Dblade26

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

Y'know, now I want Deadpool to interact with all the SHIELD folks and bignames and the like eventually. By the way as I go along constructive criticism is welcome. I've never done Wade before, so it might take me a bit to find an appropriate writer's voice with him.

Criticism of my Iron Fist stuff is welcome too I guess, though in that case I may cry like a baby over what a loser I am.

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

March 20th, 2005
New York City, Chinatown
10:24 PM

As he and the White Tiger leaped from rooftop to rooftop, Danny couldn't help but feel pensive and distracted. Professor Wing's explanations had finally put a name to his family's murderers and given him real clarity of purpose for the first time in what felt like forever. At the same time though, they had raised a whole new host of questions. If Khan was still real and active in the world then why hadn't he been informed of the existence of such a dangerous enemy? Surely his teacher Lei-Kung would not have wanted to send him to the mortal world unprepared, and his uncle the Yu-Ti would have informed him of such a grave threat to K'un-Lun and the mortal realms alike. So why-

White Tiger brought his attention back to the matter at hand: finding the Cult. There were only five entities in New York City that he was aware of that might have knowledge of where to find such a dark and secretive entity. Chiantang was one, but getting to him would require fighting through an army of experienced guards and he doubted the Black Dragon would be in a cooperative mood anyways. The Sorcerer Supreme was right out, obviously. K'un-L'un might maintain good relations with the magical community, but ever since his own tutelage on magic had concluded Danny dreaded knocking on the door of Strange unless it was absolutely necessary. Elder Brother Shang might possibly know, but since the reemergence of HYDRA yesterday Danny had been unable to contact him. That left two options as actually usable...neither of which he was particularly fond of and both of which would cost him...dearly.

"The way I see it we have two-"

Danny froze for a moment as a cold shiver went up his spine and tugged at all of his alarm bells. He knew this dreadful feeling, knew he had sensed a dark disturbance in the qi, a big one. He scanned around for the source and a few moments later White Tiger did the same, picking up on the faint sounds of many feet landing on rooftops all around them.

They were most definitely being followed, and Danny's plans for finding the Cult of Khan didn't matter anymore.

Because the Cult of Khan had found them.

---

They came sailing out of the night to land around the pair in a circle, assassins all in black though decidedly human and armed with weapons that looked like they were cut from the nighttime shadows themselves. That was no big deal to Danny, mysterious assassin attacks were a dime a dozen in the martial arts world although the feel of their various weapons made his skin crawl.

But then he saw their eyes.

they were black empty pits reflecting only the abyss, horribly, unnaturally dilated til there was barely a trace of white like the eyes of a shark or an inhuman doll. No human should ever have eyes like that but from their lips came the drone of human, voices rusty with disuse but human all the same:

"Blood for The Master
The Amulet for the Master
Blood for the Master
The Amulet for the Master
Blood for the Master..."

they chanted it ceaselessly without stopping for breath as they inched closer and closer, blank black eyes emotionless except for a bizarre, dull glimmer of ecstasy as they readied their weapons.

Danny shook off his sense of unease and fell into an aggressive stance as he prepared himself for the first true step on his path to revenge.

"Don't let their weapons touch you, and if you can try and take one...well, I think they're still alive but anyway try and capture o-"

He froze again, this time in true terror.

Because what had just stepped past the circle of fanatic killers had eyes far more terrifying than the cavernous black orbs of the cultists.

They were the eyes that had been a feature of Danny Rand's nightmares for ten long years. They were eyes that brought him back to six years old, freezing and alone on an unforgiving mountainside with the stench of blood in the air, too tired and cold to cry anymore.

The were eyes of the wolves that had devoured his mother.

The creature that stepped into view had the silver-gray fur and predatory features of a mountain wolf, but the body was too similar to that of a human and moved with a strange loping bipedal gait as its clawed feet dug into the rooftop with each step. A palpable cold like an Himalayan wind radiated from its' body forming frost on the roof as it came towards them, and from its slavering jaws a voice with far too much of a beast's growl to be human tore forth:

"RRRRRRRRRRAAND'KAI! We have hunted you Rrrand'Kai, acrrross the yearrrrs, acrrross this city, acrrross the worrrlds! We will DRRRRINK your life's blood as We drrrrank your Motherrr's. Then, this agonizing existence will end. Khan has prrromised us this."

Then the wolf demon leaped past the swiftly closing assassins, its fangs bared and aiming for his throat...

...and Danny Rand, living weapon and champion of K'un-L'un, was suddenly just a child paralyzed by fear.

Coruscant Sacked: Aftermath

~| Day 2, 8:46- 8:05 GST |~
~| Aboard the Kaggath, Sith Halls |~

Khan Sainen behaved as a Jedi and a Warrior should considering the circumstances he faced. Well, at least that's what the young Echani told himself, despite the fact that he'd failed in avoiding capture, despite the fact that he felt like a coward for abandoning his Master, even if he had been told to run. Though truth be told the thing that was making it most difficult of all to act as a prisoner of war should was that he wasn't being treated like he assumed a prisoner or war would be treated at all. He had yet to be beaten or tortured, although he assumed that would change shortly. In his childhood days the soldiers in his mother's retinue and those he hung around during inspections had loved to thrill and horrify the commander's son with endless and myriad stories of the tortures a captured soldier could expect when the enemies they faced were as ruthless as the Sith.

Well, those stories didn't seem nearly as amusing now.

To pass the time and keep himself occupied after he was lead off the transport ship he memorized how many steps he took and exactly which turns he and his guards made as they lead him away towards his unknown destination, nurturing the tiny hope in the back of his mind that he might sneak his way through if another transport arrived, hijack it and escape with other captives. It was a vain hope most likely, since the boy had no idea how to fly a ship and doubted he could fight through an entire prison's staff plus whatever Sith and other evils lurked within by himself. But it made him feel better and kept him occupied nonetheless, after all no matter the battlefield information was power. He occasionally looked around to examine the ship, its' size, make and model fairly new to him and therefore at least passingly interesting, but to his admittedly rather nonsensical disappointment there wasn't much of anything to really see. Khan didn't bother with interacting with or examining his guards. Their body language was smooth and businesslike, as blank and dull as the ship's hallways to his Echani mind. Out of the pair flanking him he could likely have knocked both out before they even thought to shoot him, but as his Master often said violence would make more problems than it solved. He would still be stuck in the same situation, only then his captors would be angry. So Khan kept quiet, observed, and walked onward.

Finally the situation changed for the better, or at least the less boring. They came upon another group of guards and two of what he presumed to be Sith, escorting an older man who was by his appearance and circumstances a Jedi Knight.

The most notable by her stance was the Zabrak. She carried herself...cautiously, warily, like a duelist circling an opponent in the ring. Khan could tell she was good, too. Light on her feet, movements reserved, economical and precise even out of combat like this. Khan found his fists itching slightly with the near-instinctive drive to test her in combat, get a full read of her abilities for himself and learn more about his captors at the same time. But...no. Now was not the time, his Master and his mother both would council patience, restraint. Still, another time he would have to see about it.

What he presumed to be an actual Sith came next in his awareness. It might have been that he was too inexperienced at reading such a creature, but without the exchange of combat to reveal it to him he couldn't get a read on her, which bothered him more than he'd like to admit. Instead he switched his attention to the final newcomer of note.

The Knight was...a strange one. His body was bruised, beaten and worse, Khan could tell by the way he carried himself slightly tenderly, his body subconsciously trying to avoid triggering inevitable physical pains. But the sagging crush of true despair was missing from his stance, he held himself brightly, not like someone who was suffering from obvious effects of prolonged torture. He recognized Khan for what he was as well, and acknowledged him with his face as well as his stance.

"You know what they call five Sith piled on top of a lightsaber?" Denso suddenly asked the Echani, breaking their silence with a joke. "A Sith-Kabob."

"S-snrk!~"

The joke was so unexpected, so out of place that despite years of discipline and their grim surroundings that the young Echani couldn't help but laugh. It started out as a choked off sort of thing but then bubbled up into hysterical giggling of the sort he'd normally have considered himself a little too old for if he could control himself. But before he knew it it had gripped him in full on paroxysms of laughter to the point where even when one of his guards smacked him across the back of the head he could still barely choke them back down.

It had felt good to laugh, better than he would've thought possible. If they both escaped alive, or at least got clear of these guards, Khan would have to thank the older man for that.

Before he could do anything much else, the Zabrak stopped for a moment, body quivering with an odd sort of tension before rushing to check on something Khan didn't quite get and insisting the Sith stay here with himself and the old man much to his disappointment.

With that odd bit of strangeness done Khan addressed both the older Jedi and the Sith, deferring to his seniors even in these bizarre and trying circumstances:

"So, what happens now? I expect we're going to be tortured?"

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

So it just occurred to me, since this Deadpool was formerly a cream-of-the-crop, handpicked and specially trained SHIELD Agent for three or four years, should his ability section properly reflect that? Because I realize now mostly I had it set up just to reflect the stuff he learned as a mercenary/assassin from back before I made final edits to the sheet.

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

---

---

6:00 AM, March 20th, 2015
Location undisclosed
Deep in an underground bunker,
Padded Cell

“You will try to stop us, but you can not defeat us. We are HYDRA, for if one head is removed two more will rise in its place. The return of the Red Skull and the reign of HYDRA is inevitable. You will see when I descend upon you.”

“Heil HYDR-

*SPLORP!~*

That was the precise noise the mushy, greyish pink oatmeal-like remnants of so-called 'breakfast' made as they impacted the tiny TV screen implanted into the cell wall. The goop bounced and dribbled off harmlessly of course, the screen being smooth and weirdly rubberized like everything else in the cell, allegedly 'for the safety of the occupant and all those around him' though everyone knew the prisoner in question could hardly be hurt. The tiny screen was one of the few luxuries allowed him, a bribe of sorts so that he would 'occasionally shut up and stop making everyone else need padded cells.'

So far it had worked, and the man inside had been significantly more docile since it was installed. But as the unidentifiable food-mush dripped down the looping crimson visage of the Red Skull the figure jumped up onto his cot and started springing up and down, shouting at an empty corner of the room.

"WALLER!!!! WAAAAALLLLEEER!!!! Lemme at 'im! Ya gotta lemme at 'im! I'M the only murderously charismatic disfigured psycho the world has room for!-" The man somehow seemed to pause in midair to do the sort of pose mothers shield their kid's eyes from "-Plus I look so much sexier in red and black AND MY COSTUME'S NOT EVEN HUGO BOSS!"

Landing back down he proceeded to turn around, pull down his pants and moon the same empty corner with a pair of waggling buttocks that looked as if somebody had made a well-toned greek sculpture from rotten hamburger meat.

"COME OOOOOOON!~ I know you're watching me Fat Ladyyyyyy!~ So just sing already and we'll make beautiful music together! I'll murderize him! You let me out and he'll be makin' out with Hitler in Hell's VIP Club by noon and you and me'll be rolling in government accolades and sweet, sweet victory chimichangas...and I know how much you like to eat!"

In the midst of some particularly energetic bouncing and butt-wiggling he managed to slip and fall back on the mattress before slumping there with a surprisingly weary sigh.

"I just wanna get out there and kill some Nazis. You know...for America."

We're exactly where we belong, Wade.

Oh, you again.

You know I'm right. After all the things we've done, the people we've killed, the thing with the fight club and the orphanage...maybe we belong in a cell. Maybe there is no task force, no observation period, just a lie to keep us in here...and maybe we should accept it...

Or he could keep whining until the big lady gave him what he wanted.

"WALLER! LET ME GO KILL NAZIIIIIIS!~"

---

6:15 AM, March 20th, 2015
Location undisclosed
Several floors up,
Control Center

From the display screens connected to the hidden cameras in every room's walls, Amanda Waller stared coolly and analytically as her most vocal inmate threw what could only be described as a 'temper tantrum'. She had just now come to a conclusion of vast importance. A conclusion formed after several long, long months of observation had already lead to one inescapable fact:

Wade Wilson was the craziest son-of-a-bitch she had ever met.

In a list that included countless magalomaniacs, endless whackjobs and the Joker himself, Wade Wilson came out ontop. Oh, to be sure he wasn't quite as murderously psychotic as Gotham's crown prince of crime. Occassionally, Wilson even seemed to have some shriveled up vestiges of a conscience. But pound for pound in her very well informed opinion no degenerate anywhere was as absolutely chaotically insane.

But looking over at another screen, at a still photo of the maniacal scowl of the Red Skull, Amanda Waller was forced to recognize that maybe the world around her had gone insane too. So, with an insane world forming around her Amanda Waller came to a conclusion she knew history would eternally judge her for coming to, at least if history ever found out:

The world needed Wade Wilson.

The world needed Deadpool.

Hand trembling for just an instant before her famous iron will stilled it, she pressed an intercom button.

"Captain, give me three hours prep time, then bring me Wilson."

"Ma'am...you can't mean-"

"God help me Captain, I do. Deadpool's joining the Suicide Squad."

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

March 20th, 2005
New York City, Chinatown
9:54 PM
Of all the answers Danny might have been expecting, these were definitely the last ones on his mind.

"So...you dress up in a mask to fill a role that used to belong to someone else, chasing after leads and shadows for the men who took your family away, trying to make the world make sense again...is that it?"

He walked over to her as memories of his own flashed before his eyes. His father on the icy slopes of a mountain, fighting like a man possessed against an overwhelming horde of ghosts and shadows. A figure coalescing before them inky black against the blinding whiteness of the snows. Laughter as his father was buried in snow and crushed against a ravine, and through all of it the same nauseating sense of corruption, the same overwhelming darkness that resided in the talisman.

Danny tossed it back to the White Tiger.

"You and I have more in common than you could ever know. Now let's go get some answers. Civilly this time."

Danny jogged back over to the door of the Wing residence and knocked politely on the door Professor Wing had fled back through, switching over to the most polite Cantonese he could manage.

"<<Professor Wing, it's safe now. We talked things over and it was all a misunderstanding!>>"

"<<G-g-go Away! I'm w-w-warning you I won't tolerate being tricked and assaulted in my own home a second time!>>"

Danny sighed. Ordinarily he'd leave well enough alone but they needed these answers sooner rather than later and ten years had been a long enough wait for revenge.

"<<Professor Wing, you know the reputation of K'un-L'un, that I would never mean you any harm, but if you don't cooperate I'm regrettably going to have to break down your lovely door. I'll pay the cost of repairing it of course but-">>

The door opened...

and Lee Wing came through it wildly swinging an antique katana that looked surprisingly well maintained, the sword's edge whistling down toward's Danny's head with deadly speed.

Before he caught the blade between two palms rather casually and held it there. Professor Wing was no professional swordsman after all.

"Now Professor, that's hardly the way to treat someone approaching you as a guest. So let's just put the sword away and have a rational discussion. Sound good?"

It might be Danny's imagination, but it looked like the good professor was juuuuust about ready to faint...

Maybe there was more subtlety to this superheroing business than he thought.

"I...I...I...but..."

"I'm glad you can see things my way! Now, let's get out of the night air and you can unravel some ancient mysteries for us over tea. I'm sure we'll all feel much better then!"

Lee Wing looked wildly about for a moment, as if searching for some help or escape. Then he slumped visibly and gave a defeated sigh while muttering some equivalent to 'why is it always me' and a string of virulent Cantonese curses before gesturing for the two to come inside.

Danny stepped through before turning back to White Tiger.

"Well...what are you waiting for? Tea and vengeance await us!"

---

March 20th, 2005
New York City, Chinatown
10:15 PM

Danny was right of course. Lee Wing knew all about the talisman's true nature.

Plus the tea was absolutely exquisite.

Lee Wing had regained his composure somewhat once he had figured out that his two 'guests' were no longer planning on breaking all of his limbs and the presence of an Iron Fist-even an inexperienced half realized one like Danny-seemed to reassure him enough of his safety to speak of the dark forces he feared. He now sat in an overstuffed armchair sipping his own blend of tea, lecturing as he might at Empire State University.

"That talisman is without a doubt the property of the Cult of Khan. A mysterious group by all measures, the Cult is said to be a secret order of a most ancient nature. They are dedicated to the restoration of a being they believe to be...well, a sort of god or a fragment of a god, a rather grizzly entity known to them as 'Master Khan'. There are ancient records of a being of that nature demanding blood sacrifice en masse, some so ancient that it has been hypothesized by some fringe scholars that the being itself is the source of the term used in Central Asia for a ruler..." He seemed to realize he was digressing somewhat and resumed his original train of thought

"Regardless, this Cult believe that their god Khan is...wounded and weakened, or else sleeping to regain strength and that when he returns he will bring about a new age where his rather disturbing evils are law once more and exalt them as part of his new world order. Whether or not this dark god is real is immaterial given that its' followers although obscure, can be linked to various assassinations and gory rituals around the world, all of which they claim hasten their master's return. I would say this is all academic speculation and glory seekers using an old name from history books to grab attention, but I believe I've been vaguely threatened to keep silent by them on multiple occasions, and the darkness of that talisman is plain to anyone who's handled as many artifacts of a mystical nature as I have."

The professor's blase attitude couldn't be more at odds with Danny's own. Finally, he had a name for the creature that had killed his father and it was one from his childhood night-terrors. Every K'un-Lunan child knew the name of Khan, like a boogeyman mothers scared their children with at night. The God-Emperor Khan, Shapeshifting Master of Darkness, Oldest of Dark Wizards, fragment of the Amatsukami no Mikaboshi made flesh. He who once ruled over Heaven and Earth alike and drank rivers of blood to satiate his lust for power.

But Khan was a ghost story, or else a figure out of legend defeated by the first Iron Fist in an age hazily remembered even by immortals. The fact that he might still be out there, manipulating mortals and working dark magics...Well it seemed ludicrous.

But hadn't Danny seen a being of pure darkness with his own eyes all those years ago, as it struck down his father? Hadn't White Tiger's brother been attacked by assassins carrying talisman's bearing the taint of that same darkness?

Didn't he need a target for his revenge after all these years?

"In any case the talisman's markings and feel are unmistakable. The Cult believes that when used right it allows them to commune with their god. Before I continue, are there any questions?"

Well, the man certainly was a lecturer. But at the moment Danny was too struck by the sudden possibilities to speak. After all, if Kun-Lun's former dark master was alive it raised some troubling doubts.

Namely, what other things that he thought he knew were actually based on lies?

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

March 20th, 2005
New York City, Chinatown
9:50 PM

Now that he had gotten the measure of her abilities, accepted the flow of the Jade Tiger's qi and felt the full extent of her rage Danny was able to get the better of her in their exchange. He felt a certain amount of satisfaction as he knocked her back into some trashcans in the alleyway. A glinting amulet rolls onto the pavement from the impact. There was something nagging and familiar about it to Daniel, and before the girl's head could fully clear he strode over to it and picked it up.

A mistake if ever there was one. The terrifyingly unclean aura of the thing flowed into his mind like the world's filthiest sewer main had just burst open in his head and he suddenly found himself fighting back chills and a profound need to vomit. Only a decade's worth of self mastery in K'un-L'un prevented him from doing just that and allowed him to regain composure just an instant later, sealing himself off from the thing's corrupting influence. Whoever the girl was, she obviously hadn't received enough training to perceive such things or else she would've noticed them to begin with. It was...familiar, hauntingly so. He already had a hunch as to whom the cursed trinket might have belonged to but after all this time he hardly dared to hope...

But now the girl was recovering, asking after his identity.

"I am the Immortal Iron Fist of K'un-L'un, and if that means absolutely nothing to you I'm pretty sure K'un-L'un is where your Tiger amulet came from. Now I have some questions for you. Who are you? How did you come into possession of a fraction of the sacred Jade Tiger and most importantly where did you find the talisman I'm holding?"

It was time to get some answers. Maybe answers for both of them, if she didn't turn out to be an enemy.

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

Danny and Dick should totally be Pete's wingmen. Nothing helps your image with the ladies like palling around with two of the US's richest wards. XD

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

Wait, is the CS I posted included in that?

Maximum Comics: Dawn of Justice | REBRANDING - PLEASE STAY TUNED

<Snipped quote by Morden Man>

Hey, this is Wonder Woman--not some silly Batdude.

Let's be serious.

@Ruby

Besides, unleashing even a fake semblance of such potent weapons on the battlefield would uncontrollably decimate all those to behold them.

On another note, I always worry when I do fight scenes with Iron Fist that I make a mess of them, hope I'm not doing too bad.