Another typical day. Fill his back pack with envelops and other small packages that needed swift attention and dole them out at different locations, A delivery went something like this: Ride through traffic with enough skill to get you there fast and alive. Hop off your bike and throw it onto your shoulder as to avoid finding a place to lock it up and possibly still get it stolen. Head to the drop off point typically a front desk. If the front desk was occupied by an attractive female, Flirt. if it was an unattractive female,Flirt. if it was an older attractive female, Flirt. if it was an older unattractive female and no one was around....Flirt. If it was a a guy, talk about the Yankees, Jets, Rangers or Knicks or possibly women. drop of the package get a signature and possibly a number, Pickup the outgoing for the day and hop back into traffic.

He'd been graduated for nearly half a year and his degree wasn't yielding anything that amazing. Just internships that didn't pay and didn't allow him enough time to work on the side. In other words it was offering him poverty. He was willing to do what he had to, but how was he supposed to live if he didn't make money, if he didn't make money how was he going to pick up women? Honestly, you could only get so far on a ladies tab. Today had been a lot of the same at work, but it was a good job that left him free to skip the gym on cardio days.He still hit the weights as necessary but it was nice multitasking while making money.

Aedus stood over his bike with package in hand, his job took him all over the place, and to all sorts of places. He delivered what he was supposed to deliver as fast as he could. Which was faster than the competition by half on a bad day. He lifted his bike onto his shoulder, he was tempted to lean it against the wall of the alley, but this place was a bit on the weird side, and he would not trust his means of transportation to such an alley. Was that a rat he just saw? Future sight...eh.The Manilla envelope was addressed to the location, and the person to sign for it was, Jude. No last name, just Jude. That was all he had to go on. Jude at Future Sight the writing was written in a loopy writing that was almost absolutely feminine.

What the hell, ya know? Typically it was leave this at the front desk at business co. Not today though, not this delivery, nope he was in a dingy alleyway with an envelope, that he was pretty sure was empty. After you picked these things up long enough you got a pretty decent idea of what you were carrying and this felt like an empty manilla envelope. If it was empty why was he delivering it? Whatever kept him employed he supposed, besides this was his last delivery for the day so from here it was just the ride home. He climbed the steps and knocked on the door.

It was strange to be back in 2011. Things that should have been normal seemed exotic. Like air conditioning, taxi cabs, and credit cards. Other things that she had come to take for granted, like gentlemen holding the door for a lady, had fallen out of fashion decades ago. She supposed it was similar to reverse culture shock. Like coming back and realizing how fat Americans were.

People that she hugged so tight because she hadn't seen them in a year and thought she may never see again didn't know what to think when she didn't let go of them in an appropriate amount of time. According to their time line she had barely been gone longer than a week. A long time, but not quite *squeeze*that*squeeze* long.

Also, school. After a whole year of living on her own in the real world, she actually had to go back and take eleventh grade. It was almost as if a whole year of growing up just didn't count at all. Legally she was still 16, because the 17th year wasn't consecutive with the rest of them. It really wasn't fair. If Hawaii was going to count as a state, a year lived in another time should count as a year.

She was also just a little bit homesick. Even though the apartment she had shared with Slate had been small and cold and dark, it had been theirs. Now, no place really felt like home, since they couldn't really live anyplace together. At least, not without causing a scandal. Even if she explained that it wasn't like that people would believe what they would believe, especially mother-type people, and protective-older-brother-type people, and tigers-guarding-your-bed-type people.

The other strange thing was getting phone calls and text messages again.

Need you at shop today, had been the one from Alister this morning. No “Hi, how are you” or “How was your trip” or anything.

So she was watching the store, and tidying it up a bit while she was at it. The place was operational again, but it still looked like it was under construction after it had been all smashed apart by vandals not long ago.

Bent over, trying to lift an armful of splintered wood out of the way, she was caught by surprise by a figure standing in the doorway. His knock was lost in a clatter of wood pieces flying every which way as Katrina momentarily panicked that he might be some other black haired, green eyed man.

“Ahh! Ah... Umm.”

That probably should have been, “Welcome in,” actually. Some store employee she was.

He was surprised that Kat hadn't blamed this more on him. It just couldn't be coincidence that Sebastian had visited and been chased away Fox and the Hound style and then the shop was trashed so soon after. But since she'd been gone (without telling anyone) and returned, Katrina had definitely... changed.

The passage of time could do that. He understood her unease. Not perfectly, but better than most.

That lead to an uneasy truce. Well, maybe it was just uneasy on Jude's end.

They had most of the big stuff cleared away now. Jude was using a push broom in the back for the smaller, sharper bits. The kitchen was especially hazardous.

The frenchman adjusted his sunglasses at the sound of wood falling to teh ground in the front room. He had volunteered to stand in as the future seer so that Alister could rest, but the sunglasses were a bit obnoxious to wear indoors.

"Everysing alright?" Jude called out to Katrina before heaving another good push with the broom. Broken plates and cups make delicate clinks as they got shoved into a pile by the bristles.

Aedus noticed the young woman bending over and couldn’t help but to look her over, she was a pretty little blonde, if a bit on the young side. Aedus slipped the envelop to one side and pinned it to his side with his elbow, he shifted his bike to the side stepped back and then let the bike drop down and rest half way on the steps.
“Let me get that Miss.” He flashed a perfect smile at her, it ought to be perfect for the amount of dental work it cost him, sports had been cruel to a smile that he cherished growing up, and dentistry had returned it to its former glory, it had been a long time since his smile was anything but picture perfect. Aedus started to gather the wood up that the young woman had dropped, he picked up the smaller pieces first.
“ I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m actually here to make a delivery to…. ahhhh Jude. I’m afraid that I didn’t get a last name.” He propped the last of the bits of wood into the pile and lifted them. He looked to the young woman, to direct him where to deposit the pile. He dumped the wood into a large trash can after he realized where she was taking it. He then presented the envelope and what little information it had on the envelope.
“I’m Aedus Teauge, I’m with QuickTrack.” He pointed to the little logo on his yellow polo and took a step back. He said the last because for a moment she honestly looked scared, maybe that had to do with whatever happened here.
Aedus Glanced toward the door as he heard another voice with an accent that was probably…European?

“It's fine, it's fine.” Katrina pushed the splinters back into a pile with her foot while backing towards the kitchen. The smile on her face was automatic, but she wasn't really feeling it. Not when strangers walked in with black hair and green eyes.

She felt immediately better once Jude was in the room. For once she was really glad that he looked the same age as this guy and not like a twelve year old. Sure, the powers of copycatting weren't going to be that helpful against someone who wanted to do them real harm, but he at least looked like he could swing a punch if he needed to, whereas Katrina looked like she couldn't even swing a flyswatter hard enough to kill a fly.

The green eyed delivery boy had an accent that reminded her of Carrick, a gentlemanly streak that reminded her of unicorns, and twinkle in his eye that reminded her of Pluto. The good side of the scale was starting to outweigh the bad side. Even yet, Katrina edged slightly behind Jude as he came out from the ruined kitchen.

“This is Jude,” she pointed out when the delivery boy asked. She stood on tip toes for a moment to see the writing on the envelope. It looked like Alister's: he had the curliest-cue handwriting she'd ever seen a boy have.

That meant that whatever was in the envelope was here for a particular reason, and the reason wasn't because Alister lived too far away to deliver it in person. Now they just had to figure out what that reason was.

“What's inside?” She asked Jude, her curiosity peeked despite her previous nerves.

It wasn't like Katrina to shy away from strangers, but she'd had her fair share of experiences bad and good. Jude gladly took a half step in front of her. The best thing that having wings had done for him was help him develop his shoulder muscles. He was far from intimidating, but at least he made a nice barrier.

"We've had a bumpy few days." The frenchman shrugged in apology to the guy. He couldn't win them all. And, despite their efforts, the place was still a wreck.

Jude held out his hand for the envelope and pushed the sunglasses up onto his forehead so that he could better inspect the handwriting. That made his hair poke weirdly out between the lenses, but he wasn't in it for the fashion. And by the way he was inspecting the writing, it was clear the sunglasses didn't mean that he was blind.

Alister didn't do things lightly. And he hadn't sent mail through normal channels. He sent a letter by courier. That meant that unless something had changed events that day, the real delivery was the guy in the dorky yellow shirt.

Katrina wanted to know what was in it, but Jude suspected that there wasn't anything at all. He passed the envelope to the illusion-mancer.

"Zanks, man." When he glanced up, he neglected to put his sunglasses back on.

This was the part that made it hard. The part where it felt like they were falling. Alister would have caught them both and stretched time out like a stand of yarn twisted from many threads. The threads came from different places, but once they were twisted together it was done. Jude and Alister had done this many times, picking through events and checking the incoming options.

The best that Jude could manage on his own was to catch on to something, anything and catch the courier in it too.

Aedus tipped the Envelope to the young woman so she didn’t have to, oh so adorably get on her tip toes. He tried to not be curious about packages, but unless it was a feather, a small silver chain necklace, a single sheet of paper, then he honestly didn’t think anything was in there, and he’d be damned if he wasn’t slightly curious about what nothing he carried over. A Frenchman entered the room explaining that things had been rough; he could see that things had been rough, real rough apparently. He nodded to the Frenchmen realizing belatedly that he was protecting the lady and that she was shaken up. “I actually live pretty close by if you guys ever want to call me after you call the police, I’ll probably get here faster. If you’re having trouble, I don’t mind lending my neighbors a hand.” He lived on 72nd, about six blocks north but on his bike he didn’t stop for any lights or traffic and it was all downhill; he’d be there before they hung up the phone. He wasn’t sure what this was about, but he wanted to be on the side that made sure people didn’t have to worry about their business being torn up by punks. If they wanted his help, it was up to them, but regardless. The fact that he was helpful not harmful was out there, maybe that would help put the cute blonde at ease. Of course he didn’t realize that normally this place was a regularly filled with several people that could easily put him in his place.
"If I could just get you to sign for that, Jude.I’d appreciate it.”He held out the small electronic device that would get Jude’s signature but the Frenchman wasn’t taking the pin he was grabbing his upper arms, and then they were falling. For Aedus it was both literal and metaphorically. He fell down and forward His hand went passed Jude and landed and grabbed at Katrina’s Leg. And from there.

He was five in jeans, suspenders and a flat cap laughing hysterically on his grand pa’s knee.

He was ten running in terror from a campsite in the woods, something dark was chasing him.

He was fifteen with his arm around a girl in a stadium, they both had braces.

He was seventeen not studying with a different girl in a pink and white bedroom.

He was twenty playing soccer scoring a goal in front of a cheering crowd.

He was standing in front of a blond boy threatening a crowd of would be attackers.

He was on his knees in front of the Frenchman and the blond looking up.

He was watching sesame street with a brunette.

He was challenging a stubbly man to a foosball game.

He was giving the young blonde a sunflower, they were standing very close.

He was in a lab coat walking into Faust Pharmaceuticals.

He was bursting into flames and turning into lava for the first time.

He was made of obsidian protecting a girl with rats surrounding.

He was human again with not a hair on him nor a stitch of clothing curled up on the rug in his living room.

Aedus fell forward in a heap panting. “Holy hell! What was that!” his hand slid off Katrina’s leg landing on the splinter covered floor. He looked up to the pair above him and realized he had just glimpsed this happening. He slowly rose to his feet staring at them, “You made me see all of that, you were going to explain it to me right?” Part of him was mad that he did that without warning, part of him was exhilarated, part of him was simply terrified. Part of him, He looked at the blond confirming it was definitely her that he gave a sun flower to.

Jude handed her the envelope, which felt disappointingly empty. She was about to open it, just to check, but the messenger boy fell forward, his hand reached out toward her leg. As soon as he touched her, she, too, felt the dizzying sensation of spinning through time.

She hadn’t yet had the opportunity to experience this type of time viewing, being too nervous about knowing her own destiny. Alister had thus far been content to see her in other people’s futures, and hadn’t pushed too hard to spy on her directly.

It was disorienting.

Images spun all around her, each blurred as they moved so quickly by.

It seemed to be a montage of the delivery boy’s life, all the way from childhood up to some point in the future when he became some kind of scientist and gave sunflowers to…

Katrina was startled to see herself in the boy’s future. They were standing so close together, and she didn’t look at all scared. It was impossible to tell what exactly was going on before the images shifted again. There were battle scenes, and this boy definitely was on their side. What’s more, he was some kind of lava mutant. Her own fake flames paled in comparison to what this guy could do, or at least would be able to do soon.

The Irish boy looked up at them, back in normal time. Katrina was surprised to find that she hadn’t fallen, too.

“That was the future,” she responded to his question, sounding almost dazed. “At least, possible scenes from the future.”

The little illusionist turned toward Jude with a question in her eyes. “Did you know that would happen, when he touched me?” She wasn’t angry, just surprised. Maybe it would be wise if they did this type of tandem looking into the future more often. It would be helpful to have another pair of figurative eyes, another perspective looking through these futures upon which they weighed so many of their actions.

Especially when Alister was the one they relied on all the time for direction. It wasn’t just that he was young. Katrina didn’t trust him completely.

"Huh."

That was not what he was expecting. Jude caught his glasses that had, at first, just been at the end of his nose, but had somewhere during the future reading fallen askew.

"Guess he iz on our side."

Not that envelope wasn't a dead giveaway to begin with. Alister wouldn't have sent a viper into the den with only Jude and Katrina home to pick up the pieces. What were they supposed to do? Illusion him to death?

Katrina turned the full force of her blues eyes on Jude. Did Jude know? "You saw?" No, he still didn't know. "But you were in his future. Did you see zat one or was zat because he touched you?" This warranted more trial. Also, it warranted a quick look between the lavaman and the Illusionist. Sunflowers? Really?

"Sorry for not asking first." Jude offered his hand to the guy. His envelope, deemed unimportant, lay somewhere on the ground where Katrina had dropped it during the rush of imagery.

“That was the future,” “At least, possible scenes from the future.”

Aedus sat on the floor dumbfounded. He shivered for a moment even with all of the other fantastic events that he saw, the woods still got to him. He took a deep breath, counted to 15, another deep breath and counted to 13, another deep breath and counted to 6 another deep breath and counted down from 3. If it looked odd to the two, well they could deal with it, as he counted down over and over in the odd pattern that Dr.Namore had instructed him, he also eavesdropped. It had to do with Hypno therapy and things she had helped him work threw subconsciously. Whatever helped him act rationally?
“Did you know that would happen, when he touched me?”
"Huh."
"Guess he iz on our side."
"You saw?" "But you were in his future. Did you see zat one or was zat because he touched you?"
"Sorry for not asking first."
“nah, you’re a psychic, so you probably saw I would have refused ,right? Cause I would have.” he said rising to his feet. “ I mean no offense, but the fakes are giving you a bad reputation.” He thought briefly about his first girlfriend Monique, hIs first love? Daniela. He thought about Chase and Agnes. A dark haired hottie and sesame street. hmmm. Some beardy guy and a foosball table, it seemed almost friendly. Mostly friendly?
His eyes flashed to Katrina’s Face and he wondered how he got from here, to there, that spot in the shared daydream? Where they were pleasantly close and a flower almost between them, He swallowed hard.
“Um, heres the thing. I want to belive what you showed me. I do.” A quick glance at Katrina. ‘ but I’m not a mutant, I mean it looks fun and all but I’ve done the test to see if it was possible, I mean there is still plenty we don’t know about the X-gene so I won’t say it’s impossible, but Improbable that it would happen this late in life. Also, if I am on your side, what side would that be exactly and of what?”

He looked between the two and briefly wondered if these two were an item, cause if so that would explain Jude’s odd looks that he was giving.

“I haven't seen my future in Alister's way before. Just dreams that won't ever...” she trailed off. He probably knew what she meant anyway, “I think it was because he touched me.”

She saw the look the boys both gave her, curious about why she was in that scene receiving flowers. She blushed, and bent to pick up the envelope, “It's only a possible future.”

The guy had lots of girlfriends from the looks of it. Probably he just gave flowers away to everyone. Maybe. Or maybe not.

She left it to Jude to explain about the battles they were preparing for, and about the guys x-gene, while she fiddled with the envelope and waited to be out of the spotlight once again.

It seemed a shame to not even open the envelope. She slid her finger under the flap and ran it sideways to loosen it. She winced as the paper cut her finger, then stuck her finger in her mouth. She tipped the envelope and one small thing fell out.

A bandaid.

Right. Some of those were possible futures. Some of those were certain. Katrina wouldn't notice the difference in quality of the visions and there was no reason to freak the guy out any more than he already was with that little nugget.

"You don't have to believe, but you will see it for yourself soon enough." Jude shrugged at him. Cryptic words were a future seers best friend.

"And you're not a mutant, yet. Neithser was I when I had my first view of ze future." Let him figure that one out. "The weird sing... I didn't see any blondes in it. How are you supposed to get your power active withsout a blonde?" A real noodle baker, that one.

As for what side they were on... "We're trying to stop a premature apocalypse." He heard Kat suck in break behind him and glanced back in time to see a band aid in her hand. Good ol' Alister. Always looking ahead. "My... there's a unicorn. He doesn't mean to, but I guess accidents happen."

Apparently this operation had more than one physic which made an odd sort of sense that one would be able to find the other or find each other as the future pushed them toward one another.

Aedus allowed a hopeful expression to take his face as she blushed and attempted to protest.“More probable now that we’ve seen it, I would think.”

“I’ve got don’t have reason not to believe it, and it lines up ridiculously well with a dream I once had. You got my past down well enough anyhow. Wait, I need a blonde to be a mutant? I never came across that before.” He studied biochemistry He was taught that it was typically moments of intense pressure that brought out reluctant x-genes. Though, he supposed blondes might be able to do just that, His emerald orbs went back to Katrina.

“She’s a blonde.” Stating the obvious, but he found that sometimes the obvious got you a better clarification on particulars, For instance, if Katrina qualified as a mutant making blond or not.

“So, I am on the side that stops unicorns from starting apocalypses.” His tone sounded as if he was taking a moment to soak it all in, he looked back and forth between the two to make sure they weren’t just jacking with him at this point. Once he saw no hint of mischief between the two of them he took a deep breath and released it. “ Ok, well, while in general I do my best not to fight Unicorns, I have a standing stop the apocalypse if possible rule, so yeah. I’m in.”

Katrina peeled open her band-aid and blinked in confusion at Jude. What was he talking about, needing a blonde to activate powers?

“I thought that at the mansion, they said mutations can activate at any time, usually in your teens. I've never heard of needing a blonde to activate a mutation.”

Also, while she didn't totally trust this Aedus guy yet, if he was going to help stop the apocalypse he must be an okay person. Plus, from his future, it looked like he'd be going prematurely bald very shortly and he would no longer bear any resemblance to some other person.

“I suppose we should give you a tour and do introductions or something, to make it official.” Except the whole place was kind of wrecked, and no one was home but them. So, maybe not? “Or we could, uh, get you the schedule for meetings?” Did they actually have a schedule? She felt so out of the loop lately.

She knew that she had to go on a mission to prove her loyalty and capability and all that, but she thought it had been kind of unnecessary in the end. If it was a requirement, someone else could ask him to do it.

"I'm talking about controlling when your power activates instead of waiting or stressing or whatever zey say at ze Mansion. In my possible futures zere were two options, boths blonde." He winked at Aedus, who, as a fellow man, would totally know what he was talking about. "I found one before I came back to work here." No point in being useless. Again, Aedus would surely know that sentiment.

But he wasn't sharing Svetty with this flirt. No, they would have to find that other blonde if he wanted to purposefully trigger his mutation. Jude mused over their option while Katrina rattled off some options of how to join their little band of brigands.

"Why don't we start by exchanging phone numbers? I have a cell and zere is a landline in here for zis store. Zat way if you are in trouble or you start puking lava, we can help. Same deal for us. You said to call if we ever need help again." Jude spread his hands to showcase their surroundings. It looked like there had been an epic fight. In reality, no one had been home when the place got trashed.

"I don't sink zere is a schedule, we usually just text everyone to get here." He shrugged.