We drove to the border area as Johnny had directed. It was a region of the Void with dense forestâeasy to hide in.
"This is it. You can see the building over there."
The resistance hideout we arrived at looked like a stone temple, half-buried in the ground. I parked the vehicle nearby.
"It's farther than I thought."
"Well, we have to avoid Cassandra Nova and Alioth. Come on in."
We entered the hideout.
"Ta-da~! This is our resistance base."
The hideout was surprisingly well-ventilated and didn't smell bad. It was clean. They'd scavenged various items to furnish itâthere were tables and chairs, and bookshelves filled with books.
The funniest part was that this place was the temple where the Darkhold had been hiddenâthe same place where Wanda ultimately gained her power as the Scarlet Witch. Of course, this was a Darkhold from a different multiverse.
I looked around to see if there was anything to gain, but the resistance had already trashed most of it. The Darkhold was damaged beyond recognition. Strangely, a statue of Wanda remained, but it was just being used as decoration.
"You found a place like this?"
"Yeah, I don't even know who found it. We've been using it for a long time."
Then we heard someone entering. Thinking it was an intruder, Deadpool moved to the entrance, drew his sword, and pressed against the wall. As the person tried to come in, he swung.
Clang!
She easily blocked Deadpool's ambush, tripped him, and pinned him down with a weapon to his throat. Seeing that, Johnny quickly intervened.
"Whoa whoa~! Calm down, she's with us."
"First time I've heard Deadpool's one of us."
"That guy just dropped into the Void today."
She withdrew her weapon and pulled Deadpool up by his hand. Two more people came in behind her.
"You must be the resistance people. Nice."
Johnny introduced them one by one.
"The fiery lady here is Elektra."
"Nice to meet you."
Elektra was Daredevil's love interest.
"And this is Blade."
Blade just raised his hand without a word. Blade was a half-vampire, half-human vampire hunter.
"And this is Gambit."
"Remy Etienne LeBeau. Call me 'Gambit.'"
Gambit was a mutant with the same power as my [Energy Bomb] ability. My ability description even said "(Gambit)." In a way, he was the original. I stood up and tossed two bundles of special cards I'd made in the MCU to Gambit. Call it thanks for using his ability well.
"Gift."
"Oh! Nice cards. New recruits getting good gifts right away?"
"I'll introduce myself. I'm Jin, an Avenger. And this isâwell, you probably knowâDeadpool."
"Hey~ I'm the original Deadpool."
Elektra sighed, looking at Deadpool.
"Ugh, it's going to get noisy around here."
"And this is Wolverine."
Wolverine didn't care about introductions and just kept drinking the booze I'd given him.
"Wolverine's here for the first time. But where'd you get that liquor?"
"My employer gave it to me. Don't worry, I didn't touch your stash."
Johnny pointed at me and said,
"This guy's ability is insane. Teleportation, super strength, and he can store things. There might be more he hasn't shown. He even gave me ice cream."
Elektra came over to me, stunned, and held out her hand.
"Seriously!? Give me ice cream! I haven't had any in years."
I pulled soft-serve ice cream from my inventory and handed it to her, then gave one each to Gambit and Blade. Johnny came over asking for one too, so I gave him another. Elektra was deeply moved, eating ice cream for the first time in forever.
"I can't even remember the last time I had ice cream..."
Deadpool suddenly clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.
Clap!
"Stop acting like African refugees. We're in a hurry. Is there any way to escape this place? You're the one savoring it."
Deadpool pointed at Gambit. Gambit licked his ice cream and looked at Deadpool.
"Nope."
That's when Blade spoke up.
"It's close to zero percent, but there is one. A dead comrade once overheard Cassandra Nova say she could leave here."
"Cassandra Nova, that womanâhow strong is she?"
"We've been fighting her for a long, long time. There's no way to win, so we just run. Her telekinesis is insanely powerful. She can manipulate things down to the atomic level."
"Well... that's... great news."
We heard someone else entering again. Deadpool got ready, but Elektra stopped him.
"Relax, it's just the kid."
A girl who looked like a high schooler entered the hideout. It was X-23, Laura. Deadpool saw her and was shocked, then told Wolverine,
"Oh~ my god! Logan, that's her! That's X-23. The girl I told you about."
Wolverine glanced at X-23 for a moment, then went back to drinking. X-23 stared hard at Wolverine. Even though he was from a different multiverse, he looked exactly the same, so to X-23, it must have been a face she deeply missed.
I really enjoyed the movie Logan. So I pulled out a large cup of Baskin-Robbins with multiple flavors from my inventory and handed it to X-23. She took the ice cream, startled, and looked at me.
"What's this?"
"A gift. Your story really moved me. Consider it thanks."
X-23 poked at the ice cream with her spoon, tasted it, and then started eating big scoops.
"Tastes good."
"Right?"
That's when Elektra hurriedly hid X-23 behind her and said,
"Don't hit on the kid!"
"It's not like that, so don't worry."
Gambit watched and laughed.
"Just let it be. It's nice to see."
"I said it's not like that. Seriously..."
My fandom seemed to cause a weird misunderstanding. Deadpool kept muttering next to me.
"Telekinesis... telekinesis... got it! Magneto's helmet!"
Deadpool shouted, and Blade immediately understood what he meant and responded.
"Cassandra melted it."
"Bam!"
"She killed Magneto too."
"Bam~!!"
"She's thorough."
Elektra added an explanation.
"That helmet was the only thing that could block telekinesis. Juggernaut's helmet is powerful too... but he works for Cassandra."
"Yes! Juggernaut's helmet, that's it!"
Magneto's helmet and Juggernaut's helmet both block mutant powers. Magneto made his to block his rival Charles's psychic attacks, and Juggernaut had his for the same reason.
I stepped forward and said,
"I'll handle Cassandra Nova. The helmet's a backup. You guys just hold off her minions."
Blade laughed at my words, incredulous.
"Hey young friend, courage and recklessness are different things."
"Don't worry. From what I've heard, I've got a rough idea. Cassandra and I are probably evenly matched, or I'm a little stronger."
"What kind of power do you have, exactly?"
"Gravity."
Deadpool was thrilled to hear my ability.
"Yes! As expected of the strongest Avenger!"
Gambit, listening, said,
"We haven't said we'd fight yet."
"Seriously? The mood was good."
"Every time one of us challenges her, they end up dead. Punisher, Quicksilver, Daredevil."
Hearing that, Deadpool looked at Elektra and offered condolences. Elektra was Daredevil's love interest, after all.
"Daredevil? That must've been sad."
"I'm fine."
"Okay."
Elektra wanted to test my ability first.
"Let's see your power and decide if you can really fight Cassandra."
"Good. Everyone, come outside."
We all went outside. I pointed at a large tree.
"See that big tree over there?"
Crunch!
Using my [Tremor-Tremor Fruit] ability, I instantly compressed the tree into a small ball with gravity. Seeing that, Deadpool clapped and cheered.
Clap clap clap!
"Oh~ yes~! That's it."
Everyone else was amazed and started thinking. They were probably comparing Cassandra Nova's power to mine.
I spoke again. I gave them a choice. They could die, so I couldn't force them.
"This might be your last chance. You can keep hiding, or you can fight with me."
Johnny stepped forward first.
"I'll fight. If 'Jin' hadn't saved me, I'd be dead anyway. Consider it repaying a debt."
Deadpool clapped again, happy things were going well.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
"Yes!"
Elektra thought for a moment, then said,
"I'm sick of hiding too. This might be the last chance. If I'm going to die, I'll go out in a blaze of glory!"
"Yeah!! Exactly!"
Blade spoke too.
"Yeah, hiding like this isn't us."
"Yeah!!! A slow-motion fight scene, sad music, a life-or-death bloody battleâyou know! Who's ready?"
Blade drew his sword and said,
"Born ready."
"Good! Gambit?"
"Ready since I got launched from a faceless dad."
"Oh my god, that's vivid."
"My mom got blasted good and I came out saying, 'Howdy, doc.'"
Gambit made up his own unique story. It was all nonsense, but.
"Hahaha, you and Johnny will be best friends. Speaking of which, Johnny?"
"I'm ready anytime. This time I'll send that bitch to bald-guy hell."
"Ohoho! X-23, what about you?"
"My name's Laura. Fuck it, let's go."
"Yeah! Fuck it, let's go!"
Wolverine was drinking and looked at us, then said something to kill the mood.
"You guys look like the Suicide Squad."
"Geez. Read the room."
I pulled a ton of meat from my inventory, plus vegetables and ssamjang. I also took out potato salad to suit foreign tastes.
"It's late today, so let's eat well, rest, and get ready to move out tomorrow."
Everyone stared, shocked, as I pulled meat out of thin air. Elektra was curious about my ability and asked all kinds of questions.
"Wow! How much can you store that you're carrying stuff like this around?"
"If you saw everything I'm storing, you'd faint."
Just pulling out the Hyperion would make everyone here drop their jaws. But it was too big to bring out nowâwith Alioth and Cassandra Nova around, it would just be a big target.
"Can you store people too?"
"No, not living things."
"Too bad. We could've ambushed them."
We roughly cooked the meat by heating rocks with Johnny's power and started eating. Deadpool chewed meat and asked the group,
"So how did you all end up trapped in the Void?"
Blade answered Deadpool's question.
"Someone knocked, I went out, and the TVA sent me here."
Elektra answered too.
"Same for me."
Gambit also.
"I don't even know if I was born here or what."
Johnny too.
"Same here. I was at home and the TVA sent me here."
Blade and Elektra continued.
"The TVA decided our universe was dying. I didn't even get a chance to fight to stop it."
"People like us can't just sit by and watch that happen. The TVA knows that, so they disposed of us."
The TVA did preemptive work to erase universes. It was a pretty bleak story. It was fiction, but maybe Disney set up old movie worlds like this to represent them fading from people's memories.
Wolverine didn't say anything, just ate some meat, then took a bottle of liquor and went outside. This atmosphere seemed to bring back memories of his old comrades. His expression didn't look good as he left. LauraâX-23âsaw that and followed him out. They probably had a lot to talk about.
In the original, Laura tells Wolverine that even though he wasn't much of a hero in her world, he always showed up where he was needed to help people.
She says Wolverine was a better person than he thought. Hearing that, Wolverine tells Laura his painful past, saying he's not the kind of person she thinks he is, but Laura says she isn't either.
I think Wolverine needed someone to talk to about what was inside. This was the first time he opened up to Laura.
Everyone enjoyed the meat, got good rest, and the next day we started preparing. I also filled the vehicle with gas and got ready to drive.