Sorry about the name changes, I had to revise my idea for where the story is going, Also, some minor changes were made to the original chapter. You may want to go back and re-read it. Again, my apologies. Not that it matters, since no one has been reading my story. "sigh" well, here's chapter 2 anyways.

Once again, I own nothing

Chapter 2

Anto and his family lived in on of many row apartment houses near the edge of Hero City. Each apartment was two stories tall, and cramped together, so from one end of the street to the other was one uninterrupted wall, with only doors and windows placed at even intervals to break the monotony. The houses all had stoops that led right down to the sidewalk. Next to the sidewalk was a two lane road, and beyond that was a canal, about 20 feet bellow ground level. (think of the northern water tribe city). On the opposite side of the canal was a similar street. On this morning, the neighborhood was peaceful, with just the sound of water from the adjacent canal, the cooing of arctic pigeons on the roofs, and the distant rumble of traffic to disturb its tranquility. The canal and road were empty, with vehicles in sight, with the exception of a small Earth Kingdom takeout delivery van parked down the street on the side of the road near a street lamp that looked like a totem pole.

The door of a house near the middle of the block slid open, and Anto stepped out onto the stoop of his house, breathing a sigh of relief. Since it was the arctic equivelant of summer, he was dressed relatively light, wearing just boots, jeans, and a blue hooded sweatshirt.

"That was close" he said, chucking the remainder of the burnt blubber cake into the street. "Almost had to suffer through another one of Mom's depressing early morning speeches" he said in a voice mocking his mother "Anto, do good in school, Anto look both ways before you cross the street, Anto remember to breath. She is such a wet blanket."

Anto suddenly felt bad for mocking his mother. After all, she had been through a lot recently, they all had.

"beep-beep-beep"

"Will I be cursed to by beeps forever!?" Anto said desperately, fishing the beeping cell phone from his pocket. The phone looked like a generic flip-cam phone, but where the number pads should be was a circle, like the touch wheel of an iPod, with the characters for each number etched into it in a clockwise formation. The top had an old gray and black LCD screen, which announced that Anto had received a text message from a person named Mitzue.

It contained only one word. "Hurry"

"I'm coming, your majesty" Anto spat. Mitzue was know for 3 thing. His arrogance, his good looks and his ways with with women. By the ninth grade, he had already had at least 5 serious relationships with, and to many flings to count. These to factors earned him several nicknames from his disgruntled colleagues, the least profane being "The Prince". Mitzue thought that was fitting, because he also claimed to have descended from royalty. He might be arragagant at times, but Mitzue was a good and loyal friend to Anto. This was just as well, because Anto was his only true friend. Or guy friend, at least.

Anto shoved the phone back into his bag, grabbed his skidboard, and threw it onto the snow covered side walk 4 steps bellow. As it was still moving, Anto leapt of the stoop and landed on the boards back as it hit the ground, and immediately fell onto his backwards and into a deep snow bank as the board flew out from underneath him.

Anto groaned from deep within a snow bank. "I hate mornings" he said angrily to himself. Praying that no one had seen his blunder, he fought his way out of the drift, checked his bag and went to retrieve the missing skidboard. A normal skidboard was a cross between a skateboard and a snowboard, which had rollers attached to the bottom for times when there was little or no snow. Its center section was collapsible like a telescope, so that it could shrink from its normal 4 feet long, to a more manageable 1 and a half for storage. They were normally made of plastic or fiberglass. "The perfect tool for the Water Tribe boy on the go" the advertisements proclaimed.

On closer examination, Anto realized that his rogue board was, indeed a board, or rather, a piece of wood, likely from a nearby construction site.

"Oh, crap, someone stole my skidboard!" Anto moaned in horror. The skidboard was Anto's most prized possessions. He always kept it chained to the railing, but that didn't seem to have helped much now, the chain now lay unlocked on the steps.

In anguish Anto examined the piece of wood again, and discovered that a note was tacked to it. The note said in impeccably good calligraphy

"Sorry, had to borrow your board-Mitzue"

This was written in a speech bubble coming from a chibi drawing that looked like Mitzue's head. The chibi was wearing an impish grin that stretched from ear to ear. It has to be said that Mitzue was surprisingly good at drawing chibi's.

"That son of a -"Anto began, but his curse was cut short by a shrill whistle coming from the canal. The 7'30 ferry was leaving from it's mooring down the street. Anto threw the piece of wood into the canal, gathered his bag, and ran down the street at top speed to catch the ferry. He barely noticed the takeout van suddenly cough to life, and zoom down the street ahead of him.

Anto ran down the stairs and jumped the turnstile leading to the canal-side were the ferry was moored. But he was too late; the boat was already heading down the canal at. It didn't get very far: a stalled barge blocked its path down the canal 50 yards away.

In anguish, Anto kicked a glass bottle into the water. So close.

"Now what?" Anto thought. He had reached the point were he didn't even care anymore.

"There's no way I'll make it to school in time"

Normally, he wouldn't mind, but if he was late again, he would be suspended for 2 days. His mom would be not be pleased, to say the least, and she had already threatened to trash his skidboard if he got in trouble again.

"Not that it matters now" he said to himself gloomily, remembering the stolen board.

He planned to continue moping for a few more moments, and then head to school and try to brownnose his way out of trouble. But his plans were suddenly interrupted by a fat security guard. The guard's uniform was covered with grease; his face was unshaven, and smelled heavily of cigarettes

"Excuse me" the guard growled. "Unless you want to pay a fine, I suggest you get that bottle out of the water right now. Don't you care about how your city looks?"

"You obviously don't" he thought angrily to himself as he retrieved the bottle, which was floating near the shore.

"Thank you" the guard said curtly as Anto tossed the bottle into a trash can.

"Anytime" Anto replied venomously as the guard walked away to scold another litterbug.

He as just about to leave when something in the water caught his eye. It was the piece of wood. Anto retrieved it, looked down the canal one last time, and out of nowhere a plan came into his head. He ran back up the stairs and up to street level, heading along the sidewalk.

The ferry was still stuck, directly under a power line that crossed the canal.

"This had better work" Anto thought nervously. He jumped onto some wooden boxes near the water, and then onto the top of a closed newspaper booth. He straddled the board over the wire, grasping its sides, making a sort of zip line. Bystanders stopped to look at him in confusion.

"Here goes, nothing!" he said aloud. Taking a deep breath, he jumped off the top of the booth and slid down wire. He sped over the water, holding onto the board for dear life. When he was above the upper deck of the ferry, he let go of the board, landing on his rear, and slid a crossed the deck and under the side railing. Somehow, he managed to grab a hold of the railing with his arms, his legs dangling over the side of the ferry.

"That was quite a detour young man, are you OK" a bearded old man exclaimed in surprise. Anto grabbed onto the man's outstretched hand and pulled himself up.

"Never better" he replied happily. Anto was elated. He had made it. For once, his crazy scheme hadworked perfectly. Almost perfectly

"Dammit!" he groaned as he smacked his forehead in frustration. He left his school bag on the sidewalk.

Anto made his way a crossed the open top deck and down teh stairs that led to the lower, searching for Mitzue. The ferry, as usual, was crowded with commuters on there way to work or school in the City. Anto reached into his pocket for his phone, but remembered that he had put it in his bag just before his zip line escapade. He was about to continue his search, but at that moment, a tall, fierce looking girl from his school approached him. She did not look happy.

The girl grabbed him by his pony tail thing, and shoved him against the wall.

"Where is he!" she said, giving Anto a look that could have frozen water.

Anto winced and slowly replied. "Who, Mitzue? That's what I'd like to know" he tried to loosen her grip around his wolftail, but she only tightened it.

The fierce girl pulled his hair higher; dragging him up the wall "You let him know that Kona is looking for him. He'll know what you mean"

"Y-Y-Yes, I'll tell him. Now could you please..." he said, gesturing towards his hair.

The girl somehow intensified her glare, released him, and stormed off in search of her prey.

"I'd better find Mitzue before she does" he thought anxiously, massaging his scalp.