Chapter Text
If you asked Peter, he would say he doesn't know better, but he does. He 100% knows that trusting one Wade Winston Wilson was a recipe for disaster. Nothing good ever came from blindly (or not blindly) following Deadpool. Yet time and time again Peter would subject himself to whatever bullshit his father felt like getting into.
'Why would he do that?' You might ask well, the answer was quite simple: boredom. Peter's greatest weakness, besides the cold, high-frequency noises, and allergies, was his hatred of being bored.
His boredom was what led Peter to agreeing to join his father to return some favor to Logan. Peter doesn't know, he wasn't paying attention. It didn't seem important at the time. Past Peter has absolutely no regrets about that decision to space out. Present Peter however is very upset with past Peter for being a dumb little bitch and not listening.
"So, I'll be honest with you. I was not listening earlier. Why are we here?"
Here being some underground, rusted, rundown, cavern, laboratory, thing. Peter couldn't help but feel on edge. A constant nag at the base of his neck.
careful. slow. near.
He moved another piece of broken support beam out of their way as the pair continued their journey deeper into the lab. Hideout? Bunker? Honestly, Peter didn't know what the place was. It was hidden underneath some old donut shop that has long since ran out of business. It sorta reminded him of those vaults from the Fallout games he liked to play.
"I owned Wolvie one. He had been meaning to come check this place out, but since this place has been deserted for a while now he's been pushing it off. Pretty sure that's just some poor ass excuse to go chasing after married redheads though. He did say that their Intel states this was once a research center and testing facility for a group that was affiliated with Hydra. They had been closing in on the group when they all suddenly disappeared. Guess they caught wind of Shield moving in on them. Dunno why they didn't just search and recon the place then.. Bunch of dumps. Tsk tsk tsk."
Peter rolled his eyes. "Shouldn't be surprised. People are incompetent and lazy. Someone should probably tell Wolverine to stop thinking with his dick too, he's not gonna get the girl."
"Seriously! Like she ain't want you hunny boo-boo" Wade said in his sassy accent while mimicking the trouple snap without actually snapping his fingers. Peter really appreciated that.
It wasn't until they reached the main testing area that Peter's Spider-Sense™ started to intensify. "Stop." He directed and Wade followed, or well- Wade listened.
Cautious. Don't touch. Bad. Gone.
"Why are we stopping? Do you know what's going on? What's that little 'ol Petey-tingle tellin' ya?"
" 'm not sure. Feels bad. Don't touch anything."
"Not even this big red button? It looks so pressable! Just a little baby poke?"
Peter's neck snapped over to his father, who was literally JUST beside him and was now instead across the lab and in front of some large, totally inconspicuous bright red button.
"Dad." Peter threatened.
"Yes, my dearest Honey Munch?" He sang-song.
"No touching. My senses say it's bad news. We don't even know what the button is for."
"No more touchy-touchy?" His dad whined like some child who just had their candy stolen.
"Dad." He reiterated
"Fine! Fine fine fIiiIinnnNnNe." Wade pouted as he held both hands above his head and moved away from his spot. Instead of worrying Peter by messing with a weird, out of place button, Wade started going through the filing cabinets and looking at the different types of weapons and devices that were lying around. Just another oddity of this facility.
"Sometimes I feel like we have our roles switched and I'm the parent here and you're the insufferable child." He teased as he stepped around fallen debris as he made his way over to what he assumed to be the main computer.
"Does that mean I need to start calling you dad? Oh Datty, please let me press the big button! I promise I'll be on my bestest behavior if you let me! Please please please!" He asked in the most horrific posh child accent possible.
Peter rolled his eyes, not that you could see it with his mask on, and heaved a large sigh. "If we find out what the button is for, I'll think about it." Even with the mask on, Peter could see the large grin spreading on his father's face. He just knew that Wade was gonna end up pressing that button anyway. Peter could only hope it wasn't anything they couldn't handle.
"Karen, would you please download any relevant files?" He asked as he made quick work of hacking into the system.
"Of course, Spider-Man. You are aware that I am also capable of hacking in for you, correct?"
"Well aware, I like being able to put my own skills to use from time to time though. 'preciate the offer though!"
Peter had no idea where Wade ran off to. He still hears his heartbeat nearby so whatever he's up to, he's at least close by.
For the last hour Peter has been skimming through all different types of files, transcripts, and data logs. He's yet to find anything that would tell them what happened to the scientist, agents, and researchers here. Nothing signifies that they had any idea that Shield was onto them, and nothing that said anything about an immediate evacuation. The most recent entries were corrupted however, so until those get decided Peter was at a loss.
He lifted his gaze from the computer and saw that weird, out of place, button again.
"Karen? Could you please scan through everything and tell me what you can about that button?"
"I'm sorry, but nothing is showing up about that button except for one note left on an email correspondence a month before our reports show everyone had left."
Peter held his hand out so that Karen could project a hologram of said note.
Contact [redacted] //////////////////////
Simulations from [redacted] have shown success before it was destroyed. [redacted]//////////////////////////////////// try again.
[redacted]//////////////////////////////////// will overcome.
[redacted]///////////////////////////////////
Project Afterbirth will commence once the teleportation trigger button in facility #932004 is repaired.
Hail Hydra.
" I will start decrypting all inaccessible information."
"Thank you Karen." And with that Peter made his way to where he could hear Wade's heartbeat. "Wade? What- what the actual fuck are you doing?"
Deadpool slowly moved his head to face Peter. Wade was currently dangling from all sorts of wires, cords and rope from a vent in the ceiling. He looked sorta like a pretzel. "Uh, Pilates?" Wade asked rather than stated.
"Yes that's totally a move in pilates! — how would you even know? You ain't got a body. — How am I bullying YOU? — No you guys are the bullies. Don't say that! My kid is right there you nasty fuck! I don't care if he can hear you or not. Hey no backtracking! As we agreed, that is very much a move or pose or whatever."
"I'm rolling my eyes at you." He huffed, completely unamused. "I came to tell ya what I found."
While Peter helped Wade untangle himself, Peter started to give an rundown of what he found. "This organization seems to be built off of remnants of Hydra. They called themselves Revival. Normal plans to take over the world by any means necessary. There was a few mentions of simulation success, but most of that information is locked away. Karen's currently working on it. I believe it has to do with Framework. That button is the trigger to something concerning a 'Project Afterbirth' a note mentioned teleportation. Almost everything I found is just the normal and stereotypical Hydra base data. I've got it all downloaded so we can look over it more depth later."
Before Peter was able to continue anymore an alarm started blaring. The two rushed back into the room Peter was previously in and to the computer to find the cause. "Someone tripped an alarm in the entry level."
"Fuck. Wolvie said there hasn't been any activity here in almost a year. What's the chance it's some punk kids that stumbled into this place?"
"Highly unlikely. We both knew what we were looking for and it was still a challenge to find."
"I think that's more so due to your shit luck than how well hidden this place is."
Peter leveled him with a glare as he finished pulling up the grainy camera footage. It was a small group of what looked to be off-brand Hydra agents. That really was just Peter's luck.
"Wade, trash absolutely everything you can. Permission to have full range of anything, just don't get us killed."
Wade pumped his fist in the air. "Maximum effort bitches" Peter worked on deleting everything he could while Wade rigged the place with explosives. Peter finished just as the doors were blown off their hinges. "Pool! Time to go!" He yelled as he jumped out of his seat, ready to either make a break for it or fight through them. Instead he was met with Wade grabbing hold of him and rushing over to the button and pressing it.
Peter fucking called it. He knew it would happen, the button was just too much for Wade to resist. What Peter wasn't prepared for was how pressing the button caused his senses to go absolutely haywire
BAD! DANGER! UNSAFE! FIGHT! NO TIME! BAD BAD BAD scared BAD BAD BAD!
And it was that sudden spike in fear of what kind of danger they might have just been thrown in that caused Peter to call out "Dad!" Before everything went black.
"No shut up! I didn't get him killed! He's just having a nice, hardcore nap. Growing spiders need their beauty sleep after all." The strange intruder said as he held what Damian assumed to be the 'growing spider' he spoke of.
"That is soooo not fair— okay okay, but if he was dead Kar would've said something! Unless that jump fried her… Hey Karen you there? Karen?" The man paused before he gently laid the child(a very small child at that) down against the roof entrance of the building he was currently on. The man stood back up and started pacing back and forth.
"Don't say that! I'm seriously freaking out right now. What was I supposed to do! I didn't realize that hitting that goddamn button would cause this!"
"Shit-fuck you! The Iron Spider was literally made to protect him and his identity, so you can't just tAkE iT OfF. — No, I will not stop yelling! I don't think anyone wants to approach an insane man on a roof who has guns and katanas. We're fine — Look I'll try, but we both know it won't budge." The man crouched down in front of the boy and seemingly attempted to take the mask-helmet off of him. Most likely to check if he was alive based on what Damian has heard.
Damian couldn't help but worry about what kind of situation led these two to Gotham. He tried to rack his brain for any villains, vigilantes, heroes or any in-betweens that matched either of their descriptions but nothing came to mind. Were they perhaps new to the scene? And who was the big guy talking to? There were many unanswered questions that Damian tucked away to discuss and research later.
"Oracle, do you have visuals?"
"Yes, though they're not good. It's pretty staticky."
"Hn. Are you capable of running a scan on them? I do not have the slightest idea of who these invaders are."
"I'll try, you are in Hood's territory after all."
Right. Todd does despise when any of the 'Batfam' mess with his territory without his permission. He won't even allow any of them to replace the old cameras until they stop working entirely.
"Will he be arriving any time soon? You said he would meet me once he finished his current issue."
"Red Hood will be there at any moment"
"Hn."
Damian continued to observe the man try to take the suit off the child or shake him awake. Damian didn't like how unmoving and quiet the kid was. Damian, anyone within the family truly, hated cases that dealt with children in danger. Or in this case, possibly dead. Damian felt Todd slowly creep up beside him.
"Hey Webs, kiddo, I need you to wake up now." The man sounded almost desperate.
"Karen, if you're ignoring me because you're pissed at me, that's fine. But just- I need to know if he's okay. I need the suit open if he's not, so I can bring him back. Please, Kar." The man pleaded with this Karen woman.
"Fuck, you're fried aren't you." The man suddenly looked very caught off guard. There's a good chance that whatever jump the strange man keeps mentioning is what fried Karen, whether that was the com system she was on, or potentially some type of AI helper like many thought Oracal to be. Damian is also quite curious about how expressive that mask is.
"How would you even know that?! — Plot reasons? No, no, no that's my excuse. I don't care if we're the same damn person, that's no excuse."
"She still able to fix herself or do I needa like find some tech-savvy person to get Spider out for him to fix her? — I'm going to start taking some fucking mutant antipsychotics and get rid of you fuckers if you don't knock it off."
The stranger then proceeded to gently pick the boy up before walking to the edge of the roof. He turned to face both Damian and Jason. Neither of them could see exactly where he eyes were looking thanks to his mask whiting them out, but it felt like he was staring directly into their own eyes. "Name's Deadpool, and the kiddo is Spider-Man. Thanks for not interrupting my crisis! Toodaloo boys!" He saluted them as he stepped off the edge.
Having their covers blown, they both immediately went to chase after him. However once they reached his jumping off point, they saw absolutely no trace of the pair.
"Fuck."
"Indeed."
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"Are you a hundred percent sure that that's everything? You're not skipping over anything, at all?" Tim asked, for the nth time after Damian and Jason returned from their (surprisingly) short mission to check out what caused their supernatural activity reader to spike.
"I don't know what more you want from me, Timothy! Me and Todd already gave you, and everyone else, the rundown of what we witnessed. What more could I possibly give you at this moment? I have not suddenly come into more information!" He snarled out, sick and tired of being asked the same questions he still had no answers to.
"God, I don't know Damian! Just something. Two unknown suits just show up out of nowhere, the kid possibly being dead, but that's apparently not an issue because the man has some way to bring him back! The only thing we fucking know is that the man is huge and strapped to shit! And was able to spot you and Hood without either of you being aware you were caught." Tim rushed out angrily.
"Of course, Drake. Let me enlighten you with the newest development I just pulled out of my ASS!"
"Enough! Knock it off, this isn't getting anyone anywhere! There is no point in you two constantly arguing over this right now. Look, B's away on a mission with the League right now, so we still have some time to gather more information before he comes home. Instead of this useless fighting, let's just make a plan to cover more ground and find out what we can. Now, let's go upstairs, relax and eat some of Alfred's cookies?" Dick, ever the people please, offered.
Jason couldn't blame him. Now that he has mended his relationship with the family, he hates when they're all at odds with each other. Sure, he enjoys picking on everyone and being a menace overall, but he hates when they're genuinely upset or angry with one another. He knows that the lingering fear that they'll cast him out is unwarranted, but that doesn't stop him from getting worried. It's part of the reason he knows he's still human.
Damian and Tim just stared each other down before they seemed to come to some resolution. They both nodded at Dick before Tim started to head back to the manor.
"Dami?" Dick asked, seeing how his little brother/kinda son hung back.
"The child was small."
"It made me uneasy too. Especially with how the man mentioned he could bring him back. Sounds like it wouldn't be the first time."
"Then why can't we find any information on them? Drake will continue to drive himself mad to find even the smallest amount of Intel on them."
As the three of them turned to face each other one last time before leaving the cave, they all understood that it was a silent agreement to not only find out what they could for Tim's sake, but also for that child's.