*Chapter 6*
~Morning~
DX-0 drifted through a void of swirling blackness. Or was he Zero now? He couldn't remember. All he was aware of was the world of warm empty blackness that he was floating through. Wait a minute, it was warm? It was never warm when he was here, ever. It had always been cool to downright frigid when he was in the dark grip of sleep. So why the heck was it warm? Why now? Why this time? It made no sense but the warmth was oddly comforting, even vaguely familiar. It seemed to pull at his barely conscious mind, calling him back to the deeper realms of sleep. He was still so tired.
But things never went his way. A sound invaded his silent refuge, a sort of faint buzzing shriek. It was so muffled and distant sounding that he slid further into his dark world and ignored it. After a time it ceased altogether and he forgot about it. Then another sound pierced the darkness to disturb him, a voice. He didn't recognize it and couldn't understand it so he attempted to ignore it. But it wouldn't leave him alone. The voice poked and prodded at him, demanding and insistent. The harder he fought against it the louder and more annoying it became. It disrupted the fluid blackness that he submerged himself in, dragging him relentlessly to the surface and the waking world. And the closer he came to wakefulness the clearer the voice became.
"Wakey, wakey sleepy head." The voice obnoxiously teased. "It's time to get up and start the day!" It cheerfully declared. He turned away in an attempt to escape but the voice of that verdammt girl refused to let him. "Come on now, it's 8:30 and almost time for breakfast. Wake up already before I decide to dump a bucket of cold water on your head!" She mischievously threatened, lightly punching his shoulder to emphasize her seriousness.
"Nein, nicht jetzt. Fünf mehr Minuten." He weakly pleaded.
"Would you, like, mind repeating that in English?" She asked brightly.
"Muß ich?" He asked in a sleep distorted voice.
"Unfortunately I, like, totally don't speak German so if you don't start speaking English I'll just have to dump that icy cold water on you." She brightly replied. It was around this time that Zero realized she was serious about her threat and he had better get up or he'd get wet. He slowly opened one eye only to shut it again quickly to block out the bright harsh light. He waited for a moment before trying again. The second time he managed to keep his eye open waiting several seconds for it to focus before opening the other one. This task accomplished, he then turned to face his tormentor.
"Was?" He sleepily demanded
"English Zero, speak English." She chided.
"What?" He repeated in English in a calmer tone of voice.
"Weren't you listening? I said it's almost time for breakfast so get up now or you'll miss it." The girl warned.
"Oh." He tonelessly responded. She rolled her eyes in annoyance and vanished down the ladder. Zero sluggishly dragged himself out of bed to go to breakfast but stopped. Why was he under the covers? He didn't remember crawling under the sheets last night, not that he ever used sheets; he always slept on top of them. And where was his shirt? He knew he had it on when he fell asleep, he was quite certain that he hadn't taken it off. This slightly bothered him. Did he take off his shirt and slide under the covers and not remember doing it? That didn't sound like something he would do. Or did something else happen? Zero shook his head to clear the cobwebs and bothersome thoughts from it before continuing on his way to breakfast.
"Took you long enough." A gruff voice complained as Zero entered the combination kitchen/dinning room. Mr. Logan glared at the unfortunate young German greatly annoyed by his tardiness to breakfast. Zero froze, uncertain of what he should do or expect. The tense moment was suddenly broken by the popping of a toaster.
"Waffles are done!" The girl called out cheerfully. She pulled the toasted waffles out of the toaster, plopped them onto a plate, and handed it to Zero. "Here you go." She said with a bright smile. Zero blinked several times before carefully taking the plate from the cheery teenager's grasp and seating himself at the table to eat. He munched absently on the crunchy breakfast food, barely tasting it. "Orange juice?" She asked, pulling him back to the present for a moment. He nodded and she poured him a glass of the orange liquid. Zero drank the mildly pulpy drink down without a word. The whole time Zero was eating the room was smothered in a heavy silence.
"Are you ready to talk now?" Mr. Logan asked as Zero finished his meal.
"Ja." He replied.
"Good." The Canadian growled. "Here's the game plan for this mission: you and Half-pint work together on passive information gathering and I take the more active involved stuff unless I say otherwise. The two of you will look out for one another and find out all you can without blowing it. I'll dig into things more directly and see what's going on. I may call you in to help but don't hold your breath. Any questions?" The feral Mutant gruffly inquired.
"When do we start?" The girl curiously asked.
"As soon as Zero gets over his jet-lag." Mr. Logan replied.
"Where do we start?" She inquired.
"Your first location will be a nightclub named 'Blue Lotus', from there we'll have to wait and see." The older Mutant answered.
"Sounds good to me." The girl replied, cheerful as ever. Zero only nodded, the less he had to say the better.
"Then we're all set with that. Now Zero, here's how things are going to work around here. Breakfast is at 8:45, lunch is at 12:00, and dinner is at 5:30. If you don't like what's here or miss it you're on your own. I assume you know how to behave so I won't go into that. If you have any questions about anything ask me or Kitty. You cross either of us then you're in for it big time. You got that?" Mr. Logan demanded.
"Ja, got it." Zero replied with a slight nod.
"Right, now go take your shower." The Canadian Mutant commanded. Zero nodded once again and returned to the bedroom for a change of clothes. He grabbed whatever was on top and headed to the bathroom for the ordered shower.
"Have a nice sleep?" The girl named Kitty asked politely.
"Ja." He flatly responded.
"Is that, like, your favorite word or something?" She asked him curiously. He gave her his usual blank look. "Well, I mean, it's all you've really said since the airport." She nervously added. He remained silent, watching her reaction to him impassively. She went from being all happy and cheerful to extremely nervous and fidgety. This almost amused him that by doing nothing he could have such an effect on her. "Never mind." She mumbled meekly and then darted past him into the bedroom.
Zero shook his head and entered the tiny bathroom. He quickly stripped off his clothes and deactivated the hologram before stepping into the miniscule shower stall. He turned on the water, adjusting the temperature till it was almost scalding hot. He grabbed some generic brand of shampoo, probably Mr. Logan's, and poured a generous amount into his tri-dactyl hand. He scrubbed the greenish goo all through his hair and fur until he was covered all over by thick suds before rinsing it all off. The whole time he was showering his mind was off somewhere else. As the billowing clouds of steam fogged the mirror Zero remembered a time before he was known as DX-0. Back to when he had a name, a family. Back to when he had a life.
***
"Why me?" Kitty whimpered as she slumped into the beat-up swivel chair near the desk. She propped her elbows on the scratched desktop and buried her face in her hands. Either Zero just wasn't a morning person or he was always this way and she had a sinking feeling that it was the latter. How could he just stare at her like that? His empty soul-less eyes looked like they could see right through her and whenever he did that a chill would race down her spine. He had looked so harmless and peaceful when she saw him sleeping, but now he looked every bit as dangerous as he was said to be. Those eyes held no emotion, no soul, they were cold and empty and they scared the crap out of her.
Once this week is over either he's going to sleep on the couch or I am. She decided, unwilling to put up with him for much longer than was necessary. Kitty rose from her seat to nervously pace the small room desperately trying to soothe her frazzled nerves. It didn't work. Then Kitty remembered that she still hadn't set up her laptop. There was something to distract herself with. And maybe she had mail! Her cheerful mood was on the rebound as she pulled a black case out from under the bed where she'd stashed it and began to unpack it. The tech-savvy teen began fiddling with the high-performance portable computer, setting up its internet connection and charged up the batteries for emergency back-up power. With that done she entered cyber-space and logged into her E-mail account.
No new mail, Kitty growled. Nothing from her parents, nothing from her friends, heck she didn't even have any spam. How very disappointing. It was too early for any of her classmates to be online so she couldn't chat with any of them so that option was out. Logan would be off somewhere by now and probably wouldn't be back until around dinner time so she couldn't talk to him. That left only Zero for company. Life was cruel.
Kitty was slipping into a state of nervous boredom when an idea struck her. So what if she didn't get any mail, she'd send some instead! Now the question was who to write to. Her first choice was Piotr, but he didn't have an E-mail account. If she was going to write him anything it would have to be done the old-fashioned way. Her next choice was her parents, but since they lived close by it would make more sense to visit them in person when she had the chance. That left her school friends. Hmm...Now who should I write to? If I write to Scott or Jean it will eventually get to everyone. But if I write to Jubilee or Bobby instead what I say will spread faster but is more likely to be exaggerated. But maybe if I... Her thoughts trailed off as she set about composing a quick E-mail that was addressed to everyone. If she did it this way then everyone would get the same thing with no fear of exaggeration or misunderstanding. But she needed some advice concerning her new room-mate and knew just who she should ask. She took a bit more time writing a second E-mail to her old room-mate Rogue.
TO: RogueGothgurl666@yahoo.com
FROM: PrettyShadowKitty16@excite.com
SUBJECT: Confidential!!!
Hi Rogue!~
I know we've never been on the best of terms but I really need some advice and you're the only person that I think could help me. And I really need you to keep this a secret for me; I don't everyone bugging me about this. So here goes...
You remember how we have to work with some German Mutant on this mission right? Well due to some cruel twist of fate he and I are stuck sharing a room. But that's not the worst of it. He's a level 5 but he's got some sort of holographic disguise so I don't even know what he really looks like yet. And he's so cold and emotionless it scares me. I have to work with this guy and I can barely stand to be near him or have him near me for five minutes! I don't know what to do about this and some advice would really help me out. I'll be forever grateful!
~Kitty
There, hopefully that should do it. Kitty thought as she sent the completed message and prayed for a speedy response. The young Mutant once again had nothing to do and her nervousness returned full force. Now what do I do? She wondered miserably. She dreaded seeing her new room-mate again, but she hated being alone. Sure a little privacy was nice every now and then but a whole day without someone to talk to or something to do was torment for her. If only Zero was more talkative or not so cold she might be able to get along with him. She glanced at the clock, it was almost ten. Is he still in the shower? She wondered. She hadn't seen a sign of him since that encounter in the hall. She strained her ears to listen for him but heard nothing, the apartment was silent. She shivered.
Kitty left the computer behind and slowly, cautiously made her way to the bathroom. Females, in general, spend more time in the shower than males do, so when a guy takes longer in the bathroom than a girl does it is cause for concern. Zero had been in there for over an hour, almost twice as long as she'd been in there. She paused outside the bathroom door listening for any sign of movement from within, she heard nothing. Was he still in there? She hesitantly raised her hand and knocked on the door, holding her breath as she waited for some sort of response. For several minutes it was quiet and she wondered if he still was in the apartment at all.
"Was?" Zero asked, his voice muffled by the closed door.
"Are you all right in there? You've been in there for, like, ever." She asked timidly. He didn't answer right away and Kitty began to squirm nervously. The door suddenly opened and what she saw rendered her temporarily speechless. It seemed that Zero either had forgotten to turn his hologram back on after his shower or he didn't feel that he needed to have it on at the moment. He was definitely a level 5, no doubt about it. If she didn't know better she'd say that the devil himself was standing in front of her, or at least some sort of demon. This was just too much.
"Ja, I am fine." He replied, completely oblivious to Kitty's reaction to his true form. His yellow eyes bored into hers, cold and emotionless as ever. She had to fight the overwhelming urge to phase through the floor to escape his frightening empty gaze. "Is there anything you need me to do?" He asked in a near monotone voice.
"Oh, um, no, just checking to see if you were okay." She nervously stammered. He continued to start at her expectantly and she struggled not to fidget. "Why are you staring at me?" She demanded unable to take his staring for much longer.
"No reason." He said after a moment.
"Why don't you go watch TV or something?" She nervously suggested.
"I would if you would move." He stated.
"Oh, sorry." She squeaked moving off to the side so he could pass by. He moved past her without another word, his tail swishing back and forth as he walked. Wait, he has a tail! She thought in shock. This was truly a nightmare. But it couldn't get any worse. Could it?