THE ONE CALLED J

Classes and Lessons

Joshua kept looking at the man who was before him, his entourage had fully formed and the mist was rising even higher.

"If I beat the s**t outta you, your entourage will disappear too, right?" Joshua asks as he began to walk forward.

"Yep but that's if you can even manage to touch me," he smiles. "J, I have known you from the moment you entered high school, you were the reason I lost my job."

"So that's where I knew you from," Joshua had an arrogant look on his face. "You were the dumbass who had been scamming the school for fertilizer money."

"It's not a scam if you aren't caught," he said. "I am a Gardener and the standard of living in this f****d up country is damn too high.  I had to think out of the box to make a bit of cash, that's why I had told the principal I needed some cash to buy fertilizer for the school garden but I knew I could use my faeces and some wastes from the kitchen instead, it worked out nicely until you, young brat had to come in and f**k it all up," his face which had a creepy grin on was gone, now was visible anger. "I don't even know why you had to do that to me? I mean what did I do to deserve that."

"You did nothing," Joshua replied to him. "But my minions in the nerd club needed some financing for a project, I met with the principal to increase our funds, he said there was no way he could do that because some fucker kept asking for money to take care of the school garden but I understand soil texture better than any other mortal on the planet, I had deliberately come to the school garden just to see a sample of the soil and it didn't take a genius to know it was improved through s**t, all I needed was proof and the club would get the fund that it needed since I am the J.  I easily got it, everything will always work out for me, why? Because I am the J!!!!"

"You narcissistic f**k," he gritted his teeth. "And may I ask what the project was?"

"It was to make the 20th figurine of me," Joshua replied.

The man's body began to tremble in anger, he was annoyed.

"So just because they had to make a statue of you, you ruined my life, lemme ask you something.  What's more important? A statue or the well-being of a human?" He asks.

"Obviously, a human is far more important than a mere statue, it's general knowledge."

"Really," he was shocked at Joshua's reply. "I really wasn't expecting you to say that."

"But I, the J am no mere human, the culmination of every human is but mere trash in comparison to me," Joshua continued with his most haughty grin.

"I wonder why I even indulged you," the gardener could hide his anger no longer. "You have always only cared about yourself, never giving a s**t how others feel, you think you know everything, I have seen you win competitions in science, art and mathematics but finally, there's something I have more knowledge about than you, it's time for a class and there are lessons for you to learn." He ends and as he did, his entourage dashed towards Joshua, it extended his right arm as he tried to punch the blonde teenager, Joshua effortlessly dodges as he tries to counter it with an uppercut but his fists just phased through the entourage's body. Joshua could not hide the amazement on his face as his mouth suddenly opened up in bewilderment. The entourage bent its right arm as it hit Joshua's head with its elbow sending him flying several meters away.

"Lesson one," the man smiled as he began to approach Joshua's position. "Entourages are ethereal manifestations not physical, they can choose to be intangible or not while dealing with physical matter, the only way to properly counter an entourage without hopes of it being able to overpower you is by summoning your entourage too as it too is ethereal."

Joshua got up from the ground, he spat some sand which had entered his mouth, he was bruised on his right arm and his left eye had swollen up. "This is definitely not my day," he thought to himself. "I have been looking at the world from the ground often, so this is how short people feel," he chuckled to himself as he stood up.

"That arrogant brat," He thought to himself as he saw Joshua chuckling. "He's actually laughing, does he think this is some sort of joke? I am going to take my time hurting him. He's going to rue the day he was born."

"Ken," Joshua began. "I don't remember much about you as my brain naturally filters off irrelevant things but I think that should be your name."

"It's Ben, you annoying brat," he replied him.

"Yeah, Ben, I remember," Joshua had now stood to his feet. "When was the last time you took a satisfying s**t?"

"I don't exactly feel comfortable discussing that with anyone talk less of you for that matter, "Ben had a puzzled expression on his face.

"Do you know why I asked?" Joshua smiled. "The last time I took a satisfying s**t, I looked behind and saw where I had shat upon, you wouldn't believe what I saw."

"What did you see?" Ben sighs, he knew he was gonna regret asking that question.

"Mount Everest," Joshua replies with his haughtiest smile.

"That's obviously a lie," Ben said. "Mount Everest had existed years before you were born."

"You said you could defeat me," Joshua smiled. "I thought we was in a competition to find out who could tell the biggest lie.

"You annoying f**k!!" Ben shouted as he ran towards Joshua, his entourage following him not too far behind, the mist had nearly reached nose level, Joshua smiled as he saw Ben coming, he put his hand in his pocket, he removed the present he was supposed to give Jolie, he tore it open and inside it was a breather, he quickly placed it on his nose.

"Yesterday immediately I arrived in my room, though I can't remember how, I had quickly wrapped this breather in a present and wrote to Jolie on it," Joshua smiled. "I knew it would be handy the next day."

"It doesn't matter, I am still going to wreck you," Ben said as his entourage moved with an exceeding speed towards Joshua, Joshua smiled as he made a feint as if to give spear(a typical wrestling move by Roman Reigns in WWE).

"You i***t, have you forgotten lesson one?" Ben smiled to himself as his entourage became intangible thereby causing Joshua to phase through, Joshua put up his most cheeky grin as he figured out he had phased through, without wasting a moment. He quickly somersaulted in the air, landed on his feet, and dashed towards Ben immediately.

"You dumbass," Joshua laughed. "Have you forgotten what I said when we first started, I am going to beat you to a pulp, I had no intention of going after your entourage from the beginning, it was you, I had deliberately made you think I was going after your entourage so you would make it intangible thereby giving me a chance to close the distance between you and I.  Now nothing is stopping me from giving you the ass whooping that you so much deserve."

"You must be a fool to think you can beat me, head on without your entourage," Ben replied as he bit his lower lip. "God, I am such an i***t, can't believe I fell for a cheap trick like that."

"Who said anything about not using my entourage to fight?" Joshua smiled as he now stood exactly 1.5 meters from Ben's position, blue miasma began to gather around Joshua, and instantly, his entourage started forming. Now, directly behind Joshua was his entourage which stood over eight feet tall. "I knew my entourage was short range, while I was coming to beat Vin's ass, I wanted to send it to check things up but I noticed it could not move beyond a distance of 2 meters, it was then that it hit me that my entourage had a range, if you weren't such a dumbass, you would have noticed that throughout this fight, I had been trying to come close, it was so that I could put you within my range and now," He smiled. "I have succeeded."

As he said that, Joshua's stand dashed towards Ben.

"ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE!!!!" Joshua shouted as loud as he could as his entourage began to throw his two fists as punches while approaching Ben but as the entourage got to Ben's position, it suddenly vanished.

Joshua couldn't hide the shock on his face as he staggered backward.

"Wh...what ha... happened?" He mumbled.

"Lesson number 2, "Ben had an evil smile on his face as his entourage was now directly behind Joshua who's face was furrowed with lines of confusion. "When in a fight with another entourage, try and find out it's special ability especially if it's mid to long range, the mist released by my entourage doesn't just induce sleep, it releases pheromones which affects any living thing whether plant or animal at cellular level, the first time, I caused the pheromones to affect your nerve cells which are embedded with adenosine receptors, when the released adenosine from your body binds with those receptors, a variety of proteins which inhibit neurons are then released, it causes suppression of nerve cell activity which brings about sleep or drowsiness, in other words, whether you hold your breath or not doesn't matter, the entourage shall affect your body all the same.  For today, I decided to do something different, the cerebrum of the brain is responsible for every actions, the pheromones released were disabling the mitochondria located in each cell of your cerebrum steadily, the longer you stayed under my mist, the more your brain cells keep getting inactive, the entourage is formed by belief and it maintains it's shape by will, without enough functioning cells in any human brain's cerebrum, the capability of will is lost, hence why your entourage was unable to form."

As he said that, his entourage grabbed Joshua by the neck, it tossed him in the air, it reappeared behind Joshua as if it had predicted his trajectory, putting his two arms together, it hit Joshua's backside knocking him to the ground.

THUD!!!!!!

The force was so intense that it created a miniature crater in the ground, Ben laughed evilly as he began to approach the hole, his entourage had moved from the air to come behind him.

Joshua tried his hardest to not let the tears fall from his eyes, he could feel his ribs, they had most certainly broken.

"Yam yam the J!" Ben mocks. "I know all, I can never lose," he now stood directly at the edge of the crater where Joshua was buried inside. "How does it feel to be ignorant? to be so helpless? to desperately want to win but have no chance of victory?"

"I always hated to lose," Joshua clenched his right foot as he recalled an event in grade 5.

FLASHBACK

Joshua was about ten years old when he was abducted by Jack and his wife, he had no form of formal education as they had enlisted him in an elementary school this was due to the coercion on Jack's wife's part. Joshua proved to be very brilliant and as a result, was put in grade five immediately.

Once, there was a pop quiz in the class of girls VS boys. Joshua was one of the students representing the boys and frankly, the only one smart amongst them while he was going against the three smartest girls in class who were usually taking turns to take the lead academically.

The two teams had answered several questions and they had answered all of them correctly until it came down to a tie.

"Alright," the teacher who was taking the pop quiz said. "There's one final question, whosoever gets this right wins the pop quiz."

Joshua was so eager to answer it, he was finally going to beat the girls at something as he had tried his best but no matter what, his grades were never as good as any of the girls.

"On a table lies a ton of salt, a ton of rice, and a ton of metal, which of the three is heaviest?" The teacher asks.

Joshua without missing a beat quickly raised his arms to signify that he knew the answer, even before he had answered, every guy in class was already excited, they had already put hope in him that he would win, after all, Joshua reassured them that he would.

"So Josh," the teacher asked. "Which of the three is the heaviest?"

"Obviously metal," Joshua replied. "Rice and salt ain't got nothing on it."

"Wrong," the teacher said sharply as he turned towards the girls. "This is a bonus for you, get it right and you win the pop quiz."

Joshua for the first time in his life felt devastated as the joyful triumphs of his guys had turned into low-toned mumbles and flustered reactions.

"The mass of the three were already stated," one of the girls answered. "Which is one ton so obviously, none is heavier than the other, they all have the same mass."

"That's absolutely...." the teacher dropped his head down as if the girls had failed the question, the boys which were unhappy that Joshua had failed the question were suddenly happy when it seemed like the girls had failed it until the teacher shouted. "That's absolutely correct!!!"

"Yaaaaay!!!!!" The voices of the girls thundered the entire class. Joshua then for the first time in his life knew what defeat tasted like and he didn't like it one bit. All the boys were unhappy that they lost but none felt as bad as Joshua had put a lot of effort into memorizing many notes in preparation for the quiz and also, he had never lost before.

But yet, none of the boys saw his pain and for a while, they gave him the silent treatment.

It was then that the reality of life dawned on Joshua.

"Everyone can be your friend when convenient, it's in time of peril that the true nature of everyone shows," he had told himself. "Not everyone should be accepted as a friend, only those who will be with you even in times of peril should be given that title, Friendship without loyalty is as useless as bread without flour cause just as bread can't be made without flour so also true friendship can't be established without loyalty."

That ideology had caused Joshua to look upon life differently and as a result, he had matured far beyond his age, he ensured he could gain as much knowledge as he could as he realized the reason why he failed was because of ignorance and of course, Joshua being who he was didn't hesitate to flaunt his knowledge whenever he could.

THE PRESENT:

Joshua tried his best to stand up but he fell almost to the ground immediately, his legs were broken, his ribs too and he couldn't feel any of his arms, also, he was losing his will to act.

Ben had gotten down to the crater where Joshua was, Joshua struggled to get up but almost immediately, he fell back to the ground but Joshua didn't relent, he tried again to get up but Ben kicked him back to the ground, pinning his head to the ground with his left leg, Ben laughed.

"You have no idea how much joy this gives me, ever since the day I got fired, I have been working my ass off through different jobs but I kept getting laid off, it was hard living and I suffered severally, then madame came," Ben was now smiling. "She changed my life entirely, she taught me how to unleash my entourage and anytime I think about her, I get this hard-on and I will gladly risk my life for her."

"Lesson number 3," Joshua said, his face still buried in the ground. "When you have a chance to kill someone who wants to kill you, you do it without wasting time."

"Want and will are two different words," Ben smirked as he brought his head down to his knee level. "You express desire but you lack the means to implement this."

"You are right," Joshua smirked as he brought his head from the ground. "There's no need to implement what I have already done."

As he spoke, Ben suddenly jumped back, he began to slap his body, his once taunting face was now replaced with pain, he was removing his clothes as fast as he could and as he did, he revealed a whole colony of soldier ants crawling around his body, they were biting into his skin vehemently.

"What the f**k?!" He screamed, his entourage which was beside him had suddenly disappeared, same for the mist which encircled around the entire area.

"You said something about entourages being able to maintain their form due to their user's will, it's extremely difficult for any human to maintain their will while in pain or discomfort," Joshua says as he finally managed to get up, he could now feel control over his body. "From the beginning, I never meant to beat you with my entourage, I knew you would think I was relying on that and therefore, you would use any means to ensure I couldn't use it, that's why I got this," Joshua smiles as he produced a half-empty bag of sugar. Ben's face was amazed as he saw it. "The time when your entourage launched me in the air, you felt so confident that you didn't even notice the grains of sugar pouring all over your body, the only reason why the ants hadn't come on your body since then was cause you were moving about but when you finally came to rest in this spot, the soldier ants came knocking, it's general knowledge that ants are found in the U.S.A and more specifically tropical areas and desert and this area that we are right here," Joshua grins arrogantly as he got to his feet. "Is considered a tropical area being that it's surrounded by trees."

Ben couldn't reply to him, he had already stripped down to his boxers, he was trying his best to kill the ants which were biting into his skin without any mercy, his face was contorted in pain and he looked like he wanted to cry.

"If you are wondering how I can stand despite my many disabled cells, it's known that the body needs to replace 9 billion cells every hour as it is comprised of about 37.2 trillion cells in total," Joshua smiled as he now stood before Ben. "The replacement of the cells was still going on even when the effect of your entourage was active, you just didn't know it because yours was acting faster than the replacement and since, it's gone, my body is restored back to normal."

"Do you think you have won?!" Ben shouted still hitting his body in pain.

"The J never thinks, he just knows and I have won, you are just yet to accept it," Joshua grins as he began to flex his knuckles. "How about I take you from the stage of denial to acceptance? It's one more thing you need to learn before this class is over," Joshua grins as he runs towards Ben, Ben swiped his arm as if to hit Joshua but Joshua bent downwards and sharply dodged him, Joshua took it up with an uppercut to his lower chin, Ben staggered backward obviously dazed. Joshua continued repeatedly boxing him.

"ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE!!!!!!!" Joshua kept shouting as he kept hitting him with all of his strength and might. Soon, Ben's body was bruised all over and his two eyes were swollen.

"Even with the handicap of an entourage," Joshua laughed scornfully at him. "You still couldn't beat me, well, I guess that's the difference between a human and the J." Joshua ended as he did a bicycle kick, connecting his heel to Ben's head knocking him out cold.

"Ooouccchhhh!!!!" Joshua screamed as he could feel his entire body ache. "I took a beating from both Max and Ben today, I guess this is what mortals call pain."

Just as he spoke, a car pulled over in front of Vin's mobile house, out of it came Dave and Max. Max looked annoyed but Dave kept a calm demeanor.

"How did you manage to drive my ride, it's voice recognized," Joshua said.

"You sorta left this," Dave said as he held the phone which he had left in the car which kept saying 'Get your subhuman selves away from my ride.' "with the sound of your voice combined with some 21st technology, it wasn't too hard to be able to configure your car and regarding how we knew where you are, we just found out Vin's address from the local police station, they have for all inhabitants."

"Not bad at all," Joshua said.

"I see you already exerted your revenge on Vin," Max had a disappointed look on his face as he looked over at Vin's unconscious body.

Joshua didn't reply to him, he just kept his arrogant look on his face.

"Who's that?" Dave asks, pointing at Ben who laid unconscious on the ground.

"Our lead," Joshua replied. "To finding out where Eva is."