Mutants: Normal

3-5: Bellbot

"Dammit... I thought...you said...the sixth floor!" Zero panted, falling exhausted to the floor as soon as he entered their rented room. The suitcases thudded to the ground.

"So?" Ranulf replied as he entered the room, locking the door behind him with the key and pushing one of the suitcases into a closet. "Did I lie?"

Zero hauled himself upright and grabbed Ranulf's shirt collar with sweaty hands. "This is the sixtieth floor and you practically made me run up here!"

Ranulf brushed his pupil's tired hands off easily. "Well, I said sixth floor. I was just talking in the tens digits."

"I can't believe you made me do this!" Zero huffed, dragging himself onto a king-sized bed and dropping face down on it.

"Don't worry," Ranulf said. "With your enhancements, you'll be fine in no time. Your body recovers quickly, you should know that by now." He unlocked the suitcase and took out two pairs of pyjamas out, looking baffled as if he couldn't choose which one to wear for the night. "See, you're already back to normal."

Zero grumbled incoherently. It was true, he'd already stopped aching all over and his breathing was back to normal speed. Plus, he hadn't even broken a sweat during the little workout anywhere save for his palms. More proof that I'm half freak, he thought darkly, forcing himself to sit back up with a sigh.

There was a loud rap on the door. "Must be them," Ranulf said. "I'll get it."

He walked over to the door and looked through the eyehole. He visibly tensed. "Act normally," he said. "Jump out of the window five seconds after it walks in."

Zero narrowed his eyes and nodded. When Ranulf talked like this, it meant trouble.

Ranulf pulled open the door. Zero knew he had a fake smile, not that it was that much different from his real smile, plastered from his face. "Hi, is there anything you need?"

"I heard you called for room service." A bellboy drawled, stepping into the room as Ranulf made way.

"You must be mistaken," Ranulf answered as the bellboy looked around, appearing uninterested. As the newcomer approached, Zero willed a sword to form in his hands which he had placed d. He heard small crunching noises as a sword pushed its way out of his body. Zero apologized mentally to Ranulf. He was going to disobey orders on the first day of an actual job. Three seconds have passed already.

"Zero?" Ranulf asked, his eyes showing a collage of colliding emotions.

"Ah, Zero. Are you sure no one called for me?" the bellboy asked, leaning in close enough for Zero to smell his breath. While everything else about the bellboy appeared normal, his breath was an unnatural scent that reminded Zero of a new, well-oiled car.

An automaton! Zero's guess was supported by this evidence, so he tried to speed up his sword's formation.

Automatons were robots that were programmed by the Edonians. They used to infiltrate Qinese organizations and learn information as well as trying to gain power from the inside. This had been problematic in the beginning. There had been much effort being put into finding and disabling such robots, and many of them no longer existed. As far as Zero knew, only a handful had survived the purging the governments had managed to do, and recent reports of their presence had not been in the capital. For this reason, the production and use of the cheap robot had stopped. It was strange then, for Zero to be seeing one in front of him in Jingcheng when their removal from the whole city had been news a year ago. The trick to finding an automaton out was its red eyes that would show every so often.