AN: Hey Deadpooligans, before you say anything, this ain't the author. It's me! DEADPOOL! And I'm just here for this landmark chapter to tell you, it's the last one. Yes after too many words or pages to be bothered about, the author finally got around to finishing it. It's even two days late. That's how lazy she is. And I'm actually gonna tell you something, I'm not here for the chapter. OH NO! I am here because OF MY AWESOME NEW TRAILER! If you are one of those crazy fans that hang out here and keep following me around, like seriously STOP SENDING ME STUFF, then you should know about this trailer, if you don't, then I might just kill you. Anyway, here is that red band bad-ass-ness that you will all worship: watch?v=FyKWUTwSYAs
Oh, where is the author I hear you say? I have her tied up in that corner over there. She wanted to take the first author's not, and I wasn't having that. I'll let her out after wards. It's been fun reading with ya, here's the last one of them all!
Chapter thirty
It turned out that my stay in the hospital was due to last for six weeks, and during these six weeks, I was to be transported all around the building getting various treatments and rehabilitation for rebuilding my muscles after the severe weight loss had caused them to waste away. It had been caused when I had summoned a whole army of Ice Beasts. It had taken so much power to create them, almost too much for my body to handle, that it almost killed me due to not having the energy to even keep my heart beating. Not to mention, there were incisions all over my body where tissue samples had been taken for experimentation. I had been so close to becoming a test subject for those monsters at Weapon X. I shudder to think of what would have happened if my rescuers had been just a moment too late.
My rescue team. Some team they were. Since Natasha was away doing who knows what as a field agent for SHIELD, she wasn't able to see me but the rest of the guys from the Avengers hadn't come to see me since the day that I had woken up. I had no idea where Logan was, so I hadn't been able to say thank you to him for rescuing me from that godforsaken place, and as far as I knew, Deadpool had just dropped off the map completely. I had fully expected him to be at my side, mocking me at every chance he got. There were a lot of opportunities too. Since I could barely take a few steps without becoming light headed or drowsy, I had been forced to be transported all over the hospital by a wheelchair, despite my utter refusal. However, at no point at all did Deadpool jump it and start laughing at me.
I hadn't even seen Hiss or Drakki since the day I was rescued, let alone Mr. Rhododendron, as animals weren't allowed in the hospital, and I doubted that the staff would let two dragons and a tiger, despite how aware they all were. Without the company of the creatures I loved so much, the seeming abandonment of Deadpool, Logon going off doing god knows what and the Avengers being too busy to even check up on me, I ended up sitting for two weeks into my six week stay alone and bored in a private hospital room.
I sighed and put down my book for a minute. There was no way this could last forever. Someone would come and see me, right? I looked back at the book I had been reading. It was one of my all time favourites and I had read it several times already. I had been enthralled until this point, until this train of thought. I felt no urge to read it any further. I put it on my bedside table. How was I going to stave off boredom now?
The door opened, and I looked up hoping to see a certain red and black clad man appear in the door way. I had already prepared a "why didn't you come and see me" speech, and was about to use it too, until I actually looked at the person coming through the door. It wasn't Deadpool, just the nurse that looked after me.
I looked away disappointedly; I didn't want to see Nurse Horseface right now. Of course, her name wasn't really Horseface; I'd just given her the name due to the fact that one: I didn't like her and two: she had the longest face I'd ever seen on a person and she was all thin and bony, with legs up to here.
"So Ink, how are we today?" She asked as she walked over. She picked up the chart at the base of the bed and read it, despite being the one who last wrote my notes, making the question unnecessary
"Fine, I guess; if you call sitting in a room all by yourself fine." I said, somewhat annoyed.
"Hasn't any one come to see you? Don't you have any visitors?" She said, with the slightest hint of what I thought was a Brooklyn accent, I didn't bother to ask to be sure. When we met she presumed that my accent was from somewhere around London and she asked me to clarify. To me, I felt that a Manchester accent was totally different from a London accent, plus cockneys have all of that slang that does not make one bit of sense. Ever since then, I found myself get a little offended or annoyed at anything Nurse Horseface said to me, and I think she thought the same about me.
"Apparently not," I snapped. I winced; I hadn't meant to sound so mean. I had been told my care workers to always be polite to hospital staff. "Sorry," I apologised.
"Don't apologise, Ink, it's not your fault." She said. She put the chart back at the end of my bed, seems everything was up to date from when she last checked, which was, I glanced at the clock on the wall behind Nurse Horseface's head, about three hours ago. "Don't forget you have a physiotherapy session with Doctor Michaels later today."
"Oh thanks, I forgot." I said, this time I winced mentally at the prospect of the session. Ever since I had woken up, I'd been having numerous different therapy sessions and treatments to help rebuild the muscles in my body. I didn't like the fact that all of this would be added to the bill at the end. As this was the great country of America, health care was not free, I would have to pay for every single session, injection and test that was taken. I would have to endure it, however, as I could barely get out of bed without help. I was so weak! I would find ways of paying off my hospital bill; I had to, if I ever wanted to be the same superhero crime-fighter that I had been before my kidnapping.
I stared out of the window as Nurse Horseface started checking the heart rate monitor, my vital signs and scribbling down notes. She shuffled around the room, ignoring or not caring about the silence between us. That was until she said, "You know, there's been something that been bugging me ever since you came here." I whipped my head around. The nurse wasn't looking at me, just scribbling down her notes, but there was something in her facial expressions that almost looked smug. "There's been these three big... creatures, I guess, that have been wandering around the building for some time now, ever since you got admitted here, actually." She wasn't saying what I thought she was saying, was she? "People are too afraid to even come in sometimes, but the three big creatures aren't doing no harm. I haven't seen them, but I hear that there are two dragons and a tiger." She paused and looked at my bewildered face. She was trying hard to conceal her grin. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that now, would you?"
My face broke into the biggest grin. "You've got to let me see them!" I exclaimed, sitting up quickly.
"So they are yours," She said in surprise, despite the knowing written all over her face.
"Yeah, they're all mine. Hiss is the long snakey dragon, and Drakki is the black one with the blue markings." I said, keeping the descriptions short and simple. "The tiger's called Mr. Rhododendron," my cheeks flushed a little with embarrassment. I wouldn't ever mention that he could talk in here, I would be hauled off to a mental hospital instantly.
"Well, if you and them are good, then maybe we can arrange something." She said. She turned, seemingly finished with her notes, and walked to the door.
"Wait!" I said, I needed to see them now, not later. I pushed my blanket away and swung my legs over the side of the bed. I only wore a baggy t-shirt and PJ pants, but I wasn't particularly worried about the fact that I wasn't dressed to go outside. I was about to follow the Nurse too, but she rushed back and forced me to get back into bed.
"No, you need to rest. When something is arranged we will take you to see your creatures." She said, gently pushing my shoulders back down
"I'm not going to go see them in a wheelchair. They'll hate that, not to mention I hate it." I said, but I let her put me back into bed anyway. I was already feeling lightheaded after moving quickly.
"You have to, otherwise you're not seeing them at all." She said sternly, switching from possible friend to nurse like that.
I sighed and slumped down on the bed. Nurse Horseface left. I decided to pick up the book on my side table, flicking through till I found the page I was on and began to read, purely because there was nothing else to do.
It was an understatement that Hiss, Drakki and Mr. Rhododendron were excited to see me. Uncontrollably ecstatic was more like it. They had almost knocked me out of the wheel chair when they first saw me, on account of them barrelling into me with the goal of licking me to death. Five minutes later they were calm enough to let me cuddle them individually without knocking each other out of the way, as Drakki often did, snapping and growling at each other, something Mr. Rhododendron preferred, or sneaking their whole body around me and cutting the other two out, which was Hiss' speciality.
They were saddened to see me in a wheel chair, but I was sadder to see the scars and still healing cuts that covered Hiss and Drakki's hides. Drakki had three long thin lines that started below the right side of her jaw and curved all the way down to the middle of her chest from where an Ice Beast had raked its claws down her. Her foot had healed, but she always had a slight limp whenever she walked, something which I was planning to fix as soon as I could use magic. Hiss was in a much worse shape than Drakki, due to her tendency to throw herself into a fight without thinking of the consequences. Her wounds were mainly made up of bite marks, some so clear that you could count the amount of teeth in the Ice Beast's mouth. The end of her tail still had a few bandages on due to the face that an Ice Beast had taken a chunk out of it, something else that I wanted to fix.
As for Mr. Rhododendron, I hadn't seen him since Deadpool and I had decided to leave to Canada. He acted like a common house cat, but instead of purring, he chuffed. He rumbled his throat and blew air through his nostrils, which he used whenever he was apologising or greeting me when he wouldn't talk. Even as I scratched his chin and around his whiskers, my mind kept drifting back to that cage I had seen in the Weapon X facility; where everything inside it had been ravaged and ripped to shreds; how the door had been marked with the letter R. It probably meant nothing, I hoped that it meant nothing. Whatever had been in there had obviously escaped and was long gone into the Canadian wilderness, or dead. But I kept thinking: had any one at that hellish place ever experimented on wild animals?
I was only allowed to see them for half an hour, not nearly enough, but I promised them that I would make Nurse Horseface see each and every one of them everyday whilst I was in hospital. Not to mention, I would have to practise getting onto Drakki's saddle and riding her. I probably wouldn't be able to fly with her until a few weeks after my stay ended, but it would be the first thing I would do when I got out: Fly with Drakki.
The second thing I would do was fly Drakki until I hunted down Deadpool and kicked his ass as he had just dumped me in a hospital without so much as a how do you do. It seemed he wasn't my friend any more, and that wasn't something I was going to let slide away easily.
Finally the day had come, six weeks later I was ready to leave. The difference was amazing. I had gone from not be able to walk for even ten paces to being able to run a mile in under ten minutes. I had to admit, I had pushed myself to get better in a shorter amount of time. Even though I was recovered to a point where I could go about my normal life, I wasn't up to the standard as I had been. That meant hitting all of the training classes that I had taken in order to start my life as a superhero crime fighter without being killed along the way.
I had packed all of the belonging that I had at the hospital away in a bag and was ready to go home to my apartment. I flicked and fiddled around with my keys, hmm... home. That sounded nice after being away for so long. The day was cold for the start of February, a balmy -4 degrees centigrade, something that normally could trigger my Jotun self to form, but it had been strictly restricted for a while by my doctors. So in order to keep that from happening, I was wrapped in so many layers that I had no way of changing into a 7'10" alien being spontaneously. I checked my bag, just checking I had everything, despite the hospital room being as bare as when I had begun my stay, it was more out of habit then anything. My phone started ringing, and I jumped as the room had been so quiet.
I smiled when it turned out the be Natasha, I planned on having a bit of a moan about the fact that I had to stay inside for six weeks, but the unusually worried voice of my mum cut me off before I could say anything. She spoke in a hurried, hushed voice. She sounded out of breath, like she had been running or was walking very fast. "Listen, I don't have much time and I've probably put you in danger by calling you, but I have to tell you." She said in one breath. "SHIELD is HYDRA. They've been inside SHIELD all along and you can't trust anyone who says they're part of SHIELD. I'm sorry, Ink, I really am. They've probably tracked this phone call both ways and they'll come to find you. I can't see you yet, I'm trying a way to fix this. Whatever you do, find Deadpool. He will keep you safe."
"Mum, wait!" I said, trying to make sense of all that she had told me.
"I love you." She said. The line cut out and I couldn't reply. I took the phone and stared at it, as there was nothing else I could do as I tried to figure out what Natasha had just told me.
SHIELD was HYDRA? How long had that been happening for? SHIELD, I always made sure that they were the ones who took the bad guys I fought, who always had some kind of super ability, to make sure that the job was finished and everyone would be safer. If HYDRA was inside SHIELD did that make all of my hard work irrelevant; I had been handing bad guys to evil guys. Did that mean that all of hard work had been for nothing? Being a superhero and doing what was right was something I truly believed in.
And Natasha had said how she had out me in danger. SHEILD, HYDRA, had tracked the phone call. Were they coming to find me? And why? It wasn't a secret I was in hospital, and I had no idea about what Natasha was doing. Did they mean to kidnap me to black mail my mum? I felt the searing heat of anger run through my veins. There was no way I was going to be attacked by HYDRA again. There was no way I would ever be kidnapped again. But in this weakened, useless stated, it would be too easy...
I needed Deadpool.
I dialled his number. I put the phone up to my ear to hear it ring. I hoped that this time Deadpool would pick up the phone and answer.
"Hey, I don't know who you are, and I don't know how you found me but – " The recorded message started off ominously. I sighed. I had heard this many ways before and unfortunately there was no way to skip it. "You came to the right place for all of your murdery, killing or generally messy stuff you need a mercenary to do, I'm you guy! Don't forget, don't pay Deadpool, that's me, then I'll come find you and take all of your money and then I'll kill you for the fun of it! I take half in advance and half on completion." He said cheerfully. The phone beeped, singling it was time for me to leave a message, after the very long advertisement for Deadpool.
I took a deep breath before hissing menacingly into the phone, "Look Wade, I don't care who you are or what you're doing but you better get your ass over to Mount Sinai hospital right now because I'm in trouble and I need your help. I need you, Wade. If my friendship really means so little to you then I will pay you in full on completion. Be here, otherwise the consequences will be dire." I said and hung up.
The door opened, and I jumped a mile high. I put my hand to my chest as my heart gave a painful squeeze, but it only turned out to be Nurse Horseface. The tightness took a long time to wear off even though I knew there was no danger, at least, not yet.
"Ink, what are you doing here? I thought you would have been discharged by now." She said in surprise.
"I got a phone call, and..." I trailed off. I looked around. "Look, if I'm going to tell you what happened then you're going to have to close the door." I finished quietly.
Nurse Horseface still had one hand on the door. At my sentence, her face became confused and full with worry. She did glance at the door for a second but her eyes quickly flittered back to me. I stared at her with what I hoped was a facial expression that read "just trust me." She closed the door.
"SHIELD is HYDRA." I said when she walked forward. "HYDRA tried to kill me more than once. I need you to make sure that no one turns up looking for me so say they're from SHIELD."
"What happens if they find you?" She asked, even though I knew she knew the answer.
"Then all of your hard work will be for nothing." I said. I closed my eyes and looked away. I didn't even know if Deadpool would get my desperate, yet angry, plea for help. There was no way I walk away from a fight like this when I was in this weakened state.
I heard Nurse Horseface walk around the room, then she was facing me. "In that case, you may need this." She pressed something into me palm. It was a syringe, with a long sharp needle.
I looked up at her. "Thank you." I said.
"If you tell anyone that I just gave you a syringe I will probably be fired." She said, smiling. I smiled to, also tempted to laugh, but now was not the time. "Stay here and face away from the door. There will be a knock on the door if I need to come in. You'll know what to do if there isn't." I nodded in agreement, my Nurse left. I was surprised at how readily she came to my aid, all of this time I thought she hadn't liked me and I hadn't liked her for my own stupid, petty reasons. I could see know that she cared not just about her job, but about her patients too. I didn't even know her name.
I quickly got into bed, shoving my bag away, drawing the covers up to my head. Under the blanket, I held the syringe like a knife. It wouldn't do much damage unless I managed to stab someone in the neck, but it would sure hurt if I got them anywhere else. I could do this. I would do this.
I waited for what seemed like an hour, I wasn't sure if it was only a few minutes or longer. Adrenalin had started to pump through my body and my heart rate would not slow down.
I heard footsteps, hard against the floor outside my room. They came ever closer to the door, not slowing down. Then I heard them pause, and the door clicked open without a knock. I didn't realise my heart could beat any faster, but it did. It was so loud that even though I kept my breathing even, they would hear it thump away in my chest. I clutched the syringe tighter, my knuckles straining. The footsteps started again, through the door, coming closer to the bed. They were more muffled this time, like they thought I was sleeping and didn't want to wake me. I could bear to have them come any closer, so I leaped up, twisting my body around, but I didn't open my eyes. I was stabbing blindly.
Hands clamped down on my wrists.
I gasped and opened my eyes.
And stared into the eyes of Deadpool.
"Really, lil' lady. A syringe?" He asked bemusedly.
"Wade!" I exclaimed, my fear, my anger, my bitterness all forgotten. I wrapped my arms around him in a hug, finally happy to see him after more than six weeks.
"Hey! Wow, this is nice. For once you're actually happy to see me, makes a change from what you normally are, which is angry of course." He said. I'm sure he was about to say something else, but I realised that I was angry at him. It had taken him six weeks for him to come and see me.
"Wade!" I shouted, now angrily. I stopped hugging him and started hitting him lightly with my fists. I doubted that he even felt it. "Where. Have. You. Been?" A punch for each word. "I've been sitting here for six weeks, six weeks, and where have you been? I thought you would keep me company. I haven't even been able to thank you because you haven't been answering my phone calls!"
"Ah, there's the Ink I know, angry, abusive and totally crazy." He said while rolling his eyes. "So, what kind of trouble have you got yourself in now? You said you'd pay me on completion, and I hope that's true 'cause I just spent all my money on strippers."
"And here is the Deadpool I know, childish, immature and downright vulgar." I said. I got out of the bed. "The trouble is that HYRDA has secretly been inside SHIELD all this time and they might be on their way to kill me right now. I need you to protect me and get me out of here."
"Ah, of course. I never liked those SHIELD jerks anyway. They were always trying to arrest me for murder and put me in a padded room. I wonder why. I'm a lovely person." Deadpool said cheerfully. He was already loading his guns.
I hated the fact that we had to fight our way out of a hospital. We were also closer to the roof then we were to the ground, so we would have to escape on Drakki. She and the other two had decided just to live outside the hospital until my stay was over. I picked up the syringe from the floor; I had dropped it when I went from killing Deadpool to hugging Deadpool.
"Hey, take this, there's no way that toothpick will ever hurt anyone." Deadpool said and took the dagger from the side of his boot and handed it to me. It was red and black, like his costume. It felt weird to have a weapon in my hands again. Fighting with daggers and knives were one of the first things I had been taught to use when Amora had been teaching me how to use weapons with magic. I flipped it a few times in my hands, weighing it and seeing how well it was balanced. It was a very good blade.
Deadpool glanced out of the door. "Ooh, there are a lot of SHIELD guys out there. They're in full combat gear too. This should be easy." He concluded.
"Do you have a plan?" I asked, even though I had one forming in my head.
"Plan? There's never been a plan! Let's just kill some guys and look kick ass while we're doing it." He said.
"Well, yeah, but I thought of a plan. We're closer to the roof then we are the ground, so we'll have to escape on Drakki. This floor's fairly quiet and we're close to an unused stair well. We get to there; we're on the home run." I said.
"Nice, not bad, not the best though either. And what is with you and your fondness for roofs?" Deadpool asked.
"I can kick people off them." I said. In this state I'd be lucky to even kick someone to the floor.
"You ready?" He asked.
"Well, I have a giant medical bill to pay, why not add a few bodies to that count too?" I said sarcastically.
"Oh, don't worry about medical bills, I paid them for you." Deadpool said it like it was a passing comment.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yeah, it was the biggest mistake of my life." He said. I rolled my eyes. "Here, they come," Deadpool closed the door, guns ready.
"Wait, don't kill them." I said.
"Aw, but that takes the fun out of it!" He whined.
"Please, as a favour to me." I said.
"You owe me a lot of favours you know. I want them paid back as dates." He decided suddenly.
"Ugh, fine." I said.
The door opened, and Deadpool and I launched into action. Deadpool hit the but of his gun in to the head of the first HYDRA/SHIELD soldier that put his head through the door. Deadpool then shoved him out of the way and then sent two shots out across the ward, people already ducking and screaming, which hit the two more HYDRA/SHIELD soldiers, either hitting them in the leg or the arm.
We worked together, running through the hospital floor, taking down HYDRA goons and making our way up to the roof. The stair well was empty, but it wouldn't be for long. All ready the lights had gone out as SHIELD shut off the power to the stair well, trying to scare us and make visibility difficult.
I ran up first, as all of the goons came from below, Deadpool covered my back, shooting any one that followed us with a SHIELD emblem on their arm. This was the most I had moved in a long time. It felt good to feel the pull and tug of my muscles, after sitting still for so long. I was really impressed with myself when I managed to kick the door to the roof open in one try. Throughout this time, Deadpool jabbered on about how our dates were going to go or something. I had stopped listening ages ago.
Luckily the roof was empty of any people wanting to do us harm, or just people in general. The wind blew strong, whipping my hair around and stinging my face.
"Drakki!" I called out into the over cast sky. "Drakki!"
"So I was thinking, there's this cute little Mexican place on the corner of this street which would be totally perfect for our first date." Deadpool said. He had changed his mind then.
"I thought we were going to that cute little Italian place on the corner of that street." I said, humouring him. I wasn't sure if this was a joke, or if he really meant to date me.
"Yeah, but Mexican food is way better." Deadpool said.
I laughed, "When I said I'd pay you in dates, I didn't know you would go all out." I said.
"Well you know, you're gonna end up needing favours from me because you can't seem to keep you're self out of trouble. So I thought, why not go all out? I think this will be a very good deal for both of us." Deadpool explained.
"So where ever I go, you're going to be there with me?" I asked with a grin.
"Of course, as if you'd ever manage without me. I don't know how you've lasted this long." Deadpool said. I could tell that he was matching my expression under his mask.
Drakki suddenly soared over the edge of the building, her great black wings beating as she hovered above us, making my hair dance away. She roared before she landed agilely on her four paws. She barked a hello to me and Deadpool and wore the dragon equivalent to a smile, her blue eyes wide and her pupils dilated with happiness.
"Well in that case, you may as well get on." I said, walking up to Drakki and hauling myself into the saddle.
"Cool, I didn't think we'd get to second base until our first date." Deadpool said and got on after me. He wasn't hesitant as he put his hands on my hips. Drakki huffed. She didn't like that Deadpool was coming along for the ride.
Instead of warning Deadpool about what would happen if he moved his hands up or down during any point of the flight, I instead just decided to go with it and be happy.
"At no point make this a slow or easy flight." I whispered into Drakki's ears.
She huffed happily. She stretched out her wings and sunk down, ready to spring into the air for a vertical takeoff, my favourite kind. With one powerful jump and a single beat of her wings, Deadpool and I flew into the sky.
AN: Well I guess I'm lucky to be able to type here after Deadpool tied me up in that stupid corner. I just want to thank each and everyone of my beautiful readers for coming this far with me, and I do hope you enjoyed it. Like Deadpool said, this is the last chapter of Blood and Ink, but don't worry. Deadpool and Ink will be back soon and I will continue this series for as long as you want me too.
Thank you again so much for your support and love. I hope to see you again with my next story.
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