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– looked clean– 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– 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– 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– 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.
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“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–” 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– 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– 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– punks and victims alike– 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–“
“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– 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–“
“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– 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– 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– 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–” Philly gestured at Kay’s body with an upward sweep of his nose “–what 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.