Honolulu, USA HI HAST UTC-20:00

"Are you sure?" Ethan frowned, his afro hair bounced as he tilted his head.

The person he addressed nodding vigorously."Perfectly sure" Luna said. "I wish to finish this code, it just about half or one hour more or less I guess"

He closed his bag and paused again. "But you'll be alone?" He said, concerned.

"Well, If you think this is not safe, it is an insult for NASA. As you know it, we have a strict security procedures, right?" Luna flicked her hair and adjusted her transparent black scarf.

He grinned. "Okay smarty pants. Bye then" He flung his backpack to his shoulder and waved.

And as he vanished behind the door, Luna ran to the door in a flash and her hand trembled as she hastily locked it.

"Very safe, indeed" She whispered.

Her legs felt like noodles but she ran to the mainframe anyway and plugged her two-way USB cable. After that Luna rushed to her backpack and pulled a transparent steampunk looking laptop from her bag. With a flick of her finger, Luna turned on the apparatus and the gears under the transparent laptop casing moved. The girl's hand pulled a little handle on the laptop that turned on the crank. She turned it with her hand several times until it puffed and huffed and all the gears inside the laptop turned on.

Not so long after that, the monitor light, it was gold. She typed the password and plugged in the other side of the cable from the mainframe. Then Luna sat on the chair and twirled to face the unusual laptop.

Using direct connection is better to prevent any trace.

"Hmm" She said, rubbing her hand, and with a click, Luna opened a coding engine.

"Remote the display" Her finger almost unseen as it typed very fast upon the brass keyboard, "Password... Brute force engine on, dictionary on" She waited. "Oh my god, this is multi firewall" She typed again.

Must crack this firewall. And another. And another. Gosh, no good, no good, where is the Trojan I wrote .. yeah Keylogger or Packetsniffer are awesome tools for opening password but my version is far better"

Her fingers still a bit trembled, her heart almost knocking her rib cage but her eyes shone with excitement.

I love this, love this thing. This child of mine is more effective than a son of John the Ripper if he married Aircrack. And by the way both of them are the top cracker tool to open any layered firewall.

She grinned as she found the Trojan, clicked the destination to send that malicious virus computer and tapped enter with gusto. At that moment, the remote display went black for a fraction of seconds. At another flash the remote display filled with so many text command. And then, a 3D holographic display with blocks containing code and command popped out from the golden monitor. She touched the command she needed, rearranged the command as if they are a transparent golden Lego and tapped enter.

"Here we go!"

There was a blip as she logged in. She opened the global temperature database and as a machine whirled, she twirled and turned back with her seat. Luna watched in awe as the black metallic box in the middle of the circular room alive, sending light above which formed a holographic image of earth hovered above it.

"Yes!" Her lips pulled in a smile, and she got up, admired the globe. Her finger touched antarctic, and all the wall surrounding the room lit, showing Antarctic view from all angle.

She jumped as her phone buzzed in her upper arm.

She reached her phone and opened the message.

904-xxx-xxx Ethan

Tasty morsel is on the way!

"Oh SHIT!" She pushed the turquoise jewel button to open another information.

X 200 m, Y 300 m, Z 39 m

Luna sat in the office chair, kicked hard the table, let it slide and twirl to reach to her brass apparatus at the far end while her brain working.

He sent it from just a few stories below. The average speed of male pedestrians is 1.508m per second, he will walk that 360 m, in about three minutes and also a minute waiting for the lift, and the velocity of the lift itself. I got less than five minutes for doing all of this and erase all trace. HA! One minute is enough.

As soon as she bumped to the table, she reached the keyboard and typed really fast. For a moment all the display moved at a sickening pace, as it zoomed into the surrounding Antarctica mountain. Another firewall blocked her breaching, but Luna was a pro at this. With little effort, she cracked through the firewall with her trustworthy program.

I know my old tool faster than Deep Crack, the fastest tool designed just for cracking password ha ha ha. I can't even imagine how long I have to endure if I use normal PC for this.

She found the temperature reading in no time, and prepare to send it.

All of the sudden, the big monitor went red. The big monitor displayed the hurricane warning near Panama.

"LORDY LOU!"

She cursed as she typed fast the email destination and hit enter with such force as she realized that the warning will make the mainframe sent a packet of info containing HER virus to all the separate departments in less than one minute.

No no no no no! NOT NOW!

Her mind raced as she typed in flash speed to block all data transfer out from the mainframe.

No one will die in a few seconds. Now, to undo the Trojan

She ran her own virus cleaner that designed to erase all trace of her Trojan in the system. Her eyes widen in horror as the mainframe showed longer time than she expected.

TWENTY SECONDS. How many petabyte is this mainframe memory? I never thought I should steal info from a mainframe with thousands of terabyte memory.

The intercom crackled to life.

"Is someone there? The climate mainframe need temperature reading, and there is something wrong with it, I can't even read it"

She slid, kicked her shoe and fought with her long skirt as she lifted her feet to touch the intercom, a bit far from her reach, while her hand still typing furiously to cut the amount of memory her crawler has to examine.

Just a little more...

Her toe tapped the intercom as she moved in acrobatic position, her skirt lifted while her eyes still on the monitor and her finger on the keyboard.

Gotcha

"Yes, Luna is here, I will see what happen with the connection from my computer"

Another crackle sound.

"Okay, make it fast, there's a hurricane"

"Right away sir"

Her toe releasing the button and she let her feet down.

Luna could hear a blip sound as the crawler finished its job.

She typed to close the mainframe screensaver, close the remote connection, open the data surge, plugged out the USB cable, as the holographic image of earth vanished and the whirring machine sound stopped.

She was putting down her brass laptop to her bag when the intercom crackled.

"It's working now! Thanks!"

"You're welcome," She said while ran, unlock the door and slid under the table to reach her shoes.

Two seconds later, an Afro guy showed up. "I brought Nachos!" He said as he opened the door. He saw Luna typed furiously over her laptop and smiled at him.

"GREAT! Wow, I need those! Let's eat it outside!" Luna reached her computer mouse and turn it off.

"Wow, hurricane?" He gaped as he saw the big wall alight with a hurricane warning.

Luna lifted her head to see it "Nah, it's hovering over Panama's sea and weaken now"

"Oh okay" Ethan looked at Luna and laughed. "You worked really hard lil girl, you even sweating, or you've been working out here?"

Luna wiped her temple, and laugh. "You know what? I think what I really need is a good night's sleep, or a good programming language" She stretched.

"Ha! Too bad, I don't think our cafeteria served that kind of expensive coffee bean"

She flung her backpack to her shoulder. "Ohoho."

"Who do you think I am?" Ethan laughed and the two of them walked out.

Agung Volcano, the next day, 12:00

"I wonder why didn't you come sooner." The old man with white udeng (Balinese traditional hat) scolded the teenager in front of him softly. Ara called him Guru, because he is his teacher.

Under the shade of Agung Volcano, he sat cross legged on the big Jade bed, scattered with frangipani flowers wearing only his boxer shorts and nothing else. His body tense, his skin sprayed with blisters, gushed with wounds small and big. They're tended, but only just. Some of them were oozing pus, some of them were totally healed. His Guru lighted sabut and put the incense crystal above it with some frangipani flower.

"Pukulan Sang Hyang Brahma, ingsun lugraha, atatambanen kena gering anu sang Hyang kasuhun kidul, Alugraha ingsun wehakena ta ulun kasidianta, tan ana ulun.Centula enu, muang kahayowaning sariran ingulun,luperta. Kena ta juga sateru, dirgayusa ngingulun, sidhi rastu astu"

The Guru took a drink and sprayed the water with his mouth to Ara's face and said "Luput! Luput! Luput!"

He took the lighted incense sabut (dried coconut husk) and whispered "Poma poma poma.." and smoked Ara's body with it. Guru moved his hand over Ara's body, waving it slowly, hovering less than twenty centimeters over his back, over and over. It shook slightly over his body as he pushed the Usada healing power into Ara's soul.

"War..." Guru mumbled. "Ruin anyone soul." He said, continuing his work, pushing another Usada power.Taking a bit of turmeric, bit of rice grain, ginger, shallot and garlic he chewed them and after the spices smooth enough he took it all out and slathered it to Ara's belly button while mumbling another mantra. He rubbed it and massaged Ara's stomach, then slap it hard with burnt coconut leaves. The stomach suddenly turned red, as if Guru rubbed it hard. "And you know, our power source is our soul." He turned to the back, and slap it with the leaves. His back turned black.

"And look at your soul power. The wound of this soul..." Guru shook his head. "I don't even know why your Majesty was so adamant in conquering this land"

Ara snorted softly before he said slowly, tensed. "Because it is ours, it is a sin to the Lava God. They practically built city under the shade of the holy Erebus!" The young man argued.

Guru mumbled again, lathered another spicy mud into Ara's temple. "War started and fueled by ambition, greed and lust. That's why it's ruining your soul"

"That last battle is holy wars, it's different Guru." Ara answered hotly without opening his eyes. "It would be good for the soul, because it is spiritual, it enhance your spirit power"

Crossing his arms in front of Ara's body Guru took a deep breath as he pushed more Usada power into him.

"But how is it appeared now? It might be a holy war for you and the army, but maybe not for the other" His Guru added power to his palm, and his palm trembled from a sheer strength he expelled. "I just couldn't understand why you need to destroy the temple and built our temple above it."

"Well, would you think, the muslim would agree, if there is a church on the land of Mecca? Or would you think the Christian would agree, if there is a mosque inside the Vatican?" Ara argued "So, would you think anyone of us would agree if there is a temple of Ice over the Erebus land?"

Ara coughed as the Usada power pushed out blood clots out from his body. He spit it to a terracotta bowl beside him.

"I understand that. But, the fight to regain holy land, never end well. It always ends with human slaughter" His Guru patted his back and pushed more power. Blood trickled from Ara's nose and he spit more blood. "Name it, Jerusalem, Palestine... Aztecs, Myans and Inca religions. Never end well."

"I know, if you see it from the amount of mortality, it seem horrible, but you have to know, that it is more than just a statistic. It is something higher than that, you have to understand that this is important, to get the holy place is important. It is to right wrongs done against Lavablood, and also, it's the highest deed done, self, life sacrificing." Ara took a deep breath.

"It is for you and the army. Self sacrificing, gaining nobility, getting a high reward from the heaven, true. But in the process, I heard you all killed women, children, which I really question their contribution of the 'robbing' of the holy land, nor their contribution to the fight. Heaven, they probably just inherited it from their ancestors, long long ago. They had no idea that it is our holy land. No idea. Thus, you probably kill innocent souls, which in the end..." Guru hit Ara's chest from afar, and blood dripped from Ara's lips. "Inflicted this deep wound on your soul, and ruined your Ashoura."

Ara frowned in disagreement and his tone turned to steel. "If that is not enough for you to belief that this is the right thing to do, I don't know what else would you believe Guru. I don't understand why you against this. Is it as if you dislike our religion, is it as if you dislike doing good deed"

Ara coughed more blood.

"Good deed sometimes not black and white Ara. A saint helping a drowned naked girl. The act of hugging her naked body close, isn't that a sin for a saint? But what about the situation? It is a good deed. Now about the holy war. IF it's defending the weak from the oppressor, I can see the good deed on it. What about your holy war?"

Silenced, and cornered Ara glared to him.

His Guru chuckled. "Watch it, prince or not, you are my pupil." He sighed, glanced at the many black blood on the bowl. "So many blot clots, a lot of your organ blocked by this" Guru said. "This is dangerous"

"Are you really agree with this or not?" Ara's voice now threatening.

The old man chuckled."Whether I agree or not, doesn't always mean that I am not a good Lava God follower. You have to know that. If I am not a good person, your Father wouldn't even send you here to learn" His tone went harsher.

Silence.

Guru sighed. "No religious belief free from bloody history. All of them spill blood." He said soothingly while doing something with Ara's back. "Interestingly, all of them claimed that their religious beliefs bring peace, even when God and Goddess of wars exist in some religion, and their verses justified war. But, many people overlook that religions require certain condition to justify it. Including our holy book. Just search, you'll find the verses that warned you not to kill."

Ara fidgeted, his face frowned and he shook his head.

Smiling, the old man took a leather book and open one page to him. "I told you to remember it, just before your Majesty asked you to fight. I can only guess that you are too busy to remember those words at the brink of war."

Sighing, Ara bit his lips as he read the verses.

Each candle burn itself just to give light, to different places, and different situations. Each and everyone shine, on its own way. Each has different path, different peak to overcome. (Fire 3:4)

Because of that, o people of Lava, do not put out even a single one. For even put off a single candle, as if you put off thousands of candles. Every soul has a meaning, everyone is important (Fire 3:5)

Guru mumbled some more mantra and took a glass of water. "Here, wash your mouth with this, and drink. You'll feel better" Guru washed his hand and said while tying his head with Udeng.

"Wake at two tomorrow. You have to do lava immersion and learn volcano controlling."

Nyiragongo Volcano, East Africa EAT-2:00

It was a silent and peaceful night and the town of Goma was sleeping under the cradle of the mountain of God. The breeze whispered, and at the Kivu lake, the frog sang. No one ever heard or even aware that somewhere near the peak, a curious metal creature, as if a small black dragonfly, flying over the mountain. The chopper lowered down over the lava lake, and a silhouette of a young man jumped out.

For a few seconds, he fell, but then he opened his hand and the fall halted and stopped completely as he stood, slowly hovering over the lava lake.

At that moment, the young man's profile alighted by the lava. His dark red hair, streaked with black, framed his determined face. He took a deep breath, drew something with his hand and a glowing circular drawing appeared on the forever crackling lava surface. The shape emitting a hot wind, and he sighed. As an old man at the chopper nodded an approval, the young redhead clasped his hand to his sides, and his body shot down, dived feet first to the lava lake.

For awhile, there was no sign of the young man. The lava lake completely drowned and engulfed him. The chopper driver shook his head. Feel pity for the fate of the young man down there. He sighed as he witnessed something outrageously stupid and deadly today.

But, after a while, the ground shook, the mountain rumble, the lava formed a dome that higher and higher every second, and ... it erupt.

"JESUS!" The chopper swerved and fly higher, as the old man laughed.

"I should've warned you. I forgot" He said, chuckled.

The chopper's driver muttered profanity under his breath and suddenly silenced, gaped as the lava suddenly surged higher than he thought.

And it ends your beloved student, crazy old man.

But, all of the sudden the driver spotted something. A black spot, grew fast to be a silhouette, inside the rumbling, tumbling, splutter, red and hot lava down below. As it grew, it blasted, along with another high splatter. And behind the lava shade that dragged back to the earth by the gravity, lo and behold the young man, flew as high as the chopper. His eyes closed, his whole body reddish, and the lava trickled from every part of his body. Every time he moves his hand, the lava splashed high. He continued playing with lava for a few minutes, as he closed his eyes.

But then, slowly, he turned to the chopper and opened his eyes.

The driver shivered. He felt as if the stare itself burned a hole through his head.

The redhead young man crossed his hand and opened it again, as he looked down into the burning mountain.

He inhaled and sang something that looked like an eerie lullaby. And under the amazed eyes of the driver, the mountain slowly calmed down, the lava stopped splattering, and the ground stopped shaking.

As soon as the mountain turned to sleep, the young man flew to the chopper, entered it, and within minutes, they had already left the area, unseen by the local, unknown by anyone.

Meanwhile, at the edge of Goma city, inside a building beside the Nyiragongo lava track, someone gaped, as she watched the seismograph buzzed, busily writing something extraordinary.