Deformity is an Understatement
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe

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Chapter Five

Gor was never an easy robot to live with. Always demanding things from Poe, or any other human child or adult who ran into him when he was in a foul mood. Which was 24/7 pretty much. Right now Gor was pacing the main room in the base, thinking of something to do. He then stopped walking as an idea formed in his metal brain of his. Poe had shown no signs of wanting to run away from him, to give him the thrill of the chase. Now, if he released his Slave he'd get more delight out of this then before, because this way he wouldn't drag Poe back. He'd keep loosening his grip on him until the Irken believed he was free, then reel him back in so fast it'd make his head spin. Gor grinned, showing his pointy teeth,

"Oh Gor, you evil thing you..." he said aloud to himself. After some time, Gor's plan was falling into place. Poe was confused; Gor had taken him out to the park in the middle of the night, and there they were now, Gor still holding onto the leash, but giving it a lot of slack. He glanced back at the robot.

"Why… why are we here?- …Master." He added quickly, but not without a note of disgust.  Gor glanced around the darkness, then simply walked up to Poe and began untying the leash.

"We're here Slave, because I've had a… change of CPU." he said, stepping back holding the leash.

"You're… letting me go?" Poe glanced down at the robot's hands as he undid the leash. He looked somewhat nervous, "This isn't just some sort of trick, is it?"

"Oh no, course not." Gor waved a hand, "You can go do whatever your Slave insides want of you. I've grown tired of you." he smiled at him, hint of evillness still lurking in his features. Poe eyed the frigid smile suspiciously, but the excuse seemed sound enough, for Gor. He just nodded slightly, backing away and started running off in the opposite direction before the robot changed his mind. Gor watched Poe vanished into the darkness. He turned and headed off where came from, laughing slightly. Soon he was out of sight, but his laughter could be heard echoing through the park, freaking some squirrels.

Some time later there was a tentative knock on Cten's door. It was late, and he was probably waking her, but well, he didn't really have anyplace else to go. He was covered in leaves and twigs from trying to evade any following on Gor's part by diving into bushes and behind trees and the like; he also looked exhausted. The door slowly opened, Cten stood there in a nightgown. Unlike Zim, she changed her clothing to suit her. She was wearing a light blue dressing gown over a white nightgown.

"Poe? What are you doing here this… early in the morning?" she paused to check her clock on the wall.

"Sorry… Gor… um… Gor kind of let me go, or kicked me out… I'm… not sure which." He pulled a leaf out of his hair, leaning against the open door.

"No way, really?" she opened the door wider to let him in, "Why'd he do that?"

"I'm… not sure. He hasn't been as intent on keeping me under his thumb lately." Poe stumbled in and nearly collapsed on the floor, managing to sit down normally on the couch, "He just dragged me out into the middle of the park and undid the leash…" Cten shut the door and locked it, and walked over to him, standing by the couch.

"That's really… weird Poe. So, I guess you didn't have anywhere else to go huh?"

"No, sorry." He glanced down at his lap, looking somewhat ashamed, "I'll find some place to stay in the morning, I just needed some place for tonight…"

"Oh no no no, it's fine!" she sat down besides him on the couch, "Look, you can stay here with me if you want." He ran his hand through his mussed wig, taking it off in the process, and blinking over at her.

"I… can? I don't want to be an inconvienence…"

"No inconvienence at all." Cten smiled slightly, "It'd be nice having another Irken around the place… Beka's all right, but sometimes you just wanna have a conversation with a living thing. Plus, it helps you out."

"That's true." He scratched the side of his head and pulled out his contacts, shaking his antennae free. "It'd certainly be better than going back to being homeless… but… I mean, only if you really want to."

"Course I really want to, silly." she hit his arm playfully, before getting up off the couch. "It's fine!" He flinched slightly when she hit him, before blinking his eyes open again and trying to relax.

"Alright, um…" He stood up as well, "Do you have any spare rooms? I mean, I could just sleep on the couch, that's what I did at my base…"

"This base is weird, I'll say that much. There's a spare room across the way from mine." Cten headed to the stairs, turning back and gesturing him to follow her. "C'mon, I'll show you the room." He nodded and followed her automatically, trudging up the stairs. When showed his room, he stared at it, even though it was fairly plain, or as plain as any part of an Irken base was. He looked down at her,

"Th… thanks, Cten. I've never… really had a bed to call my own before."

"Well now you do." she grinned, leaning against the door. "Do whatever you want, it's your room now." Cten glanced back across the hallway at her room, Beka in sleep mode visible through the door way. "But now… I'm heading back to bed." He nodded,

"Good night… um, neighbor." He grinned slightly down at her.

"G'night neighbor." Cten grinned back, before heading back to her room and half closing the door. Poe watched her leave, before dragging himself into his room and collapsing on the bed.

Poe fell into a fitful sleep almost as soon as he hit the bed. His dreams were almost never pleasent, usually full of fear and darkness, and this one was no different; Gor was chasing him, but his persuer seemed omnipresent, no matter what direction he turned, there was the whip, poised to strike. There was suddenly an inferno in his dream, and he found himself covered in blood. He reached down, patting it in disbelief, bringing it to his face; and the next thing he knew he was letting out an unearthly howl of rage and torment, something that probably carried over into the waking world. Indeed it did, and by this time it was morning. Cten sat up in bed, Beka also being startled awake and entering her 'defence mode'. Meaning, she pulled what she thought was a laser from her head - it was actually an egg beater. Cten rubbed her eyes sleepily as Beka stalked to the door and peered out into the hallway.

"Whua… wait, Beka!" Cten crawled to the end of the bed, the robot looking back at her. "That was probably Poe, Beka."

"...what's he doing here?" the robot stared blankly at her mistress for a while. Cten smiled, climbing off the bed.

"Because, Gor let him go and he's got no place else." Beka narrowed an eye, but shrugged putting the egg beater back into her head as she oepned the door and stared at the partly closed door where Poe slept.

"If you say so…" Poe blinked awake, realizing he was sitting up in bed and clutching a bundle of blankets. He was in a cold sweat, breathing raggedly as he tried to recall where he was and why he was there, the voices out in the hallway not helping. Beka, still being the panic-like robot she was walked over to his door - her radar vision kicking in so she now saw through the wall, and the Irken sat on the bed. Her censors flashed something in Irken about his certain state of mind, and she narrowed an eye. She then pushed at the door gently, it swinging open. He jumped at the sound, eyeing her warily and backing up in bed, having a kind of 'not quite there' look in his eyes; things started to fall back into place in his memory, and he sagged, recognizing the robot finally.

"Um, h-hi, Beka…"

"Good morning Sir Poe…" the robot sounded rather edgy, if a robot can sound edgy. Maybe she could sense how dangerous he could become, and being worried especially with her mistress around. "I see you didn't have a good sleep?"

"I'm… I'm alright… I just usually have bad dreams." He finally released his death grip in the blanket, holding it up and revealing a few claw-marks torn into it. He winced, "Sorry…"

"Aw, I liked those blankets." Beka sighed,

"I'll try to fix them later or something.. and.." Beka's eyecams flashed quickly.

"But! Either way, what would you like for breakfast this morning?" Poe looked around, since he hadn't had a good look the night previous.

"If it's too much trouble I can just go out and get my own breakfast, but…"

"But that's my reason for being you know." she smirked slightly, before turning towards the door. "Mistress is already awake, if you have to know."

"Um… thanks then." He folded back his antennae. He was use to not being popular with SIR units, but her edgyness was making him edgy in turn. He followed her at a safe distance through the door. She lead him down the stair way to the lounge, and through to the kitchen. Cten was now in her usual uniform, sipping a box of purple juice.

"Morning Poe." she said as Beka made her way to the fridge. He nodded, "M.. morning." He started to look around for food, then decided on sitting down next to Cten. He had learned about sit-down, pre-cooked(not to mention pre-killed) meals, but he was still new to it, so he pretended to become raptly interested in a fork on the table.

"Bad dream?" she asked before sipping her juice again.

"Yeah… kinda." He held his antennae back further, practically oozing tension, and a sudden motion or loud sound would probably send him bolting. Cten looked at him, her antennae twitching as it picked up the vibes he was sending off. And baby, he was sending em off like fireworks.

"You look stressed you know, you need something to calm yourself down."

"I'm fine, really… I'm fine." Maybe it was  combonation of his dream, his illness, and the fact he felt like he was intruding in the house of his only real friend, but he looked far from it. "Just… just… uneasy… that's all."

"Hmm…" she put her juice down, "You know Poe you aren't being a problem at all if that's what you're worried about." Cten smiled slightly, "I'm fine with you living here, we get on well."

"I'm not?" He looked over at her, his hands figiting nervously in his lap. His antennae relaxed slightly, and he glanced at the floor, "I guess I'm just worried Gor's going to come back for me any minute now…"

"I see…" Cten tapped her chin, "Well that's something I have no control over really... but the base is well secure either way."

"I know.. I guess I'm afraid something is going to happen, or he'd do something to you-or, or the base, I mean." He turned away in his seat somewhat.

"You don't have to worry about me, Poe." she leant forward, looking at him even if he turned away slightly. "I'm fine with taking care of myself, and I know you are too."

"I know, I know," he mumbled, more to himself, "I'll… I'll probably be better once I eat something."

"And here it is." Beka walked up to the table, placing a plate in front of Poe. It seemed to be bacon, some sausages, toast and so forth. "I picked up on your genetic material and seeing how you eat meat I suspected you'd prefer meat." the robot handed Cten her usual buttered toast.

"Thanks Beka." Cten smiled before biting into a piece of toast. Poe would have thanked her had he not been ravenous; he started wolfing down his food without the aid of his silverware almost immediately, showing no reguard for the ettiqutte he'd tried so hard to maintain earlier. Beka stared blankly at him for a while, before handing Cten a napkin and walking off. Cten smirked, putting it down between herself and Poe and kept eating. Poe didn't stop when he was out of food, he just picked up the plate and started licking it off with his long, segmented tongue; he was about to bite onto the edge of it when he seemed to realize what he was doing, blinking from over the edge of the plate as his teeth rest against the ceramic. Cten simply held out the napkin to him, as she was sipping her juice again. Poe put the plate down gingerly and wiped off his mouth, sighing and looking a bit ill, not at the food but at his behaviour. He leaned back in the seat and slid the napkin up his face, effectively burying it in the paper.

"I must say, I've never seen such a hungry Irken before." she said, while pausing from her juice box.

"I guess I have a… high metabolism or something." He recalled the term from Biology class as he dragged the napkin down his face and discarded it on the table. "Sorry for being such a… what was the term? Horse, cow… oh, pig."

"It's all right, Poe." Cten looked at the empty plate, "Saves Beka the time of washing the plates." she smiled at the stupid joke, finishing her juice off finally. He did seem a bit more relaxed now that hunger wasn't gnawing away at his brain as well. He glanced over at her plate,

"..want me to do your's, too?"

"Oh I dunno, toast isn't meat." she glanced at the crumbs on her plate, "But if you really want to knock yourself out." Beka, if she could, roll her eyes at the display but just simply began looking through the cupboards. No sooner had she said that than he lunged over and grasped the sides of her plate and started attacking it as he had the last - huh, he really must be hungry then. It was probably the first decent meal he had in ages. Cten watched him, then stood up.

"You still hungry, Poe?" He paused and stood up, forcing himself to let go of the plate, "…a… little… I guess."

"C'mon, I know a good place where you can get good food so Beka can have a break." she held her hand out to him. Poe blinked and reached out for her hand, less tentative than he had been in previous encounters, wiping off his mouth with his other sleeve. She took his hand, and lead him from the room. Shortly after the two were walking down the street towards some smaller 'snack bars', on the corner of town. After ordering some hefty meals for Poe, the two are sat waiting outside on the sidewalk, watching the town slowly waking up.

"Human beings are indeed weird, you know Poe?" Cten asked, scratching at her wig. "I mean, a person is fine but a whole load of them are insane."

"What makes you say that?" He looked over at her, his arms folded on the table, "They don't seem that much different than Irkens to me…"

"I mean, look at us. We're green, no nose, no ears, nothing. Yet people walk past, ignoring us. While just one person notices the difference." Cten shook her head, leaning on the table with one arm. "It's just… pathetic."

"Oh." He watched a few cars pass by. "People tend to shut out what they don't want to think about.. it makes things easier."

"So are they afraid to learn then?" she looked at him, "Cause that's what keeps a race going."


"Afraid of what they don't understand." He looked down at the table and tapped his fingers together, "Some just ignore it, other seek to control it so they won't  be afraid of it anymore."

"Sad." Cten shook her head slowly, then glanced up as a waiter placed the big tray of Poe's order in front of them and walked off again.


"It's not just them though.." He perked up when the food was placed in front of him and reached in, pulling out a burger and eating half of it in one bite, "I mean.." He chewed, "Look at Zim."

"I know... maybe being with humans has made him act the way he does. Or maybe he was always like that." she sighed, leaning against her chair. "Guess we'll never know." He shook his head and put the rest of the burget in his mouth.

"Most Irkens I met…" He swallowed, "…were like him. Like humans. The Rejects feared the normal Irkens… and they feared us."

"Man I've been sheltered." Cten muttered to herself. "Don't even know how my species is meant to act."

"It's alright." He pulled out the box of fries and pulled a handful of potato slivers out, "I like you the way you are."

"Really?" she looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah." He put the fries in his mouth and grinned toothily at her, one jutting out between his teeth, "You're nice."

"Aw.." Cten bit her bottom lip, grinning slightly. "Well, I like you too." He swallowed the fries and continued,

"And you're really smart," He pulled one fry away, "And not only do you tolerate me," another fry, "But you try and tutor me," and another, "And now you even let me live with you." He held up the fries and looked over at her, "You're not like any Irken I've ever met, Cten." She smirked at him, blushing slightly now.

"Aw stop it…" Cten leant back onto her chair, "It just seems like the right thing to do, to me at least… I mean you're really nice. Nicer then Irkens I've met, and humans I've met."

"Well, it's true." He bit the fries in half, and tilted his head a bit, his grin broadening, "Aw, thanks… I could keep going on, too." He arched his brows, his tone taking on a hint of… what would seem to be flirtateousness.

"Oh you better stop before I blush myself to death." she replied, sounding just as flirtateous back at him.

"Fine. I bet you'd look cute, though." He leaned back again and finished off most of the fries, offering the rest to her, "Want some?"

"Yes please." she took some from him and ate two of them, then grinned and waved the remaining one at him. "Open wide Poe, let's see if I can throw this into your mouth or something…"  He raised an eye-ridge at her but obliged, stretching his mouth wide open and letting his tongue dangle out. Cten stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth and threw it, the fry being pierced on a tooth.

"Woo, score!" Poe squinted his eyes open and glanced down, curling his tongue around the impaled fry and pulling it into his mouth.

"Too bad I don't have any prizes on me to award you with.."

"I'm sure you'll find something." Cten smiled back at him, hinting on the flirteous side again.

"Hm.." He spied her hand and took it in his own, leaning down and planting a kiss on the back of it, something else he'd seen on TV.  She couldn't help but giggle like a human skool girl at this, blushing again.

"Yeah, that works." He grinned again and pulled back slightly, before scrutinizing her hand a bit more.

"Hm… you taste like french fries."

"I do?" Cten looked at her skin, then smirked at him. "Can I find out what you taste like then? Only to be fair, of course." He raised his eye-ridges again, leaning back in his seat and resting his cheek in one of his palms, the other balancing on the back of his seat, somewhat held out towards her,

"Sure. Fair's fair"

"All right." she took his hand and then kissed his knuckle, once, then twice. Cten ran her tongue over her lips, then grinned at him. "You taste, oddly enough, you taste musky."

"Is that, uh, good or bad?" He looked mildly worried, a slight falter from his previous flirtatious suave.

"I like musky stuff. So good." Cten grinned.

[To be continued!]