A slim, naked man with green hair sits in front of a mirror in a dark room, the only light on in the room shines on him. He paints his face completely white, paints red on his nose and around his eyes. He draws pointed tips from the paint around his eyes, then three descending red dots on his left cheek, then a blue star on his right cheek. Finally, he paints his lips red and draws thin lines from the tips of his mouth to create a smile, before painting a bit of red on his chin as well.
His big, round, rainbow-coloured eyes examine his handiwork, causing him to give a big, toothy grin,
"Perfect!" He says, in a fruity, melodic voice, "Absolutely marvelous!" He laughs loudly and heartily. The police radio on his right interrupts him.
"We have a fire at the Comey Building, on Flock Street," A woman says, "Fire department's already inbound. Officers needed for crowd control,"
"Roger that. On our way," A man responds.
"A fire," Rufus says with a frown, "Now, that won't do at all," He claps his hands twice and the rest of the lights come on, revealing a brightly painted room, with all manner of shapes and patterns on the walls. On his bed, his clothes lie: an indigo sleeveless shirt with a smiley face on it, resembling a clown, orange pants, a blue right-handed glove, a yellow left-handed glove, big elf shoes, and a jester's hat. He quickly puts them on, opens a window, and prepares to jump out.
"Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?" He scratches his head and looks around the room, then snaps his fingers in realisation. Digging into his yellow glove, he pulls out a long pink cape. He wraps one end around his neck and lets it flow in the wind. He leaps out of the window and takes flight in the direction of the building, which is thankfully not far.
As he soars through the air, another nagging feeling comes over him,
"Why do I still feel like I'm forgetting something? Oh that's right, I can't fly," He halts and looks down, then up again, "Uh oh," He starts hurtling towards the ground, screaming in panic. He quickly pulls out a balloon and blows into it until it is larger than himself, then holds the edge of the nuzzle. The built-up air shoots out, propelling like a rocket upwards and then forward,
"Woooooooohoohoo!!!!"
He lets go of the balloon once he is a good distance from the building. He then pulls out a large bunch of balloons tied with strings and floats the rest of the way.
Fire-fighters blast the apartment building with water, while police keep the crowd as far away as possible. People can be heard screaming for help inside the building, children crying. Five firemen run in to rescue them. Rufus drops enough to allow him to face the building, drawing the attention of the people on the ground.
"Hey, you!" The lieutenant calls to him, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Oh, don't worry I'm here to help!" Rufus says,
"Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" The lieutenant yells, he goes to the driver and equipment officer in one of the fire engines, "Get that idiot down from there,"
"It's okay!" Rufus insists, "I've done this... Wait, no, I've never done this before," He shrugs, "Oh well, carpe diem, as they say," He takes a deep breath, so deep that his chest expands like a frog's throat, then he blows out flames. All of them, as if this ten storey building of concrete, glass, metal and wood were a birthday candle. Everyone is left speechless.
Photos and videos are taken as Rufus looks through the windows for trapped tenants. He finds plenty, confused and scared. He waves to them and gives them a reassuring thumbs up, which serves to confuse and/or scare them more. He looks back at the fireman who yelled at him.
"There are quite a few people in need of assistance on this floor," He says, "I'll help bring them out,"
"W-wait-"
"No time," The Clown swings back and forth, his balloons somehow remaining rooted to the spot. He launches himself feet first into a window. Inside he sees a slender, brown skinned woman clutching her young son. He approaches them slowly. The woman clutches her son tighter, but the boy finds the clown intriguing.
"Are you hurt?" Rufus asks,
"What's going on?" The mother asks, "Who are you?"
"You can call me Rufus. Rufus The Clown," He says, cheerfully, "I'm here to get you and your neighbours to safety," He turns and heads for the window
"I want to see a fire-fighter," The woman says,
"There's a good number of them on the ground," He says examining the window. He grabs the left windowsill and pushes it. As if the wall was made of clay or mud the sill is stretched further to the left, opening the window up more. He does the same thing on right, as well as the top and bottom sills
"Woah..." The boy says, running out of his mother's arms, "Hey Mr Clown. How'd you do that?"
"I just thought this place needed a bit more light," Rufus says, winking at the reader. He pulls out another balloon and blows on it. Instead of simply expanding, it elongates out of the window, then widens and flattens. By the time it hits the ground, the balloon has become a slide. He ties the nuzzle with a string, then ties the string to a wooden beam that collapsed during the fire.
"Alright then, after you," He says,
"Are you crazy?" The mother says, "We are not going down that thing,"
"I wouldn't want to force you, but..." The ceiling starts cracking, "...I'm not sure how long this building will last," Small pieces of wood start falling to the ground. The mother decides to take her chances with the balloon slide, much to her son's delight,
"Marvellous!" Rufus says, "There are fire-fighters, police officers and paramedics waiting for you down there,"
"Me first!" The boy yells,
"Diego, be careful," His mother warns. Diego slides down into a ball pit.
"Now for you, Ma'am. I encourage you to hurry," He helps her onto the slide. She uneasily thanks him before sliding down into the same ball pit and is helped by the public workers on the ground.
"Who is that guy?" A short, stocky male officer with a thin moustache asks his Sergeant, a tall black woman with neatly tied hair in a bun,
"Right now, he's helping," A tall female officer replies, "So I don't care, as long as these people are safe,"
"Yes, ma'am," He says. More people start coming down the slide, then more slides start coming out windows on different floors, with people coming down into another ball pit, cushions, trampolines and jumping castles. Firemen help escort people out of the lower floors. With every tenant safely escorted out of the building and being checked on by paramedics, Rufus jumps out as several ceilings collapse, grabs hold of the balloon bunch that brought him here and floats down to the sound of clapping and cheering.
"Every floor was checked," He says to the Captain, a burly man in his forties, "No one was left inside,"
The lieutenant from earlier corroborates, "He's right sir, all tenants are safe and accounted for,"
The Captain extends a hand, "Thanks for your help, son,"
"Think nothing of it," Rufus shakes, the man's hand, while using his free hand to salute him, "Just doing my civic duty. Great power, great responsibility and all that,"
"Yeah, right," The lieutenant goes to address his men,
"Don't mind him," The Captain says, "He's very by the book is all," He goes to deal with the press.
Rufus seeing his work done prepares to take his leave when the Police Sergeant calls him,
"You there, I've got some questions for you," She says, "Stay where you are,"
"Of course, Officer. Happy to help any way I can," He says, grinning like the Cheshire Cat,
"Good..." She is understandably unsettled, "I'm going to need you to come with us to the station,"
"Of course, just hold these for a moment," He hands her his balloons, then pulls out a small car, opens the driver side door, places it on the ground, hops inside it and drives off, leaving the Sergeant with a bunch of balloons to be swamped by the press with all kinds of questions she could not possibly have answers for. The balloon slides pop once the clown has left and all his various fall breakers deflate and vanish. The windows that remain revert to their normal size and shape.
While driving the tiny car, Rufus talks to the reader,
"I know. I know. That was rather mean-spirited, but a superhero is entitled to a bit of mischief from time to time. Besides, the night is young and there's so much more good to be done,"
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