Holding Back - 24. Chapter 24

It’s different, seeing New York City from a jet rather than seeing it from swinging around between skyscrapers shooting webs. Peter’s sitting next to Nightcrawler. He doesn’t look great, but Kurt Wagner’s a pretty resilient guy. He’ll heal.

Behind them, Logan is having a chat with Domino, planning their attack.

‘West entrance’s our best bet,’ Logan says. ‘Seems to be the least heavily guarded. We take out the guards, quiet as we can, give Spider-Man the chance to access the electrical grid and cut the power.’

Peter turns around. ‘If your schematics are right, we’ll have about thirty seconds for me to hack the alarms before the backup power comes back on. I can’t promise that’ll be enough time for me to do it. We have to be prepared for a real fight.’

‘Well,’ says Domino, ‘you’re agile, Wolverine is strong, and I’m really fucking lucky. And once we get in, there’s Deadpool.’

Logan shakes his head. ‘We have no idea what kind of state Wade will be in when we find him. For all we know they’ve been blowing his brains out every hour since they caught him.’

The thought makes Peter sick to his stomach, and he turns away. The thought of Wade being in that much pain . . . that’s the thing. They can torture him as much as they want, and he will never die.

Logan seems to realise his mistake. He approaches Peter and puts a hand on his shoulder. ’Sorry. We’ll get him out, kid, I promise. And he can take it. You know he can.’

Peter nods, not trusting himself to speak.

‘We’re almost there,’ says Nightcrawler. ‘Get ready.’

It seems insane, breaking into the AMDL’s headquarters with just the four of them, especially since Nightcrawler’s wounded and literally only coming along so they can make hasty escapes if need be.

It’s a reckless plan, but it’s the only one they have.

Logan gives his shoulder a squeeze and steps back. ‘Okay. So we take out the guards, cut the power to the building, get inside, Spider-Man disables their alarm system, and we get Wade.’
It sounds easy. Peter knows it won’t be.

*

A fist impacts into Wade’s stomach and he wakes up with a gasp. He must have passed out. Since Daken left, it seems his guards are no longer under orders to ignore him. Two of them have been keeping him company the past half hour (hour? Hard to tell), and without anyone holding them back, the bigots are more than happy to hurt him.

One of them tried to strangle us.

Ah, that’s right. Lack of oxygen to his brain, that’s why he passed out.

‘Ow!’ he groans. His left shoulder’s severely dislocated, and several of his ribs are fractured. He can feel the bone knitting back together. It hurts, but no more than he can take.

‘Awake again, mutie bastard?’ one of his assailants growls. He’s wearing the same uniform the guys from the other night did, all black, minus the balaclava. He has pasty, pockmarked skin. Another punch knocks the air from Wade’s lungs and he coughs. ‘Ugly freak!’

Wade scoffs. ‘That’s rich. You’re almost as ugly as I am.’

The other guy laughs. He’s dressed identically, with a darker complexion and blue eyes. Pasty growls and pulls back his fist, ready to strike again.

All at once, the room is plunged into darkness. Wade can hear more than see his guards grip their rifles tighter.

‘Power cut?’ Blue Eyes says.

‘Stay alert,’ Pasty replies.

‘Yeah, you guys, stay alert,’ says Wade. ‘It’s probably my rescue team coming to kick your asses.’

’Shut the fuck up!’ Pasty snaps through the darkness. Wade feels the nozzle of his rifle against his stomach. Then there’s a bang, the bullet ripping through his insides, and Wade groans in pain. ‘Next word out of you, I’ll shoot your fucking dick off.’

Yeah, let’s not have that happen. Sounds unpleasant.

Oh, it’ll grow back out eventually. Still. Ow.

A moment later, the lights come back on. An alarm starts blaring from somewhere, and his guards turn their attention on the door. Blue Eyes puts two fingers to his ear. ‘Fuck! We’re under attack.’

‘Told ya,’ says Wade. Blue Eyes is running towards the door , rifle held tightly in his grip.

‘I thought I told you to shut up!’ Pasty snaps and turns around, but before he can aim his rifle at Wade’s crotch, Wade has pulled himself up (his dislocated shoulder complains by shooting pain through his arm), and aimed a two-legged kick at the guy’s head. He falls back, dropping his gun and hitting his head on the concrete floor. He stays down.

Blue Eyes points his gun at Wade, eyes wide and an expression of panic on his face. Clearly, he was not prepared for this. Any of it.

Before he can shoot Wade, the alarm dies, and then there’s the distant sound of gunfire. A voice comes through a speaker:

‘Intruders at the west entrance! Need fire support!’

There’s a commotion outside. There are shouts, several gunshots, some very loud thuds, and then silence.

The door bursts open. Wolverine punches Blue Eyes in the face, and then there is Peter, disarming him with his webs. The guard crumples to the floor.

Our Peter’s come to rescue us!

Wade grins inside his mask. ‘Took your sweet time.’

Yeah, like, what, two years? How long have we been hanging here?

Doesn’t matter! Petey’s here!

‘I’m really glad to see you guys,’ Wade tells them. ‘You came to rescue me! You all care! You’re my friends!’

Domino picks up Blue Eyes’s gun and stands guard by the door, peering out into the hall. Kurt appears next to her with a BAMF! He’s not looking so good, but better than he was last time Wade saw him.

‘Sorry about the delay. Couldn’t just come charging in without a plan,’ says Logan, while Peter approaches Wade.

‘Except for the part where we just came charging in without a plan,’ says Kurt with a shrug.

‘Good thing all the bad guys are normies.’ Domino flashes Wade a grin. ‘Hey, Wade.’

Peter’s reached him now. He pulls a stool over from the wall, climbs on it, and proceeds to open Wade’s manacles. He’s yet to say a word, which should worry Wade, but at the moment he’s just so happy to see him he can’t even be mad at Logan for roping his boyfriend into this suicide mission.

Wade drops to his feet, grateful to have them planted firmly on the floor again, and before he can say anything more, Peter’s thrown his arms around him, and is holding him tight. Wade hugs him back. His wrists are sore, he’s pretty sure one of them is fractured, but that’ll heal in a minute.

‘Man, are you a sight for sore eyes,’ he murmurs into Peter’s shoulder.

But then Peter lets go, and lands a punch squarely in Wade’s jaw.

‘Ow! What the fuck?’

‘You are such a dick!’ Peter shouts at him. ‘What were you thinking, just leaving in the middle of the night without even saying anything? You ever do that to me again, I fucking swear . . .’ He trails off, and then he’s put his arms around Wade again, and Wade wants to kiss him so badly, but he know Peter won’t want to take his mask off, so he contents himself with grabbing a handful of ass. Peter swats his hand away.

Man, Peter’s hot when he cusses.

Peter’s hot when he breathes.

‘Enough, you two,’ says Logan gruffly. ‘We don’t have time for this, we got to get out.’

‘Shh, someone’s coming!’ Domino hisses.

Logan cocks his head, listening. ‘Well, shit.’

‘Oh yeah,’ says Wade. ‘I should tell you a couple things. First, they’re not all normies, and second—’

Domino leaps back just before two long bone claws can slash her across the chest. She aims the gun she’s holding at Daken as he steps into the room.

‘It’s a trap,’ Daken finishes. ‘Hello, Daddy.’

‘Ugh, do you have to make it sound so sexual?’ says Wade.

Anything can sound sexual when Daken says it.

It’s his voice. Liquid sex.

‘You can shut up now, Wilson,’ says Daken. ‘Actually, you can all leave, if you want. As long as Wolverine stays.’

‘No fucking way!’ Domino’s finger is on the trigger.

‘No,’ says Logan. ‘You should go. He’s my responsibility.’

‘Fuck that,’ says Wade. ‘You just saved my ass, I’m not going anywhere.’

‘Fine,’ says Daken, retracting his claws. ‘Boys!’

Six guys in black kevlar burst into the room carrying assault rifles. ‘Drop your weapons, mutie bastards!’

‘Kill them,’ Daken orders. ‘Leave Wolverine to me.’

Wade has time to say, ‘Kurt, get out of here!’ before the man closest to him empties his magazine into Wade’s chest.

‘Oh no, you don’t!’ Before Wade has time to stop him, or do much of anything, Peter has jumped into the fray. He’s disarmed the guy who shot Wade before he can even blink, but there are five other guys with automatic weapons in the room.

Where are our weapons?? Fuck!

In video games they’re always conveniently stashed in a chest somewhere in the room.

Think the author plays video games?

What else do you think they’ve been doing for the past two and a half years?

Wade looks around the room. There’s a footlocker over by the far wall, but there’s a lock on it, and anyway, it’s hard to get to at the moment. Domino’s shot one of the guys five times in the chest, but his kevlar is holding. Kurt took Wade’s advice and is nowhere to be seen, but then he appears briefly on the ceiling before disappearing again in a puff of smoke.

The odds are two to one, then. Wade likes those odds.

With no swords and no plan, he rushes at one of the bad guys with a loud battle cry. Wrestling him to the ground, he manages to tear the gun from his hands and turns it on him, aiming at his exposed face.

Spidey won’t like it if we kill him.

‘Fuck! You’re right.’ Wade flips the gun around and strikes the side of the guy’s head with the stock, knocking him straight out.

Peter is fighting the one he disarmed hand to hand, but there’s another behind him, aiming his gun at him, and this time Wade takes aim and fires a volley at the guy’s face. Then there is no face.

‘Oops.’

These pack some serious firepower.

‘Yeah, I should get me one of these.’

Two down, four to go.

Domino downs the guy closest to her with a swift kick to the balls before elbowing him in the throat. He crumples to the floor.

Three to go, his brain amends.

In the middle of the room, Logan and Daken are circling each other. Daken appears to be monologuing again. Wade can’t hear what he’s saying over the scream of the guy whose arm Spider-Man just broke, and honestly he doesn’t much care.

A bullet hits him in the back, and he turns around, leaping at the guy responsible and punching him in the throat.

All in all, it only takes about a minute to dispatch these guys. ‘Really?’ Wade yells, interrupting Daken. ‘This is what you’ve got to throw at us, baby Wolverine? Six measly fuckers with rifles?’

It gives Logan the opening he needs. He kicks Daken in the chest, sending him sprawling. He lands at Peter’s feet, but is soon up again, and swipes at Peter with his claws. Peter’s reflexes are too quick for him, though, and he jumps back at the last moment, landing a kick to Daken’s pretty face. Daken swipes again, this time striking true, and he tears a gash in Peter’s arm. It’s not deep, but it’s enough for Wade to see red.

He aims the gun he’s still holding, and shoots Daken in the throat. He falls to his knees, gasping. Dropping the gun, Wade takes three strides over and kicks him hard in the head, and he crumples sideways, and is still on the floor.

‘Wade!’ Even with the mask on, Wade can sense Peter’s disapproving look.

‘Relax. His healing factor is almost as good as mine. Fucker’ll live. Right, Logan?’

Logan heaves a heavy sigh. ‘Better get him to the school. We can contain him there, at least for a while.’ He gets to one knee and picks up his son in his arms. Daken is taller than his father, but also slimmer, and anyway, Logan is strong as fuck.

‘Well, that was kind of anti-climatic,’ says Domino, also dropping her weapon.

‘Eh, the writer just wants to get to the smut.’

Domino quirks an eyebrow. ‘What?’

‘What?’ Wade echoes.

It’s true, though.

We wanna get to the smut, too.

Wade walks over to the footlocker, shoots off the lock, and right enough, there he finds his swords, his guns, and his belt. ‘Ah, predictable bad guys.’ He straps his gear on and turns to the others. ‘So, we getting out of here?’

‘Gonna wipe their servers,’ says Peter. ‘Delete the info they have on us, and other mutants and inhumans.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ says Domino.

‘I’ll head to the jet. Kurt’s probably there,’ says Logan.

‘What if he wakes up?’ says Peter, nodding at Daken.

Logan shrugs. ‘He’ll be out for a good half hour. Meet us at the jet when you’re done.’

*

There aren’t a lot of thugs left in the building, and those who are there are quickly dispatched. They find a computer in one of the rooms, and as Peter hoped, it’s networked. He feeds it a virus, and then they head out to the jet.

‘So, your place or mine?’ asks Wade as they exit into the night air.

‘I’m still mad at you,’ Peter snaps. ‘You don’t ever do that to me again, you understand?’

Wade hangs his head. ‘Yeah. Okay. I just . . . They hurt you.’

‘Yeah, and now they’ve hurt you too.’

‘I can take it.’

Peter rounds on him. ‘Well, I can’t!’ he snarls.

‘. . . I’m just gonna go ahead,’ says Domino and turns away from them at a trot.

Wade stares at Peter for a few moments, head cocked to one side. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I can’t take not knowing where you are, what’s happened to you, whether you’re hurt or . . .’ Peter swallows, looks away. ‘I know you’re hard to kill. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be hurt. They could have tortured you, or . . . Fuck, don’t you get it, Wade? I fucking love you!’

Wade takes a hesitant step towards him. ‘I’m sorry. I hoped . . . I mean, I thought I’d be back before dawn. I would have, if not—’

‘Save your excuses,’ Peter says. He feels exhausted, drained. The cut in his arms is bleeding, and he’s still healing from his other injuries. He thinks he may have torn a stitch in his shoulder.

Wade’s voice is small, quiet. ‘I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. I won’t . . . Just, please, don’t leave me.’

Peter looks at him then, closes the distance between them and pulls him into a tight embrace. ‘Oh, God, Wade. Of course I’m not gonna leave you!’ He reaches up, removes Wade’s mask, and rolls up his own, so he can kiss him. Wade kisses him back like his life depends on it, hugs him tight and lifts him off his feet.

When they pull apart, Peter takes Wade’s hand. ‘Come on. Let’s go home.’