A Dark Trail - Chapter 1

It's a muggy June afternoon as two vehicles pulled to a stop in a deserted parking lot. One is a nondescript SUV, while the other is a black van with a mural stenciled on the side of a man in a red-and-black suit riding a dragon. Clever Adolescent Panda, Calvin, Pollock, and Cassanee exit the SUV and survey a decaying office building as the parking lot simmered in the sun.

"Why, exactly, did you park so far from the building?" Pollock grumbled. "It's miserable."

"Habit, I guess," Calvin replied. "Plus, no one can see our cars from the road if they're parked here. I don't want trouble with the local police. Or any police, for that matter."

Deadpool and Rhodez (formerly Makes-Brakes-Fail-Lass) emerge from the van, the mercenary quickly circling around to clap the other on the back encouragingly. "The brakes only failed on you once the entire drive over here! And you mostly avoided that lady on the scooter in the crosswalk!"

"That's not helping, Wade."

"Well, maybe you should focus on improving your reflexes instead of your control over your powers. I can shoot at you randomly if that'll help. And it's Deadpool when I'm on the clock."

The other four members of the party ignore this conversation to size up the building. Three stories high, constructed of some sort of weathered stone, with parts of the metal frame deliberately exposed to break up the basic cube shape. Most of the windows on the upper two floors are shattered, but those on the ground level are covered by heavy metal shutters. The front entrance and the loading bay doors looked sealed shut.

Cassanee tilted her head to one side as she looked at it. "This is the place? It looks abandoned for years."

"Those metal shutters are high quality," Pollock replied confidently. "Too pricey to leave behind on a building that's been entirely abandoned. Someone wants to make sure no one can snoop."

"And yet, we're going inside," Calvin remarked, spinning the bat he was holding nervously. "How did you figure out this was the place?"

"One of my cousins found a particular isotope of vanadium in the coats of those Amilgars," CAP explained. This is one of the places in the world you'd process it, and Pollock found a record her company owned this place three years ago."

"Only for a brief time, then they sold it to someone whose existence I couldn't confirm," Pollock finished, checking the pockets in the interior of her coat. "Sounds suspicious, yes?"

Deadpool bounded in front of everyone and into the conversation. "Definitely. Also boring. I'm not getting paid by the hour folks! (Why am I not getting paid by the hour? I need a better contract negotiator.) Let's go, folks!"

Rhodez whispered to the panda. "Is he getting paid? I don't want to get stuck with a bill. I'm already worried what he's going to charge me for these "lessons" he says I'm getting."

"Not unless Pollock is."

Pollock overheard and answered. "I said I would if he doesn't vanish before we're done here."

Cassanee ignored all the talk to cross the parking lot and approach the front door, Calvin ambling along next to her. The others quickly followed closely behind.

The front door was indeed sealed shut, possibly welded. "Never fear, I have nature's hide-a-key!" Deadpool produced some plastique from a belt pouch, but Pollock and CAP each grabbed one shoulder to stop him.

"Wade, I mean Deadpool, let's not blow up the building before we get a chance to investigate."

"Yeah," Calvin interjected, "save that for our dramatic escape. I want to do the 'run away and then get tossed through the air by the shockwave' move."

"No way," Rhodez disagreed, "slow badass walk all the way."

BOOM

All heads swiveled to see Cassanee had kicked the door, leaving a sizeable dent. The second kick bowed the center of the door in even more, but the edges held.

"These doors can be tricky, you got to hold your mouth just right," Deadpool stepped up, drew his sword and in a smooth arc swept it straight down through the door, an inch or two in from the weld. He stepped aside and the next kick bent the door into the building. Cassanee stepped in without a word, while Deadpool bowed and gestured for everyone else to follow her.

The light from outside didn't extend far into the lobby, but everyone had brought flashlights or headlamps. Except Deadpool, who had a Pool-Signal built into his belt buckle. To the left were doors to the loading dock. Cassanee and Deadpool looked in, but a quick glance revealed it was empty, and heavy dust sat on all surfaces. There were some faint traces of footprints and wheel tracks, but that was it.

Directly ahead were stairs, heading both up and down. It was impossible to tell how far down, because three steps below the landing they stood on, everything was underwater. The water was murky and green, bits of office detritus floating on the surface. Paper clips and clipboards, rubber bands and an overturned coffee mug. Rhodez peered into the water intently, Calvin watching from over her shoulder. "See something?"

"Maybe. Can't tell how far down it goes." She passed her hand along the surface. "Water's cold, though."

Pollock's voice called from behind them. "Let's hope we don't have to go for a swim then. I didn't pack any breathing equipment or thermal gear." She had opened the door to the right of the lobby a hair and was scanning it carefully. CAP was all on fours below her, nose pressed into the opening. "This looks like a research lab of some type. Probably the best place to start. You can go look at whatever you want," she added as a dismissive afterthought.

"I'll look with you, just in case you miss something," the panda said, in a tone that was more tense than usual. They glanced back at everyone else. "Maybe you guys can find something on the upper floors?" The pair stepped into the room and let the door close behind them.

Deadpool looked at the other three, hands on his hips. "That was rude. Like working with Logan, except less shedding."

The four of them climbed the stairs. The second floor landing opened to a single large room that was divided into a large number of cubicles. Some of the cubicle partitions were gone, but others remained.

Calvin's eyes flicked between the room ahead of them and the stairs that continued above them. "Start here and work up, or at the top and work down?"

"Why waste time? Let's just split up."

"'Split up?'" Calvin echoed. "In an abandoned industrial facility that may have been used to create monsters?"

"Deadpool, that's a terrible idea," Rhodez agreed. "This place is a horror movie set."

"Exactly," the mercenary said brightly. "The sooner we split up, the sooner anything lurking will attack, the sooner I kill it."

"What if the thing attacks us on the floor you aren't on?"

Deadpool poked the ceiling with his sword experimentally. Some plaster fell. "I'm pretty sure I can shoot through this."

"Do not fire blindly. I don't need any more friendly fire injuries from you," Calvin jiggled his foot a little as he said this.

"Fine, I'll use these X-ray specs." He put on a pair of googly-eye glasses.

Noticing Cassanee's impatient expression, Calvin sighed. "Fine. You and Rhodez check this floor. Cass and I will head upstairs. Come investigate if you hear screaming, I guess."

"You're leaving me with Wade?!" Rhodez couldn't suppress her concern.

"You're less likely to get accidentally shot if you're where he can see you," Calvin said matter-of-factly as he followed Cassanee upstairs.

"Don't worry, Padawan," Deadpool threw his arm around her shoulder, "this is the perfect opportunity for training. There could be all sorts of enemies lurking behind all this cover! Or tripwires! And lasers!"

"Uch, fine."