mirrorball

The cold air creates clouds out of his breath, they pillow out in front of him before slowly disappearing. It’s getting into the colder months. Soon there will be a sludge of black snow lining the highways, everyone will be dressed head to toe in winter attire, and lights will be placed against every building. Peter will probably take to wearing sweats and jackets over his Spider-man suit, probably patrol less.

Funny enough, crime goes down the colder it gets. Not much is worth leaving the warmth of your house. He wishes it was a continuous thing but the holidays make up for the lack of crime with their increased spike. Too many people inebriated, fights with family, the whole nine yards.

He'll probably be out the whole night this year. He used to go home to May after only a few hours of patrolling but now, there doesn’t seem to be a reason to. Going out vs. Staying in doesn’t really bode well for an argument when there’s not really a debate to it. He doesn’t want to be trapped in a small apartment with no one when he can go out and help people.

His spider sense sends a small alarm ringing through his body. He’s quick to look behind him but calms at the sight of a mixed red and black suit. Deadpool sits humming a Christmas Carol under his breath, quietly inserting himself next to Peter. His legs swing back and forth off the tall building they’re sat perched on.

“Whatcha doin’?” Wades masked eyes are weirdly expressive as they stare at him. Its almost like he’s fluttering his eyes at him. It always freaks him out a little. He pushes his face away, a small grin forming.

“Waiting, watching.”

“Okay, crime stopper, there’s nothing happening.”

“Isn’t that supposed to be a good thing?”

“Maybe for you, I’m bored enough to make things interesting.”

“Bored even though you’re with me?” Peter raises an eyebrow, a small smirk tugging his lips.

“D’aw, you’re so cute to think that’ll work.”

“It’s not?”

“No, it is. I just want you to keep going.”

A laugh breaks free from his lips. “You’re so stupid.”

They had become somewhat friends a couple years after the Statue of Liberty incident. Their differing morals were cause for strife in the beginning of their friendship. It led to some amount of fights, words that led to fists. It didn’t help that both had the strength and healing to back them up in said fights. Deadpool taking up a life mostly kill free vigilantism was him waving the metaphorical white flag. After that, they were thick as thieves. Though, not close enough that Peter would ever give up his name. It’s not Wades fault, or anything he’s said or done, Peter just feels overly cautious after the last time he gave someone he thought was a friend his true name. He would feel a bit bad about it if Wade hadn’t offered his even after being rejected by Peter.

Their friendship definitely gave the Daily Bungle more ammo against him in their smear campaign against Spider-Man. Wade had found it funny, the way he was called a menace to society. Calling the podcast and blog blind for their harsh judgements of Spider-Man. It was okay for Peter, he had thought, the more they talked about him the more money it led into his pocket. Pictures worth a pretty penny.

A scream piercing the air jerks him out of the easy conversation they’d been leading. Peter’s head snaps up, quick to follow the sound. He knows Wade will only take a few seconds to follow.

The buildings pass by in a blur but he’s only focused on the near silent pleas that followed the scream. He makes his way to a warehouse, it would look almost abandoned from the outside if it wasn’t for bright lights streaming out the windows.

Peter peers in watching as a women pounds on glass panels, screaming and begging to be released. Two men stand around her, clipboards in hand. Another women is sat next to a computer, looking between what’s on the screen to the girl. Looking in doesn’t provide him a view of the front door, so he doesn’t know who could possibly be blocking it.

He slowly pushes the window open, sticking to the shadows high above the rest waiting below. Their voices filter through the air, questions bouncing back and forth between the three of them and a mumbled conversation between guards.

“We should do it now.” The women’s voice echoes over the room. Her blonde hair fixed into tight bouncy curls, glasses rest on the bridge of her nose. She’d look almost sweet if it wasn’t for the women she has currently trapped like a lab rat.

“It’s our only subject, aren’t you a little scared of what could happen?” One of the men shoot back. He's short and stout, a comb over hiding is balding head. “We should wait, study it more before-“

“We have a deadline.” The last man cuts the other off. He’s tall with a beer gut, his hair dark brown and curly. “We don’t have the time to wait anymore.”

Peter had been too distracted by their conversation to notice Wade slowly inching into the hide out. He stands behind the guards that had been having a mumbled conversation. Once he does notice it takes Peter only seconds to slowly crawl above, nodding his head to him. He grabs one of the guards, webbing his mouth shut and wrapping him up before letting him hang from the ceiling. Wade knocks the other out with the handle of his katana.

They slowly work on the rest while the scientists argue. It isn’t until they’re all almost tied up or knocked out before they catch on to what’s happening.

Gunshots fill the air, bullets whizzing past Peter. He webs up the guards coming at him and trusts Wade to handle the rest. He fights to reach the girl still locked away, ready to break her out and get her away from here. He punches at the glass cage, slowly shattering it. Her back faces him in an attempt to sheild herself.

He hadn’t noticed when he had been watching but in the middle sits a rectangle box, a black slime ball sits inside of it. Moving back and forth almost like a liquid. Peter stares at it, entranced by the way it looks and almost feels alive.

His spidey sense jerks him back to reality. The woman in the container had run for cover away from the glass box. All the guards taken care of along with the two male scientists. Just the blonde woman left, yelling at Wade and holding a hand over the button on the computer.

“Take a step near me, I dare you.” She breathes out heavily.

“Woah, how about we calm down a little bit.” Deadpool holds his hands up, “there’s really no need to be hasty.”

“You’ve ruined it all,” she growls out. “We were about to get everything we needed and you’ve ruined it!” Her voice ends in a shriek.

“Maybe don’t use people as your very own lab rats? You probably wouldn’t have problems then.” Her head snaps towards Peter, a wide manic grin spreads across her face.

“You’d make a wonderful test subject, thanks for volunteering.”

Everything happens in a only a few seconds. Her hand slams on the keyboard, releasing the black ball from its container where it then attached itself to Peter. It absorbs into his skin, leaving no time to even try and pull it off.

Deadpool runs at her, knocking her out with a swift hit.

“What the fuck was that?” Peter stares baffled at Wade.

“I don’t know.” Wade looks towards the other girl, her brown eyes shining. “Do you know what this is all about?”

She vigorously shakes her head. “They didn’t tell me anything, just stuffed me in there and said they’d get results that way.” Her lip trembles, her hands wringing together.

“That’s okay, we can figure this out. For now, let’s get you some help, okay?”

She nods.

Peter can only be so worried about what’s inserted itself into his body when there’s someone there that needs their help. He pushes past the anxious feeling of unknown and works on finding anything that can help him figure out what the hell is happening.

He half listens as Wade talks the girl into calling the cops. He’s busy digging through their files to find anything on the black goop currently infecting his body but almost everything they’ve jotted down says unknown.

They don’t know where it came from, what it is. They know that it can jump host to host and that sound is apparently a weakness but nothing else.

A hand touches his shoulder, he glances up.

“We gotta get out of here, the cops are down the road.”

A frown tugs at his lips, a worried glance towards the girl.

“Let’s go up, we’ll make sure they get to her.”

Peter climbs to the top of the warehouse, watching as the girl stands on the gravel in front. He shoots a web down to Wade, pulling him up when he reaches the top.

“Do you know what that was?”

He shakes his head, “their computers had nothing. This was probably a desperate attempt to make progress.”

He can feel the worry radiating off of Wade. A sigh pulls from his lips and he shakes off the chill lingering on his body.

“They did leave a few notes but nothing that can help seriously. Maybe buy a dog whistle for the next time we meet up.”

“Why’s that?” Wade tilts his head.

“Apparently, it doesn’t like a certain frequency of sound.”

“That’s…useful.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” He shrugs his shoulders. “Better me than her, yeah?”

Wade squints at him, disagreement lining his body. “I don’t know about that.”

“I don’t feel any different right now.” He pauses, contemplating. “I’ll call you if anything happens, alright?”

“Pinky promise?” He wiggles his pinky in the air, lips pursed behind the mask. Peter sighs before wrapping his pinky around Wades.

“I probably will head home for the night, hope for the best.”

“Remember to call me if anything changes.” Peter waves a dismissive hand at him before webbing away.

A tiredness overtakes his body as soon as he pulls himself through his window. It’s nights like these that make him feel grateful that his bed is so close to everything. He pulls off his mask before stumbling over to his bed. He doesn’t fumble to pull the blanket out from under him, feeling damp sweat line his brow and gather under his arms.

A voice that’s not his own echoes in his mind.

You’re the one I’ve been searching for.