JOON

     Remember Joon? He is my son's, Sonny', alter ego! He emerges when there is trouble afoot. I wrote a few stories about him to let Sonny know that, the world is a wild place, and one'd better be on one's toes!


     It has been too long... Even the smog-laden air of a small city in California filled Joon with a thrill of life and anticipation of a good fight. 
     Sonny was on the way to college. He just left his mom's van and ran towards the BART entrance. Joon caught a few of his thoughts: he was late for school again and scolded himself for not getting up sooner.
     Everything seemed to be in order, but Joon never emerged into the world without a good reason. He slowed his steps and carefully observed the surroundings. A bus with it's doors open was waiting for its passengers, some of whom just started to file out of the BART's doors. A woman stood by the ticket booths, her hand lightly resting on a handle of a baby carriage. BART policeman moseyed on among the passers by. A man with a large German Shepherd on a leash walked behind Joon. 
     The hairs on the back of Joon's head rose up. He could feel animosity and tension emanating from the dog, even though he wasn't looking directly at him. He glanced behind him and saw that the owner of the Shepherd was standing still, his eyes glazed over, seeing nothing. A leash fell from his hand. The dog's eyes focused on Joon and his fangs bared. Now that Joon saw the dog in front of him, he realized that it was not a simple canine! 

     Dog's tail whipped from side to side, and in a moment spikes began to fly at Joon, inexplicably detaching themselves from the tail. A few of them struck Joon's sleeve and it began to melt. Joon covered his face with one elbow and crouched down to meet the monster's attack. 
     He heard a gasp of horror to his side and quickly looked there. A woman with a baby carriage saw, what was going on. She brought her hand to her mouth and the carriage began to roll away, heading straight between Joon and the dog. 
     Over the dog's blood curdling growl, Joon could hear woman's screams. He could not afford to take his eyes away from the menace, although he kept checking on the progress of the carriage. Mother of the baby fainted and fell. The dog's owner was also peacefully snoring on the asphalt. There was no one to save the child now except Joon. 
     Just as our hero leapt and  threw himself in front of the carriage's wheels, the dog attacked. In a fraction of a second before they all collided, Joon carefully overturned the carriage to cover the baby, who calmly and trustingly smiled at him. Then he felt the impact of the dog's furry shape slamming into him. There was no heat, but the vitriol on the creature's fur began to choke him almost at once. Joon grabbed Sonny's laptop that he carried in a bag across his chest and slammed it into his attacker's head again and again. He managed to slow him down, but the orange-red fangs were right in his face, and he knew that he has just moments to protect himself and a child.
     Joon bit the dog on it's ear and spat bitter saliva that immediately filled his mouth! The creature squealed, struggled to free himself and retreated a few steps, still eyeing Joon with hatred. 
     The BART policeman jumped from behind the column where he was hiding and stuck his taser in the dog's side. The monster didn't just get immobilized. His form simply disintegrated in front of Joon and the policeman in a puff of smoke! There was nothing left on a spot where he was crouching just a second ago!
     Possible explanations ran through Joon's mind to offer to the officer of the law, as he struggled to right the baby's carriage. He realized that there was no need for them: the policeman touched him on a shoulder with a concerned smile and started to disappear as well! 
     As Joon gaped at the man's, transparent now, form, baby's mother hugged her child. She then turned to Joon, and he saw that she was a Marcipanian, an enlightened race of people with light blue hair, who sometimes visited this world on their humanitarian missions. 
     The baby cooed and asked to be held by Joon. He was amazed at the love and peace that he felt, once the child was in his arms! The crowd around them had no clue, what really happened. They just saw the brave young man rescue a baby from a vicious dog, who ran away. 

     Sonny came to at that moment. He almost dropped the baby and was astonished to hear total strangers praise him and feel them slapping his shoulders and shaking his hand. He felt good, though, as if all the love in the world poured into him from a small form that he was holding. He looked at his broken laptop on the ground and didn't even mind it. Baby's mother hugged and kissed him on a cheek. There was something wrong with his eyes: her hair seemed to be light blue!