Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Picking up the phone after it rang for the tenth time in an hour, Matt growled, “This better be important. I’m in court right now.”

“Well, that’s just the cheer I expect from you, sunshine, but as much as I’d looove to do the bickering married couple routine, I’ve got a plot to start and a missing spider on my hands,” Wade’s cheery voice came all too loud from the phone.

Matt refused to pretend he understood what Wade was on about and asked a befuddled, “What?”

“Peter’s missing.”

The serious, no-nonsense tone of Wade’s voice sent a chill down Matt’s spine. Typically, that voice remained reserved for people Wade wanted to do more to than murder. It being used for that statement made Matt listen up, but he needed to be sure this wasn’t another of Wade’s paranoia episodes.

“We teamed up three days ago, how is he missing?” Matt asked. The Saturday before they had teamed up to find one of Matt’s more annoying crime bosses. It ended up being a simple job. He didn’t remember Peter mentioning anything dangerous going on in Queens. Peter tended to let them know what he was up to if it got even slightly dangerous.

Wade’s angry huff and some background noise let Matt know the man was pacing. “Look, look, look, I know my head’s been scrambled like a couple eggs a desperate girl made for her one-night stand hoping he or she might be ‘the one,’ but I know what I’m talking about. White and Yellow won’t leave me alone about it, cause Petey’s gone gone girl. Ghosted away. Sunday rolls around, he goes ‘Ah geez, I’m going out for the day, don’t expect to see me till Monday.’ Then he bat his Bambi eyelashes at me and asked if I needed anything out because really, he’s a treasure, buuuuut he never came back.”

“Court recesses only last so long, get to the point. None of that is actual proof. Maybe he’s dating someone or got caught up with May.”

“I called his aunt, and she said he never came to dinner and hasn’t answered any calls or texts.”

Now, that was some compelling evidence. In all the time Matt had known Peter, the kid never blew off his aunt. Even after moving out of her house, he never failed to see her at least weekly. The fact that Wade said missing was interesting. Matt was ready to call out the word use, asking if Wade meant missing, kidnapped, or something in between, but Foggy called out to him. He needed to get back.

“Wade, as soon as I can, I’ll be all over this. I can get to Queens and listen for him, but I can’t get out of court today. Try calling other contacts he has and see if you can find any recent activity of his usual villains. I’d check and see if Mysterio’s in town again first. Call me if anything else comes up.” Matt hung up without waiting for a response and followed Foggy back. When Foggy asked what was wrong, Matt quietly explained that Spider-Man might be missing. There wasn’t any time to really discuss it before the court session started again.

Once the case was done, wrapped up, and both Matt and Foggy had sent their client on her way, Matt found he didn’t even have to ask for Foggy to pick up his slack. Foggy practically pushed him out the door with a “come in when you can, otherwise we’ve got this.” Matt doubted he’d ever be able to repay Foggy for all he’d done over their friendship, but for now, Matt had to focus on the missing spider before anything else.

Matt stopped at his own place to slip into the simpler black outfit for Daredevil. Leaving the mask off, he felt ridiculous sitting on the subway to get closer to Queens. Though, he assumed Wade not calling him again was a good sign. If Peter had turned up hurt or… hurt Wade would’ve called instantly. The same applied to someone taking credit for kidnapping Spider-Man. Matt remembered reading somewhere most missing persons cases are solved in 48 hours or not at all. He was going to ignore the negatives of Peter’s time missing growing longer.

None of those cases had Daredevil though. Matt would be able to hear Peter. It was only a matter of time before Matt heard Peter’s unique heartbeat.

The search started out with Matt walking around as himself, well, himself if he could see. He liked to think he had gotten better using his other senses to pretend like he could see just as well as anyone else. Either way, it didn’t matter. Most people ignored him, and Matt never caught the sound of an abnormal heartbeat.

Once it started to get dark, Matt slipped his mask over his face and swiftly wrapped his knuckles. It was a farce of his usual suit, but it’d get the message across. Skulking around, Matt walked around, focusing and unfocusing on his surroundings to try and extend his hearing. He knew what Peter sounded like. He knew what Peter smelled like. He couldn’t find him though.

Even in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan, where Matt passed through listening there on the way to Queens, he didn’t have any sign of Peter being around.

Matt could tell it had been hours by the time panic was fully gripping him. Peter was strong. He could take care of himself, so why wasn’t the kid around? Matt not being able to find signs of Peter only left him with three answers. One, he refused to consider, and the other two…

Hopefully Wade would have better luck.

Jerking his head to the side, Matt heard someone shout for help and took off in that direction. Even if Peter wasn’t there, someone needed to take care of Queens after days of absence. It was quick and easy once Matt got there. Some punk kid trying to mug a guy getting home late. Matt hadn’t even broken the kid’s nose, first offender that he was. Just put the fear of God in him.

Matt debated his next actions, to keep wandering around fruitlessly or to find something more productive to do. Luckily, he didn’t have to debate long when a solid mass dropped from above next to him.

“Well, aren’t you just a sight for sore eyes! Oh- Wait, is that offensive? I’m never sure. Buuuut I’m hoping you’ll wait to bitch me out for it until after you’ve told me the good news!” Wade’s overly cheerful voice was punctuated by the easy way he slung an arm over Matt’s shoulders.

The longer Matt waited to reply or to shove Wade off, the more worried Wade got. Eventually, Matt just shrugged off Wade’s arm and said, “There’s no good news. Either he’s somewhere I can’t hear or he’s outside the city now or… Who knows where.”

“Fudgesickles!” Wade shouted. He took a couple deep breaths, puffing himself up, before sighing and pacing around in front of Matt.

Matt wouldn’t have blamed Wade or been surprised if the man angered at Matt’s lack of answers. That was half the use of his enhancements, being able to find people quickly. As much as Matt’s guilt complex wanted him to focus on that fact, he still forced himself to ask, “Did you find anything out?”

“Nope!” Wade snapped back to face Matt again. “I called contacts, stalked professors, went to stake out his internship, nothing, nada, zip. His typical rogue’s gallery is silent, some in jail, and none of them would wait this long to gloat over defeating Spider-Man. Spent most of the afternoon setting the aunt up with protection.”

“Protection?”

Wade rolled his shoulders. “Yeah… when the kid moved in, he made me promise if he went missing for too long or there was a chance someone knew his true identity, I’d make sure she’s safe. Next step is to remove her from the city if anything escalates.” When Matt didn’t respond, Wade got defensive. “He was just making sure she’d be okay! I thought you were in on the plan. I mean he talks to you about everything. I figured he just asked me because you know I know how to do things the shady way. Figures he’d only ever agree to shady things when it comes to her.”

Matt put up his hands to try and pacify Wade. “I get it. It’s good that she’s taken care of, whether Peter told me about this arrangement or not. I’m pissed that we have nothing to go on to find him.”

“Au contraire, we have a little to go on. Digging around, I found out a group Spidey pissed off used to be arms dealers but made a switch to human trafficking after getting busted for the weapons thing. They haven’t had anything to do with Spidey recently, but they’re the only group in the whole kidnapping game that I could find connected to him,” Wade explained.

“Then why are we wasting time here?” Matt snapped.

Wade looked around and pointed at a building across the street from them. “That’s their main hideout and where they launder money. I was going to call you to come here before I noticed you were already here.” Wade didn’t wait for Matt to react before looping an arm around Matt’s arm. “Let’s go crack some heads! I’m feeling arson tonight. Are you feeling arson tonight? I don’t have any marshmallows though…”

As with most things involving Wade, Matt tuned the man out and let himself be dragged along.

It was almost laughable how little effort it took to beat these guys up. Matt fully understood why Peter never bothered doing it himself. They were scummy bastards, but they hadn’t even fully gotten into the human trafficking business or hurt pretty much anyone other than themselves. It hadn’t taken long for both Wade and Matt to realize they were all bark no bite.

Of the seven people there, only one was awake. Matt couldn’t bring himself to feel bad for the concussions both he and Wade had given the six. Matt had no doubts the seventh one wouldn’t end up in the same condition soon enough. He leaned against one of the walls while listening to Wade interrogate the man and tried to come up with answers for where Peter had disappeared to.

“You haven’t seen Spider-Man here? No? Cause lemme tell ya buddy, we’ll know you’re lying and you’ll think your buddies got off easy if you lie to me.” When the man just started begging to not be hurt, Wade patted the man’s face. “Sweetie pie, honey bunch, just answer the fucking question or I’m gonna get stabby!”

The man eventually got out that no, he hadn’t seen Spider-Man, none of them had, and they didn’t ever want to see Spider-Man again after what happened last time. It was a good answer because it meant they hadn’t hurt Peter, but a bad one because now Matt and Wade were back to square one. Though, this did give Matt an idea.

“What should we do with them, Double-D?” Wade asked, generously.

Matt shrugged. “You’re feeling arson, so just drop’em out the window. We’re only on the second floor, and there’s a dumpster outside that window.”

“Okie dokie!” Ignoring the man’s pleas, Wade whistled as he dragged the guy to the window. He was, of course, kind enough to open the window before hefting the guy up. Before throwing the man out, Wade asked, “Did you know there’s a word for throwing someone or something out a window?” The man shook his head vigorously, so as he pushed the guy out, Wade helpfully informed him, “It’s call defenestration! Though, I think you’re supposed to break the glass first!”

Wade continued his happy little whistling as he went to grab the next person. Though, he paused to ask, “You wanna lend a hand there, grumpy bear?”

“You’ve got it. I’m going to grab some stuff from downstairs. I’ll meet you outside, but… I might have an idea,” Matt explained. He didn’t wait for Wade to agree to what he said before heading downstairs into the pub below. He made his way behind the bar and swiped a few bottles after opening the caps and sniffing. He walked out the building carrying three.

Once Wade finished making sure everyone had “voluntarily” vacated the building, he made quick work of setting up a mostly controlled fire. By the time he joined Matt, Matt had already taken a couple swigs from one of the bottles.

“Wow didn’t take you for the type to drown your sorrows in alcohol. Maybe Petey was better left in the MCU mentorship,” Wade faux-scolded Matt before snatching the bottle himself and drinking out of it.

Standing there, Matt gave himself a moment to enjoy the heat of the building fire. He could already hear some insomniac calling 911 due to the fire. They couldn’t hang around for too much longer. Still, the warmth helped steady him a bit.

Matt snatched the bottle back and took another drink before picking up the other two bottles he’d taken. “I’m not drowning my sorrows. Just getting ready for the shit ahead. You were right thinking about human trafficking. Any of Spidey’s normal villains would’ve blasted it to anyone with ears that they caught Spider-Man. He’s helped out with some of my villains who would pull this kind of shit and have the resources to keep it hidden. Especially if they thought it’d fuck with either of us. Team Red’s been making a name for itself.”

“Okie dokie, well I don’t see how you being drunk is gonna help looking for him because I could be wrong, but drinking three bottles of alcohol would kill you, Red.”

“I’m not drinking three bottles. By the time you call your chauffeur or whatever and we get to Hell’s Kitchen, I’ll be fine. The other two bottles are for bribes. Jones likes whiskey.”

“Hmmm nope! I’ll call little brown bear, but we’re not going to the Kitchen unless you’re sleeping cause sun’s gonna come up in an hour at most. Time for the Devil to hit the hay.”

“I’ll sleep when we find him.”

“It’s cute that you think I won’t sit on you until you pass out.”

When Matt responded to that by trying to tackle Wade, Wade put a hand on the man’s forehead to keep him at bay and texted Dopinder to come pick them up. By the time Dopinder got there, Matt had worn himself out and agreed to staying with Wade. Matt wanted to be out there searching but laying on a couch that vaguely smelled like Peter, knowing that Wade in the next room was just as worked up… it helped him feel less alone. It helped lull him to sleep.

*--------------------*

The next day, Matt rolled into the office a little after noon, ruffled, with dark circles under his eyes. He hadn’t slept more than three hours, but Wade had refused to let him leave until he’d eaten food and drank water which ended with Wade nearly waterboarding him. Matt questioned his sanity whenever it came to his friendship with Wade. However, eating had made him feel halfway to human, and Wade had been kind enough to give him a ride back into the Kitchen.

Going into work was probably a mistake but stewing in his apartment wasn’t much better. Daredevil didn’t go out in the middle of the day.

Matt hardly had time to settling in at his desk before Foggy was in there asking, “Why are you here?”

The gracious person he was, Matt gave Foggy a second to backtrack.

“Not that I’m not happy to see you, but I figured you’d be out all day with Wade, and you look like you could use some sleep. Karen agreed to help out with our stuff, so we’ve got it covered. You don’t have to be here.”

“I can’t exactly go out in the middle of the day and… I already know how useless wandering around listening will be.” While Matt had really only listened around in Queens, Midtown, and Hell’s Kitchen, Peter’s sound was so distinct, he could find it outside his usual range of listening. If Peter was in New York, Matt couldn’t find him. “I’d rather be here doing something than sitting at my apartment waiting for it to get dark, so I can do something. Thanks for worrying about me.”

Foggy didn’t reply or leave. Matt contemplated just ignoring the other, but it was easier to let Foggy get it out than ignore it. “What?”

“By do something, do you mean a repeat of last night?”

Matt ducked his head away from Foggy. He should’ve known Foggy would get upset about it. “Is there a point to this?”

The frustrated noise bubbling out of Foggy’s throat made Matt wince. It only got worse as Foggy snapped, “Arson is the point, Matt. Arson. Because that’s what happened last night, and it’s all over the news.”

“The building wasn’t connected to anything, we got everyone out of it, and someone called the emergency line shortly after the fire started. It was a gang’s hideout and front for money laundering.”

“And it was in Queens without Spider-Man there, and so unlike your usual stuff. I just…” Foggy trailed off before saying, “You can find him without tearing up the city. Last time you tore up the city like this with Elektra-” Foggy cut himself off, tensing up.

Matt went stiff the second Foggy mentioned Elektra before abruptly standing up. Grabbing up files he had planned on working on, Matt shoved them into a bag. He didn’t lift his head as he cut Foggy off, “I guess coming here today was a mistake. I’ll see you in a few days, Foggy. Let me know if you need me sooner.”

“Wait, Matt, I didn’t-”

“No, really, if we keep talking, we’ll both say shit we’ll regret.” Matt took a breath, trying to swallow down his anger. “I know you’re worried, but I know what I’m doing. I don’t want this to affect our friendship again.”

Foggy, thankfully, recognized the out for what it was. More arguing would just end with yelling, and it showed growth on Matt’s part to recognize and admit he needed to leave a situation to calm down. Growth that made Foggy more secure in letting this go. The Matt of the past would’ve been happy to stay there and snap back at Foggy. So, Foggy just stepped aside to let Matt pass, and asked, “Let me know if you need any help- non-violent help, but yeah… I don’t want to find out from the news that you got hurt.”

Matt nodded and pat Foggy’s shoulder before disappearing through the door and making his way back home.

Later that night when some guy’s blood splattered on his face, Matt wondered if he should’ve listened to Foggy and taken a moment to consider not raging against the city. Sure, he was the one who made the guy bleed, and yeah, the guy kidnapped people for a living, but getting blood all over his face was, frankly, unsanitary and gross.

Wade suggesting Matt lick it off was not helping. Especially considering Matt told Wade to fuck off, and then Wade offered to lick it off for him.

Matt wondered how long it would take of this before he attempted killing Wade. Probably not long if this kept up. Based on his own assessment of how he felt, he knew continuing would end poorly. He wasn’t like Wade or Peter. Recovery took time, and the lack of sleep hadn’t helped. The lack of any progress didn’t help either.

No one knew anything about Spider-Man, and they would say something if they did after Wade and Matt “talked” to them.

Swinging his legs from the news box he sat on, Wade suggested, “Maybe we ought to steal a news camera, or leave a message. You know, let the little criminals know we know Spidey’s missing and if they don’t want their hideouts destroyed, they better fess up. Thooooough, that might have to reopen the whole arson door which, I for one, am totally a fan of that strategy if your boo hadn’t been a kill joy.”

“My what?”

“Boo, bear, snuggle bug, fuck bu-”

Matt slapped a hand over Wade’s mouth and snapped, “I have a hard time resisting the urge to strangle you on a good day, try not to actually give me a reason to do it.” Once Matt was reasonably certain Wade wouldn’t keep calling Foggy increasingly vulgar terms, he focused on Wade’s suggestion. “I don’t want to shout to the world that Spider-Man’s missing right now. We’d have to find someone to take care of Queens. His villains would take advantage of his absence.”

“Hmmmm I get your point, but not to be a downer, we’ve got shit to go on right now. You can’t find him with your freaky powers, Wease’s tech magic turned up nothing, and my friend with a completely fake power can’t stumble across him cause she’s conveniently out of town. Didn’t you talk about bribing someone for help? I’m a big fan of bribery!”

“If we can’t find even a hint of what happened, Jess probably won’t turn up much more no matter how good a P.I. she is. Though…” Matt didn’t want to do it, but at least Peter and him had a good relationship. He might help out in Queens just based on that. “If we don’t have anything by tomorrow night, I know someone in town who might be willing to keep Queens under control while we look. What will we tell people to do if they know something, but don’t have Spidey?”

“I’ll give them an address for one of my safe houses! Maybe get someone to come play secretary, check the little criminals in, and then interview them. You can do your lie detector thing, and then we let them go. Offer to leave their gangs alone in exchange for info!” Wade practically preened at his own suggestion.

Matt had to admit, it was a better idea than what they were doing now. “I guess that works.” Not that he would let Wade know that.

“Alrighty then, Samael, it’s time for a little beddie-bye before you stab someone in the eyes.” Wade made little sweeping motions with his hands as if he were actually herding Matt.

Mugging at Wade, Matt snapped, “I’m not a child.”

“There’s that sleep deprived anger.”

“Fuck you.”

Chapter Text

Matt didn’t go into the office again, but he did text both Karen and Foggy to let them know he was sorry he wouldn’t make it in. The text was really more to let them know he was okay than to apologize for missing work. He knew they both cared more about knowing he was okay than being frustrated at picking up more work. Foggy did end up texting back asking if Matt had seen the news talking about the range of people busted and bloodied by both Daredevil and Deadpool the night before. The news speculated how safe it was to go on the streets and why the two vigilantes were going on a rampage.

Matt declined to reply.

Well, as the night progressed with no leads, Matt knew he could answer both questions the news asked. If you were a normal citizen of New York, it was safer than usual with both Deadpool and Daredevil looking for a fight. Less criminals having a chance to pull shit if two vigilantes were knocking heads for no apparent reason. The why they were rampaging? That answer was going to be given a lot sooner than Matt had planned.

Standing over the concussed and unconscious form of his latest victim, Matt felt his hope waning. Really, Matt’s hope had left the moment he realized he couldn’t sense Peter anymore, anywhere. Peter’s heartbeat was loud, quick, and attention grabbing. Matt knew his passive hearing range well, but he could normally hear Peter farther than others. Wade was similar. The way the man’s skin shifted and moved, the feel of it on Matt’s skin without them even touching. Matt knew the moment Wade got within range.

Not being able to hear Peter anywhere felt like going blind again.

So wrapped up in his thoughts, Matt failed to notice another person standing in the alley until hearing a familiar voice snapped, “Put your hands up.”

The seriousness of the man’s voice made Matt slowly raise his hands before turning to face him. “Detective, I thought we’d gotten past the pointing guns and arrest attempts.”

“Well, I thought we’d gotten past you being a maniac with anger issues and a mask, but the rampage you and your partner have been on say otherwise. So, Daredevil, you’re under arrest. Get on the ground.”

Matt didn’t move, standing still. He wasn’t worried about the gun. Especially considering who he just heard drop down behind the detective.

“Hmm, I don’t think you’ll be arresting Devil’s Food Cake tonight, detective. However, you can arrest assured I’ll put a bullet in you if you don’t put your gun down.” Wade laughed wildly at his own pun. The gun he held on the detective remained steady despite Wade waving his other hand around as he said, “Get it? Arrest cause you’re under arrest but rest assured cause I’ll put one in your kneecap if you try and shoot Double-D.”

Wade looked to Matt, as if expecting the man to laugh at his joke. He frowned and grumbled, “No one here would know funny if I shot them.” When the detective made no move to put the gun down, Wade made a show of switching off the safety on his gun. “’Might be making puns, but I’m serious about shooting you.”

Finally speaking up, Matt commanded, “Put the gun down, Deadpool. Detective Mahoney’s not actually going to shoot me. Hasn’t even taken the safety off.”

Brett’s aim didn’t waver. “That trick ain’t gonna work here.” The detective was smarter than that.

Matt shrugged. “Fine then, different tactic. Shoot me and Deadpool’ll make sure you regret it, or we can have a civil conversation and put the guns away.”

There was another tense second before Brett lowered his weapon. He didn’t put it back in its holster, but he was willing to talk instead of pushing the buttons of an unstable mercenary. Once Wade also put his weapon away, Brett asked, “Where’s Spidey? He’s a lot more pleasant to deal with than you two.”

The snarl that came out of Matt’s mouth was not entirely voluntary. He tilted his head in Wade’s direction, trying to determine whether or not telling the detective was a good idea.

Wade put his hands up and remarked, “You were the one who wanted to keep it secret.”

Turning back to ‘glare’ at Brett, Matt told him, “Spider-Man’s missing. You chased after me to ask why we’re going on a ‘rampage,’ well, that’s your answer. We’re looking for him.”

“How do you know he doesn’t have real person shit to deal with? Some of you have to have lives outside this stuff,” Brett questioned.

It was Wade’s turn to give Matt a sign until Matt stated, “That one is your secret. You know Spidey never cared about people knowing.”

Wade shrugged. “Just checking to see if you thought it was a good idea to say. I’m not all that good with the strats, you know? Anyway, detective, I know for sure it’s not ‘real person’ stuff, as you so rudely put. Why, you might ask? Because we’re roomies! BFFs for life. Somehow, he wormed his little demon child way into my life, and he just won’t leave! Plus, his family gave me a little ring because he missed family dinner night, and trust me, he never misses family dinner. He’s been recovering from gun wounds and still gone to it. Aaaaand he hasn’t answered his phone and you know how them millennials are about their phones. Or is he a zoomer now? I can never keep the cannon straight, they keep recasting him.”

Brett didn’t seem to know what to do with that information dump and dumbly said, “You’re roommates?”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Matt wondered why he’d let Wade explain. He’d gotten better at deciphering what Wade meant in his rambling, but Peter was far better at translating. Still, Matt had to try. “What he’s trying to say is, we know for absolute sure that Spider-Man is missing. We’re looking to get him back.”

“Have you reported him missing?” It was a little weird how easy it was to feel the ‘are you a dumbass’ stares through Deadpool and Daredevil’s masks, but Brett got the message. “I don’t mean Spider-Man. I mean whoever he is under the mask. If he’s reported missing, you can calm your rampage and have more people looking out.”

“Full offense,” Matt hoped he was using that right. “The police are useless. Especially with missing persons cases.”

Brett had to remind himself he was dealing with unstable vigilantes and couldn’t tell them to go fuck themselves no matter how much he wanted to. His mom would reach into hell and drag him back out to kill him again if he got murdered for mouthing off. Instead of telling them to go fuck themselves, Brett took a breath before saying, “You can’t keep rampaging. People are already getting hurt trying to get out of the way of criminals freaking out because of your insanity. And, yes, there’s often not a lot we can do about missing persons but having an extra set of eyes won’t hurt.”

“Hmmm, or second option, you look out for the people who might get hurt and we keep taking care of our own without outing their identities. Cool? Cool. Double-D, I’m kinda getting bored and hungry, so we ought to skedaddle before I shoot the detective for being annoying,” Wade said, happily slinging and arm around Matt and leaning on him.

Matt was silent for a moment, mulling over what the detective said. He shrugged Wade’s arm off and turned around to walk away. “Always a pleasure, detective. That guy’s all yours. Saves me the trouble of calling for someone to pick the scum up.”

Wade didn’t turn away, but walked backwards, following Matt. He wanted to make sure the detective wasn’t going to shoot or pursue before turning away. Wade remained uncharacteristically quiet as they walked. It was easy to tell that Matt was mulling over some ideas. Even if Wade did interrupt, he knew he’d risk getting his head bitten off.

It wasn’t until they were sitting on one of their favorite rooves, food finished, that Matt spoke. “I have a couple ideas.”

*--------------------*

As Matt tapped his way up to the front desk, he lamented not asking Foggy to come with. Matt had no issues with being in a police station on his own, normally. This whole thing with Peter being missing and not being able to find him was throwing Matt off. So, when the officer working at the desk snidely remarked, “there aren’t any ambulances here to chase,” Matt didn’t have to swallow down his anger.

Instead, Matt calmly said, “I’m here to speak with detective Mahoney if he’s not busy.”

The guy turned around to look, before calling, “Mahoney. You got a lawyer here requesting to talk to you specifically.”

Even from across the room, Matt could hear Brett’s heavy sigh and steady footfalls. Once Brett got closer to the desk, he grumbled, “Nelson, do you not know how- Oh. Murdock, great. What did you get involved in that requires you coming all the way down here?”

Matt shifted his weight and ran his fingers along his walking cane. “I’m not here because of a case. I need to report someone missing, and I trust you won’t let our difference in professions keep you from taking it seriously.” Better to be blunt and honest about it. Beating around the bush would just waste more time.

“Is Foggy okay?”

It was more than a little endearing that Brett’s first thought was to worry about Foggy and that Brett dropped the false animosity of calling Foggy by his last name. “Foggy’s fine. I have a… family friend, I guess, who’s been staying at my apartment for the last year. He’s missing.”

Brett sighed. Normally he wouldn’t be the detective for this kind of stuff, but he also knew prejudice between cops and defense lawyers ran deep. Plus, well, as much as he hated to admit it, he cared about Foggy. It was impossible to give a shit about Foggy and not about his worse half. Brett was pretty sure he once heard their other co-worker, Karen, talking about bets regarding when (never if) Foggy and Murdock would finally get their shit together. Brett firmly knew the answer to that was never. Even if they did talk about their feelings, they would still not have their shit together.

The eternal suffering of childhood friends.

“Come on. I’ll take the information in the back room.” Brett turned around to just go, expecting Matt to follow before it clicked. He turned back and tried to mimic the offering of his arm that he’d seen Foggy do so often. “You can take my arm. Can’t have you knocking over case files around here.”

Matt gave his best smile before grabbing onto Brett’s arm, making sure to ‘miss’ the first time. Letting himself be led through the station, Matt mentally thanked Foggy for his weird friendship with Brett. It had served Matt well on multiple occasions, but this was especially sensitive.

Matt settled in the chair Brett offered to him and pulled a small pack of papers out of his jacket and placed them on the table in front of them.

It didn’t take super senses to know Brett was settling in on the other side of the table, hesitant to start asking questions. It only took a few moments before Brett finally began, “Alright, tell me about your roommate. I’ll need his full name, how long he’s been gone, all of that.”

Matt slid the papers over. “I had a friend help me type all of that up before I came here for simplicity. His name is Peter Parker. I’m a family friend of sorts. He goes to school closer to where I live than where his aunt lives, so he decided to move into my spare room about a year ago. He leaves sometimes to see friends or stay with his aunt, so I didn’t know he was gone until his aunt called asking if I’d ask him to call. Last I heard him was Sunday morning. He said he was going to work, the name, address, and number are on those papers, but he said he was going there to work on a few things before going to have dinner with his aunt. According to her, he never made it to dinner, which is unusual, but not unheard of. I don’t know if he made it to work. I listed numbers of his friends, but given that it’s summer, all of his friends are out of town right now.”

Brett tried to keep up, writing down what Matt said before looking over the papers the man had passed over. True to Matt’s words, there were pictures of Peter in addition to basic information like age, height, weight, along with addresses of places he worked and phone numbers of those he worked for. “Why didn’t his aunt or parents report him missing?”

“His parents are dead. May’s the only family he’s got, but he lives with and spends most of his time in Hell’s Kitchen. Plus, we’re not sure where he went missing. He works in Manhattan, but his aunt lives in Queens. It made more sense for me to report it. She would have come with me, but she’s a nurse and couldn’t get out of her shift,” Matt explained.

“Do you know what route he normally takes both to work and to his aunts?”

“Yes and no. He takes the same subway route, but sometimes he’ll walk to a different station or get off at an earlier stop to walk or get coffee on his way to work. With going to his aunt’s, I’m not as familiar with the way to get to Queens.” Not to mention half the time, Peter would swing as Spider-Man around the city.

“How long has he been working at,” Brett looked at the paper, “Biotech?”

“It’s nearing a month now. From what I know, he’s a lab and research assistant intern.” Matt smiled softly. “He’s hoping it will help him get scholarships to complete his degree at a university instead of community college.”

“Do you know if they make people sign into the building? I assume not many people work on Sunday.”

“No, though he did lose his id card once and was worried he’d have trouble getting into the building without it. They might have an electronic log of employees coming into the building. Why?”

Brett tapped his pen against the table. “If we can find out when he entered and left the building, if he made it there at all, it’ll narrow down when and where he went missing.”

Nodding, Matt lifted his glasses just a bit to rub at his eyes. The lack of sleep over the last few days was getting to him. While reporting Peter missing could help find the kid, it still unnerved Matt, the whole process. He appreciated the almost clinical way Brett was handling the situation. Of course, most people would want comforting words and half promises. Matt just wanted this over with.

Matt’s phone suddenly chirped out, “Wade, Wade, Wade, Wade,” interrupting anything Brett or Matt was about to say. Matt fumbled to pull his phone out, nearly dropping it, before turning to Brett.

Brett cleared his throat and stood up. “I’ll get us both a cup of coffee since that seems important.”

Absentmindedly, Matt thanked Brett before answering the phone with a, “I’m at the station, is this important?”

Wade’s chipper voice came through, “The deed has been done and oooooh boy has it been done well! How’s the station going? Are they treating you right? Cause I can be over there in a heartbeat and make some lives very unpleasant.”

“No, it’s fine. Who knows, they might turn up something we missed… Though, the detective mentioned something about looking into a sign in sheet or electronic log for when someone goes into Peter’s work building to determine when he might have disappeared.”

“Am I doing some good ol’ B&E or is this more of a tech thing because Weasel’s being real pissy lately and I don’t wanna have to bargain with him when he’s being a whiney bitch.”

“I have only met him twice, but whiney bitch seems to be his entire personality.”

“I’m telling him you said that!”

“Just look into it, okay? Walk into the building like a normal person or ask someone else to and see if they make you sign in. If your friend really needs encouragement to help on the tech side, let him know I’d be happy to pay him a visit.” Matt didn’t know many things about Wade’s friends, but he knew how spineless Weasel was.

“I’m on it!”

The line went dead, and Matt shoved his phone into his pocket, not noticing how Brett observed him from across the room. Looking at Matt, Brett reflected on how this was the most disheveled he’d ever seen the lawyer. Despite any differences they might have, Brett was… a little worried. Maybe he would call Foggy later.

Carrying two cups of coffee, Brett set one in front of Matt. “It’s to your right, just in front of you hand.” Once Matt grabbed the cup, Brett got ready to write more things down. “I’m going to ask you some more questions about frequent places Peter goes to, if there’s any reason someone would have to target him, things like that. Are you ready to start again?”

Matt nodded. “Anything that will help find him.”

*--------------------*

While Matt couldn’t see the recording play, he could only imagine the news caster’s confusion reporting the weather on the street only to have Deadpool of all people drop in and hijack her camera and show. Matt was confused at first, wondering why they wouldn’t just cut the camera and move on. However, this was New York, home to the vigilantes and mercenaries. It made for good ratings having Deadpool go on a rant.

Especially when Deadpool was announcing that Spider-Man was missing.

“No, no, weather report’s done, it’s hot out cause it’s summer and we live in an environmental hellscape due to capitalism and living in an overcrowded city. Thunderstorms sometime probably. Aaaanyway-“

Sometimes Matt wondered if he should feel bad for unleashing Wade onto the world. Other times, there was a twisted satisfaction knowing he could harness and direct this chaos. Peter was the real MVP of harnessing the chaos. It was always fun listening to Peter make a slight suggestion and Wade leaping at the chance to enact Peter’s schemes. Matt enjoyed being able to do it as well, but he was certain Wade just enjoyed being the main source of chaos.

“See, I’ve got this big ol’ important announcement! It’s why I’m in Queens instead of my usual haunts- oh, though if I spot a little news caster in Hell’s Kitchen totes gonna highjack that one too, but back to the point! Stop distracting me you fiend.” Wade bopped the bewildered woman on the nose with her own microphone. “That’s right, that’s what I’m here to talk about. You might be wondering, fair people and criminals of the city, why the Devil and I have been tearing up the place. Routing out the hideouts, burning, collapsing, destroying, all that fun stuff! I mean, hey, I can’t blame you, Team Red has curbed my blood lust over time, buuuuut-”

Wade paused dramatically for this, “Spider-Man’s missing! He’s gonezo and we want him back. We being myself and the lovely Devil of course, though we’ve got a couple friends miffed as well. So, the deal is, we’re going to keep tearing places apart, tormenting, beating, all that stuff, until we find our Spidey. So, if you don’t want your little posse kicked to shit and your hideout ransacked, offer up information like the sacrificial lamb’s blood smeared over your door. That religious reference is for you Double-D, I do pay attention to your rants.”

Matt had never ranted about the bible to Wade. However, they did have a running joke about how many people were convinced that Matt was the actual devil. Though, Matt was a little surprised by the reference given that that meant Wade had read the bible at some point.

“So, if you’ve got info, or you know your little criminal neighbor’s got info, you can sacrifice them at the 15^th precinct in Hell’s Kitchen. Ask for a detective Mahoney if you can. Trust me, we’ll know when you do. Oh, and detective, for the shit storm that’s about to come your way, remember, don’t fucking point a gun at my partner. Oh! But that reminds me, anyone who cheats by targeting the detective gets to find out how little restraint I have with the no-kill rule. And if you little baddies and goofies of Queens think ‘this is my time.’ You are sadly mistaken! We called in one of Spidey’s friends! Honestly, a lot saner than I am which makes him even scarier in my opinion, but really, I don’t want to ruin the surprise. I’ll give you a hint though- He’s a lot more trigger happy than I am!”

Wade took a deep breath before continuing, “And that’s it for me! Back to you Anne!”

Wade tossed the microphone back to the newscaster, who questioned, “How did you know my name?”

Matt turned off the recording, grinning to himself. He had no doubts that that little ‘interview’ was already all over the internet. Wade had really out done himself. All that was left was waiting to see if anything came of it, which also meant waiting for nightfall.

Chapter Text

Standing on a roof, Matt waited on his and Wade’s agreed upon meeting spot. It had only just gotten dark enough for Matt to feel okay going out in his costume. With the little announcement on the news, Matt didn’t want to announce his activity before he was ready for a fight. At least, not until he and Wade struck a certain place.

Matt waited until Wade finally clambered onto the roof before asking, “Did your guy turn anything up?”

“You really wound a guy going straight to business. Why can’t you wine and dine me? Just once! Don’t you love me?” Wade crooned at Matt. When Matt didn’t respond, Wade gave a dramatic sigh. “Fiiine. Weasel hasn’t gotten anything yet. He did not appreciate me waking him up in the middle of the day. I mean, he does stay up all night running a bar for mercenaries, so I can kind of understand why he’d be a little grumpy. So, he’s looking at it probably starting about now, and he’ll call if he finds something, but it might take him a bit because of the aforementioned mercenary bar. Anything from the cop?”

“No. I’ve been listening in, but there’s nothing going on there. You know how useful they are. You only made the announcement today, so we probably won’t see anyone turned up until we’ve ‘rampaged’ some more.”

“Speaking of which, what naughty children are we visiting tonight? I think we should hit the south since we hit the north yesterday. Plus, there’s that little Indian place and we can get snacks!”

With anyone else, it would have bothered Matt how cavalier Wade acted given their missing member. However, Matt had learned this was Wade’s method of coping. His natural state. The way he kept his shit together. It also helped Matt keep his shit together. Hard to freak out when someone was constantly jabbering nonsense at you.

Matt led the way off the roof, towards the next little hideout he knew of. It was still far more cathartic than it should’ve been to kick the shit out of people who were harming the neighborhood. Walking away from his most recent victim, Matt paused and listened around the city.

Wade perked up suddenly. Matt didn’t know what it was about his body language, but both Wade and Peter had developed sixth senses for when Matt heard something interesting. Without prompting, Matt explained, “Something’s going on at the 15^th. Apparently, some guy with the Crows got dropped off there, half thrown out of a car, beat to hell, with a note on him that said ‘ask me about Spider-Man.’ The cops are trying to decide what to do with him.”

Wade gasped, hopping from foot to foot in excitement. “Are we going to break in to talk to him? Oh, oh I need a bean bag gun and a bunch of glitter! We can go Birds of Prey in this bitch! I mean I don’t look as great as Margo Robbie did in that bonnet, but it’ll still be fun!”

“That’s… not the worst idea, breaking in non-lethally. You’re basically immortal; you can break in without worrying about getting shot, then call me, and while you’re talking to the guy, I can tell you if he’s lying or not.” Matt brushed himself off. “We should go now before they have time to make him a pain in the ass to get to. They’ll only keep him in his own room for so long to interrogate him.”

“Aye aye captain!”

As they ran over, Matt kept half of his attention on the police station. He smiled a little hearing his favorite cop, grumbling and talking with, someone who Matt assumed was Brett’s captain.

Matt was familiar enough with Brett’s voice to pick up him saying, “Sir, I don’t know why they called me out specifically. Yes, I saw and attempted to arrest Daredevil as I wrote in my report. I believe they’re targeting me out of spite, not because they think I’m going to tell them anything a perp says while here. That would be unethical, and I have no interest in working with them.”

The captain was definitely an idiot if they thought Brett would cooperate with Wade or Matt willingly. Sure, Brett tolerated Daredevil to an extent. That didn’t mean they worked together.

Stopping a building away from the station, Matt ducked into an alcove to keep himself hidden. He nodded to Wade and made sure their phone call connected before the mercenary disappeared.

Wade dropped to the ground and skipped, yes skipped, into the station, gun in hand, in all his Deadpool glory. He politely kept the gun pointed at the floor (for now) before announcing, “Heeeelllooo little piggies! A little devil told me someone here had some info for us, and I’ve come to collect. So, if you’ll just direct me to his room?”

Unsurprisingly, Wade was met with several guns getting pointed at him and shouts of him getting on the ground. Ignoring them, he put his phone up to his ear and said, “They decided they want to do this the hard way.”

On the roof, Matt informed Wade, “I’m pretty sure he’s in a back room to the left of you. You know, once they start shooting it’ll be harder for me to direct you.”

“Hmm yup! But I got it! Criminal’s intuition shall lead the way.” Wade put the phone back in his pocket but didn’t hang it up. Instead, he addressed the room. “So, those are all some nice guns you’ve got, but I think we can be civil, calm, nice folks and just let me back there.”

Not that Wade was asking permission. No, he was already walking in the direction of the back room, and upon seeing Brett, waved sweetly. His little walk didn’t last long before someone finally decided to fire on him. Wade jerked and jumped at the gun shots and turned his leisurely walk into a hurried sprint to the back. Just because gun wounds didn’t kill him didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. Opening a random room, Wade grinned at his own luck, and quickly shut the door behind him to avoid getting shot again.

The door’s lock clicked before Wade, in all his bloody glory, plopped down on the chair in front of the man in front of him. Into the phone, he asked, “Can you hear me?”

Upon Matt’s confirmation that he could hear both Wade and the man’s heartbeat over the commotion in the station, Wade turned his attention to the poor sap sitting in front of him. “So, I heard you’re our sacrificial lamb of the evening, and I’d love to hear what you have to say about our Spidey!” Wade punctuated the statement by thunking his gun onto the table.

The guy shrunk back in his seat, pulling at the handcuffs tethering him to the desk. “Look man, I didn’t touch him, I didn’t do anything to him. Don’t kill me-”

“See, I get that kinda, but I don’t really wanna hear your excuses. I wanna hear why your buddies thought you had a nugget of information shiny enough for Daredevil and I. So, we’re going to play a little game. It’s Daredevil’s favorite game! You tell me what you might know about Spider-Man and tell the whole truth, we’ll leave you to the comforts of your future jail cell. If you lie or don’t tell me anything, I’ll break your bones? Sound good?” Wade didn’t wait for a response. “Good! Now, talk.”

In a wild show of intelligence, the guy decided to talk without any physical coercion. “Okay, okay, I mentioned to my crew that I heard someone talking about Spider-Man, and they decided to drop me here, but I didn’t hear anything clear. Just, these guys I do work for sometimes were talking about how they’d love to get their hands on one o’ you frea- uh… guys.”

“Ask him what the work is, and who he’s talking about.”

Wade sighed and shook his head. “I know how to interrogate people DD, but I guess I’ll ask since I was going to ask anyway.”

“What?” The guy looked confused.

“Don’t worry about it. What you need to worry about is telling me what kind of work this is you’re doing for these guys. What’d they want with one of us?”

“Uh…” The man wrung his hands before continuing, “I get homeless people sometimes, just find ‘em and bring them to the park off 48^th and 10^th, the one right near here. These guys, I didn’t know who they were, but they had this big van parked nearby and they’d take the guys in, draw some blood, keep some of the guys- willingly too! They’d offer ‘em a bed and food for the night if they got chosen, and I’d get five a head for each I brought and ten for the guys they keep. Their van didn’t have any markings and all, but the other day one of ‘em in a lab coat, a little id card fell out of his pocket. Said BioTech on it, but I didn’t say anything cause I wasn’t supposed to see it. Mentioning seeing shit’s how you get killed. But- they mentioned a while ago, saying something about wanting to get their hands on Daredevil or Spider-Man or a mutant in general to do some tests. Said something about Spidey being the easiest to grab since he’s the weakest one of you.”

“BioTech?”

“You sure it was BioTech?” Wade asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I remembered it. I got a real good memory when it comes to this stuff. But, I told you everything I know, so you’re not gonna kill me right?”

Wade grinned when Matt didn’t say anything more. “That hopeful look in your eye is just adorable! You get to live another day, buttercup,” Wade ruffled the man’s hair before continuing, “I have to be off before they get wise and break the door down. Tood-a-loo~ Have a nice time in jail!”

Unlocking the door, Wade kicked it open to announce his presence back into the police station at large. True to what he’d thought, Wade saw two officers standing with a small battering ram. Once Wade made his appearance, both cops dropped the ram and pulled out their weapons. Wade rolled his eyes and sighed before putting away his gun and the phone. He lifted his hands in mock surrender.

“Can’t we just skip the unnecessary shooting part? I’ve got places to be, and I doubt whatever poor sap has to clean this place wants to scrub my blood off the walls.” No one moved in response to Wade talking, but no one lowered their weapons either. “You can stare all you want, but I’ll win any staring contests! I mean, you can’t really see my eyes in this, so I win no matter what, buuuut I really gotta go…”

Wade started inching his way out of the hall and back into the room. Once he was in the main room, even with all the guns pointed at him and all the innocent bystanders presumably evacuated, Wade decided to say fuck it and sprint out of the police station before anyone could really get to him. A couple brave, foolish souls, decided to shoot after him, but none were dumb enough to actually follow him.

Jogging to the rendezvous point, Wade got ready to declare what a success his little mission was to Matt when he phone started ringing. Wade held up a finger, in a ‘hold that thought’ motion, wondered for a moment if Matt could tell what he was doing, decided Matt had to know given the number of times people flipped him off, and then answered the phone with a “Hello! You’ve reached Lover’s Retreat, home of the fuck boat party pack. My name’s Wade, how can I help you this evening?”

“Wade, I don’t have time for whatever that was. The bar’s fucking packed, and I just got the walls fixed. Do you know what a pain in the ass it is to hire someone to fix bullet holes without them asking questions? Cause it’s fucking annoying, and the animals here don’t understand ‘take it outside’ like normal people do.”

“Not to be that guy but your rant took longer than my greeting soooooo…”

“You wanna know about the BioTech shit or not cause I can just hang up.”

“No, no, no, go ahead and tell me.”

“Right. You asked me to look into their records for your roommate, but there are no records of him at least not on a surface level. Someone tried to wipe any trace of him being a part of the company clean, and it was done by a professional. Hidden in that fucking mess, it took me hours, Wade, hours of sorting through encryptions and coded files and all that shit while running the bar, but they’ve got a hidden file on your guy with a write up of his build, age, gender, all that stuff, but also shit about his DNA and genetic make-up. It was in a folder with a bunch of other files like that of random names, same data and information, and a category called ‘performance.’”

A loud and pronounced “shit” came from Matt.

“Yeah, that’s not the worst part. I thought I’d do the good news, bad news thing, but it’s more of a bad news, worse news thing. The folder that’s got all that information in it is called ‘Weapons V.’”

Matt chimed in, “Like the Weapons X project?”

“That’s the vibe it gives me. Someone either made a spin-off version of it, or Weapons X wasn’t the only mutant militarization facility. Kinda good news is, according to the file, they know he’s got the gene that can cause a mutation and know something’s weird with his blood, but haven’t figured out anything else, so he’s alive.”

Matt just snatched Wade’s phone while Wade stared cursing and shouting about torture and someone named ‘Francis.’ Leaving Wade to his meltdown, Matt asked, “Do you know where they’re being held? In the BioTech building or…”

“They were smart enough not to put their address on any of these files, so BioTech’s all you’ve got unless they’ve got a secret facility somewhere.” Matt could hear some typing in the background before Weasel continued, “Though, there are bootlegger tunnels that run under their building towards Hell’s Kitchen and back towards Harlem.”

“Do one of the tunnels run near the 10^th and 48^th intersection?”

“Uhhhh…” There was more typing. “Yeah. Fuck, are you actually psychic because I have a lot of money on you just being a normal dude who took bible study too seriously.”

Matt growled, “Focus.”

“So, it dead ends around between 8^th and 9^th along 49^th, but I can’t tell where you can or can’t find an entrance to it.”

Matt hung up without another word. After all, he had an idea now of why he couldn’t find Peter and where this secret facility might be. That and dealing with Weasel never failed to give him a headache. Matt was convinced the man made interacting with him as terrible as possible in revenge for his inability to discover Matt’s identity.

Grabbing onto Wade’s arm to stop his pacing, Matt said, “I’ve got an idea on where they would have a facility for that shit. There are tunnels near the subway that runs on 50^th. If they’re close enough and far enough underground, I wouldn’t have been able to hear Peter, especially if his heartrate is changing from any torture. It’d be harder to distinguish.”

“Not to harsh on the big reveal, but we got a teensy-weensy problem. How in the fuck nuggets are we gonna get down there? I don’t have my C4 with me, and trust me, we’re blowing them fucks to hell and back!”

“If we go into the sewers, I’ll be able to find us a way.”

“Lead the way!”

*--------------------*

Dropping into the sewers, Matt took a second to orient himself. Navigating smaller areas could be difficult with the way noise echoed and bounced around. Wade luckily stayed quiet. Matt knew the man was trying to take this as serious as he could, getting closer to finding their lost teammate. Without saying anything, Matt strode down the tunnel. Down there, Matt could hear several heartbeats that were faster than average. He couldn’t quite distinguish if one belonged to Peter, but there were definitely people in trouble down there.

Peter or not, Matt was going to save anyone there getting tortured in an attempt to force mutations.

A few minutes into navigating the winding tunnel, Matt paused and whispered, “Police followed us. They might be gunning to arrest us for breaking into the station or assuming we know something about what that guy said.”

Wade matched Matt’s volume, “Just say the word, honey bun, and I’ll go light ‘em up Mushu style, but we’re not leaving without our baby boy.”

Matt considered it for a moment. He knew he could convince Wade not to kill any of the officers, but he also knew how they could use the cops. “No, let them follow us. If there are a lot of people taken, we can’t help all of them, especially if they’re too injured to walk. We’ll grab Peter and leave from a different way. The cops will handle the others.”

Nodding, Wade continued following after Matt.

Neither was fully prepared for what they found. Wade was honestly proud of himself that he didn’t have a visceral reaction to seeing a set up all too similar to what he’d gone through. How they got all of the power down there, Wade didn’t know. Honestly, he didn’t give a shit. He was ready to tear the place apart.

Before Wade could fully sink into… well, a horrific headspace, Matt whispered, “There are only actually five people here not strapped down. None of them seem armed. I think Peter’s on the other side from here.”

Wade was likely going to choose a more violent method for resetting his brain later, but at the moment, he would focus on Peter. Getting Peter out of there. Hoping they hadn’t gotten as thorough with the torture as they had in Weapons X. Instead of really rampaging, Wade whispered back, “They probably aren’t. Two or three would be mutants both as lovely torturers and guards. You know, the good ol’ ‘we’ll stop torturing you if you pick up the whip’ method of recruitment. You sure I can’t kill them? I reeeaaally think killing would be a good idea.”

“Them having to sit in jail will be worse than killing them, and you might traumatize the people here even more or make them assume you’re their new… keeper.”

“Fine, but I’m shooting them.”

“Don’t forget, the police are behind us; we need to be fast. But I’ll get to Peter while you shoot people.”

“No plunging the world into darkness? It’s kind of your m.o. at this point. I mean, if I were some poor, sadistic fuck, I’d want the full experience.”

“I don’t want to shut off anything that might be keeping someone alive.”

“Point.” Wade stood at full height, losing his patience and interest in the conversation. “Anyway, one, two, three, show’s on the road!”

The show, of course, started with Wade shooting one of the workers in the leg, to gather the whole room’s attention. He moved away from the wall and Matt to draw attention to his guns, keeping pistols in both hands. With all the false cheer he could muster, Wade greeted his captive audience, “Hello, hello scumbags, torturers, and unwilling victims! My name is Deadpool, and I’ll be your host for this evening’s event. On the schedule is, you guessed it, knee capping the assholes who think torturing people and human experimentation is a good idea. I’d got for the whole castration thing more if that weren’t more time consuming, sooooo… Who wants to go first?”

No one moved for a moment before two people split off, one running towards one of the people strapped down, the other running towards a corridor that split off from the main room. The one running towards, what Wade assumed was an exit, regretted that mistake swiftly as one of Matt’s billy clubs cracked the guy in the head. The other one got a swift, clean shot to his leg as Wade cheered, “Thank you so much for volunteering. Next?”

The two torturers still standing shared a quick look before the man picked up the woman and threw her at Wade. The woman lunged at Wade with talons protruding from her fingers. Wade dodged her flying through the air and ducked just in time for the man to take a swing at him. Popping back up, Wade smashed one of his guns into the man’s nose. “Ooooh I see you guys graduated torturer boot camp. Quite an upgrade from being the ones strapped down, eh?”

With his attention on the man, the woman struck. Wade reacted enough to kind of block her but dropped his weapon in the process. She took the opportunity to attack again before grunting in surprise when Wade not only let her sink her talons into him but grabbed one of her wrists and pulled the talons in deeper.

“Francis was surprised about this kind of shit too. It’s why I was able to kill him and all the other Weapon X assholes. See, I graduated torturer boot camp too, but instead of being a part of the problem, I kill the problem! Break the cycle, guys, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.” Wade finished his statement by bopping the woman on the nose.

The man finally recovered from his freshly broken nose and roared, moving to help the woman. He didn’t make it that far. After all, a bullet in the leg was a bitch to walk on, and Wade didn’t hesitate to shoot the man (twice) after he roared. With that guy down, Wade released the woman’s arm, causing her to stumble back.

“Deadpool, I found him!” Matt shouted from across the room.

Wade looked at the woman and sighed. “And I was going to have so much fun with you. Playtime’s over, though.”

The next time she lunged for him, Wade brought his gun down across her head. Wade pondered aloud, “Why is it so satisfying pistol whipping people? I mean, even saying it out loud sounds nice.” He looked down at the collapsed, unconscious woman. “Does that make me a bad person? Well, I’ll shoot you too since I shot everyone else, and I feel like it’d be a little unfair if everyone else got a bullet hole or two and you didn’t.”

Wade didn’t look as he shot the woman. He merely scooped up his other gun and returned both to their holsters. Skipping, he made his way over to Matt, and what was probably a halfway conscious Peter. “The po-po are sure to find us now after all the gun fire. We might wanna skedaddle a little.”

“They’re too close for me. I can guide us out of the tunnels though,” Matt explained.

Peter just smiled and spoke softly. “I knew you guys were coming. Knew I just needed to wait… Check on the others first.”

“They’re going to be okay. The police followed us, and they’ll take care of the people here, but they’ll stop us from taking you and make you go to a hospital.” Matt knew taking Peter to a hospital wasn’t an option, but he didn’t want to deal with fighting the police and taking care of Peter.

Wade, while a little worried about the fate of the victims himself, recognized the stubborn pout on Peter’s face. “What if we go down the tunnel a little and wait? You got them crazy bat ears too, and if they aren’t taking care of the people here, we’ll just bust back in and make ‘em.”

Matt whipped his head around to voice his protest the idea but fell silent when Peter nodded agreeably. “Yeah, let’s… here, lemme just,” Peter swung his legs over the side of the bed he’d been strapped to. He slid far enough, he could place his feet on the ground, but as soon as he stood, he almost fell back.

Both Matt and Wade stepped up to catch Peter, each grabbing an arm. There was a shared thought between the two of them. With a nod, Matt gave Wade enough room to scoop Peter up. Both of them started moving towards the tunnel Matt had indicated as an exit.

Peter hissed at the sudden movement. Matt scrunched his eyebrows together and asked, “Are you hurt?”

“Yeah… they uh flogged me I think, yesterday. My back still hurts, you know? They didn’t really bandage it up or anything,” Peter explained, gritting his teeth any time Wade accidentally jostled him.

“Why hasn’t that healed yet?” Wade tried to keep his steps steady and smooth.

“I stopped eating the slop they gave us to slow my healing. I didn’t want them to realize I was already mutated… ‘Would’ve put a collar on me. No idea what it would’ve done.” Peter had experimented enough with his own abilities to know how to slow them down. He also knew if they found out he was enhanced, they would try to find out how and why, which meant getting his blood taken. He couldn’t afford someone trying to replicate what happened to him. “Knew if I escaped, they’d move or kill people to avoid being found out… I was gonna make a break for it tomorrow. Wouldn’t have made it another day, but I knew you guys were coming though. Knew it.”

Not for the first time, Matt almost regretted keeping Wade from killing the people responsible for all of this. Instead, he focused on getting them far enough down the tunnel, they would be clear out of sight and letting Peter listen in. Though, Peter not eating made Matt understand why he couldn’t find Peter’s heartbeat. Despite any fear or anxiety about the situation, the weariness of starvation wouldn’t keep up with Peter’s enhancement. No enhancement, no weird heartbeat.

While they stood there, Wade knew he would’ve gone back and killed those sick bastards if he weren’t busy holding onto Peter. Sure, Matt could’ve managed carrying Peter, but Wade was stronger and bigger in general. Plus, he was the perfect human shield.

Matt let himself focus on Peter’s heartbeat now, to keep himself from getting twitchy. He would probably have to call Claire, ask her to check Peter out. Getting to Harlem wouldn’t be a problem with Wade’s connections. Claire would be able to help with the wounds. They could get food into Peter to help him recover.

Footsteps down the tunnel made Matt’s head snap up. “We need to move, someone’s-”

“Freeze!” Brett’s familiar voice commanded, gun pointing directly at Matt. Looking the vigilante and mercenary over, Brett took notice of the young man in Deadpool’s arms. He didn’t know what those two wanted, kidnapping a victim, but Brett wasn’t letting that happen. Well, especially not when a flicker of recognition flared into understanding. “Put the guy down and back away.”

Brett might not have a friendship with Matt or Foggy, but like hell could he let someone kidnap someone they cared about.

Matt practically snarled and put himself in between Brett and Peter. “Not gonna happen, detective.”

Wade echoed the sentiment, hands twitching to grab one of his own guns to respond to the threat. “You might wanna back off before someone gets hurt.”

The gun didn’t waver as Brett snapped, “I’m not fucking around. Put him down or I will open fire. I don’t know why you’ve lost your mind enough to start kidnapping people, but you’ve done a lot of shit lately outside the norm. I don’t care. He is part of a missing person’s case. Put him down.”

A lightbulb went off in Matt’s head. Both out of a desire to keep any stray bullets from finding Peter and to keep this from turning into a fight, Matt made the decision to take a decision out of Peter’s hands. “We know he’s part of a missing person’s case. You were the one who told us to find a way to report him missing.”

“What?” Brett’s confusion was palpable. “I told you to find a way to report Spider-Man missing, and you pulled that stunt with the news station. I meant reporting the person…” It clicked, “behind the mask.”

It was only a little bit, but Brett’s aim dipped down, away from Matt, enough for Matt to strike. Throwing out a billy club, Matt knocked the gun out of Brett’s grasp, before catching the weapon bouncing back to him. Matt commanded, “DP, go.”

Wade didn’t need to be told twice. Peter’s safety was the priority. Matt followed behind after he was certain Brett wasn’t following. He got the feeling that this wasn’t the last he’d be hearing of this from Brett but felt confident that Peter’s identity was safe. Peter was safe, as safe as he could be.

Chapter Text

It took about a week for things to go back to “normal.” Of course, in that time, Daredevil still made his appearances in the city, and Deadpool took over in Queens for Peter. May practically lived with Peter and Wade for a time, making sure Peter was going to be okay and telling him she would kill him if he scared her like that again. Peter had no doubts she meant it. Wade had echoed the statement by shaking Peter back and forth while growling, “Fucking devil child.”

Peter was touched they cared. He made the mistake of admitting to both Matt and Wade that the reason he’d gone into work on a Sunday was because he’d suspected the company was involved in human experiments. His argument for not telling them was that he was totally going to tell them as soon as he had more proof. In his defense, it wasn’t his fault they got the drop on him.

Matt lectured him on the unnecessary and dangerous risk of starving himself to hide his enhancement. Peter elected to ignore him and instead, went on a long rant about how they’d taken his blood and found the mutant gene in it, and that Peter theorized the reason he hadn’t died from the spider bite was due to his genetics making him better suited to a mutation.

When Peter asked Matt if he could maybe take a little of his blood, Matt hadn’t told Peter to go fuck himself, but he had said, “I’m going to work,” in the same tone as ‘go fuck yourself.’

Once Peter was deemed fit for Spider-Manning by a reluctant May, Matt, and Wade, Peter made his grand debut as the returning Spider-Man. He took it easy, really only set out to let people know he was back around, not missing any longer. There was the ‘unfortunate’ side effect of one of the police stations in Hell’s Kitchen being overheard saying something along the lines of ‘wishing all those freaks would go missing longer.’

Those poor, poor dumbasses being brave enough to say something like that within earshot of the Devil.

Over last week Brett had gotten a pay raise. It wasn’t a large one, but it was one to denote his secondary title of vigilante wrangler. The captain didn’t say it like that, but Brett had heard the “promotion” loud and clear. Apparently having two vigilantes lead the police to busting an entire corporation involved in human experiments and kidnapping cases, well, it looked pretty great for the department. Some wanted to thank the vigilantes directly, but others had somehow swung it around to being Brett’s achievement. One vigilante decided to kind of trust and tolerate him enough to help with stuff, which meant Brett was now the middleman between them and the police force.

Brett, personally, couldn’t wait to get kidnapped or some bullshit for this. He didn’t even like Daredevil. He hated Deadpool. Spider-man was… tolerable. That didn’t mean he had any capability of controlling or directing them. That didn’t mean the department still wouldn’t try and arrest them when they went too far. It really just meant that Hell’s Kitchen’s vigilante problem was now Brett’s top pain in the ass.

One night about a week after the kidnapping events, Brett’s captain came looming over his desk. “Mahoney, the vigilantes have decided to spend their night vandalizing the 16^th. You’re to go over there and help sort it out, and for god’s sake, keep anyone from getting shot.”

Holding in the sigh threatening to escape him, Brett stood and asked, “Sir, have they contacted Franklin Nelson. I believe he’s their lawyer and might help convince his clients vandalizing a police station is a bad idea. They aren’t likely to listen to me.”

“They have not, but I’m sending Keller with you, so you’ll have plenty of time to consult with their lawyer on the way. Dismissed.”

Brett didn’t need to consult Foggy. He needed Foggy to talk Peter into convincing his insane friends to stop whatever they were doing. He’d seen Foggy with Peter before knowing who the kid was. Foggy was made to wrangle that kind of a chaos.

Instead of trying to explain all of that to his captain, Brett got into a car with Keller and called Foggy, who, conveniently, didn’t pick up. The bastard.

Rolling up to the scene, it was better and worse than Brett expected all rolled into one. Firstly, there was webbing and glitter, everywhere. Secondly, Peter was standing on Wade’s shoulders. Not, sitting on them like getting carried by the hulking man. No, Peter was standing on the man’s shoulders like nothing could ever knock him down. Brett wanted to turn around and just go home. Quit the force. Ask the Nelson family for a job. Retire from ever having to interact with these guys ever again.

That option remained a fantasy. Brett told Keller to go help free some of the officers that got stuck in the webbing.

As soon as Brett stepped out of the car, Peter jumped, twisted around to face Brett and landed back on Wade’s shoulders without the man having to move a muscle. Peter happily shouted, “Hi, detective Mahoney! Red said they were going to call you to come get us to stop. Something about not shooting us because Red’s immortal and could kill them, which I personally find insulting. I am just as capable of murder and can dodge most bullets. It’s Red who would be in trouble, but he’s kind of stolen a lot of their guns, so it’s no big.”

It wasn’t until Matt piped up from atop what looked like a pile of police weapons and handcuffs that Brett realized Peter was using ‘Red’ for both Matt and Wade. This was made more confusing as Matt chimed in, “Hey, Captain Red, you should web grenade that guy over there. He’s talking about actually shooting us since we’re distracted with Mahoney. Oh, you should also web Mahoney, the fucking narc.”

Wade shouted, “Why is he captain? I should be captain! I’m the oldest and the prettiest. I’m Captain Red. He’s Baby Red, and you’re Hot Red.”

“Hot Red?”

“Have you seen your face- Oh wait.”

Matt almost tackled Wade to punish him for taking away his chance to make a blind joke because yes, he wasn’t upset about Wade making the joke, just that Wade beat him to the punch. Before that could happen, Peter tossed a couple red and blue balls at Matt. “Here, use those to keep them from shooting at us.” Peter hopped off Wade’s shoulders and handed the man a couple as well. “Just make sure not to get each other in the webs. I wanna talk to the detective.”

Realistically, Brett should’ve been getting his weapon out and yelling at them to drop the weapons and surrender. He did get the feeling that the 16^th had tried that tactic and met with a harsher punishment. Instead, he stayed still as Peter trotted up to him.

Peter stuck out a hand, smiling despite his mask. “Nice to officially meet you, Detective Mahoney. I hope they didn’t cause you too much trouble while I was gone.”

Brett shook Peter’s hand and refused to sugar coat his words. “They’re a nightmare. Didn’t think they could get worse until you went missing.”

“It’s actually really funny because Double-D’s probably the wisest or battle savy of the three of us, but when we all get together, we’ve got two whole braincells to share.” Peter grinned. “Thanks, by the way, for helping them out and, you know, being so cool about knowing who I am thing. I’d say you get to join the ‘I know secret identities’ club, but you gotta know Double-D’s too before you can join.”

“I doubt he’s jumping to tell me that. If he hadn’t been so insistent on you not going to a hospital, I wouldn’t know yours.”

“Oh, well, I don’t actually mind you knowing mine. I mean, I freaked out a little cause I’ve got my aunt to think about if someone comes after me. But Mr. Nelson said you’re really trustworthy and with Double-D’s id…” Peter looked over at Matt, cocking his head to the side with his silent question.

Brett swore he saw the Devil nod at Peter as if he could hear their conversation clearly across the way and above all of Wade’s shouting.

Turning back to the detective, Peter continued, “You already know who he is. You’re just blind to the truth. Once you really open your eyes, you’ll realize you’ve known who he is for a lot longer than you’d think. You’re a detective, though, I’m sure you’ll get it eventually.” Peter didn’t put any extra emphasis on his words but still seemed to be laughing at a private joke.

“Don’t I get a hint?”

“You’ve already been given several. Can’t make it too easy or it won’t be fun! Oh, but here’s my number,” Peter slapped a small slip of paper into Brett’s hand. “If you ever get into trouble you need some chaos for, call me. I owe you one now, and I’ll repay my debt. Now, I’ve got some glitter to spread…”

“Wait- no, you guys need to stop this. It’s vandalism.”

“Temporary vandalism! See, I made the webs so they’d dissolve in two hours and the glitter will degrade after three or four. I don’t want to pollute things, so it’ll all be gone by morning!”

Brett didn’t know what science classes taught barely legal teens to make their own glitter, but he was rightfully impressed.

Before their conversation could continue, Matt’s shout of “Deadpool, you salty little bitch” cut through.

Peter cackled and gave Brett a two-finger salute. “Well, that’s my cue! See you around detective!”

Two weeks later when Brett ran into Matt during a case, he noticed how the man caught a pen Foggy let slip from his grasp without moving. Matt had twirled the pen between his fingers before offering it back to Foggy. A few days after, Brett saw Daredevil perform a similar motion with his billy club, and it suddenly made sense.

When Brett snapped a “are you fucking kidding me,” Matt just cackled deep and gave a sinister grin that was both a welcome and a warning.

“Welcome to the club, detective.”