Chapter summary: Please, think of the children! They're often bullies, but seriously, Wade? A gun?

Chapter Two: Safety's Off

The most surprising thing to come from this app was that now even the police were found in small clusters at Pokéstops and Gyms, all with their mobiles out and staring down at their screens. At first Peter had been a wary - and could you blame him with the love-hate relationship the cops and Spider-Man had going on? - but in the end… it really seemed like this was the best outcome anyone could have hoped for. Now instead of seeing every loitering youngster as a suspicious probably-criminal, the men and women in blue greeted them, asked if they were playing, and even gave them support and advice about the little monsters found in the game. He'd seen one fistbump a child after finding out they were both on Team Mystic.

What was even better was that now they were patrolling the stops more frequently, and it made it harder for would-be muggers to set up lure-traps like they had been the first week of the app's release. Hell, crime had, impossibly, gone down, which was absolutely incredible. Maybe Pokémon could actually change the world for the better. Who knew it would happen so fast?

A few of the officers had waved at Spider-Man as he sat perched up on buildings with his phone out. Peter was more than grateful that they at least weren't shooting at him or threatening to arrest him and unmask him.

While he was out patrolling his new pit-stops, he ran into Deadpool again.

Well, no, it wasn't ran into Deadpool again - not like last time. He swung low around the cluster of trees in a playground wedged between neighborhoods and business buildings, and saw something that made his blood run cold. Then it was like gasoline was running through his veins and the spark of anger was a match igniting it all. He had hoped that giving the scene a few more seconds to continue would make him understand what was going on better, that maybe he had mistaken what was really happening, but no, there was no changing what was playing out before him. Deadpool, in full costume, was mugging kids. They looked like high-schoolers, maybe fourteen-year-olds.

"Deadpool!" he boomed just after he landed and began stalking towards the group. The other masked man turned, but Spider-Man's presence clearly threw him off, and if Peter's eyes hadn't been trained on the Merc's gun, then he would have missed the slight falter in his hand.

"I know this looks bad, but I'm gonna deal with these guys." His voice was cold and determined. Spider-Man felt furious with himself for not kicking Deadpool out of his state when they ran into each other a week ago. He actually felt betrayed, even though that emotion had no right to be bubbling up in him.

"Put the gun down or I'm going to make you." Spider-Man's voice could get just as icy and serious as anyone else's.

Deadpool made an aggravated sound and turned away from him, disengaging the back and forth that was clearly getting nowhere right then. He yanked the phone out of the closest kid's hand and then swiped the other three's, and Spider-Man moved to take the mercenary out, but he froze when, instead of pocketing the electronics, Deadpool threw them on the ground and smashed them as hard as he could with his boot. Now it was Peter's turn to falter, because Deadpool spun his gun around his finger that was on the trigger, and then pocketed it at his thigh.

"You fucking do that shit again and I'm not just gonna break your fucking phones, you hear me?" the man-for-hire seethed. The three, who had seemed relieved that Spider-Man had shown up, now only had fear on their faces. They nodded, each one at breakneck speeds, and then Deadpool waved them off. It was like a fire had been lit under their asses and they bolted off, probably towards one of their houses. (They hadn't looked related at all.)

Spider-Man stood still, tense, angry, and confused. "Tell me why I shouldn't take you down right now."

Why was he even giving this asshole a chance? He fully believed that people could change, that the villains who he put behind bars and into the system would take it as an opportunity to better themselves. But not Deadpool. Deadpool didn't change. He may have lowered his body count average for the past few months, but it was true what he had heard people say. The other man always fell back into his old habits, no matter how much he promised he wouldn't. Spider-Man had actually been on the receiving end of one of Deadpool's rambles about how he was trying to be a good guy, a hero. Peter had been suspicious, but after seeing some minor results, he had actually fallen for it.

Deadpool grumbled and turned away. He had the audacity to stretch his limbs like he had only gone for a light jog around the block, and after a few choice words he'd muttered to himself, he raised his voice so that Spider-Man could hear him. (He apparently didn't know Spider-Man had enhanced hearing.)

"Those kids were being cocky little fuckholes, and I ain't about to fuckin' stand here and let them bully anyone."

Spider-Man stomped his way out in front of the mercenary. "So what exactly made you think waving a gun at their heads was the proper response?" He sounded like he was seconds away from decking the taller man in the jaw. Maybe even do it hard enough to break his neck.

Deadpool looked away for a third time and then huffed out, "I don't need to hear that from you."

"Excuse me?" Spider-Man demanded, and his wiry form stretched slightly from him straightening his back even further.

Deadpool moved his head fully to look the hero in the eye and waved his left hand as if to draw a picture in the air. "That wasn't for you, but you know what? I don't gotta take shit from you, either. You come in just assuming I'm fucking up again."

Spider-Man actually did hit him then, making Deadpool stumble back, surprise evident even on his mask. "You were pointing a weapon at children! I don't care what they did, they thought you were going to kill them! I thought you were going to kill them!"

Deadpool shoved Spider-Man back out of his space. "I don't hurt kids."

Peter's eyes narrowed behind his lenses. "Oh, so you have morals, now?" he sniped. Deadpool looked like he was getting even more pissed.

"Yeah, I do. That trio sure as fuck aren't about to pick on nine-year-olds again, now are they?" Spider-Man was seething. How could Deadpool not see the problem with any of this? The Merc started talking again before either of them could escalate things further. "I was playing with the younglings - they were too low level to take on Gyms that these shitheads were taking over just to see them all sad, so I was knocking the Gyms down so they could have a chance, you know? And then the pricks walked up and tricked these kids into handing over their phones, bein' all like, 'Hey, let me see what Pokémon you guys have!,' and shit. Then they purposefully released all of their Pokémon. Like, did it with these fucking smirks and they were so proud of themselves. These poor kids were devastated and started crying. They hadn't done shit all to these fucknuggets."

Spider-Man wasn't honestly sure how to feel right them. It was like a sheet had been yanked over his emotions.

Deadpool, still sounding full of conviction, went on. "So I gave those kids money to compensate, and then I told 'em to run home. I wasn't about to freak them out seeing something like what I was gonna do. That'd fuck 'em up. But those guys didn't feel any remorse. They were still laughing about it. So I wanted to freak them out. They'd probably done this to other kids, you know? Bullies like that don't fuckin' stop until they're scared. So I took an' smashed their phones."

Some wind was taken out of Spider-Man's sails. "That still doesn't make you in the right. You sunk down to their level; you bullied them."

A sharp, sudden laugh came from Deadpool's throat and he held his stomach like it hurt. "You don't fuckin' get it, do you? They weren't gonna stop doing their shit until they got a taste of it back. You saying you would have just let them walk away from doin' that?"

Spider-Man squared his shoulders. "No. But you were still in the wrong."

Deadpool disengaged again, and turned his body a full ninety degrees. "Yeah, yeah, you're above me, I get it. You haven't been through what I've been through, you wouldn't fucking understand. I shouldn't expect you to. You got your way of doin' shit, and I got mine. But you can't tell me I don't get results."

Spider-Man didn't even know what Deadpool had been through. "My life hasn't been sunshine and daisies, either. But I try to be a better person every single day. It's a conscious choice. It's a choice you can make, too. You have to work for it."

Deadpool curled in on himself a little bit. "I ain't an outstanding citizen like you are. We're not the same."

Oh believe me, I know that. Peter had to bite his tongue to stop that from falling past his lips.

"Next time just take their phones. No gun." A pause. "No knives, either."

The Merc actually froze, and cocked his head like a spaniel. It was obvious that he was staring hard at Spider-Man like he'd… oh, done something cliché like grown a second head. "Did you just give me the greenlight to rob people?" he asked, but there was actually a little bit of amusement at the end of his sentence.

Peter looked at the other man's arm. It was easier than looking him in the eyes. "That wasn't…"

"No, man, you gotta commit to your lectures or no one's ever gonna listen to you," Deadpool said, and he sounded absolutely nothing like he had earlier. There was life back in him now, not frigid detachment.

Spider-Man rubbed his temple with one hand. "I want you gone if you're gonna cause any more trouble." Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. This was definitely a shame on me moment for Peter. After a beat, he held out his hand and said, "Give me the gun."

Deadpool, surprisingly, didn't put up a fight and took it back out, turned the safety on, and handed it over. He probably had at least ten more that just weren't on him. Peter tucked it in his shoes that stopped at his calves. His hands were trembling after he was done, memories threatening to overwhelm him. He left without saying anything else, shooting his webbing up at the closest building and climbing up to the roof of it. He wondered when, exactly, kids had gotten so mean to one another - but then he remembered being in school and he realized that they always had been. Also that Deadpool better not even have his holsters next time they found one another.

He was actually fully expecting them to, at this point.