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– 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–!”

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.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

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– in the case of the fighting being literal– 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– 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.