There was otion out front, but the ba was quiet.

  Cardboard boxes stacked in threes and fours across the room leaving paths for people to walk. There were stacks of 3 or 4 of them scattered around the floor. Richie entered and found a box that was already open and looked io find a few s of coffee– the small ones. Richie didn’t really knoax wanted him to iigate but he took out one of them and gave it a shake.

  Yep. It was coffee.

  Richie went to another box ahe bel: chlorine. Unusual for a venieore to have. Richie pulled out his pocket knife and slit the tape. Popping it open, he looked io a crowd of chlorine: 3.7L bottles. If Etizaaz was getting shipments of that stuff, it wouldn’t have been suspicious if he started things that Pax needed. At least Richie thought so.

  In the er was the door out bato the alley. While Richie had his head in a cardboard box, something crept into the room. A puddle of liquid squiggled in through the crack beh the back door and slid across the floor.

  Kay had ehe building.

  In his melted state, he couldn’t get a good look at the room. He retook his humanoid form, reshaping slowly so that he made as little sound as possible. Kay’s eyeballs reformed and with his eyesight back, he got a better look at Richie, the man with his head in a cardboard box. Good thing Kay kept quiet, then.

  It erfect opportunity for a first strike. With steps as soft as m fog, Kay went up behind Richie. It was time to hit. But Kay didn’t want to hit anyone. But he had to! Violence was necessary in this case. How was he going to do this? He raised his arms high above his head and got ready to sm a pair of fists. Would that hurt him enough? Did Kay want to hurt him?

  Kay could hear dialogue from the front of the store:

  “I’m no criminal,” said a man with a middle-eastern at, “I’m not– what’s the word– savvy enough to pull this off. I would only get you men caught!”

  “You’re the right man for the job, Vadsaria,” said a man with a cocky, smoky voice. “You’re not going to attray legal attention.”

  Kay cycled through different stances, ready to attack his enemy but hesitant to gh with it.

  Richie heard something shifting and pping behind him and put down a jar of jam to turn around and see.

  “Ahhh!” screamed Kay.

  He flipped his arm out so that his hand became a big fan of water and he spped Richie right in the face, knog the man back a few steps and spshing water on his cheeks, hair and onto the boxes and floor. Richie stumbled and grabbed a cardboard box, getting a handle. “What the–?” Richie got on his feet, his eyes shooting at Kay. Richie’s throat quaked for a sed, but thehrew his voice to the front store. “Pax! You... you should see this!”

  “What is it?” said Pax, annoyed.

  As Kay walked around Richie, Richie worried about toug the strange creature and got out of Kay’s way. Kay walked to the door a himself be seen by everyone in the front store. All eyes turo him. Etizaaz gazed with disbelief, stepping over to his daughter and holdiight. Bruno gulped, a little bent out of shape seeing su inhuman thing. Weasel stared but in a way that tained more curiosity than shock.

  Pax? His eyes didn’t know what he was looking at on first gnce, but once he let his visiole and firmed that he was looking at some kind of water being, he knew what he had to do.

  Freaks, as Pax called them, usually went down the same way as normal people.

  Richie shifted to a er in the ba so that he could see Pax through Kay’s translut body. Richie called to Pax. “What is he?”

  “I don’t know what kind of freak this is,” said Pax. “Let’s see if its capable of pain.”

  Pax snapped into a run and dashed at Kay. Before Kay could react, Pax hailed a punch right into Kay’s face. It didn’t matter if Kay was made of water: when objects hit him, it hurt. And his body reacted like he was made of flesh. The boy was knocked against a shelf, bumping against it and rattling some boxes of tea to the floor.

  Kay groaned and got ba his feet. His heart picked up again. It was a fight. A real fight. And his oppos looked like the kind of people that did fighting on the regur. Kay looked over to see Bruno moving to the back of the store to trap Kay iween him and Pax, alking towards Kay from the other side.

  Richie came out of the ba, his hair still damp with that sp Kay gave him. Fainst one.

  He was trapped, but Kay looked at the bottom of the shelf and saw some light shining from the other side. He melted, his humanoid form sinking into a puddle, and before Pax or Bruno could nab him, he slid uhe shelf into the middle aisle. He reformed, perfectly fine.

  That didn’t solve any problem, though.

  “A slippery one, huh?” said Pax. He slid a boot along the floor and it squeaked as it passed through the sheen that Kay had left behind. “Literally.”

  On one side of the store, there ax, Richie and Bruno. Oher, there was Weasel. Etizaaz watched the fight, uhat what he was seeing was real. Even Yamina with her young ability to accept anything was shocked at what she was seeing, hiding behind her dad, peeking out to see what was going on, and then hiding again.

  Kay could hear Weasel growling behind the shelves, peeking at Kay through ed goods and towels.

  Bruno ed around the back while Pax and Richie approached Kay from the front. Kay couldn’t help but show his fear, staring at the pair of toughs with fearful eyes. The growling– Weasel’s growling– was getting louder. Kay turned around to see Weasel climbing over the shelf, but something was different.

  His face had gotten coarse. No, Weasel’s face was catlike with his mouth stretg out like a muzzle. What was he, Kay wondered. With a snarl on his mouth, Weasel showed off a row of dagger-like teeth. His eyes were yellow with sharp irises and his ears were growing longer. He grabbed the top of the shelf with long cwed fingers, knog boxes of baking mix around and shaking the shelves with his weight.

  Weasel hissed and Kay screamed. The beast jumped at Kay and Kay snapped out of the way only to be within arms length of Bruno, roached from the back.

  Bruno didn’t waste a sed. He turned a punch at the water boy. Kay had half a sed to watch a big fist fire right at his face. The fist ected and Kay was thrown into the bathroom door. Kay colpsed on the ground, dazed.

  Bruno looked at his hand, a sheen on his knuckles left by the water creature. “It might be a water thingy, but it takes a hit like any palooka you could know!”

  Philly was outside with his legs up on the windowsill, watg the fight through the gss. The fight had gone south in a way that the fox did not predict. Maybe the kid was right and he wasn’t meant to fight.

  “e on, kid,” said Philly, “You take them.”

  Kay got up and dashed into the tre of the aisle, only to get once again pincered by the crowd of thugs. Bruno and Weasel took one end of the aisle and Richie took the other.

  “You chose the wrong time to be a hero, kid,” said Pax.

  Kay hadn’t even tried to attayone aside from Richie earlier. All he was doing was getting his butt kicked across the store. He looked over at the offid saw Etizaaz staring back, the man’s disbelief resigning to sympathy as it became clear that Kay was in over his head. All Kay was doing was depleting energy– more his than his attackers. He wasn’t fighting any crime. It was a game of tag. What was Kay thinkiing involved?

  The thugs closed in Kay. Pax leaning against the ter. His boys had the situation under trol.

  Bruno ran at Kay and Kay tried to dodge but Bruno was quid swung his left fist around to hit Kay right into Kay’s stomach, throwing him across the room at the fridges. Kay smacked the door ao the ground, rattling the bottles inside and knog the door open.

  He had the wind knocked out of him and his stomach burned with pain. Before he had a ce to react, Weasel ran at him with fury in his eyes and cws out to snatch Kay. Kay got to his feet and leaped to the side to avoid Weasel’s attack, but the monster-man was quid swiped a rge cw across Kay’s body. The cw tore at Kay’s top before Kay’s living water materialized rept fabric. The sting of age lihough.

  Weasel stared at Kay with his gremlin stare. He was followed with Bruno and Richie behind him.

  Kay trolled his breathing and faced dowrio of thugs. It was time to fight back. He tightened a fist and took a swing at Weasel. The monster-man was quid dodged to the side. Bruno behind him thrust a fist at Kay’s fad while Kay took a step back, the knock still ected and dazed him.

  Weasel rushed Kay and Kay grabbed at Weasel’s arms. Face-to-face with the gremlin, Weasel hissed, his eyes terrifying Kay with their fury. Kay kneed into Weasel’s stomach but Weasel took the blow with easy and struggled to break free from Kay’s grasp.

  Kay panicked. He didn’t know how to save the situation so he threw Weasel off and then ran around the store to get away from the pursui-man. Weasel chased him like a wolf, but Kay’s steps left a sheen on the ground and Weasel stepped into one of those tiny puddles, causing the guy to slip for a sed.

  Wait a mihought Kay.

  Kay tur around, a after Weasel. He trated mass in his right arm and it grew in size as he threw it at the monster-man. The punded right on Weasel’s catlike face. Weasel was knocked back, leaving himself open for atack. Kay jumped up and gave the little were-cat a kick to face! The water boy stumbled the nding. It was his first time doing a jump kick, after all.

  Bruno and Richie saw that the fight was turning against Weasel and raced over. Richie’s shoe nded in one of the small puddles that Kay left behind and did a full-on slip and topple to the floor. Richie smacked his back to the floor and the wind was knocked right out his lips.

  Kay was still in trouble, though. Philly had to help. While all eyes were on Kay and the attackers in the er, Philly pushed in the door. It was hard for the fox to open the door but he got it open enough to pop iail and all. No oiced the bell ringing. The fox squeezed himself uhe shelf by the door and crept up closer to Kay and his oppos.

  With Weasel against the shelves, trying to recover from a couple hard blows Kay nded on him. Bruno took a big swing at Kay, but Kay slipped bad the mighty fist crashed right into the shelf. Bruno was good at stifling a yelp of pain but his knuckle smmed right into the shelf’s metal foundation. It throbbed.

  Pax saw that the fight was turning on his boys so he got up from the ter and approached Kay from behind, quiough that it was too te for Kay to notice.

  Philly intervehe fox snapped his head out from the shelf and took a bite at Pax’s ankle.

  “Ah!” said Pax, hopping bad sing the ground for what just got him. The fox was gohough. He got down and rubbed his leg. “Geez! Does this pce have rats?”

  Kay whipped himself around and tried kig Pax while he was on the ground but the vilin was quid got up to back himself up against the warmer at the end of the ter.

  Pax was ready to smack the water boy but then he saw Bruno ing up behind Kay. Pax watched as Brunht his hands up to grab Kay. Those big hands took Kay’s shoulders like hot dogs, and Bruno lifted the water boy high into the air.

  Kay subdued his panid trated. He let his body melt and just as Bruno was ready to toss the guy across the room, he slipped out of Bruno’s hands, melting to the floor and sliding underh the shelf to the middle aisle.

  Richie was right there, though, and when Kay reformed into his humanoid shape, Richie took a swung at him and khe boy on the back of the head, throwing him to the ground.

  Weasel hopped over the aisles again, knog moods to the floor. The beast-man took a swipe at Kay, and Kay felt the burn passing through his body. Kay got up though and when Weasel took another blow at Kay, Kay grabbed his arm and swung him around. He let the monster man twirl a couple times and then with all of his aquatic strength, Kay picked up Weasel and threw him at Richie.

  Richie had a split sed to look at Weasel in the eyes, the two log peepers as Weasel approached– airborne. Weasel’s eyes were wide with disbelief and even a bit of apology in them.

  Weasel’s body hit Richie’s like a pung bag, knog Richie bato the stands of potato chips.

  Etizaaz smiled. What a great move!

  Bruno got his hands on Kay once again and didn’t waste a sed tossing Kay into the er, the water boy smashing into the wall above the stands of dy. He fell onto the stands, rattling them and causing them to fall away from the wall into the shelves in the middle of the floor. They crashed and a bunch of goods fell off of them, crag to the floor.

  Pax ughed and walked toward Kay, g. “Well done, you piece of– whoaaaa!!!”

  There was a sheen on the floor and Pax slipped in it, flipping his legs into the air and dropping his body to the floor– bad head smag the tiles.

  “Euuuugh...” Pax rubbed his head and leaned up, his arms shaking.

  “You okay, Pax?” asked Bruno.

  Pax looked around. The store was trashed. Pax was hurt and so was his men. Was it worth it?

  He groaned. “Alright...” As he rose, he took a big breath in through his nose slicked back his hair. “You win this time, Slippy.” He turned his head to Bruno and the others. “Let’s get out of here.” Pax looked at the floor. “Watch your step.”

  Weasel and Richie struggled to their feet and stepped carefully across the floor towards the door. Bruno followed and the four thugs took their leave, the door closing on one of the s rolling on the floor.

  Kay pulled himself off the shelf and colpsed to the floor, his body ag all over and his vision swirling. The water boy almost didn’t realize Philly had popped out in front of him.

  “Let’s get out of here,” said Philly.

  Etizaaz didn’t know who said that but watched as a fox came running through the aisles. Philly ran to the door and was thankful that a of beans had kept the door open.

  Kay turned himself into a puddle and slid into the ba, quiough that Etizaaz didn’t notice while his focus was on the door.

  From there, Kay slid out beh door he came in from.

  Yamina came out of the office. “Who was that, baba? What was that?”

  Etizaaz stared out into the battlefield that was his store. “I don’t know.” He shook off the disbelief ao a phoo call the police.

  Kay and Philly met in the alley behind the store and they ran off dowween buildings to get out of the viity of the crime.

  Kay’s body hurt. He was supposed to be more resilient, but oher hand, he took a series of devastating blows. Maybe his resilie its limits. Was he going to get used to being tossed around like that? Being brutalized? He couldn’t imagi. No, there was no way he was going to do something like this again.

  They ran down the alleyways, away from the er store. A bright yellow light of a nighttime café lit up the alley, shining its bea on the brick walls.

  Kay’s steps became too mud he had to stop, colpsing against the wall.

  “Kay?” said Philly. He chortled. “Pretty rough first fight, huh?”

  Kay trembled and sunk to the ground. “That was not a good first fight.”

  “But you won!” said Philly. “You prevehe crime. Was there some colteral damage? Maybe, but–“

  “Philly,” said Kay, his toired and stern.

  Philly dropped the humourous tone. “Yeah?”

  “I o get home,” said Kay, his voice shaken.

  Philly sighed and nodded, his pointed ears flipping around.

  Kay pushed himself up and got ba his feet, clutg his stomach closely. He didn’t feel like jumping around so he watched the streets closely and snuck back to the loan agency with Philly. Kay didn’t feel like taking the backpack with him bae and Philly didn’t want t it to his so they left it aheir separate ways, hoping to pick up the backpaetime iure.

  It hurt for Kay to remold his body and slingshot himself over rooftops. He was stinging with paiire trip home.

  What a night it had been.