A/N: Many thanks to a wonderful girl called Tara who managed to get me to keep writing, as such, this chapter is dedicated to her.
After the short drive home, I pulled into the garage, the steering wheel still extremely hot from having been sitting in the sun during school and my little forest adventure. I got out of the car and collected my stuff from the boot. I dumped it all on my bed before launching onto the couch. A dull pain shot up my side as something dug into my hip. I pulled the waistband of my shorts down slightly and the marble sized object fell out. I picked it up and it began to glow again.
"Hey Morty," I began, "Can you tell me what this is?" I held up the item and it was promptly snatched from my hand by the Iron Man suit. There was a moving blue light emitted from the ceiling as the technology was scanned.
After a moment, Morty said, "it's first Civ technology. I think it's designed as a momentum slower." My silence must have indicated a lack of understanding, because he explained. "As far as I can tell, if a projectile comes within a certain vicinity of it, it slows the projectile without causing it to drop or lose any momentum. Basically, if you had this in your pocket, and a bullet was coming at you, it would slow down enough for you to get out of the way. If, however you were to not move, it would penetrate you very slowly, and painfully."
I plucked the marble from the air examined it, relishing the fact that it was glowing to my touch alone. Suddenly there was a whoosh, and I rolled to the floor, trying to avoid whatever was coming at me. Looking up, I saw a crossbow bolt flying through the air at about walking pace, heading to exactly where I was lying a moment ago. Curious, I reached out and grasped it. It continued moving, despite my attempts to hold it back. So I tried something else. I spun it around. It was difficult, and by the time I had managed it, the bolt was about to touch the couch. I let go and dropped the marble. The bolt suddenly realised how slow it was going and tried to make up for lost time. It shot away, back the way it had come, where it embedded itself in the wall. For the first time ever, Morty was speechless. Hell, so was I. I looked at the piece of unparalleled power in my hand and came to a conclusion.
I was one of the first students at school the next day. I went straight to the staff room and waited for Gold to come out. I was contemplating leaving when he finally came out.
"James, what are you doing here this early?" he asked, taking a sip from his travel mug.
I held out my hand, and he took the small orb, which immediately stopped glowing when I let go. Gold looked at it for a moment before nodding and tucking it into his pocket. He turned back and went back into the staff room. I turned and went to where I was meant to meet Emma before class. I found Brittany already sitting there. She looked slightly nervous at my approach, but then again, so did everyone else.
I waved at her, "Hey Brittany, how was the assignment last night?"
She looked extremely puzzled. "What assignment?" I frowned.
"The Society and Culture one. The reason Emma went to yours last night." I pulled out my phone and showed her the message.
"We don't have an assignment yet," she said, and I went through every possible scenario.
Emma is too smart to send a message like that if she were cheating on me, because she knows I would talk to Brittany. She could have gone to see her family, but she would have just told me if that was the case. Worst case scenario is that she was kidnapped and is going to be used to try and expose me to the rest of the school. But what are the odds of that happening?
I started walking away, "I've gotta go talk to the principal. See you later." And with that I turned and ran back to the staff room, where, luckily, Sam was just exiting. He saw me running, and his small smile disappeared.
"What is it?" he asked; concern in his voice.
I filled him in, and he remained silent for a moment after I finished.
"Go. Do what you need to. I'll cover for you here." He said, and I nodded my thanks. I went to my car, parked out the back, away from prying eyes. I got in and opened the direct link with Morty.
"Find Emma," I said. There was a moment's pause while he tracked Emma's phone signal. It was coming from the catacombs under the school. But it was moving.
"I need to get her." I said, trying to open the door, but it wouldn't.
"I don't recommend that you go barging in there, half-cocked. This calls for a little bit of theatricality. I can help there." Morty said as the pickup truck from my garage parked itself right behind me. "Check the trunk, and thank me later," Morty said, humour evident in his voice. The door swung open, and I raced to the back of the pickup. The trunk opened at my approach, and I was greeted by a black and red mask. Really? Well, I suppose it will be fun.
20 minutes later, I walked through the deserted school, heading to where I was now positive Emma was. I walked up the ramp to the hall, and was greeted by a stereotypical grunt. He had his back to me, so I ran one of my katanas through his chest. He crumpled, freeing himself from my blade as he fell. I continued walking, returning the blade to its sheath on my back. I peered around the corner of the door, and what I saw made my blood boil. It was Emma, gagged with a dozen other people, chains around their throats, ankles and wrists, on the stage with a man in a blatantly obvious Templar outfit pointing a gun at their heads, in front of the entire school, shouting for the Assassin hiding in the school to come forward. I didn't see Sam anywhere, although I did see myself, in front of everyone, pleading with the Templar to let "my innocent friends" go. God dammit Sam, next time you impersonate me, at least do it well.
The Templar looked like he was actually ready to pull the trigger, so I stepped out from the door, laughing to myself.
"Oh, I kill me," I said, pretending to wipe a tear from my covered eye, "Or, him at least,"
Everyone stared at me. The Templar was more surprised than anyone.
"Why to fuck is Deathstroke in this school?" he asked, levelling his pistol at me.
"I take offense to that. I look nothing like that egotistical asshole," I said, before taking a small run up and sliding on my knees, "I'm Deadpool." I said, throwing my arms into the air. I looked around. "Damn, there were supposed to be explosions."
The Templar looked like he had just been hit by a flashbang. I looked down; hanging my head in exasperation, and something caught my eye. The 1st Civ marble.
I picked it up and held it in my fist as I stood up. I shoved both hands in my pockets, dropping the marble as I did. From the warmth it was emitting, I could tell it was still active.
The Templar finally seemed to have recovered. "If you're Deadpool, then you won't mind this." He fired a single shot, straight at my head. I swung my arm out and grabbed the bullet with my reinforced glove. I could feel the material twisting on my hand, tearing some of the skin, but then it stopped. I straightened up, and held out my open palm, showing him the bullet I had caught.
"The look on your face is priceless," I told him, wiping another tear from my eye. There was a shocked sort of growl, before he emptied the entire gun at me. I successfully managed to slap all of them of course, sending them out toward the walls. His gun clicked, indicating its emptiness. I pulled my own gun out.
"My turn," I said, and opened fire. The first shot ripped through his shoulder, the second through his left knee, and the third through where his kidney would have been. He fell to the ground, and I made a show of spinning my gun on my finger before re-holstering it. I all but skipped to the stage, where I pulled a sword off my back. I held it against his throat and yelled, "FOR NARNIA!" before bringing it across, spilling his blood onto the stage. I twirled the sword in my hand as I strolled over to where the prisoners were chained, their eyes bulging out of their heads with what I can only assume to be fear and confusion. I thanked every deity I could think of that Morty was blocking the emergency calls to the police. I slid the blade of my sword into Emma's handcuffs, and she started panicking. I stopped, and removed the blade. I looked at where she was pointing. It was just at the corpse. I pulled the gag from her mouth, and she gave me a hideously dirty look.
"He has a set of keys you moron." She said, and I could tell she would slap me if she wasn't bound.
I sheathed my sword and threw my arms up in the air. "Well, soooooooooooooorry," I said, "I didn't think a Templar would be stupid enough to keep the keys in his pockets,"
Almost as if he had been waiting for that, the UN guy, Newstead, walked onto the stage, aiming a gun at me. My hands, which were still in the air, dropped to my sides. I slid them into my pockets and whistled nonchalantly, swinging around on the balls of my feet. I grabbed the marble tightly, focusing my will. Then the trigger was pulled. The bullet flew at me, noticeably slower than the Templars shots. I focused even more. The bullet came to a stop a foot from my face. I plucked it out of the air, much to the incredulous looks of the thousand people watching, and threw it at Newstead. It bounced off of his forehead, but was the necessary distraction I needed to rush forward and slam my elbow into his face, causing him to crumple to the ground, his last words were "fucking Assassins". I turned and started rummaging through the pockets of the dead Templar, pulling out anything that I came across. I pocketed his wallet, and pulled the battery out of his phone before pocketing that too. I finally found the keys, and Emma made an I-told-you-so face. I made sure to unlock her last. As each person was freed, they ran down into the crowd and huddled with their friends. All except Emma, who stood there, rubbing her wrists.
"I suppose I should thank you," she said, pulling a wallet from her pocket. She held out a fifty dollar note.
"Now," I said in a loud voice, "normally heroes say that justice is its own reward," and Emma began to move her hand back into pocket, "But," I continued, "I'm no hero." And with that I snatched the fifty from her hand and ran from the room, yelling "SUCKERS" over my shoulder, jumping over the railing of the stairs to the bottom. I then kept running to the forest, where I had arranged for Morty to leave the car. I found it, parked just off the road, with a duffle bag sitting on the hood. I opened it up and found my uniform and a set of car keys. I quickly got changed, swapping the marble from the Deadpool suit to the uniform, and drove back to where I had parked earlier that morning. I saw 'me' and Emma running towards me, so I opened the doors, and they both jumped in, Emma into the front seat and 'me' into the back, where he promptly lay down on the floor, out of sight. I pulled away from the school and drove to the highway. Emma looked between the me that was driving and the me that was lying on the floor of the backseat.
Naturally, her first question was, "Why are there two of you?" to which both of me replied, "I'll explain later," and that was confusing enough to keep her quiet for the rest of the trip home.
The moment the garage door closed behind us, Emma spilled out of the car and started hyperventilating. I rushed over and placed my hands on her shoulders, trying to reassure her, while the other me deactivated the disguise and was replaced by Sam, who was looking thoroughly pissed off.
"Did you really have to make a show of it?" he demanded, walking into the house. I helped in Emma, who looked like she was about to faint.
"Don't blame me, it wasn't my idea to wear that bloody suit," I replied, gently placing Emma on the couch, "It was Morty's idea."
Emma perked up a little at this. "That was you? You nearly chopped my hand off?"
I looked at her. "Well, yeah, who else would have risked themselves to save you lot?" And with that, she went back to being distant. I turned back to Sam. "Why were you impersonating me, anyway? Don't you have your own cover to maintain?"
"I was covering for you," he replied, anger seeping into his voice, "because you didn't show up to the bloody assembly. You should have just gone, and let me handle it. You're the only suspect here. If you hadn't been hell-bent on playing hero, this would've gone a hell of a lot smoother."
I was shocked that he would say such a thing. "Playing hero?" I yelled, before regaining my composure, "There wasn't a whole lot of playing going on when I was fighting those football freaks the other day. What about the P.E teacher who seems to have it out for me on an unbelievable level? I did what I had to do today, and there is nothing you can say that will convince me otherwise." I took a deep breath, slowing my racing pulse. Sam looked me dead in the eye.
"Gold is dead," he said. My mouth dropped.
"How?" I asked, "Was it the Templar that did it, before I got there?" I could tell from the look in his eyes that it wasn't.
"It was you." He deadpanned. I shook my head, unable to believe it. "When you were slapping all of those bullets, one of them flew straight at him. Got him in the eye before he could even move. This is why you don't fuck around, James. When you do, people die. Either because you didn't act fast enough, or it was a stupid mistake. You're lucky it was just Gold. Every single one of those bullets could have hit someone."
I couldn't believe I had been so stupid. I hung my head. I knew what was coming.
"I'm sorry, but you must go before the Council and explain your deeds." Sam said; a sombre tone in his voice that I had never heard before.
A/N: Sorry it took so long. I just couldn't figure out what to put in this. I'm still not entirely happy with it, but I'll be less happy if I don't get it off my chest.
