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Chapter 23 - Cue

[INT. DEADPOOL'S SAFEHOUSE – NIGHT]

The six of them—Deadpool, Jake, Arthur, John, Dutch, and Micah—push through a rusty industrial door into what looks like the least safe "safehouse" imaginable.

JAKE (looking around):"...Okay, what the actual hell is this place?"

DEADPOOL (beaming):"Gentlemen, welcome to my humble little slice of post-apocalyptic Airbnb meets Chuck E. Cheese! Make yourselves at home—but don't touch the Hello Kitty toaster. That's vintage."

The interior is pure chaos. A couch with visible bullet holes. A stack of katanas in the umbrella stand. Posters of Bea Arthur, a bloodstained "Live Laugh Love" sign, and a weirdly placed inflatable unicorn in the corner.

DUTCH (arms crossed, unimpressed):"This... is where you live?"

DEADPOOL (drops onto a couch, arms spread):"This is where I thrive. It's got four walls, Wi-Fi, and no HOA. I'm basically winning at life."

Micah scoffs, brushing dust off his shoulder.

MICAH:"Smells like someone cooked a skunk in here and didn't finish it."

ARTHUR (walking cautiously):"Or died tryin'."

JOHN (muttering):"Better than the sewers."

Jake finds a mostly clean chair and flops into it, pulling out his phone to check it.

JAKE:"Still full bars. Not gonna lie, that's actually the most unrealistic part of all this."

DEADPOOL (pointing dramatically):"Alright, sit down, saddle up, and let me break this down. You're all game characters. I mean... probably. Still a little foggy on the metaphysics. But since you've popped out into our world, we're now dealing with crossover fanfiction levels of chaos."

ARTHUR (slowly):"You still ain't explainin' nothin'. Who the hell are you exactly?"

DEADPOOL (leaping up):"Name's Deadpool. Mercenary. Fourth-wall breaker. Think Jake but more stabby and... sexy? No? Okay."

JOHN (to Jake):"You sure we trustin' this guy?"

JAKE (shrugging):"I mean, I don't. But I relate."

DUTCH:"So, you just... kill people for money?"

DEADPOOL (shrugs):"And for fun. But mostly the money. Or if someone calls me 'Spider-Man in red.'"

Micah peers through a dusty window.

MICAH:"They'll find us eventually. You said we safe here?"

DEADPOOL:"Relax, Yosemite Scam. This place is off-grid, off-book, and off-putting. The NYPD couldn't track me if I wore a GPS on my ass."

Jake stands, serious for a moment.

JAKE:"What now? I mean... we're not going back, are we?"

DEADPOOL (tilts head):"Oh no, buddy. You broke the universe. You brought the spaghetti into the soup. We're way past 'going back.'"

[INT. FISK TOWER – MAYOR'S PRIVATE SUITE – NIGHT]

Fisk stands alone now, facing a wall of surveillance monitors. One of them glitches, refocuses, then freezes on a blurry figure in red leaping through an alley. Deadpool. Another screen replays footage of the exploded cop car.

FISK (voice ice-cold):"They think this is a game."

He picks up a phone, punches a number. The line picks up.

FISK:"I want every camera, every drone, every asset watching the lower city. That masked lunatic is just the beginning..."

A pause. He turns to the window, staring down at the city below.

FISK:"And if there are more of them—if they're not from this world—then we control the narrative before the public."

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