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–”

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– I dunno– 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– he lacked the nose for it– but looking out at the blue water resting across the horizon and hearing the occasional gull– 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?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

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– maybe Kay’s age, maybe younger– 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– 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– 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–?”

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–” He sighed and dropped his head back– “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.