The walk to the Park was exhausting, but worth it. Danny liked Ned, even if he thought he was a bit weird. It was obvious that Peter and Ned shared everything, like Danny and Tucker did, because the second Danny introduced himself Ned was bombarding him with questions about what his dimension was like. It was kind of amusing just how excited Ned was to hear about Danny's day to day. The funniest thing by far, though, was when Ned asked him about what kind of technology Danny's world had, and Danny told him about the latest model of PDA that Tucker had been saving up for. The horrified look on Neds face was priceless.
By the time Ned had finished asking his questions and had to go home, Danny had caught his breath, though the walk back to Peters apartment had Danny feeling ready to collapse and just sleep. Unfortunately, he didn't get to do that because Tony Stark was waiting for them.
Danny had sat down on the couch and did his best to ignore Tony, which would have worked better if the man wasn't trying to give him things, mostly clothes. While Tony had dropped bag after bag at Danny's feet he'd also babbled about how Pepper, whoever that was, had said that Tony should apologize to Danny for the way he'd treated him. Tony had then proceeded to say that he didn't think he'd done anything wrong, gave Danny a credit card, and left. After Tony had finally left Danny had collapsed in his, or rather Peters, bed to sleep.
Since that walk to the park with Peter, Danny had been going on daily walks, attempting to build his stamina back up.
As the days went on, he became more comfortable with the Parkers, particularly Miss May, and he found himself wanting to do something for them to show how grateful he was to be staying with them. Since both May and Peter were unskilled in the kitchen, Danny decided that that was something that he could do for them. It would also make sure the two ate more consistently, since they both were rather busy and didn't seem to prioritize food.
Doctor Martin held the phone in her hand and took a deep breath. Asking for things in Hydra was always risky business, but even more so when you were on probation. It was lucky that she was the only known scientist currently working with dimensional rifts, or she'd be dead already. She pressed call and held the phone up to her ear, letting out a breath slowly as she did so.
"Have you caught the subject?" her mistress asked as soon as the phone connected.
"No ma'am, but I have located him."
"If you haven't captured him, then why are you calling me?" The tone was neutral, but Doctor Martin knew better than to assume that her mistress was as calm as she sounded.
"Preliminary tracking shows that it would be dangerous to attempt a capture with the forces I have available."
"What's your request?"
"I need a specialized squadron so we can knock out the subject as quickly as possible. They'd need to work in conjunction with my current forces so that we can do this as safely and swiftly as we can."
"I'll see what I can do. Hail Hydra."
"Hail Hydra!" the phone clicked off and Doctor Martin dropped her hand from her face and took a deep breath. With luck, they'd be ready to mobilize before the end of the week. If not, they'd have to anyway. She was running out of time. She looked at the magazine on her desk and sneered.
"Stark Industries looking into the possibility of other dimensions! More on page 21!" the headline declared.
Wade ran from rooftop to rooftop, leaping alleys and gaps between buildings with a skill born from years of experience. {more like years of faceplanting.} [I think that still counts as experience, in a manner of speaking.] "guys, shut up! I'm trying to be cool!" {you can't be cool if you're a loser.} [cool people don't have pizza face.] "Hey!" Wade shouted, the voices distracting him enough that he missed his next jump and slammed into the edge of the building he'd been aiming for. He scrambled to catch himself, but still ended up plummeting to the ground and breaking both his legs.
{lame.} [well, that was pathetic.] Wade groaned and pulled himself to his feet, twisting the bones back into place as he did so. "You distracted me!" he argued. [you distracted yourself. Watch out!] The warning came too late and Wade found himself pressed face first into the brick next to him, with his arm twisted painfully behind his back.
"What are you doing back in New York, Deadpool?" Daredevil growled at him.
"Hey angel face! It's so good to see you again, are you happy to see me too, or is that just your baton?" Daredevil abruptly dropped him and stepped back.
"Answer the question, Deadpool." Wade turned around to see Daredevil standing in a fighting stance, batons in hand.
"Aw, just your Batons then. That's too bad." [like he'd go for your crater face, even if you didn't annoy him.]
"Deadpool." {did he ask us something?}[yes, he wants to know why we're in New York. I want to know that too, actually. Didn't I say we should stay away from the kid?]
"But if I stay away then how am I supposed to know if he's okay? Your ideas are garbage anyway."
"Wade! Answer the fucking question!"
"What question?" Wade grinned as Daredevil snarled at him.
"What. are. You. doing. in. New York."
"Oh, that question. I wanted to check up on the kid, but he's not in the Stark Med bay anymore, so I'm scouring the city for him." Daredevil sighed and put his batons away.
"The kid's fine. He's staying with a friend until he can go home. You don't have to worry about him." [...He knows where the kid is.] {kill him.} [don't kill him. Just torture him until he tells you where the kid is.] {I thought you didn't want us around the kid.} [I changed my mind. I'm allowed to do that!] "Wade? You're being really quiet." Deadpool tilted his head.
"You know where he is." Deadpool said.
"That's not-"
"Tell me." Deadpool took a step forward, and Daredevil dropped back into a fighting stance. Deadpool scanned him for opening automatically. "Where is he? Tell me."
"Why do you need to know?" Deadpool twitched at the question. {he's not telling us! Break his leg! Look, he's favouring the left!} [No! He's going to tell us. Just give it a minute.]
"I need to know he's safe. Tell me where he is. Now." Deadpool's hand inched towards the closest knife.
"Fine." Daredevil said, and Wade relaxed back against the wall. [see? I told you he'd break.] {yes, yes. You're the All Knowing. Dick wad.} [what did you just call me, you pansy?!] "I'll tell you, but you have to promise to keep your distance." {I called you a dick wad, dick wad.} [you…! You incompatant douche canoe! If I could kill you, I would!]
"I promise that if the kid isn't in any danger I won't even let him know I'm there. Is that good?" {even if you could kill me, you wouldn't be able to, dick wad! [how dare you!]
"That works for me."
Danny had been feeling great for the past two days. He'd been comfortable with the Parkers for the past few weeks, but now it felt like a new energy had filled him. He found himself humming as he put together a simple salad and a sandwich to send miss May off to work with. She had stumbled into the kitchen bleary eye with her hair a mess shortly after he started the bacon, and now she was having a shower.
Peter glanced up from his third helping of bacon and gave Danny an odd look. "You're in a good mood today. Sleep well?" Danny shrugged.
"Maybe. I just feel happy today. You still hungry?" Peter grinned at Danny.
"Nah, I'm good. Are you going to eat?" Peter asked, standing up and putting his plate in the sink.
"Oh, I ate before you guys got up. Do you have your internship today?"
"Yep. thanks for breakfast, but I should be going now. I'll do the dishes when I get back." Peter grabbed his backpack and headed out the door just as Danny heard the shower shut off.
"Don't worry about it!" Danny called after him, but the door was closed before Danny had finished speaking.
Miss May came out of the hall just after Peter had left, with her hair in a tight bun and her work clothes on. Danny held the bag with her lunch in it towards her. "I made you lunch."
"Oh! Thank you so much, sweetheart, but you don't need to do this everyday." Danny shrugged.
"I like helping, and it's not like I have much else to do all day." May smiled at him.
"Thank you. I have to get going now, the spare key is by the door. Have a good day, Danny!"
"Thanks, miss May, you too!" The door clicked shut behind May, and Danny was alone in the quiet apartment. Or, as quiet as a New York apartment could seemingly get. The walls were rather thin.
Danny puttered around the apartment for a few hours, straightening up the living area, washing the dishes. Sitting on Peters/his bed and reading the text books that Peter left laying around. Eventually, when all that got boring, Danny decided he'd go for a walk. He checked the clock before he left. It was 12:14 pm, so Danny grabbed the credit card Tony had given him before he left, locking the door behind him.
As Danny meandered about the streets, he found himself thinking of home. Were Sam and Tucker blaming themselves for his disappearance? Was Jazz? He hoped not. His parents were almost certainly looking for him, as would Sam, Tucker, and Jazz. Did anyone else know he was missing? What were his parents telling people?
These thoughts occupied Danny's entire mind as he wandered, which is why he didn't notice the man following him. He turned down an alley, and then there was a hand pressing into his shoulder and shoving his face into a wall. Danny yelped and struggled for a moment before instinctively going intangible. The man stumbled forward with a startled shout, and Danny felt, simultaneously, a rush of pride for getting out of the mans grasp, as well as a burning pain spike in his core before he dropped his intangibility.
Danny turned to run out of the alley - He was in no shape to be fighting someone right now - and ran straight into a woman with shoulders so broad she blocked out the sun.
"Where're you running off to so quick, little boy?" she asked, her tone mocking. Danny scowled and lifted his chin.
"Oh my god, a talking wall! And it's asking stupid questions!" The woman scowled at Danny and pulled a gun.
"You best be shutting that mouth of yours, if you know what's good for you." she growled. Danny snorted.
"Maybe you should back off, if you know what's good for you, lady" The woman raised the gun and fired at Danny, who went intangible again before flickering back to solid with a pained gasp.
"Watch where you point that thing, you could have-" Danny cut off as the man that had pinned him to the wall earlier tackled him to the ground.
"Ha! That was easier than we were told it would be." the man exclaimed as he wrenched Danny's arms behind his back. Danny wheezed a little, trying not to whimper at how much that had hurt.
"I think you should reconsider what you call easy, cheese brain." a new voice called. A familiar voice. Wade?
Another three gunshots rang out through the alley and the man pinning Danny to the ground collapsed half on top of him. Danny gasped at the sudden pressure before he pulled himself out from under the man and was met with a rather… odd sight. Wade, Deadpool, had a pistol in one hand and a burrito in the other and was facing off against the broad woman.
"You interrupted daddys me time, you naughty girl." Wade yelled at her, somehow managing to take a bite of his burrito without lifting his mask, while firing the pistol at the woman at the same time. "No, you're right, that does sound wrong."
The woman somehow dodged the gunshot and returned fire at Wade with her own gun, which Wade didn't dodge. Danny felt his heart jump in his chest as the bullet punched through Wades burrito hand, spraying blood everywhere.
"Ow! Fuck! Fuck you, bitch! I was going to eat that! Fuck! You've ruined it! Now it's covered in blood!" as Wade screamed profanities he threw his burrito at the womans head, and as she moved to dodge it, Wade fired one more time and the woman dropped to the ground, limp. Danny stared, horrified, as the blood spread from her body. Wade shook his bloody hand and glanced over to where Danny was moving unsteadily to his feet.
"Man, Hydra sure is losing their edge. Why, when I was your age… what do you mean 'duck'? I don't see a duck." Another shot rang out as Wade ducked his head.
Danny felt something hit his chest. It burned. He glanced down. He was bleeding. Did he reopen the scar? Miss May had said that it had healed well, it shouldn't be bleeding. Wade was arguing with himself. Danny's vision blurred. This felt familiar. This was… he'd been shot. Danny stared at the blood that was dripping down his shirt, splattering the ground. He didn't feel right.
"Kid? Kid?! Danny!" Wade sounded far away. Danny tried to tell him that he was alright, but he was choking. The ground rushed up to meet him as the world finally went black.
