This chapter is a little short, but I'm setting up for something bigger down the road. Enjoy!

Thanks to Marvel Comics for all of their wonderful characters. Psylocke, Juggernaut, Courier, Nitro are all their characters.

Chapter 5

I woke up after about 4 hours of driving. The big guy didn’t like listening to the radio, so that was a blessing. The problem was I could never sleep in a vehicle. About four hours of restless dozing was all I could muster, and I also had to, well, go.

I stuck my head up front and happily announced, “Guess what? Potty break!”

Cain looked at me like I was insane. “Potty break? What are you, three?”

Climbing into the front seat, I sat down, pouting. “That’s not nice, Cain. You know I have trouble holding it. It’s my kryptonite. What would you rather have me say? ‘Pull the damn thing over, I gotta piss?’”

He started laughing. “Well, yeah, I guess.”

Well two years ago, I might have. But I am a lady now, and ladies don’t talk like that. In fact, I refuse to”

“No offense, kid. But you *did* used to be a male, didn’t you?”

“Well, yes. But I changed and with that change came a lot of other changes. I don’t know many guys that can get pregnant, do you?”

His ears were beginning to get red. I was loving this.

“Okay! I *am* a girl. All the way down to my DNA. I like makeup, silly chick flicks, doing my hair, my nails, wearing pretty clothes, talking to my girlfriends till all hours of the evening about relationships. You don’t know what you are missing. I, on the other hand, do. A lot of burping, farting and chasing skirts. Gross”

I could see he was getting very uncomfortable. It was all I could do to keep from laughing.

I hopped up on my knees and leaned into his ear “And, you dear, sweet teddy bear, one of the great things about being a woman is getting big, strong guys like you,” I kissed him on the cheek, “to do things for us. Now be a dear and let me have my potty break, pleeeese?”

That was enough for him “Okay, okay! I’ll pull over at the next gas station I see. Damn! I’d rather fight ten of those big demon things than have to deal with this.”

Now I had to pour it on. I gave him a big hug around his huge neck, causing him to swerve “Oh, thank you, Cain. You’re such a gentleman! I don’t know what I would do without you!” My voice was little girl syrupy sweet, and I looked up through my eyelashes at him.

His face was completely red. He turned to the driver’s side window. I saw him smile in the side mirror. “Women! I hope to God that never happens to me!”

I giggled and then laughed. “You are such a big sweetie, Cain, but don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. Now step on it. I’m about to burst” Note to self. No more big gulps on road trips.

We traveled in silence for the next couple of minutes. Cain broke the silence “So, what were you like, you know, before?”

“Before the change?”

“Yeah”

“Oh, I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to remember. It’s not like you would think. I was in a coma for several weeks while I changed, and my neural pathways were rewritten. I woke up a girl, but it wasn’t a big shock. It wasn’t like if you were all of a sudden transferred into a girl’s body. You know, a male soul in a female body. Do you know what I mean?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I think so. That would be tough for me. Probably impossible”

“I know what you are talking about. It wasn’t that way for me. I was a female soul in a female body. The only thing that didn’t change was my relationship with Tracy. Otherwise, I found that my old male habits died. I had the memories, but not the feelings”

“That’s why you are so well adjusted, isn’t it?”

“Yep. I took to the whole thing right away. There were some bumps, sure. But I adjusted and took to what nature had wired me to do. Being silly like I just was something I would never have done as a boy”

“Did you ever have desires, you know…”

“To be a girl before? No way, never. I had a beautiful girlfriend and I was doing well in school. This all came from nowhere. But all told, I prefer the way I am now than the way I was. You may not think so, but being a girl rocks, and being a girl like me? Totally rocks!” She looked ahead, her eyes brightening. “OOOOHHHH, there’s a station at the next exit. Hurrrrry! Oh gosh, I hope there isn’t a line.”

Cain looked at Betsy. She was now focused on the gas station ahead. She had been through hell, had an old life ripped away, had something else thrust on her, and was still a semi normal eighteen year old who had to pee too much. Someone who had a pure soul.

He somehow had a bond with her that he couldn’t explain. Then it hit him. The little girl who was kidnapped from his block when he was a child. Cain saw the event, but couldn’t stop it. Grace was her name. They found her forty eight hours later, dead. He was blessed with tremendous physical gifts, even without the Cyttorak Gem powering him. That’s why he got involved in security, why he got involved in the military, and spook work. It was for Grace. He had suppressed this memory for years. A single tear rolled down his cheek.

He felt sorry for anyone or anything who ever tried to harm her again. It wouldn’t be pretty.

~o~O~o~
Courier had the mosque under surveillance from the rooftop of an adjacent apartment building. She had changed to the form of the janitor of the building. The real one had been given a vacation to his native Dominican Republic. She had performed his duties during the day, running video surveillance during the day, personal surveillance at night.

She was intently staring at the entrance, with state of the art audio recording devices being run by agents from an empty apartment two floors below.

“What is going on in there?” she asked no one in particular.

“I don’t know, either. What do y….” came a voice beside her.

Courier jumped nearly out of her skin. “EEEEEEEEEEKKK! “Came the rather feminine reaction.

The costumed figure jumped back and imitated him perfectly. “EEEEEEEEEEEKKK”

Courier was breathing hard “FUCK! What the hell!” she jumped back, holding her, or his, for the moment, chest. WILSON! You son of a bitch. Don’t *do* that. You look creepy enough without sneaking up on me like that!”

Wade Wilson replied in kind. “What do you think you’re doing? I’m one of the good guys. You nearly killed me with your girly display of femininity. Besides, what are you, a spy or a font? Really, I mean come on. Can’t you come up with something better than that? Boobenstein. The incredible cross dresser? Something.”

“What in the hell are you doing here, Mr. Wilson?”

Wilson, aka Deadpool was not buying what Courier was selling. He started doing a dead on impersonation of Walter Matthau. “Dennis! What’s the meaning of this incursion onto my roof? I’ve planted daisies up here, and the garden club is on the way. Take a hike, boy!”

Then switched to a ridiculous falsetto. “Now George, boys will be boys. Be nice to little Dennis”

Switching back, Wilson replied to himself. “Martha! If Dennis gets away with this, the terrorists win!”

He then switched to a passable George W. Bush. Rather an impersonation of Will Ferrell doing George Bush. “Alright, Dennis. What’s our strategery? Is the mission accomplished? I’ve gotta get back to Crawford”

Courier let her male form change back to her default setting, that of a ravishing black haired beauty. She absolutely hated Deadpool. He was a mercenary, a bounty hunter, terribly scarred from attempts to cure him of terminal cancer. The therapies used to cure him left him unbalanced, but in possession of a brutal array of special skills. He had gotten hold of some technology that allowed him to teleport limited distances. He could heal extremely fast. She had seen him replace severed limbs and watched them reattach. He was a skilled swordsman, a crack shot, and expert with about every weapon known to man as well as virtually unbeatable in a fight.

Oh, and he was freakin’ nuts.

“Wade, shut your pie hole.”

Wade looked down at the ground, kicking it dejectedly. “Shucks, ma’am ya don’t have to go all tumbleweed on meh”

Deadpool was masked. Hooded really. He had a red and black costume that was part body armor, part ninja outfit. He carried two katanas, two semi-automatic pistols, about twenty clips on a bandolier, knives, and a banana. A banana?

“Wade, why do you have a banana?”

“I get hungry you know. I just want the people reading this story to know that there is no substitute for a balanced diet. And that diet begins with bananas. The choice of four out of five chimpanzees. The fifth one just likes to throw shit as well as eat it”

Courier rolled her eyes. “Deadpool! I’m guessing you have an interest in this case?”

Then came Pee Wee Herman. “Well duh!” Then back to his real voice. “If by interest you mean the Twenty five million dollar reward for Aziz al Damashq, then yeah. I guess you could say so. You see, I have a house payment coming up, and the kids need braces. You know how it goes”

Courier’s interest was piqued. “What do you know about this operation?”

“Everything. I’ve been reading along from the beginning. This author is really terrible. Cute, but terrible”

“Okay, Wade. Seriously. What do you know?”

“Okay, But I’m not hearing a please!”

Courier forgot how maddening it could be talking to Wilson. He was under the constant impression that we were all just characters in a novel. That and he had seen every movie ever made and was constantly quoting them.

“Okay. Please!”

“Give us a kiss, beautiful”

“WADE!”

“All right, all right. Word is that the boys there have the head of their special projects unit here to greet your exploding boy. They are putting together a team of metas created to wreak havoc on society”

“How do you know this” Asked Courier.

“I've been reading the story. Sheesh!”

“I swear, Wade. If you don’t stop…”

“Wow. You need to lay off the coffee. Can you say ‘single focus?’

"I ‘questioned’ one of their ‘people’ before I ‘killed’ him and ‘dumped’ his body in the ‘river’. Satisfied?”

He put air quotes all over the place, but I understood what he did.

You mean the ‘Devil’ is here?”

“Well he ain’t in Miss Jones, sister!” Yeah. John Wayne.

“So I’m guessing you want in? To get Aziz?”

“Gee Wally! Sure!”

“And I have no choice in the matter, right?”

“Sure you do. Just like every time. You either let me play ball or I take my glove and fuck everything up from here to Sunday. Your choice. The missus needs a new puppy”

“All right. But you play by team rules, you understand? There are two more people coming. A rookie agent and Cain Marko”

Deadpool cocked his head. “Marko? My bestest buddy and longtime friend?”

Courier rubbed her temples. Yes, that Cain Marko”

“Do you think he remembers Berlin?”

“What do you think?”

“Son of a bitch. Guess I’ll have some splainin’ to do eh, Lucy?”

And go easy on the rookie. She’s just a kid, and about as green as a gourd. But Cain likes her, and he won’t take kindly to her getting hurt”

“You got it, Lt. Columbo.”

Wade Wilson ran to the edge of the roof, turned, and looked back at Courier. “Ok, I’ve finally got this flying thing down. Look ma! No hands!” Then he jumped.

Courier ran to the edge, looking down, expecting to see a red and black stain on the sidewalk. Nothing.

“Did he splat?” Came a voice next to her.

“EEEEEEEEEEKKKKK” Dammit, Wilson!!

He did a back handspring to avoid the Courier’s punch and kick. “Never gets old!”

~o~O~o~
Dr. Essex was preparing the last of the serum vials. The replicated DNA had been placed into the retroviruses prepared especially for the test subjects. The transformation would be complete in twelve hours.

He ran down the list. All of the checks had been performed, the subjects were suspended in the ctyoplasmic medium, all safeties were off. He proceeded to inject the retroviral soup into each of the subjects IV tubes. When that menial task was completed, all he could do was wait.

Essex could create metahumans at a prodigious rate. The problem was that the changes were not stable. The DNA from the shape changer was not enough. Cell walls broke down after no more than forty eight hours. This resulted in the death of the subject. There had only been the one success, but there would be time to analyze her. This one called Nitro. He was a worthy experiment. He would be there soon. Right now, he was too dangerous to experiment on. But a tissue sample would be nothing to get.

Dr. Essex turned the light off in the lab. He would be back in 10 hours to check the changes. Things were looking up.

~o~O~o~
Betsy was sitting on the front seat of Cain’s Hummer, her legs curled up around her left side, as she was reading a book. “Are we there yet, Dad?”

Cain gritted his teeth. “That stopped being funny three hours ago, kid.”

“Sorry. This lit textbook is sooo incredibly boring. I’ve gone brain dead. I’ll say one thing. This outfit I’m wearing is the most comfy thing I’ve ever worn in my life. I don’t want to sound gross, but it’s like being naked without being naked”

“Yeah, that makes perfect sense, kid. We’ll be there in about ten. Why don’t you enjoy the sights?”

“You’ve seen one big building, you’ve seen them all. I just want to get this over and get back home”

“Why don’t you call Courier?”

Betsy’s eyes brightened. “Hey! That’s a great idea!” She dialed her number.

“Courier” The voice was male, and had a Spanish accent. This took Betsy by surprise.

“Jackie?”

“Yeah, Psylocke, it’s me. Doing a little undercover work now”

“What kind?”

“Vacuuming a hallway right now. Are you guys about here yet?”

“Cain says about ten. Will you meet us?”

“No. Cain knows where to go.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later, Courier”

“It’s Lou for now. Buenos dias, muchacha”

“What did she say?” asked Cain.

“That you would know what to do”

“Okay. Well, kid. Things are about to go from boring to ultra boring unless something happens fast”

“I know what you mean. I can still sense him, but he is almost nonexistent. I think he is more machine than man at this point. That’s why I can’t find him exactly. I think I can explain it. It’s exactly like trying to listen to a radio station that’s almost too far away. His consciousness exists, but it is being shielded. I’m guessing by the nanites. This guy is so screwed”

“Were here. Grab what you need and let the valet take the rig.”

Several black suited agents met us. I grabbed my backpack and weapons case. “I’ll take that for you, ma’am”

“Oh, wonderful! Thank you. I sooo need a potty break”

Cain spun around. “Oh for crying out loud!”

To be Continued...

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