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"Good morning lab rats. Since you all agreed to out the Maverick yesterday, I'm going to give you a little gift. The second floor has been unlocked for your enrichment. Please feel free to explore it."

X moved out of bed despite his mind wishing all of this was a dream. The walk to the cafeteria was surreal. There were two less of them now. It was two less people to expect in the morning. A knot formed in X's stomach as all that remained came back to the cafeteria for breakfast.

"So we gotta new floor to explore," Axl mused as most everyone was near done with eating. "Are we going to explore in groups again, or…?"

"It might be smart." Alia agreed with a nod. "We're not exactly equal in gender anymore, though, but there's still enough to make two groups of six. I can start one group, who'd like to join me?"

"I'll go with you." Layer said.

"Me too!" Cinnamon cheered, happily waving her hand in the air.

Marino gave a snort before saying, "Where that plucky girl goes, I'd like to follow. Count me in as well."

"Anyone else?" Alia offered, looking to the rest.

"I guess we could pony up to protect you girls." Dynamo said, slapping a hand on Spider's back. "Ain't that right, buddy?"

"If this is what I have to do to uphold our contract, then I guess I must." Spider mused with a playful shrug.

"Then that settles it." Alia nodded. "We'll meet back up here in about, say two hours? Maybe three?"

Everyone gave a nod of agreement. Alia's group moved out first. The remaining six, subconsciously knowing that they didn't quite have a leader yet, didn't go pretty far.

"I don't understand what you're all waiting for." Zero huffed at them. "Let's just get this over with already."

"Aye, aye, captain!" Palette agreed, putting on a serious face for all of a moment before dissolving into a flurry of giggles. Axl joined her, and soon after Iris and Aero did as well. Even X got out a chortle or two. Zero's steely expression, on the other hand, did not change.

With that, the troop was off. Axl and Pallette lead the group the most. Iris and Zero were mostly toward the back of the group. Aero kept in closer time to Axl and Pallette's footsteps, but still lingered close enough that X could have reached out to touch her if he had felt like it. The first room they entered immediately got the approval of Zero.

"This is a rather nice gym." he noted with a nod.

"It's very… clean." X decided, looking around. Each corner of the gym was outfitted with different types of equipment- one corner dedicated to cardio, another to weight lifting, and so on. Each piece looked rather high-end, and also well kept. There wasn't a single speck of dust to be seen.

Axl immediately drifted to the hand weights and tested a few out. Then an idea came to him.

"Hey Breezy, how heavy can you lift?" he loudly teased, a wide grin etched on his face.

At first, his only response was a small shrug as she walked over to him.

"I'm about as scrawny as I look." Aero admitted.

"No way! I can see you getting at least 20 pounds. Maybe even 35."

"Oh, I want to try too!" Palette cheered, running to catch up with Axl and Aero.

"Please don't hurt yourselves…" Iris said to them. Her steps behind were more cautious, as if the training equipment would purposely fall on top of her at any moment.

"Tch." Zero scoffed. "You're all acting like children. You'll hurt yourselves if you continue to pick them up like that. Let me show you how it's properly done."

Iris did nothing to hide her exasperated sigh. She looked to X, hoping that he still had some semblance of common sense in him. X gave her a small nod- 'I'll mind myself,' that nod told Iris, 'You don't have to worry about me too.'

Iris thanked him with a grateful nod of her own.

The small group then took their time getting acclimated to the gym. It was Pallette who noticed the attached bathrooms were for separate genders. It was also Pallette who forced them into two groups to explore their respective bathrooms. She didn't give either gender a choice, really, and that moment of consideration took longer than marveling at how clean both the gym and boys' bathroom were.

"It's a locker room," Zero impatiently told X and Axl not long after Pallette had left them there. "Not a bathroom."

"Is there really a difference?" Axl asked, giving Zero an almost teasing side glance.

"Yes," came the curt reply.

Suffice to say, our boys did not explore the new area very much.

"Hey, there's another door back here." X noted, speaking loud enough for the other two to hear him. "It doesn't look like a supply door."

Out of better judgement, X did not wait for them to answer him before venturing closer to the door. He reached for the handle without a second thought, and opened it. The bright overhead lights reflecting off water made him squint his eyes for a moment.

"A pool!" Palette marveled from somewhere near him. X looked to his right to see that the girls were coming out of their locker room as well. They noticed him right away, and each gave him their own greeting.

"Do you think it's heated?" Zero wondered as he and Axl also came into the pool area. His expression had been as serious as ever, but there was a small hint in his voice that indicated a playful irony.

"Let's find out!" Axl playfully decided before running on up to the pool's edge. The rambunctious boy made a leap of faith into the water, curling his body into a ball before causing a large splash on impact. It didn't take him long to resurface with a wide grin on his face.

"It's heated!" he declared, giving the others a thumb's up.

"And now you're wet," Aero retorted without so much a thought.

"You wanna join me? The water's ni-ice!"

"Not in your life."

Axl pouted at the rejected, but it was the denial he needed to get him out of the water. He waited until he was back with the group before shaking his body off like a dog. It elicited the exact reactions you'd expect.

"Once Axl has properly dried off," Zero grunted, "We might as well make our way back to the cafeteria. There's nothing left to explore on this side of the tower."

The others agreed rather simultaneously without complaint.

. . .

"I think I still have water in my ears…" Axl whined as they rounded the corner to the cafeteria.

"Let it be a reminder on how you should look before leaping." Zero retorted at him.

"Literally!" Palette even giggled.

"Yeah, yeah…" Axl continued to groan.

Alia's group was already waiting for them as they entered the cafeteria.

"There you are." Dynamo snorted. "We were about to start a search party for you six."

Iris was the first to be taken aback by this.

"Were we really that late?" she wondered.

"Ignore him," Alia assured her. "It just means you took your time exploring. Apparently none of us are going to be artists or scientists anytime soon."

"What did you find?" X now wondered.

"A pretty robust science lab, for one." Marino told them. "Nothing has a connection to an outside network -it's all local- but you might be able to cook up a mean virus to, I dunno, make the clocks run slower, or something."

"I went with the wrong group, apparently," Aero teasingly mumbled to herself.

"We also found a super large art room too." Cinnamon then chipped in. "It had all sorts of mediums to use, and even an area to sculpt vessels both large and small."

"Perfect for any art therapy you might need to indulge in." Spider chuckled.

"The pool might help with that too." Axl thoughtfully decided.

"Damn," Marino whistled, "Now I think I went with the wrong group too."

"It's connected to a gym," Zero interjected. "And that is far more impressive. There is enough equipment for all of us to undergo a whole range of targeted exercises."

"If that's the case, Lumine certainly gave us a floor filled with enrichment, alright." Alia mused, placing a finger over her mouth in thought. "It feels a bit… odd."

"We're meant to go Maverick," Iris carefully agreed, "But we've been given spaces to work past it."

"Exactly," Alia nodded.

"Which means we won't go Maverick anymore." Cinnamon told them- even spiritedly pumping her fist in the air. "We've got a lot more space now, and we all like each other. Right?"

"Speak for yourself, kiddo." Spider muttered as he tilted his fedora forward to hide his face. The small opposition gave the group a sense of unease. Palette looked over everyone, placing a clenched hand over her heart as her mind came up with something interesting.

"Let's have a pool party."

Now everyone was staring at her.

"Are you nuts?" X questioned first. "Vile and Massimo died less than a day ago! We can't just have a party like their deaths didn't matter!"

"No, no, no, no! It's not like that!" Palette quickly corrected. "I didn't mean it like that! Yes, they meant a lot to us, but that doesn't mean we should mope around either. We can celebrate our relationship with them. We don't even need to have the party today!"

"Not that any of us have a real relationship with anyone around here," Dynamo snorted. "But I see where this is headin'. I sure as hell ain't going to spend now from whenever I get killed or go Maverick being depressed."

"The pool's really nice too," Axl chimed in.

"It sounds rude, but a small boost in morale isn't going to hurt anyone," Alia agreed. "Maybe we could have the party tomorrow afternoon? We'll use it to eat lunch together instead of having it in the cafeteria."

"I would like that." Layer nodded.

"I'm down." Dynamo agreed with a half shrug.

"Ditto," Spider chimed in.

With the majority rule, the pool party's time and date was decided. It still didn't feel right to X, but what choice did he have at this point? He was just as trapped as everyone else.

. . .

The afternoon that day proceeded to go by rather slowly. X took a minute to recoup from the morning before heading back out. His feet landing him in the recreational room where Zero, Spider, and Marino were already occupying a card table. Zero was the one to notice X first.

"X." Zero said in a still tone. "Come to join us?"

"What are you playing?" X ventured to ask as he moved closer to the trio.

"Poker, naturally." Spider told him.

"Please join us," Marino then teased, "I've been sweeping these boys under the rug for an hour. We need some fresh blood."

"Oh, I…" X bashfully tried to say, sheepishly brushing the back of his neck. "I don't know how to play poker."

"We can modify the rules a bit." Marino assured him. "Come on, sit with us."

X offered a bashful smile as he did what he was told. He took a spot that had him with Zero on his left, Marino on his right, and Spider across from him. Spider himself had already collected the cards from their last game, and was shuffling them with ease.

"The name of the game is anaconda- known in some less friendly circles as 'screw your neighbor.'" Spider informed them. "I'm going to give each of you seven cards. From those seven, you choose three to send over to the person on your left. Don't claim them until everyone has chosen, and placed down, their discards. From there, we make a betting round (that we'll skip for this first pass, to ease the newcomer into the rules). If there are any cards that are catching your eye, feel free to place them into your poker hand in front of you. For now, we'll keep them visible- suits upward. A typical poker hand consists of five cards, with pairs being the most common tactic. Aces are high in this game, so keep them close. That being said, you do not have to place a card down after betting, but you should still only do one at a time. Everyone got it?"

With various forms of agreement, the game commenced. X still had no idea what he was doing.
"Alright boys, time to 'fess up," Marino delightful said once everyone had placed at least one card down to their final hand- Marino herself placing an '8' next to her previously placed '9' card, "We've been here for a few days, so which girl's gotcha dreaming about the intimacy we're clearing all lacking."

"Dynamo and I made a suicide pact," Spider easily offered, placing his discarded cards down, "And I think that's all you need to know about that ."

"Fair." Marino agreed with a click of her tongue. She then shot a glance at X and Zero. "So what about you two?"

"Since I feel like this is a losing conversion either way," Zero grunted, placing his own discarded cards down, "I have a type."

"And that would be…?"

Zero's eyes flicked over to X for a fraction of a second. He attempted to sit up straight to hide the small bluff.

"Brown hair. Green eyes." Zero admitted- his voice reaching more of a grumble.

"Interesting. Very interesting." Marino nodded. "Let me guess, the innocent types too? Usually pretty quiet and bewildered by what's around them?"

Zero only gave her a disgruntled huff. Marino snickered, fanning herself with her current deck.

"And you, X?" she pleasantly requested.

X couldn't help but jump. "I… I haven't really thought about it." he admitted. While the words were true, his mind briefly reminded him of Aero. Particularly her smile. He didn't see it often, but the moments when he could…

"I see." Marino mused. " Very interesting indeed."

"Could you cut that out?" Spider snapped at her. "It's getting unnerving."

"In that case," Marino smirked, "Then let's see how very, very interesting this round goes…"

"Oh brother…"

X gave a small smile of amusement. He looked over to Zero for his reaction, but the man with long blonde hair and a penchant for the color red was too focused on his current dealings to bother with the others. The ambient light in the recreational room cast itself gently on Zero's concentrated features. X felt himself relax considerably at it, then quickly jumped when he realized he had been staring for too long. Zero still hadn't noticed. Luckily, neither did Marino or Spider- who were still arguing over Marino's odd sense of mysticism.

Huh, was X's fleeting thought. But nothing more came from it.