The Can

by Draquonelle

Quantum Sputterspark looked at his wife. She had just put Static down to sleep. A much more fitting role of a warrior of her temperament. Quantum doubted he would ever have enough character or fortitude to get that child into bed.

He looked over at her. She was so beautiful so strong, so large. She towered over everyone she met. He only came up to her clavicle. His parents had often wondered what motivated him to even look at her. They were sure the first time they met her that their engagement had to be some kind of extortion.

A seven foot tall Russian ex-convict? Mind you a quaint guest to have at dinner parties, but not a worthy mate to the Time Keeper, mother to the next Time Keeper. It was unthinkable. His mother and father threatened to send the issue before The Council.

The Marriage of Ivona Steele Frumm’U and Quantum Aries Sputterspark had been one of the most controversial matches in the history of the family. Thompson I father to the Sputterspark line could barely keep the Council from trying to kill Ivy.

"He’s asleep now. Or will be."

"Ivy. I have to leave again."

Ivona looked at her husband. "You just got back. It’s a good thing Static was sick or I would have forgotten what you look like."

"I have to."

Ivona relented. She knew about duty. That was something even she could understand.

"Ivy, They want me to bring Static this time."

"What? He’s just a little kid. He’s too young for it." The large angry white canine growled.

"He has been called along with me."

Ivy growled her frightening way that made Quantum cringe.

"They’d take a child away from his mother." She tossed out a Russian swear word.

"It’s only going to be a short one. Like barely a day. Just to help him understand. They are too wise to put the next Time Keeper in danger."

"I just can’t believe that they’d want him now. He’s only 3."

"This is such a dangerous age for Static. He doesn’t understand what his power is yet. Can you imagine if you were a three year old that could burn down a house with a single thought?"

Ivy decided to abandon that reasoning.

"Well then I’m coming to."

"This is a family matter."

"Aren’t I family too?"

He reached up and hugged his wife.

"Of course Ivy. Of course."

"I’m just not electric. Must fry your brain or something…" she grumbled. Ivy turned "I guess this is just a Sputterspark thing."

"You know Ivy. I couldn’t raise Static without you. I’m amazed what you’ve put up with."

"Well Ivona Frumm’U was no wimp. Why would you expect any less from Ivona Sputterspark?"

***

"Static." Ivona opened the windows.

The little boy yawned and woke up.

The small family sat down to breakfast.

"I’m not hungry." Static said.

"Static eat your oatmeal." Quantum said not looking up from his touchpad, cross referencing with his old fashioned books.

"Is good for you." Ivona said. "Make you big and strong."

Static chewed on the spoon forever.

"That’s it. Eat up." His mother petted his head.

Static kicked his feet. Hoping it would waste time.

He picked up a napkin. And begin mimicking his father. Quantum turned the page in his book so Static turned his napkin.

"Look Mommy I’m reading on paper book like Daddy."

Quantum chuckled.

"It would help if there were words on the napkin. Buzzie." He said.

"It does have words Daddy. It has M-c-D-u-c-k. Mk Duck and c-o-r-p-o-rat-ion. McDuck Corpor-rat-tye-on."

"Corporation. The Ti is pronounced shu." Ivona made no bones about Static’s education. It was considered a marvel he could read, but that had been genes.

With unbelievable patience the young parents waited until he had finished his oatmeal. "Your Daddy has something very important to talk to you about. After we get dressed."

****

"Daddy, why are we in funny clothes?" Static asked. He was appropriately attired in the costume of a small child of the late 20^th century."

"Static. We have to do something very important today."

"What Daddy?"

"Do you know what Daddy does?"

"Yes he’s the keeper of Time." The three year-old chanted religiously.

"Well you remembered that. But do you know what that means?"

"Yes. It means that you carry the watch and you read paper books and you look worried and sometimes you go away, but you come back."

"I’d like to show you where I go. It’s important that you know. You’re not a baby anymore."

"I’m a big boy. I’m three years old" Static said.

"Yes."

Quantum it’s time.

"But…" The voice of the council took him by surprise.

Take your son to the designation.

Static gasped as the huge noise occupied his brain. He had never heard the Council. Before. Quantum was seven when he first heard the Council and he nearly wet his pants. Static merely looked curiously.

Static realized the sound was coming from within himself

His father being closest to him nudged him.

Static strained his little brow

Hi Static his projected voice echoed through the council.

There was a communal laughter amoung the Council. His voice carried well in the Council. He would be a great Time Keeper, once he got used to communing.

You are going on a trip, into the past, many years before you were born. Sebastian said sternly yet clearer than his attempts to explain it.

Does that sound like fun? The maternal voice of Ricia echoed.

"I never did that Daddy." Static said.

"Answer with your mind Static." Quantum said.

He answered them.

Static grabbed onto his father and he activated the watch.

Quantum watched as the world turned back through it’s younger forms. The city turned back in on itself, turning back, changing evolving.

Quantum stopped and patted his son on the shoulder. He had closed his little eyes.

"Welcome to the year 2005. Buzzie."

"Wow." Static’s eyes scanned the alien St. Canard. In concrete and asphalt and steel, few plants.

"Yeah Wow. This is pretty neat. Huh?"

Static nodded silently.

He probably would forget most of this, when he grew up. His blue eyes scanned the pedestrians and the silly rolling cars. They only had land transport and hover cars were still far in the future.

The hotdog vendor looked at the man with his son riding on his shoulders.

"Hey tourists. Welcome ta St. Canard."

"Hi." Static said waved.

"Hey there guy, You want a hotdog?"

"Why would I want a canine of any temperature?" Static looked at his father.

Quantum laughed.

"Were just passing through."

"Suit yourself. It’s pretty hot today. How about a nice Koo Koo Cola?"

"Yeah." Static said reaching out for the pretty can.

"No sorry. We’ve got to get going." Quantum said, pushing his son’s arm.

"What?" The Hotdog vendor asked.

"It’ll spoil his dinner." Quantum said trying to cover his tracks

"It’s this little guys first time in St. Canard. Soda’s on the house."

Quantum tried not to panic.

"Look it’s complex. I can’t really explain right now. I am in possession of your currency as of late. But purchasing any item regardless of its implied importance, might drastically alter the time stream, thus outside my code of conduct. You must understand." Quantum said.

"Oooookay."

"But I do thank you." Quantum bowed.

"Come on Buzz."

"But I wanna Koo Koo!" Static whined.

"Sorry Buzz. It’ll just have to-" Quantum tried to pull his son away. "We have to go now."

"I wanna Koo Koo. Koo Koo." Static wailed. They all stared at the man and his son.

This was not the perfect way to blend in. He tried to silence his unreasonable child.

"Static please behave yourself. We are in the pas-public."

Static growled a little ineffective dog growl.

"Did you growl at me young man? Did you just growl at your father?"

Static hummphed in his three year old voice.

He grabbed the Kookoo Cola with his tail, as his father slung him over one shoulder.

Across town a very strange scene was unfolding at a small sidewalk café.

A rat looking creature in a black sweater. His eyes were vibrant and green. Like lightning coursing through a dark night. Anyone would have said that he had white fur, but it was the palest lightest green a color that seem to reflect out of the color of his eyes.

He sat across from a fox. His fur was dark like sandalwood. His eyes were a soft black with wine coloured flecks, intensified by his chiseled features.

They sat at the table playing footsie, and holding hands. The patrons of the restaurant stared. The fox was keenly aware that he was being watched

Voltaire, his partner, bent in close to and whispered in his ear.

"Justin, I actually think that they are staring at us because we are both male, Tatame." He laughed.

Justin, the fox, began to notice the prying eyes.

"You don’t think they realize I’m Martian, Voltaire?"

"There’s no such thing as Martian. Mars won’t be colonized for decades yet." Voltaire said.

"Oh right." Justin began to laugh.

"How strange. And wonderful." Justin kissed him and held his hand. The customers at the next table moved indignant and grumbling at how disgusting it was.

"Your home was a beautiful place Voltaire."

"Earth isn’t like this in our now." Voltaire smiled. "Besides this isn’t Paris. I wish you could have seen it."

"That Vixon Dominic was always such a boor." Justin said trying to sympathize with his loss. He couldn’t imagine if a warlord had burned his home. Even if he did hate the Palace…

Voltaire was the child of siege. It was a strange thing. Justin had been trained in battle from the age of 7 and he would never see as much war as Voltaire had. As the heir to the Keeper of Time and the Keeper of Light, he had been shuffled between siege towns, between his parents, between Mars and Earth, between everything. Justin knew that he was probably the only truly steady thing in his life. His Martian comrade and now so much more.

Voltaire stared at him stroking his face.

"You are not half bad yourself kiddo."

"Thanks for bringing me Voltaire."

In the bushes in her usual position of observation, Ricianaira, the 13^th keeper of time appeared and watched her son being kissed by his Martian lover. It stung her heart, to watch him.

They embraced so innocently. That was the worst part of it. If Justin had seduced Voltaire, she could have handled the situation. Voltaire had always been a lonely curious child. Justin had been his only peer, the only child present in the sea of his life.

The two friends did have that strange magnetism between them, that had overcome everything, the distance between them, their lineage, Voltaire’s powers, Justin’s noble rank. Like the orbit of a comet. Not the way the Moon gravitates on the pull of the earth, tyrannous and unjust. But the way an ellipsis has two centers. Two focuses, which all other forces gravitated around. She wouldn’t deny them that.

He had found happiness in the arms of another male. That irked her as well. Knowing he would never find joy in fathering a child with his mate. She had thought it so natural to want to have children with your mate. To bear children, to continue the great an ancient link of birth and death. It would never be. He was much more evolved than she could ever be. Sacrificing simple reproductive urges for the sake of a pure and perfect love.

She watched them. They were so alive. Little flames in their hearts, burning clean and new, for each other. That was the best kind of love.

She could not tell him where to have his heart. Any more than her parents could. Her Martian lover.

She remembered Elmonor asking to dance with her. His gentle fingers pulling away her veil revealing her strange bill. Looking beyond either of their "abnormalities". That was love before. The flames were seperated now. Somewhere inside burned for her own tanakai, silent and dark.

She shouldn’t have followed her son. She knew it painfully. She slipped from between the bushes and walked away.

The Keepers assembled.

Quantum took his son to the park, where his son’s behavior would be less conspicuous. Had he been so impossible when he took his first journey back in time? The other mothers and fathers stared at him. Despite his costume, his coloring was unusual for this time period. In this era hybrids were still quite rare. He was a big purple rat for all intents and purposes.

Static was as unusual, his white fur. It made him stick out. Static’s features were obviously more hybrid. Quantum could have passed for a rat, but Static was neither. He acted a lot like his mother. He had a slight growl when he was angry, which was often. Quantum had never been so moody when he was a baby.

He hoped this wasn’t a permanent feature of his personality. They called it the terrible twos. He couldn’t imagine what a few more years of this would be like.

He sat musing as his son climbed up the slide part of the slide.

When felt the presence sweep over him.

He stared at the other one.

There was the other one. She walked down the path in the park.

Quantum stared.

She was veiled and covered, but there was such a strong familiar look in her blue eyes.

His double.

"May the Father of Light and the Mother of Time Bless you my son." The veiled figure said.

But she looks back over one shoulder,

An Orfean look that boils the stars.

"I am Quantum Sputterspark." The rodent said.

"I’ve never seen you before." She tried to convince herself.

Who are you?

"Ricianaira Kitsune, 13^th keeper of time. You hold the watch."

Quantum held out the watch, glowing burning with some kind of deadly new heat

"You do too."

Her hand reached from under the robes to reveal the same watch.

"Why are you here?" Quantum said it first.

"Observation." She said, her blue eyes bulging.

"I was called."

Quantum sat down on the bench and she joined him.

"What have we done?"

Static looked to make sure his father wasn’t looking. He crawled under the slide and pulled out the can of soda tried to open his can of Koo Koo cola. He pounded the lid. How did you open it?

A strange white young rat with a soft voice approached, with a friend, a fox.

"There’s a trick to it. Here."

The rat pulled the pop tab. A fizzy mess eruptted from the can, coating the young man.

The fox next to him laughed. "I think you opened it wrong."

"That’s the way Mom taught me." Looking for something to wipe off on.

He picked the fox’s chest. He smeared the soda on Justin’s chest. They laughed.

Voltaire raced down the street in hot pursuit.

"You dirty little Earthling." The fox laughed and chased after him.

"Catch me if you can Martian scum."

The fox chased his lover down the street.

Static smiled at the two nice men and sipped on the remains of the soda.

(stuff

Naira panicked, as the Council seemed to appear.

"What has happened? Two watches. How can there be two watches?" Quantum said.

Quantum dropped the watch.

Naira set her watch down.

Ricianaira Sputterspark, wife of Elmonor Kitsune.

Quantum Sputterspark.

You must make the choice.

A most vile sacrifice to the good of the world.

"I will give me life for this."

Quantum blinked "It is our fate. We must…" Quantum acquiesed. Naira saw the gleam of a young father in his eyes, and wept a little, inside.

There was such danger in that phrase. She held his hands.

Quantum and Naira stared at each other.

Quantum yelled out.

"How can you do this to us? Don’t you have hearts?"

Naira held him back.

Quantum stared up at Naira.

The voices of the council faded.

(Fight)

"My son, he’s a child. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t…" Quantum admitted.

"I can’t either. I watched my son grow from his childhood. You will never know what that is like. I can see him almost a man."

"He’s innocent. I cannot kill him. I would be killing him at least your’s would have a chance at life."

"My son is the only heir to both thrones of Earth. Do you have any idea how much death that would cause if the Martians came again?"

"There are no Martians in my time. I helped repell the invasion."

"Earth is free?"

"Yes."

"The Plague. Are there still Ducks? Did you stop the plague?"

"What plague?"

Naira sat down. "A plague wiped out the avian population. The Duck population was reduced by 97%. They died."

"Good Lord." Quantum said.

"With this opportunity the Martian Empire was able to infiltrate the defense of Earth. The decimated population was easily conquered by Queen Serena. It was not a bad war. It was over fast. I became Time Keeper at it’s onset. I fear I am a better politician than a historian. I established Treaties by establishing myself as the Serena of Earth if you will. A proud honorable warrior queen."

"Quantum, tell me is your son queer?"

"What?"

"Is he a homosexual?"

"He’s only three years old. I have no idea."

"My son will never have an heir. He’s fallen in love with another male."

"What should that have anything to do with our decision? I fell in love with a criminal."

"And I fell in love with a Martian Priest. We must be practical. After my son there will be no more Time Keepers."

"Look let’s just focus on the issues at hand. I’ll not condemn him for love."

"This is the issue. If I should die, my son would be free from his hereditary obigation to father the next time keeper. If your son was to become the Time Keeper it might even be a blessing…"

"If we must be honest, my son is a child. We have no idea how he will grow up. He could be gay, he could be a cold blooded murderer. He is very spoiled so far, very stubborn. What if he grows up that way? We can’t judge him yet. I will not sit in judgement of them. It is the issue at hand."

"The Martian Invasion." Naira said. "In your world it never happened

Quantum looked at her.

"This is the most horrible decision I’ve ever had to make." He said.

"With you, Earth is free. Do you know how long and hard I’ve fought to make that true? The Martians must be stopped."

"I’d be sending you and your son to your death." He said placing his head in his hands.

"It is clear. I’m the one to do it." Naira said. "I must-"

"Naira."

"It’s a sound decision. The best we can make now."

"Sometimes I wish we didn’t have to feel. We’re only human."

They waited for some kind of lightning or something, anything to signal the end.

"What will happen to you?"

"I’m letting you off Quantum. You take care of that little boy of yours. Make sure he learns to play a real musical instrument, not a guitar either. I’ll go off and try to find some way to save my son."

Quantum stared at her.

"I’m still a Time Keeper until I do myself in."

"Take care of your son." Naira’s voice should have faded, but it didn’t. It cut off. Dead in the air before it cross through the space.

She was gone.

Quantum rushed through the streets, in a panic. Static, Static. He had only been playing in the park, right at his eye level.

He rushed past all else.

His son sat on the swing. Unaware of the price of his precious little life. Unaware of anything but the sun and the grass and this strange new place he was in.

Quantum grabbed his son off the swing.

"Static we have to go home now.

He held his son close.

"Daddy. Are you okay?" Static asked.

"I’ll be okay Buzz."

Static hugged his Daddy, unsure of his father’s behavior and the exciting new prospect of traveling back to the future. Quantum kissed his son on the head.

They flashed into the future.

Quantum was almost afraid to let him go once they arrived in their home.

He set Static down

The empty soda can fell out of his pocket.

"Oops." Static stared guiltily up at his father.

"Static Alexi Frummavitch Sputterspark! Where did you get that can?" Quantum knelt and glared his son right in the eye.

"Um." The little boy tried to think of a lie.

"Did you steal that soda from that man?" he said barely concealing his frustration.

"Nooo." Static shook his head ferociously hoping it would make it more believable.

"Don’t you lie to me."

"I-"

"Static."

"I did Daddy." Static gulped.

"Static of all the irresponsible and then you try to-"

Static looked up fearfully at his father, and the reality of the ordeal sunk in again. Quantum could remember the crisp words that Naira had vanished on "Take Care of your son." Static was still here.

Quantum collapsed in a mound of tears, forgetting his anger.

His little Buzz, ravaged by the caprice of time. He had almost suffered a fate worse than death. And this wasn’t the end. He would suffer and fight every day of his life for the mere circumstance of his birth…

He was a Sputterspark. It was his duty.

"Daddy, it’s okay. It’s okay." Static pet his daddy.

"Static, Static." Quantum threw his arms around his precious Buzz.

Static began crying too, with no concept of what he was crying about.

"I’m sorry I took the Koo Koo daddy. Just don’t cry. Don’t cry."

"Oh Static."

"I’m sorry." Static said.