ã€ŠGHOST THING!ã€‹


 Some Kind of Ghost Thing

    Even if Monday nights tried their best, nothing could keep Toronto quiet.

    It was after-hours at the Royal Ontario Museum. The place with dim with soft lights beaming over the building¡¯s many artifacts and displays. Footsteps echoed throughout the building, courtesy of the place¡¯s watchmen. Security personnel patrolled the floors, flashlights out in case one of them sensed something lurking in the shadows.

    Seldom did anyone sneak in without giving themselves away with some foolish fumble, like touching a display case rigged with a sensor alarm. Guarding the ROM was an easy job, so a lot of the guys took to relaxing. Around the museum there were tables topped newspapers with chairs, if anyone wanted to take a load off and get caught up on the news.

    The security office was in the basement. Vic, a middle-aged man with creases on his forehead, had his coffee cup in hand and his eyes on the many monitors taking in security footage from across the museum. He sat at the desk with the coffee maker and radio behind him, the radio blaring sports talk out into the concrete halls.

    Two hosts chatted on the programme.

    ¡°Next Monday is Thanksgiving. I don¡¯t know about you, but in my family, we always hosted the big dinner on a Sunday.¡±

    ¡°We do Saturday, actually!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d prefer Saturday, honestly, but it¡¯s not my choice. I¡¯m not going to pass up a Thanksgiving dinner because of a Sunday. My wife¡¯s mom, she knows how to roast a bird.¡±

    Vic turned the volume down when he saw Raul approach the door, a tall & lean man with a trimmed but well-rounded beard.

    ¡°How¡¯s the night looking?¡± asked Raul, leaning into the door frame.

    ¡°As lively as my mom¡¯s retirement home!¡± said Vic.

    Raul caught that Vic was listening to sports radio and thought to stir up some conversation. ¡°Hey¨C who you rooting for in the Nationals?¡±

    Vic finished a loud slurp of coffee. ¡°The Cubs. The Marlins traded in some guy named Spooneybarger. Spooneybarger¨C can you believe this? How am I supposed to take them seriously?¡±

    Raul chuckled and lifted himself off the frame and went back out to watch the grounds, twirling a flashlight. Vic waited until Raul was twenty paces away before he turned the radio back up.

    The museum was not an easy place to break into, but nobody was prepared for superhuman powers. Above the prairie animals exhibit, something rumbled in the vents. The subtle noise trailed down from the roof until hit a grille above a display case for prairie rodents. Through the blades of the gate, a purple liquid emerged and drained down on a roof of the case. Moonlight came in through the window and shimmered on the liquid as it poured out of the vent but instead of spreading over the surface and spilling over the edges, the puddle grew vertical, rising like bread.

    As it absorbed all of the purple water flowing from above, the puddle rose and developed a shape. Out of its form, the figure grew arms, legs and a head. The liquid on the surface of his body and legs solidified to make a tank top and pants in the same hue appeared on its body and two eyes appeared inside its head.

    He smiled. ¡°I¡¯m in!¡±

    It was Kay, water being extraordinaire.

    The boy hopped off the top of the display and hit the ground with a loud slap¨C louder than he felt comfortable with. You got to keep quiet, he told himself. He peered down the halls to see if there was any patrolling security guards around, but he couldn¡¯t see anything. Nor could he hear anything. As far as he concerned, he was alone with all of the museum¡¯s works for him to see.

    He relaxed and strolled around the room, taking a gander at a stuffed buffalo¨C or was it a model? Kay thought he heard footsteps coming up the way but when he peaked out into the hallways, he didn¡¯t see anybody nearby. Although, he could hear some voices in the distance. He would have to be careful.

    He kept to the shadows and moved around the building, going down a floor to find the Egyptian exhibit. There was a security guard there so Kay waited in darkness until the guard took his walk away from the vicinity before Kay popped out and strutted around the floor, gazing at items around the room.

    History and culture weren¡¯t things Kay was interested in, but it was neat to be strolling through a famous museum when no other visitors were there. Aside from dodging security guards, he had the whole place to himself.

    He saw one of those fancy Egyptian coffins laying down in a display case. He walked up to it, reminding himself not to touch anything. He kept his arms¨C two extensions of his fluid body¨C at his sides.

    ¡°Whoa,¡± said Kay with the volume a gentle breeze. ¡°Fancy.¡±

    He looked around the room at all the pieces of Egyptian culture. The Egyptian exhibit was heavily promoted back in grade five when his class went on a trip to the ROM. Kay had to miss out because he got the flu that week. After all those years, he found his way to the museum and the Egyptian display lived up to the hype!

    Travelling around the museum, he turned a corner and found the section with the prehistoric man exhibits. There were some dioramas, man-made completely, but in some of the smaller cases an assortment of old tools, weapons and clothing were displayed¨C all of them sorted in varying glass cases.

    Kay walked up to a diorama with a couple prehistoric men attacking a woolly mammoth. For a second he wondered if the mammoth was a taxidermied one like the one upstairs but then he remembered that mammoth went extinct long before taxidermy was a thing. Kay read the plaque in front of the arrangement: Before agriculture, human tribes relied on hunting and foraging to survive.

    He looked at the mammoth, its front legs up¨C ready to crush the men attacking it with spears and stone axes.

    Kay chuckled and turned away from the display. He pictured an imaginary crowd and put his hand out, imitating the mannerisms of a scholar. ¡°Here we have early man hunting a mammoth, providing enough food to last them until the medieval age.¡±

    The boy smirked. He really had a knack for being funny when nobody was around. The boy¡¯s smirk dropped and he looked around the museum, everything still and dead. He suddenly felt the emptiness of the place.

    Vic went over to the coffee maker to get himself another cup. The radio hollered in his ear as he took the cup underneath the spout and let his cup fill up with a black pool. The night was young so he kept his hands off the sugar and milk. Black as a midnight pool, but at a higher temperature. Vic took a good sip then went back to his seat, staring off into space as he got the skim on hockey.

    ¡°Looking ahead to the 2003-2004 season,¡± said the radio host, ¡°the Leafs are adapting to the switch-up nicely, says new GM John Ferguson Jr. With Quinn fully focused on coaching, he hopes to take the Leafs to the cup.¡±

    ¡°When you got the guy that won Canada gold at the Olympics,¡± said the other host, ¡°that¡¯s where you want him. On the ice, with whistle in hand.¡±

    Vic nodded, taking a sip from his coffee. His eyes scanned the monitors, but everything seemed fine. No artifacts out of place, and men walking their patrols. All the guards had their flashlights on, keeping the area safe. All but one, actually. Vic got up and looked closer at the fella walking through the Greek display: he was a little small for a security guard.

    Wait, he wasn¡¯t a security guard!

    Vic grabbed his radio. ¡°Report. We have an intruder wandering the Greek section.¡±

    ¡°On it,¡± replied another.

    Vic kept the radio in hand as he watched the situation. He gazed at the perp: the intruder didn¡¯t look like he had a real head. His arms danced in the light, too. Was something wrong with the camera, or was the museum under attack by some kind of spectre?

    Kay didn¡¯t have a furious interest in ancient history but it was hard not to be wowed by the many pieces of Greek art occupying the gallery. He walked through the showcase and let his eyes feast on the many aesthetic pleasures. Even the walls were decorated with murals. The most impressive sights were the statues though.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    The watery lad looked over a headless statue. Ancient Greece might have been old, old times but somebody knew how to put a statue together, even if that statue lacked a head.

    Greek culture sure was nice when it wasn¡¯t being pushed in Kay¡¯s face.

    The aquatic boy went up to a vase with art painted on the side. It was a nice vase and the art was eye-catching. Between the man painted on the vase fully exposing himself and a particular statue of a lady with no clothing on, Kay could imagine there would have been some smirking and snickering on that fifth grade trip he missed.

    ¡°Hey you!¡±

    Kay looked over to the gallery entrance see Raul, a security guard with a flashlight tight in his hand. The man approached.

    ¡°Shooooot!¡± said Kay. He looked around for an escape and saw a vent in the corner above a cabinet of glassware. It was time to scram. Kay took off running, taking a mighty hop over a floor case full of Greek tableware.

    Raul went at Kay with a heavy dash and a fierce expression but that dash slowed to a stop and that expression of ferocity loosened as the man got a better look at who he was chasing. The intruder¡¯s body looked to be made of some kind of plasma. Raul had to rub his eyes as watched the intruder sink into a ball and then blast up on top of the cabinet, its purple form shining in the light like a pond underneath the moon.

    Isaac, a middle-aged guard of shorter stature, came running in the other entrance, flashlight away and ready to grab a punk. He saw the perp moving across atop the cabinet. ¡°Get down from there!¡±

    He was wondering why Raul was staring and not doing anything but then Isaac got a better look at the creep and saw that the creep¡¯s face and arms were looking more like slime than flesh, with light passing through the wobbly shapes. The creature hopped up into a vent, pushing itself through the gate and out of sight, at least that was until the slime creature dropped back out, falling on the cabinet.

    That vent was blocked with a seal Kay couldn¡¯t squeeze through.

    Kay reformed into his personable form. ¡°Nuts!¡±

    Isaac walked up to the cabinet and got Raul¡¯s attention with a hand-wave. ¡°Help me up.¡±

    Raul took Isaac¡¯s side and held his hands out for Isaac to step upon. Raised up to the top of the cabinet, Isaac had the intruder at arm¡¯s length but when the man got a look at the creature¨C the humanoid stranger with a body made of some kind of alien substance¨C Isaac lost his nerve. He didn¡¯t want to touch that.

    ¡°Grab it!¡± said Raul, struggling to hold up the weight of his co-worker.

    Kay looked around. He saw another cabinet against the wall across the room he could jump¨C although it would take a mightier kind of jump. He compressed himself down, his body features dissolving into a ball of water, then sprung out, firing himself across the room and over to the wall.

    ¡°Oh for the love of Pete!¡± said Isaac.

    He hopped down from Raul¡¯s grasp and the two ran over to Kay, Raul rotating his arms to twist out the pain he garnered holding up his co-worker.

    Kay walked down the top of the sectional wall, passing over pipes and ducking under vents. The Greek section was on one side of the wall with the security guards closing in on Kay¡¯s distance from below, and on the other side was another gallery although Kay didn¡¯t have the time to see which theme it was going with.

    ¡°You there!¡± shouted another security guard, looking up at Kay from the gallery below, ¡°Stop!¡±

    More security personnel were gathering and it was only going to get worse the longer Kay stayed. He saw another duct with its opening hanging above the gallery. The water boy swung off of a pipe onto the top of that vent¡¯s end, rattling it with his body weight. He had to arc his body down into the grille, but he pushed his aquatic body through the slots and after his head rematerialized on the other side, he saw that nothing was blocking the vent, so that was his way out.

    The security guards looked up at a monster, its body pressing through the shutters. It was a couple metres off the ground; nobody was going to be able to reach it. Isaac looked around and saw a ladder resting by the water fountain. He took it over beneath the duct and snapped out the legs so that it could be placed. Raul and the other guy pressed down the hooks to sturdy the apparatus and also to volunteer themselves to hold the ladder, leaving Isaac the one who would actually climb up and nab the creature.

    Isaac was regretting not taking that job at that pig farm out of Listowel.

    Kay had his head in the vent, but getting the rest of his body inside was going to be a challenge. If he dropped his legs, it likely would have pulled him out of the vent and had him crash to the floor. Not ideal, especially since bickering was heard below and it sounded like the security guards were right there waiting to capture him.

    What to do¡­ what to do¡­

    If he concentrated, Kay could melt his body so that he could slip right into the vent and get out of there. He wasn¡¯t good at doing something so intricate with his watery form and he was feeling the heat coming up from below, so he didn¡¯t have the time to pull off that maneuver. Instead, he put one of his arms¨C his shoulders still outside the duct¨C up to the gate and let it seep through to join his head inside the vent. He gripped the vent as best as he could from within¨C pushing his arm up into the top corner of the corridor¨C and snapped his other arm through the gate. There wasn¡¯t a lot of room in the vent but when you were composed of magical water, getting squeezed together wasn¡¯t as uncomfortable as it would be if flesh.

    His legs, liquid feet planted on top of the duct, were curved around the edge of the vent so tightly that his feet lost grip, slipping off the edge of the top of the vent and flopping out over the room.

    The vent churned and Kay yelped, the weight of his legs pulling his body out of the vent.

    Isaac took another slow step up the ladder, ready to grab the plasma being hanging out of the vent¨C kicking its legs in all directions like a chicken with its head cut off. He didn¡¯t know what he was going to do if he actually got a hand around the creature¡¯s body, but that was a problem for future Isaac. At the moment, he was still climbing steps.

    Kay pushed his arms out and pressed against the duct corners hard to slow his fall out of the vent. With the grille sliding up his torso towards his head, Kay raised his knees to the gate, but couldn¡¯t get them high enough to enter the gate. Even pressed hard against the walls, his body drifted out of the vent.

    ¡°No, no, no, no!¡± said Kay.

    In one final try, he whipped his knees up and let them break apart into a liquid splash so that they smacked on the gate and melted into the rest of his body. The weight dragging Kay out of the vent relaxed and he was able to climb himself back up into the duct while his melted legs drained through the gate. Once most of his form had passed through into the vent, he let his entire body melt into a slime ball and he glided through the vent, looking around for an exit.

    Isaac sighed and climbed down from the vent. Raul kept his ears open to hear where the intruder was going but the vents quickly went silent. The spectre has disappeared.

    The other guard got the radio. ¡°The intruder slipped into the vents, heading up to the roof.¡± He put the radio on his belt and ran off, leaving Isaac and Raul behind.

    The two guards couldn¡¯t believe what they had seen. Was someone pulling a prank on them? Was it a magic trick or some kind of new hologram technology?

    Isaac looked around at the room, looking over the gallery¡¯s assortment of statues, jars, and art. He gestured a finger around the room. ¡°Y-you don¡¯t think one of these things could be haunted, do ya?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, Isaac,¡± said Raul, placing his hands on sides and looking up above the gallery, retracing the path that the intruder took on its way out. The thing moved like a living ball of Silly Putty.

    Isaac remembered when he walked in the Greek gallery Raul was standing there, staring at the creature. Isaac slapped Raul on the shoulder. ¡°Hey! You got a good look at it. What did it look like?¡±

    Raul shook his head, staring into space. ¡°I don¡¯t know. It was some kind of ghost thing!¡±

 A Day In The Life

    It was October now so the morning took a little while to get going and the walk to school was under a dim sky. Not that any sunshine was going to exorcise the grogginess out of everyone skulking their way to businesses, schools or bus stops. Kay¡¯s leather jacket served as a decent coat as the autumn weather turned the temperature down.

    When he got to school and found out that the building was too warm for three layers, instead of taking off his leather jacket, he removed his sweater underneath and kept the jacket on. Between the jacket (which was fake leather) and his prescription sunglasses, Kay had the look of a classic rocker from the 1970s¨C or someone posing as a classic rocker.

    Some teachers didn¡¯t like a student wearing shades indoors but since they were prescription and Kay had no other pair available in building, the teachers resigned to letting the student carry on his rockstar costume, and nobody cared enough to demand that the student bring his regular eyeglasses the next day. In the end, he was non-disruptive and while it was too early in the school year to gauge anyone¡¯s performance, Kay was a good student.

    He kept quiet. The only friends he had were the ones he talked to during class, neighbours that he developed a basic report. Huxley was one of those neighbours; someone for Kay to discuss old video games with.

    That Tuesday, Huxley leaned over to whispered: ¡°There¡¯s this RPG I¡¯m playing. It got translated recently¨C Treasure of Rudras.¡±

    ¡°Oh, okay, I¡¯ll check it out,¡± Kay responded, adding it to a long list of games that he would have on his computer but never play.

    The teenaged boy seemed normal, and that was all Kay needed. He did his homework and was never late so that he shook the boat as little as possible. It was a cover story: an anodyne persona in front of what he did after school¨C during ¡°water hours¡±. It was all in service of the euphoria that came with being a water ¡°elemental¡±, as Kay put described himself. It was easy to do schoolwork and chores when it was all in service of his amazing, secret life.

    Maybe it was because he presented himself so confidently, but no one bugged him aside from an occasional crack about his fashion choices. School dismissed and on Kay¡¯s way out some student jeered on him from down the hall with ¡°See you later, rockstar!¡± which got laughter from the wannabe comedian¡¯s friends. Kay ignored him.

    Outside, there was a bright afternoon waiting for him. Bright, but chilly. After a few minutes of walking home, Kay regretted not slipping on his sweater before he left the building. He zipped up his jacket, put his hands in his pockets, and picked up his walking speed.

    Kay got home and looked around the apartment. It was often that he was the first one home. He walked up to the hallway and didn¡¯t hear his mom or Urban in their bedroom and he didn¡¯t hear Aubrey either. He was alone.

    What was he going to do that day? Oh yeah, he wanted to hit a movie. Later, though. He went to his room, slapped his backpack down by his bed and went to his computer. Turning it on and letting it load up, he noticed that the big sticker on the side of the tower had a corner folding off. Kay took a finger and pressed down on the decal but the adhesive didn¡¯t take. Kay tried his best, but gave up.

    He sighed and stared at the sticker while the computer hummed and beeped awake. It was a sticker for 1020 Bops, Toronto¡¯s oldies station and once Kay¡¯s dad¡¯s favourite radio station. The decal was like his dad¡¯s signature¨C a parting gift before he moved back to Lithuania.

    The computer was showing its age, though. The operating system loaded up: Windows 95. It played the same games it had always played and connected to the internet but Kay found out recently it wasn¡¯t powerful enough to play the PC port of Grand Theft Auto III. No, he would have to settle for older games, including emulating SNES titles he missed as a kid.

    The absurdity wasn¡¯t lost on Kay; that a person could want to play an old video game when they would be heading out later to transform into a water being and use those incredible powers to swing around the city in ways that most could only dream¨C prompting a real adventure for an artificial one. It was a lesson Kay quickly learned when he embraced his powers at the end of last school year: that everything¨C including his superhuman abilities¨C was better in moderation.

    That and some of those video games were pretty cool.

    Kay¡¯s bedroom looked out upon a roof, one that was level with the bottom of the bedroom window and about five metres wide. The building owners didn¡¯t want anyone walking around up there but if Kay wanted, he could open his window and climb out onto the roof, and then go down the outside stairs to an alleyway as an alternate method of leaving his house. Or: someone could reverse it. Someone could climb the stairs, walk across the rooftop, and tap on Kay¡¯s window¨C wanting in.

    The sudden taps startled Kay, getting the kid to jostle in his computer seat. He looked at the window and who was it? It was Philly, Kay¡¯s fox friend, tapping his paws on the screen.

    ¡°Hey, buddy!¡± Philly called through the glass. ¡°Open up!¡±

    Kay couldn¡¯t believe it. He went over to his window and unlocked the hook to slide it open. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± he said through the screen.

    ¡°I came to see you,¡± said Philly.

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°You can¡¯t just come here!¡± said Kay. He put his head to the window and looked around the other buildings. Was anyone watching? He couldn¡¯t know for sure. ¡°What if someone sees you?¡±

    ¡°All they would see is a fox!¡± said Philly, straightening his posture and puffing out his fluffy neck proudly, brushy tail curling off of him. ¡°And there¡¯s a lot of foxes around!¡±

    ¡°What if someone sees me talking with you?¡± asked Kay.

    ¡°I dunno,¡± said Philly. ¡°Maybe they¡¯ll think you¡¯re trying to domesticate me?¡± He pushed on the mesh. ¡°So let me in, slick! The longer I¡¯m out here the bigger chance that I catch someone¡¯s glance!¡±

    Kay gave one last look around as he unlocked the screen window and slid it open. Philly ducked his head and stepped into the room, hopping down on Kay¡¯s bed.

    Kay tugged the sheets. ¡°Great. You¡¯re getting your dirty paws on my bed.¡±

    Philly gave him a nasty look. ¡°You¡¯re a fifteen year-old teenage boy. I¡¯m sure this place is dirty enough already!¡±

    ¡°Sixteen, actually,¡± said Kay, closing the windows. He sat down on his bed, fox buddy sitting beside him. ¡°You¡¯re lucky no one else is home. If someone comes through that door, you gotta skedaddle.¡±

    ¡°I can leave¨C¡± Philly stopped. Something was weird with Kay¡¯s face; his glasses, actually. His shaded glasses. The fox¡¯s jaw-dropped. ¡°Do you wear those indoors?¡±

    Kay wasn¡¯t sure what Philly was talking about until he noticed the fox staring at his nose. The boy giggled, his embarrassment caught off guard by the fox¡¯s disbelief. He lifted his glasses. ¡°Yeah.¡±

    Philly puttered out a sigh and drooped his body. Straightening back up, he put on a grin. ¡°I was wondering if you had given what I said any thought.¡±

    ¡°You mean¡­ becoming a superhero?¡± asked Kay. He took his eyes away and gazed at the floor, ¡°I don¡¯t know...¡±

    ¡°You¡¯d make a good one,¡± said Philly. He tapped Kay¡¯s shoulder with a paw. ¡°Plus, you got a disguise built right in!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not a fighter,¡± said Kay, dragging his eyes back up to Philly. ¡°Look what happened back with Shanda and all that. I didn¡¯t help anything¨C all I did was get my butt kicked.¡±

    Shanda. It was hard to believe but Kay realized¨C October¨C it was a year ago at that point. Just as his powers started to manifest, he met a girl: Shanda. When Shanda was under threat by a villain named Deox, Kay stepped in to save the day, or try to. Kay was no match for Deox, helping Shanda not a bit. Shanda¡¯s escape was of her own volition, and she disappeared, leaving Kay to never know where she went.

    It was a tale that could have made the beginnings of any superhero story, but in reality, it ended in Kay¡¯s heartbreak and trauma.

    But it was a year ago now.

    ¡°You were in over your head,¡± said Philly, ¡°having to fly a plane when you haven¡¯t even read the manual!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s for me,¡± said Kay. He faked some punches in the air. ¡°I can¡¯t fight.¡± He rattled on his chest. ¡°I know my water elemental form is resilient but just because I can take doesn¡¯t mean I can give.¡± He got up, taking small steps around his room. ¡°I know that from great power comes great responsibility, but in reality...¡± He threw his hands up, showing off his lanky form to his fox friend, ¡°the person who gets the magical water powers might not be equipped to use them.¡±

    Philly cranked a brow. ¡°Is that so? I heard you¡¯ve been seen around town in your elemental form, using them aplenty!¡±

    Kay tightened a judging gaze at Philly. ¡°Have you been spying on me?¡± he said, but he knew that Philly was had ears on all things supernatural, including Kay himself flaunting his water form around town. Kay sat down on his computer chair and turned it towards Philly. Philly hopped and walked up to Kay, sitting at the boy¡¯s feet. It embarrassed Kay the way that the fox looked at him¨C bright eyes and proud grin¨C like Kay was already a hero. That made it harder to disappoint the fox. ¡°I like using my powers to get around but fighting is a different thing entirely.¡± He swung his chair around to his computer and idly fiddled with his video game. ¡°Doesn¡¯t Toronto have a superhero? Lady Beat? Or is that all made up?¡±

    Philly repositioned himself beside Kay¡¯s chair and watched along. ¡°She¡¯s real, as far as I can tell. Toronto¡¯s a big city, though. And Lady Beat is only one lady.¡±

    Kay was silent, rudely so. He played his game, getting his red-haired knight to attack a couple flying bug creatures with a large sword. Big purple numbers popped out of the creatures.

    Philly wasn¡¯t much for video games, being a fox, but he found it amusing. He smirked up at his human friend. ¡°You¡¯d rather fight bad guys in video games, huh?¡±

    Kay mirrored a grin back down at the fox. ¡°If I get hurt in a video game, I don¡¯t get hurt in real life.¡±

    Sound logic, Philly had to admit.

    The fox hung out a little while longer but sooner or later one of Kay¡¯s family members was going to get home, perhaps making it harder to Philly to evacuate or maybe some other complication. Kay opened the windows back up for Philly and the fox took to the wind.

    Watching the fox walk away, Kay had to dwell on the meeting. It was conversations like the one Kay just had with his vulpine pal that highlighted how strange his situation was. ¡®Superhero¡¯¡­ it was a word straight out of fiction so it couldn¡¯t have applied to a real person like Kay, could it?

 A Day In The Life II

    Kay sat at his computer and messed around with his game for an hour or more, but all the talk he had with Philly about superpowers and his water form abilities got him excited. It was time to get out, so he shut his machine and headed out of his apartment. He met his mom at the door and she was surprised to see him leaving so close to supper.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to see a movie,¡± said Kay, which wasn¡¯t a lie. ¡°With a friend,¡± he added, which was.

    It had become routine for him to not be around for supper, only to eat when he got home. Hanging out with friends was the excuse Kay gave his mother, but in truth, he was out about town in his water elemental form. It was something he had been doing a lot.

    Leaving his apartment and convincing his mother he was just out with friends was one thing. Making the shift was another matter. Kay had developed a strong sense of caution on where he could transform. Walking down the sidewalk and shifting into his water form in front of the public library was not ideal. Even if the streets seemed clear, who knew who was peaking from an open window?

    No, the ideal places for transforming were discrete, had multiple exits, and allowed Kay to¨C in his water elemental form¨C slip into the (sometimes literal) cracks of the city. One spot that was close to home was a cemetery that shared an edge with a series of garages that Kay never saw in use and wouldn¡¯t harbour many eyes. This line of garages pointed into a line of shops, the bakery being a two floor building. From there, Kay could hop to other buildings around the district, high above the people below. Two storeys above¨C where he wanted to be.

    But the first step was transformation. Kay entered the cemetery, and made sure that no one was around. The cemetery was quiet as cemeteries should have been. There was a spot near the garages enclosed by a spattering of trees. In case someone walked down the cemetery¡¯s road and looked over at Kay as he transformed, the buckeyes mystified the scene that plausible deniability was still a factor.

    Transforming was weird, but easy. Once a strange sensation that Kay couldn¡¯t understand, it had become second nature. It was like Kay flexing a muscle that wasn¡¯t there. It was like unleashing an energy from the centre of his body and delivering it to every limb. Heck, that could have been what he was doing whenever he willed a transformation.

    ¡°Is it clear?¡± asked Kay, taking one final look to make sure no one was around.

    He hung his arms out and concentrated that energy from his core out to the tips of his being. His body glowed, light gleaming off his skin like he was ready to explode. Except he didn¡¯t. Instead his body became liquid; hair, skin, and everything underneath becoming a kind of living water. Kay was water. His human clothes disintegrated and were replaced with a sleeveless shirt and a pair of pants¨C both pieces made of the same magical water as his body, but taking the texture of fabrics. The clothes, too, were purple.

    Kay was in his water form¨C the water elemental. He looked up at the top of the garages and compressed his body into a ball¨C shirt and pants dissolving into the living water they were made out of¨C so that he could spring up there. Aiming himself in that form was second nature. He bounced up and ran across the garages unto the rooftops and then did a spring-jump up to the top of the bakery. High above on two-storey rooftops and the sidewalks below, he felt safe to jump across streets and alleyways without anyone noticing.

    Up ahead was a street, a gap of platform that would require a leap of at least eight metres. Kay dashed towards the edge and just when he got to it, he compressed down into a ball and using that forward momentum, he sprung out like a spray of water and fired across to the roof on the other side. He would have screamed with joy but being discrete was utmost important. And also because in that form that resembled an ocean spray, he lacked a mouth to scream with.

    Maybe some of the people below would see a sparkle in the sky for a half second and turn their heads up only to just miss Kay flying above, and maybe some would get a bit of spritz on their faces and wonder where it came from, but if Kay moved quickly and moved right, he remained undetected.

    Landing on the other side, Kay took his humanoid form and got back to running across rooftops. If he stuck to the centre of the structure, it was unlikely people would see or hear him from below.

    That¡¯s all it needed to be, Kay and his powers: running, jumping across rooftops. He would challenge himself to jump up to an apartment building and sneak across the patios, staying out of sight of anyone inside. It was October and the weather was getting colder so not a soul was using the patios at the moment. He transformed himself to a puddle to keep low and even hopped in that form between patios, a snake of purple liquid bridging over the gap from one platform to another.

    It was wonderful. He had done it a thousand times before but jumping off the apartment building, leaping high through the air, the wind blasting against his aquatic body; it was a thrill he adored. He had been at it for months and it hadn¡¯t dulled the experience.

    It was a bit chilly but the pains of colder temperature didn¡¯t hit as hard in his water form.

    Running atop rooftops provided new perspectives, too. What was it like to run where people weren¡¯t meant to run? Up above the city streets, the acoustics were vengeful.

    Atop one particular business district where clothing shops and dining places lined the street, the music rang up into the roofs¨C from multiple sources. There was a spot above a clothing store where the music sneered out of of the ventilation inlet. It was that song ¡°Get Low¡± that Kay had heard a hundred times over the summer. The techno bleeps and growling vocals were going to haunt them until he was an old man. If that wasn¡¯t enough, there was a restaurant with a speaker aimed right up at where Kay was standing, blaring that new Christina Aguilera. Two auras of sound in a skirmish.

    Kay didn¡¯t have ears in that form, but he worried for them anyway.

    In the time that Kay had gotten used of his watery body, he had seen more of Toronto than he ever did his entire time living there as a normal human. He got to know the streets and the districts. He saw more landmarks than ever before. He had feasted on the culture of Toronto every night he could.

    And it was easy to partake in so much culture when your superpowers made the entry fee to places like the SkyDome or the Royal Ontario Museum an easy zero dollars Canadian.

    If there were vents, Kay could turn into a puddle and slip inside and even if ventilation ducts were a no-go, Kay¡¯s transfiguring toolset made it easy to sneak in and out of various establishments. Movie theatres were easy mode in themselves, something he could attempt even without powers.

    The problem was sneaking in as a puddle of water, reforming as a humanoid elemental, and then turning back to human was not easy to go about undetected if the theatre was packed as most popular, good movies tended to be. He had heard good things about School of Rock (apparently the movie had a Led Zeppelin song), but it was filling seats so that was out of the question.

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Kay had to settle for the less popular movies, which usually meant the bad ones or ones that were old and on their way out of theatres. He snuck into the complex around the corner from his apartment, finding his way into the air-conditioning ducts.

    Now to choose a theatre. He thought.

    Even in his slime puddle form, he could still see and hear. Not optimally though. Without a proper pair of eyes materialized, his visual senses were blurry and the colours were dark. His hearing was like he was underwater, appropriately. He peeked out the grilles of one duct after another to see which room was empty. He saw a screening of School of Rock and it was packed so he thought about watching it through the grille, peeking at the screen through blades of steel, but then decided no. Down the ventilation duct there was another room playing a vampire/werewolf movie with only half of its seats filled, but Kay peaked into the place and there were too many people near the vent so he didn¡¯t think he could sneak in.

    Moving down the vent network, he found another gate and glanced inside the theatre to see that the seats were mostly empty. The opening spool was still going on so that spot was the ticket. He double checked to see that there was no one around where he was going to seep out, and then he pushed himself into and through the grille.

    Quietly did the sapient puddle leak into the theatre, sliding down the walls. Still in his puddle form, he slithered underneath seats, being very careful not to rub up against any garbage or stains. He found an empty spot way in the back in the middle of the row. If he seated himself far away from the aisles, the ushers were less likely to bother him. He regrew into his humanoid form and then¨C concentrating the same way he did to turn into the living water¨C let his human form return, his clothes returning with him. A human again, he could enjoy the movie.

    Tonight''s viewing pleasure was Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. Kay hoped for a hidden gem or a nice surprise but unfortunately the movie was a mistake, both Kay choosing to watch it and the movie being made. Oh well. He went through trouble of sneaking in and the ushers weren¡¯t bothering him so he took advantage of the evening and watched a free (new) movie.

    The movie started, the movie went, and then the movie concluded. Kay got some looks on his way out with ushers and ticket takers suspicious that the teenage boy with shades and a leather coat wasn¡¯t seen walking in. Before they could ask any questions, Kay walked out into the cold night. While Kay was watching a movie, the sun set and evening arrived. He wanted to watch the sunset but it wasn¡¯t going to be tonight. He zipped up his jacket as far as it would go and hurried home before he caught a cold.

    When he got home, his sister Aubrey on the couch was watching TV and his mom, Stevie, was at the dinner table reading a book although Kay didn¡¯t care enough to read the title. Urban was lying down in the bedroom. The show Aubrey was watching blaring loud with quippy character dialogue and a prominent laugh track.

    Supper. Kay might have had the ability to turn into a living water being but that didn¡¯t meaning he didn¡¯t need food. He went to the fridge and found the leftovers in a cooking pan¨C he lifted the tinfoil to see a spread of pastitsio.

    Living with Urban had some advantages, thought Kay.

    He brought out the pan, cut out a piece to put on a plate, then put the leftovers back.

    While Kay heated up the plate in the microwave, his mom asked how the was the movie was. ¡°Okay,¡± said Kay. His mom showed a mild amount of interest until he uttered the name: ¡°Dickie Roberts: Child Star.¡±

    ¡°That sounds ridiculous,¡± said Stevie.

    And she was right.

    Stevie went quiet but Kay, leaning by the microwave, had a curiosity. ¡°Mom,¡± he said, ¡°what was that song that came out in the eighties where all the stars came together to make a charity¡­ whatever?¡±

    His mom looked up from her book, cocking an eyebrow. ¡°¡¯We Are the World¡¯?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the one,¡± said Kay.

    After walking over to Aubrey to see what she was watching¨C ¡°The Smarty Party,¡± said Aubrey¨C Kay took his dinner into his room and turned his computer on. While the machine loaded up, he sat down on his bed and picked at his dinner. He took a bite and scorched the top of his mouth, it was too hot to eat.

    He put the plate down on his mattress to cool but saw a couple strands of hair on his sheets. They were a dark greyish kind of brown, so Kay knew they were not from him but a gift from his vulpine friend.

    Kay picked them up and brought them to the garbage bucket by his door¨C ¡°You better not have fleas, Philly!¡±¨C then returned to his bed to look out the window into the dark night, windows shining through the darkness on a quiet Tuesday evening.

    Could I fight crime? Kay asked himself. Could I beat bad guys?

    The very idea of violence, punching people and getting punched, got Kay to shiver. The thought of Shanda and everything Kay did to protect her, all the criminals he tried to fight and fail¨C the thought of that incident still made him cringe and twitch with embarrassment.

    Deep down, though, Kay knew that he was thrown into the deep end with that incident. What would crime fighting entail around Toronto? Would he thwart bank robbers or knock knuckles with mobsters? Would it be him sniffing out muggers and putting them in their place? Punching out bullies?

    That didn¡¯t sound like anything he wanted to do but it didn¡¯t sound bad either. Was Toronto really in the need for superheroes? The teenager didn¡¯t know much about crime statistics and his reference for superheroes was what he heard about Lady Beat thwarting some crooks or some thugs, but he didn¡¯t get the impression that Toronto had a crime problem that no other city had.

    Kay took another bite of his dinner. Still too hot. That sauce was good, though.

    Philly had good judgment. If he saw something in Kay, the chatty vulpine was probably right.

    Kay sighed and put the plate down on the bed. Maybe tomorrow he would give being a hero a test.

 Debut

    Kay spent the entire school day ruminating over if he would give being a superhero a shot or not. He weighed the risks, the necessity of heroes, and the potential glory he could get by being the one that saves the day. If he had a spare moment, his mind drifted to the idea of heroism. Throughout the entirety of lunch he mulled over it as he mulled over a tasty turkey sandwich.

    Then Kay¡¯s last class let out twenty minutes early so he saw it as a sign. Leaving school, he decided to track down Philly and discuss his potential superhero career. Kay had only a blurry memory of where Philly lived, though. It was something like a month ago where Kay saw Philly off in an alleyway behind an office building downtown. Kay left school and immediately caught a bus into the city.

    Where was it? Kay asked himself. Where was it?

    He knew the building was around a Chinese restaurant so when he spotted White Dragon off of King St, he got off the bus and looked around the intersection for anything familiar. Standing on the horizon was an old office building with worn grey sidings and a sloped roof. Kay recognized it: that was the one. Kay walked over and checked the office out. The windows out front were big, allowing him to see into the building were marching around at the end of their work days. Coming to the edge of the building, Kay peered into the alleyway, checking to make sure it looked safe. He didn¡¯t think any troublemakers were lurking in there but as he turned inward, his steps were slow.

    The building was big, but once he got to the back he recognized the intersection as the place we he saw Philly off weeks ago.

    Now, where was Philly?

    Kay didn¡¯t know how to call a fox, so he clicked his teeth like his grandma did when she called her cats. He felt like an idiot doing it and hoped nobody heard or saw him but Philly¡¯s ears were powerful so if the fox was around, the fox would hear. Kay clicked a few times but no one appeared, though.

    ¡°Philly?¡± said Kay in a piercing whisper. ¡°Are you here?¡±

    ¡°Bud?¡± It was Philly¡¯s voice, muffled and distant. ¡°Is that you?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, where are you?¡±

    There was a duct on the wall with its spout aimed down at the ground. It rumbled, the sound of canid paws scratching on metal. The rumble got close and out of the vent popped out a fox. Philly.

    ¡°We¡¯re you chittering at me?¡± asked Philly, a glare aimed at Kay.

    Kay shrugged, a look in his face pleading for forgiveness. ¡°I didn¡¯t know what else to do!¡±

    Philly narrowed his eyes. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t you try ¡®Hey, Philly! You there¡¯?¡±

    Kay looked at the wall around the duct, the weathered bricks wearing the spattered colours of age. ¡°Do you live in the building?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± said Philly. ¡°I got a spot in the basement that¡¯s warm and dry.¡±

    Kay looked down the alleyway at any windows or doors. ¡°How do you not get caught?¡±

    A grin appeared on his snout and he gave a smug side-glance. ¡°A few tricks. They keep an eye out for animals getting in, but they don¡¯t expect a fox to be as smart as me.¡± He clicked his teeth with a big smile.

    ¡°Hey...¡± Kay stopped. Philly saw that Kay was there to talk about something important so he dropped the smile and focused. Kay hesitated but got the words out: ¡°I was thinking about what you said.¡±

    Philly¡¯s eyes brightened. ¡°You mean, about being a superhero?¡±

    Kay nodded. ¡°Yeah.¡± He straightened his expression. ¡°I¡¯m not sold on the idea, but I want to give it a shot.¡±

    Another smile overtook Philly, this time one with pride. ¡°Fan-tas-tic! We should hit the West End. That place has its share of trouble.¡±

    ¡°Wait...¡± Kay¡¯s posture sank. ¡°Right now?¡±

    Philly nodded, big ears wiggling. ¡°Yeah! Why not?¡±

    Kay puttered his throat. Well, he wasn¡¯t going to do much of anything today anyway. He craned his hands out. ¡°I guess.¡±

    It was settled. Today was the day that Kay would have his first crack at superheroing. Philly didn¡¯t want to trot all the way to the West End so Kay stuffed him in his backpack (not a lot of room with all those books) and went back to the bus stop. When the bus arrived, Kay flashed the driver his ID and went to the back, Kay slapping his pack down on the bus floor.

    ¡°It¡¯s hot in here,¡± said Philly.

    Kay shushed him.

    The boy got off near his house and let Philly out to scatter to the West End while Kay went on up to his apartment to drop off his backpack and leave a message for his mom letting her know he wouldn¡¯t be around until later. Leaving his house again, he found a quiet spot to transform into the water being and zipped across town to meet up with Philly at the South Point Cafe.

    There was the logistics of deciding how to travel across town with Kay jumping across the rooftops and Philly could keep to the ground and scurry across the streets.

    With that plan in action, the patrol began.

    Kay raced across the rooftops, and as he did he liked to play a game with himself. He would look towards the centre of Toronto and watch the horizon shift as city¡¯s skyscrapers parallaxed into each other, sealing away blocks of sky as the tall figures drifted into each other while new banners of afternoon expanded between towers that parted ways. It was hypnotic and a dangerous thing to distract Kay as he jumped over alleyways from one building to another.

    But it was a beautiful thing. After all, running and jumping across rooftops wasn¡¯t something he could do while human.

    There was a street up ahead. He did what he always did: shrink himself down into a ball and used that energy to push out, taking his forward momentum and launching himself across the street as a hose of water arcing through the sky.

    He landed on the other side and reformed into his humanoid shape, complete with shirt and pants.

    ¡°Wait up, faucethead!¡±

    He was going so fast that Kay had outpaced his companion. Kay looked back to see Philly struggling to hop across rooftops.

    After checking below to see if any of the pedestrians saw him jump over the street just then¨C looked clean¨C Kay took twenty paces away from the ledge. He got some running room and then raced to the edge to spring himself back the way he came. With Kay firing across the street so quickly (and silently), the pedestrians down below would assume that the object flying overhead a large bird, something darting across the sky out of their corner of their eyes.

    Kay landed on the rooftop across the road and dashed over to Philly. The fox saw that Kay had heard him and came back so Philly slowed down to catch his breath. Hopping rooftops was hard work when you had legs shorter than most cardboard boxes. He would have to stick to the ground floor.

    Kay crouched down and lowered his voice. ¡°Keep it down! You want everyone to hear you?¡±

    ¡°Oh, my apologies, friend!¡± said the fox, his voice winded. ¡°Next time I¡¯ll whisper at you from a mile away.¡±

    Kay sighed, rolling his head around. ¡°Sorry. I¡¯m not used to having someone tail me.¡± He carved his brow. ¡°Who are you calling ¡®faucethead¡¯, though?¡±

    Philly took a big inhale and exhale through his ebony sniffer and his breathing settled. ¡°Do you want me to call you by your real name?¡± He styled at Kay¡¯s body and looked up at the kid¡¯s liquidy face. ¡°While you are looking like this? I thought the point was you wanted to keep it a secret.¡±

    ¡°Good point,¡± said Kay.

    ¡°Besides...¡± Philly trotted in place, glee firing out of his dancey paws. ¡°You¡¯re going to need a superhero name if you¡¯re going to be fighting crime.¡± Philly leaned up, letting that smile gleam at Kay. ¡°What were you thinking? Anything come to mind?¡±

    Kay hatched his arms, the watery limbs sinking into each other. ¡°I haven¡¯t decided if I¡¯m doing this yet.¡±

    ¡°Well, c¡¯mon!¡± said Philly, getting up on all fours. ¡°Let¡¯s go find some crime to fight.¡±

    Kay dragged a hand down his face. Why did he allow Philly to convince him to do this? The water lad figured he would get it over with, though. He walked with a slow stride, pacing himself to let Philly walk comfortably alongside him. Although, speed was needed to get over the street¨C for a third time. While Philly crossed the street below, Kay arced across overhead and the two met on the other side. Somewhere around there, somewhere in that city, there was trouble, and Toronto was about to get a debut of their latest superhero.

    Tonee and Fitz walked down the sidewalk¨C Tonee with his boom box on his shoulder. If he wanted to make a statement, he would aim the speakers away from his head; aim them out into the world to let everyone hear his anthems. That day, however, he wanted to feel the music¨C potential hearing problems be damned. Fitz and he strutted down the sidewalk with the dial turned to the booming sounds of 99.5 the Spot, spurting out all the latest club jams from dancehall to hip hop.

    Sometimes others would sneer at the two teenagers with their loud, obnoxious music but Tonee nor Fitz cared. The streets were too quiet without their sounds.

    It was a hot day for October, so Tonee and Fitz wanted to enjoy it.

    The music thumping down the street got the attention of Jon and his friends, a trio of troublemakers resting up around the corner from Martinez¡¯ Mattress Company, on a part of the sidewalk that didn¡¯t get as much traffic. Jon, a tall 19 year-old with a bandana around his neck, saw the two kids serving as a portable radio broadcast so Jon straightened the wraps on his hands. He signalled to his two friends; it was time to go to work.

    Tonee and Fitz spotted the guys up ahead and figured they were bad news. What was there to do but try to ignore them? They walked with confidence when they walked down the streets of Toronto blasting their tunes but that confidence sunk out of them as Jon and his pals spread across the sidewalk to make a little blockade. Instinct dictated to ignore them but when Tonee and Fitz tried to weave through the shoulders of Jon and his cronies, the punks pushed Tonee and Fitz back.

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡°Let us through!¡± said Tonee.

    Jon put a hand to his ear, obnoxious smile on his teeth. Tonee flattened his expression to emphasize his annoyance and lowered the boom box. He turned it off. ¡°Can we help you?¡±

    Jon pointed at the machine in Tonee¡¯s hand. ¡°You know, it¡¯s not very polite to be cranking your stereo so loudly. I¡¯m sure the fine citizens of this neighbourhood don¡¯t appreciate it.¡±

    Jon¡¯s two cohorts circled around Tonee and Fitz, entrapping the young ones.

    ¡°It¡¯s not against the law,¡± said Tonee, feeling a little shook but standing his ground and keeping his jaw clenched.

    ¡°Oh, I think it is,¡± said Jon with a smug nod. ¡°Playing music too loud is¡­ uh¨C¡± He concentrated, trying to remember the term.

    One of Jon¡¯s cronies slid a finger down Tonee¡¯s boombox. ¡°Noise pollution.¡±

    Jon snapped his fingers in confirmation and gave his friend an affirming point. ¡°That¡¯s right. Noise pollution. I think we ought to confiscate this little toy you¡¯re showing off.¡±

    The thug reached for Tonee¡¯s boombox but the boy cradled the device close. ¡°Get off me!¡±

    When one of the punks took a hand on Fitz¡¯ shoulder, the boy threw it off. ¡°Go find someone else to mug!¡±

    This began a quarrel of shouts and bickering between the punks and their victims. The voices echoed up into the air and travelled across rooftops. A few blocks away, Kay and Philly were hopping across rooftops some more, looking for a day to save and they were about to find it. The arguing rung across a couple blocks to capture Philly¡¯s ears. The fox stopped and cranked his head to listen in that direction.

    Kay stopped. ¡°Hear something?¡±

    ¡°Over there,¡± said Philly, nodding his snout over towards the commotion. ¡°Sounds like trouble.¡±

    The two dashed across rooftops towards the argument. Was it a mugging? Was it a robbery? This was it. Kay¡¯s first mission as a superhero¨C if he was planning on making a career out of it. Would things get violent? Would he get hurt? Kay¡¯s heart beat with anxiety¨C or whatever he had instead of a heart when he body was composed of magical water.

    As they got close and the words became coherent, Kay and Philly ducked low and slid up to the edge of the building to look down at what was going on. Three larger guys surrounding a couple of kids, grabbing at their stereo? Yep. It was mugging. Plain and simple.

    Kay brought his head back over the ledge and tapped Philly. ¡°What do I do?¡±

    ¡°What?¡± said Philly. ¡°Uhhhh¡­ you go down and you fight them?¡±

    Kay gestured his arms out. ¡°H-how?¡±

    ¡°With your body?¡± said Philly.

    ¡°Like what?¡± Kay mimed slamming his hands down. ¡°Like punching? Kicking?¡±

    Philly nodded. ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯m strong enough,¡± said Kay.

    Philly sighed and swayed his head around. ¡°You have the strength to toss yourself across a city street. I¡¯m sure you pack a punch.¡±

    Kay shifted over to the ledge and looked down. The thugs had the kids against the wall, Tonee hiding his boombox behind his back. Kay took himself back. He gave Philly a look. ¡°What if I hurt them too much?¡±

    ¡°Just get down there!¡± said Philly, snapping his fangs at his watery friend.

    The crowd below heard that. They all directed their heads up to the roof, wondering who was snooping. One of the cronies shouted. ¡°Hey yo! Is someone up there?¡±

    Kay sighed and resigned a tired look at Philly. Philly smirked and tilted his head at the ledge. It was showtime. Kay nodded and got up. Spotting a safe place to land, he hopped off the roof down onto the pavement.

    Nobody down there was expecting someone to jump off a roof, but that was only their first surprise. Looking over Kay, the crowd¨C punks and victims alike¨C were shocked and puzzled at what they were looking at. Its head was composed of a flowing ball of purple water and two eyeballs floating on the front staring back at them with a scowl. It had the general shape of a human and even had a shirt and pants on its body, but it was not something made of flesh. Was it a person? Was it an illusion?

    Kay postured his hands on his sides and puffed out his chest, imitating a pose he saw in an old superhero cartoon. ¡°Stop right there, bad guys!¡±

    Everyone screamed. The water being spoke! Tonee lost grip on his boombox and it fell to the ground with a bonk.

    Kay relaxed his posture. ¡°Ummm¡­ what¨C¡°

    ¡°What is it!?¡± shrieked one of the cronies.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, man!¡± said Jon, his voice squealing with fear. ¡°It¡¯s some kind of ghost thing!¡±

    The third of the cronies turned face and sprinted away with speed that would have gotten him into on a track & field team. The others got the same idea¨C breaking to the horizon. Tonee dashed away before stopping, looking back at his boombox, zipping back to pick it up and continued his frantic evacuation of the area. The punks took a left while Tonee and Fitz took a right.

    And the streets were silent.

    Kay stared out into space, dumbfounded.

    Philly found a way down from the roof using a vent, a dumpster and some cardboard boxes. He walked out from the alleyway and joined Kay on the street, sitting down on all fours.

    Kay cranked his view down to Philly. He wasn¡¯t sure how he planned on handling the situation, but he wasn¡¯t expecting that. Philly looked at the empty street, devoid of any apparent trouble, and then glanced up at Kay, waggling his foxy brow. ¡°Mission accomplished!¡±

    ¡°But I didn¡¯t¨C¡°

    ¡°Mission accompliiiiiiiished!¡± Philly got up on his hind legs and drummed his paws on Kay¡¯s side.

    Kay rubbed his face. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say this is a mission accomplished.¡±

    Philly got off of Kay¡¯s legs. ¡°Well, was there a mugging before?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I think so.¡±

    And is there a mugging now?¡±

    Kay had to hand it to Philly¨C the fox had a point.

    Philly veered his head up at Kay and tapped a paw on Kay¡¯s leg. ¡°You¡¯re a natural, kid!¡±

    Kay cranked his neck back and sighed. ¡°We¡¯ll see about that.¡± He glanced around. They had lingered around enough. If they get going, someone was bound to see the purple water guy and his talking fox¨C someone else than the muggers and their victims. Kay slapped his arms to his side. ¡°Are we done here?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s scram,¡± said Philly.

    Kay spring-hopped back up on the roof and Philly took his box-dumpster-vent route back up to join his friend. The two vanished to another district; if they didn¡¯t find another crime to prevent, then the day was still a success. Many would have agreed: it was a triumphant first outing for Kay and his fledgling superhero career.

    Still in his watery form, Kay found a spot on the roofs to watch a sunset¨C a quiet little place between the edge of the building and the side of a ventilation unit, the heat of the structure warming his polymorphic body. Philly joined him in watching the sunset, Kay hunched against the wall and Philly laying down. The big lamp of life sunk towards the horizon, its colours reddening as its shape was cutoff from the earthen divide.

    In the end, they didn¡¯t find another crime to thwart that evening but Kay dipped his toe into the role of the hero and the situation resolved well. Looking forward, though, he felt like he owed Philly at least one more try to be a hero and see how it felt. Maybe tomorrow would put up a fight, Kay wondered.

    Kay raised his arm and watched how the sunlight reflected off of his aquatic surfaces, a shimmer of orange playing with the purple of his form.

    ¡°Philly...¡± said Kay, his voice quiet and vulnerable.

    Philly looked over and gazed at the kid with an open but serious look on his snouted face. ¡°Yeah?¡± He got up.

    Kay looked up from his arm, dropping the appendage on his lap. ¡°Do you know what I am?¡±

    Philly stared a moment, then lowered his eyes. When he raised them back up, sadness took his expression and he sighed. ¡°You already asked me this,¡± he said, referencing one of their first prolonged conversations. It might have been a few months back but Philly couldn¡¯t be sure. ¡°I don¡¯t know...¡±

    Kay turned back to the sunset, staring out with melancholy in his eyes. ¡°Do people just¡­ develop these kinds of powers?¡±

    Philly tilted his head left and right like he was gesturing at different possibilities. ¡°No, not really. Not something like being able to turn into a water person.¡± He waddled his head. ¡°Honestly? There are people out there that develop natural abilities, but that¡¯s¡­ telekinesis and stuff.¡± He smirked, letting a fang hang in front of his maw. ¡°The same thing is said to happen to some kinds of animals, giving them a human-level of intelligence, too. Not¨C¡± Philly gestured at Kay¡¯s body with an upward sweep of his nose ¡°¨Cwhat you have. That feels special.¡±

    Kay craned out his hands. ¡°But where did this come from?¡±

    ¡°If I find out,¡± said Philly, ¡°you will.¡±

    Kay sighed and leaned his head forward, resting his elbows on his knees. The answer wasn¡¯t satisfactory but Kay had faith that Philly was well-versed in the supernatural world, so if the fox said he didn¡¯t know where Kay¡¯s powers came from, there wasn¡¯t likely anyone who did.

    Kay rubbed his chin, the water of his hand seeping into the form of his head. Given such a privilege, Kay had to wonder what exactly what he was supposed to do. Was he chosen for something? It might have been his ego glowing inside him, but getting those powers made him wonder if they were meant for something.

    The more he pondered it, though, the more disinterested he became in the idea of being chosen for anything. I¡¯d rather not have a destiny, Kay thought.

    Philly saw the boy, tightening his cheeks like he was struggling with a thought. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± asked Philly.

    Kay dropped his wince. ¡°Nothing.¡±

    They took in a few more minutes of sunset then got going. Both of them needed to get supper.

 The Fight

    The warehouse was quiet, cold, and dim as a basement closet. It smelled of bog water although in the week since moving in, nobody could pin down why and hoped it would go away once they got around to a top-to-bottom cleaning. Whenever a gust of breeze hit the place, foundation all over squeaked like a dying car.

    Who would have thought that the place was the headquarters for Toronto¡¯s latest up-and-coming criminal empire?

    The side door opened with a squeal and shut with a loud thud. In walked Pax, already regretting not bringing his coat. It was cool inside the warehouse, especially compared to the outside, so the guy regretted only wearing his T-shirt to the meeting. The concrete floors and tall metal walls knew how to keep a chill around.

    The guy was a tough and he looked part. He might have been on the shorter side for a man in his line of work, but his body wore hardened muscle and he had scars all over his arms and a few on his face. His long blonde hair was slicked back. He walked with the swagger of a python.

    At first Pax thought he was alone, that he had arrived early. Cutting through the few shipping containers that came with the warehouse when it was purchased, Pax walked out onto the main floor and saw a few of his allies sitting around a desk in the middle of the floor. In the corner, there was the office, yellow light shining through the pane glass windows onto the gravely floor.

    Dead Head called to Pax from across the room. ¡°Ah! There is our man now.¡±

    Dead Head was the leader of the gang. Wearing a dark cloak over his form and hunched over, nothing about the way he looked commanded respect. His hands kept busy, touching surfaces, sliding over objects, or fidgeting with each other.

    Thrash was there too, sitting on some nearby crates while Shimmer took to Dead Head¡¯s side as he usually did.

    Pax walked up. ¡°What¡¯s up, boss?¡±

    ¡°We try to expand our reaches,¡± said Dead Head, his voice salty and deep, ¡°but certain store owners are withholding their goods.¡± Dead Head paced around the desk, the light above shining down on him like heaven but his cloak keeping his face in shadow. ¡°Standing up to us, as it would be. Refusing us.¡± He let himself ride those syllables and let his tongue hiss as the end of ¡®us¡¯.

    ¡°So you want me to put the fear in a store owner?¡± asked Pax. ¡°What am I? A goon?¡±

    Thrash snickered. ¡°The lowly job for a lowly member.¡±

    Pax clenched a fist in her direction. ¡°Cram it, Thrash!¡±

    Thrash was a taller woman with blue skin that signified something was different about her physiology or origins. For all of his knowledge of freaks and outsiders, Pax didn¡¯t know what her deal was. Thrash wore a cat suit and everywhere she went, she took her shining silver staff, the piece leaned up against the crates with her.

    ¡°You¡¯ll do what I say,¡± said Dead Head, circling a finger on his desk. ¡°This little institution is mine.¡±

    Pax saw Shimmer standing behind Dead Head, almost fading away in the darkness. Pax fired a cocky smirk at Shimmer. ¡°And what about Glasses over there? Is he going to be doing any footwork or is he a glorified bookkeeper?¡±

    Shimmer kept quiet, glaring at Pax through thin-rim glasses, a condescension in his gaze that he wasn¡¯t afraid to reveal.

    ¡°Shimmer has his jobs around here,¡± said Dead Head. ¡°You have your job out there.¡± He pointed away from them. ¡°Go to it!¡±

    Pax scoffed and walked out the way he came. Dead Head went to the office. Pax left with another squeak and slam of the door and Dead Head walked to the office door and went inside. He could be seen through the window, sitting at a desk.

    Thrash got up and picked up her staff. She saw Shimmer gazing around the room like he was investigating something.

    ¡°You know...¡± said Thrash, rubbing her chin, ¡°Pax is right about one thing. You¡¯re kind of shifty...¡±

    Shimmer took up his glasses with a pair of gentle fingers. The light of the office dazzled Shimmer¡¯s eyes. ¡°I do not care. Think what you will.¡±

    Shimmer¡¯s dismissiveness grazed her. Thrash clenched her jaw and got up, marching in front of Shimmer¡¯s view and glaring down at the guy like a jock to a nerd.

    ¡°How does a guy like you get involved in us underworlders anyway?¡± asked Thrash, accusing Shimmer of something with her tone. ¡°Where are you from?¡±

    ¡°Why would I reveal that information?¡± asked Shimmer. ¡°Would you surrender that information?¡±

    Thrash chuckled. The weirdo had a point.

    She wasn¡¯t going to get anywhere talking to the little guy, so she let out a condescending grunt and walked off, the clicks of her boots echoing up into the ceiling. The blue lady had things to do elsewhere.

    Shimmer scanned the lady as she walked away. Once she was out of sight, Shimmer went to the office to join his boss.

    Kay was worried that his mother was getting suspicious of his behaviour so he hung around the house after school, helping out with supper since Urban was going to be late. Though the ploy was obvious to Stevie, when Kay headed out into the night later on his mother didn¡¯t object. Kay had a schedule to keep. Philly and him planned to make his second session of superheroing during the night. Doing it in the day wasn¡¯t going to reap a lot of crime. Crime preferred the night.

    That night, Kay patrolled the west side. It had become obvious from their first excursion that Philly, a fox, was going to have trouble keeping up with a kid that could hop across rooftops and city streets. So when Kay met up with the fox, the vulpine still lodged behind that office building downtown, the fox had stashed away a little present: it was a brand new backpack with a waist strap.

    Where did Philly get a backpack? ¡°Oh... you know...¡±

    Wearing clothes, ones that weren¡¯t made of his own liquid energy, was weird for Kay but he stuck Philly into the bag and strapped it on his back. There was the worry that the straps would drift right through Kay¡¯s shoulders or his waist but after hopping around for a few minutes with Philly riding behind him, things seemed alright.

    With the pack on his back, Kay wouldn¡¯t be able to shift into his puddle form and spring-jump up to rooftops. In order to get up from of the alleyway where Philly lived, he had to hop onto a dumpster and then a catwalk. No big deal. He preferred the raw power of his springy abilities but if he got creative with platforming, he could still navigate up to rooftops.

    And he loved thinking about the world in video game terms. Platforming.

    He hopped across rooftops with his fox friend tucked away behind him. Philly kept his head out of the backpack so that he could watch and talk with Kay as the water boy flung around town.

    To cross large gaps, Kay had to get creative with streetlamps and banners¨C substituting large catapults with a series of stepping stone jumps.

    Philly would have to get used to the amusement park ride.

    ¡°Maybe we should¨C¡± the fox was thrust forward when Kay landed on a roof ¡°¨Cinstall a harness in this thing!¡±

    ¡°Or maybe one of those limo windows that block sound!¡± said Kay, smiling back at his vulpine friend.

    Philly glared, unamused.

    A black sedan drove down the road, streetlights shining off of the car¡¯s tinted windows like there was nothing inside. The car pulled into a lot beside an Italian restaurant and out came its inhabitants. It was Pax and a trio of friends.

    Bruno was a taller man with a muscular body. He wore a tank top to show off those rocky arms. For what he was about to do, he¡¯d need to show them off. The cool night weather was sinking in but Bruno shrugged it off.

    Richie was taller, had a medium build, and wore a suit. He looked more like a professional assassin than a hired thug. He wore glasses, kept his hair short, and walked with a distinguished professionalism.

    Bruno stepped to the back-end of the car to open the door for Weasel. Weasel was shorter than the rest and didn¡¯t look very strong, but he looked out into the world with a wild gaze, hidden behind scraggly black hair. His clothes were ragged and he stepped around erratically, hunched over.

    ¡°Who we hitting up today, Pax?¡± asked Bruno.

    ¡°Come, gentlemen,¡± said Pax, hitting the lock button on the door. There was few clicks around the car. Pax shut the door. ¡°We got an appointment with Mr Vadsaria.¡±

    They walked out of the lot and onto the sidewalk. Weasel got distracted by a No Parking sign. Pax had to turn around and shout ¡°C¡¯mon, Weasel!¡± before the little gremlin scurried up to Pax.

    The four of them walked in a diamond formation. Pax in front, Bruno and Richie to the sides, and Weasel in the back. It was a few blocks to the convenience store they needed to check out.

    Up above the streets, Kay caught eye of the quartet. He watched them walk down the street, their steps almost synchronized like they were marching.

    ¡°Hey, Philly,¡± said Kay. He waited until Philly popped his head out of the backpack then Kay gestured a nod in the direction of the tough-looking guys on the street.

    The four of them marched, not breaking formation and not getting out of the way of anyone else. Even if someone bumped into their shoulders, they didn¡¯t respond. ¡°Hey, watch it!¡± somebody would shout but they wouldn¡¯t respond. They had a job to do.

    Philly nodded. ¡°Yeah. They look like trouble. Let¡¯s keep an eye on them.¡±

    Etizaaz looked out the window. Night had fallen on the streets. He took his eyes away and idly walked around his shop. Two shelves went down the middle along the length of the store. At the front, his daughter Yamina sat behind the counter on a chair too tall for the eight year-old. She dangled her legs off the edge, hitting the metal support with the backs of her shoes ringing out light clanks. It was small corner store (the front room was twelve by eight metres) with just a couple fridges by the bathroom door, but it was Etizaaz¡¯s and he made a humble living.

    Etizaaz made sure that all the canned beans had their labels facing outward and straightened up all the small boxes of cereal. The radio was turned low. He had it on a news station but didn¡¯t have it loud enough for him to hear anything unless he was standing right under one of the store¡¯s two speakers.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°When are we going to leave, baba?¡± Yamina called from the front.

    ¡°Thirty more minutes,¡± said Etizaaz.

    Etizaaz returned to the front of the store. As he passed Yamina to get at the counter, he went in to shake her legs. The girl giggled and Etizaaz smiled for it.

    Things were quiet. Etizaaz read through a newspaper on the front counter and time passed. Then the bell on the door run as a customer came in.

    But Etizaaz broke into a cold sweat when he saw it wasn¡¯t a customer but an acquaintance: Pax. And this time, Pax brought three friends.

    Pax took the counter while the others wandered the floor. Weasel chuckled like a clown as he walked in, looking at all the products on the shelves. He picked up a bag of flour and stared at it like he had just been introduced to the idea of flour. He put it back, the bag dropping on it side.

    Even if she was a young girl, Yamina saw her father frightened and knew the customers were trouble. Her kicking went still.

    Etizaaz side-eyed at his daughter. ¡°Yamina: go in the office,¡± he said with his tone stern.

    With the chair being so tall, Yamina had to psych herself up to jump off of it. She hopped down and ran into a nearby door that lead into the store¡¯s small office. The room was narrow and dark. Yamina stayed by the doorway and peeked around the door frame at what was going on.

    ¡°You know...¡± Pax tapped the front of the counter. ¡°The boss isn¡¯t happy to hear you¡¯re unwilling to help him out with his supply issue.¡±

    It was a challenge to speak any word to the thugs as they spread out across his store, Bruno¡¯s massive size taking over the entire middle aisle. Etizaaz cleared his throat and braced himself. ¡°I will not help criminals. Tell your boss, whoever it is, that I¡¯m not going to be part of some gang.¡±

    But Etizaaz saw that Pax was not perturbed by the man¡¯s defiance. Trying another way to discourage the crook, Etizaaz thought up an excuse. ¡°This is just a small convenience store. I can¡¯t get the amount of supplies he needs!¡±

    ¡°Richie,¡± said Pax, leaning his head towards his cohort but keeping his eyes locked on Etizaaz, ¡°Go into the back and check to see how much stock Mr Vadsaria has.¡±

    ¡°On it,¡± said Richie, walking to the door in the corner that led to the back room.

    When Richie walked by, Yamina squeaked and hid behind the wall, watching the man walk into the back room and flicking on a light.

    ¡°We just need a couple chemicals and some electronics,¡± said Pax, his tone riding a fake-affability. ¡°If my boss ordered that stuff, it would be suspicious, but you¡¯re an owner of a store and everyone would leave you alone.¡±

    Etizaaz could only stare at the intruder and hope he would get bored and leave.

    Outside, on top of a roof to a loan agency across the street from the store, Kay and Philly were monitoring the situation, Philly having left the backpack and Kay having taken it off. With the punks hanging around the store and the owner looking intimidated, it was about time for Kay to intervene. It was time for Kay to make his debut as a superhero.

    ¡°You better get in there,¡± said Philly.

    Kay stared at the yellow glow of the store with a gaze of worry. ¡°What should I do? Just walk in?¡±

    Philly looked at how the window wrapped around the corner of the block. There was a back entrance, likely. ¡°No. Go around back.¡±

    Kay took a trembled breath in and exhaled. He hopped down off the roof and landed on the ground with a light splash. Nothing that hurt him in his aquatic form. Philly had to find a harder way to get down so Kay waited in front of the building for his friend to arrive. While he waited, he looked across the street and watched Pax bicker at the store owner, the store owner trying his best to keep a steady posture against intimidation. It was only a matter of time before that courage broke, though.

    Having found his way down, Philly came walking out from the alleyway. ¡°Come on.¡±

    Kay hesitated, refusing to take a step for a few seconds. He looked out at the corner store again, then followed behind Philly.

    His heart was beating fast. No, he didn¡¯t have a heart in that form. But he felt like he did and it was racing. He didn¡¯t need to breathe either, but as he ran, he inhaled and exhaled like a pair of lungs were pumping air through his body. The trembles in his arms were legitimate and his hearing was troubled, too, with everything being bassy and loud.

    Kay walked along the outside of the corner store, passing by a few windows plastered with posters. He could peek at the store and the crime-in-progress through the cracks between the pictures. In just a minute, he would have to confront those punks.

    Kay keeled over against the bricks.

    ¡°I can¡¯t do this,¡± said Kay, his voice winded.

    Philly turned around. ¡°What?¡±

    Kay¡¯s eyes were wide with terror. ¡°L-let¡¯s just call the police or something! I can¡¯t do this!¡±

    Philly pleaded with a piercing gaze. ¡°Kay, the people in there need our help now.¡±

    Kay brought his hands up to his face. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to...¡± He shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to do this.¡±

    Philly put a paw on Kay¡¯s side. ¡°Kay... I know things are scary right now. But the guy in there is way more scared and vulnerable than you could be.¡±

    Kay didn¡¯t say anything. He only sunk down further, trembling.

    With the water boy lowered enough that Philly could reach his head, Philly walked up and nuzzled Kay on his living pool cheek.

    This broke Kay out of his spiralling and his eyes looked up at his fox friend. Philly grinned. ¡°You¡¯re a tough one, Kay. Whatever they can dish out, you can take.¡±

    Their eyes locked for a moment. Out of all the things unbelievable about that situation, it was Philly¡¯s gaze that was shocking to Kay. Philly looked at Kay with a need that nobody had ever given Kay before. It was bewildering but it got the fuel inside Kay churning.

    The water lad got back up and Philly continued on, the fox turning around the corner behind the convenience store. Kay turned into the alley quick when he saw a couple pedestrians coming down his way.

    In the alley, there was an opaque brown door. Philly walked up to it and sniffed at the crack at the bottom. He raised his head to Kay and nodded. That was the way in.

    Kay took a big breath in, walking up to the door. He shook out his arms and rotated his neck. ¡°Okay...¡± He breathed in and then out. ¡°Okay...¡±

    ¡°You can do this,¡± said Philly.

    Kay stopped preparing and got doing. He melted down into a puddle and slid into the bottom of the door.

 The Fight II

    There was commotion out front, but the back room was quiet.

    Cardboard boxes stacked in threes and fours across the room leaving paths for people to walk. There were stacks of 3 or 4 of them scattered around the floor. Richie entered and found a box that was already open and looked inside to find a few cans of coffee¨C the small ones. Richie didn¡¯t really know what Pax wanted him to investigate but he took out one of them and gave it a shake.

    Yep. It was coffee.

    Richie went to another box and read the label: chlorine. Unusual for a convenience store to have. Richie pulled out his pocket knife and slit the tape. Popping it open, he looked inside to a crowd of chlorine: 3.7L bottles. If Etizaaz was getting shipments of that stuff, it wouldn¡¯t have been suspicious if he started ordering things that Pax needed. At least Richie thought so.

    In the corner was the door out back into the alley. While Richie had his head in a cardboard box, something crept into the room. A puddle of liquid squiggled in through the crack beneath the back door and slid across the floor.

    Kay had entered the building.

    In his melted state, he couldn¡¯t get a good look at the room. He retook his humanoid form, reshaping slowly so that he made as little sound as possible. Kay¡¯s eyeballs reformed and with his eyesight back, he got a better look at Richie, the man with his head in a cardboard box. Good thing Kay kept quiet, then.

    It was a perfect opportunity for a first strike. With steps as soft as morning fog, Kay went up behind Richie. It was time to hit. But Kay didn¡¯t want to hit anyone. But he had to! Violence was necessary in this case. How was he going to do this? He raised his arms high above his head and got ready to slam a pair of fists. Would that hurt him enough? Did Kay want to hurt him?

    Kay could hear dialogue from the front of the store:

    ¡°I¡¯m no criminal,¡± said a man with a middle-eastern accent, ¡°I¡¯m not¨C what¡¯s the word¨C savvy enough to pull this off. I would only get you men caught!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re the right man for the job, Vadsaria,¡± said a man with a cocky, smoky voice. ¡°You¡¯re not going to attract any legal attention.¡±

    Kay cycled through different stances, ready to attack his enemy but hesitant to go through with it.

    Richie heard something shifting and lapping behind him and put down a jar of jam to turn around and see.

    ¡°Ahhh!¡± screamed Kay.

    He flipped his arm out so that his hand became a big fan of water and he slapped Richie right in the face, knocking the man back a few steps and splashing water on his cheeks, hair and onto the boxes and floor. Richie stumbled and grabbed a cardboard box, getting a handle. ¡°What the¨C?¡± Richie got on his feet, his eyes shooting at Kay. Richie¡¯s throat quaked for a second, but then he threw his voice to the front store. ¡°Pax! You... you should see this!¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± said Pax, annoyed.

    As Kay walked around Richie, Richie worried about touching the strange creature and got out of Kay¡¯s way. Kay walked to the door and let himself be seen by everyone in the front store. All eyes turned to him. Etizaaz gazed with disbelief, stepping over to his daughter and holding her tight. Bruno gulped, a little bent out of shape seeing such an inhuman thing. Weasel stared but in a way that contained more curiosity than shock.

    Pax? His eyes didn¡¯t know what he was looking at on first glance, but once he let his vision settle and confirmed that he was looking at some kind of water being, he knew what he had to do.

    Freaks, as Pax called them, usually went down the same way as normal people.

    Richie shifted to a corner in the back room so that he could see Pax through Kay¡¯s translucent body. Richie called to Pax. ¡°What is he?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what kind of freak this is,¡± said Pax. ¡°Let¡¯s see if its capable of pain.¡±

    Pax snapped into a run and dashed at Kay. Before Kay could react, Pax hailed a punch right into Kay¡¯s face. It didn¡¯t matter if Kay was made of water: when objects hit him, it hurt. And his body reacted like he was made of flesh. The boy was knocked against a shelf, bumping against it and rattling some boxes of tea to the floor.

    Kay groaned and got back on his feet. His heart picked up again. It was a fight. A real fight. And his opponents looked like the kind of people that did fighting on the regular. Kay looked over to see Bruno moving to the back of the store to trap Kay in between him and Pax, who was walking towards Kay from the other side.

    Richie came out of the back room, his hair still damp with that slap Kay gave him. Four against one.

    He was trapped, but Kay looked at the bottom of the shelf and saw some light shining from the other side. He melted, his humanoid form sinking into a puddle, and before Pax or Bruno could nab him, he slid under the shelf into the middle aisle. He reformed, perfectly fine.

    That didn¡¯t solve any problem, though.

    ¡°A slippery one, huh?¡± said Pax. He slid a boot along the floor and it squeaked as it passed through the sheen that Kay had left behind. ¡°Literally.¡±

    On one side of the store, there was Pax, Richie and Bruno. On the other, there was Weasel. Etizaaz watched the fight, unsure that what he was seeing was real. Even Yamina with her young ability to accept anything was shocked at what she was seeing, hiding behind her dad, peeking out to see what was going on, and then hiding again.

    Kay could hear Weasel growling behind the shelves, peeking at Kay through canned goods and towels.

    Bruno wrapped around the back while Pax and Richie approached Kay from the front. Kay couldn¡¯t help but show his fear, staring at the pair of toughs with fearful eyes. The growling¨C Weasel¡¯s growling¨C was getting louder. Kay turned around to see Weasel climbing over the shelf, but something was different.

    His face had gotten coarse. No, Weasel¡¯s face was catlike with his mouth stretching out like a muzzle. What was he, Kay wondered. With a snarl on his mouth, Weasel showed off a row of dagger-like teeth. His eyes were yellow with sharp irises and his ears were growing longer. He grabbed the top of the shelf with long clawed fingers, knocking boxes of baking mix around and shaking the shelves with his weight.

    Weasel hissed and Kay screamed. The beast jumped at Kay and Kay snapped out of the way only to be within arms length of Bruno, who approached from the back.

    Bruno didn¡¯t waste a second. He turned a punch at the water boy. Kay had half a second to watch a big fist fire right at his face. The fist connected and Kay was thrown into the bathroom door. Kay collapsed on the ground, dazed.

    Bruno looked at his hand, a sheen on his knuckles left by the water creature. ¡°It might be a water thingy, but it takes a hit like any palooka you could know!¡±

    Philly was outside with his legs up on the windowsill, watching the fight through the glass. The fight had gone south in a way that the fox did not predict. Maybe the kid was right and he wasn¡¯t meant to fight.

    ¡°Come on, kid,¡± said Philly, ¡°You can take them.¡±

    Kay got up and dashed into the centre of the aisle, only to get once again pincered by the crowd of thugs. Bruno and Weasel took one end of the aisle and Richie took the other.

    ¡°You chose the wrong time to be a hero, kid,¡± said Pax.

    Kay hadn¡¯t even tried to attack anyone aside from Richie earlier. All he was doing was getting his butt kicked across the store. He looked over at the office and saw Etizaaz staring back, the man¡¯s disbelief resigning to sympathy as it became clear that Kay was in over his head. All Kay was doing was depleting energy¨C more his than his attackers. He wasn¡¯t fighting any crime. It was a game of tag. What was Kay thinking getting involved?

    The thugs closed in Kay. Pax leaning against the counter. His boys had the situation under control.

    Bruno ran at Kay and Kay tried to dodge but Bruno was quick and swung his left fist around to hit Kay right into Kay¡¯s stomach, throwing him across the room at the fridges. Kay smacked the door and fell to the ground, rattling the bottles inside and knocking the door open.

    He had the wind knocked out of him and his stomach burned with pain. Before he had a chance to react, Weasel ran at him with fury in his eyes and claws out to snatch Kay. Kay got to his feet and leaped to the side to avoid Weasel¡¯s attack, but the monster-man was quick and swiped a large claw across Kay¡¯s body. The claw tore at Kay¡¯s top before Kay¡¯s living water materialized replacement fabric. The sting of carnage lingered, though.

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Weasel stared at Kay with his gremlin stare. He was followed with Bruno and Richie behind him.

    Kay controlled his breathing and faced down the trio of thugs. It was time to fight back. He tightened a fist and took a swing at Weasel. The monster-man was quick and dodged to the side. Bruno behind him thrust a fist at Kay¡¯s face and while Kay took a step back, the knock still connected and dazed him.

    Weasel rushed Kay and Kay grabbed at Weasel¡¯s arms. Face-to-face with the gremlin, Weasel hissed, his eyes terrifying Kay with their fury. Kay kneed into Weasel¡¯s stomach but Weasel took the blow with easy and struggled to break free from Kay¡¯s grasp.

    Kay panicked. He didn¡¯t know how to save the situation so he threw Weasel off and then ran around the store to get away from the pursuing beast-man. Weasel chased him like a wolf, but Kay¡¯s steps left a sheen on the ground and Weasel stepped into one of those tiny puddles, causing the guy to slip for a second.

    Wait a minute, thought Kay.

    Kay turned it around, and went after Weasel. He concentrated mass in his right arm and it grew in size as he threw it at the monster-man. The punch landed right on Weasel¡¯s catlike face. Weasel was knocked back, leaving himself open for another attack. Kay jumped up and gave the little were-cat a kick to face! The water boy stumbled the landing. It was his first time doing a jump kick, after all.

    Bruno and Richie saw that the fight was turning against Weasel and raced over. Richie¡¯s shoe landed in one of the small puddles that Kay left behind and did a full-on slip and topple to the floor. Richie smacked his back to the floor and the wind was knocked right out his lips.

    Kay was still in trouble, though. Philly had to help. While all eyes were on Kay and the attackers in the corner, Philly pushed in the door. It was hard for the fox to open the door but he got it open enough to pop inside, tail and all. No one noticed the bell ringing. The fox squeezed himself under the shelf by the door and crept up closer to Kay and his opponents.

    With Weasel against the shelves, trying to recover from a couple hard blows Kay landed on him. Bruno took a big swing at Kay, but Kay slipped back and the mighty fist crashed right into the shelf. Bruno was good at stifling a yelp of pain but his knuckle slammed right into the shelf¡¯s metal foundation. It throbbed.

    Pax saw that the fight was turning on his boys so he got up from the counter and approached Kay from behind, quick enough that it was too late for Kay to notice.

    Philly intervened. The fox snapped his head out from the shelf and took a bite at Pax¡¯s ankle.

    ¡°Ah!¡± said Pax, hopping back and scanning the ground for what just got him. The fox was gone, though. He got down and rubbed his leg. ¡°Geez! Does this place have rats?¡±

    Kay whipped himself around and tried kicking Pax while he was on the ground but the villain was quick and got up to back himself up against the warmer at the end of the counter.

    Pax was ready to smack the water boy but then he saw Bruno coming up behind Kay. Pax watched as Bruno brought his hands up to grab Kay. Those big hands took Kay¡¯s shoulders like hot dogs, and Bruno lifted the water boy high into the air.

    Kay subdued his panic and concentrated. He let his body melt and just as Bruno was ready to toss the guy across the room, he slipped out of Bruno¡¯s hands, melting to the floor and sliding underneath the shelf to the middle aisle.

    Richie was right there, though, and when Kay reformed into his humanoid shape, Richie took a swung at him and knocked the boy on the back of the head, throwing him to the ground.

    Weasel hopped over the aisles again, knocking more goods to the floor. The beast-man took a swipe at Kay, and Kay felt the burn passing through his body. Kay got up though and when Weasel took another blow at Kay, Kay grabbed his arm and swung him around. He let the monster man twirl a couple times and then with all of his aquatic strength, Kay picked up Weasel and threw him at Richie.

    Richie had a split second to look at Weasel in the eyes, the two locking peepers as Weasel approached¨C airborne. Weasel¡¯s eyes were wide with disbelief and even a bit of apology in them.

    Weasel¡¯s body hit Richie¡¯s like a punching bag, knocking Richie back into the stands of potato chips.

    Etizaaz smiled. What a great move!

    Bruno got his hands on Kay once again and didn¡¯t waste a second tossing Kay into the corner, the water boy smashing into the wall above the stands of candy. He fell onto the stands, rattling them and causing them to fall away from the wall into the shelves in the middle of the floor. They crashed and a bunch of goods fell off of them, crackling to the floor.

    Pax laughed and walked toward Kay, clapping. ¡°Well done, you piece of¨C whoaaaa!!!¡±

    There was a sheen on the floor and Pax slipped in it, flipping his legs into the air and dropping his body to the floor¨C back and head smacking the tiles.

    ¡°Euuuugh...¡± Pax rubbed his head and leaned up, his arms shaking.

    ¡°You okay, Pax?¡± asked Bruno.

    Pax looked around. The store was trashed. Pax was hurt and so was his men. Was it worth it?

    He groaned. ¡°Alright...¡± As he rose, he took a big breath in through his nose slicked back his hair. ¡°You win this time, Slippy.¡± He turned his head to Bruno and the others. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here.¡± Pax looked at the floor. ¡°Watch your step.¡±

    Weasel and Richie struggled to their feet and stepped carefully across the floor towards the door. Bruno followed and the four thugs took their leave, the door closing on one of the cans rolling on the floor.

    Kay pulled himself off the shelf and collapsed to the floor, his body aching all over and his vision swirling. The water boy almost didn¡¯t realize Philly had popped out in front of him.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here,¡± said Philly.

    Etizaaz didn¡¯t know who said that but watched as a fox came running through the aisles. Philly ran to the door and was thankful that a can of beans had kept the door open.

    Kay turned himself into a puddle and slid into the backroom, quick enough that Etizaaz didn¡¯t notice while his focus was on the door.

    From there, Kay slid out beneath door he came in from.

    Yamina came out of the office. ¡°Who was that, baba? What was that?¡±

    Etizaaz stared out into the battlefield that was his store. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± He shook off the disbelief and went to a phone to call the police.

    Kay and Philly met in the alley behind the store and they ran off down between buildings to get out of the vicinity of the crime.

    Kay¡¯s body hurt. He was supposed to be more resilient, but on the other hand, he took a series of devastating blows. Maybe his resilience hit its limits. Was he going to get used to being tossed around like that? Being brutalized? He couldn¡¯t imagine it. No, there was no way he was going to do something like this again.

    They ran down the alleyways, away from the corner store. A bright yellow light of a nighttime caf¨¦ lit up the alley, shining its beacon on the brick walls.

    Kay¡¯s steps became too much and he had to stop, collapsing against the wall.

    ¡°Kay?¡± said Philly. He chortled. ¡°Pretty rough first fight, huh?¡±

    Kay trembled and sunk to the ground. ¡°That was not a good first fight.¡±

    ¡°But you won!¡± said Philly. ¡°You prevented the crime. Was there some collateral damage? Maybe, but¨C¡°

    ¡°Philly,¡± said Kay, his tone tired and stern.

    Philly dropped the humourous tone. ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°I need to get home,¡± said Kay, his voice shaken.

    Philly sighed and nodded, his pointed ears flipping around.

    Kay pushed himself up and got back on his feet, clutching his stomach closely. He didn¡¯t feel like jumping around so he watched the streets closely and snuck back to the loan agency with Philly. Kay didn¡¯t feel like taking the backpack with him back home and Philly didn¡¯t want to drag it to his so they left it and went their separate ways, hoping to pick up the backpack sometime in the future.

    It hurt for Kay to remold his body and slingshot himself over rooftops. He was stinging with pain the entire trip home.

    What a night it had been.

 Body Made of Sponge

    Throbbing whirled when Kay woke up.

    He was hoping that the discomfort all over his body would have gone away over night but he woke up, got out of bed, and that feeling was all over his body. One moment he felt like overstuffed sausage, then the next he felt like a dried sponge. Then he felt like his bones were hollow. The sensation wasn¡¯t quite pain but it didn¡¯t seem like non-pain either. It was hard to pin down but Kay knew he didn¡¯t like it.

    Being a person that could turn into a being of living water, Kay had his share of weird experiences. Getting his butt kicked in that water form had strange repercussions, though. Repercussions that affected him while he was in human form.

    He slid on a T-shirt and then a sweater and felt like he was wearing fifty layers. His skin and every muscle in his arms screamed for him to remove the clothes. He looked outside the window at the cloud-covered morning. It was going to be a cold one.

    There was no reference for the feeling that Kay was feeling. The couple times that Kay had gotten seriously hurt in his water form, including that big fight he fought when his powers first awakened; he couldn¡¯t recall waking up the next day and feeling like every bone was out of place and every muscle was dried out like old honey. Maybe the same thing happened back then, but he couldn¡¯t remember.

    Kay walked out his bedroom and his family was busy getting ready for their days. Aubrey was on the couch watching some early morning MuchMusic before she went out to her job. She tapped her foot while a grungy rock band played on the screen¨C Kay might have known that singer: Sam Roberts, he thought his name was. The living room was loud with blasting drums and alt rock wailing.

    Kay¡¯s mom and stepdad were getting ready for their days, too. Stevie prepped lunches for her husband, her son, and herself.

    Kay went to the kitchen to get himself a glass of orange juice, scooting past Urban to get his hand into the fridge. He snapped a glass out of the cupboard and went around the island to get out of everyone¡¯s way before pouring himself a cup. Cup full, he put the carton back in the fridge.

    His mother was reading a newspaper. After the incident last night, Kay worried that his little adventure got on the front page news but when the boy glanced at the headlines ¡°PREMIER WARNS THAT C¨C¡° Well, Kay couldn¡¯t catch the entire thing but knew it wasn¡¯t about him.

    He drank his juice. It was a bit bland but he figured fluids were always good.

    ¡°We¡¯re not going to grandma¡¯s this Thanksgiving,¡± said Mom. ¡°She wanted to have it on Sunday and so did Herb¡¯s aunt Berenice.¡±

    Thanksgiving.

    ¡°Oh...¡± Kay¡¯s voice was tired and heavy.

    Stevie looked at her son. He looked ill and drank his juice like a blood transfusion. ¡°Are you okay, Mick?¡±

    This got some eyes on him. Urban and Aubrey cocked their heads at the boy, assessing what problem Stevie was witnessing.

    Kay shook the cobwebs off his face. ¡°Yeah. I just had trouble sleeping last night.¡±

    Stevie smiled. ¡°Well, cheer up! It¡¯s a three-day weekend tomorrow.¡±

    Kay faked a grin and finished his juice.

    It was a day to tune everything out so Kay got his Walkman, its black coat with scratches and chips on the front. He had a burnt CD full of assorted tracks, a number of songs from the 1970s that Kay liked. Songs from Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, The Who, and Led Zeppelin. And ¡°Alison¡± from Elvis Costello... because he heard it in a movie once.

    He stuck the Walkman in his coat pocket and stringed up some headphones to his ears. He listened to the vintage guitars and hardened vocals on his walk to school, trying his best to ignore how his body felt like it was held together by weak glue.

    It didn¡¯t hurt, his body; it felt fragile.

    It was Friday. Pull it together, Kay, he told himself. You have all weekend to recover.

    What was even wrong with him? Was that discomfort a normal part of being a water person or someone that could transform? What were the rules for people that could magically change their bodies? How did damage transfer from one to the next? It wasn¡¯t something that Kay wanted to find out but a voice in the back of his head knew how important that was to know.

    At school, Kay drifted through his first couple of classes. He kept his head down, did his work, and shivered over the discomfort swirling in his body. When lunch came he ate his at the cafeteria, sitting at a table with some people he could call ¡°friends¡±. He opened his lunch box. His mother gave him some keftedes, courtesy of Urban. He popped one in his mouth and chewed.

    Huh. Usually they had a prominent oregano flavour that Kay didn¡¯t like. Oregano, or some kind of overpowering herb. Today that flavour was reserved. In fact, they didn¡¯t taste like much at all. It didn¡¯t matter much; a couple meatballs and most of a juice box and Kay was full.

    Huxley and Kay shared media studies so after lunch they walked to class together. Huxley engaged in conversation and Kay gave enough attention to pretend that he was listening. Kay was hoping that his sickness would ease up towards the end of the school day but it wasn¡¯t getting any better. It was hard to gauge but it seemed to be getting worse.

    Once media studies got going, the lesson today was on broadcast television: how stations scheduled programming. Kay did his best to pay attention but his focus was drifting in and out. He only got faded signals of what he was supposed to be learning. Most of the time he was staring at the paper in front of him. It was today¡¯s assignment and he was supposed to fill in the blanks as part of the lesson, but all he could do was trail his eyes over the text, not knowing what the answers were while his fellow students wrote down answers diligently.

    After the lesson concluded, the teacher left the students to their own to complete the assignment. What assignment? Kay wasn¡¯t sure. He couldn¡¯t care either.

    Huxley got talking to some local classmates, chatting with them, while Kay relaxed and prayed that he wouldn¡¯t need to see a doctor. Oh god, a doctor. He hadn¡¯t been to a checkup since his powers had awakened. What if he went to one and got found out as a water shapeshifter?

    Opting to ignore his anxiety, Kay turned his attention to the conversation Huxley was having with their neighbours: Jia and Lana.

    Jia was a girl with long black hair who was often seen smiling. Lana had short blond hair and glasses.

    Huxley saw that Kay was looking like he was going to pass out. ¡°You okay, Kay?¡±

    Kay perked up and tried to appear alive. ¡°Yeah.¡± He sighed and rocked a forehead into a palm. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. I¡¯m just tired.¡±

    Jia nodded. ¡°It¡¯s Friday at least.¡± She pumped her arms up and cheered. ¡°And then it¡¯s the long weekend!¡±

    Huxley and Lana whooped. Kay forced a smirk.

    Lana saw Kay¡¯s headphones. ¡°What are you listening to on those?¡±

    Kay wasn¡¯t sure what she was talking about until he waved a hand on his neck like he was trying to slot away a fly. His hand bumped the headphones. Kay didn¡¯t realize he still had them on. The cord was connected to the Walkman in his pocket. He even had them on during lunch, evidenced by a crumb on the foam. He swatted the crumb to the floor.

    ¡°Deep Purple,¡± said Kay, his voice shy, ¡°Led Zeppelin.¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah,¡± said Jia. ¡°You like older music, don¡¯t you?¡±

    Her tone was mocking but Kay figured that he might as well get the interrogation over with. He brace himself with an inhale. ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°And you don¡¯t listen to new stuff?¡± said Huxley.

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°Why not?¡± asked Jia.

    ¡°It¡¯s not good,¡± said Kay. ¡°It¡¯s annoying... and fake. Overproduced.¡±

    Kay didn¡¯t like having his tastes on trial but it served as a good distraction from the glassy feeling in all his muscles. The annoyance of having his musical choices dissected was easier to get through than sit there and ruminate over his body feeling the way it did.

    ¡°Fake?¡± said Jia with a chuckle.

    ¡°It¡¯s artificial,¡± said Kay, ¡°It¡¯s soulless.¡±

    Kay usually peppered his opinion with restraint but he was not in the mood.

    Jia couldn¡¯t hide her disbelief. ¡°How is it soulless?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s made by marketing,¡± said Kay, ¡°It¡¯s just meant to sell CDs.¡±

    Jia fluttered eyes but said nothing.

    ¡°Did you always like older music?¡± asked Lana. She chuckled. ¡°Did you ask for an AC/DC cassette for your seventh birthday?¡±

    Everyone chuckled, including Kay. He said, ¡°No. I don¡¯t remember liking music growing up¨C not anything that wasn¡¯t a song from a Disney movie. Or video game music. That song ¡®Cotton Eye Joe¡¯...¡± He leaned up and straightened himself out. ¡°I remember it playing a primary school dance. Everyone was so excited, jumping around. I didn¡¯t get it. I didn¡¯t feel anything for it.¡±

    They were all familiar with the song. It had been nearly a decade since it was a hit and nobody was surprised that a kid could be disinterested in it.

    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°So how did you get into older rock music?¡± asked Huxley.

    Something was going on. They had a genuine interest in Kay¡¯s musical background. They looked at him with curious eyes and humble grins. The fragility of Kay¡¯s body cooled down. ¡°I started hearing music I liked in movies and it was stuff like The Band and stuff. I remember watching that one meteor movie Armageddon and liking a lot of songs.¡±

    Huxley scratched his knuckles and a gave casual nod. ¡°I guess I see your point. It¡¯s weird, though.¡±

    It was weird, Kay knew. But he didn¡¯t care.

    ¡°I think it¡¯s cool,¡± said Lana. ¡°That you like old stuff.¡±

    Kay sighed, unable to contain a smile. ¡°I like new stuff a lot. New movies, new shows. I just don¡¯t like music.¡±

    They continued a discussion and the period flew by. Kay never got his work done but he hoped that he would be able to finish the assignment later. He said bye to his neighbours on his way of class and spent the last period of the day feeling fatigued. He came pretty close to falling asleep at his desk but made it to the end of the day without anything too embarrassing happening to him.

    Another warm day in Toronto and another cool day in Dead Head¡¯s warehouse. Pax should have brought his coat but there was a bigger trouble on the horizon: breaking the bad news to Dead Head.

    Dead Head was in the office, hunched over his desk, staring out into space until he saw Pax come in the door. Pax beelined towards the office, the room¡¯s light sprinkling across the floor of the dark warehouse. Pax walked across the building with his posture slouched and a slower speed than usual, footfalls echoing across the building.

    Dead Head sensed disappointment was coming.

    Pax walked up to the office¨C the door hanging open. Pax knocked anyway. ¡°Hey, boss, uh, could¨C¡°

    Dead Head cut him off. ¡°How did it go last night with Vadsaria?¡±

    Pax knew to cut to the chase. ¡°Not good. We were ambushed.¡±

    Dead Head let out a throaty grump. ¡°Were the cops there?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± said Pax, rubbing his face. He ran every sentence through his head before delivering it to Dead Head. ¡°Some water guy was there. When we went to go spook on Vadsaria, this water guy came outta nowhere and attacked us. We tried to beat some sense into him but we couldn¡¯t deal with the guy! He was made of water.¡±

    Dead Head sneered, a grain of amusement in his disbelief. ¡°This is your excuse!?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s no excuse, boss,¡± said Pax. ¡°It¡¯s what happened. We could never have predicted some walking whirlpool would interfere with our business.¡± Pax slicked his hair back. ¡°I swear, I¡¯ve my share of freakshows over the years and never someone like this guy!¡±

    Dead Head groaned, suspending his forehead with a palm. He wanted to call Pax an idiot but what good would that do? He had to move forward.

    ¡°We can find out supplies elsewhere,¡± said Dead Head. ¡°Forget about Vadsaria.¡±

    ¡°What now?¡± asked Pax.

    ¡°Talk to the boy down in Trenton,¡± said Dead Head. ¡°And by talk, I mean leave him with a memento for giving me lip about his cut.¡±

    More grunt work. Pax had hoped that joining up with Dead Head would have offered new opportunities but he was doing the same stuff as always. Oh well, he thought. Pax leaned up from the door sill. ¡°Will do.¡±

    With Pax leaving the building, Dead Head had room to brood. A water being? Was his subordinate screwing with him? Dead Head knew there were strange beings around Toronto and that a water person defending a corner store could have been a possibility. Hopefully it was a one time thing: the water being interfering or Pax giving him an excuse.

    He got up and walked to the calendar hanging on the wall. Things were still on schedule, but would they stay that way?

    Kay got home and went to his room. To tired to turn on the computer¨C he put his Walkman on the desk, plopped his backpack down by his bed, and laid down.

    Diving his face into the pillow, his ears muffled by down, he could hear his blood flowing through his body. It sounded like pipes flowing behind an old wall. Pipes was the right imagery because his blood flowed fast and his body felt like a cycling conduit of jet fuel, ready to be ignited.

    Make it stop, he thought.

    In the darkness, colours took his eyesight. Painful reds and sizzling yellows.

    I gave it a shot, thought Kay. I tried to be a hero, but it¡¯s too hard. How did I get the idea that it was going to be easy?

    As he lay there, falling into a state of half-sleep, Kay¡¯s mind wandered. He thought about when he was in grade seven, running for track & field. His legs got caught in a hurdle and he collapsed on the ground, smacking his face against the rubber track. He didn¡¯t stay down, though. After kicking off the hurdle from his leg, he got back up and dashed to the finish, busted lip and scratched up leg not an issue. He came in last but only by a few seconds.

    Even when he was a small child, there were people impressed with Kay¡¯s ability to shake off injury. He once fell off his bike, crashing his shoulder on the sidewalk, and it only took him a few minutes to get the wind back inside him and drag his sorry butt home. He had to go to the hospital, but he handled it like a champ.

    It was a different story when the injury was inflicted upon him from another. Even as he kept his eyes closed, he saw the faces of the crooks at the convenience store. How they sneered at the boy. He thought about that Weasel character: weasel wasn¡¯t quite right¨C he was more like a cat or some kind of werewolf.

    Kay had never had people look at him like that, at least not that he could remember. Their threatening gazes and dismissive grins made him cringe. If had the chance, would they have put Kay in the hospital? Or the morgue?

    There was a tapping. It must have been Philly. Kay pushed himself up to see Philly at his window, big smile on his foxy face and tail swaying behind him like a paintbrush in the breeze.

    Kay sighed. Better get this over with, thought Kay. He opened up the window, having no trouble showing his annoyance that Philly was there. ¡°Hi... Philly.¡±

    ¡°Hey, kid!¡± said Philly, showing off his foxy teeth. ¡°Just came by to see how you were doing after last night?¡± He looked at Kay, with his wrinkled white shirt. ¡°You seem okay.¡±

    ¡°I feel like crap,¡± said Kay. He opened up the screen to let the fox in.

    Philly hopped down and sat on the bed. Kay closed the pane.

    ¡°Are you sore?¡± asked Philly.

    ¡°No,¡± said Kay, ¡°I feel... weird.¡± Kay rode his palm up and down an arm. ¡°My body feels... glassy. My blood is flowing fast.¡± He rubbed his shoulders, dipping his head. ¡°It¡¯s like a permanent adrenaline rush.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound like injury,¡± said Philly, ¡°that sounds like trauma.¡±

    He hadn¡¯t considered it, but hearing that word struck Kay deep. Trauma? Was that really it? Kay looked down at his trembling hands and lost his wind.

    ¡°It was your first fight,¡± said Philly, trotting around Kay¡¯s sheets. ¡°Expect to be a little shaken the day after.¡±

    Kay shivered. The feeling of fists bashing him in the stomach sent chills up his spine. The remnant feeling of being tossed around the room made Kay¡¯s body sway. Even the thought of the punches thrown at him¨C punches that didn¡¯t even connect¨C made him uncomfortable. A stew simmered in his stomach and his mouth got dry.

    ¡°You¡¯re still new at this,¡± said Philly.

    ¡°Philly...¡± said Kay, his voice cracking, ¡°they wanted to hurt me!¡±

    Philly gazed at Kay, his ears drooping when he saw the terror in Kay¡¯s eyes, a thin mist growing over them.

    ¡°Hey...¡± said Philly, his tone reassuring, ¡°How about you take the day off. Or two or how many you need. You¡¯re in shock, I get that.¡± Philly paused, taking a deep look into Kay¡¯s frustrated expression. ¡°Or maybe you don¡¯t want to continue?¡±

    It had been on Kay¡¯s mind. Maybe superheroing wasn¡¯t something he could do, but even as he sat there, with his legs folded under him and his eyes with the sting of tears forming, he wasn¡¯t sure there was no reason for him to try again.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know...¡± said Kay. ¡°Give me some time...¡±

    Philly was disappointed that Kay seemed like he wanted to abort the superhero thing but the fox knew he should put Kay¡¯s feelings first. He sighed and nuzzled a nose into Kay¡¯s arm. ¡°Have a rest.¡±

    Kay shifted on his bed. ¡°Okay...¡± said Kay, looking away from his fox friend.

    He opened the window again for Philly. Philly turned around and grinned. ¡°See ya, Kay.¡±

    ¡°Goodbye,¡± said Kay.

    He closed the window and Philly ran off, brushy tail behind him. He went to the stairs, stopped for a moment and gave a look back to Kay. Kay grinned and gave a little wave before Philly hopped down the stairs and out of sight.

    Kay sighed and wiped his eyes. Funny enough, his body seemed to settle down in the conversation with Philly. He took off his glasses and laid his body on his bed, hoping a nap would catch him.

 Fighting Crime Down at the Docks

    Superhero cartoons had misrepresented how hard it was to find crimes to solve.

    On Kay¡¯s second attempt at being a crime-fighter, Philly suggested the aspiring, aquatic superhero go down by the docks. ¡°It¡¯s where crime thrives,¡± said the fox. ¡°Lots of thrills,¡± said the fox. But Kay hopped around rooftop to rooftop, keeping an eye out for anyone looking suspicious. Two hours went by with not so much as an argument on the streets!

    ¡°How often does crime happen around here anyway?¡± asked Kay.

    Philly reassured Kay. ¡°Uhhh... the other day someone dove into a market and stole money from the cash register.¡±

    Kay chuckled, cranking his eyes upward. ¡°All the time, then.¡±

    It was warm that Saturday. Between the comfortable temperatures and clear blue sky, crime didn¡¯t seem appropriate. It was too pretty a day for thievery to happen and it was not like the streets of South Riverdale were swamped with pedestrians anyway, but Philly wanted to go easy on Kay and give him a biome that was entry-level for crime-busting.

    Kay had his backpack on and Philly rode with his head out the top, watching the world around him whip by. It could be uncomfortable, but how often did a fox get to hop across rooftops with such speed? Philly had a small fear of heights but with Kay at the helm, the fox was relatively comfortable.

    Because he was travelling with companion, Kay couldn¡¯t go into his melty, puddly state and blast across long gaps. Instead, he had to stay humanoid so that the backpack stayed on his shoulders. Philly¡¯s ears waved in the wind whenever Kay took a big jump across the sky. Figuring out how to get across streets with his slingshot abilities provided Kay with the periodical challenge, but usually there were street lamps to hop across or some other stepping stone that allowed Kay to make his way around the neighbourhood while keeping above the general public where he belonged.

    In the distance, the sound of ferries and industrial clanking was heard. It was a busy day down at the port, even on a Saturday.

    ¡°I¡¯m just circling around this place,¡± said Kay, looking out across the district. There were warehouses and a lot full of transport trucks. ¡°There¡¯s no crime here.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you want it to be easy?¡± asked Philly.

    They kept quiet as Kay approached a street to cross. There were two street lamps to make a jump but the distance between them was wide and there was a few power lines in the way to. Kay hopped on the first one, readying himself to jump over the power line to the second, but he then noticed a couple people on the ground, standing in front of a mail office or something. He had to keep the inertia up so he leapt up, flying over the power lines and landed on the other lamp with an audible bonk.

    This got the attention of the people below.

    ¡°Hey, what¡¯s¨C¡±

    Kay didn¡¯t stay around to be gawked at by humans. He hopped onto the roof of a building and dashed away, hearing the shouting of those ground floor humans behind him.

    ¡°They saw us!¡± said Philly.

    ¡°I know, I know.¡±

    Kay went across a couple buildings, jumped down onto a shed roof and then hopped up to the top of a steel mill and felt safe. Whoever saw him back there, they wouldn¡¯t be able to follow him. He was gone.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t call that easy,¡± said Kay, continuing their conversation.

    Philly chortled. ¡°No, I guess not!¡± He hopped out of Kay¡¯s backpack and walked around the roof, canid paws clicking against the stony roof. ¡°It¡¯s going to take awhile before you are ready for something like what you fought at that convenience store. Maybe it¡¯ll take a year before you are truly ready for something like that! You saved the day, but it was above your pay-grade.¡±

    Kay squatted down to bring himself to Philly. ¡°So how long do you think it¡¯ll take before I¡¯m good enough for¨C I dunno¨C saving people from burning buildings?¡±

    Philly shrugged his forelegs. ¡°I don¡¯t know. There¡¯s no guidebook on how to train superheroes.¡± He smiled, letting those fangs shine. ¡°This is my first time.¡±

    Kay let out a bemused blow, but didn¡¯t have anything to say. Philly got back in the pack and the two continued a patrol around the neighbourhood, the horizon of Lake Ontario visible when Kay leapt high into the air.

    They zipped around for a half-hour more then took a break. Philly, being thrown around in the pack, needed a break to rest on stable ground. They found a block with an alleyway splitting down the middle and rested on top of a golf supply with a transport truck depot just down the way. There was little foot traffic on the sidewalks below, and only the occasional car came nearby so it was a quiet place to rest.

    Kay couldn¡¯t smell in his water form¨C he lacked the nose for it¨C but looking out at the blue water resting across the horizon and hearing the occasional gull¨C his mind produced the sensation of smell, a breath of lakeside air. It was wonderful.

    ¡°Maybe tomorrow we¡¯ll hit up West End again,¡± said Philly, laying on and swishing his tail along the cool pebbled floor.

    ¡°I can¡¯t,¡± said Kay. ¡°Thanksgiving dinner.¡±

    Philly perked up. ¡°Oh, right.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t a domain that Philly could relate to: distinctly human experiences. Kay made conversation with his fox friend anyway. ¡°Both my mom¡¯s family and my stepdad¡¯s family are having their Thanksgiving dinner on the same date.¡± He let out a resigned sigh. ¡°And we¡¯re going to Urban¡¯s family¡¯s dinner this Thanksgiving.¡±

    Philly cracked a toothy smirk. ¡°Sounds like you don¡¯t like your stepdad¡¯s family.¡±

    Kay shifted in his seat and extended his legs out. ¡°Not really. They¡¯re loud. It¡¯s annoying.¡±

    Philly regretted digging in. He didn¡¯t have a perspective to bounce off of. He didn¡¯t have a family himself. He smiled, though. ¡°I like Thanksgiving. Usually I can find de-lic-ious turkey in a garbage can.¡±

    Kay chuckled.

    They let the silence linger and then Kay got the urge to vent some more. ¡°It¡¯s like for years my family was okay, you know? We just did stuff and were... normal. And then my mom marries Urban and all the sudden were going to birthday parties at Greek restaurants, learning Greek words, going to a Greek church for occasions.¡± Kay sighed. ¡°It¡¯s... so annoying.¡± He leaned his hip out and dropped his head. ¡°And Mom doesn¡¯t talk to her old friends anymore. All her friends now are through Urban.¡±

    Again, Philly didn¡¯t have much to offer the conversation, but he felt it was important to listen to his friend complain. ¡°Have you thought of talking to your mom about this?¡±

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    Kay thought about it. He didn¡¯t know what to do, though.

    Their personal conversation was interrupted when they heard whispering. It wasn¡¯t distinct enough to make out, even with Philly¡¯s foxy ears, but they went to the edge of the roof and peered down into the alleyway to see two boys¨C maybe Kay¡¯s age, maybe younger¨C sneaking through the alleyway.

    One of them had a green snow cap on. ¡°How many do you think you can grab?¡±

    The other, wearing a tank top. ¡°Keep it down!¡±

    Kay and Philly grinned at each other. It was showtime.

    The water boy and fox followed the two aspiring thieves from above. Kay and Philly followed the pair down the alleyway towards the transport depot where a delivery truck was being loaded up with boxes in the back¨C boxes of cellphones. When Kay and Philly saw the truck parked near the alleyway, it was obvious what the kids were going to try to nab.

    A man in a blue, collared shirt brought two cellphone boxes in from the warehouse and put them in the back of the truck, pushing them as far into the truck as he could. He went back into the warehouse to get some more.

    Inside, the floor manager was there by a series of crates and an uncrewed forklift. When he saw the driver walking up, he asked: ¡°Enjoying the weather?¡±

    The driver grinned and flicked his shirt, short sleeves showing off his hairy arms. ¡°While it lasts!¡±

    Outside, the aspiring thieves waited until the man went back into the warehouse to get some more before they crept out from the alleyway and zipped to the back of the truck.

    Kay and Philly stared at them from above. The two turned to each other and nodded.

    The boys hopped into the truck, trying to be quiet but their weight rocked the vehicle. The one with the green cap picked up two cellphone boxes while the one with the tank top stacked a few more on top. Then the other took two boxes of his own and they jumped out of the truck.

    Kay jumped down and startled them, one of the boxes falling off onto the ground.

    ¡°Hold it!¡± said Kay, putting his watery hand out in protest.

    The boys screamed, dropping all boxes but one. It was a monster! A ghostly, horrible monster! The sun shimmered off his liquid body like the fires of demonic realms. His eyes glared at the two boys like the dead rising out of the grave.

    The last box fumbling in the hands of the green-capped boy. He got a grip on it, heaved it back, and tossed it at Kay.

    Shooting the projectile right into the water boy¡¯s face.

    Kay fell back and crashed to the ground.

    Leaving their attempted stolen goods behind, the boys booked it, running past Kay and sprinting around the corner¨C out of sight.

    Kay laid on the ground, dazed by the attack.

    Philly came walking out of the alleyway and saw the boys had departed. Another success crime prevented by Kay the water boy! Philly smiled. ¡°Looks like you¡¯re three-for-three!¡±

    ¡°Bite me,¡± said Kay.

    The boy moaned and leaned up. He heard the driver coming back so he got on his feet and slipped into the alleyway, Philly skedaddling with him. Kay spring-jumped up onto the roof while Philly dashed into the distance, getting out of sight from the driver.

    The driver heard some shouting and had to see what was up. He was concerned when he saw his boxes scattered about.

    ¡°What the¨C?¡±

    He ran up and looked around. Was it a theft? He took the boxes in his arms and put them into the truck then got collecting the ones off the ground. He counted them, and realized none were missing. Funny. Maybe a dog ran into the back of his truck and got rowdy.

    While slipping his backpack back on, Kay took a peek down the road to see the two boys still running away, then he moved to the corner of the building to watch the driver put the cellphone boxes back in the truck.

    Philly found a way back up to the rooftop. Kay reassured the backpack on his shoulders. ¡°Didn¡¯t we use to call these things ¡®knapsacks¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Uhhh...¡± the fox had familiarity with the word, ¡°Sure.¡±

    Kay watched as the driver below packed his truck with the cellphone boxes. It was a crime prevented. It was humiliating, painful, and graceless, but it was a crime prevented. Kay was a successful superhero, and at least this time Kay wasn¡¯t likely to wake up the next day with his body feeling like it was going to burst. He rubbed the front of his face. His nose was feeling the bruise of that headshot, and the water lad didn¡¯t even have a nose!

    Kay didn¡¯t expect it to have any lasting effects. He crouched down so that Philly could hop back into the pack and the two went off to patrol for a couple hours more.

    Kay arrived home around 6:30, earlier than usual whenever he spent the day carousing as the water thing. There was still heat lingering off of the stir fry when Kay got it out of the fridge to heat up his supper. Mom and Urban had gone out to do errands while Aubrey was on the couch, TV on.

    With the microwave humming in the background, Kay talked to Aubrey from across the room. ¡°Are you going to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow?¡± he asked.

    ¡°No,¡± said Aubrey, ¡°Are you?¡±

    ¡°I guess so...¡± said Kay, averting his eyes and depressing his posturing.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to go if you don¡¯t want to,¡± said Aubrey. ¡°You¡¯re an adult now.¡± Nope. She corrected yourself: ¡°Uhhh... you¡¯re becoming an adult. You should make your own decisions.¡±

    Kay got offended by that. Kay had been making big decisions throughout that week. None that he could tell her about but the condescension was really unfounded.

    ¡°I know, but¨C¡± He sighed and dropped his head back¨C ¡°Mom would get mad at me.¡±

    Aubrey puttered, annoyed. ¡°Suit yourself.¡±

    Kay let it alone. The microwave beeped. He went over to get his plate and set it on the table to cool for a minute so he could slide back over to Aubrey and watch the TV with her. He soon realized that it wasn¡¯t a TV show as he assumed, but a movie starring Bill Murray.

    ¡°What¡¯s this called?¡± asked Kay.

    ¡°Osmosis Jones,¡± said Aubrey.

    Kay recognized the name but it wasn¡¯t until the movie cut back to an animated microbial Chris Rock that Kay remembered it was that body health movie that came out years ago.

    ¡°Oh, this one,¡± said Kay without a gram of fanfare.

    Aubrey giggled. ¡°It¡¯s okay. Probably better than that movie you saw the other day.¡±

    ¡°Dickie Roberts: Child Star?¡± Kay chuckled. ¡°Yeah, probably.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± said Aubrey, looking over at her brother. He wasn¡¯t wearing the leather jacket but it was easy to imagine him in it. ¡°You don¡¯t like new movies.¡±

    ¡°I like new movies fine,¡± said Kay. He crossed his arms. ¡°I don¡¯t like new music.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± asked Aubrey, sassy grin on her face. ¡°Not even Jay-Z?¡±

    ¡°No...¡± said Kay, tightening his face with petulant disgust, ¡°I don¡¯t like rap music.¡±

    Aubrey gave a cute shrug but dropped it. She asked: ¡°You want to watch this?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± said Kay. ¡°I¡¯m going in my room.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± said Aubrey.

    Kay grabbed his plate and brought it into his room. As the computer turned on, he sat in his office chair and ate his dinner, twirling his fork into the noodles like spaghetti.

    It was another day of being a superhero. The realization that Kay was a superhero was mind-boggling to the boy, but it was true. It had been working day three of his career. How long would it go on? How long could it go on?

    He felt his face. It didn¡¯t hurt, even if that one boy whipped a box right into it. Kay was doing better than the aftermath of that convenience store robbery. If him being a hero was going to be situations like that, he could survive, although it wouldn¡¯t have been very dignified.

    He could have counted the amount of times he had been a hero on a single hand. Although all the experiences were exciting, he knew it was only the beginning of his superhero journey, should he have pursued it. Taking it day by day was the plan for now. There was no telling where his superhero career would lead him.

 Sea of Strangers

    If he was going to spend the evening trapped in at family dinner, then Kay was at least going to get the most out of his day off. He had spent most of that Monday morning playing on his computer. In the last couple years he had gotten used to staying on the internet for many hours across the day but that morning he kept disconnected because the house was expecting a call.

    He had tried that Rudras game he was recommended from Huxley and was lost in the game¡¯s robust magic-naming system. He needed a guide but with the internet off he couldn¡¯t log into GameFAQs.

    He massaged his brow. ¡°Naming your own spells sounds cooler than the reality.¡±

    Then a voice came from the living room. It was his mother: ¡°Kaaaay!¡±

    ¡°Yeah, mom?¡± he called back.

    ¡°Phone!¡± shouted his mother. ¡°It¡¯s your father!¡±

    It was Dad! Kay paused his game and got up from his computer. He crashed out of his room and zipped to phone by the front door. His mother stood there, an uncomfortable half-smile on her face, holding the phone like it was a dirty sock.

    Kay took the phone and brought it to his head. He spoke: ¡°Dad?¡±

    ¡°Hello, Mikhail,¡± said Dad. ¡°Happy Thanksgiving! How are you?¡±

    Kay had missed hearing his dad¡¯s voice. Dad had a soft but intelligent tone, heartfelt words spoken through a dignified Lithuanian accent.

    Kay¡¯s mother walked off, giving her son a little bit of privacy.

    ¡°I¡¯m good,¡± said Kay. He added ¡°Happy Thanksgiving¡± although that didn¡¯t seem appropriate being that Dad lived in Lithuania.

    ¡°Doing well in school?¡± asked Dad.

    Kay peered around the room to see his mother and Urban peering him from the couch.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m doing good.¡± No, he had more to say. ¡°I¡¯m doing great.¡±

    ¡°Good to hear, son,¡± said Dad.

    ¡°How have you been?¡± asked Kay. He tried his best to ask a question with a bit of sophistication. ¡°How is work? Life?¡±

    ¡°Work¡¯s good,¡± said Dad. ¡°My life is busy.¡±

    The cord rattled as the coils clicked against the edge of the phone table. Kay folded into the corner and lowered his voice, unseen and unheard by the other people in the house.

    ¡°Are you coming home for Christmas?¡± asked Kay. ¡°Uh¨C coming here?¡±

    Dad let out a tortured sigh. ¡°No, that¡¯s not happening, Kay.¡±

    Kay¡¯s heart sank. He had to shake his head in disappointment and mouth some cursed words, but he put the phone back up to his head. ¡°Why not?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t make it,¡± said Dad. ¡°I¡¯m busy and it¡¯s expensive to fly.¡±

    ¡°You work at a tech company,¡± said Kay, his tone condescending. ¡°You can afford it.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me what money I have.¡± Dad¡¯s scowl could be heard through the phone. ¡°I can¡¯t make it this year.¡±

    Kay exhaled. It was disappointing but he had to live with it. ¡°Okay...¡±

    ¡°So what has been up with you?¡± asked Dad. ¡°You¡¯re sixteen now. You¡¯re in... grade eleven, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± said Kay.

    ¡°Getting close to the end of high school,¡± said Dad. ¡°What were you thinking of specializing in?¡±

    Kay¡¯s dad had a weird way of saying things but Kay knew what he meant. What did Kay want to do with his life? What did he want to go to college for? It was something he wasn¡¯t sure about going into high school and after his powers unleashed in the tenth grade, the thought of planning a future became absurd.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± said Kay. ¡°It¡¯s not something I really thought about.¡±

    ¡°You have to get on that, Mikhail,¡± said Dad. ¡°Grade eleven is when you must start making those decisions.¡±

    Kay sighed. ¡°Right...¡±

    They chatted a little bit more and then Dad wanted to talk to his daughter. Kay called Aubrey and handed the phone to her while he went back into his room to continue his game for a remainder of the day.

    For Thanksgiving dinner, Kay was forced to put on decent clothing and wear his unshaded glasses. He didn¡¯t like getting dressed up, the collared shirt feeling constricting on his body. It was a bit itchy, too.

    Wearing unshaded glasses was the bigger issue, though. Clear plastic, resting on Kay¡¯s eyes? He looked across his room. The wall¡¯s paint was an unfamiliar shade. The sky was caustically bright. Kay held the glasses up to the ceiling light, rays of light like swords on his eyes.

    ¡°This can¡¯t be healthy,¡± he said, squinting out into the world.

    With Kay, Stevie, and Urban ready to go, they said ¡®Bye¡¯ to Aubrey and then went down to the parking lot and got in Urban¡¯s Camry. He drove while Mom took the passenger seat and Kay took the back. While his mom and stepdad chatted, the boy let himself be distracted by the outside world, watching the outside world wave by as the car journeyed across the city to the Danforth.

    Urban¡¯s aunt, who was hosting the dinner, had her house on the corner of an intersection. Cars were parked up and down the road for that Thanksgiving Saturday but just as Urban turned into the road, another car pulled out and Urban took their place.

    ¡°What if they were just going to the store quick?¡± asked Mom.

    ¡°Their loss!¡± said Urban.

    Kay was worried that it was going to be cold when he got out of the car, but it was mild. He walked a few paces behind his mom and her husband, up to the house. It was older-looking but without any signs of decay. Maybe it had been built long ago but got regular upkeep.

    It wasn¡¯t very large, though, and seeing all the cars parked up beside it reminded Kay how crowded the dinner was going to be. Now Kay had basic sense and understood it was Thanksgiving dinner for most other folks around but all it took was getting into thirty feet of Urban¡¯s aunt¡¯s house for a choir of voices to hit Kay.

    When Urban and Mom walked in, Urban cheered and gave a big hello and hug to somebody Kay never got a chance to see before. Whoever it was, they walked off but Kay assumed it was someone Urban hadn¡¯t seen in awhile, although Urban¡¯s family was big and Kay couldn¡¯t know who it was.

    As Kay got to the door, he could see his fears realized as the house was full of people. Even the foyer was stuffed. A few people were crowded around the stairs, chatting happily with drinks in hand.

    And the house was loud. Kay walked in the door and he was bombarded with unknowable conversation. It hit him like wall of sound. Occasionally, a laugh or a child¡¯s scream would rise about the amorphous muttering. It was like the cafeteria during lunch.

    Kay couldn¡¯t even walk in the door all the way. Trying to step into the house, he bumped into Urban¡¯s coat.

    ¡°Hey, I need in,¡± said Kay.

    His parents had to step around the crowd of people hanging and chatting in the foyer. Urban politely asked some people to move so that he and Mom could step forward and allow Kay in. With some room cleared up, Kay was able to properly step inside the house and close the door behind him.

    The trio of a family was ushered into a side room where stands were left out for people to hang up coats and take off shoes. Kay removed his shoes but that¡¯s when Kay was lost. What did he do? Where did he go? Who did he talk to? It was a party full of strangers.

    ¡°Where do I sit?¡± asked Kay.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go to the living room,¡± said Urban.

    What else could Kay do? He followed Urban¡¯s lead; him and his mom following Urban through the house, having to squeeze between people planted around the hallways. It was like someone tried squishing a congregation into a normal-sized house.

    Kay¡¯s family walked to a large, split-level living room with cozy amber walls. When Kay, Stevie and Urban walked in, they got a choir of hellos from a sea of strangers. There were people situated across old rocking chairs, couches with quilts draped over top, and some cushions on the floors.

    Mom and Urban found a spot together on a nice couch on the upper level whereas Kay had to find a wooden chair in the corner, sandwiched between an old woman and a middle-aged man with a bushy black beard. He smiled and said ¡°Hello¡± when they said ¡°Hello¡± to him but that¡¯s as far as conversation went.

    Kay didn¡¯t know what to do, and he couldn¡¯t shake his lack of enthusiasm about trying to strike up conversation with people that forced upon him on some level. Everyone around the room chatted, so familiar with one another but he sat there alone, awkward in his silence. Everyone had their loud conversations.

    At one point, a woman approached Kay¡¯s mom. Mom gave her usual introductions, even pointing at Kay in the corner¨C ¡°That¡¯s Kay, my son¡±¨C and Kay having to sheepishly wave back from across the room like he was a kid on time out. It was embarrassing to have Kay¡¯s mom explain him but on the other hand, Kay didn¡¯t want to shout across the room to have a conversation.

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    Daphne arrived at the party came in the room with a big smile on her face but of course she did. In the couple times that Kay had met Daphne before, she was always cheerful. She had long dark brown hair and wore a nice black dress that evening.

    ¡°Oh, Kay!¡± she said, waving at the boy. ¡°You should head up to the upstairs rec room! I think they¡¯re playing Risk or something.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± said Kay.

    That was his cue to go check it out. He got up, knocking his leg against the old woman¡¯s knee. He gave a quick ¡°Sorry¡± without offering any eye contact and then walked off, asking Daphne for directions.

    ¡°Go back to the front door and go up the stairs,¡± she said. ¡°Then go down the hall and take a right at the end. Shouldn¡¯t be hard to find.¡±

    Kay was on his way but he slowed his steps. What was the chance that he was going to enjoy himself anymore there than being quiet in a larger room? He sighed. As he walked back to the foyer, he passed by a door underneath the top of the stairs into another room: he couldn¡¯t tell which. Maybe it was another living room, or a lounge. That room looked just as packed as the living room.

    The group of people lounging by the foyer hadn¡¯t moved an inch since Kay had arrived. He slipped past them and went upstairs. As he reached the top, he could hear chatter and laughter of a younger variety¨C kids his age. He went down the hall to the left and the chatter got louder.

    Kay turned the corner and looked into a rec room. There was an assortment of youths scattered around the room. It was a cozy room with sloped roof to the side. A variety of seats were about and in the middle of the floor were a few boys playing a tiled board game on the floor. Kay took a look at the box: Carcasonne.

    ¡°Who are you with?¡± asked Alek, a boy a few years older than Kay. He was on the floor leaning against the wall, not participating in the game.

    ¡°Urban,¡± said Kay.

    ¡°I don¡¯t remember Urban having a son,¡± said Brittany, a taller girl with dark hair. She took a chair off of the wall and laid it out for Kay. Kay sat down.

    ¡°Stepson,¡± Kay corrected.

    Alek tapped a knee. ¡°Oh yeah, Uncle Urban¡¯s wedding...¡± It was a year ago by now. It wasn¡¯t that hard to remember.

    The three kids in the centre played their game silently, listening in on the conversation.

    ¡°Which school do you go to?¡± asked Nikolas, a boy with sideburns about the same age as Alek.

    ¡°Central,¡± said Kay, using one of the common nicknames for the York Central Collegiate Institute.

    ¡°Oh, you mean: Icky,¡± said Nikolas, using another.

    ¡°A lot of posers in that school,¡± said Alek, scratching his chin.

    How was Kay going to respond to that? Posers? He wondered how Central got that kind of reputation. He straightened up. ¡°I¡¯m not one of them.¡±

    ¡°Suuuure...¡± said Alek, checking Nikolas and the two breaking into a little chuckle. A few snickers echoed across the room.

    ¡°I¡¯m out of school,¡± said Alek.

    Kay smirked. ¡°Couldn¡¯t take it, huh?¡± This didn¡¯t get the reaction Kay wanted so he had to graft in some clarity to his insult. ¡°Had to drop out, huh?¡±

    This got a reaction. A few chuckles across the room.

    Alek raised his nose smugly. ¡°Even if I did, what would that mean? People don¡¯t learn real skills in school. They learn¨C¡± He dropped his nose and gave a dismissive shrug¨C ¡°history and stuff. Me?¡± He shirt was starting to pull up and reveal some skin on his stomach so he straightened it out. ¡°I can fix cars.¡± He paused to look elsewhere. ¡°I guess learned that in school, but I didn¡¯t have to.¡±

    ¡°How old are you?¡± asked Nikolas. ¡°Fourteen?¡±

    The low-balling grated on Kay.

    ¡°Sixteen,¡± said Kay, knowing that he was about to be on the receiving end of criticisms and jeers.

    ¡°You driving yet?¡± asked Alek.

    ¡°No,¡± said Kay.

    ¡°Sheesh,¡± said Alek. ¡°I was gunning for my license when I was still fifteen.¡±

    ¡°Not everyone does that, Alek,¡± said Brittany.

    ¡°They should,¡± said Alek. ¡°Getting a car is very important.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a transportable home,¡± said Nikolas, ¡°It¡¯s probably your first symbol of independence.¡±

    What we he need driving for? He could get across town almost as fast as taking busses. Kay couldn¡¯t say that out loud, though.

    ¡°Hey!¡± someone called from below, ¡°Dinner¡¯s about to be served!¡±

    ¡°O-kaaaay!¡± Nikolas called back.

    They left the game and got up. Everyone proceeded downstairs, Alek giving Kay a condescending look before they left the room.

    The dining space was actually the kitchen, the dining room, then the front room where people hung up their coats. Large divisional doors had to be opened to fit in the series of long tables, and even then a few people had to eat on the chairs on the side of the room. On the tables, there was the occasional candle display but most of the room had to be reserved for food.

    And the food looked good. Kay was uncomfortable swimming through an ocean of acquaintances but the food smelled delicious. Urban wanted to sit near his brother Luke so Mom had to sit beside Urban and then the seats beside her filled up.

    ¡°But where am I supposed to sit?¡± asked Kay.

    Mom looked around. ¡°I dunno. Find some place.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, kid?¡± asked Luke. ¡°Need your mommy nearby?¡± He broke out into a horse laugh and Kay responded by feeling like an idiot and saying nothing.

    Kay moved around the table while seats filled up with excited family members and found an empty seat, sitting between a large bearded man named Alpheus and Gregor, an older man with his grey hair combed back. Kay took his seat and tried to remain as quiet as possible.

    Alpheus and Gregor talking to each other over Kay, though, and Kay got sucked into their circle of conversation. Soon, they volunteered Kay to join their chat.

    ¡°So you¡¯re Urban¡¯s new stepson, huh?¡± asked Alpheus.

    God, did Kay hate that word but a family dinner was no place to protest it. Kay uttered: ¡°Yeah...¡±

    ¡°That must be a fun time!¡± said Gregor.

    ¡°Yeah...¡±

    ¡°How old are you?¡± asked Alpheus.

    It didn¡¯t take long for the conversation to codify into the adults asking the adolescent a series of question rapid fire. Kay answered them with short, inoffensive answers.

    ¡°What¡¯s your favourite sport?¡±

    ¡°Norkemasis? Is that Greek?¡±

    ¡°You ever been the Bahamas?¡±

    Kay was on the receiving end of a conversation he didn¡¯t have control over. Even when he had a chance to answer questions, he knew that there were a lot of answers the two men would have issues with.

    ¡°Which church do you go to? What? You don¡¯t go to church? You should go to our church.¡±

    It only took a few minutes for the men to give up the pretense of asking question and instead outright told Kay what he was like.

    ¡°You must be thinking about girls all the time!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re Lebanese? You must have fattoush every day!¡±

    ¡°The food¡¯s good right?¡±

    It wasn¡¯t exhausting and didn¡¯t distract Kay from the food that was quite good, but it made him feel lonely. He wasn¡¯t be talked to¨C he was being talked at.

    The night went on and Kay went to a corner in the living room to pretend to be asleep. Some younger kids came in while he pretended to be asleep and made threats of drawing on his face but didn¡¯t got through with it.

    The hours went on and then Mom called at Kay. ¡°Hey, Kay! We¡¯re leaving!¡±

    Kay got up. The suffering had ended. He skulked to the front and got his shoes back on. He felt heavy, although that was likely all the food he consumed.

    Stepping out into the night, the outside air was cold. Kay shivered and clutched his shirt. Urban and Mom laughed as they walked to the car. Maybe Mom had a glass of something, Kay didn¡¯t know. Urban was driving anyway.

    The car was cold when they got inside and Kay didn¡¯t want to bother Urban to turn on the heat so he shivered in the back seat. Urban waited for a line of cars to pass by and then he drove out and the trio was on their way home.

    ¡°What did you guys play up there?¡± asked Mom.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t play anything,¡± said Kay. ¡°It was Carcas¨C something. It was like Lost Treasure? Do you remember that game... mom?¡±

    ¡°Ummm, no,¡± said Mom. ¡°As long as you had fun then.¡±

    Kay huffed a joyless chuckle. I didn¡¯t, he thought to himself.

 Under a Heavy Rain

    The clouds dragged over the sky above.

    Philly was cruising around town, keeping his nose towards the air to smell out some breakfast. He knew a place with an unsecured dumpster in the parking lot. Every thirty minutes or so, someone would walk out with garbage to dispose. Sometimes a full bin of scraps or sometimes individual plates with dinners partially left upon. Philly didn¡¯t understand how things worked in that eatery¡¯s kitchen, but Philly knew how an unlocked dumpster worked!

    The fox waited until one of the workers came out with a box of half-eaten food, including pancakes. The worker opened the dumpster, dropped the stuff in, and then went back inside.

    Philly waited until the worker was nearly back in the building and then hopped on top the dumpster and opened the lid with his snout. Whipping the top open, he jumped into the garbage and dug into the pile that the worker just laid out, gobbling up all the pancakes he could and chasing it with some uneaten berries. A fox had to be quick so Philly got what he could and then hopped back out, pushing the lid down after him, and then running off into the distance.

    With breakfast taken care of, he strolled around the neighbourhood to see what fun he could find. Sometimes he¡¯d pass by a playground and a kid would kick a soccer ball his way and how tempted he felt to join in the fun.

    But he knew he couldn¡¯t. He was a fox and they were humans. He would have only scared the kids, or worse they would try to catch him and tug his brushy tail!

    The most common kind of fun he could have was eavesdrop on humans when they thought nobody was listening. With his vulpine ears, he could hear many things. Relationships on the rocks, embarrassing encounters, and secret grievances; these were all things the fox had heard.

    As Philly walked through the back lot of a strip mall, he saw a couple men hanging around a parked Malibu. Their tones were unsettling so as Philly got close, he hid behind some shrubbery and listened in.

    ¡°If the safe doesn¡¯t have hard cash,¡± said Jung-han, waving a finger at the back of a second story. The wall was featureless but the guy focused his attention on a section with two pipes coiling out the top of the wall and over the edge above onto the roof. ¡°It¡¯ll have other valuables that can be sold off with a little work. Nothing we don¡¯t have the connections for.¡±

    Jung-han was a taller guy. Philly wasn¡¯t good at grokking human ages but Jung-han seemed to be in his mid-twenties, maybe approaching his thirties. He had long black hair aside from the shaved sides. He wore biker gloves and a chain hung from his jeans.

    O¡¯Malley was Jung-han¡¯s cohort. He wore rimless sunglasses and had a heavy coat on that October morning. He stroked his chin fuzz and asked: ¡°When do you want to hit it?¡±

    Philly perked up! This was trouble. He kept low and quiet.

    ¡°Tomorrow night,¡± said Jung-han. ¡°Tuesday... First day back in office after the long weekend. People¡¯ll stay late for other jobs; not that one.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± said O¡¯Malley, squeezing out a heavy breath. ¡°Tomorrow night.¡±

    ¡°At 9 o¡¯clock,¡± said Jung-han.

    The two got in the Malibu. Maybe they were still talking when they got in the car but Philly couldn¡¯t make out what they were saying and the ignition turning on muffled their voices more. The car pulled out of the lot and drove away.

    I got to tell Kay about this! thought Philly.

    The fox ran off. He had to see Kay as soon as he could.

    Kay was in his room, playing on his computer.

    After suffering Sunday night in the midst of an uncomfortable family affair, Kay wanted to spend the rest of his long weekend chilling out with video games. Maybe he would head out later and jump around as the water elemental. He wasn¡¯t sure just yet.

    The dial-up connection required the apartment¡¯s phone line so if Kay was on the internet, his family couldn¡¯t get calls. It was a Monday off, though, so Mom allowed him to use the internet as he pleased. She didn¡¯t need any calls that day.

    Since first using the internet in the late nineties, Kay had developed a persona online: SkyWaker. He used the handle SkyWaker anywhere he could: on forums for emulation, romhacks, and webcomics he liked. Many people assumed the name came from Star Wars but Kay just thought it sounded cool when he first registered it a few years ago.

    Through some forums, he met various people. AzureHill52 was a person he met through the Megatokyo forums¨C someone he added to MSN Messenger. They chatted with each other over the last year and had become friends. It was weird, though, for Kay anyway. Azure was in Connecticut and Kay being able to chat so easily with a person from across the world was mind-boggling. Actually, it was a fraction of the world¡¯s longitude, but to Kay it was a monumental achievement. It was nothing he could have imagined as a kid. Then again, he didn¡¯t know what Connecticut was when he was still in primary school.

    Kay tabbed out of his SNES emulator and saw that AzureHill52 was logged on in MSN Messenger. He sent his friend a message:

    ¡°Hey, what¡¯s up?¡±

    It took a couple minutes but Azure replied: ¡°Nothing, much. You?¡±

    ¡°Enjoying my Thanksgiving weekend,¡± said Kay.

    ¡°Oh yeah,¡± typed Azure. ¡°You guys have it in October. Did you get that from the British?¡±

    ¡°I dunno,¡± typed Kay. ¡°Lol.¡±

    If Kay told Azure that he could transform into a water being, would Azure believe him? It was something the boy wondered. But no. There was no way Azure or anyone would have believed it. There was something tempting, though. He was SkyWaker on the internet, not Kay Norkemasis.

    Kay continued to chill out with his internet connection and emulated SNES games until he heard a tap at his window.

    I hope that isn¡¯t who I think it is, thought Kay.

    He turned around it was who he thought it was. It was Philly, tapping his claws on Kay¡¯s windows.

    ¡°Oh sh¨C!¡±

    Kay¡¯s family was right outside his bedroom door. He could hear Urban and Mom chatting in the kitchen. Kay got up, smacking the keyboard tray, and went up to the window.

    Kay opened it slowly. ¡°You can¡¯t be here!¡± he said in a fierce whisper.

    ¡°Kay!¡± said Philly, ¡°We gotta talk. There¡¯s a crime coming tomorrow.¡±

    Kay groaned, then thought for a moment. They couldn¡¯t talk with Mom and Urban in the other room. ¡°Meet me in the alley.¡± He gestured his head over at the staircase down into the alleyway.

    ¡°Right,¡± said Philly. He looked around and then scampered off down the stairs.

    Kay closed the window and watched Philly disappear down the stairs. He would have to leave the apartment, and with his parents in the kitchen, he would need an excuse so he didn¡¯t appear strange. He brainstormed something quick and then walked out into the house and towards the front door.

    His mom was fixing herself a sandwich while Urban fried up some eggs on a pan. Mom looked up. ¡°Where are you going?¡±

    ¡°Uhhh...¡± Kay had already lost confidence in his excuse. ¡°A friend is nearby. In town. I¡¯m going down to see him.¡±

    Mom raised an eyebrow, bewildered. ¡°Really? How... how do you know this?¡±

    ¡°The internet,¡± said Kay, reaching for the front door, ¡°the internet said so.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of the internet,¡± said Mom, ¡°if you¡¯re heading out, could you disconnect from it? What¡¯s the point in you holding the phone line if you¡¯re not inside?¡±

    Kay grumbled and marched back to his room. He leaned over his desk and right-clicked on the internet icon and to log off. With that taken care of, Kay grabbed his jacket and went back to the door.

    He scurried down the stairs and went out into the parking lot. He hoped his mother wasn¡¯t trying to keep tabs on him and spying on him as he walked down the side of the building towards the back alleyway. Kay took a glance around and made sure no one had eyes on him as he slipped into the dark corridor where the wind blew like ancient flutes.

    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Philly wasn¡¯t anywhere to be seen. ¡°Philly?¡± Kay said, keeping his voice low enough that any nearby humans wouldn¡¯t detect.

    The fox walked out from behind a couple trash cans. ¡°¡¯Sup?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s up with you?¡± asked Kay, walking up to the fox and crouching low. ¡°You¡¯re the one that came to my house.¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± said Philly, dropping his tone. ¡°I overheard some guys outside the strip mall off of Queens. They¡¯re planning on hitting up one of the stores.¡±

    Kay snapped upward and folded out a wide frown. ¡°Not more gangsters!¡±

    Philly boxed a forepaw into Kay¡¯s leg. ¡°C¡¯mooonnn! These guys won¡¯t be so tough! And they don¡¯t know you¡¯re coming. You have the advantage.¡±

    Kay sighed and waddled over to the wall, laying his back on it. He looked out into the sky and exhaled, seeing if it was cold enough to see his breath in the cool air. No, his breath was as clear as the sky.

    ¡°I¡¯m not meant to fight actual criminals,¡± said Kay, tapping his fingers against the bricks. ¡°I¡¯m more of a security guard, y¡¯know? I show up to scare people into behaving themselves.¡±

    Philly¡¯s face dropped but he knew he should have respected Kay¡¯s feelings. Was the kid simply not built to fight crime? The fox gave out a strained sigh: maybe that was the truth.

    ¡°Alright,¡± said Philly. ¡°When¡¯s the next time you wanted to go out on patrol, then?¡± He smirked. ¡°To play security guard?¡±

    Kay looked at his feet, shifting them around. He scratched the back of his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know. How about Wednesday?¡±

    Philly grinned and nodded his head, pointy ears waddling about. ¡°Sounds good! See you then, kid!¡±

    The fox walked off, a brisk trot to leave the alleyway. As Kay watched the fox leave the alleyway, a hint of shame came over him. He was a superhuman, and he was using his powers to scare off kids from shoplifting? It felt pathetic when he thought about it to himself.

    Kay didn¡¯t have the personality for violence, not in his eyes. But he had a body that was formidable. Kay the person wasn¡¯t a fighter, but his body and powers could do heavy lifting.

    He got up and closed his eyes, deep thoughts weighing on him. If fighting crime¨C in the case of the fighting being literal¨C was such a problem for Kay, why did he keep feeling the urge to try again?

    ¡°Hey, Philly!¡± shouted Kay, jogging up to Philly.

    Philly turned back and waited for Kay to come up to him. ¡°Hey, keep it down!¡±

    Kay lowered himself to Philly. ¡°You know what...?¡± He sighed. ¡°When is the robbery supposed to happen?¡±

    ¡°9:00 o¡¯clock,¡± said Philly. ¡°At the Sunrise Shopping Plaza.¡±

    Kay nodded. ¡°Alright. Tomorrow night, then.¡±

    Philly let out a happy yip and then trotted off into the streets, vanishing behind a series of planters.

    9:00, Tuesday. It was a date.

    Kay¡¯s breathing got heavy as he walked back to the apartment. Once more into the breach. Once more Kay Narkemasis was going to throw himself into danger and likely fight someone. It was absurd to think about that statement. Was this going to be another traumatizing mistake?

    When Kay headed out on Tuesday night, it was raining hard. Leaving the apartment when the windows were awash with drizzling rain got concern from Mom, but Kay gave the excuse he was heading over to a friend¡¯s apartment a block away and wouldn¡¯t be out in the rain long. Still, her son leaving the house without so much as a raincoat or umbrella was disappointing.

    Kay picked up Philly at his place, although the fox had to be quick to hop into the backpack so that he wouldn¡¯t get so wet. Philly even asked Kay to zip up the top as tight as he could to prevent water leaking through. With Philly locked up like a lunch box, Kay took off to the plaza.

    Running around in the rain was different than running around when nothing was falling from the sky. It was water¨C Kay¡¯s element. The sensation of being soaked and weighed down by the downpour wasn¡¯t something he experienced in his water form. While in liquid mode, he felt at one with the rainfall. It was like swimming through the air, breathing unblocked and vision perfect.

    He would land on a rooftop and make a big splash, like he was making an entrance with every fall. As he raced across rooftops, neon glow illuminating the night, he had to suppress laughter of joy. He loved jumping high in the sky and letting the rain whip against his body, droplets of life entering and combining with his form.

    The feeling was too spellbinding. He stopped in the middle of a rooftop and stretched out his arms, letting the heavy rainfall bombard him. It was a pulse of life, a heavy hit of renewal. He wanted to drown in it, even though he never could.

    Philly detected that Kay had stopped and called out through the fabric of the backpack. ¡°Hey, kid! What¡¯s up?¡±

    Kay chuckled and dropped his arms. ¡°Sorry, I just love the rain.¡±

    Philly chuckled. ¡°I bet you would!¡±

    He opened his mouth and drank the water. Kay didn¡¯t have taste buds in that form but taking in water was like drinking something delicious. He got some a refreshing drink but knew time was of the essence. Kay picked up the pace and headed to the plaza.

 Under a Heavy Rain II

    Rain drowned the Sunrise Shopping Plaza.

    Unending flow consumed the parking lots. The light from the sign out front twinkled against the endless barrage of droplets from the dark sky. Someone came out of a door and had to run to their car, using a book as an umbrella. Even if the woman only had to walk fifteen feet at most to get inside her coupe, that was all it took to have the woman¡¯s jacket washed with rain.

    Kay arrived at the plaza with Philly still hiding inside the bunker that was a backpack. Kay went to the doors and was pleased to find out that were unlocked and that they could explore the building at their leisure. Kay opened the door slowly, looking around to see if anyone was around, and then stepped in.

    The hallways were dark, like the manager liked to cut down on the power bill so the hall lights went off at eight. Stores still had their lights on, but those were mostly on the other side of the building¨C the other wing. In the part of the building where the to-be burgled store was, most businesses were closed and lights were off.

    The problem was Philly couldn¡¯t remember which unit was going to be robbed. All he had for reference was a couple criminals pointing at the back of a unit from outdoors. There wasn¡¯t a sign or a marker that showed which store it the goons were planning to rob.

    ¡°So which one is it?¡± asked Kay, looking down the hall.

    ¡°Uhhhh,¡± said Philly. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± said Kay, his voice crackling down the hall. He glanced at a store off in the distance with its light glowing out into the dark floor¨C he had to be quiet. In a whisper, he spoke: ¡°What do you mean you don¡¯t know?¡±

    ¡°I never checked which store it was,¡± said Philly.

    Kay sighed. ¡°What now, then?¡±

    Philly shrugged. ¡°Let¡¯s go out to the parking lot. The back lot.¡±

    Kay put Philly back in the pack and the two left the building, careful to see anyone else around as they left the glass doors. They turned around the corner of the building and went to the back lot where Philly saw the criminals. The back lot was swimming with water, sewer grates growling as they guzzled whatever the streets had to offer.

    Kay walked along the lot and looked up and down the back of the building, the walls stark, lacking in features. Only the bottom row of units had doors and only a few of the second level ones had a window.

    ¡°Which one was it?¡± said Kay, having to shout over the noise of the downpour.

    Philly poked his head out of the backpack and looked up and down the building, squinting to see through the onslaught from above. It only took a few seconds of him having his head out of the pack to have his fur soaked. He sucked it up and gazed at the wall, pointing a foreleg at one of the units.

    ¡°That one!¡± he said.

    Kay looked at the part of the building that Philly was pointing at. It wasn¡¯t like there was any obvious markers to tell which unit was which. ¡°What place is that?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡± said Philly. Tired of being rained upon, he dipped back into the back and tried closing the zipper with his paws.

    Kay sighed. He looked at the spot Philly pointed at and tried measuring the distance from it to the end of the building. Maybe he could have guesstimated which building it was by measuring out the length from the end of the building inside.

    Philly was under assault from the night sky so Kay zipped up the backpack and hurried back inside the building. The building was still quiet and still empty, at least in that wing of the plaza. Kay let Philly back out.

    Philly, his fur wet with rain, dripped on the floor. Kay, a person made of literal water, did not.

    ¡°Ugh,¡± said Philly, looking at his mangy fur, ¡°now I¡¯m all soaked!¡±

    Kay didn¡¯t want to have a drippy fox walking around so he bit the bullet and took his liquid arms to Philly¡¯s body. The mass of Kay¡¯s liquid hands combed through Philly¡¯s fur.

    ¡°Hey, wait a¨C ack!¡±

    Kay ignored Philly¡¯s protest and the boy wiped his watery form down the fox¡¯s body, leaving behind a dry (and clean) fur on Philly¡¯s body, although the process left the fox¡¯s fluff standing on end.

    Kay took the hand away and Philly stood there, dry but puffy as a dandelion. ¡°What did you do?¡± asked the fox, looking over his fur.

    ¡°I dried you,¡± said Kay. ¡°I absorbed the water off of you.¡± He looked at his hands, bits of fur floating inside, drifting up into his arms. ¡°Among other things.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± said Philly, caught off guard with surprise. ¡°Neat. I didn¡¯t know you could do that.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t like to do that,¡± said Kay, waving his arms around. ¡°It¡¯s gross!¡±

    ¡°Gee, sorry.¡±

    Kay slapped his hands at the floor and some water ejected out of him, leaving a small puddle on the ground with stray fox fur inside. Kay checked his body. It seemed clean.

    ¡°Okay,¡± said Kay. ¡°Let¡¯s go find that store.¡±

    There was a staircase up to the second floor but there was also a ramp for handicap access, which Philly preferred to climbing steps even if the top of the ramp landed him pretty close to one of the remaining active stores. The two were thankful that part of the building didn¡¯t have anyone around except for a business towards the fold in the building¡¯s shape. Kay found the end of the building he used as reference and walked down the hall to see if he could guess which place the thugs were going to break into.

    Most of the places were office stuff, like insurance venues or doctors. In fact, they got down most of the hall and they hadn¡¯t come across any store that screamed robbable. Kay circled back and went over the stores again.

    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    ¡°Which one is it?¡± he asked.

    Philly sank his expression. ¡°I... I don¡¯t know!¡±

    ¡°Oh for crying out loud!¡± said Kay, being a little too loud for someone trying to remain undetected. He could hear a store on the floor below still active, chatter and cabinet¡¯s clacking lively.

    ¡°Maybe if we wait,¡± said Philly, ¡°we could wait for them to arrive and pick the store for us.¡±

    Kay groaned and looked around. The hallway was as blank at a fresh sheet of paper. There were no trash cans, radiators, or corners to hide behind. There was a grille on the ceiling that Kay could hide inside. He stepped to the centre of the room and got ready to spring-jump.

    Philly looked up at the vent. ¡°Okay, you can hide there, but what about me?¡±

    He looked at the windows. The way the light shone in the window created a dark cut beneath the sill that Philly could have camouflaged into.

    Kay pointed at the bottom of the wall. ¡°Lay up against the wall. You can hide in the shadow.¡±

    Philly looked up, his muzzle unconvinced. ¡°If someone walks by, they are going to see me.¡±

    Kay pondered. He looked down the hallway. ¡°What if you were further down the hallway?¡±

    ¡°Uhhh...¡± Philly cranked a cheek but looked down the hallway at the shadows. If the crooks didn¡¯t get too close, and the fox was very still, the crooks wouldn¡¯t notice him. ¡°Okay...¡±

    Kay walked with Philly over to the shadow and looked at Philly as the fox laid against the wall. Philly¡¯s dark fur helped him blend into the shadow. Kay took multiple perspectives.

    ¡°How do I look?¡± asked Philly.

    Kay rubbed a chin. ¡°I think it¡¯ll do.¡±

    Philly moaned. That didn¡¯t sound reassuring.

    Kay found another grille to enter and jumped up inside. For how mobile he was in his water form, jumping up in through a grill was a tough manoeuver. He squeezed inside and reformed on top of the grill, standing his liquid feet on the grill.

    But then something hit the floor. It was Kay¡¯s backpack! He forgot he had it around his shoulders so when he dissolved himself to creep through the grate, the backpack fell off behind him and smacked to the floor.

    ¡°Hey!¡± whispered Philly, ¡°Watch it!¡±

    ¡°Ooops,¡± said Kay, slithering back out and hitting the floor.

    He picked up the backpack and looked around. Could he hide the thing in the hallways, too? It was a black backpack so it would have faded into the shadows. He went over to the spot where Philly was going to hide and put the backpack down with him. Then he went back to the duct and jumped on in.

    Now it was time to wait.

    As they waited, they couldn¡¯t help but talk to each other, passing ghostly whispers through the vent and hall.

    ¡°Hey Philly,¡± Kay¡¯s voice was tinny, ¡°are you the only one of your kind around town?¡±

    Philly rested his head on his paws and turned to the wall. ¡°No. There¡¯s a few others. They don¡¯t bother with me, though.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± Kay¡¯s voice perked up. ¡°Like other foxes?¡±

    ¡°No other foxes,¡± said Philly. The sadness was heavy in his voice. ¡°I know there¡¯s a shrew around town that¡¯s like me... intelligent. She keeps to herself. She¡¯s paranoid, I think. It¡¯s tough being a rodent.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d guess,¡± said Kay.

    ¡°The only one I see often is Night,¡± said Philly. ¡°He¡¯s a starling¨C a bird. We talk often but¨C¡° Philly let out a small growl¨C ¡°he¡¯s a pain!¡±

    Kay chuckled.

    The rumble of a vehicle pulled in outside, breaking the conversation. Below, there was chatter. Then... the doors opened. Was it the crooks?

    Their footfalls were quiet but in the silence of the sleepy hallway, both Kay and Philly could still hear them. There was also a squeaking. Kay took his head to the grate and peeked out into the hallway to see a man coming up the stairs: Daytona, a grizzled man with patchy facial hair and a snow cap. Then there was the squeaking. Behind Daytona there another man walking up the ramp with a hand lift. Philly recognized the man was Jung-han¨C and he confirmed that those two were the criminals.

    He didn¡¯t know how to signal to Kay without giving himself away. He hoped Kay figured they were the ones.

    The crooks moved into the second floor and moved to a loans agency. They were quiet but kept their eyes up and down the hall. Even with the watchful gaze, they didn¡¯t see Philly lurking in the shadows by the window sill. Daytona took out a key, its steel shimmering white, and he took it to the door, unlocking it.

    He stepped in and there was a beeping. He went to the alarm panel and flipped open the console to tap in the code. The beeping stopped. It surprised him: the code was legit.

    Jung-han walked in with the lift, carefully lining it up with the door so that it carted right through without bumping the sides. ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s get that safe.¡±

    Daytona looked over at a windowed door to another room. That was the boss¡¯ office. He walked up and looked inside. Maybe that dark figure in the corner was the safe they were after. He checked the door handle. Locked. They couldn¡¯t forge a key for that one, though, so Daytona brought out a key-breaking device from his coat pocket. It looked like a clamp but with a few extra levers.

    He slid it into the key hole and started turning some nobs as he puzzled out the shape of locking mechanism and what shape was necessary to fake the absent key.

    Philly and Kay were still outside. Philly was wondering what was taking so long but then Kay gooped out of the duct and landed on the floor. He was quiet as he snuck close to the door. He peeked and saw the criminals huddled by the door. They looked tough and even if there was only two of them, Kay worried. Another fight was about to begin.

    He turned his back against the wall and exhaled hard before tightening his face. Philly walked out of the shadows and gave Kay a nod. Kay returned the gesture.

    It was time for battle.

 Under a Heavy Rain III

    Kay walked into the room. ¡°Freeze!¡± he commanded.

    The thugs turned to him, eyes gleaming in shock as they were sure they had been caught by the police. But no. It was some kind of purple liquid thing. They were relieved it wasn¡¯t the police but as they took the eyes on the being, they were captured by its bewildering form.

    Something lit up in Jung-han. A purple water thing? With a shirt and pants? It was the creature that he heard about from Richie.

    ¡°What the¨C?¡± said Daytona, nearly dropping his key-breaker.

    ¡°Oh,¡± said Jung-han, straightening up his stance, ¡°this guy. He¡¯s the one that broke up the shake-down at West Queens.¡± Jung-han edged towards Kay, hands out and ready to hurt. ¡°Let¡¯s deal with him quick.¡±

    Daytona eyed his partner, picking up the breaker and putting it back into the lock. ¡°Can we hurt it?¡±

    ¡°Apparently,¡± said Jung-han, eyes glaring at Kay. ¡°Let¡¯s find out for sure!¡±

    Philly crept up to the loan agency¡¯s door to keep an eye on Kay. Not half a minute in the room and Kay was already feeling the heat with Jung-han approaching him like a tiger ready to pounce.

    Kay looked around his environment¨C the office had a few desks and the water cooler in the corner beside a few chairs. Empty floor space was not a common thing. Was this the best environment for a battle?

    Kay looked over Jung-han¡¯s body and even Jung-han¡¯s stance signified more fighting prowess than Kay could ever have.

    It was time for Kay to try out actual fighting. As Jung-han closed in, Kay took a swing at the guy¡¯s head but the attack was obvious and Jung-han ducked under the attack with ease. Jung-han took a jab at Kay and grazed the water lad¡¯s cheek, causing him to fall back. Kay caught his head.

    Jung-han patted his knuckles. ¡°Yeah. Made of water.¡± He looked back at Daytona. ¡°Come over here and help me waste this sucker.¡±

    Daytona left the breaker in the door. ¡°How are we supposed to beat a water thing?¡±

    Jung-han watched as Kay stroked his cheek, soothing the pain that Jung-han¡¯s blow left him. ¡°By making him regret coming here.¡±

    Jung-han rushed Kay. Kay was still for a split second but his nerves kicked in and he hopped out of the way. Jung-han traced him, reaching out to grab Kay¡¯s watery arm. There were easier ways to break free but being grabbed startled Kay so he panicked and lifted up a foot to kick into Jung-han¡¯s stomach and pry himself out of the man¡¯s grasp. Jung-han let go and Kay fell back.

    Jung-han toppled back, Daytona having to catch his partner. Jung-han let out a singular chuckle. ¡°Slippery!¡±

    Kay got up and returned to a defensive stance¨C his mind focused on dodging. Philly wasn¡¯t sure if this was going to go Kay¡¯s way. Both of the crooks looked ready for a fight and Kay was on the backstep.

    Daytona and Jung-han spread out and Daytona came from Kay¡¯s side and took a swing at his head. When Kay stepped back, he bumped against a desk and was open for another strike. Daytona threw his other fist at Kay¡¯s face and knocked the water lad back, but Kay shook off the pain and had a quick recovery. He snapped his body out of the way of another one of Daytona¡¯s punches, and threw a big wallop at Daytona¡¯s head, smacking him with with the force of a crashing wave!

    Daytona stumbled back and took a hand down his wet scowl. Water dripped from his hair. ¡°You weren¡¯t kidding. This... thing is the real deal!¡±

    Kay put his dukes up. When Jung-han took a step forward, Kay lifted a mighty kick at the guy. Jung-han slid back and Daytona exploited the opening Kay left on himself. Kay let the momentum of his kick twirl him around and he threw a blistering punch at Daytona, smacking him in the jaw.

    Daytona was thrown against the desk. He shot a deathly look at Kay and growled.

    Philly watched from the door, smiling wide! Maybe the kid could hold his own!

    ¡°What did you say this thing was?¡± asked Daytona to Jung-han.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Jung-han, ¡°only that it was a pain to fight.¡±

    Kay was feeling unparticipative so as he stood there, locking eyes with his two opponents, he took a confident stance and gave a judgmental point. ¡°Cease your robbery on this place!¡±

    Jung-han charged at Kay. ¡°Not a chance, brat!¡±

    He took a fury of swings at Kay, but was having trouble landing any on the creature. Kay slid out of the way, keeping his balance even as he had to shift his steps with quick fashion. Jung-han chopped into Kay¡¯s centre but the water boy squealed and loosened his structure and the hand went right through.

    Sweet! thought Kay, surprised at his own finesse.

    After handling a fury of punches, Kay readied a powerful stance and punched Jung-han in his chest. The man was throttled back, but recovered quickly.

    Kay knew he had to turn up the volume.

    The waterboy fused his arms together to form a hammer of liquid. He swung at Jung-han but was too slow and the crook dodged out of the way. Daytona saw and opening and rushed at Kay, checking him into the corner with the water cooler. Kay plummeted to the floor, pushing over the water cooler and knocking it down. The tank fell off and water began to pour all over the carpet.

    Jung-han gave Daytona a high five. Pain burned across Kay¡¯s body, and his pride was shook, too. He slipped his hand trying to get up on his feet.

    ¡°He might be water,¡± said Jung-han, ¡°but he takes a punch like cardboard!¡±

    Water poured around Kay¡¯s feet, but then he concentrated felt a connection to the water below. Drawing the water into his body and focusing that energy down his arm, he extended the arm at the crooks and grinned.

    They didn¡¯t know what was going on until a burst of water fired out of Kay¡¯s hand, dousing the men. The spray was as powerful as a fire hose and it knocked the men back, Jung-han toppling over a chair and Daytona falling against a desk. Kay drenched the room with his attack, and a maniacal laugh came over him.

    The water beneath him dried up, though, and the spray slowed. Kay dropped his arm. The fun was over but Kay mugged for the criminals, water dripping off of them like they just came out of a pool.

    They glared at the water boy, though, and Kay¡¯s confidence disappeared.

    Jung-han and Daytona stomped across the damp floor, Daytona slipping for a second but catching himself. When they cornered the water boy in the corner, Kay tried jumping over the chairs but Jung-han grabbed him and Kay toppled to the floor.

    ¡°Gottem!¡± said Jung-han.

    Jung-han drove a fist at Kay but Kay rolled out of the way. He was still in Jung-han¡¯s grip, though, and couldn¡¯t roll far. He tried kicking at Jung-han, but Jung-han toughed the blow and kept his hand around Kay¡¯s limb.

    Jung-han sneered while Daytona ran around and grabbed Kay¡¯s shoulders. The two hoisted the water boy to his feet. Kay struggled to get free, eyes full of terror, but Daytona wouldn¡¯t release the boy.

    Kay was about to get it; Philly had to intervene! The fox ran in and stood behind Jung-han while the punk was distracted. Philly was unnoticed, so he tried to scare Jung-han with a loud yap!

    Jung-han flinched and looked down to see the fox behind him. He was too preoccupied with the water boy to be confused why a fox was in a loan agency but he had a feeling it was going to be a problem so he swung a boot in Philly¡¯s direction before the fox could do anything, knocking Philly back a few paces.

    The fox whimpered and collapsed on the floor.

    Kay gasped in horror, then crunched his brow and growled.

    His dissolved his shoulder to get out of Daytona¡¯s grip and then leaned forward to raise a kick up to Daytona¡¯s face. He did a flip and turned around to face his opponents. Daytona shook off the kick and he and Jung-han charged the water lad. Kay was shook, all his fury blown out of him.

    He closed his eyes and braced himself, and when he heard them getting close, he put mass into his arms and threw out his arms at his opponents. He pushed both of them into each other and their heads knocked together with a loud bonk. The tension in their bodies drained out of them and they fell to the floor.

    Laying by Kay¡¯s feet, they were unconscious.

    Kay stepped away from the men. He stared at them on the ground. Was that it?

    Philly groaned. Kay ran over and came to the fox¡¯s side.

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°Philly!¡± Kay reaching out to help his friend up but hesitated. His fox¡¯s body might be sore and sensitive after such a blow. Kay said, ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    Philly blinked and shook his head. ¡°Yeah. Just got the wind knocked out of me.¡± He shook his head and winced. He looked over at Jung-han. ¡°What¨C does this guy practice kicking foxes?¡±

    Sirens came roaring in. Philly and Kay looked out the door into the hall where red and blue lights blinked on the windows. The cops were here.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here!¡± said Kay.

    Kay ran with Philly out into the hall. They crept low when they got close to the window and they went over to pick up the backpack. Philly slipped inside but Kay knew the cops were just below so he ditched the idea of heading out the door they came in earlier.

    The door below opened. Kay zipped up the backpack and put it on his back. He heard footfalls¨C the cops coming up the stairs. Kay took off running the other direction towards the door on the other side of the building; the side of the building that was still active.

    ¡°Screw it,¡± said Kay.

    He ran. He ran towards the other wing of the building where many people were still at work. They heard the noise¨C more than a few of them called the cops¨C and then they went out into the hall to see what was going on.

    And what did they see? They saw Kay coming their way, so if excitement was what they were looking for, they had found it. Many gasped and screamed! Kay locked eyes with the crowd of several men and women, and saw how horrified they were at the sight of an abomination running through the building.

    Kay never liked to expose his watery self to the public, but he had no other choice, though. He ran down the other hall and when he got close to the end he went down a staircase to the first floor. The doors were right there and there were no cops around outside, so he slammed them open and returned into the pouring rain.

    The cop car was at the other end of the building, its lights shining through the storm. Kay didn¡¯t see any cops, but he wasn¡¯t going to stay around to check. He ran around the building¡¯s corner to a back. A fence separated the back lot from a group of trees. Kay jumped over the fence and into the grove.

    Kay looked back. No one was following him and he had more than another ability to escape pursuit if they tried. As far as he could tell, he was home free.

    ¡°Alright,¡± said Kay, not sure if Philly could hear him over the rain. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here.¡±

    Kay, with Philly in tow, vanished from the scene.

    O¡¯Malley was waiting for the guys to get back.

    The van was parked in the back lot, radio off so O¡¯Malley could hear anything he needed to hear. His mission was to wait in the truck and get it going as soon as the guys had the safe in the back. All three of them could have gone up to retrieve the safe, but they weren¡¯t sure how many people would be around up there and didn¡¯t wanted to draw as little attention as possible. Jung-han wasn¡¯t even sure two people were needed, let alone three. So O¡¯Malley stayed in the van.

    A distant sound made O¡¯Malley¡¯s ear twitch. Then the sound got loud and O¡¯Malley knew it was a siren. A police siren. He choked on a gasp, looking round the lot to see if there was a back exit. No. Fence around the lot as far as O¡¯Malley could see.

    Then the cop car sped across the street in front of the van and O¡¯Malley could hear the car pull into the front. O¡¯Malley froze, options jumbling in his head. What was he going to do? What could he do?

    Jung-han and Daytona weren¡¯t back yet, and there was no time to wait for them. O¡¯Malley had to get out of there.

    He turned the engine on, cursing how loud the old van was. He hoped the cops didn¡¯t hear him as he drove up to turn into the parking lot.

    But the cops were right there! He could see the red and blue flashing against the rainy pavement in front of him. The car was right around the corner!

    He looked ahead. All that was between the back lot and the road was a slab of grass and sidewalk. He could drive over it. He pulled up slowly, keeping an eye out around the building to see if a cop was there. It was too risky to pull up without checking where the cops were looking.

    O¡¯Malley gritted his teeth and took his foot off the gas. He got out of the van into the onslaught of rain, and snuck up to the corner of the building to see if any cops were around. He didn¡¯t see any¨C they had gone inside. O¡¯Malley got back into the van.

    Water dripped on the seat. O¡¯Malley pulled the van up to the curb and was rocked forth when the tire went over. O¡¯Malley put his seat belt on as the car slowly wheeled across the grass and then the sidewalk. Another rock forward and the van splatted down onto the road.

    O¡¯Malley turned into traffic and drove into the night. No cops were following him. He had gotten away home free.

    ¡°Sorry guys,¡± he said to no one.

    The van faded into the night.

    Dead Head¡¯s office¨C like the warehouse itself¨C was just as dim during the night as it was during the day. The light was a shade darker than what was acceptable to most people. With a couple guys working on the van and Dead Head and Strike hanging out in the office, it was practically working hours for the dubious organization.

    Upon O¡¯Malley returning to home base with two partners missing, Dead Head knew that the job had gone badly. He was in the middle of short meeting with Strike when the vehicle rolled in. He had O¡¯Malley seated in the office while Dead Head paced around the small walking space, scowl chiselled into his face.

    O¡¯Malley knew he was in trouble.

    ¡°What went wrong?¡± asked Dead Head.

    ¡°Uhhhh...¡± O¡¯Malley took his eyes around the room. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. It musta been only ten minutes after the guys went in¨C Jung-han and Daytona¨C that a cop car pulled in. I waited as long as I could have but I had to get outta there!¡±

    Strike scoffed and leaned up against the wall in the corner. ¡°One of those idiots must have triggered the alarm.¡±

    O¡¯Malley tossed his hands out, shrugging. ¡°I did what I had to do.¡±

    Dead Head sneered at him so hard his lip folded a sharp angle. He wanted to yell at the goon, but what good would that have done? He could have messed the idiot¡¯s face up but it was getting late and Dead Head was tired. ¡°Get out of here,¡± he grumbled at O¡¯Malley.

    O¡¯Malley was still worried about his job with the gang but he didn¡¯t leave there with any wounds so he thought he got lucky. He got up and left the office without a word.

    Dead Head brushed his hair back, his hood falling off before the man put it back up.

    ¡°What do we do about Jung-han and Daytona?¡± asked Strike, thrusting herself off the wall with arms still crossed.

    ¡°They won¡¯t talk,¡± said Dead Head. ¡°Nothing to connect them back to this operation.¡±

    Strike nudged a head at O¡¯Malley, seen through the office window walking across the floor. ¡°What about him?¡±

    ¡°Leave him for now,¡± said Dead Head. ¡°He¡¯s on probation.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± said Strike. He stretched her arms up and yawned. ¡°I¡¯m heading home. Whatever dumb thing that those clowns tripped up, we¡¯ll find out tomorrow in the papers, I bet.¡±

    Dead Head groaned and pinched some fingers around his eyes, fighting the irritation of a headache. ¡°Don¡¯t remind me.¡±

    Strike walked out of the office and headed to the exit. Dead Head dragged his hand over his face again. Tomorrow was going to be a troubling day but it was late and he needed sleep, too. He walked out of the office, turning off the light. When he first started the gang, he hoped things would go smoother than they had been going.

 The Start of a Legend

    ¡°On Tuesday 14<sup>th</sup>, at 9:06pm the Toronto Police Service arrived at the Sunrise Shopping Plaza responding to a report of a possible robbery. Witnesses at the building said there was the sound of fighting and shouting. When the police arrived, they found two men unconscious at the scene in what appeared to be an attempted break-in. Security footage revealed that the two men fought against a third person. The third person appears as a strange spectre, and the chief of the police Abrams Niedermeyer speculates the strange figure is the same ¡®ghost thing¡¯ seen at the Royal Ontario Museum a week earlier.¡±

    Dead Head tossed the newspaper down on his desk and growled. He slammed his hand on the cover. ¡°This is the second time this liquid freak has interfered with our operation.¡±

    He had called Shimmer in that morning, Shimmer looking prim and proper even that early in the morning. Pax was called in, too, but the fella couldn¡¯t bask in the morning like Shimmer so Pax nursed a black coffee from Tim Hortons and tried his best to look awake.

    Stepping up to the desk, he turned the paper his direction and looked at the photo on the front page. It was that water kid, alright; the very one Pax and his boys locked horns with at the convenience store last week.

    ¡°We must do something about him,¡± said Dead Head, sitting down on the chair and hanging his cloak over the back. He glanced at Pax, Pax unnoticing in his boss¡¯ glare. ¡°He¡¯s made of water, correct?¡±

    Pax looked up. ¡°Eh?¡± He backed away from the paper and stood up attentively. ¡°Yeah. We could land punches on him but he had no bones to break.¡±

    Shimmer steered his sharpened eyes over at Pax. ¡°I would assume that if the interloper¡¯s body is alive like described, we could hardly say he was made of water.¡±

    Pax scowled at Shimmer. ¡°What? D¡¯ya wanna do tests on this guy? Figure out his atomic properties?¡±

    Dead Head sighed and rubbed his stubble. ¡°I¡¯m going to send someone after him, but someone with special skills.¡±

    Pax heard the boss loud and clear. Someone with ¡®special skills¡¯; someone not Pax. A strange problem required a strange solution.

    ¡°Should I go through the roster and choose someone suitable?¡± asked Shimmer.

    ¡°Yes,¡± said Dead Head.

    He lowered his gaze at the paper and turned it over his way so he could continue reading. The picture caught his eye, too. Two of his subordinates fighting against a person made of living water. Something would have to be done.

    Kay woke up that Wednesday morning like every other: groggy. He measured his fortune, though. At least he didn¡¯t feel like he was made out of sponge like the previous day-after he had a fight with a group of thugs. Kay got up and walked out into the living room where his family had a head start on their mornings. His ears were still clogged with dream clouds, so the living room chatter passed Kay by.

    By the time he was done in the washroom, Kay¡¯s eyes had opened most of the way. His mom was peering at the TV from the kitchen and Aubrey watched from the couch.

    Urban, walking around with a bowl of oatmeal in hand, looked over at Kay. ¡°Oh, Kay¡¯s up.¡± He reached for the remote and cranked the volume up a few tics.

    The volume took off and while Kay couldn¡¯t make out what was on screen without his glasses, he could hear.

    ¡°We¡¯re not sure what kind of technology the intruder utilized,¡± said the man being interviewed on screen, ¡°but it¡¯s evident he is employing a kind of hi-tech cloaking technology.¡±

    Kay went to his room to get dressed. Something must have happened to to draw the attention of all his family members.

    Kay could hear his family members through the wall. ¡°To you think it¡¯s real?¡± his mom said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Urban, his tone whimsical, ¡°A lot of weird stuff in the world!¡±

    Aubrey chuckled. ¡°But a ghost superhero?¡±

    Kay froze, staring out into the void of a T-shirt as he took it over his head. They couldn¡¯t! he thought.

    He got a grip and slipped on his shirt. He went to his door, opening it quietly to peek out into the living room and to get a sight on the news programme. An anchor talked to the camera but in the corner of the screen was a picture of a camera shot: Kay (in his water form) and the thugs he attacked last night.

    Kay¡¯s blood went cold.

    He shut the door with an audible smack he couldn¡¯t suppress. He was on the news!

    ¡°Are you sure he¡¯s a superhero?¡± asked Urban.

    And his family was talking about him!

    Kay had to hold his face on with his hands. He walked over to his bed and sat down while he stared miles around his room.

    Omigod omigod omigod, he thought.

    ¡°I¡¯m not even sure he¡¯s real!¡± said Mom. ¡°I think it¡¯s a hoax.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t only his family who knew but everyone around Toronto. Kay was on the morning news! How many people were seeing his watery face? He recognized the news room¨C it was CTV. It wasn¡¯t just whispers in workplaces or the local tabloids that were taking that story, it was actual news stations!

    But as he sat on his bed, a bit of pride arose into his throat, and a giggle wiggled out of him. He was on the news. A lot of people were going to know him as a hero.

    Then the panic returned.

    He got his things ready and went out into the living room, trying to look casual. His family was half-focused by the story, walking around the house and getting their days ready while still paying attention to the television. It seemed like the news program had moved on to another story.

    Kay ignored it as best he could, going over to the sink to get a drink of water. Urban spotted the guy and grinned. ¡°Oh. I guess you just missed it, Kay.¡±

    Kay played dumb. ¡°W... what?¡±

    ¡°There was an attempted robbery,¡± said Mom, her tone dismissive. ¡°I don¡¯t believe it myself but a ¡®ghost thing¡¯ was seen at the crime.¡±

    ¡°A ghost thing?¡± asked Kay, faking curiosity.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± said Urban, ¡°it looked like a ghost, I think.¡± He took his upward and chuckled. ¡°I guess we don¡¯t know what it is!¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± said Kay. His tongue stalled. What could he say that wouldn¡¯t arouse suspicion. Finally, something came to mind. Kay said, ¡°They can fake those things. Like the famous Bigfoot picture.¡±

    Aubrey joined in the conversation, speaking loudly from the other side of the room. ¡°It¡¯s not the first superhero in Toronto.¡± She smirked and took her eyes up dismissively. ¡°At least, not the first alleged superhero.¡±

    Mom went to the fridge to get out her lunch bag. She scoffed. ¡°Oh, who¡¯s the other one?¡± She dropped her eyes, trying to remember.

    ¡°Lady Beat,¡± said Urban, with a lot of spunk in his tone. ¡°The one with the medieval armour.¡±

    It was a year or two ago that the first pictures of Lady Beat had hit public. Medieval armour wasn¡¯t the right descriptor, thought Kay. Lady Beat had more of a futuristic look, at least to Kay¡¯s memory.

    ¡°Right,¡± said Mom. He checked her lunch and then snapped the bag shut. ¡°I think that one¡¯s a hoax, too!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t insult this town¡¯s greatest heroes!¡± said Urban.

    Mom curled a smirk. ¡°When did you get so defensive about superheroes? What if they are fake?¡±

    ¡°Real or fake,¡± said Urban, ¡°they are famous figures of Toronto. They are our guys.¡± Urban gestured a shrug. ¡°You gotta respect that!¡± He wobbled an arm at the TV. ¡°Like that Devall guy!¡±

    Mom fluttered her eyes and smiled. ¡°Sure.¡±

    Kay got his lunch ready, stuck it in his backpack, and got out of there before they could ask Kay any questions.

    One pop through the front doors and Kay knew that everyone in school had heard about the ¡®ghost thing¡¯. Kay walked through the halls, listening in on people¡¯s conversations. Many talked about video games or football practice but some talked about the mysterious sighting last night and Kay had never had so many people talk about him.

    ¡°What do you think he is?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe in ghosts, but... what if?¡±

    Kay had first period in chemistry. Even when class began, some people were whispering about it.

    ¡°What other countries have superheroes?¡±

    ¡°If ghosts are real, are demons?¡±

    Even into second period and lunch Kay overheard chatter about it. The second half of the school day came and many weren¡¯t tired of discussing the supernatural incident. The story had grounds. Toronto had knowledge of Kay that they were never going to lose.

    There was no turning back from what happened last night.

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    Kay had media studies out of lunch and today¡¯s lesson was going through the process of how advertising worked and the assignment was on producing an advertisement as group. Kay partnered up with Huxley and Jia. They were occupied with their work but a side-mention from Jia about the local ghost news pivoted conversation accordingly.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a ghost,¡± said Jia, ¡°I don¡¯t know what it is but I don¡¯t believe in ghosts.¡±

    ¡°So what do you believe in?¡± asked Huxley, chuckling and smiling. ¡°Aliens?¡±

    ¡°Aliens are more likely than ghosts,¡± said Jia.

    ¡°I¡¯m not convinced it¡¯s real,¡± said Kay, trying his best to sound like he was amused by the whole thing. ¡°There have been hoaxes before.¡±

    ¡°Was Lady Beat ever proven to be a hoax?¡± asked Jia.

    Lady Beat. Was she real? Kay the character that didn¡¯t believe in the supernatural wouldn¡¯t think so, but Kay the real person who was a superhero himself¨C he had to wonder. If a watery superhero was real, surely a lady in cool armour was also something that could exist!

    ¡°I haven¡¯t heard about her in awhile,¡± said Huxley, ¡°not that I was paying attention.¡±

    They went back to the task at hand, filling out their work sheet by assigning everyone to a position in a hypothetical advertising pipeline. The work sheet implied that everyone was supposed to contribute based on their fantasy position but being that it was a group assignment, everyone contributed to everything. That was the case with Huxley, Jia, and Kay and it was the same thing with other groups nearby.

    ¡°If it¡¯s not a ghost,¡± said Huxley, ¡°what is it then?¡± He then stopped and leaned back. ¡°It¡¯s... something.¡±

    Jia wiped some of the hair out of her face, scratching her chin. ¡°I mean... we call it a ghost because it looks like a ghost. But it could be anything. It could be... a mutant.¡±

    Huxley chuckled. ¡°Yeah! But where does it come from? Do weird plasma creatures just appear one day?¡±

    I wish I knew, thought Kay, reflecting on his uncertainties to where his powers came from.

    In one of the groups nearby, there was Sitara. Her ears grabbed onto the conversation between Huxley and his neighbours so she turned her seat away from her group and towards the other.

    She smiled, the ceiling light reflecting off of her large glasses. ¡°So you too have heard about the ghost sighting?¡±

    ¡°We heard,¡± said Huxley.

    There hadn¡¯t been a single time between Kay, Huxley, or Jia where they had a nice interaction with Sitara. She had the reputation of being pretty humourless and cold.

    Sitara tilted her head down, pushing up her glasses with a crop of fingers. ¡°I¡¯m a realist so I don¡¯t going thinking that anything I read is true.¡± She looked off into the distance. ¡°Still... I¡¯m curious.¡±

    There was an awkwardness shared between Huxley and his two classmates. Nobody in his group was expecting a random girl to jump into their conversation with the assertiveness that Sitara was selling.

    ¡°What do you think it is?¡± asked Jia.

    ¡°What it is?¡± said Sitara, her tone scholarly and a little insulted by the presumption. ¡°I don¡¯t know what it is. I wonder what it could be.¡±

    ¡°What do you think then?¡± asked Jia.

    Sitara straightened her chin and held her nose up. ¡°I don¡¯t care to speculate too much. What I care about is how to capture it. If someone could get her hands on the thing, why¨C they would be world famous!¡± Once again the ceiling light beamed onto her glasses.

    Kay sat there, keeping quiet. Adding his thoughts (or made-up thoughts) into the conversation would have made him seem more normal, but he worried he would have given himself away in some small bit. His caution didn¡¯t seem inappropriate considering that the girl in front of him seemed tickled at the idea of capturing the ¡°ghost¡± for her own fame.

    Class dismissed with those worries weighing in Kay¡¯s head. He walked through the hallways, hands on the straps of his backpack, and pondered.

    Were people going to try to capture him? He was something to be hunted. That was something Kay hadn¡¯t truly realized since he became a shapeshifter¨C of course people would want to see and nab a supernatural being. It was everyone¡¯s dream to see or meet an alien, wasn¡¯t it? And now that Kay was semi-public, there would be people wanting that opportunity.

    The worry banged around his head like the clapper inside a bell. Thinking about his history as a liquid creature spurred a memory awake: before he got his powers, he had fantasies about getting magical abilities or meeting aliens. When he was younger, he would wonder what he would do with powers or with aliens as friends.

    Now he was the guy with powers¨C or the alien.

    A dusting on nostalgia came over him. It wasn¡¯t more than a few years ago he would have had those thoughts, but it felt like a lifetime had passed. Was that young teenager a complete alien now?

    Kay found himself getting melancholy in the walk to his next class. Melancholy and worry, two emotions not meant for the intermissions between school work. He tried to shake off his distractions as he entered his last class for the day.

    After school, Kay raced home, dropped off his backpack, and then beelined it to Philly¡¯s place. As he took to the rooftops to race downtown, Kay had discovered a newfound worry of being spotted. Going fast and not taken extra care increased the likelihood that a pair of stray eyes would catch him, but he wanted to talk with Philly as soon as he could. He raced down to Philly¡¯s place behind the office building.

    There was no guarantee that Philly would have been home. If the fox wasn¡¯t around, what could have Kay done but wait?

    First was to see if the fox was around. Kay hopped off the roofs down into the alleyways behind the office building. He took a look all over the place and then transformed back into a human. He did another quick check to make sure no one saw that and he didn¡¯t know what he would have done if someone had!

    Kay went up to the duct coming off the wall and tapped it, rumbling out an echoing thud.

    ¡°Philly?¡± Kay whispered. ¡°Are you home?¡±

    ¡°Kid?¡± asked Philly.

    Apparently, the fox was.

    There was the scratching of paw claws on metal and then out from the duct came Philly, fluffy coat and all.

    He looked up at Kay. ¡°Didja hear? You¡¯re in the papers.¡±

    Kay darted his eyes around. He kept his voice quiet. ¡°I know. That¡¯s why I came over.¡± Kay hung his arms out. ¡°What do we do about that?¡±

    ¡°Uhhhh...¡± Philly cocked his brow. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Nothing? What can you do? Don¡¯t you want people talking about you?¡±

    Kay dropped his arms and gave the fox a defeated look. ¡°No...! It makes it harder to keep on the down-low.¡±

    ¡°What do you expect?¡± asked Philly. ¡°You try to stay hidden as best you can but people are going to see you. If you go out and fight crime, people¡¯ll notice.¡±

    ¡°But what if people come after me?¡± asked Kay.

    ¡°You¡¯re a slippery customer.¡± Philly was proud enough of that joke to smirk. ¡°You can just get away.¡±

    Kay craned his head up and sighed. ¡°Yeah. I guess.¡± He dragged a hand down his face. ¡°So you read the paper?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m literate, you know,¡± said Philly, smiling and cocking a brow at the boy. ¡°This morning, I eavesdropped a conversation or two about a ¡®ghost thing¡¯ and nabbed a paper to read up on my favourite human!¡± Philly leaned up on Kay¡¯s leg, paws on the boy¡¯s waist and the fox¡¯s tail a-wagging.

    Kay couldn¡¯t share Philly¡¯s merriment. The idea of people knowing about him¨C knowing about his ghost side¨C was another layer of stress upon his fledgling superhero career.

    ¡°This is going to be a whole thing, isn¡¯t it?¡± asked Kay.

    ¡°It won¡¯t be so bad!¡± said Philly, ¡°Come on: did you want to do some patrolling?¡±

    Kay folded his cheek. He took a few steps away so Philly dropped himself onto the alleyway floor. Kay said, ¡°Naw... I want to lay low. At least for today.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± said Philly, shrugging his shoulders. ¡°I¡¯ll see you around...¡± A smile creased across Philly¡¯s snout. ¡°...Ghost Thing.¡±

    Kay groaned and rolled his eyes. Philly snickered and then hopped back up into the duct. Yep, Kay would need a day off to just relax at home. He took another glance around the area to confirm no one was around, then he transformed into his liquid body.

    With a single hop, he was up on the roofs and out of sight.

 Ghost Hunter

    ¡°Ride the wind, Ghost Thing!¡± said Philly, ears flapping in the

    breeze.

    ¡°I

    thought I told you to stop calling me that!¡± said Ghost Thing, in

    absolute denial of his new moniker.

    Ghost

    Thing was out doing something he had missed over the last couple

    weeks: enjoying an afternoon of frolic and fancy. With Philly in his

    backpack, Ghost Thing sped across the rooftops of Moss Park.

    Although

    melting down into a puddle and <i>snapping</i>

    across streets remained the lengthiest jumps he could perform, the

    watery lad had gotten good at skipping over signs and the like to get

    over any gaps in his upper level playgrounds.

    So proficient, he

    could skip across streetlights with making little much of a sound.

    All

    so he could exist as himself¨C to be one with the sky. To

    be free with speed and energy

    as he raced across the canopy of downtown

    Toronto. Though

    the sky was home to many clouds that day, breaks between them let the

    sun shine down on the city.

    Philly

    had a moment to contemplate on Ghost¡¯s

    reluctance to take his city-given name

    and added: ¡°Would

    you like me to call you by your real name¨C¡± He whispered low so

    that only Ghost¡¯s ears could hear¨C ¡°<i>Kay?</i>¡±

    Slowing down on top of the speckled roof of an alternative clothing

    story, Ghost Thing sighed then took a frustrated breath inward. ¡°I...

    guess not.¡±

    <i>I

    would have preferred to name myself,</i>

    though Ghost Thing.

    The

    music blaring in the store below rattled the building and went into

    Ghost¡¯s feet and up into his body. The riveting riffs were muffled

    by the walls between him and the speakers playing the music but Ghost

    recognized the chord progression and knew it was that Audioslave song

    with the desert car crash

    music video.

    Ghost Thing wasn¡¯t patrolling for crime that afternoon; he was just

    enjoying the day like what had been his regular before one fine

    October¡¯s day when Philly came rolling to Kay¡¯s apartment asking

    the boy to start superheroing. The last while had been stressful so

    Ghost Thing nearly had forgotten how fun it was to jump across a

    street and have the wind blasting his face¨C his liquid body able to

    take the lower temperatures in stride. Ghost moved so quickly that

    the people below barely had time to get a glimpse at the cryptid as

    he zipped across the above.

    Some

    sharper eyes were to the skies, though, and as Kay hopped over the

    old bus stop off of Richmond

    (the one with

    the big hole in the roof),

    Burrzie¨C a greyed-out

    thug-looking type with permanent scruff on his chin¨C

    spotted that purple figure of liquid and cracked a smile. Shifting

    off the sidewalk into the front of a not-so-busy service centre, he

    pulled out his cellphone, stretched the

    antenna, and dialed in

    some numbers quick¨C time was of the essence.

    There was two rings and then Dead Head picked up the call. ¡°What is

    it?¡±

    ¡°Ghost Thing spotted,¡± said Burrzie, ¡°He¡¯s down in Moss

    Park.¡±

    ¡°Right,¡±

    said Dead Head. ¡°Keep an eye on him. I¡¯ll send Thrash

    soon.¡±

    Burrzie cut the call and folded the phone back into his pocket. He

    walked back out into the sidewalk and strolled down the road towards

    where he saw Ghost Thing, hoping to keep an eye out on him.

    Philly needed a moment to get his head to stop spinning. Being tossed

    around in Ghost Thing¡¯s backpack was getting to him, and it wasn¡¯t

    the first time. Ghost Thing found a spot off of a three-storey dance

    studio on a corner¨C a spot where getting spotted by someone in a

    window was unlikely. Philly hopped out of the backpack and rested his

    paws on the floor for a moment.

    ¡°Riding with you is great,¡± said Philly, rumbling out a little

    burp, ¡°but it shakes me up like a can of pop!¡±

    Ghost Thing looked at his backpack and envisioned what it would be

    like to ride along it. ¡°I guess when your body is made of water,

    you don¡¯t take to swaying and shifting very hard.¡± He chuckled.

    ¡°You won¡¯t catch me jumping across rooftops in my human form.¡±

    Philly laid down. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t expect it. No, I get it. You can race

    across the city like that.¡± The fox gestured his eyes around the

    rooftops. ¡°Faster than taking a cab.¡±

    ¡°And it¡¯s¨C¡± Ghost Thing sighed wistfully, grinning into the

    sky¨C ¡°more aliving.¡± That wasn¡¯t a real word so he tried

    again. ¡°It¡¯s liberating.¡± That was a real word but he didn¡¯t

    think it was the right one. ¡°It¡¯s... <i>meaningful?</i>¡± Not

    quite right, but close.

    ¡°I bet it is,¡± said Philly.

    Ghost looked out into the horizon. A wave of shade passed over the

    cityscape as a cloude floated by.

    Ghost smiled: it

    had been awhile since he

    had a day to just seize the city and fly across the tops. He¡¯d

    almost forgotten how euphoric it made him feel.

    When his body launched across a rooftop, the feeling in his body

    could fade away in a manner that resembled what it would be like to

    melt into everything in the world¨C in the universe. It wasn¡¯t an

    experience that Ghost ever had elsewhere. He didn¡¯t think it was

    possible to have it anywhere else.

    Was all that going to change now that Ghost was a superhero? With

    duties? After the incident at the loan agency, worry brewed within

    him that fighting crime was going to be a responsibility that would

    overshadow everything else in his life. On the contrary, in the last

    couple days the worry had fizzled out, at least somewhat.

    ¡°Philly,¡± said Ghost, ¡°Do you

    <i>really</i>

    think I¡¯m necessary?¡±

    ¡°What?¡± asked Philly, cracking a laugh but worried for Ghost with

    how he phrased that question.

    ¡°I mean...¡± Ghost repositioned his legs and rested his arms on

    his knees. ¡°You said the city needs heroes, but nobody can stop <i>all</i>

    crimes. Somebody is always going to get robbed or hurt or something.

    If I didn¡¯t help out, what difference would it make? The city would

    be the same.¡±

    Philly put on a serious expression. ¡°It matters to the people being

    robbed and so forth.¡±

    Ghost didn¡¯t have a response to that. It was a concrete truth. But

    even if that was true, Ghost had to wonder how much worse Toronto

    would be if he chose not to be a superhero.

    He got up and rotated his neck like he had to stretch some muscles

    hidden in his watery body. ¡°You good? I still got parts of the city

    I need to tag yet tonight.¡±

    Philly got up and dove into the pack. ¡°Alright. Good to go.¡±

    Ghost strapped the pack back on and crawled around the side of the

    building, ducking below windows lest someone was peeping out at the

    moment, and went to the other side of the building where a much

    roomier slab of rooftop was waiting that surrounded itself with more

    roof of equal level: an easier place to get back into the swing of

    things.

    From there, Ghost hopped off and journeyed the city.

    Thrash went to where Ghost Thing had last been seen, keeping her eyes

    out for the bugger. Apparently he liked to jump across buildings,

    keeping off the lowest level of the city, so Thrash did the same.

    Parking her car in a car park outside a run-down Italian restaurant,

    the woman walked down the sidewalk¨C getting gawked at for her blue

    skin, black catsuit, and her silvery pole at her back. Was it

    annoying? Yeah, but any confrontation was an opportunity to be

    recognized by the public and develop a reputation that might get her

    face and description inked down at a police precinct.

    Checking to see that nobody around would notice her wander off, she

    snuck into a back lot where a few cars were parked and everything was

    quiet. There was a building at the edge of the place. Thrash went up

    to the wall and crouched down to fire herself up ten metres in the

    air to land on the rooftop. There were no gadgets involved¨C the

    lady could <i>hop.</i>

    She dashed across the rooftops like a bolt and leapt into the air

    with her staff out, ready to strike. All that was needed was her to

    find her prey.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    It only took a few minutes of her

    scouting into St Lawrence

    before she saw the water lad¨C

    Ghost Thing himself¨C

    hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Was

    he <i>purple

    </i>or was the weather

    tinting him in some way?

    Funny, she didn¡¯t expect him to wear that shade. It was no matter.

    She ran towards him, Thrash

    attack the hero while

    his back was to

    her. She gripped her metal rod and leapt high in the air, holding the

    weapon out in front of her for a downward

    strike.

    Philly sensed the attack incoming, and turned his head upward to see

    Thrash approaching. He shattered. ¡°K-Kid! Look out!¡±

    Ghost Thing turned his head upward to see the metal rod and hopped

    out of the way just in time. Philly was thrown from the backpack but

    landed on his feet. Thrash¡¯s weapon cracked the ground below,

    pulverizing a chunk of the roof. The liquid kid and the fox stared

    down the sudden attacker.

    Blue skin. Was she some kind of orc? Ghost Thing had to wonder.

    Ghost took a ready stance, fists out. ¡°Who are you?¡±

    Thrash stood tall, hanging her rod over her shoulder. ¡°Thrash. I¡¯m

    affiliated with an...  <i>organization</i> that you¡¯ve been

    interfering with recently.¡±

    Ghost Thing didn¡¯t know who specifically she was talking about¨C

    which crime Ghost interfered with that was apparently part of a

    larger group. He wasn¡¯t up for guessing, either. ¡°Maybe your

    organization should stop plundering the convenience stores or

    delivery trucks,¡± said Ghost, trying to sound tough.

    And trying to sound tough was

    something he failed. Thrash

    found the liquid twerp¡¯s attempt at intimidation laughable. <i>He¡¯s

    really just a kid</i>, she

    thought. She leaned the rod against her body and took two hands to

    her hair, brushing it back. ¡°That¡¯s not happening. What¡¯s

    happening is you are going to leave us alone.¡±

    The woman wasn¡¯t backing down. Ghost Thing wasn¡¯t sure what to

    do. He wasn¡¯t ready for a fight! He tried to straighten his tone.

    ¡°I¡¯m not scared of you!¡±

    Philly grimaced. He never imagined he would have to give someone

    pointers on banter, but Ghost was in need of some.

    Thrash chuckled to herself and

    grabbed her metal rod. No

    words¨C she charged at

    Ghost like a cannon being

    fired, and even if Ghost was

    ready, his dodge backward was a split second too late and Thrash¡¯s

    staff cracked his chest. He

    stumbled and raised his arms like he was going to snatch the rod away

    from her but she took a powerful swing to Ghost¡¯s left, and the kid

    had to drop

    to the floor to let it swipe over his head.

    With a dismissive chuckle, Thrash took the staff in both hands and

    thrust it at Ghost as he climbed back to his feet. Ghost flipped out

    of the way but Thrash¡¯s blows were quick and the water kid had to

    scramble to the side to keep himself from getting jabbed with the

    stark end of a serious weapon.

    Philly was having trouble keeping up with the two combatants¡¯

    lightning moves. He had no advice to give his friend.

    Ghost tripped on his feet, rolled around, and hopped to avoid

    Thrash¡¯s blows. She swung the rod around with most of the force she

    could muster, Ghost dodged it, and Thrash tripped backward, giving

    Ghost a moment to think.

    <i>What

    am I doing? </i>Ghost

    thought to himself. <i>I¡¯m

    dodging like a human when I should be dodging

    like water!</i>

    Thrash took an overhead swing at Ghost and the lad melted down into a

    puddle and then blasted himself up in the air, a few metres above

    Thrash.

    Ghost had

    the security of the high ¡°ground¡±

    until Thrash reached a hand up

    and him and light collected

    on the centre of her palm. The kid had barely any time to react when

    a ball of light fired out of her palm and fired right into Ghost¡¯s

    body. Not once, not twice, but thrice. Ghost took three blows,

    shaking

    him like a mix between a boxing glove and a fire ball,

    and landed

    on the ground with a thud.

    ¡°Kid!¡± shouted Philly.

    Thrash watched the water boy writhe on the ground. She gave him a

    smug look although the condescension was missed on Ghost Thing since

    he didn¡¯t raise his eyes to see his opponent¡¯s expression.

    ¡°Ungg-gh!¡±

    Ghost pushed himself off the ground, his arms trembling.

    The ability to shoot balls of light

    like that was a common ability for those with natural psychic powers.

    Between that and Thrash¡¯s

    ability to jump super high and dash like a hawk, Philly assumed she

    had some special power.

    ¡°Watch it, kid,¡± said Philly. ¡°She¡¯s a psychedelic.¡±

    <i>Psychedelic?</i>

    thought Ghost. ¡°What?¡±

    It was a distraction and Thrash took advantage of it. She flew up

    again and tried slamming down on Ghost like before. Ghost didn¡¯t

    dodge in time and took a blow down the side of his body. But his

    adrenaline must have been kicking in because it didn¡¯t sting that

    much. Ghost was getting annoyed, though.

    Thrash tried another fury of jabs with her staff and Ghost loosened

    his body when the staff entered it, the metal rod poking right

    through and leaving Ghost Thing unharmed. It was like fencing with a

    pond. Thrash was aggravated and tried swiping through his body but

    Ghost handled all her attacks like they were leaves falling from a

    tree.

    Philly smiled. The kid was finding his groove.

    Thrash wasn¡¯t tiring quickly, though. Ghost could let a swing of

    Thrash¡¯s staff pass through his body and even splash to the floor

    to dodge another one of her fireballs, but she wasn¡¯t slowing down.

    If Ghost was going to win, he figured, he would have to go on the

    offensive.

    After ducking under a swing of Thrash¡¯s staff, Ghost tried a hefty

    kick. The kick had energy but its reach was too short to hit Thrash.

    Thrash chuckled¨C the kid was certainly an amateur.

    Ghost

    Thing knew he wasn¡¯t going to win the fight with his measly attempt

    at martial arts so ducking away from Thrash¡¯s follow-up strike, he

    threw a big punch at the fighter, shifting his watery essence

    into his arm so that his fist led with mass. Again, his <i>m¨ºl¨¦e</i>

    skills weren¡¯t up-to-par; he only grazed Thrash¡¯s face. It wasn¡¯t

    force he needed¨C it was range.

    He

    tried another blow, using the torrential nature of his body to

    stretch out his arm and whack Thrash int her shoulder. She wasn¡¯t

    expecting that, and lost grip on her staff for a split second. She

    got both hands around the pole before it fell too far to the ground

    and sneered. The brat was competent enough to be annoying.

    Ghost

    tried again but Thrash spun her rod in front of herself like a

    propeller and knocked Ghost¡¯s hands away, some of his body bursting

    into water when hit with the weapon and splashing to the floor. Ghost

    Thing stumbled back and got a grip just soon enough to have Thrash

    fire a few fireballs at him.

    He

    slipped to the side to dodge them but one hit his shoulder with

    enough force to make him topple over. Thrash didn¡¯t give him a

    moment to think¨C when Ghost glanced, she was charging him with

    pole, ready to strike. Thrash jabbed at him and the stress of combat

    was getting to him because he had to concentrate to let his body

    loosen so that the figure of the pole slid through. Thrash followed

    up with a flurry of swings and Ghost Thing jumped out of the way,

    putting some room between him and his attacker.

    Thrash

    glared at him. Like a sharpshooter drawing a revolver, she raised her

    hand quick and fired another blast of light at his form. Although the

    attack was quick, Ghost dipped out of the way, sinking into his

    puddle form and then popping back out on his feet in a very elegant

    move. Elegant, but showy and pointless. Nothing that got him closer

    to beating his adversary.

    ¡°You fail to realize,¡± said Thrash, ¡°that you¡¯ve entered a

    world of pain.¡±

    There was the urge to shoot a comeback at the fighter, but nothing

    clever came to mind. Ghost was out of breath, too, so he kept quiet.

    Philly was having trouble thinking of things to say himself. Out of

    all the people Ghost had fought in the last week, the lady was top of

    her class. She had powers and knew how to use them.

    He ran at Thrash, melted down into a slime-ball and then snapped out

    in her direction, smacking his body against Thrash¡¯s but not doing

    much damage. He reformed his humanoid shape while bouncing off her

    body and tried following up with a punch. He got a blow on her but

    when he went for a second strike, that¡¯s when Thrash grabbed his

    arm and kept him still.

    No problem. Ghost Thing let his body loosen and slipped his hand out

    of Thrash¡¯s grasp, stepping back.

    Thrash growled once again, but she got thinking she had a solution to

    that problem.

    They circled each other, waiting on the other¡¯s next move. Thrash

    fired a bolt of energy at Ghost¡¯s feet and the kid hopped to the

    side then bounced forward for another strike. Thrash split out of the

    way and when Ghost went for another jab, Thrash reached out her hand

    and captured the boy¡¯s hand into a grey shimmering orb.

    Ghost tugged, but his body was stuck. Panic filled his face and when

    he saw Thrash using her other arm to raise a strike against him, he

    loosened his arm¨C the whole thing¨C and disconnected the appendage

    from the rest of his body. He shook his arm and a watery hand

    reformed where he had lost one.

    Thrash cut the grey orb and bowl of water fell to the ground,

    splashing the rooftop. Both Ghost Thing and Philly saw this as

    ominous¨C the water elemental¡¯s body stolen from him. ¡°Watch out

    for that one, Ghost,¡± was the only advice Philly had to give. That

    technique: it wasn¡¯t anything Philly was familiar with.

    While Ghost Thing had his eyes on the ground, Thrash fired another

    blow of her staff at Ghost Thing, knocking him right in the stomach.

    Pain coursed through his body and he tried to recover by grabbing

    Thrash¡¯s stick but she lifted him off the ground and tossed him

    across the roof.

    Ghost didn¡¯t have much time to recover with Thrash following him

    like a wolf on hunt. He fired a quick kick up at Thrash when she got

    close, and landed a good hit on her chin, but she cracked her hand

    open and a grey orb captured Ghost Thing¡¯s foot. He hit the ground,

    struggling to break free.

    What other choice did Ghost Thing have but to separate his foot from

    the rest of his body, much like last time? He broke away and turned

    into water to slide a few metres away from Thrash, but when he tried

    to reform his foot, his body was having trouble.

    His foot reformed but quickly receded. He tried again and his foot

    formed with holes through the centre. The part was having trouble

    holding on to its water¨C the thing dripping to the floor. Ghost

    felt like all parts of his body were tugging on each other, all

    competing for precious water to make up their pieces. Ghost groaned

    and stretched out a leg to make a foot but when he stood on his legs,

    he felt weak and his body shook.

    He was in trouble, and Ghost knew it. Gone was his fighting stance.

    His knees buckled and fear came over his face as he stared at Thrash

    coming his way.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± asked Thrash. ¡°Feeling dehydrated?¡±

    For the first time in a long time, Ghost Thing felt his life

    threatened. His heart was booming. Eyes darted around, looking for

    some salvation¨C some help. No one was around, though. As far as he

    knew, he was the only superhero in the city.

    On shaky legs, he stumbled to the edge of the roof and saw an open

    window on one of the buildings. He couldn¡¯t see what was inside but

    in such a trembling state he didn¡¯t care. He jumped off the roof,

    towards the window.

    Philly watched his friend ditch the battlefield. His heart sank¨C

    was the boy running scared?

    ¡°Son of a¨C¡± Thrash raced over to the edge of the roof to see

    where the water boy was going. She saw the boy land inside a

    building.

    She smirked. In a way, she expected him to run.

 Under the Delta

    It was a Friday afternoon and nobody was expecting anything

    interesting to happen in the last couple hours of work.

    Then a water elemental flew in through the window.

    Ghost Thing knocked the sill coming in, toppled on his landing, and

    fell to the floor. Seeing the guy pop in got screams and yelps across

    the room. Ghost looked up to see which party he crashed. It was a

    large room with people dressed in green vests. Some were carrying

    chairs off the centre of the floor although the arrival of a water

    being put that task on hold.

    Getting up on his feet with his head swaying and arms feeling like

    they were going to fold like cards, Ghost clutched his chest. He

    scanned the room, a dozen pairs of eyes looking at him like he was a

    vampire or some other horrifying beast. Everyone was stunned¨C

    uncertain in what to do. Across from the window Ghost entered, there

    was another. The water lad raced to it, stumbling and tripping on his

    weakened legs.

    No one was going to get in his way. As he ran down the room, everyone

    gave him a good few metres of space.

    Another person in the hall heard the screaming and peeked his head in

    the room to see what was going on. ¡°Is that darn raccoon in again?¡±

    Then the man saw a water elemental jogging his way and yelped,

    ducking back out the door.

    Ghost went to the window, and got a foot on the frame but when he

    stuck his head out and looked upward. There was Thrash peeking down

    off the side the roof like she knew he was going to try to escape

    through that door and had followed him from above. Ghost Thing looked

    around for any escape and he saw a metal door on the building across

    the alley below, partially open. He jumped down on a car, causing its

    alarm to go off, but Ghost ignored it and barged into the door.

    What kind of place did he break into this time? It was an empty

    hallway composed of tall brick walls and dim lighting. At least he

    wasn¡¯t scaring anyone when he dashed down the corridor. He looked

    at the walls and saw notices and large technical bulletins but didn¡¯t

    have time to read.

    He charged down past some cardboard boxes and when he heard a

    clanking, he looked behind to see Thrash slamming the door open,

    menacing smile plastered on her face.

    ¡°<i>Gee-ee-eez!</i>¡± Ghost said. Passing by a row of boxes, he

    pushed them over as he ran past but they were light and wouldn¡¯t be

    much of an obstacle for Thrash. He turned a corner and went up a

    small hill of stairs into a door with a porthole. He couldn¡¯t grab

    a good look of the room on the other side before he slammed the door

    open and went through.

    It was a kitchen¨C a large professional kitchen with pans and pots

    hanging from hooks across the room.

    The two chefs at the ovens didn¡¯t expect anyone special popping

    through those doors but when the older gentleman with a grey

    moustache saw Ghost Thing, he let out a holler. Ghost didn¡¯t have

    time to explain so he dashed past the chef, the chef swatting at

    Ghost with his ladle like the liquid boy was a rowdy dog.

    Ghost went through another door into another hall and where another

    grouping of people saw him and panicked. Screams passed around. Ghost

    was on the run and spreading the chaos with him.

    He ran down the hallway anyway, and as he did, trying to keep away

    from others as much as they wanted to keep away from him, Ghost Thing

    saw his saving grace: a vent. He melted down into his liquid form and

    slipped into the vent. A warm gust of air took his form as he slid

    into the silvery escape, but he was safe and he didn¡¯t expect

    Thrash to be able to follow.

    Thrash barged into the kitchen and saw the two chefs crowded around a

    door, looking through a porthole into a hall. Ghost Thing had passed

    through there, she knew. The kid had escaped into the public and

    Thrash thought getting too much attention on herself would cause

    problems for the gang¡¯s ability to do things discretely. She backed

    out the door from where she came before those chefs got a look at

    her. Maybe she would patrol outside the building and see if Ghost

    Thing would appear.

    Ghost Thing had escaped Thrash¡¯s sight, but now he was stuck in the

    walls of an unknown building. He could hear people talking, knowing

    that he had slipped into the vents. Would somebody try to search for

    him, or activate some kind of security measure?

    He travelled the vents, going down one corridor to turn into the

    other. In that puddly state, his vision wasn¡¯t very good but the

    features of the vents were simple enough to make them out without

    much problem. He came across a vertical shaft. Climbing vertical

    shafts was already difficult when he was feeling fine. But that

    afternoon, he was weakened by the liquid Thrash had pilfered from

    him. He reached up and clung to one of the walls and then slithered

    upwards and while coiling around the box. If he was fast enough the

    momentum helped him stick to the sides.

    But then he lost grip and fell. He would have shouted an expletive if

    he had a mouth in that state. Glancing up, the top of the shaft

    wasn¡¯t <i>too</i> far for the slime-ball, so he bundled up energy

    and then fired himself upward! He smacked the top of the shaft, his

    mass stuck there for a moment, and then hopped off into an opening,

    finding a horizontal duct to traverse again.

    He hoped nobody heard that thud, though.

    The puddle waddled through the vents until he couldn¡¯t hear the

    panic he left behind; back in the hallway. The silence was comforting

    but also ominous. Where had he had gone? He had no idea.

    He passed by a grate, but then backtracked and looked through it. The

    room was dark but it didn¡¯t look like anyone was around. He pushed

    his body through the duct¡¯s blades to see what was on the other

    side: a lot of shelves and some boxes but nobody and no security

    cameras. He dragged his whole body through and reshaped into his

    humanoid form.

    It was quiet, Thrash couldn¡¯t have followed him, and he was safe

    for the moment.

    The question was: where was he?

    He was in the same building but Ghost Thing wondered if he had

    travelled into a different unit, another establishment from that

    kitchen place he escaped from. If he went out into the room into the

    rest of whatever that place was, would he draw attention? If a kid

    suddenly appeared in a place like a bank or something, that would

    rouse attention.

    And if Thrash was still around, she would <i>know</i> that Kay was

    Ghost Thing!

    Ghost sighed and sat down against some boxes and dropped his head

    into his arms, stressed with decision paralysis and trying

    desperately not to whimper. He had no idea what was outside the walls

    around him and once slip-up could have sealed his demise.

    He looked around the room. The boxes had ¡°Steelton Corp¡± on the

    front but Ghost Thing didn¡¯t know if that was the company he was in

    or if that was just the producer of the cardboard boxes. He gazed

    over at the vent¨C he could have always tried another vent to escape

    to.

    He got up and stumbled to the door. He was still weakened by the

    water Thrash had clipped from him. Putting his non-existent ear to

    the door, he heard nothing. He checked once again to see if there was

    a security camera around the room¨C clear¨C and then he morphed

    back into his human form.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Immediately Kay was struck with a feeling of thirst and a dryness in

    his throat. The liquid he had lost in his Ghost Thing form had

    parallels to his human form: a need for hydration. It was very

    uncomfortable and gave him a mild headache. He thought of looking

    around the room for a stray bottle of water but saw nothing.

    It was time to leave. He took the handle and turned it downwards but

    it fought back. It was locked.

    ¡°For heaven¡¯s sake!¡± said Kay, his face furrowing with angry

    disbelief.

    He sighed. Maybe he should have given up, he thought. Maybe the

    superhero life wasn¡¯t for him after all. It sounded tempting, but

    the realities of it were not for someone like him, let alone a person

    as young as him. All the villains that attacked him, all the trials

    he barely survived: they were all warnings that he was entering a

    world he couldn¡¯t function in.

    There was a crack under the door. Kay thought he could turn back into

    Ghost Thing and slip under the door and then turn into a human

    outside, but what if someone was there and saw him do the deed? Then

    everyone would know. His cover would be blown and then Thrash and

    whoever would be able to do whatever they wanted with him.

    The worry and dehydration combine to make Kay very dizzy. He never

    regretted his actions as much as he did in that room.

    Then Kay noticed the handle had a lock dial. He turned it and there

    was a click. He then opened up the door.

    Well, that was one problem solved.

    Stepping out into the halls, he looked around the hallway. It

    reminded him of his aunt¡¯s book warehouse: bland colours and a tile

    floor with lightning fixtures a touch too dim. He should have relaxed

    his face, looking around with wary eyes made him look suspicious, but

    he was alone in that hall.

    All he had to do was find his way out.

    He walked down the hall, in a direction that felt ¡°frontal¡± like

    there would be a door outside somewhere in that direction. Soon he

    would hear voices, chatter. There was also beeping and the sounds of

    an office. He turned a corner to a door: no windows so he couldn¡¯t

    see what was on the other side.

    He went up to it and turned the handle, slowly opening the door to

    see what was in the room. The room was large, lit with similar

    ceiling lights, and was crowded with cubicle walls. Kay had wandered

    into an office, it had seemed. He could hear people but only a few

    were seen across the sea of cubicle walls. Kay went into the room and

    walked down a pathway and looked into some cubicles to see people at

    computers.

    Kay groaned. His headache made him dizzy. Not terribly dizzy, but

    dizzy enough. That¡¯s when he saw a refreshments table across the

    room. Keeping out of sight from anyone who could wonder what a

    teenager wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses could be doing

    there, he walked around the edge of the workplace towards the

    refreshments.

    He didn¡¯t want to be there a second he didn¡¯t have to but at

    there was a water cooler and paper cups on its side so he took a cup

    out of the dispenser and put it under the nozzle, the water cooler

    making deep gurgles as it filled the conical goblet.

    Sarah had worked there for seven years and knew everyone well. The

    woman scanned the office to make sure everything was working

    correctly and spotted the leather-clad teenager at the water cooler.

    Leather? That wasn¡¯t proper office attire. She walked over to him,

    already crossing her arms and ready to berate the

    very-probably-an-intern for showing up in unsuitable dress.

    Kay didn¡¯t even hear Sarah coming up behind him. He chugged down

    the water and then went back to the nozzle for a second round. As he

    filled his cup, the water passed through his body and took away a lot

    of the discomfort. His headache flickered out.

    ¡°Excuse me.¡±

    Kay turned around to see a woman staring down at him. This was bad

    news. He thought of something to say. ¡°Uh... hi.¡±

    Sarah looked at Kay¡¯s shirt. It wasn¡¯t even a collared shirt; no,

    it was a T-shirt! With a band logo! She sighed. ¡°I¡¯m guessing

    you¡¯re from Centennial. They never educate interns on dress code.¡±

    Kay had the foresight not to start every sentence with some

    utterance. He put that box of ums and uhs in the drawer. He cleared

    his throat, thinking of something that sounded like he belonged. ¡°I-I

    was told it wasn¡¯t a big deal.¡±

    Sarah shook her head. ¡°Maybe some workplaces are more casual about

    that sort of thing, but in my office? We dress for the occasion.¡±

    She sighed. ¡°But since you¡¯re here already, I¡¯ll let it slide.

    Where¡¯s your work station?¡±

    ¡°I brought other clothes,¡± said Kay. ¡°They¡¯re in my car.¡±

    The tension drained from Sarah¡¯s face. ¡°Oh? Oh, go get changed

    then.¡± Her tone was softer.

    Kay nodded politely, finished he water, and tossed the paper cup in

    the trash. He walked off, before stopping. ¡°Where¡¯s the exit?¡±

    Sarah sighed. <i>Interns.</i> She pointed at a pair of large glass

    doors down the wall. ¡°That way.¡±

    Kay walked off briskly.

    Going through the doors, Kay entered another hallway but nearby was a

    set of stairs and going down them had to have brought him closer to a

    door to outside. He went down the stairs, passing by a couple

    mislevelled adults chatting over a railing, and went to the ground

    floor where a natural light shone across the room. Kay looked over to

    see the door out of there, afternoon lights gleaming in.

    Kay walked out and was blown for cold. It wasn¡¯t an issue in his

    elemental form, but it was a cold day in the middle of October and a

    jacket and shirt wasn¡¯t going to cut it. He zipped up his jacket

    and put the collar up and hoped the temperature stayed away from the

    single digits.

    The sidewalks were full of people of all kinds so Kay didn¡¯t look

    too out of place walking down the streets, even with his rockstar

    getup. He gazed around, almost afraid to look upward to see Thrash

    still lingering around. It didn¡¯t seem like she was in the area but

    then Kay looked down the sidewalk to see the blue woman standing out

    in the crowd.

    Her presence didn¡¯t go unnoticed by her fellow pedestrians. A blue

    woman in a catsuit carrying a staff got a lot of puzzled looks. Kay?

    He didn¡¯t know what to do. She was coming his way and if he turned

    around and fled, he would have looked suspicious and Thrash would

    investigate.

    So he kept his pace forward.

    Kay focused off of Thrash and stared into space as he walked with the

    flow of the crowd. Thrash closed in within a couple metres and Kay¡¯s

    throat locked up. If she heard his voice, she would know Kay was

    Ghost Thing. Kay¡¯s heart drummed as she approached. A kid wearing

    sunglasses and a leather coat? Never before had Kay regretted his

    standout fashion choices. Anything to draw Thrash¡¯s eyes towards

    him was a nightmare.

    Thrash walked right on by, though, not even focusing on Kay for a

    second. Kay took thirty paces and then turned around¨C as slow as

    the Earth rotated¨C to see if Thrash hadn¡¯t noticed him. He

    watched Thrash walk off into the distance, crossing a street and

    leaving his sight.

    He was safe, but then other troubles came to mind. Where was <i>Philly?</i>

    He left the backpack up on the roof. Thrash could guard that place

    and wait his return. He couldn¡¯t go back there!

    As he took a couple blocks away and left the dense crowds, he noticed

    the cooler air more. He did up the bottom snap on his jacket to seal

    in all the body heat he could keep. Without a wallet on him with a

    bus pass, it was going to be a hike towards home.

    It wasn¡¯t a clean getaway. Things had fallen apart quite easily.

    Kay wasn¡¯t certain what he could do, so he retreated to home base.

    If it wasn¡¯t a long walk back home, it felt like one anyway. Kay

    kept his coat zipped up tight as sunset approached. He passed through

    the old suburban districts of Baldwin, watching cars drive down

    narrow roads and trying to keep himself looking normal for anyone

    passing his way like he wasn¡¯t just attacked by a superpowered blue

    lady.

    Having walked escape from that battle hiding in his human form and

    him losing his fox friend and backpack; Kay hadn¡¯t experienced a

    defeat like that before. Even if his human body was in okay

    condition, he had chills riding his spine like an elevator.

    He couldn¡¯t help but look about the neighbourhood, checking to see

    who was around¨C whose voices were chattering across the street.

    What was he looking out for; he didn¡¯t know. He was worried that

    Thrash wasn¡¯t the only one sent out to attack him that day.

    But no one attacked him. No one knew he was Ghost Thing.

    Kay passed by a small patch of grass off of an acute intersection,

    one with a couple trees and a bench. He didn¡¯t think anything of it

    until a bush rustled. Who to pop out but the boy¡¯s favourite fox!

    Kay smiled. ¡°Philly!¡±

    ¡°Shhhh!¡± said Philly, holding a paw up to his mouth like he was

    extending a finger over it. ¡°Keep it quiet. Just showing you I¡¯m

    okay.¡±

    ¡°Did you get the backpack?¡± said Kay.

    Philly looked at him like it was a ridiculous question. He wouldn¡¯t

    answer an unimportant question. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t be talking. If

    someone saw us, they¡¯d tie me at the fight and pin you as Ghost

    Thing.¡± He lowered his voice and ducked into the bush. ¡°I only

    came by to show I¡¯m alive. Now I¡¯m gone.¡±

    Philly didn¡¯t give Kay a second to question anything. He dashed off

    into an alley between some houses and the fox was gone, leaving Kay

    alone. Kay watched the fox hustle down a concrete passage.

    How often was Philly that stark? Not often. Something to keep Philly

    quiet? Things were serious. Kay didn¡¯t know what to do but go home.

    In human form. Walking the sidewalk. Cold had started to sting his

    cheeks.

    As he walked, though, he looked back towards downtown, buildings

    stretching over the horizon¨C CN Tower touching the heavens. The

    orange of dusk crowded around the silhouette.

    All Kay was doing that afternoon was just enjoying himself. And now

    that was under threat, too. Was the city off limits for him now?

    Would appearing <i>anywhere</i> as Ghost Thing put a target on his

    back?

    Kay sighed. Becoming a superhero had taken more than he was willing

    to give.