SPANDEX | Wade Wilson

。thirty four 。

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"What the fuck is wrong with you?"
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"This is how it's going to work. Adrenaline acts as a catalyst for the serum..."

Wade was hung from the ceiling by his hands, his shirt stripped from his body as a large man plummeted his fist into his abdomen for hours on end, bruising his skin. Wade's head fell forwards, eyes closed tightly. The man grabbed his chin, lifting his face up and then he punched him across the face.

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"...so we're going to have to make you suffer. If you're lucky, the mutant genes will activate..."

Wade's hand gripped onto the metal bars of the small cage he was locked in tightly, turning his head the other way as a powerful, painful hose was sprayed onto his naked body. Each wave of water stabbed his skin like small needles, never piercing his skin though as he shivered.

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"...and manifest in a spectacular fashion."

Angel dunked Wade's head down into the barrel of sticky, treacle-like-oil he was in, forcing him under. She pulled him out by his hair and he gasped loudly, finally able to breath again with the oil sticking to his body.

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"If not, well, we'll have to keep on hurting you..."

A man opened the lid to the box Wade was trapped in, the mercenary shivering in the freezing water that surrounded him with ice cubes. He looked up at the Ajax, eyes heavy and nose red while Ajax shined a torch down onto his face. The mutant nodded to the man and he closed Wade in again.

"...in new and different ways, each more painful that the last..."

-

A black sack was over Wade's head, his hands fisting the chains holding him up as he was repeatedly shocked, his body tensing and spasming.

"...until you finally mutate. Or die."

Angel took the sack off his head and pushed his skull back onto the bars behind him, Wade groaning in pain, eyes dropped and saliva dripping from his lips.

-

"You mean a bucket list?" Cunningham asked, his bed in the next room to Wade's.

"Like a fuck-it list." Wade corrected. "I'd really like to light a spliff off the Olympic torch."

"Pass it to me right after." Cunningham said.

"Let's not forget naked tandem base-jumping with the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs." Wade added.

"Anything on my bucket list would involve public nudity." Cunningham nodded.

"Finally, getting Meredith Baxter-Birney a Dutch oven." Wade finished, his face bloody and bruised and his stubble grown out.

"No. Reviving a Dutch oven from Meredith Baxter-Birney." Cunningham replied and Wade wheezed a small pained laugh. "Making banana pancakes for my kids."

Wade closed his eyes, "Alina. I wanna see Alina."

"You lovely." Ajax commented, walking into Cunningham's area and Wade opened his eyes. "I don't know about anyone else, but I'm touched."

"We were just joking." Cunningham defended quickly as Ajax grabbed his feet.

"No, no. It's okay." Ajax responded. "I encourage distractions. Wouldn't want you giving up on us, now would we?"

"Hey, don't take any shit from him, Cunningham. How tough can he be... with a name like Francis." Wade taunted and Francis looked up with angry eyes.

"Francis?" Cunningham asked, amused slightly.

"That's his legal name." Wade chuckled. "He got 'Ajax' from the dish soap." Frantic started to move to Wade's area. "F-R-A-N-C-I..." the lights flicked on and Francis stood there. "Oops! Snagged the dry cleaning tag off your lab coat. FYI, I could probably get you the superhero discount."

Francis clenched his jaw, "You are so relentlessly annoying."

"Thanks. Never heard that before." Wade remarked sarcastically.

"Why don't you do us all a favour and shut the fuck up? Or I'll see your pretty mouth shut." Francis smirked.

"Oh... I wouldn't do that if I were you. See, here's the problem with round-the-clock torture is that, you can't really step it up from there." Wade glared.

"Is that what you think?" Francis chuckled.

-

Wade was buckled into an tank by a few men, the leather straps around his legs, hands, torso, chest and neck.

"If this doesn't unlock your mutation, then, well, nothing will. Now, what we're going to do is lower the oxygen concentration in the air to the exact point you feel like you're suffocating. If your brainwaves slow, meaning you're about to pass out... then we'll turn up the O2. Of your heart rate slows, meaning you're able to catch your breath... we'll turn it back down. And that's where we'll leave you. Right there." Francis explained, waving around a fork with salad on it.

"Oh, and I thought you guys were dicks before." Wade muttered.

"You know the funniest part of this? You still think we're making you a superhero. You. A dishonourable discharge. Hip-deep in hookers. You're nothing. Little secret, Wade. This workshop doesn't make superheroes, we make super-slaves. We're gonna fit you with a control collar and auction you off the the highest bidder. Who knows that they'll have you doing? Terrorising citizens, putting down freedom fighters. Maybe just mow the occasionally lawn." Francis smirked, sitting back and eating some salad.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Wade asked, shocked.

"You're never going home after this." Francis told him, walking over. "Now there's a brave face."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Wade hurried when Francis went to close the lid on the tank. "Seriously,  you actually have something in your teeth now."

"Enjoy your weekend." Francis said, closing the lid on him.

"'Weekend'?" Wade repeated. "Back up. Weekend?"

The machine hissed as the oxygen started to be sucked out of it. Wade turned his face away from Francis, gasping for air a little. He choked, his head coming up off the table as he choked and gasped for air desperately. Francis smirked, walking away and flicking off the light, leaving him in the dark.

{977}