Chapter eighteen

I stayed absolutely still. I knew someone was watching me. My body went into automatic. Although I was practically shaking with terrified anticipation, I forced myself to stop and feel. The air had changed. I felt the hairs rise on the back of my neck. I felt the world around me zoom as adrenalin started to filter into my blood. I felt I could hear every little movement in the forest around me. I felt myself become panicked. My breath wanted to come in quick and short, but I forced myself to calm down and focus. My heart sounded like the heavy beat of war drums, thrumming in my rib cage and pounded in my ears.

But behind all of that: behind my breathing; behind the pounding in my ears; behind me shaking with fear...

A twig snapped.

"Nononono..." The voices muttered on.

"Oh, shut up!" Deadpool shouted to himself. He paced around the small cabin, itching to do something and yet unable to do anything. "Who knows, she might be perfectly fine."

"Then why don't you go check?" Italics asked.

"Well what if she is ok? I'll have to explain... stuff." Deadpool argued. The reason was garbage, and he knew that.

"Ink saw your SHEILD profile, and they know everything. She knows everything and she doesn't care." Bold reminded him.

Deadpool kept pacing. He knew what could be out there. He also knew Ink could handle just about anything. If he did come looking for her, and she was ok... she would be mad at him. But that might be better then what he could find... or couldn't find.

He would wait. If Ink wasn't back in half an hour, he could go look for her.

If there was anything left to look for.

Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods. I wasn't alone. Something was hunting me. Someone was hunting me. I should calm down. If it came to a fight, I needed to be as clear headed as possible. Panicking alone in the woods wouldn't do anybody any good. Who knows, it might just be an animal: an animal that knows how to change tracks and lead someone further into the woods. Oh gods, what was I going to do? Fight, I had to fight my way out.

I closed my fist. Magic crackled into life around it, manifesting as sparks of blue lightning until my fist was a ball of blue, sparking electricity. I drew Yggdrasil around me, fuelling my magic. It would only sustain me for so long. And I was running on an empty stomach. I had no doubt that whoever-it-was was going to attack. I could feel it in the air.

But I was tired. So tired of fighting for everything I wanted. I fought so hard to keep the things, the person, I loved the most but they had always been taken from me. However, this wasn't something that I could control. I just had to knuckle down and bear it. And I would. There would be no more &%£* #/ around. No one was going to &%£* with me anymore.

I knew what I had to do. I would need to choose one manifestation of magic. I knew which form of mine was most powerful. Me as a Jotun. I would have to fight as hard as I could in my Jotun form for everything I had, everything I loved and everything I had lost. There would be no more fear from me. If I walked away from this, I was going to help as many people as I could. Asgard could go to hell for all I cared.

The whole forest turned quiet. All creatures had fled this part of the woods. No birds tweeted, no insects made a noise and nothing moved through the brush.

CRACK!

Something smashed into my side, sending me flying over to the right. I hit the snowy ground so hard my teeth sang. My ribs were screaming out in pain. I almost couldn't move because of it. Magic flooded in around me, surging up to protect me from my attacker. I blinked and raised my head. The world was slightly fuzzy. I shook my head, trying to get the world to stop spinning. I staggered to my feet, it felt like at least one of my ribs were broken. How could they be in this much pain?

I looked around for my attacker, half blinded from pain. Nothing could prepare me as something slammed into my throat, lifting me into the air and pinned me to the tree behind. I couldn't breathe. My hands clawed at what was around my throat trying to get it off. I needed air. I was being strangled. My consciousness was slipping. I opened my eyes. I had to get away. If I had any breath I would have gasped.

Sabertooth, Lady Deathstrike and Omega Red were attacking me. Sabertooth was grinning as he pinned me against the tree. Lady Deathstrike was cackling at my position. Omega Red's coils that looked like they were made out of some kind of metal writhed above him. They were attacking me. Why were they attacking me? I didn't care anymore. I saw red. I let my Jotun form burst out.

I gripped Sabertooth wrist as he yelled out in pain. My blue skin was so cold, the frost-burn I gave him turned his skin black. It cracked as sizzled. He let go of my and I slammed into the ground. I gasped for air. I let my magic flowed around my body, repairing my strangled throat.

Sabertooth staggered away from me, clasping his ruined hand. Lady Deathstrike wasn't cackling now. No, she was eyeing me evilly as her hands turned to elongated claws, they became razor sharp. I steeled myself. If they wanted to take me on one at a time, it would be their down fall.

I could barely register the strike as Lady Deathstrike lunged forward, angling those huge claw to pierce my heart and pin me to the tree. I jumped sideways, catapulting myself out of the way. Lady Deathstrike's claws sank into the tree behind me. She let out a howl of rage. She sounded like some kind of ravage monster than a human.

Omega Red was next. He didn't seem to move his body, though those coils of metal contorted above him. I prepared for any kind of attack he could throw at me. Just my looking at him I could tell that he was going to use the tendrils of metal. They surged towards me. I leapt back just in time as the coils slammed into the ground in front of me.

I heard Lady Deathstrike let out a feral growl. She had gotten out of that tree then. She hissed as she came to my side, swiping with her claws. I wasn't fast enough to dodge this one. I howled as her claws severed the skin at my stomach. It was where the ice armour didn't cover me. This couldn't go on forever. I could handle one mutant. Not three.

At some point I managed to register that Sabertooth's howls of pain turned into howls of anger, but I could barely register anything as I fought for my life. It all depended on the sequence I found myself repeating over and over again. Doge. Punch. Kick. And then dodge again. I didn't have the energy or the time to summon any kind of weapon. Instead of manifesting in shy sort of way, my magic fuelled my muscles, making me that much stronger and faster, but also for a shorter amount of time. I had to finish this fast otherwise my magic would finish me.

Sabertooth returned to the fight. Two attackers turned into three. My stomach was bleeding everywhere; my ribs were begging me to stop. I had numerous, countless other cuts all over my body, inflicted by the claws of Lady Deathstrike. Sabertooth lunged. I hissed and staggered out the way as he missed me, his claws sinking into the snow.

I couldn't do much more. My arms had wrapped around my torso, trying to staunch the bleeding. My blood was a deep blue colour; it was steaming, reacting to the earth air. This wasn't good. I was nowhere close to winning. My magic was waning, there wasn't much left to give me. My reserves were being burnt out. I had never drained my magic this much before. I hadn't had time to ration it. I could still feel Yggdrasil, but I couldn't stop what was to happen next.

Strong, steel like ropes came out of nowhere and coiled around my waist. They fastened my arms to my torso. They felt like they were squeezing the life out of me. I felt my feet lift into open air. Panicking I sent frost all the way down Omega Red's coils, but it didn't do anything.

Omega Red saw what was happening. He laughed as I heard a crackle of electricity. I couldn't see much. Black clouded the edges of my vision; he was squeezing all of the air out of me. Then I felt the air change.

The pain hit.

It was a thousand times worst then what I had already endured. It was energy and it should have fuelled my magic, but it didn't.

I screamed. Anything I had left was being drained.

I couldn't feel Yggdrasil anymore. I couldn't feel anything. I felt truly, utterly alone.

All light faded. My eyes rolled back into my skull.

I was dropped onto the ground, limp and lifeless.

And in that moment, I was dropped into unconsciousness.

Deadpool POV

"Ink," Deadpool started. "I'm really sorry about what I said..." He trailed off.

"No, that's not right." Bold said.

"Who cares? She's probably going to kill us before we can even say a word." Italics commented.

"Oh would you shut up? You just make everything worse." Bold said.

"Me? I make everything worse?" Italics asked, sound very annoyed. "Meh, I suppose your right."

Deadpool sighed. He kept his eyes on Ink's tracks in the snow. He could see the tracks of her boots clearly. He could see how she had walked. First in a huff, then she had relaxed as she had gotten further away from the cabin: further away from him. He kept staring at her boots. He noticed that her right foot pointed outwards compared to her left foot, which was perfectly straight. He would have to tease her about that later.

It hadn't snowed yet, so Deadpool had to find her before it did and her tracks where gone forever. It had been a couple of hours since Ink had stormed off. Any number of things could have happened. Ink was probably already back at the cabin. Deadpool wasn't worried. No, he wasn't worried. He was just bored. Yeah, that sounded right. He was bored.

So why was he intent on following Ink's tracks? Why was he so focused on finding her?

He honestly didn't know, and it was bugging the crap out of him. He grumbled; Ink was really starting to get on his nerves. And she wasn't even there!

"I think I might slap Ink when I find her." Deadpool mused aloud.

"Woah, do you want to get a kick in the nuts?" Italics asked.

"I have a feeling that she is going to do a lot worse than that if she finds us." Bold remarked.

All three of them imagined what Ink would be like when they find her. Mad? Raging? Furious?

Wait all of those words meant the same thing.

"You're an idiot." Bold said.

"She might be some of those things." Italics said.

"I think we're going over the top with this." Deadpool said. "We've know Ink for a long time know. She's probably cooled off by know. We've known her for so long and she's never been angry for this long before."

"We really haven't known her that long." Bold said.

"When were we hired to kill her?" Italics asked.

"Some time mid-September wasn't it?" Deadpool asked. He wasn't really sure. He had giant gaps in his memory. Everything was kind of fuzzy before he met Ink.

"Yeah, it's December now isn't it?" Bold replied.

"oooh, I like Christmas." Italics said. "We get presents."

Deadpool smiled slightly at Italics' comment. The only presents he had gotten since he had put this mask on were from himself. He couldn't really remember the time before he was Deadpool, but he was pretty sure it wasn't a good one.

Deadpool stopped, frowning at the tracks in front of him, or rather the lack of. I looked like they had been scrubbed away and covered up. Why would Ink do that? The answer was simple.

She wouldn't.