Family Is Forever

[Mercy]

"Mommy! Mommy! Looka what Benny gave me!"

The clear, excited voice of a little girl rang out across the busy mall. A little brown-haired girl of four skipped and danced toward her mother, holding a stuffed owl in the air to display to the world. A few steps behind the child was a young man, college-aged, with the same dark brown hair as his mother.

"Oh, did he, now?" their mother asked with a smile, looking to her eldest son and raising an eyebrow. Ben shrugged modestly, unable to conceal a smile. His little sister's happiness was infectuous.

"It was on sale," he said over the child's head as they met and stopped in the middle of the walkway. But his mother knew that Ben's paycheck was already going largely towards college savings, and that he rarely bought anything for himself. The present he'd gotten his youngest sister made their mother glow with pride.

"All right, you two, let's get going," the mother said, starting to move to the exit. "Evie, hold Benny's hand," she coaxed, turning to look over her shoulder at her children and seeing that Ben had already caught Evelyn's tiny hand.

As they walked toward the doors, Evie lifted the toy owl in the air with her free hand. "Look, Benny, look, she flies!" she squealed, soaring the stuffed animal through the air. "Up, up, up!"

Ben watched the lamb 'fly' with a gratified smile. He bowed his head to look down on his baby sister. "And now you can have three friends at your sleep-overs again," he added brightly.

About once a week, Evie declared that she wanted to have a sleep-over (actually, she declared that Mr. Snuggly Bunny wanted to have a sleep-over. Mr. Snuggly Bunny tended to be blamed for much of Evie's demanding and trouble-making behavoir). Evie would drag her favorite stuffed animals into the living room - 'Mr. Snuggly Bunny', who was in fact an elephant, a small owl Evie called 'Prickly', a monkey who had adopted the name 'Book' when Evie had inherited him from her mother, and an alligator whom Ben and Robert had decided looked like Louie Armstrong and was now called 'Louie'.

But Prickly hadn't been able to attend their sleep-overs for a few weeks now. This was because, as Evie's mom had told her, Prickly was 'sick'. One especially warm day, when they had turned on all the fans in the cramped apartment, Evie had been alone in a bedroom when suddenly piercing screams echoed from it.

The entire family came running to find a distressed Evie standing in front of a fan, as bits of Prickly dangled from it, slowly tangling the blades and stopping the fan. As Dad had taken the fan apart to retrieve the mangled bits of stuffed bird, Evie had buried her face in her mother's breast and wailed that Prickly had wanted to spin around 'on the spinny things!'


So Ben had decided upon seeing the owl that he would replace Evie's missing friend. "And now you can have three friends at your sleep-overs again," he'd said as they neared the doors that led to the street.

But his comment did not have the expected effect on the four-year-old. Evie's face slowly turned from a happy smile to a heart-breakingly sad face as she looked up at her brother. The new owl was slowly lowered. "But...This can't be New Prickly."

Evie looked ahead to her Mommy, hitting her lightly on the back with the stuffed animal. "Mommy said Prickly was sick, and he was comin' back. Isn't he, Mommy? Isn't Prickly comin' back?" She looked at the back of her mother's head with a hopeful look, sounding on the verge of tears.

Their mother stopped in front of the door and turned, shooting Ben a look as she started to bend down to comfort Evie. But Ben moved quickly, and he crouched down and put his hands on Evie's shoulders. "Of course Prickly's coming back. This owlie doesn't have to be Prickly. She could just keep you company until Prickly comes back."

Evie looked at Ben, her lip quivering at the memory of her dear toy. "You'll get Prickly back?" she asked, almost hesitant to hope in her childish way. To her, her big brother - and all of her siblings - were the strongest, smartest, bestest brothers and sisters in the whole world. If Benny said so, he meant it, and he was always right.

"Of course," Ben promised, deciding right then that he'd sew the owl back together if it would make his baby sis feel better.

As their mother watched her eldest son promise to help her younegst daughter, she felt tears form in her eyes. She was so proud of her children, the way that they supported each other and helped each other. That they lived in such a small house and rarely ever complained. If that woman was proud of anything, it was of her family.

Once on the street, their mother hailed a cab. Two or three passed them by, full, each one making the woman and her son more agitated, and Evie more restless. By the time a cab slowed and began to ease beside the street, Evie was spinning around with her arms out and her new toy balancing on her head, laughing joyously as she played.

[deadpool]

It wasn't long until Wade flagged down the cab as well, only two blocks beyond where the Burke family had gotten in. His plans were completely accurate. They always were. He could out-think any other spook he'd ever run into... well, other than the mutant he'd been screwed by a few years earlier.

Now he got into the car after knocking his umbrella off on his knee, and folding it up. He gave the woman and her two children a genuine smile, and nodded his thanks to them for scooting over. He told the driver where he wanted to go.

Inside, his guts were feeling a bit hot. He twisted with the knowledge of what he was about to do. Of what he had to do.

Of the price he was willing to pay.

Wade still felt as if he'd sold his soul to the devil on this gig. Sure, Stryker had assured him the woman was carrying a mutation that would kill everyone it came in contact with given enough time. According to his records, she knew about this, but refused any sort of aid or contamination. She'd been powerful enough to escape virtually every government agency who'd held her. The boy had the disease. The girl didn't. He had no choice in the matter... even ethically.

Of course, the driver was a casualty of war. The government could not afford to let this op slip out as anything but an accident – and that meant poor Mr. Kaleb Jones up there would just have to vanish into the folds too.

There was no time to argue, hesitate, or to restrain. This mission needed to go down. There were lives at stake. His being one of them.

“So Driver, have you heard that new Marley album?” He asked, catching the Drivers attention, and pulling the eyes of Ms. Burke to the driver as he responded. It was an old trick, but it worked. The driver had to watch the road, and everyone else was watching the driver. Simple magic. Simple is always good.

So not a second after he said that to the driver, he reached an arm out, making a quick chopping motion. It happened in a flash, and like that, the woman was dead, her throat crushed by his decades of training in the one of the oldest arts of assassination in the world.

The older boy seemed confused, as Wade hadn't even looked at his mother. The stranger was still grinning at the driver, as if nothing had happened. The boy had little choice in his decisions regarding the confusion, though, because he was next on Wade's hit list. Only he was much easier. Another small handstrike hit his temple with such force that the world faded to white... never to return again.

The Driver noticed that one.

“Hey what the fuck!?” He shouted, a panic in his eyes.

Wade put a silenced gun to the back of his head. “Shut up and drive. It's done, don't be a hero.”

The girl was screaming, too young to fully know what had just happened, but knowing damn well something was wrong – and the stranger was really a bad guy. Wade didn't even look at her. He used the ether-soaked cloth in his pocket to end her screaming. She wouldn't wake for an hour or two.
The driver wasn't so lucky.

Wade's foot came up over the top of the seat, and swept his head into the side of his door, which echoed with a terrible crunch as they connected. He used the same foot to steer the car as he opened up the bag he was carrying. Inside were remnants of bone and meat, including a false set of teeth designed to match the girls. He spilled the small packs all over the back of the car, and pulled the girl into his lap.

This would be a difficult landing.

Igniting an explosive device, one designed to amplify the explosion and flash-cook everyone inside, Wade tossed it in the front seat.

Steering the car to face a massive concrete bridge column with his foot, Wade opened his door and lept from the car, rolling using as much skill as he could to protect the unconscious child in his arms. The car hit, exploding into a shower of flame as it did so.

The girl was okay. Wade had a few broken ribs, and he was sure his arm was fractured... but he'd live. A lot longer now, actually.

Grunting with effort, he vanished into the blackness of the rainy night.