Tight
Dark
Cold
A thrumming sound in her ears.
Not dark, dim.
Tight …everything felt tight.
Something around her neck….
Aly's eyelids fluttered as she took in these new sensations around her. The last thing she recalled was a man in a red suit… Deadpool. She swore the next time she saw him, she would...
Her eyes finally opened. Where was she?
A dark room, a light hanging above her. It looked like a warehouse.
Where was she?
It stank of mold. Equipment of the medical variety surrounded her and lined the walls around her. It looked familiar, but some things looked far beyond her expertise.
"Where the hell am I?!" She yelled, panic reaching its peak in her chest.
"Oh, sleeping beauty finally awakens, does she?" Said a soft, accented voice.
Aly couldn't sit up. Her head darted left and right trying to find the source. Instead, she saw a bald man with a dark jacket. His hands were in his pockets and his smile was poison.
"Welcome, Miss Stark. I assume you want me to say all the boring, cliché things about how if you stay quiet and don't do anything stupid, you won't get hurt. Lucky you I'm not in the habit of lying."
"Don't know about that," Aly commented, "that pretentious outfit and the way you hid in the shadows until I woke up says otherwise."
"Heh, looks like we found another talker, huh?" The man said with a derisive chuckle
"Yeah. I can talk your ear off. Come over, lean close. I'll whisper something sweet, then rip it off with my teeth." Aly responded
The smile grew more poisonous as the man continued to stand there, almost as though he were a cat, and she were the canary he was stalking.
He leaned in close, so close that Aly could smell a sickly cologne emanating off of him. And for some reason…heat.
. "Don't worry. I'm not going to kill you. You're just the bait. But I am not being paid to make sure you stay alive in the trap." He said softly. Aly's skin crawled. "My name is Ajax, and I know we'll get along wonderfully." He said, standing up. He chuckled and walked away, leaving Aly alone once more.
"Ajax sounds fake. Bet he made it up." She said to no one. She knew as soon as she looked at the restraints holding her down that there was no worming her way out of this.
She'd be lying if she said she wasn't afraid. Her family and friends didn't know where she was, she probably didn't have her phone anywhere near her, and that guy was going to hover over her like a vulture. For the first time in a long time, she genuinely felt useless in her situation. The realization scared her even more than before.
She closed her eyes. "Okay, think, girl, think." She said, trying to control her breathing. "You're fucked, but how badly? Gotta get that guy to talk more."
The machines around her did not look like they were helping keep her alive. She blinked her eyes rapidly and felt tired after a moment. Maybe they'd drugged her… keeping her sedated just enough to slow her senses and knock out.
Tony was just pouring himself a cup of coffee when his phone rang.
"Yeah." He said shortly.
"Mr. Stark, this is Officer Lee with NYPD…"
Tony felt his stomach drop and his heart stop. This call was coming from Aly's phone. For a moment, the officer spoke, but he couldn't hear.
"What happened?" He asked
"I said your sister's phone was found in an alleyway. We were wondering if you had any clue of where she is now." Said Officer Lee "We also found your Audi parked a few blocks away."
"She was supposed to be with Bruce Banner, a close friend of mine." Tony said
That's when Bruce walked out of his room, looking tired. Tony snapped his fingers to get his attention. Still groggy, he meandered his way to the kitchen counter.
"Whatever it is I-I didn't eat the last bag of chips." He said
"What happened with you and Aly yesterday?" Tony whispered, phone still to his ear.
"Me and Aly? I was busy all day and night. I didn't see Aly since breakfast." Bruce recalled
He stopped talking when he saw Tony's expression, a sinking feeling in his gut telling him it had something to do with Aly.
That feeling woke him up faster than any coffee he'd ever had.
"What happened?" Was Bruce's question. Tony held up a finger and turned around.
"I... I was wrong. She went somewhere else last night, unaccompanied. And... Okay... Yes... Thank you... But with all due respect, I think we'll do a better job. You can help. Do your thing. But we'll do better. Probably. Hopefully." He said
"Tony. What the hell is happening?" Bruce asked, his voice tight. Tony noted that his friend seemed to be shaking, and his jaw clenched. He vaguely wondered if it would be wise to tell him everything.
"Avengers!" He yelled out. "Avengers! And Mels."
"What's up, Stark?" Clint grunted as he appeared in the doorway
"And now miraculously, I have been summoned by his Stark-ness." Mels said to her iPad, recording live for her podcast, "To think, I'm on the same level as the Avengers! Whatever he needs must be important, catch you later! Goodnight true believers, good night." The stream was ended when Natasha pressed the stop button as she walked past Mels.
"What is it this time?" Natasha asked, taking a seat.
"Guys...Aly is missing...i think she's in danger."
"What the ass?" Mels said lowly. As everyone took in this new information, she slowly backed out of the room to retreat back to her own.
"Whoa, whoa." Clint said, trying to be rational. "Start from the beginning. Tell us everything."
"After the satellite launch, she left to meet up with Bruce, but he never saw her and now she's gone!" Tony said, voice rising to a yell at the end of his explanation. He looked ready to throttle anyone who looked at him wrong.
"Wait... I was in the lab...all night...I didn't even talk to her all day." Bruce said. His voice was still tight and measured, like he was fighting to keep control.
Natasha put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. He felt himself tense under the touch.
"Where'd she go then?" Clint asked
"Her phone was found in an alley, my car was a few blocks away." Tony said, running his hands rough his hair. Natasha and Clint shared a look. Oh, they knew what happened. They knew who took her.
"Welll..." Natasha began "you're really not gonna like this..."
"She was probably kidnapped by a mercenary that has been staking out the tower for weeks." Clint said flatly. He earned a deadly glare from Natasha, to which he shrugged, "May as well tell them now. No need to beat around the bush." Bruce knocked the archer out of his chair, throwing him onto the floor.
"You knew about this!?" He said, no longer trying to steady his temper.
Natasha pulled out a pistol, leveling it with Bruce. "We knew he was watching, but we didn't know for what. He's never had any record of kidnapping. What were we to expect from a gun for hire?" She said, voice steady. Tony opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted.
"Stop! Wait! I must confess something!" a voice sounded.
A man in a red and black suit walked into the kitchen, holding his hands up. He quickly turned to Bruce. "It was me. I was the one who ate the last of the chips!" He looked at Natasha, "And Widow... I'm carrying your baby!" Natasha drew another pistol, aiming it at the man.
"Jarvis? Jarvis what the hell?" Tony said, waiting for the AI's response. Clint pulled out his own pistol. Bruce was readying to redirect his rage.
"Sorry to interrupt everything." The man said, walking out of the kitchen, guns following him, "I just wanted to be included…like a needy little kid. Or Neil Patrick Harris in an awards show." He sat on the back of the couch.
"Who are you, how'd you get in, and what the hell are you doing here?!" Tony asked
"The name's-" the man started, but Clint interrupted him
"Freaking Deadpool." He said, "What the hell have you been up to?"
Deadpool let out a nervous laugh. "Well...funny story about th-"
He was cut off by Bruce putting a hand around his throat. "Where is she?" Bruce's voice had taken on a worrying double bass.
"You know, you should really take a throat lozenge for that." Deadpool said. Bruce only tightened his grip. "Okay okay look. You can kill me, but you can't kill me. I am unkillable, in every way. Believe me. I've been known to experiment, especially with a few different partners."
"Start talking. Or I will tear you apart." Bruce's voice was a low snarl now, and he was concentrating very hard on not losing control.
"Then loosen your grip and raise your pitch an octave." Deadpool responded. Bruce tightened his grip, then finally let go. Deadpool gasped, and heaved, falling backwards onto the couch.
"Ha. Huh, oh, this is nice." Everyone heard him say
"Talk!" Bruce yelled. Deadpool propped his head up on the back of the couch, folding his arms under his chin.
"Sure thing, darling." He said, "big shadow boss wanted girl, paid me to get the girl, then suddenly, the biggest bag of dicks named Francis turns out to be alive when I already killed him in the head, and double crossed me. So I'm going to make him quadruple crossed when I double cross him and bring you guys in to find and rescue the girl!"
"How d'you work that out as a quadruple cross?" Natasha asked curiously.
"Math. Two doubles make a quadruple. Duh." Deadpool said
A bullet suddenly found its way in his neck, throwing him off the couch and onto the now broken coffee table.
"Someone has to clean that now. Thank you, Natasha. You killed the one guy who can help me find my sister." Tony said
"Yeah, I mean, who's going to help him now?" Deadpool said, still lying on the table.
"He's still alive!?" Tony asked in shock.
"Weird, huh?" Deadpool said, propping his head up on one hand.
"Remember that bag of rotting dicks i mentioned earlier?"
Everyone nodded tersely.
"Well, this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down..."
"Skip to the end, or the next one goes through your head." Clint groaned, cocking his pistol. Deadpool sighed and stood up. He stretched his back and rubbed his neck.
"Me and Francis were part of experiments. Now, neither of us can really die." He explained, "Well, he can. He did. But he didn't." Deadpool pulled the bullet out of his neck and dropped it on the floor.
"As fascinating as that is, you still haven't told us where Aly is." Bruce said, resisting the urge to ask questions about what was done to make him that way.
"Welll...about that..."Deadpool drawled, keeping an eye on the guns that were-quite rudely, in his opinion-still cocked and aimed at him.
"Talk, before i empty a clip into you on principle." Clint said, at the end of his rope with the mercenary.
There was a moment of awkward silence. Deadpool cleared his throat.
"I said 'about that'! That's your cue to show up now!" He said loudly
"What-" Tony started. Deadpool held up a finger to silence him. Bare feet ran to the living room.
"I heard yelling and gunshots! What the hell is going on here guy-" Mels said, freezing at the sight.
"Who the hell are you?" Mels asked.
"I'm the guy who was paid to kidnap your best friend, who now wants to help get her back." Deadpool responded. Mels raised an eyebrow then looked at Tony.
"Okay, who is this freak Show?" She asked
"That's Tony Stark, Hon...do you know where you are?" Deadpool just couldn't quit while he was ahead.
Mels looked ready to yell.
"Mels-" Tony started.
"Tony, I got this." Mels responded. She inhaled deeply and glared at the strange man. "Where'd you even get your outfit, the dump?" She walked towards him.
"At least I have more color coordination than you, rainbow dash." Deadpool replied. Slowly, he walked towards Mels.
"Oh ho, you clop much brony?"
"At least my hair can't be mistaken for tin wool."
"At least I don't sound like I have a dick in my mouth."
"At least I have a wife."
"Are you trying to compensate for something? I can imagine you are with those two long swords."
"Oh blow me."
"With all that hot air, you can blow yourself and blow up a doll for yourself."
The two stood toe to toe, Mels glaring at the man who was taller than her. Even with a mask on, she felt he was glaring at her. Deadpool snorted a laugh and looked away.
"You know what, I like you." He said
"Want some coffee?" Mels asked
"Sure. Make it fast. Exposition needs to happen." Deadpool said to the woman's fleeing form.
"Your time's running out, Deadpool...you'd best tell us what you know about where the girl is before the Doc here loses his cool." Natasha said bluntly.
"Actually, fuzzy in the kitchen knows where she is." Deadpool said, taking a seat on the couch. As if on cue, Mels quickly returned with a cup of coffee in one hand, iPad still in the other.
"That's my-" she started
"Special blend? Good! Now you should really tell everyone your secret ingredient in your blend." Deadpool said, taking the mug
"I have no idea what you're talking about. But how would you know anyway?" Mels said nervously
"I know everything...I'm psychic..." Deadpool said before lifting his mask just a bit to bring the coffee to his mouth.
"I find that hard to believe." Mels said flatly.
"Yeah…might be psycho…I always get those confused."
"Mels." Tony said. "What do you know?"
Mels looked at the Avengers, clinging to her iPad. She couldn't make eye contact with Bruce.
"Uh..." She started, "Well, you know. Tracking is what I'm best at, my nanotracers can go undetectable. And uh..." A loud slurp came from Deadpool as he drank his coffee without taking his mask off.
"I put tracers in your coffee." Mels said quickly, before holding paddy up in front of her face.
Suddenly, the assassins' guns went to Mels.
"Tell us exactly how you track us and why you didn't tell us." Clint demanded
"My system runs on a private cloud behind literally one hundred fire walls. Basically Paddy-" Mels shook her iPad, "-and I will be the only ones to find you. How it all works is a trade secret, but I only did it because I was scared, okay? Because I was scared somebody was going to go off on their own or get kidnapped. I was scared something exactly like this was going to happen!" Mels explained, "But I swear, this tech will not fall into the wrong hands. They'll have to pry it out of my cold dead hands! But please don't kill me!"
"Promise me no one can hack your signal and find us...swear." came Natasha's steely voice.
Mels lowered Paddy and looked Natasha in the eye.
"I swear." She said sternly, trying and failing to mask her fear. Natasha and Clint lowered their guns, still looking at Mels with suspicion.
"The secret ingredient of your coffee?" Bruce questioned
"Yeah." Mels answered, "But they're harmless. Completely harmless. Promise."
"Then where the hell is my sister!?" Tony yelled
"I'm trying! The system running everyone's tracers is still booting up, and with all of us in one place, I can't get a lock on her."
"Try Vancouver." Deadpool commented
"Vancouver? Why would she be in Canada?" Clint asked, giving Deadpool a look that clearly said he thought the Merc was full of crap.
"Just a hunch. Francis is a creature of habit, so he'd bring her somewhere familiar. Try Vancouver." Deadpool said
Mels tapped on her iPad, focusing on Canada, British Columbia, Vancouver. One little red dot shined, registering a heartbeat.
"There she is." Mels said, partly amazed Deadpool was right, partly proud her system worked. "What kind of building is it..." enlarging the image of where her friend was being kept brought more surprise. "Guys, you might want to see where she is." Mels turned the pad around to show the "building" to her friends, and Deadpool.
"Is that a..." Bruce trailed off.
Tony snatched the pad away to get a closer look.
"A helicarrier." He said. Natasha pulled it closer.
"A destroyed hellicarrier." She added
"Yeah, partly my bad, but it was already kinda destroyed before I got there." Deadpool said
Mels pulled paddy away.
"Why would she be taken there, though? Do you know who has her?" Natasha asked
"Francis! The bane of my existence, the spandex wedgie I get on cold nights, the fly in my coffee, the British villain in my movie, but not the British villain in anybody else's." Deadpool groaned
"So this Francis guy has her...but why? Is he working for someone or did he just randomly wake up and decide he didn't like Tony...'cause I'm sure he wouldn't be the first." Mels said, throwing the joke in to attempt to lighten the mood. Was she imagining things, or did Bruce's eyes still have a green tinge?
"Sorry, you must be level 20 to gain part of that information. The other part, Francis is working for someone else. I don't ask questions though. I just get paid." Deadpool explained
"Listen, Wade-yes, I know your real name-Aly means a lot to alot of people...any intel you can give us will help." Mels said earnestly. "You must know something helpful."
"Told you everything you needed to hear." Deadpool said, raising his hands
"Ohhh, no..." Tony said, a very dangerous voice. "You're gonna help us get her back...You're gonna tell us all about this Francis character...If not, well...I'm a smart guy, I have lots of tech...we'll find a way to make you killable."
Everyone was shocked. Tony had never in their memories spoken like this, straight up threatening someone.
"Whoa, easy." Deadpool said, holding his hands out to Tony. "You wouldn't want to kill me. Actually, you won't kill me."
"What makes you say that?" Bruce asked
"Cause I have a hostage." Deadpool said
He quickly scooped Mels up over his shoulder and darted out of the room.
"JARVIS, Lock the tower down, NOW!" Tony roared, pressing a button on his watch that sent his Iron Man suit flying towards him. Within seconds, he was encased in his armor and rushing out the door.
"What the hell man?!" Mels yelled, bouncing on the mercenary's shoulder
"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. I'm just making sure they don't kill me!" Deadpool said
An alarm sounded through the halls, red lights were flashing around them. Deadpool stopped.
"If I was a hangar, I would be..." he said
"I feel sick." Mels commented before Deadpool kept going down a different hall.
"Sir, they're heading for the hangar." Jarvis reported
"Alright, let everyone else know, too." Tony responded
There was a roar that shook the tower.
"Uh oh." Mels said as they stopped again.
"I don't like the sound of that...D'you think they're gonna find a way to blame that all on me?" Deadpool asked conversationally as he continued running with Mels over his shoulder
"Well, they're not gonna blame it on the weather!" Mels responded
Just then, the floor above them seemed to shake, and, it what seemed to be an explosion sent pieces of the ceiling flying everywhere. Standing in front of them, looking decidedly unhappy, was the Hulk.
"It's an honor to see you, Mr. Hulk. But I bet you didn't count on..." Deadpool reached into a pouch on his belt and threw a handful of sand at Hulks face, "pocket sand!" Hulk rubbed at the sediments in his eyes.
"Tactical retreat!" Deadpool turned around and ran. Hulk roared and charged after. Mels screamed at the sight before they ducked into a stairwell.
"I don't suppose there's a super-secret way to calm him down, is there?" Deadpool asked wistfully. "Like...is there a giant bottle of Xanax somewhere?"
"No, not. Just... no." Mels said, still in shock.
"Alrighty then." Deadpool said, "Then what would get us to the hangar fastest?"
"Ummm..." Mels started, beginning to feel the blind panic bubble up. "Thatwaskindathewaytothehangar" she blurted out all at once
"Behind the green machine?" Deadpool said loudly
"Yep."
"Then we go up and down through the hole he burst through." Deadpool suggested
Just then, the door exploded with a green fist going through it.
"Whatever! Just RUN!" Mels screamed
That's when they found themselves running in the air. Looking up, Mels realized they'd been picked up by Iron Man.
"Superman?" Deadpool asked
"Drop the nerd." Tony said
"Excuse you!" Mels said. The Hulk roared again below them, climbing the stairs. "Don't drop the nerd!"
"Yeah...That's problematic" Tony commented. He dropped them both on the roof of Stark Tower.
"How are we gonna not get killed?" Mels asked, arms around herself to stop herself from shaking
"Well, you're not the one getting killed today." Tony commented, aiming a repulsor at Deadpool.
"You sure about that?" Deadpool asked
Mels looked down to her left. The blade of a katana was hovering close to her neck, she looked down to her right and saw the second in a similar position.
"Like I said before everything went south, I told you everything you needed to hear. What you want and what you need are two very different things. But I am willing to make a deal. I'll let this fun fuzzy genius live to help us track your sister and save her, in exchange I get my chance to help you guys out and kill Francis for good." Deadpool explained. The Avengers were beginning to realize that whatever experiments had been done on Deadpool had left his sanity questionable at best.
"Done." Tony said. "Not like I have much choice, huh?"
"To be honest, I thought that would have been harder. Now, exactly, how do you stop Ruffalo from rampaging?" Deadpool asked, sheathing his swords
"Hawkeye and Banner developed a tranq arrow, so hopefully that works...and doesn't just piss him off more..." Tony explained
As if to punctuate his sentence, an extremely loud, extremely angry roar shook the floor below them followed by a screamed curse and footsteps running up the stairs to the roof.
The Hulk burst onto the roof, a number of darts embedded in his shoulders. He took one look at Deadpool and charged at him.
"Oh boy." Deadpool sighed
The mercenary was grabbed and tossed like a rag doll.
Tony knelt by Mels. He gently pulled her pad out of her hands.
"So, how are you?" He asked
"I..." she started, before she threw up at Tony's feet.
"Better now, I think." she replied. She surveyed the Hulk as he pummeled Deadpool. "He's gonna feel really bad about this..."
Seeming to come to a decision, Mels stood up on shaking legs and shouted for all she was worth. "BRUCE!"
The Hulk turned, eyes falling on her, Deadpool's head enclosed in one of his hands.
"Bruce!" Mels shouted, trying her best not to show that her knees were shaking like crazy. "Beating the crap out of Deadpool is not going to help us get Aly back...you need to focus."
She tentatively took a few steps towards the monster. She looked down when he let out a low growl. She paused and took in a deep breath, and held out her hand to him, before she looked up into his eyes.
"Please." She said softly
The Hulk regarded her hand for a second, his facial expression softening ever so slightly. He held up his humongous hand, allowing Mels to put her hand on it. It was positively tiny compared to his. She kept her face neutral. Suddenly, the Hulk began shaking, and pulled away from Mels, walking towards the wall as he seemed to shrink.
Deadpool was dropped unceremoniously on the ground. Mels ran past him to see the monster become the man once more. She gently started to pull the darts off of him. Tony watched in curiosity. Perhaps the darts weren't the only way to calm the Hulk down. Might want to work on that some more.
"Okay big guy, let's get you to the couch...but maybe into some pants first..." Clint said, hefting the semi-conscious Bruce to his feet and bringing him inside
"But as soon as he wakes up, we're going to Vancouver." Tony added quickly
"I'll arrange a Quinjet." Natasha spoke up. She pulled an IPhone out of her pocket after holstering her pistol. Hawkeye joined them from his perch on one of the high spires at the top of the Tower.
"Good." Tony said, walking over Deadpool to Mels. "And you're coming with us too."
"Okay." She responded, still dazed by everything that had happened within the hour.
The next time Aly woke up, it was to see Ajax standing over her with a particularly nasty looking smile. There was now an IV in her right arm, and for some reason, she was fairly certain it wasn't there for her health.
"Thanks, but I've had my flu shot already." Aly commented
"Keep up that sarcasm, love...maybe someday you'll be as brave and tough as you make yourself out to be." Ajax's voice was as silky and unaffected as ever as he loaded a syringe
"Let me go and I'll show you how brave and tough I can be." Aly responded. Ajax chuckled before Aly finally felt whatever serum he'd just injected her with enter into her body. It felt like lava oozing into her. The burning sensation lit up every nerve, spreading from her arm into her heart and out to every system.
"What the HELL did you just give me!?" She asked through gritted teeth. She was determined not to give this monster the satisfaction of seeing her in pain.
"A little chemical cocktail, similar to what I have already been experimented on with. But don't worry, it's only the first few hours that feels the most painful." Ajax responded with his mouth voice
"Or...so I've been told." he said with a poisonous smirk. With that, he turned on his heel and strode out of the room. Leaving Aly to feel as though she were burning from the insideout.