A/N: So I've watched ( read: Snuck in to see ) Deadpool three times already, and I have developed a huge crush on the Merc with a Mouth and a huge lady crush on Negasonic Teenage Warhead ( she's so pretty I literally CANNOT ). And while I was watching, I was like, "Okay, so what about an AU where Deadpool saves Ellie from that illegal facility/ laboratory, and they become sort-of-but-not-quite-friends." I know this isn't canon in the comics - I've totally never read them, so forgive any errors I've made; or will make in the future! - but I hope you guys will like this story ( it's based off the movie ) anyway! Reviews and follows are appreciated!
Ellie Phimister meets Wade Wilson for the first time in a laboratory, with sterile white walls and bright lighting that gives her a headache.
Ellie's twelve year old body is stiff in the claustrophobic tube, while the machines click and whir around her. The people in white laboratory coats hover over her glass coffin, bearing clipboards and bags of fluorescent blue poison. Ellie bites down on her bottom lip so hard that she tastes blood. Her cheek is split and her temple bruised. Wet warmth trickles down her neck, mixing with panic sweat. Raw skin rings her wrists where the restraints chaff into her skin. Her heartbeat thunders in her chest, her head.
She uses all her will to give nothing away.
She's learned six years ago that screaming and crying don't generally go down well with the scientists – if anything, it only makes them smile wider, laugh louder at the misfortune of their test subjects. The staff in the facility never ask questions; never really speak to any of the kids trapped in the miserable hell-hole. The faces change, but for the past few years the 'no see, no hear, no speak' attitude has generally been the same. One time, five years ago, right before Christmas, a night nurse reported the establishment to the state. She tried to get Ellie to tell her what really happened there, but even at age seven, Ellie knew better than to answer truthfully. No one came to investigate. The nurse disappeared. Whispers in the night said that she'd been killed for daring to tell strangers about the less than stellar activities that took place in the facility.
There is no use in hoping for rescue. In real life, no one ever swoops in. In her life, no one ever notices the need.
A few seconds later, she hears a collective shriek of horror, a terrible sound of many tones and timbres. The uproar grows louder, laced with the shuffling of footsteps as people scramble to get away. The scientist sitting by the glass coffin raises a perfectly groomed yellow eyebrow, beckoning his assistant over. They huddle together for a few seconds, right before the assistant rushes off, his face pale. Ellie doesn't even have the strength to raise her head; all she can do is wheeze for air like an asthmatic, her throat tightening as the oxygen in the tube decreases. Her lungs are aching, and she has to struggle for every breath.
The scientists call it 'the worst form of torture', and they aren't wrong.
Her ears feel like they need to pop, and pressure builds in her chest, as though the air is being sucked out of her. Her head pounds, her vision darkening. Waves of excruciating, piercing pain crash over Ellie, forcing the breath from her lungs. She can barely draw breath. Her airways constrict, and her tortured, rasping gasps fill the confines of the tube. It hurts, it hurts IT HURTS, and she can't BREATHE –
As her eyes begin to close, something flies across her narrowing field of vision. There is a loud crunching sound, and suddenly, blissfully, she can breathe again. Bright spots of fire erupt along her wrist, but Ellie scarcely notices the pain as she opens her mouth and takes a giant, terrified breath, her chest screaming, her pounding head thrown back as oxygen floods into her desperate lungs.
"Isn't this low, even for you guys?" Ellie hears someone – a male? - shout in a voice that sounds like it is coming from underwater, and there are a series of loud cracks, like fireworks. Blood sprays the cover of the glass, and Ellie's already pale face blanches even further when a body lands on top of the coffin. She recognizes the mangled body – the blonde scientist from before - and her stomach churns. His pale face has been smeared with blood, and his eyes and mouth are grotesquely swollen. Golden hair fans out around his head like a pale halo, clumped together in bloody strands. His left arm is obviously broken, his forearm joining his elbow at an unnatural angle. His light grey button down is soaked black with blood, and Ellie nearly throws up her breakfast when she sees the wide hole in his stomach, along with the line of his abdomen. Ellie sees glistening red and purple, and bile scorches the back of her throat. "Doing this fucking shit to a two year old kid?"
I'm twelve, thank you very much! She closes her eyes. Waits until silence descends over the room like a heavy blanket of snow before she dares to look. Her vision clears, the thumping noise in her head starting to recede. The body, thankfully, has been pulled off the glass – Ellie carefully does not look at the dull grey rope of innards on the floor – and instead focuses on the dark shadow that appears before her. All she can see is red, and a rush of panic shoots through her. Her face betrays none of her inner turmoil, but remains calm, bored even, as the red-clad man looks around the coffin, fumbling about clumsily and cursing. The lid eventually pops open with a hiss, after about a minute or so of the man's muffled swearing ( and Ellie vaguely thinks that there are probably sailors with cleaner mouths ), and the masked vigilante pops back up.
"Hey, kid. Can you sit up?"
Ellie swallows, tries to prop herself up on her elbows as the world tilts and darkens at the edges. She opens her mouth to speak, but the world goes black.