Disclaimer: I don't own Deadpool.

FYI to new readers, the age at the beginning of the chapters shows how old Wade's oldest kids are currently. Since the second movie was released in 2018, this chapter takes place in 2026.

Also, because of the X-Men cameo in Deadpool 2, I have retroactively made Professor X as the younger version of himself in this story.

XXX Chapter 22 Hunting T-Ray

Eight-years-old

Wade grabbed a notebook from his kids' school supplies and brought it back to his bedroom. He flopped onto the couch in his boxers and started scribbling away a plan like he did when he had to rescue Russel from Cable.

Who would be the perfect team to take down T-Ray? He scrawled a cartoon Domino. She held her own against strong foes, but no amount of luck could overpower a zombie. (She'd avoided someone like Juggernaut for a reason). Russell's firepower was a gamechanger, but T-Ray could have fireproofed himself for the next round. Wade knew that he would have, and T-Ray didn't seem like a complete dunce. Besides that, Russell had the invulnerability of a regular human. T-Ray could easily kill him. That left Cable, Colossus, Logan, and maybe another X-Man.

Maybe those X-Men chicks could join him—Storm, Rogue, or Phoenix?

Nah, the fight would be over too soon. Despite his new responsibilities, Wade couldn't deny himself a challenge. Besides that, he knew that Storm, Rogue, and Phoenix sometimes lost control of their powers. He didn't need to get steamrolled by an ally while trying to kill T-Ray.

Oh, wait. Are the X-Men chicks even still available? Didn't their movie take place in the 80's or something? How old are they now? Are they still alive, or did they die in battle or something?

Even Wade (with his fourth wall breaking skills) could barely keep up with all the different universes, characters, and timelines. In all the years he'd visited the castle, he'd rarely spoken to other X-Men besides the professor, Russell, Wolverine, Colossus, and Negasonic. Maybe the others were avoiding him too.

The remaining options were Wolverine, Cable, and maybe Colossus, Negasonic, and Yukio. They would need to make sure their weapons and abilities were strong enough to defeat T-Ray. What was known about T-Ray?

Wade googled T-Ray on his phone. An unusually tall, sickly man had been reported all over the U.S. Sometimes T-Ray went about his business without much collateral damage, but he usually liked to kill for fun. There were videos of him crashing through buildings and pushing pedestrians into oncoming traffic, or grabbing bystanders and throwing them over the length of dozens of buildings. It was like a demented ball game for him.

From what he could find, it looked like T-Ray was strong enough to challenge heroes like Iron Man. That could be a problem. He remembered how his swords cut right through T-Ray, but they couldn't deal any significant damage. Deadpool tapped his chin with his pencil and figured he would need to completely destroy this guy if he was going to win. That meant explosives. That also meant he needed to confront T-Ray in an area far away from the civilian population.

Hmm, if he fireproofed himself from his fight with Fire Fist, then maybe he'd be vulnerable to something like liquid nitrogen.

Wade smiled furiously, tapping at his notebook with excitement. Sometimes I'm so brilliant I amaze even myself! Cable would likely have access to something like liquid nitrogen. He had access to all kinds of weapons.

As Wade scrolled through all of T-Ray's various crimes, he thought about the Avengers again. The Avengers are really dropping the ball here! They must have been more handicapped with the loss of Iron Man, Black Widow, and Vision than he thought. Tony's technology and Black Widow's spy capabilities would have been able to track this guy down by now. And Vision would have been able to kill him. But what about S.H.I.E.L.D. or Thor? Maybe there was someone who was even more dangerous than T-Ray out there, and that was why they weren't taking him down?

As Deadpool scrolled through the comments on news stories, he saw that people were asking the same question about T-Ray. A few comments said that S.H.I.E.L.D. was likely working on a plan to subdue a former Avenger—Scarlet Witch. She'd caused a huge crisis in a small suburban town years ago. The entire place had suddenly disappeared with its hundreds of residents. Wanda had reportedly lost her mind from trauma or something.

Wade hadn't asked to join the Avengers because of how 'morally flexible' he was. After reading about this, he felt a lot better about himself.

Other Avengers members, including Thor, were either overseas, off planet, or on special missions in the U.S.

Well, what about the Guardians of the Galaxy? Wade thought.

A Google search revealed that they were also off planet. Great. I guess I shouldn't expect a deus ex machina situation from anyone.

Despite the lack of backup, Wade felt surprisingly fine. He knew that he shouldn't feel any pride for being the only one (along with a small team) to take down T-Ray, but he did. It made him feel important, like he was needed in this world. When all the other heroes were unavailable, that left him to take him down. It was his responsibility anyway, given his shared history with T-Ray.

Wade took out his cellphone and called Cable.

"What do you want?" Cable asked as soon as he answered.

"What kind of greeting is that?" Wade asked, genuinely confused. "My last mission was a success! I saved that Michelle lady!"

"…You mean Stephanie Singh?"

"Yeah, Stephanie! That's what I meant."

"You almost let her splatter into the sidewalk," Cable accused.

"What do you mean? I had everything under control!"

"Why didn't you just go into the building and stop her from there?" he said indignantly.

"I don't know. Does it matter?"

Cable groaned. "What do you want?" he repeated.

"You know that T-Ray guy who's been terrorizing everybody?"

"I've heard the name before."

"He's the giant pale zombie guy. That's his supervillain name."

"Oh, him? That's a terrible name. But yes. He's terrible for the future, but he's hard to take down."

"I have a plan. I'll need your help."

"You have a plan?"

Wade didn't like it when people insulted his intelligence. Just because he acted like a fool, that didn't mean he actually was one. He was very good at his job. "I'm smart, Cable. Remember my plan to save Russell? It totally worked!"

"I guess it depends on your definition of 'totally worked.'"

"Whatever. Just listen."

XX

It's been a long time since I've updated. It takes a lot of energy to write, but I've been planning out the next chapter and everything.

Deadpool's mortal enemies are more than a little Rated-R, so I'm toning them down.

Deadpool and Wolverine was fantastic! I have rediscovered my crush for Hugh Jackman.

Once again, I'm having problems with the timeline. X-Men Apocalypse takes place in 1983 and X-Men Days of Future Past starts in 2023, and then it travels back in time to '73. Storm is there in 2023. The cameo of the X-Men in Deadpool 2 made it look like Professor X and Cyclops hadn't aged at all. And the events of Wanda Vision take place not long after Endgame. Plus, there were all the X-Men movies before the reboot, so what then? Also, the original X-Men movies weren't very good in my opinion, so I don't think I'm going to reference them at all.