"About time you got here."

A tall boy, with thick, swept back blonde but yellowing hair was handing out small pieces of paper to the other children in the room.

"Tyler," Alex said with a smile.

The boy smile and nodded back, passing a note to a skinny girl with her hand outstretched. Her hand closed over the scrap of paper and Thomas noticed she had nails half the length of her fingers. They were white enough to appear glowing next to her dark skin. She looked emaciated, as if her last meal had been when she was about two years old, but her stance was strong and confident. Looking at the three newcomers to the room, she smiled a broad, and decidedly skeletal, grin.

Eddie and Alex smiled back but neither spoke and the girl moved away, reading her slip of paper. Thomas thought that none of the gathered children appeared happy with what their notes were saying.

"Are you going to tell them about the mirror?" he whispered to Alex.

Alex glanced at Eddie, who shook his head.

"We'll leave it for now. Let Oscar sort it. None of our business."

"How can you say that?" Thomas hissed. "Don't you think they should know?"

"Oscar is dad to most of us. He's untouchable. We don't want to spoil that," Eddie added

"Everyone is meant to feel safe here," Alex added. "Plus, Oscar likes to keep things private. He'll tell 'em if he wants 'em to know."

Thomas nodded. He didn't like secrets being kept, in particular potentially important ones, but he'd only just joined this family. He'd yet to learn its rules and ways. Until he did, he'd allow himself to be led by the pair.

"Here you guys go," Tyler said, offering his clenched fists out. "Take your pick."

Alex laughed.

"You know I don't like games."

"Yet you still always play."

"That's only to keep you from being your usual miserable self."

"That's only around you, ya lump. Everyone else keeps me bouncing. It's only you who burst my bubble."

"I can do that to your nose too, if you like," Alex said, tapping Tyler's right hand.

Thomas couldn't help smiling himself at the exchange. He was so used to being the brunt of everyone's jokes and jibes, it felt good for two obvious friends to be swapping banter lightly disguised as insults. He wondered if he'd be able to be that comfortable – and liked – himself.

Tyler turned the selected hand over and Alex took the enclosed piece of paper.

"Looks like this one's for you, Eddie," he said. "I hope you like it."

Eddie took the paper, allowing his hand to linger on the others for a few seconds longer than necessary. Both boys blushed and Tyler hastily turned and walked over to talk to a group of older children. Eddie stared at the floor for a moment before returning his attention to Alex and Thomas.

"I've already told you, you should ask him out," Alex said quietly.

"Yeah, and I said I will," Eddie responded. "But what if he says no?"

"Look at the way he always saves you till last. Yeah, and the way he watches you when he thinks you're not looking. Just go for it."

"What do you think I should do," Eddie asked Thomas.

Surprised to be asked, Thomas didn't answer immediately. Being only ten, he hadn't expected to be included in personal conversations about relationships. Both Eddie and Alex had been speaking to him as an equal, despite being older, but some things were more age relevant and he'd not had a great deal of experience in such matters.

"If you like each other," he said, "Why not go for it?"

"There you go!" said Alex, loud enough for everyone, including the source of Eddie's affections, to look around.

"Just... just got a good one," Eddie stammered, holding up the paper.

"Well, if you make a bloody move, you might have," Alex said, jabbing the other in the stomach.

"OK! When we get back, I'll say something. All right?"

"All right!"

Alex slapped Eddie hard on the shoulder, catching everyone's attention again.

"Ain't you got jobs to go to?"

The others turned away and continued their conversations. One, a girl with bright white hair pulled back into severe braids that revealed the run of bumps across the centre of her skull, that Thomas knew would continue down her spine and eject sharp needles when required, stuck out her tongue and ran off through a door on the opposite side of the room.

"What happens now," Thomas asked. "What's it say on your note?"

"We read it, do it and come back here. Simple," Eddie said, reading his. "I gotta get a car mirror. Racing red Audi."

"A mirror? Why would anyone want that?"

"Oh you'd be surprised what use these things can be put to. Like bending lasers round corners. Seeing who's coming. That sort of thing."

"Or maybe they just want to put their lipstick on," Alex added.

"But why specifically red and from an Audi?"

"Why not?"

Thomas shrugged. Some people did do things for no other reason than because. He dropped his line of questioning. It was better to not argue or wonder. To be accepted, he had to just do.

"I've got to get some food, and you're is to come with me," Alex said, nodding towards Thomas. "Looks like I'm showing you the ropes."

Thomas returned the nod. At least he wasn't being sent out on his own, and he was pleased his mentor was one of them.

"What sort of food?" he asked.

"Anything we can get. If it stops a hungry belly, it'll do."

Before Thomas could respond, there was a bright spark in the middle of the room and two figures appeared in a fast dissipating cloud of smoke.

"Don't be so flashy, Mand," Tyler said to the newly arrived strikingly pretty girl, with eyes that looked far too large for her face, but seemed to enhance her appearance all the more for it.

"You know I like to make an entrance, Ty," said the girl. Her voice was high and sounding as if it was smiling as much as she was.

"I see sparks for the rest of the day when she does that," said a figure standing behind her.

Thomas assumed that person was Phoenix. He wanted to move to see them, but Mand stepped aside enough to reveal them. Phoenix was small, standing only to the girl's chest. At first, Thomas assumed the boy was very young, but knew that couldn't be the case. At the least, he'd be only two years younger than Thomas. His voice, however, was that of a child more Tyler's age, maybe older.

"Oh, how sweet," said Mand. "I make you see stars!"

"You make me wish I was blind, more like."

When Phoenix spoke, a faint trail of smoke drifted from his mouth, the words seemingly attached to it thanks to the way they, too, drifted onto the air. Thomas thought the boy's name was appropriate, given the fact he could breathe fire.

Mand looked in the direction of Thomas and strode purposefully forward.

"Hi Alex. Eddie," she said without looking at either of them. "You got a new pet?"

"This is Thomas," Alex said, ignoring the ignorance.

"And what can you do, Thomas."

"I... I can't do anything."

"Eh? What's that supposed to mean?"

Eddie took a protective stance slightly in front of Thomas.

"He's a Nom..."

He didn't get the chance to finish the word and Mand didn't have get to react to the revelation. There was a massive thud against the wall to their right, enough to shake everyone in the room and cause more than one to scream. A splintering sound filled the space, drowning out the gasps and shouts of alarm and the wall was suddenly covered in a web of cracks.

"You're him!" Mand had time to shout at Thomas.

Thomas couldn't respond. The wall caved in, the pieces disintegrating as they fell, turning to dust before touching the ground. The children scattered, many disappearing, taking others with them. The three Chameleons, excluding Alex, blended immediately into the remaining walls, a move made redundant due to them being seen to do it. The remaining children turned to the implosion and stood ready to fight. Fear bristled on their faces, but they were resolute nonetheless.

Thomas and the group around him cowered back. Mand's realisation of his identity was forgotten, brushed away like the dust of the obliterated wall. They watched as a man walked calmly and confidently through the newly created entrance, followed closely by a female. Thomas recognised them both.

David and Lloyd.

Spotters.