Note: Yay! There's a surprise character in this chapter...


"I am so sore!" Ida jumped out of her truck at the McDonalds she'd stopped at. "Driving is so not my thing."

Ida was in Denver, Colorado now. She'd been driving since six and it was around noon now. Six whole hours without moving for a normally active feral was torture. But now she was stretching every which way, her back and neck popping in the process.

"Grab a quick bite then get on the road again," Ida walked into the fast food place and stood in line.

Talk about information overload. There were so many smells. Some made her mouth water while others made her want to gag. Ida could smell sweat, the garbage, whatever was leaking out of the bathrooms, and other nasty things. She tried not the focus on those things. She focused on the smell of French fries, hamburgers, milkshakes, chicken nuggets, salads, coffee, an old friend…

"Wait, what?" Ida accidently said aloud. She sniffed again. Yep. There was definitely someone she knew there.

Maybe I'm just smelling things, Ida reasoned. She shook away the scent and moved forward in the line. What did she want to eat? A Big Mac with some fries and a Dr. Pepper sounded good. She actually wanted a shot of whiskey but knew she'd have to wait on that one.

"What would you like to order ma'am?" The person behind the counter asked.

"Give me a Big Mac, a large fries, and a large drink," Ida said as she leaned up against the cold counter.

"That'll be five dollars and seventy five cents," the young girl replied.

"Okay," Ida dug around in her pocket. She pulled out a five dollar bill and three quarters. "Here you go."

"Thank you," the girl put the money into its proper place in the cash register.

Ida backed away from the counter and waited patiently for her food to come. She liked to think she had has much patient as a spider waiting for a fly. Most of the time she was a spider that chased the fly until she caught it, but she could sit and fish for hours on end. It just depended on what she was doing.

"Big Mac, large fries, and large drink," someone shouted as they set a tray on the counter.

"That was quick," Ida mumbled and grabbed her tray.

She scoured the area for a free table. There was an empty one in the corner. Ida set her tray down and grabbed the empty cup to go fill it up with the sugary drink known as Dr. Pepper. For a second she wondered whether or not it'd be a good idea to drink that, seeing as she was usually active and she still had a long ways to drive before she got far enough to stop at a hotel. That idea was pushed away. She wanted Dr. Pepper so bad!

"There we go," Ida snapped on the lid after filling her cup up and grabbed a straw with the paper covering on it.

As she walked past a table with a guy and a woman sitting at she paused. There was that smell again! Trying to be as invisible as possible, she looked the guy over. No wonder he smelled familiar, Ida had known him since he was a teenager. She hadn't talked to him in years! Ida walked forward, closer to her table and pulled off one end of the paper covering on her straw. She put her lips on it, took aim, and blew. The paper covering hit the guy in the back of the head.

"Hey!" he turned around but stopped once he saw who it was. "Ida?"

"Hey, what's up Zero?" Ida said and smiled. "Man, it's been a long time since I've seen you."

"Yeah, same thing with you," Zero had changed some. His attitude had dimmed down and he had a scar running from behind his right ear down his neck. "Honey, this is my old friend Ida."

"Hi," the woman held out her hand and was a little frightened when a clawed hand shook it.

"Ida, this is my wife Jade," Zero introduced the woman. "So what have you been doing?"

"Mercenary missions," Ida answered. "I've been moving from town to town. I'm on a mission right now, hunting down three mutants."

"Who?" Zero raised an eyebrow.

"Logan, Victor, and Kayla," Ida replied with a shrug. "Why?"

"I used to work with Logan and Victor. Haven't seen either of 'em for almost two years," a dark expression appeared on his face. "Are you working for Stryker?"

"He was the one who hired me," Ida could instantly smell fear and disgust on the Asian male. "What's his record?"

"I used to work for him," Zero stated. After a pause he related the long story from when Stryker came to him to when Logan ignited the fuel from the crashed helicopter. That's where he'd gotten that scar from. The doctors said they were amazed he survived that explosion.

"Wow," Ida was sitting down by now. She was completely amazed at the story. And she now knew exactly who she was hunting. Suddenly Logan and Kayla didn't seem like the bad people she was usually hired to kill, though she could still kick Logan's butt for igniting the helicopter while Zero was in it.

"Just be careful around him, okay? Stryker's a liar and a double-crosser," Zero warned as Ida picked up her bag with her now cold food in it.

"Thanks for the heads up," Ida refilled her drink and before she left, added, "Take care."


Note: You know, I always liked Zero. And they never comfirmed that he died in that explosion, you were left just to assume. So I assumed that he didn't die and instead lived, left the mercenary business, and settled down with Jade. Please let me know what you think!