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 ohey got around to a top-to-bottom ing. Whenever a gust of breeze hit the pce, foundation all over squeaked like a dying car.

  Who would have thought that the pce was the headquarters for Toronto’s test up-and-ing criminal empire?

  The side door opened with a squeal and shut with a loud thud. In walked Pax, already regretting ning his coat. It was cool ihe warehouse, especially pared to the outside, so the guy regretted only wearing his T-shirt to the meeting. The crete 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 alohat he had arrived early. Cutting through the few shipping taihat came with the warehouse when it urchased, 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 er, there was the office, yellow light shining through the pane gss 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 anded respect. His hands kept busy, toug 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 fa shadow. “Standing up to us, as it would be. Refusing us.” He let himself ride those sylbles a his tongue hiss as the end of ‘us’.

  “So you wao put the fear in a store owner?” asked Pax. “What am I? A goon?”

  Thrash snickered. “The lowly job for a lowly member.”

  Pax ched a fist in her dire. “Cram it, Thrash!”

  Thrash was a taller woman with blue skin that signified something was different about her physiology ins. 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, cirg 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 Gsses over there? Is he going to be doing any footwork or is he a glorified bookkeeper?”

  Shimmer kept quiet, gring at Pax through thin-rim gsses, a dession 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 sm of the door and Dead Head walked to the office door a 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 iigating something.

  “You know...” said Thrash, rubbing her , “Pax is right about ohing. You’re kind of shifty...”

  Shimmer took up his gsses 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 ched her jaw and got up, marg in front of Shimmer’s view and gring down at the guy like a jock to a nerd.

  “How does a guy like you get involved in us underworlders anyway?” asked Thrash, acg Shimmer of something with her tone. “Where are you from?”

  “Why would I reveal that information?” asked Shimmer. “Would you surrehat information?”

  Thrash chuckled. The weirdo had a point.

  She wasn’t going to get aalking to the little guy, so she let out a desding grunt and walked off, the clicks of her boots eg up into the ceiling. The blue dy had things to do elsewhere.

  Shimmer sed the dy 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 te. Though the ploy was obvious to Stevie, when Kay headed out into the night ter on his mother didn’t object. Kay had a schedule to keep. Philly and him po make his sed 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 bee 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 vulpiill lodged behind that office building downtown, the fox had stashed away a little present: it was a brand neack with a waist strap.

  Where did Philly get a backpack? “Oh... you know...”

  Wearing clothes, ohat 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 pa 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 ptf, he could still navigate up to rooftops.

  And he loved thinking about the world in video game terms. Ptf.

  He hopped across rooftops with his fox friend tucked away behind him. Philly kept his head out of the backpack so that he could watd talk with Kay as the water boy flung around town.

  To craps, Kay had to get creative with streetmps and banners– substituting rge catapults with a series of stepping stone jumps.

  Philly would have to get used to the amusement park ride.

  “Maybe we should–” the fox was thrust forward when Kay nded on a roof “–install a harness in this thing!”

  “Or maybe one of those limo windows that block sound!” said Kay, smiling back at his vulpine friend.

  Philly gred, unamused.

  A bck sedan drove down the road, streetlights shining off of the car’s tinted windows like there was nothing ihe car pulled into a lot beside an Italiaaurant and out came its inhabitants. It ax and a trio of friends.

  Bruno was a taller man with a muscur body. He wore a tank top to show off those rocky arms. For what he was about to do, he’d o show them off. The cool night weather was sinking in but Bruned 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 wsses, kept his hair short, and walked with a distinguished professionalism.

  Bruno stepped to the bad 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 bck hair. His clothes were ragged aepped arouically, hunched over.

  “Who we hitting up today, Pax?” asked Bruno.

  “e, gentlemen,” said Pax, hitting the lock button on the door. There was few clicks around the car. Pax shut the door. “We got an appoi with Mr Vadsaria.”

  They walked out of the lot and onto the sidewalk. Weasel got distracted by a N sign. Pax had to turn around and shout “, 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 venieore they o check out.

  Up above the streets, Kay caught eye of the quartet. He watched them walk dowreet, their steps almost synized like they were marg.

  “Hey, Philly,” said Kay. He waited until Philly popped his head out of the backpack then Kay gestured a nod in the dire of the tough-looking guys oreet.

  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 oreets. 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 ter 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 shing out light ks. It was small er 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 ed beans had their bels fag 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.

  “When are we going to leave, baba?” Yamina called from the front.

  “Thirty more minutes,” said Etizaaz.

  Etizaaz returo the front of the store. As he passed Yamina to get at the ter, he went in to shake her legs. The girl giggled aizaaz smiled for it.

  Things were quiet. Etizaaz read through a neer on the front ter and time passed. Then the bell on the door run as a er came in.

  But Etizaaz broke into a cold sweat when he saw it wasn’t a er but an acquaintance: Pax. And this time, Pax brought three friends.

  Pax took the ter while the others wahe floor. Weasel chuckled like a 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 khe ers were trouble. Her kig went still.

  Etizaaz side-eyed at his daughter. “Yamina: go in the office,” he said with his toern.

  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 dooreeked around the door frame at what was going on.

  “You know...” Pax tapped the front of the ter. “The boss isn’t happy to hear you’re unwilling to help him out with his supply issue.”

  It was a challeo 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 saax was not perturbed by the man’s defiarying another way to disce the crook, Etizaaz thought up an excuse. “This is just a small venieore. I ’t get the amount of supplies he needs!”

  “Richie,” said Pax, leaning his head towards his cohort but keeping his eyes locked oizaaz, “Go into the bad check to see how much stock Mr Vadsaria has.”

  “On it,” said Richie, walking to the door in the er that led to the ba.

  When Richie walked by, Yamina squeaked and hid behind the wall, watg the man walk into the ba and flig on a light.

  “We just need a couple chemicals and some eleics,” 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 monit the situation, Philly havihe backpad Kay having taken it off. With the punks hanging around the store and the owner looking intimidated, it was about time for Kay to interve 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 windoed around the er of the block. There was a batrance, likely. “No. Go around back.”

  Kay took a trembled breath in and exhaled. He hopped down off the roof and nded on the ground with a light spsh. Nothing that hurt him in his aquati. 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 owhe store owrying his best to keep a steady painst intimidation. It was only a matter of time before that ce broke, though.

  Having found his way down, Philly came walking out from the alleyway. “e on.”

  Kay hesitated, refusing to take a step for a few seds. He looked out at the er stain, 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 rag. He didn’t o 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 er store, passing by a few windows pstered 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 front those punks.

  Kay keeled ainst the bricks.

  “I ’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 ’t do this!”

  Philly pleaded with a pierg 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 dish out, you take.”

  Their eyes locked for a moment. Out of all the things unbelievable about that situation, it hilly’s gaze that was shog to Kay. Philly looked at Kay with a hat nobody had ever given Kay before. It was bewildering but it got the fuel inside Kay ing.

  The water d got back up and Philly tinued on, the fox turning around the er behind the venieore. Kay turned into the alley quick when he saw a couple pedestrians ing down his way.

  In the alley, there aque brown door. Philly walked up to it and s the crack at the bottom. He raised his head to Kay and hat 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 do this,” said Philly.

  Kay stopped preparing and got doing. He melted down into a puddle and slid into the bottom of the door.