JOON

     

ePocalypsa was furious. That stupid girl! She fouled everything up! ePocalypsa set things in motion to take revenge on Sonny's alter ego for her defeat in their previous battle, and now all the carefully plotted plans have to be delayed. 

      To get all her ducks in a row, so to speak, the villain needed the girl's address. From it she contacted her minions and various pawns in her games. There she got her mail and packages.
     The idiot girl decided to move! So many things were already in the making: ePocalypsa could not change her address now. She had to start everything from the beginning!
     There wasn't any internet available in the new apartment. ePocalypsa arranged it so that she could spend a week at a girl's friends' house. Now Hanah got obsessed with that inane idea of going home for Christmas. No-o-o-o!!!
     Sonny loved sleeping. It was the time of utter peace for him: no demands from parents, no annoying mishaps that happened to him too often. He loved the feeling of a soft, warm blanket over his body and the pillow tucked into the crook of his neck. Sometimes, he would hear a distant wail: "S-o-o-o-n-n-y-y" - from his mother, but that hardly registered in his conscience. 
     The wails grew in volume as they drew closer. Sonny cracked one eye open, listened for a minute and sighed: "There was no helping it, he had to get up!"
     Joon heard Sonny's mom's calls too. He was ready to emerge into the world as soon as Sonny put his bare feet on the carpeted floor. Why did he feel so unsettled all of a sudden? 
     In a couple of hours the family was in turmoil. Sonny's sister was coming home for the Holidays! Sonny was charged with cleaning and preparing her room, his mother began making his and Hanah's favorite dish - Shepherd's Pie. Joon didn't need to be around for it, but he couldn't help but feel that something bad was about to happen. 
     The moment that he lay his eyes on Hanah in the busy Greyhound terminal, Joon knew: she was the source of trouble. How? She was just an ordinary, pretty young lady, with ordinary problems. On the way home, Hanah and her mom, with some input from Sonny, discussed those problems. Joon could not understand, why money was such an important and often viewed as insurmountable obstacle in people's lives. With his super-human abilities, he could usually quickly make a good wage on some temporary job, even when Sonny thought that he was asleep on a train! Joon had a few of such jobs lined up all over the Bay Area, anything from a consultant for a computer programming firm to washing windows on a San Francisco high-rise! But here was a capable, talented Hanah, who bemoaned the lack of job opportunities in the town where she studied at University.
     At one point Joon was watching the road absentmindedly, when he saw Hanah's reflection in a side view mirror. For a moment that's all it was, then it changed into a face of an opponent that he could not forget, a wolf-girl from the virtual world! 
     All Joon's faculties came alive and focused on a sudden realization: Hanah was the villain's host! How was he going to defeat her without harming the sister of his own host, Sonny? 
     ePocalypsa couldn't believe her luck: the enemy that she plotted against for so long was right under her nose, in the same car and was going to live in the same house as she! Oh, all the opportunities for a rematch! The girl was oblivious to her presence, just like her brother was of his alter ego. ePocalypsa could think of many dire outcomes for her enemy and his family just as they drove her to their place.
     Sonny's mother couldn't understand what happened to make her two children become so hostile towards each other. They were fine just before the drive home! Now Hanah was glaring at Sonny and throwing her things at him from the trunk to carry into the house. He also looked at her menacingly and seemed to grow in height right in front of her eyes. As she hugged Hanah and led her to the house, she was surprised by the strength her daughter squeezed her back. It was downright painful! Sonny then went ahead of them and his mom breathed easier as Hanah's relaxed grip on her. "Wow, you must've been working out a lot" - she said, as Hanah glared at her. What was the matter with those two, anyway?
     Joon threw Hanah's bags into her room. As she walked in, he could tell that it was her alter ego facing him. She hissed and narrowed her eyes. They looked yellow in the dark corner where she stopped. 
- "So, you are her brother's little helper! I should've realized it sooner! It would've been so easy to entrap him through her!"
- "How long have you been using Hanah?"
- "None of your business! You will know that you shouldn't have messed with me! I will destroy this pathetic humanity's ability to use the World Wide Web! You are but a bump on my way!"
- 'We'll see, monster! Just stay away from Sonny!"
- "And what are you going to do? If you try to thwart me again, you'll damage this kid's sister. Are you prepared to live with that?"
     Joon threw a hateful look ePocalypsa's way and went out the door. She was right, he couldn't fight her without destroying or injuring Hanah.
     What was he to do? Joon walked along the path on a street. The blaring of the fire truck stopped him in his tracks. The engine roared, passed him and turned the corner to the left. Joon felt his senses tingle. Whatever was there, it was not a simple fire.
     In a couple of seconds he made it to a building structure with smoke rising from one of it's corners. It was an elementary school! The fire truck came to a screeching stop after Joon already ran up the steps and into the double doors of the building. Children were still in the classrooms, there was no attempt for an evacuation. Two teachers strolled leisurely into the hallway where Joon was. They  froze in their place and exchanged a look between them. They were not humans at all! Where there was hair just a few seconds ago, now fire danced on top of their heads. It licked out of their eyes and mouths, as they moved toward Joon. Descements! Joon only heard of that race of alien monsters who liked to use arson to loot and torture helpless population. 
     He knew that the only way to defeat them was to put their fires out. But how? Children needed to be rescued immediately, and the firefighters will be here in minutes. They can not deal with this kind of flame! 
     Joon gathered himself into a tight ball and rolled at the Descements with all the speed that he could master. He didn't meet their attack, only went round and round them, the wake of his passing first feeding their flames and then...yes, the power of his motion prevented air from reaching the monsters! The blaze on their heads began to flicker and died, then it happened to the conflaguration in their eyes and mouths. They whizzed, coughed, fell into ashes as he passed them one more time. Joon threw the fire alarm on. Teachers began to lead frightened children out of the classrooms, just as the firemen poured into the building. 
     Joon jogged back to Sonny's house. He now knew what to do to stop ePocalypsa.