Chapter 109: Chapter 109: Deathstrike's Fitting Demise
Wade and Agent Zero's fight had spilled onto a suspended walkway.
Sharp dagger blades carved multiple wounds into Wade's regenerating flesh. "Little psycho! Get over here and help!" he roared, frustrated. The walkway's narrow steel railings prevented Wade from fully utilizing his twin katanas, putting him at a disadvantage. Without hesitation, he leaped off the walkway, choosing to continue the fight in a more open area. Agent Zero followed close behind, vaulting over the railing.
WHUMP!
"AAAGH!"
A steel rebar, seemingly out of nowhere, impaled Agent Zero directly through his lower body, front to back.
"I've been waiting for you," Alan said, materializing out of thin air, a smug grin on his face.
"So you were invisible, looking for a chance to ambush him!" Wade exclaimed, realization dawning on him. He then casually swung his katana, cleanly severing Agent Zero's head.
While the two had been fighting furiously, Alan had come up with a brilliant plan. He'd gone invisible, found a suitable piece of rebar, and waited for the perfect moment for his enemy to impale himself. In that instant, Agent Zero must have felt a burning pain in his backside, followed by the image of his great-grandmother waving him toward the afterlife.
"It's your lucky day, kid," Alan boasted, "to die by my hand."
"He's definitely coming back from Hell to settle the score," Wade muttered, imagining the sheer humiliation of such a death.
Alan had held back, saving his strength for the inevitable challenges ahead. The two continued deeper into the base.
In the control room, Colonel Stryker's face was grim as he stared at Agent Zero's lifeless body on the monitor. Agent Zero had been his first successful creation, and his absolute loyalty made the loss all the more painful. He glanced at the expressionless Asian woman beside him. Clad in black leather, her eyes were vacant, as if devoid of soul.
Stryker pulled out a syringe and injected its contents into the back of her neck. "Kill them," he commanded.
Alan and Wade wandered into a laboratory. Alan's eyes fixed on a bubbling pool of molten metal in the center of the room.
"Adamantium!" It looked like bubbling cement, but Alan recognized the legendary metal that had transformed Wolverine.
"That's the stuff in Logan's bones?" Wade said with disgust. "Looks like vomit after too much cheap booze."
"Should we inject some into ourselves?" Alan suggested, intrigued. "We could become Adamantium Deadpool. I think it has potential."
"You first, Adamantium psycho." Wade had no desire to inject adamantium into his own body. He liked himself just the way he was.
Technically, Wolverine had a healing factor, while Deadpool had a regeneration factor. If adamantium replaced all of Deadpool's bones, it would actually weaken his ability to regenerate.
"If I had a healing factor, I'd have already injected it into my dick," Alan said, a regretful look on his face. He then turned to Wade's katanas. "Give me your weapons. I'll enchant them for you."
"What are you going to do?" Wade asked, confused, but handed over his swords.
Alan carefully dipped the blades into the molten adamantium, then pulled them out, shaking off the excess. The blades were now coated in a thin layer of adamantium, far surpassing the strength of ordinary weapons. Adamantium bullets could injure Wolverine; now Wade's swords could do the same.
"This is awesome!" Wade cried, gleefully taking his weapons back. He swung them a few times, testing their new feel. He was very pleased with his upgraded katanas.
"Shit! It's the T-X!" Alan exclaimed, suddenly noticing an enemy standing in the doorway.
"That's Lady Deathstrike," Wade corrected him. Deathstrike did, in fact, have the same haircut and similar outfit as the T-X, just in a different color, which led to Alan's misidentification.
Before Alan could ask how Wade knew her, she moved with terrifying speed, charging towards them. Long, razor-sharp claws extended from her fingertips, much like Wolverine's.
"She's all yours. I don't hit women." Alan wisely backed away, explaining that fighting an enemy with a powerful healing factor was too costly for him. He wasn't about to lose eight hundred health points just to inflict zero damage on the enemy.
The fight between Wade and Deathstrike was a brutal exchange of blows. Neither bothered to dodge. Wade's slashes connected, and Deathstrike's wounds healed almost instantly. In return, her adamantium claws repeatedly pierced Wade's body.
"She's copying me!" Wade yelled in frustration. Alan watched the horrific scene, the constant piercing and tearing of flesh, utterly appalled.
"Little psycho! Pin her down! I know how to finish her!" Alan had an idea. He remembered that in the movie, Logan had killed Deathstrike using the adamantium, and he wanted to replicate that.
"I'll try!" Wade assessed the situation, strategizing how to control Deathstrike.
Deathstrike, silent throughout the fight, was completely under Stryker's control, her free will suppressed, reduced to a mere killing machine. Seizing an opportune moment, Wade kicked her, sending her stumbling. Before she could recover, he plunged his sword into her palm. The blade went all the way through to the hilt, and Wade then used his weight to pin her down.
"I'm here!" Alan, who had been preparing his makeshift syringe, stepped forward, a perverted grin on his face.
PUUUUSH!
Deathstrike suddenly turned her head.
The three of them were frozen in an awkward pose. Deathstrike was bent over, Wade was riding on her back, and Alan was behind her, the syringe already deeply embedded in her.
"Don't look back," Alan said, his voice sickeningly sweet. "I'm Doctor Alan, and I'm giving you a shot."
A moment later, a viscous, metallic liquid began to ooze from Deathstrike's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Her body stiffened, maintaining its awkward pose. Under normal circumstances, adamantium was surgically bonded to the bones. Injecting it directly into the flesh would turn a person into a solid block of metal.
"That evil woman is stubborn," Wade spat, giving her a frustrated kick. A brittle crack echoed through the room. Deathstrike, her flesh now replaced by adamantium, had become an iron statue. Wade's kick had been too hard, and he had broken his own leg.
Meanwhile, Illyana had teleported to the area where the students were being held. Rows of stasis pods were neatly arranged like cargo. Her sudden appearance immediately drew the attention of the soldiers. Her magic shields deflected their bullets as she quickly closed in and dispatched them.
She then examined the stasis pods, realizing they were powered by an external source. With a quick slash of her Soulsword, she severed the power lines to a section of the pods. The stasis field flickered, and the mutant students within slowly began to wake.
Among them were Ellie and Pietro.
"Ellie, block the entrance! Pietro, find Kurt now!" Illyana commanded.
Ellie's body immediately burst into flames, creating a wall of fire that sealed off the entrance. Pietro vanished in a blur, searching for Nightcrawler. Kurt, with his teleportation ability, could transport multiple people and even objects. Many of the reserve X-Men had trained for such emergencies and worked together seamlessly, each performing their role in the rescue operation.
In the control room, Stryker watched in fury as his test subjects prepared to escape.
"Sir, Sabretooth and Mastermind have defected!" a soldier reported suddenly, hitting Stryker like a bolt of lightning. His most capable enforcers had betrayed him, taking his own son, Mastermind, with them. Rage boiled in his chest.
"You all die!" With a grim resolve, he flipped open a panel and pressed a large, red button.