Best of Frenemies
Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Angel Dust have fought each other. Now they will fight together.
[Author's note: This story takes place a while after the end of the movie Deadpool. It begins a four-part series.]
Ellie Phimister sighed. She was bored, which was not uncommon. But this time it was real, not just the usual teenage affectation. The X-Men mansion was currently being re-built, after its most recent blowing-up, and her trainer Colossus was on a mission to which she had pointedly not been invited. At least he had said she could take some time off. So now, late at night, she was wandering through one of the less salubrious parts of the city. Many other young women might have been worried about being there, but then very few could create nuclear explosions on demand.
She came to a bar/nightclub/sleazejoint. She recognised the name; she had heard that it was tolerant of mutants. So she went in. It was not the sort of place that checked IDs, which was helpful. Since she didn't have any. Never had.
She got herself a glass of something and wandered to the noisy section in the rear, where there was a cagefight going on. A dark-haired, heavyset woman and a guy who was much bigger and apparently doped up on a drug that made him drool. She found a place where she could see the action and sipped her drink.
The man was laying into the woman, punch after punch, but the woman was still on her feet, not even bruised. Every now and then she blocked a blow or punched back, in a rather desultory way. Aside from that, she merely walked around, as if she was going through the motions.
Hmm, thought Ellie. She looks ... sort of familiar.
Aha.
"Hey!" shouted Ellie. "Angel Dust! Hi!"
The woman looked around, trying to pick the voice out of the crowd. When she did, she walked over to Ellie.
"Oh," she said, through the bars. "It's ... uh, I never heard your name, that time."
The guy threw a punch at her. Angel Dust caught his fist, twisted, and tossed him to the other side of the cage.
"Negasonic Teenage Warhead," said Ellie.
"You're kidding."
The guy came charging back. Angel Dust kicked out, catching him in the gut. Then she picked him up, lifted him over her head, and threw him again. She turned back to Ellie.
Ellie shrugged. "Meh," she said.
"You planning to have another drink?" said Angel Dust. "Mind if I join you?"
Ellie shrugged again. But, she thought, that might be alright. Better than hanging by herself, waiting for some douchebag to hit on her.
"Just a second," said Angel Dust. She gestured for the guy to come at her again, which he did, shrieking. She whacked into him, a volley of punches and kicks. When she thought she had done enough to entertain the crowd, she grabbed him and swung him around. There was a klong! as he smashed into the bars of the cage, face-first. He sagged down, to cheers and boos.
Someone unlocked the door of the cage and Angel Dust came out and joined Ellie. Angel Dust lifted a drink from a passing tray and they went to a booth. It was occupied by a half-dozen guys but they left when Angel Dust suggested that they might prefer to sit somewhere else.
"I have the feeling," said Ellie, "that I'm supposed to be fighting you. Since you're, you know, an evil fuck. From what I've heard."
"Evil? Not really. Bad, yes. Maybe very bad, depending on the circumstances. So do we have to dance? Again."
Ellie considered. "I'm thinking no dancing. It's not that I don't care. It's ... actually, it is that I don't care."
"Huh. Negasonic Teenage Warhead, eh? Sounds like a song by some bad-hair metal band."
"Ellie, then."
"Christina."
They shook hands, a bit stiffly. Since in their previous meeting they had almost killed each other.
"You do the cage thing often?" said Ellie.
"Girl's gotta eat."
"But you didn't look too interested in that fight."
Christina shrugged. Then she said, "Well, yeah. Turns out that the owner of this place owes me ... something. He was also the owner – one of them, anyway – of the ... facility ... where I used to work. So I think he owes me some back pay. Quite a lot."
"The Factory? Where you tortured people to activate their mutant genes?"
Christina nodded. "And where I went through all that too. Some of us weren't born with powers, you know. Some of us had to earn them. Even if we didn't want to."
"Oh, boo-hoo."
The two of them stared at each other. Then Christina gave a sharp, snorting laugh. She raised her glass. "So here's to unwanted superpowers and crap lives," she said.
"Damn right," said Ellie. They drained their glasses and Christina gestured to a waitress for two more.
"So how do you get to meet the owner guy?" said Ellie.
"Any second now."
Two big guys, wearing suits, came up to them. "You were supposed to take a dive," said one of them to Christina. "Boss lost some money because of that."
"He tripped and fell over," said Christina. "I'll explain it to your boss in person."
"Yeah," said the guy. "You will."
Christina finished her drink and stood up. Then she picked up Ellie's glass and drained it. Ellie sighed and stood up too.
"You're coming?" said Christina to her.
"Got nothing better to do."
One of the guys looked at her. "And what are you supposed to be?" he said. "A junior dyke bimbo? Do you mind if I call you that?"
"No. Do you mind if I melt your face?"
"Aren't you supposed to be one of the good guys?" said Christina to Ellie.
"I'm on a break."
"Huh. Well, let's go."
The four of them went into the back of the bar/nightclub/sleazejoint and up several flights of stairs. Eventually, the two guys took Ellie and Christina into a large, well-appointed office. There was a weedy-looking guy sitting behind a desk.
There was a man and a woman standing behind him. Mutants, thought Ellie. She glanced at Christina, who was obviously thinking the same.
The two guys who had brought them in took up positions at the back of the office.
The weedy man gestured for Christina and Ellie to sit down in plush chairs facing the desk, which they did.
"My name is Shole," he said.
"I'm guessing your first name starts with A and your middle name starts with S," said Ellie.
Christina laughed again, that harsh, bitter laugh.
"Very funny," said Shole. "But I have heard it before." He looked at Christina. "You have cost me some money tonight. You were supposed to both lose that fight, and make it look good. You did neither."
"Speaking of money, you owe me some. But I'll let it slide if you give me something else. Information. Which I believe you have."
"Why should I give you anything?"
Christina gave a little smile. "You know why they call me Angel Dust, right?"
Shole grimaced, and pushed a button on his desk. Immediately, heavy metal cuffs shot out of the arms of the chairs and wrapped around Christina's and Ellie's wrists.
"Really?" said Christina. She started to flex her muscles.
"Let me," said Ellie.
"That's alright, I can do it."
"So can I."
"Well, somebody do something!" snapped Shole.
Christina smashed her restraints at the same moment as a blast of heat dissolved Ellie's cuffs.
The woman behind Shole raised her arms, and her fingers turned into dagger-tipped tentacles, zooming towards them. Christina lifted the remains of her chair to use as a shield. The tentacles smashed into it and stuck there. Christina grabbed the tentacles and pulled, jerking the woman off her feet.
Ellie put two waves of energy out, one towards the goons at the rear of the room and one towards Shole. But the other bodyguard jumped in front of Shole. He projected some sort of forcefield, knocking the wave back.
"Nothing can pierce that shield," said Shole. "Don't waste your time trying."
Ellie shrugged again. She knelt and punched at the floor, sending a tremor of energy across the room. The floor collapsed, and the bodyguard, Shole, his desk and a variety of furniture went tumbling through the hole. Down to ... wherever it went.
Christina still had a grip on the woman's tentacles, and was flinging her around the room, bouncing her off walls. She finally let her fall. "Had enough yet?" she said.
"Pretty much," groaned the woman.
Ellie turned to the two goons, who were still picking themselves up. "I was going to melt the face of one of you," she said, "but I can't remember which."
They each pointed at the other.
"Have to do both, then," said Ellie.
"Huh," said Christina. She looked at the two men. "I understand that there is a hidden safe in this room. Show me, and I'll do what I can to restrain my friend."
"I'm your friend?" said Ellie. "We're friends, now?"
"Sure, why not. Even if we're not supposed to be."
"Hmm. Okay then."
"It's behind a fake panel in the corner!" said one of the guys.
"Uh, what?" said Christina. "Oh, the safe, right."
Stepping around the gaping hole, the guys showed how the panel slid aside to reveal a heavy safe with a combination lock.
"But we don't know how to open it," said the other one. "Only Shole knows. Knew."
"That's alright, I have a key," said Ellie. She put her hand on the safe and generated a burst of energy. The hinges and the lock disintegrated. Christina ripped what remained away. They peered in.
There was money – quite a lot of it. And, at the back, a book – a ledger, with a battered black cover. Christina took it out and looked at it, not opening it.
"So what is it?" said Ellie.
"Records. Of the early days of the mutant Factory. Before I worked there. I was one of the first ones taken. Considered to be an experiment. Me, and my younger brother. After we were in a car accident." She opened the book. Ellie saw that her hands were shaking slightly.
There was a long list of names. And details of what had been done to them. Where they had gone later. She touched her own surname: Polvere. And the name of her brother.
"You know," said Ellie, "the X-Men try to find and rescue mutants in trouble. This book might be useful for that."
"But it would also be useful to me."
"Hey," said the tentacle-woman. "There's a photocopier in the next room."
Christina and Ellie looked at each other. They both nodded. Christina pointed to one of the goons. "You. Make a copy of this. Every page. Do a good job and you get to keep your skin. Make it snappy." She pointed to the other one. "You. Find a bag large enough to take all of this money. Make it two bags."
They scampered off to their tasks. In a few minutes, Christina was stuffing cash into one of the bags. The guy came back with the ledger and the copy. She put the original into her bag. Ellie put the copy into the other bag, a backpack, and lifted it onto her shoulder.
"Don't forget your share of the money," said Christina, holding out several large wads of currency. "Or is that against the X-Men code?"
"I'm sure it is." Then she took the money and put it into the bag. "Technically, I'm not an X-Man. But even if I was ... "
"Girl's gotta eat."
"Something like that."
They went down to the bar/nightclub/sleazejoint and then onto the street. They walked along together for a little while. At a random corner, they stopped.
"Thanks for the help," said Christina.
"Thanks, too," said Ellie.
"For what?"
"For ... treating me like an adult, I guess."
Christina shrugged her muscular shoulders. "Maybe we'll cross paths again," she said. "Hope so. Since we're friends."
"Yeah, maybe."
Christina turned and walked away. Ellie watched her go.
"See you," she said softly.
END
Note to readers: Darkpenn recently published a novel about a female superhero (sort of). Anyone who is interested can find it on Amazon. Title is I, Viridian: Supervillain. E-copy and hard copy. Author name is Derek Parker. Book blurb is:
This is the story of Viridian: supervillain, fan of Shakespeare, owner of many sexy shoes, carefree and irresponsible at the competitive level, bearer of a mystical gem that gives her incredible powers.
Raised by thieves to be a thief, she was never really a child, or never grew up, she doesn't know which. When she washes up on the shores of Oklahoma City, pursued by shadowy forces and an unknown enemy, she links up with an oddball gang of would-be supercriminals: mastermind Monk, samurai Tantō, strongman Cave, and the remarkable Flux.
And through them she discovers what it is she is looking for: a reason to fight, a reason to stay, a reason to care, and, most of all, a reason to love.