Been a little busy. Heading back to college in 9 days, after all. But here it is!

Getting into a homeless charity should not have been so easy.

It didn't take us long to find a back door that we could go through. Billy was known to some of the staff, and they weren't the blabbermouth types, either. They also weren't the type to question extra donors or visitors. We were whisked in like it was payday – and good thing too, because monsters or no monsters, this looked to be about the sketchiest part of Philly I'd been in. I didn't want to stay out in the street too long.

Once we were inside, we took in the crowd. I'd seen a lot of homeless people out in LA, true, but this was the most poverty I'd seen in one place. The most varied crowd, too. They went from squalling babies with mothers old enough to have been in Courtney and Billy's class to a couple of women who looked like they belonged in nursing homes. Several had the glazed look of stoners – I'd seen quite a few druggies around LA's streets and was careful to avoid these guys. One guy had lost his arm. All of them seemed full of sadness, anger, and despair.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Amos asked Billy. It was the first time he'd actually spoken to the Jung Kook doppelganger. I wasn't sure what had hushed him before – unfamiliarity couldn't be it. He was always quite chatty with strangers. More likely the atmosphere just didn't sit right with him. He could always tell when something wasn't quite right – not in the way I could, but just from gauging social cues.

I, too, was a little uneasy about being here. Not because I was helping Billy do something that might get him – and my sister – grounded. Not even because of the monsters I was sure were prowling about the street. I remembered what I'd overheard the Camford girl, Marnie, telling her sister – I hope Billy boy gets his head straight about the surplus.

I didn't like where that led me.

"Let's just keep this going," I said. I didn't want to disappoint Courtney, who could be quite stubborn. Besides, if something was going down, at least we were there, right? VLADJI was in place. Nothing for anyone to worry about.

As we went through the crowd, I could catch some of the guys sizing me up, perhaps wondering what a pretty girl like me was doing here. I didn't like the looks on their faces and gave them a wide berth.

Vinny Lee skipped through, impervious to the whole crowd's stares, and walked up to a young mother.

The mother looked battered and worn, aged beyond her years. I couldn't help thinking she should be in school. Her child, though, looked quite alive in this place. Vinny Lee looked at the child and grinned.

"Un tan bueno niño," she said wistfully.

The woman glanced as if puzzled. I got the sense she wasn't used to strange girls walking up and commenting on her kid. Vinny Lee glanced at her worriedly. "Are you all right?"

The girl smiled, clearly warming up to Vinny Lee. That girl's concern is about as infectious as her energy. I have to give her props.

"Just well," she said.

The girl's name was Selene, and her child was Bruce. Bruce's father wasn't clear, as he'd apparently not stuck around for him. It was the same way around this part of town. Men weren't keen on raising a child they'd conceived, weren't keen on staying with a family, and so you have the broken homes I saw around the slightly sketchier parts of LA and around Philly. I thought it unfair to both the woman and the child. The child deserved to have a father. At least my dad had been in my life – as much as he could.

Vinny Lee rummaged through her tote and pulled out a little design. It looked a bit like the Ojo de Dreamcatcher that she wore around her neck. How often did she make such things? I was afraid to ask.

"It won't serve a purpose," she said softly to Selene, "but it's a pretty thing. It gives a person confortación."

She then slipped a yarn through a hook on the Ojo de Dreamcatcher, crafting a necklace for Selene. "Pretty things can."

Selene smiled again. "I've heard a lot about you," she said to Vinny Lee. "The fighter of injustice?"

"More fighting for sanity in humanity, but sí," Vinny Lee acknowledged.

Selene gave her another smile. "Poet and you don't know it. Here." She handed Vinny Lee what looked like an old camcorder. My goodness, I hadn't seen one of those in a while. "I hear you make crafts out of old junk. Found this lying around unused and I thought, why let it go to waste?"

Vinny Lee grinned and took the camcorder. For a second, I was afraid she'd try to turn it on, but she simply stashed it in her tote bag, an indicator that she'd figure something out for it later. Unfortunately, I knew Vinny Lee was the type to take it apart and then find a way to repair it. I did not want to be in the room when she did.

"Now, now, don't fight, you guys," Billy was saying to the other homeless as he handed out his filched surplus food to them like an Asian Robin Hood. "There's plenty of food for everyone."

"Gonna put me out of business, son," said one of the volunteers.

"Don't fret, Mr. Kowalski," Billy said. Then, dropping his voice to a whisper, "This is only what Rich left over for my dad. And that was him being gracious."

Something about Billy's tone suggested he and his daddy were not on good terms with this Rich guy.

"Well, I'll fret over that," Kowalski responded.

As he returned, Courtney gave him a smile. "I love this, Billy."

I turned to Tails to find him watching the crowd, almost wistfully.

"What?" I asked.

Tails glanced at me. What was that in his blue eyes… nostalgia?

"I used to stop at one of these shelters," he replied. "When I was younger, anyway. I lived out in the streets, first few months after habituation."

"You're kidding, right?" I tried to picture Tails walking up and chatting with some of the homeless, like Vinny Lee was presently doing. I couldn't imagine it.

"No, it's true," he responded, his face still bearing the look of someone strolling down memory lane. "Me and my sister Mitch, we used to come by here for a pick me up sometimes."

"Mitch? A sister? I'm betting she's human."

"She is. It's a long story. I haven't really seen her in a while. Not since she was adopted by another family."

I tried to wrap my mind around this bit of news. Not that he'd had a human sister, mind you. I'd seen stranger things. Tails, perhaps the smartest out of the avatars, had lived on the streets when he started. True, I knew fresher avatars liked hanging in dangerous environments – it gave them plenty of combat practice – but I didn't think Tails would actually be daring enough to live directly in the streets as a novice.

Not to mention, there was his spawning age – which was the age he looked, since avatars don't physically age the way that humans do. If he'd done this just after he'd habituated, he would be… eight? Nine? Quite young to be out in the streets of the Big Apple on his own, anyway. At least, he wasn't alone.

I was also still uneasy about what Billy had said. If he was indeed lucky to have gotten that much…

I weighed my options. I wanted to know what was going on in Billy's world, but he might not like being asked about Rich. But the longer he stayed among these guys, the darker his expression became. He looked worried they wouldn't be able to stay here, and it vexed me.

I'd always observed charities as a good thing. Many of my neighbors were against it, as it ate up space they could've bought out. (Wealthy neighbor priorities.) But my mom fought long and hard to keep the homeless shelters in our neighborhood operating. So what Kowalski and Billy were implying… yeah, that didn't sit well with me.

At last, I couldn't stand it any longer.

"Who's Rich?"

Billy whipped around. A cold silence fell over the crowd.

Maybe I'd said it wrong.

"Maybe we should take this to the side," Billy said at last.

As we walked away from the community group, Billy spoke to me. "Not a good move, DJ," he said. "A lot of people here don't exactly like Richard Camford."

Camford? Gee, where had I heard that name before?

"Who is he?" I asked.

"Only the wealthiest creep this side of the Eastern Seaboard. Buys up a lot of land around Philadelphia. I heard he was looking at getting the St. Francis Inn, for a luxury condo –"

I bit back a curse. I wanted to say he couldn't do that. He couldn't just shunt all the homeless out of the shelter and destroy it. Unfortunately, I knew the real estate tycoons. Many lived in Loss of Angels.

"And what's your daddy's beef?" I asked. "Sorry – I meant the squabbling kind."

Billy snorted at my terrible pun, then sighed. "Old Man Camford embezzled him a while back, for a yacht for his daughters. The guy wouldn't sell his store to him, so he basically took part of the value from him. Guy's a sore loser, if you ask me."

"And his daughters were Marnie and Mimi?"

"How do you –" He seemed to realize what I meant. "Heck, DJ. Why are they there? I thought it might be Belmont. They'd have more aptitude for that. If he's plotting something against the school…"

I remembered what the girls had said about Billy and the shelter. They wouldn't go so far as to destroy it themselves, would they? Surely not. But the crawling feeling in my gut wouldn't let up. And what Billy had said about Fairview… yeah, that didn't sit well with me, either.

"Want me to take some to the kitchen?" I asked, gesturing toward the one bag left in his hand.

Billy handed me the bag. "Sure. Why not? They'll need enough to feed everybody in the future, anyway."

Cute and thoughtful. No wonder Courtney likes him, I thought. I took the bag and headed to the kitchen.

The place was set up like a regular cafeteria. (I can make this comparison because the Hangar and Fairview had such a place.) I caught a barrier between the kitchen area and the line.

I headed up to the barrier only to notice something was amiss. The kitchen was deserted. Normally it wouldn't be. Unless…

…unless someone was keeping them out.

I'd have to figure out what the heck was going on.

I strolled through the barrier gap, making sure not to slam the gate. (Wouldn't want to broadcast that I was following anyone.)

Once I got through, I heard voices coming from the back of the kitchen. I sneaked closer to get a listen, when someone grabbed my wrist.

"Jeez!" I whispered. Then I noticed my body wasn't there.

Great. Tails had turned me invisible. I could catch his thought: Can't be too careful.

He had a point. Couldn't let anyone see me.

"Put it there, Mimi," said a voice.

I froze. Not because of anything on our part that had given us away. But because I recognized the voice.

It belonged to the girl I'd talked back to in the Fairview cafeteria. To a certain snobby half of a snobby pair.

Uh-oh, sounds like trouble! Verse for the update: Revelation 7:17. Stay tuned!