Five minutes later, Iron Man was on his way back to Stark Tower while Daredevil visited the bar. He stepped carefully as he was still exhausted from all the damage. Inside was a massacre scene. Bodies and gore in every corner as if the killer was playing with his food. I’ve never seen anything messier. In the middle of the room lay Frank Castle with a few slashes across his body. He tightly held his gun but was peering at Daredevil.
“Frank, which one made this mess? It’s one of the few bars that will service you.”
“Why you know that Red? He called himself the Wolverine. I must’ve shot his brain or something cause he started acting like the real animal, tore through everyone. I blasted him when he tried to finish me off. Then the fast one came and picked him up.”
“The fast one didn’t try to kill you?”
“Remember that time I slowed my heart enough that you yourself swore that I couldn’t be alive?”
Daredevil smiled and shook his head no. “Good work Frank.” He stepped past the still lying Castle and disappeared in the shadows. He didn’t want to help me up?
13:00
The mutants were hurriedly packing the few things they had into the Deadpool duffle bag. Bullseye watched them by the front door. “How did you guys mess up that bad?”
Namor and Logan were munching on some food as they sat at the table to heal. Namor stated, “we did not mess up. It was Tony Stupid Stark. He got himself invested, I’ll kill him if we see him again.”
“Shut the FUCK up Bullseye,” Logan said throwing a chair at him.
Bullseye dodged it and said, “miss”.
“What are you gonna do about neck lasers??” Kwannon asked. Pietro shook his head.
Wade responded, “we just gotta dodge it next time. Or if we harvest some Wolverine bones, we could cover our necks in it!”
“You’re not harvesting my bones!”
“I’m sure he means the metal on them,” Pietro said. “Kwannon, where did you have the time to buy so much stuff?”
“I didn’t have to spend several hours trapped in a web, loser.” Pietro rolled his eyes.
“So can we just go hunting now? Since you’re afraid Stark will find you here,” Bullseye said.
“Nah, still need time to heal. Barely conscious even right now,” Logan said. “So we’ll go hide in a different place and then lure them all when we want to fight. Alright with you bub?” Bullseye sighed but nodded.
“It okay buddy,” Wade said, “the author found this to be longer than expected so the pacing is going to improve like crazy.”
“…….do any of you know what he is talking about?”
At the hospital, Karen was still alive. “Currently asleep because of the operation they are doing on her,” Foggy told Matt.
“That’s good. I predict the team is going to make it’s final swing at our city in one big attack. By the way, does the name Wolverine mean anything to you?”
Foggy shrugged, “I mean, I don’t see how he could help if he’s all of the way in Canada. Might as well call in Hulk and the Black Panther.”
“What? What do you mean?”
Foggy furrowed his brows. “The Wolverine. The protector of Canada’s wilderness? Matt, you don’t know other superheroes?”
“Foggy, you read me the newspaper.”
“Oh right. Well he’s not like on your level of activity either. There aren’t as many villains in Toronto I guess. His only news story in the Times was his fight against the Hulk. I think he lost but I forget.”
“Foggy…Wolverine and Deadpool are on the same team…!”
14:00
“Really?” asked the mysterious and yet so serious local wizard Doctor Stephen Strange. He is referred to as the local wizard because he helps the Manhattan civilians with magic for whatever problem they seem to come up with. He is a very public superhero, anyone can visit his house. Ever since the death of the previous Sorcerer Supreme, there really isn’t an authority on magic although Strange and his team (Wong, Clea, Drumm) try to hunt down criminal magicians. Loki’s attack on New York also appropriately introduced the world to sorcery. Right now, Strange and Clea looked down on Spider-Man who laid on the couch and was getting smooched by Felicia. “You interrupted my vacation just for me to find you doing what I was doing?”
Spider-Man replied, “Strange, I really like the divorced dad sun shirt you got on but did you wear the cape at the beach?”
Felicia then rose, “Strange…” She retracted her cat claws and approached for a slash. She suddenly froze and turned her head to Clea who had her own arms raised. Strange rolled his eyes. Using telekinesis, Clea raised Felicia into the air and started spinning her around.
“Tell me when to stop Parker,” Clea said.
“Uh like right now.”
“Haha sike.”
“The fuck?” Spider-Man asked. Strange groaned and lowered Clea’s arms.
“Just go put on some clothes,” he said to his lingerie-clad lover.
Felicia hit the ground hard. “Why? I don’t mind Parker ogling me.”
“No, there’s just a stain on both of your breasts. Really freaking me out,” he said. The couch flipped, crushing Spider. Clea giggled and then floated up to her room.
Strange sat on the reclining chair and reclined. The couch unflipped and then Felicia rose. She tried to attack Strange again but his sentient cape wrapped itself around her hands. “Can you…” a glass of wine floated into his hands, “chill out?”
“Not until you remove the curse that allows me to turn into a cat!”
“It was a potion you stole. Live with the consequences. We don’t live in some comic where everything gets fixed in a retcon. Parker, why is there a cab driver asleep in the kitchen?”
“I gave him a sleep potion.”
“Why?”
“Long story short, he seemed to have met the villains and is helping them.”
“How so?”
“Well he’s driven Deadpool to Harlem. He also drove a purple haired girl with some guy to Harlem before they probably killed Luke Cage.”
“Luke Cage?”
“And I’m not finished. He drove those two back to their hotel in Lincoln Square. I only met him picking up Felicia from the airport. Maybe he’s like their New York City contact or something. They are mercenaries and he said he was in ‘all of Deadpool’s best projects’.”
“Wait, did you visit the hotel?”
“I uh know the building. I’d need someone else to help me search which room. Something worse happened last night though.”
“What?”
“…Blackbolt died in action. I don’t know how but they must’ve-”
“Impossible. He’s too fast to be killed, at least in Super Sonic.” Strange exclaimed standing up. Felicia was shocked too.
“Uh, w-what’s that?”
“A fast mode he enters that allows him to move beyond sound. If they have someone faster on the team, that would be the only way to defeat him. Where is Blackbolt’s body?”
“Uh…kind of scattered on 10th Ave.”
Strange opened a portal and flew in. Spider-Man and Felicia exchanged glances. Then he flew back with a corpse pile. “Drumm!”
The man appeared out of the couch, “oh a new body for me!”
“I need you to reconstruct Blackbolt.”
“His soul would have already left by now.”
“I only need his physical body to puppet. It should still be able to move at Super Sonic.”
“Give me a few hours.”
Spider raised his hands, “is that really ethical?”
“The only ethical thing is not letting our opponents be that much faster than the rest of us. Has Stark been contacted?”
“Well he was more available than you.”
Strange sighed and left the room. His cape followed after slapping Felicia. “Jeez, you think he would be ethical after forcing me to live a cat’s life?”
“Felicia…”
“Mrow!” she jumped on Spider’s lap and they started making out again.
Meanwhile, Daredevil returned to Stark Tower and informed them about Wolverine’s presence. Deep in the Shield databases, Fury found purple haired Betty Braddock, a psychic British agent who died fighting the Mandarin years ago. So Tony tried calling the Mandarin.
“What is it, Paste?”
“Paste?”
“You’re pasty white. I decided I might be a bit more aggressive in our talks.”
“That’s just racist. Hey, you ever fought a purple haired Betty Braddock?” Mandarin was quiet on the other line. “Uh, hey Mandy this is a time sensitive thing.”
“Shut up! My lessers were looking for the answer you asked. I have but that is all I can say. Rest assured, Braddock died.”
“I can assume that. You don’t have to reassure me. Listen creep, I wanted to ask what kind of powers she had.”
“…That would give too much away…I’ve handed the world a rose, one with many thorns. You come to the gardener to ask the poison within the thorns in order to discover its original habitat. I tell you, the habitat is destroyed. Take the thorns and die, heathen.” The call ended.
“Huh, went better than usual.” Natasha raised an eyebrow. “Well he didn’t start talking about the decadence of the West or confessing to his future sexual assault of Pepper when he’s done with me.”
“Why can you just contact him?”
“To threaten him! Anyways…”
Over in Beijing, the Mandarin fell back in a loud chuckle. They have discovered my old agent, Kwannon! Betty switched bodies with her since I removed her will to kill herself. But Betty lost her memories due to Formula IV! My beautiful rose, kill the Iron Man! And then I will rape Pepper and bring the white race to its knees!
So anyways, now Stark added Wolverine to the list and dubbed the purple haired girl ‘Braddock 2’. They didn’t have too many reasons on why Wolverine would join the killers but aside from them, Fury decided to contact Weapon Plus. No answer.
Eventually, Frank, Spider-Man, Black Cat, and Strange came to Stark Tower. Also, by now, Madani had left for Washington D.C.
“Big team,” Natasha muttered. “We need bigger.”
“Well hello Strange. Keep your charms to yourself by the way,” Stark said.
“Stark. This time we’ll do things my way so that we don’t die.”
“Funny you say that, this really isn’t my team. And I know you didn’t lead Defenders-”
“Yes I did,” he said with a confused face.
“-so I will be following the lead of the one man who guided us together, Spider-Man.”
“Oh me?” Spider looked around the room of his superhero friends. “Yeah, I guess I spun a pretty good web of warriors!” They all groaned.
Apart from her Black Cat costume, Felicia wore a skin tight black bodysuit and heeled boots. Around her neck was a white fluffy scarf and she wore a leather frame around her eyes. “Oh ew, Devil alert,” she said, spotting him on the balcony. Daredevil faced the city, “Looks like he’s trying to study everyone’s sins”.
“Alright, Park- Spider-Man what’s the plan?” Strange asked.
“Oh uh I mean, since we couldn’t find them in the hotel, I don’t know how we could flush them out.”
“Which hotel?” asked the Taskmaster.
“The La Quinta on 71st.”
“Jarvis!” Tony commanded.
“Fury!” Taskmaster repeated.
“The fuck? Don’t order me around like some asshat motherfucker’s computer.”
“Sorry Fury, twas a joke.”
Daredevil suddenly crossed the room. While Frank was drinking by the counter, everyone else he passed wondered when the fuck did he get there? “Daredevil?” Strange asked.
He didn’t turn his back, “She’s here. Nobody attacks. She’s an ally.” The elevator opened to the Hellcat. She hesitated but Daredevil nodded. She walked in with that awkward white person’s smile. Daredevil turned around, “the Hellcat. She won’t murder but she told me she wanted to help.”
Taskmaster asked, “uh, wasn’t she one of the suspects?”
Daredevil asked, “Did you kill the villains in Rikers?” She nodded. Frank applauded. “Was this in support of Deadpool?”
“Simply opportunistic.”
“Will you hurt anyone on this team?”
“No…I…am inspired by you guys. By the old Captain. But I messed up when I became a super. I just wanted everyone else to feel my pain, my loss. Now I have to sneak out when I’m trying to save the day and no one still knows. After today, I want to be seen as another Defender.”
“Okay. She’s good,” Daredevil said.
The others sighed. Taskmaster exclaimed, “the hell? How can we trust that?”
Daredevil smiled, “you said it yourself, you wouldn’t lie to the Devil.”
“I guess!”
Frenchie now joined the room but avoided the group and took a drink Frank poured. “How are you since way back when, Punisseur?”
“Shit, my name sounds girly in French, Du Champ. Never say that shit again.”
“It’s the same word. Just an accent,” he said with a chuckle.
“Still a smartass…”
Daredevil pointed at Spider-Man, “when we find them, what’s the attack plan?”
“ME!?!”
“Yes babe,” Felicia answered.
“Aw man. Can I do the whiteboard thing Stark?”
“TV is ready. By the way, Jarvis did you find them?”
“Yes, the room was bought under the name ‘Kwannon’. They left after 1 PM but the reservation was only until tonight anyways. Her credit card has been used throughout the city as well. Clothes shopping.”
Taskmaster announced, “Fury’s saying that Kwannon used to be a Mandarin agent. That’s the rose Mandarin must’ve been referring to. Kwannon and Braddock are the same somehow.”
So Spider-Man made a plan of attack. “Strange + Puppet Blackbolt will stall their Speedking. Iron Man and I are on Aquaman duty. His weakness is electricity and his strength is any body of water. Daredevil counters Psycho-Chic with Black Widow. Hellcat, and Black Cat, you guys are on Deadpool duty. Taskmaster and Punisher on Wolverine. Um…who are you?”
Frenchie answered, “oui, I snuck in last night. I am Frenchie from Operation Cerberus. After disposing of the mechant Bushman, I see no reason why I can’t tackle ‘Sac-de-boxe’ Bullseye. I do know his weakness as well.”
“Really? What is it?”
“Narrow-mindedness,” Frenchie said with a wide crescent shaped grin.
tdwriter 