---

The next afternoon, Jongin's woken up by his phone going off.

It takes him a good moment to catch his bearings and actually wake up, and with a groggy sigh, he moves to sit up before he looks at his left to see that Agim's already up and staring at him. That startles him right awake and he lets out an Ah ! before he pouts as Agim cackles with laughter.

Jongin then lets out a whine before he scratches at his scalp and leans over towards his nightstand to look at his phone. And as soon as he taps on the screen, his eyes bug out and he s his sheets off of himself and leaps up out of bed as he quickly redials the number that belongs to one of his best friends, Sehun.

Thirty-two missed calls and way too many texts to count from him in the last thirty minutes.

Jongin starts pacing around a bit as he waits for Sehun to pick up and looks over at a concerned Agim before his shoulders relax a bit when he hears Sehun's voice.

"Jong! Yo, bro didya see the news?!" Sehun asks, getting right to it.

"Huh? Wha--what happened?" Jongin replies as he sits back down, feeling panic rise.

 
"Bro, were you sleeping through all that ? lemme--ugh--I'mma send a video over. Check this out bruh and stay inside, okay?"

Jongin just furrows his eyebrows as he tries to think of what he's about to possibly see before he clicks on the video that Sehun just sent him--Agim coming closer to watch too as he sits back down on his bed.

It's a live video feed of something happening apparently just a few blocks down from where he lives; with helicopters, tanks, police, fire-fighters, basically every possible first responder at the scene and a crowd of people standing behind red caution tape that extends around something that he can't quite make out. He squints and brings the phone closer to his face before he's finally able to make out as some sort of glowing white humanoid figure grows as tall as a skyscraper with a--

He gasps and shoots back up to stand. There's a person clutched in the giant's hand and it's raising its hand to its mouth and--and--

Chomp!

Horrified screams and cries can be heard as the crowd of people quickly disperses and Jongin quickly turns off the video while Sehun asks him if he saw it yet. Jongin looks over at Agim who looks just as stunned as he feels before he replies with a Yeah.

"Like I dunno what the 's going on or what that is, but just--just stay safe, okay?" Sehun says with his slight lisp coming through more.

"Yeah, you too, bro," Jongin responds. But before they both hang up, he asks, "Though wait--wait, when did this start? Like I-I was so knocked out--I didn't even hear anything."

"Bruh, y'know I always said you'd probably sleep right through an apocalypse...Just didn't think it'd happen so soon."

"Neither did I," Agim murmurs next to Jongin. Thankfully, not loud enough for Sehun to hear any meows and get suspicious though.

Jongin quickly decides to change the subject for a moment as he asks, "Hey, um Tao's good too, right? I haven't called him yet but I assume he's like over at your place?"

Sehun lets out a sigh. "Yeah, thank gosh. I dunno if it was luck or what, but the power went out at his job earlier so he came by to visit just an hour before all this...all this bull started. Like I just--I dunno what I would've done if he was over where you are and--and--"

"Hey, but he's not, Sehunnie, and you're not. You guys are good and I'm good which um reminds me--I um--I gotta go and call some other people to check up on them too but uh tell Tao I said 'Hey' okay? Love ya bro, stay safe."

"You too Jong, love ya."

And then Jongin ends the call first before he looks down at Agim who looks up at him with an expression that actually makes Jongin want to hide. It's an expression so scared and confused that any confidence he had in Agim knowing the solution to this problem fizzles into thin air just like that.

"Agim?" Jongin says, trying to get Agim to snap out of it.

Agim just stares into space, with his ears turned back and that expression still on his face, so Jongin gently pokes at his cheek to try and get his attention. Luckily, this works seeing as Agim immediately bats his hand away with a paw and glares as he asks, What was that for?

"You were zoned out! It was like you turned into a statue or something," Jongin says, frowning deeply.

"I--" Agim quickly shakes his head. "--I'm sorry--I-I don't know what came over me."

"What...what was that thing we saw by the way? Like was that one of the enemies you were talking about?"

And Agim lets out a sigh. "Yes, yes it was."

"But--! I thought they weren't gonna show up until next month!"

"So did I...So, it seems that either they got the calculations wrong back home or I was somehow told some false information."

Suddenly, the image of that random person screaming as they fell into the giant's mouth and got eaten alive flashes through Jongin's mind before he lets out a shaky sigh and closes his eyes. just got way too real.

He then feels a paw rest on his right arm and hears Agim say in a gentle tone, Jongin.

"I-I don't think I'm actually ready to fight anyone, Agim," Jongin says, squeezing his eyes shut even tighter. "Like I just got these powers yesterday."

Maybe if he keeps his eyes shut, this will all have turned out to be some elaborate Inception-like dream. And not some--some ing apocalypse right at his doorstep like he's in some cliché superhero movie.

Agim doesn't say anything but Jongin can almost feel the apologetic gaze that he's giving him, and takes in a big, deep breath to keep himself steady. Then, he thinks of his family and his friends, random people in the world just going about their day and trying to live their lives, and growls as he opens back his eyes. Agim flinches and lifts his paw off and is about to speak again when Jongin cuts him off by calling out his name this time.

Agim lets out a curious hum and Jongin just sits there, panting angrily, as he tries to think of something cool to say like in the movies but sadly comes up short.

So, Agim starts speaking again. "Well...erm again, I know this is very sudden, Jongin, and I know we haven't even gotten around to training you on more of the complex moves that you can do but--"

In the spur of the moment, Jongin jumps up to stand, inadvertently causing Agim to cut himself off, before he shoots out his hand to call for his wand. It quickly flies out from beneath his bed up to his hand and floats close enough for him to grasp it and then immediately transform it into a gold, dangling sun-shaped earring to wear.

Light shines back into Agim's eyes as he looks up at him with surprise, and Jongin grins as he puts on his earring/wand--feeling a spark of determination light up inside of himself once he does that.

Then, he says, "Let's go save the world, yeah?"

And Agim gives a proud smile and nods. "Yes, alright then. Let's go! Though just to reiterate, there are guardians for different states and countries..."

---

And so, after leaving his place with Agim right on his tail, Jongin jumps down every other step on the way down his apartment building's steps before he runs out into the parking lot and then dashes towards the nearby woods (with no active security cameras around so that he can transform).

Then, once he's fully surrounded by only trees, in an instant, Jongin transforms into his guardian form and quickly looks around to make sure that no one actually saw him before he dashes towards the main street and then down the blocks leading to that giant enemy.

Now Jongin's always thought of himself as pretty fast (thank you, long legs) but this time he feels even faster as it only takes him like a minute to reach all of the hubbub when usually it'd take him a good ten minutes or so. He's still on the outskirts of everything right now and so looks around at the first responders and such, noting the lack of a crowd compared to earlier and the lack of Agim by his side.

"Agim?" he calls out, looking around and behind him. He then puts his hands to the sides of his mouth to yell even louder for him, uncaring of a few firefighters who look over at him in awe. "Agim