The clouds dragged over the sky above.

  Philly was cruising around town, keeping his owards the air to smell out some breakfast. He knece 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 ptes with dinners partially left upon. Philly didn’t uand how things worked in that eatery’s kit, 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 pahe worker opehe dumpster, dropped the stuff in, and the baside.

  Philly waited until the worker was nearly ba the building and then hopped on top the dumpster and opehe lid with his snout. Whipping the top open, he jumped into the garbage and dug into the pile that the worker just id out, gobbling up all the pancakes he could and chasing it with some uen 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 pyground 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 on kind of fun he could have was eavesdrop on humans whehought nobody was listening. With his vulpine ears, he could hear many things. Retionships on the rocks, embarrassing enters, a grievahese 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 uling 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 fi the back of a sed story. The wall was featureless but the guy focused his attention on a se with two pipes coiling out the top of the wall and over the edge above onto the roof. “It’ll have other valuables that be sold off with a little work. Nothing we don’t have the es 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 approag his thirties. He had long bck hair aside from the shaved sides. He wore biker gloves and a hung from his jeans.

  O’Malley was Jung-han’s cohort. He wore rimless sungsses and had a heavy coat on that October m. He stroked his 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 ba office after the long weekend. People’ll stay te 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, pying on his puter.

  After suffering Sunday night in the midst of an unfortable family affair, Kay wao spend the rest of his long weekend chilling out with video games. Maybe he would head out ter and jump around as the water elemental. He wasn’t sure just yet.

  The dial-up e required the apartment’s phone line so if Kay was oer, his family couldn’t get calls. It was a Monday off, though, so Mom allowed him to use the i as he pleased. She didn’t need any calls that day.

  Since first using the i ie ies, Kay had developed a persona online: SkyWaker. He used the handle SkyWaker anywhere he could: on forums for emution, romhacks, and webics 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 erso through the Megatokyo forums– someone he added to MSN Messehey chatted with each other over the st year and had bee friends. It was weird, though, for Kay anyway. Azure was in ecticut and Kay being able to chat so easily with a person from across the world was mind-boggling. Actually, it was a fra of the world’s longitude, but to Kay it was a moal achievement. It was nothing he could have imagined as a kid. Then again, he didn’t know what ecticut was when he was still in primary school.

  Kay tabbed out of his Sor 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 somethiing, though. He was SkyWaker oer, not Kay Norkemasis.

  Kay tio chill out with his i e aed 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 hilly, tapping his cws on Kay’s windows.

  “Oh sh–!”

  Kay’s family was right outside his bedroom door. He could hear Urban and Mom chatting i. Kay got up, smag the keyboard tray, a up to the window.

  Kay ope slowly. “You ’t be here!” he said in a fierce whisper.

  “Kay!” said Philly, “We gotta talk. There’s a crime ing tomorrow.”

  Kay groahen thought for a moment. They couldn’t talk with Mom and Urban iher 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 dowairs.

  Kay closed the window and watched Philly disappear dowairs. He would have to leave the apartment, and with his parents i, he would need an excuse so he didn’t appear strange. He brainstormed something quid 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 fiden 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 i,” said Kay, reag for the front door, “the i said so.”

  “Speaking of the i,” said Mom, “if you’re heading out, could you disect 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 oer i and to log off. With that taken care of, Kay grabbed his jacket a back to the door.

  He scurried dowairs a 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 gnce around and made sure no one had eyes on him as he slipped into the dark corridor where the wind blew like a flutes.

  Philly wasn’t ao 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 s. “’Sup?”

  “What’s up with you?” asked Kay, walking up to the fox and croug low. “You’re the ohat came to my house.”

  “Right,” said Philly, dropping his tone. “I overheard some guys outside the strip mall off of Queens. They’re pnning on hitting up one of the stores.”

  Kay snapped upward and folded out a wide frown. “Not mangsters!”

  Philly boxed a forepaw into Kay’s leg. “C’mooonnn! These guys won’t be so tough! And they don’t know you’re ing. You have the advantage.”

  Kay sighed and waddled over to the wall, ying his ba 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 ime you wao go out on patrol, then?” He smirked. “To py 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 erhuman, and he was using his powers to scare off kids from shoplifting? It felt pathetic whehought about it to himself.

  Kay didn’t have the personality for violenot 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 tain?

  “Hey, Philly!” shouted Kay, jogging up to Philly.

  Philly turned bad waited for Kay to e 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 Pza.”

  Kay nodded. “Alright. Tomorrow night, then.”

  Philly let out a happy yip and then trotted off into the streets, vanishing behind a series of pnters.

  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 someo was absurd to think about that statement. Was this going to be araumatizing mistake?

  When Kay headed out on Tuesday night, it was raining hard. Leaving the apartment when the windows were awash with drizzling rain got 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 umbrel was disappointing.

  Kay picked up Philly at his pce, 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 pza.

  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 oh the rainfall. It was like swimming through the air, breathing unblocked and vision perfect.

  He would nd on a rooftop and make a big spsh, like he was making arah every fall. As he raced across rooftops, neon glow illuminating the night, he had to suppress ughter of joy. He loved jumping high in the sky aing the rain whip against his body, droplets of life entering and bining 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 ulse of life, a heavy hit of renewal. He wao 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 kime was of the essence. Kay picked up the pad headed to the pza.