Crimson and I were completely miserable. True, we were to follow our orders to the end, find the three mutants that were apparently on their way towards the School at this very moment. But did that really require going undercover? As per our instructions, we were to blend in as much as possible, and wait for a sighting of the three.

I ended up in a milky cream lace dress and a close fitting jean jacket, a pair of brown laced booties on my feet. My hair had been pinned in a way that perfectly concealed my pointy ears, and Brady has custom made a set of contacts that rendered my eyes humanoid enough to pass for normal, at least if you didn't look too hard, since I had quickly noticed one of them was painted, just ever so slightly, off. It was as if I was looking beyond everything. But then, I always am.

Crimson was another story. With her unnatural hair color and big, pointy ears, she couldn't blend in quite as easily as I could. She had been fitted with a pair of tight black pants and a red shirt with a black lace vest over it. She wore black combat style boots. Her red hair had been twisted into dreadlocks and tied up, and a pair of bright colored headphones covered her spiky ears.

I thought the two of us looked quite the sight, but as we walked the streets, side by side with the humans, I discovered we seemed to fit right in. These humans sure had their strange ways.

But, even by fitting in with the crowd. Two 'children' wandering about town caused some suspicion.

Crimson and I were rather small, I was only about the size of probably a ten or eleven year old human. Crimson could barely pass for a fourteen year old. I was smaller than Crimson. She had a straight frame and stood a good six or seven inches taller than me. I was shorter and curvier, my waist tiny and my hips wide. I was thirteen in human years, at least if I had counted correctly. The first years of my life were a blur. I was crazy and wild, and was required to be kept in a cage to refrain from injuring myself or anyone else. I wasn't even sure how old Crimson literally was.

Now, it was dark and rainy, and Crimson and I trudged aimlessly along. It had been some time since we left the School, and we had found an abandoned cellar under a vacant house that served our needs quite well, but I was beginning to worry we had missed the three bird-children. Suddenly as we made our way back towards the cellar after another day of no sightings, a woman jogged up to us.

"You two, where on earth are your parents? It's late out. Shouldn't you be home right now?"

A look of concern crossed the face of the woman who stood before us. She wore business attire and carried an expensive looking leather briefcase.

Immediately, Crimson and I followed our rehearsed routine. I cowered behind Crimson and his my face, pretending to be horribly shy, where in reality I just couldn't allow the woman to see my eyes, she would notice my flawed sight.

Crimson shushed me gently, assuming the 'big sister' attitude.

"Yeah, we are on our way back home right now, just down a ways and a right turn."

The woman didn't seem convinced.

"I'll walk with the two of you. Rumors in town of gang activity, don't want you two little ones getting caught up in that."

Crimson and I shot each other a nervous glance, but followed the woman nonetheless.

What were we doing in this town again? Brady told me he had mapped it out and found that this was a likely stop for the three mutants, if not this exact town then somewhere not far. He said he would be able to tell me exactly where to go when they got close. I wondered how.

There was a sudden 'pop', and gun smoke came to my senses. I tugged violently at Crimson's arm.

"I heard it too." She whispered.

We had to investigate. Crimson and I slowed our steps and prepared to run to the woods, where I had heard the shot.

The woman's cell phone rang, this was our chance. We darted for the woods.

There was another resounding bang, and an almost immediate yelp. Someone had been shot. Crimson and I ran harder, knowing we were most likely running straight into the jaws of death.

Suddenly, the sandy haired girl from before zipped past us. Her hand was on her shoulder, blood gushing from between her fingers.

Crimson and I dove for cover. Luckily, the girl was completely oblivious to our presence, what with someone running after her and shooting at her.

I shoved Crimson down and signed for her to remain silent. Luckily, she understood me this time and nodded.

I leapt up into the trees, snapped out my wings, and began to circle back towards the attackers.

True… the sandy haired girl was a runaway, but she was also a valuable subject.

I was to protect her as much as I was to trace her.

Beneath me I saw the shadows of a human. There may have been more than one, but the rain and fog made it too difficult to see. However my eyes caught the glimmer of metal in one of the shadow's hands, and I immediately knew he was my target.

Acting faster than I thought, I shot down at him and managed to slam my body against his with enough force to not only knock the gun out of his hands, but also to render him unconscious on the forest floor.

I scrambled after the gun, picked it up, and was just as quickly up in the air again and heading after the sandy haired girl.

It took me a good fifteen minutes to trace the blood all the way back into town, and to a small house.

I could see a quick rustle of activity in the house as a tall, kind looking woman retrieved a first aid kit from underneath her kitchen sink and went down the hall.

I suddenly remembered Crimson and took to the air to return to her.

I found her huddled at the base of the tree I had left her by.

"Well?"

I held up the gun in one hand, removing the magazine carefully with the other.

"And she's alright?"

I nodded.

"Okay, I guess we'd better contact the Whitecoats."

I nodded again and we made our way back to the cellar.

Author's Note:

Aah! Thanks to all you lovelies for being so patient! Hopefully I will be keeping up this story at a quicker pace now that some things in life have died down a bit . Anyways, here is the new chapter, hope you like it! Please review ^_^