Chapter 13- Meeting the Six-Pack

Chicago- Warehouse near the docks, 2008- March- 17 (Night)

Exodus-                   

It took only a couple of hours for him to locate the ship. It was still parked along the docks, and only another twenty minutes to find the small rented warehouse with their targets inside. As he waited for the others to arrive and get into position, the knight did something he normally didn’t do. He intentionally began to darken the light around both the area and himself, making it harder for the mercenaries to spot him, and the others approaching them.

As he did he heard the soldiers for hire argue.

“We are called the Six Pack, not the Seven Pack.” A middle-aged man with short black hair snapped. He was glaring at the couple standing opposite of him, between the three of them was a simple wooden table. A table buried with guns and ammo.

“Why are you called the Six-pack? Are all of you just working alcoholics?” the woman asked.

“Wild Pack was already taken.” The woman's own man answered her.

The couple staring at each other, were the knight’s targets. The man was in a mostly red, but also black patched, leather suit, which covered him from head to two. Deadpool, how and why the mutant picked that alias Exodus didn’t know, but he could see that the man was wearing multiple pairs of pistols over the suit, as well as a pair of thin curved swords on his back.

“Come on Kane, does one more person in the group really make that much of a difference, we both know that Def Leppard once had two drummers for a time," Deadpool said to the other man.

"What does an eighties hair band have to do with this?" The woman beside the regenerator asked. She was dressed in what looked like hiking clothes. Dressed in a red and white flannel with blue jeans, on her back was a pack as well as a rifle of some type. Additionally, Exodus saw that she was currently in her true form. Copycat naturally was an albino woman with long white hair, which reached halfway down her back.

“That while the main band is on stage, they can have a backup person on hand to help out of course.” Was her exes answer to her question.

“Yeah, but that backup still gets paid DP.” The man with short black hair snapped. Deadpool called him Kane, so this must be the group's leader. He was a very athletic man, being very wide, and rather muscular, he was also a whole head taller than both himself and the regenerator. The soldier wore a red sleeveless shirt and black cargo pants.

However, Exodus didn’t think the man was fully dressed as he saw a set of red armored gloves and shoulder pads mixed in with the guns and bullets on the table.

As the Six-Pack’s leader continued to load bullets into clips, he ripped into the couple. “And that pay isn’t coming out of my portion. Nor is it coming out of the others either Wade. You show up last minute with a dame and tell us she’s looking to join. After we have a signed contract with a client! So if, she wants to come, fine, but her pay is coming out of your pay.’

“You always do this shit. Fucking wandering off, or bringing gear that does fit the mission. Who brings an RPG on a stealth mission? And why did you sack a taco stand when we did that gig back in Texas?”

The knight noticed that Copycat frowned at the compromise. She clearly not like that she would be basically mooching off of her ex's share of the pay. Not that Exodus really knew what kind of pay being a mercenary got, as the most time he spent with most soldiers to hire, was to kill them after he met them. His recent time at the bar was honestly the longest he had spent with any of them, and not kill one of them.

‘No, wait. I was with them longer when I and my lord escorted the few survivors of the Fang, back to their ship.’ He mentally corrected himself.

Exodus felt with his powers, before he saw a flash of light appear in the air. It was only there for a moment before another man fell out of it, and was standing at the head of the wooden table.

‘Another of their group. And this one seems to be a teleporter like the teenage boy.’ Exodus thought, as he listened to them talk.

"Solo, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with the others watching for the client?" Kane asked the man but didn't look away as he loaded more rounds into clips.

He was of similar height and build to Deadpool’s, slim, but athletic. He was dressed like him too, in a green leather bodysuit, instead of the regenerator's red and black outfit. Also, this man's suit didn't completely cover the teleporter’s face, as his mouth, eyes, and hair were exposed to the world. So Exodus could see the man had short red hair. He had fewer weapons than Deadpool too, with only a pair of pistols and knives, as well as a rifle of some type strapped to his back.

As the knight appraised the new member the man spoke to his leader. “The others wanted me to check in, see if you heard anything, and report a couple of other things.” Kane stopped loading long enough to tap the side of his phone, and shook his head, before this ‘Solo’ continued to speak. “Anaconda and Whiplash want to try and sneak aboard the ship and check it out.”

“Denied. The client was clear that we were only to board it after he arrived. I am not losing the best-paying job that has come our way in the last three months, just because they are impatient." The merc leader said, before switching from pistol rounds to rifle clips and rounds, and again started to load empty clips.

The teleport nodded and waited long enough to glance at the couple, before adding. "And Grizzly wanted me to warn you that something is in the air that's making him itchy."

Kane actually paused and looked at his teammate and asked. “What?” at that piece of news.

"He says that he keeps smelling sulfur in the air and that it's moving about," Solo answered.

"Shit." The leader muttered before reaching for a radio, holding it before his mouth, and said into it. "Everybody into the warehouse, we might have trouble about."

At that, Deadpool drew a pistol and started to look around the nearly empty warehouse.

Seeing their reaction, the man dressed in green asked. “Why the concern?”

“You ever heard of the Burning-man Club?” Deadpool asked him.

“Hellfire Club.” Kane corrected.

“I have, why?” the teleporter admitted.

“Their pet assassin is a teleporter like you, but instead of light, he leaves behind a small cloud of sulfur.” The merc leader answered.

Solo started to ask a question, but then he answered his own question. "Why would… oh right, we got hired by an arms dealer. Of course, they would send killers and assassins after him."

Then suddenly Deadpool drew another pistol, and aimed it off into a dark corner of the warehouse. Exodus was a touch surprised, that the man pulled a different model pistol. The first was white and had a triangle-shaped barrel, while the other was black and smaller.

“Why don’t we ask them?” the regenerator asked, before firing twice into the corner.

The two bullets hit a crate beside Exodus. He stayed quiet in case the seemingly unstable merc had only guessed his presence. However, when the mutant saw Deadpool’s finger begin to tense as he was about to fire a third time he spoke.

“Wait, we aren’t here for you, or your client. Nor do we want to fight.” Exodus’s voice said from the corner of the warehouse.

He heard Copycat swear after hearing his voice. “Shit.”

The light-bender heard their teleporter ask in a whisper. “How did you know he was there?” as he drew his own gun but didn’t aim it yet.

"My asshole senses were tingling," Deadpool whispered back, as he brought his other pistol to bear as well.

Then Kane asked and added his own pistol towards the corner. “Then why are you here?”

He was about to answer when a large man burst through the warehouse's wall. He wasn't quite as tall as Basilisk, but he was still half again bigger than the knight. Exodus frowned at the man’s appearance, as he was covered in a thin red layer of fur that was a deeper shade of red than Exodus’ own skin. Additionally, the man had a massive mane of brown hair that hung over his shoulders and covered all of his back. The large man must be very confident in his powers, because all he wore were blue cargo pants and some combat boots.

“Griz, hold.” The mercenary leader ordered, without looking away from the dark corner of the warehouse. The larger man nodded and stayed in front of the hole he made.

“To retrieve an ally, and to make an offer," Exodus stated as he inched out into the range of the building's three dimmed lights.

"We already have a contract." Solo tried to point out to him, but he was spoken over by a very angry Copycat.

"I told you, bastards! The first time a check didn't clear I was gone." She shouted at him.

"We were betrayed. Brian Braddock sold us out, and both the American and English governments seized our accounts. Otherwise, you would have been paid... And I would have been here sooner to retrieve you, but that stuck-up noble also gave away some of our members' home addresses, thus the families that live there needed to be moved first. Before we could come explain things to you.” Exodus explained to the woman.

"My man is right, we already got ourselves work," Kane said before the woman could snap at Exodus again.

Exodus waved away the comment before explaining. “Not that kind of offer. Deadpool, it was made clear to us, from some of your associates from Sister Margret's. That you are… 'afflicted’. Our group’s patron is a very skilled doctor. Should you aid us in persuading your widow to return with us, I would cover the cost for him to examine you.”

As he spoke the offer, two women followed the big hairy man inside the warehouse. The first was a muscular blonde woman of similar height and build to the group's leader. She wore a green leotard over her torso and armored shoulder pads. Covering her legs and arms were yellow snake skin pattern thigh-high boots and gloves. The knight noticed that her gloves had spikes on both her knuckles and behind her wrists.

The second was a much more slender and feminine redhead, she had her long hair tied up into a tall ponytail. This redhead wore a black jumpsuit like Deadpool and Solo, and a simple mask covering her cheeks and eyes. Unlike the first two, she had a weapon. A whip coiled up and in her main hand.

“Ok, first. Who sold me out?” The regenerator demanded.

Exodus shrugged, before lying. “A black man whose name I didn’t get and the bouncer are the first to bring it up.”

Deadpool growled in anger at the answer.

The knight then heard the leader and the teleport whispering to each other.

"He looks familiar," Solo muttered.

“I was thinking the same thing.” The leader whispered back.

“Those fuckers, I don’t talk about their problems to strangers. Ok, focus, we can kill them later. Second…” Deadpool started to say but stopped when Copycat turned her weapon at him.

“Are you sick again?!” The albino woman asked him.

“What? I have a healing factor. I don’t think I can get sick anymore.” The regenerator argued.

Copycat stepped closer to him and put the barrel of her gun into his chest before she started to rant. “You sure? He said you have an 'affliction', and you admitted that you have a problem. You waited to get checked out last time, so by the time the doctors found your cancer...  there wasn’t anything they could do. So don’t you lie to me, tell me if you’re sick right now?!”

The knight smiled as he watched the usually stoic woman be so passionate towards the man. He thought as he watched the couple interact. ‘Maybe Destiny was right. Getting him to come along as well, will allow us to fulfill my lord’s plan.’ Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Solo had adjusted his gun to be closer to Copycat. Meaning the man cared about his teammates, more than the mission. ‘Maybe he should rethink the name solo.’

Deadpool pressed his guns against her arms, like his hands were empty, before he said. “No Ven, I am not sick. Look, I am like you, but it took being on death's door with cancer and wasting away in the hospital for my powers to kick in. And once they did they came with a cost. So, no. I am not dying"

“Is that why you didn’t want to get back together? Because of this cost?” She asked him.

It took him a moment, before admitting. “Yeah… Ven you deserve better.”

“You could say that again.” The large man by the hole in the wall muttered.

“Shut it fur-face.” Deadpool snapped at his teammate.

The knight’s smile widened, as he felt that they might get out of this without having to fight these mercenaries.

Copycat lowered her gun, and held the man’s chin before she asked. “So if you get fixed, you’d be willing to try again?”

“Yeah, maybe. Have to get fixed first though.” Deadpool admitted.

There was a long silence, as the couple stared at each other. Then Exodus coughed to get their attention, before saying. “So you will return Copycat?”

She pulled her attention from the regenerator, to glance at him. She said. “I still don’t believe in your cause, but if you can work out a deal that his cure can be paid by my work, and I'll still get enough to get by... Then yeah, I will return and work for you again.”

"I thought we were getting another woman on the team." The tall muscular woman muttered beside the larger man beside the hole in the wall. Many of the men on their team looked at her. Their facial expressions told the knight that her absentmindedness wasn't anything new.

"We still might," Kane stated, surprising his teammates. Then he pulled a knife from his body-armor, and pointed it at Exodus, before adding. “Because you’re coming with us.”

“Boss, don’t we already have a job?” the large red man asked.

The mercenary leader didn't look away from Exodus,  as he said. "We do, but our contract with Mr. Christian says nothing about us picking up a bounty on the side, while we protect him. You're Exodus, a member of the terrorist group 'the Brotherhood'. And we could make a fortune if we took you down.'

“Copycat, you have another choice. I won’t renegotiate our current contract over you, but you help us deal with your buddy there, and I will give you a double share out of his bounty.”

Copycat didn't look at Exodus. Instead, she looked between Deadpool and Kane. Probably debating whether she wanted to get paid, or if she wanted to help her ex get his 'affliction' fixed. Not that the mercs gave her much time to decide, as Solo and Kane opened fire at Exodus.