Continued from The Oracle from Delphi.

Eros read the instructions for the third time. By now he was used to following some pretty odd directions, but these seemed stranger than most. He was supposed to wear his old tattered coat that he thought he had thrown away years ago but had really been hiding at the back of his closet. Then he was supposed to walk along the outer perimeter of a particular school, looking for, of all things, a scarlet tanager. Then, "When you find her, give her the envelope."

That was the extent of his directions.

He was supposed to give the envelope to a bird? Was that really right? Eros scratched his head, but in the end decided to just go along with it. Even if he ended up looking like a fool... well he didn't mind that so much. It was better than looking like a criminal or a movie star or a mime.

At the corner of the property he began his search, craning his neck to see into the woods on the opposite side of the big brick wall. He didn't see so much as a robin, let alone some scarlet bird that was actually yellow if it was a female. He had looked it up on the internet at the public library so he would recognize her when he saw her. There was a raven that reminded him of Crow. And there was a sparrow. And there a pretty pigeon with wings so shiny they looked like the rainbows in an oil slick.

The next thing he saw after the pigeon was the concrete of the sidewalk rapidly approaching his face. He didn't quite get his hands up in time to catch himself and ended up sprawled out on the sidewalk with stinging palms and chin.

This had better be a very special bird, he thought.

One week left of classes. A couple finals. That's all she had to get through, and then it was summer! Summer vacation never got old, not even if you lived at a school.

Katrina lounged on top of the brick wall with a whole stack of textbooks ...currently being used as a pillow. She actually felt ready for the tests for once and wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Usually when she felt ready it meant there was something really important she had forgotten to study and there was going to be a fifty point essay question about it. She couldn't think what it would be though, and she'd already reviewed all her notes three times. Maybe this time she actually was ready.

For several minutes she watched the clouds overhead as they clustered together and grew larger. She'd read a book about weather before getting her pilot's license that had explained this as one sign a storm might be coming. The more clouds that piled up, the more moisture they held and BANG! lightening storm.

*BANG*

That was fast.

Except it didn't sound like lightening so much as someone face-planting himself on the sidewalk directly below her. Katrina peeked downward. Yup, face-planted.

"Are you alright," she called down in question.

The man groaned and looked up at her with a dazed look. His chin was dripping red.

Katrina winced, "Hold on a second, I'll get our school healer. That's alright with you, right?" Not everyone was okay with the idea of being healed by a mutant. At the man's nod, she skittered down her tree/ladder and ran into the mansion, not bothering with her books or shoes that were still on top of the wall.

Moments later she and DocProf were opening the front gate and letting in the stranger. Katrina was usually pretty nervous about strangers ever since she'd had a nasty run-in with one in Central Park two years ago. This one, though, didn't look like he could hurt a fly. That, plus DocProf was here.

"I was looking out for a bird," the man admitted, "I never even saw the pothole."

"Hmm," replied the doctor as he examined the man's chin.

"We get a lot of birdwatchers around here," Katrina added. "I think because they like to live in the little woods we have here. There aren't too many other green areas in the city other than the park." And who would want to go to the park alone?

"I see," said the man as DocProf started working on his chin. He winced as he expected some sort of pain, but all he felt was a slight tingling. His wince turned into a smile as his chin returned to it previously scruffy glory. "Well, I'm certainly glad I chose this location today. Who knew there would be someone so quick to spring to my rescue."

The man's smile felt like warm soup in Katrina's stomach: comforting on a chilly day. She smiled back, "It was the least I could do. You don't have to thank me. It's DocProf that is doing all the work."

"Mm-hmm," was the Doc's only response. He was almost finished here.

"Well, thank you anyway. I appreciate not having to get stitches at some unfriendly hospital You've actually turned tripping and falling into a pleasant experience."

Katrina looked down and smoothed her skirt, very much like Ghost sometimes did when she was embarrassed. Not that Katrina was embarrassed, or anything.

"All done," DocProf announced. Katrina gave the man a little wave and he tipped an imaginary hat at them both as the gates closed once again.

And that was that.

It wasn't until an hour later that Eros realized he had dropped the envelope. He hadn't even noticed it was gone until he spotted a red bird up in a tree. It turned out to be a cardinal, but it had almost been close enough to scarlet that he'd reached into his pocket to feel for the envelope and found it missing. He retraced his steps to the school gates, but to his dismay there was nothing there.

He shook his head and cursed at his own carelessness. Without the envelope his mission today was a complete failure. It was time to go home.

The skies rumbled their agreement and dropped a few fat drops on Eros' head to hurry him along. Taking a cab was looking like a better and better idea.

Except that his wallet was also missing.

Other than the girl who had helped get his chin fixed, this day was officially awful.

The windows in Katrina's room rattled in the strong gusts of wind. She paced nervously around, glancing out every once in awhile to check the weather's progress.

She couldn't keep her mind off of that poor guy that had hurt his chin, and left his things behind on the sidewalk. She had rescued his belongings at the same time she had rescued her own books from on top of the wall, a little before the rain had started. What if he needed his wallet to buy food? What if he didn't have a place to stay? She should have offered a room at the mansion. They had plenty of them. And they had lots of food, too. They could have fed one extra person for dinner.

She remembered his kind smile and the way he had so charmingly tipped his pretend cap with affection.

She looked over at the wallet and the envelope once again. Maybe she should at least check and see what his name was and see if he had an address.

Aaron Miller, his long expired driver's license read. His address was in Delphi, IN, or had been five years ago. Not helpful. He had a receipt from Walyellows for children's cough syrup. A library card for the NYC public library, barely been used. A picture of a group of kids, maybe a class photo. A teacher? A few crumpled bills. That was about it.

That left the envelope, which hadn't been opened. With a small amount of trepidation Katrina slid her finger under the flap and carefully unsealed it.

Eros sniffled over the chicken noodle soup he hoped would fend off the cold he felt coming on, "I didn't mean to lose the envelope, Alister, it just happened."

"Everything will turn out fine," promised the boy with sunglasses as he did his part to keep the kitchen tidy: he deftly put away the dishes from the dishwasher.

"If you say so," Eros wasn't so sure. He lifted the spoon to his mouth, but it paused before his lips when a timid knock came from the door. He turned to Alister with a raised eyebrow.

The boy with sunglasses was already halfway to the door, almost as if he had been expecting company.

Katrina felt so much better after returning the man's, Eros', wallet and the envelope with his rent request that afterwards she practically felt like she was walking on air. It was such a big relief to not worry about him having a place to stay. Actually, the place he had was pretty nice. Letitia was giving her the tour.

"I guess you could call him our foster father, but really he's more than that. Teacher, drill sergeant, cook, and bottle-washer. He does so much for us that we do everything we can to help out. Each of us kids uses our gifts- like a business, you know? Alister does his oracle-for-hire thing, Marco delivers papers all over the city, Elias tutors rich kids, and I am a saleswoman."

"What do you sell?"

"Secrets."

Katrina's eyebrow raised in question.

"Oh, don't worry, I never sell any information that would hurt anybody. It's like Robin Hood, I take only from rich, evil, greedy people who won't even miss it and it's all for the greater good. Oh! Did Alister tell you yet what we're trying to do?" Katrina shook her head.

Letita leaned in close and whispered, "We're trying to save the world." She saw Katrina's jaw drop and continued in her hurried whisper, "Alister can see the future. He's seen that the world is headed for disaster and we're going to be ready to stop it." Letitia leaned back and crossed her arms smugly, as if daring Katrina to top that for post-graduation plans.

Knowing that it was the training place for the Saviors Of Tomorrow, or whatever they were calling themselves, gave the gym in the basement a whole different vibe.

"So anyway," Letitia finished the tour back at the kitchen, "the one rule you gotta know about if you're going to be hanging out around here is this: no matter what, don't kiss Eros."

Katrina made a face. He was like, what, 45? "Why, what happens?" She had to ask anyway.

"You die."

Continued in The Enemy.