As soon as Stryker had left and Emma had been dragged away, Amber's face fell. She felt like she'd done something wrong, but for now she ignored her guilty conscious and looked up to the man who was holding her in his arms. She cleared her throat, but he didn't seem to hear. She frowned.

"Excuse me..."

He seemed startled when he looked down, as if forgetting he was carrying a 115 lb. weight in his arms, and dropped her immediately. Amber glared up at him, but he showed no sign of an apology in his face. She heard laughter behind her and turned towards the cage she'd inhabited only a few minutes ago to see the boy, Remy, laughing heartily at her pain and embarrassment. The man above her seemed to notice too and said authoritatively,

"Bradley, help me get the Cajun to a holding cell. He needs to learn his lesson just as much as blondie does." Remy immediately stopped, his face going blank. Amber smirked. That shut him up. The man named Bradley replied with a quick,

"Yes, Zero."

And turned to the boy. They entered the cell, Zero first, then Bradley. Both men grabbed his arms without trouble, as he was not struggling like Emma had, and instead of dragging him by his feet, they let him walk with their grips firmly on his arms. Zero stopped suddenly, causing Bradley to almost let go of Remy, but he regained his solid composure. Zero turned to Amber, saying with quiet authority,

"Stay here."

Amber glared, her ass still hurting from being dropped, but nodded.

As both men walked out, Amber immediately stood up, rubbing her buns as she did so, looking around. This room seemed to be some kind of jail, with cells in a straight line down the middle. Emma and Remy had been in one of the middle ones. As she now looked around even closer, she saw hundreds of eyes staring directly at her. She realized that these cells were filled with other kids, most likely mutants. She frowned. All of them were probably exactly the same as Emma, trying to use their gifts as a harmful weapon to control people. Her frown deepened into a scowl as she walked towards the doors where Zero and Bradley had exited, keeping her eyes trained straight forward, not giving in to the impulse to stare right back at all of them. When she'd reached the last cell, she sighed, loving the sight of that ugly, bolted, mechanical door. She was just about to step out of the vicinity of the cells when she heard a small voice from behind her say,

"Excuse me, miss. Are you here to save us?"

Amber turned around to see a small, mousey boy with sandy brown hair and big green eyes. She didn't know how to respond. Save them? Save them from what? She was just about to ask this question when the door behind her opened, and a familiar face walked in.

"Hello again, beautiful! Remember me?"

Amber turned to see a muscular, tan man standing before her, with two swords attached to his back. He had an extremely handsome face, but a very cocky expression plastered on it. Amber racked her memories for something that was catching in her mind about this man. His voice, his face, something about him was just extremely known.

"You're the one who kept complementing me during my torture session, right?"

Wade was almost surprised for a moment, but it was gone in a flash. He definitely wasn't expecting an answer like that, especially when it was said in such a calm manner. He cleared his throat, and she smiled.

"Well... yes. But anyway, I'm here to escort you to the rec room, or whatever. Can't let the little bastards try and get to you now, can I?"

He grinned, but Amber frowned.

"You mean the kids?"

Wade rolled his eyes.

"Of course I mean the kids, now c'mon! We've got a lot to go over. I have to fill you in on a lot of useless shit." He walked forward and grabbed her shoulder, not roughly, but enough force to get her to move, and pulled her towards the door. She smiled, but as soon as they were through the entryway, she turned her head slightly to see the mousey little boy still staring at her, with that hopeless look of complete sadness still etched on his face.

%%%

Zero threw Remy into the small, windowless, white room while Bradley held the door open. The second Zero was out, he slammed it shut, locking it quickly and silently. He nodded, so Zero began to walk towards the cell room, where he'd left the new recruit, and Bradley fell in step beside him. They were quiet for most of the trip. Neither man felt the need to talk 100% of the time, like Wade, so they both enjoyed the silence. But Bradley had a question playing on his mind that he just had to ask.

"So, what do you think of her?"

Zero stopped for a moment, but kept walking as if nothing had happened.

"Who's her?"

Bradley rolled his eyes.

"Who do you think, dumbass? The new recruit."

Zero shrugged.

"I'm indifferent towards her. She'll be a good addition to the team, according to her powers an-"

"Oh, cut the bullshit Zero. Everyone knows how much you didn't want her to join! Now c'mon, what do you really think of her?"

Zero showed no emotion other than the glare he was aiming at the door in front of them.

"Like I said before, I'm indifferent towards her. As long as she doesn't get in my way, I'll be just fine with her. That's it."

He nodded to the two guards on either side of the large door, who opened it, but when he walked inside, Amber was gone. He felt panic for just a moment, but thought better of himself and said to the guards,

"Did either of you see where our new team member went?"

Both nodded, but the one on the right spoke.

"Yes, sir. She went with Wade. He said he was gonna show her the rec room, I think."

Zero nodded and walked away in the direction of the rec room, leaving Bradley to thank the guards. He, once again, managed to catch up with Zero.

"What's with the speed, Agent? You worried about Amber already?"

He smirked, but Zero glared straight at him, still walking.

"I'm only worried about Stryker, seeing as he specifically told me not to let Wade anywhere near the new recruit. I just hope they actually went to the rec room, otherwise it's my ass on the line."

Bradley just shook his head, chuckling silently to himself. Zero glared again, but kept on walking. He didn't care what Bradley or any of the others thought of him, or his tactics. And he certainly didn't care about Amber. Not one bit.