing about them was that they all were alike! Same chiseled features on the same tanned faces, the same massive necks and shoulders... 
     Two or three of them were scanning the crowd. When they saw Joon move, they all converged on him. There was no animosity in their eyes; only the business-like efficiency and purposefulness of robots. 
     The first one grabbed Joon by the collar. Joon twisted out of his grip and brought his fists crushing into the middle of the opponent's chest. He might have been hitting the wall: his fists bounced from the man's (was it really a man?) flesh and hurt like crazy. The man swung at Joon then. Joon flew half a building away from the impact of the blow. If he was a regular human, that would be the end of him. Fortunately, he was not. Sonny's body while in his possession, could take amazing amounts of punishment. The rest of the robots (for that's what, he decided, they were) surrounded him and tried to move on him together. Joon jumped to the roof of the building. He was rapidly thinking, how to defeat this enemy. The robots below started to get on top of each other's shoulders to construct a pyramid to climb to the roof after Joon. The only thing that Joon could find was a tub of tar that the roofers used to rain-proof the top of the building. It was still bubbling, but the workers were frozen in place around it.
     Joon grabbed the tub, lifted it over the lip of the building and poured tar over the pyramid of robots. They did not scream or fall apart. The tar bound them together and deprived them of all movement!
     Back on the steps of the Academy, the scene was the same. An old lady's face looked at him impassively from the ticket booth. Then she blinked! The booth simply disintegrated around her. She began to grow to many times the human size! She still had white hair and a modest hairstyle of a librarian, but her eyes glared at Joon with unmistakable hatred. She stomped on the steps, trying to squash Joon. He was too fast for her. She gnashed her teeth and screamed. Out of her mouth flew horribly smelling goo. It splashed right in front of Joon, and the concrete of the steps crumbled to dust. 
     High in the sky the birds appeared. Even from a distance one could tell that they were enormous! Huge eagles screeched their own hatred at the beings unnatural on Earth. They attacked the lady, tearing her with their beaks and talons. She resisted, but they had advantage of an aerial attack. Soon nothing remained of her except some pieces of cloth and a huge shoe. 
     The eagles made one last turn in the air and flew away. Joon was wondering, what to do with the robots and a huge shoe. He just dragged the shoe to the pyramid, when people in line began to come alive. 
     Soon the customary noise replaced the silence. Everyone was complaining about the delay. Sonny watched the tarred pyramid of robots and a giant shoe, both liberally splattered with what seemed to be the birds' guano, with distaste. "I can't imagine, what was going through that artist's mind, to make such a disgusting statue!" - he finally declared to his neighbor in line. Together they tssked and shook their heads in disdain.