He looked just like Shoeshine, but without freckles. He had two small tufts of almost-spiked hair on the front of his head and two round on the back, no doubt gotten from Polly. He was sitting in front of the TV, his tail wagging furiously as he screamed and laughed, pitting Littlest Pet Shops and My Little Ponies against eachother. It was as intricate of a story as a four-year-old could manage, and from what Polly picked up, very influenced from the Inspector Gadget episode playing.

His name was Lewis. He loved Inspector Gadget almost as much as his namesake did.

Then there was a knock at the door. Polly quickly stood, opened it, and looked mortified at the person on the other side.

"H-Hi, Polly." That voice. That same damned voice.

"Hi. What are you doing here?"

"I just-"

"You came to see him after four years?"

Taptap looked nervous, "It's been four years? I'd only thought-"

"If you'd come to see him after months, maybe I would've let you. But it's been four years. You can see him if anything happens to me, and only if anything happens to me, do you understand that? You lost your chance years ago."

"...yes ma'am. Sorry."

Polly slammed the door, pacing over to Lewis and holding him close. Lewis seemed to have noticed the man but didn't seem to hear.

"Mama, who was that?"

"That was Underdog, sweetheart." she lied.

"Why didn't he stay?"

"Well, he's a very busy man. He's a superhero."

"Mama?"

"Yes, baby?"

"Who's Underdog?"

"Well, Lewis," she scooted on her knees through his toys to the dvd player, and popped out Inspector Gadget. "He's a superhero. He used to save our very own city from terrible monsters. They made a cartoon based off him- would you like to see?"

Lewis unsurprisingly, flailed his arms screaming and nodding. Polly placed in her copy of said Underdog dvd, it was presteen. One of her most precious non-sentient things, of course.

As it started playing, Lewis immediately gasped. His tail was wagging, his arms flailed harder. He stared right up at Polly.

"That's you!"

Polly nodded, smiling, sitting back next to him. Only a few minutes later he was doing the same motion again.

"He looks just like me!" He looked up at Polly, "He looks just like me!"

"Yeah," Polly smiled, "he sure does."

Lewis was then obsessed with Underdog. He was fourteen now, and he was still obsessed with Underdog. He had such an interest, in fact, that he had ironed a big, white U on his least favorite red shirt as best he could. The shirt when from least favorite to most favorite very quickly. On top he wore a pale yellow hoodie akin to the one Shoeshine wore. Most usually he wore the two in combination in case he ever had to make an Underdog transformation- that and Polly didn't let him wear jackets with nothing under.

One day, a thought had occurred to him, while in the car driving to school.

"Mom?" he muttered.

"Yeah?"

"Whatever happened to Underdog?" she seemed to wince at the question. Lewis went on, "You said it was based of a real person and you said he showed up at our house once. What's he doing now?"

"Well, uh," Polly cleared her throat, "Wh-where do you think he is?"

"I don't know. Some space adventure? Helping problems in other countries? Do you know?"

"...I don't want to ruin the magic for you." she said, softly.

"What… what happened to him?"

"He's dead." she said softly, after several minutes of silence. Then it was silent again.

"I don't-I don't believe you," Lewis said eventually, "Underdog can't die."

"Lewis, that cartoon is only based in real-life. Real Underdog was just as mortal as anyone else. He just couldn't die of blunt force."

Lewis looked torn. "I-I don't believe you!"

"Lewis… you have a free period don't you? To catch up on homework? If you don't have any, feel free to look it up for yourself. Manhattan, Underdog's Death, 2001."

Lewis was silent for the rest of the ride. He was silent for the rest of the school day, even his best friend could seldom get him to talk.

When his free period came, he did just that. Hundreds of articles, one from TTV themselves. Some had pictures. One had a transcript of his suicide note. Lewis could hardly believe how miserable Underdog seemed. Couldn't believe how many medicines he had, or how long he'd been like this, or how his name was also Lewis.

Then he came across one article. "Underdog Lookalike Found Around In Huntsville, West Virginia."

There were pictures. One was a shaky close-up that he was blocking with his hand. It looked enough like Underdog. The other was from a store security camera. That was Underdog. He looked awful, but it was Underdog. It said that Underdog was supposedly born there, too.

At that moment, Lewis crafted a plan. The school year ended in a few weeks, when it did, he needed to convince his mother to take him to West Virginia and see if it really was.

"No, no, no, we are not going to West Virginia to see someone who looks like Underdog. Underdog's dead, Lewis."

"Why not, it's about to be summer!"

"I have a job, Lewis, I don't have any days to have a trip to West Virginia. And Huntsville's a ghost town Lewis."

"It said around Huntsville!"

"We aren't going to West Virginia, Lewis."

"...then I'll go by myself."

Polly was silent for a minute.

"Lewis N Purebred you are not going to West Virginia by yourself." she said, loudly, angrily.

"...fine." he lied.