But… It’s me! The real Spider-Man!

"Shit!" Wanda hissed, pulling the damaged collar off her neck.

When she had already decided to use the teleporter to smuggle into the enemy base, circumstances, represented by a trio of overconfident soldiers, decided otherwise.

After examining Peter's gift, Wilson concludes that it is hopelessly flawed, but more importantly, what will happen to herself now?

The sudden attack had cost the mercenary several fresh wounds, and God knows how it would have ended if one of the shooters hadn't accidentally hit the regeneration-suppressor. Because Parker had removed all the explosives from it, the collar didn't explode, blowing the mercenary's head off in the process, but some of the substance did enter Wilson's neck, along with the bullet and shrapnel.

It wasn't enough to contain her mutation, but something did go wrong. She was in constant pain where the recent wounds had occurred, and her healing rate was slower than before: she had to pretend to be dead for a minute before she could explain to her attackers exactly what they had been wrong in thinking that they could just shoot a chatty mercenary like that.

From scraps of conversation between her victims before they died, it became clear that these girls, to Wilson's amazement, were not real agents of the Shield. Unfortunately, a thorough search of the corpses gave the mercenary no more evidence, and she could not capture any of them alive, for they were too stubborn in their desire to go to hell.

Finding a mirror in the belongings of one of the dead, Wanda shuddered as she examined her neck.

"What the hell was that?"

A large section of her neck now looked exactly the same as it had before the cure of the disease. That spot was now an ugly scar on her still beautiful body. Wilson found the same thing in the other wounded areas, except on a much smaller scale. For some reason, only the newly regenerated areas were becoming infected: the small entry holes from the bullets. Fortunately, the low-pulse and silent machine guns were unable to penetrate a man through and through. Regenerating, Wanda's body pushed the bullets back through the entry holes.

At least the cancer hadn't completely returned... except that any injury would now bring her closer to her previous horror-movie monster appearance. And if Parker can't be brought back, she risks losing her beauty irrevocably in a futile attempt to save him.

"Bullshit!" Cursed Wilson, but didn't back down.

After she destroyed the corpses with one of the organic-burning grenades, Deadpool pulled the mask back over her face and made her way down into the secret alleyway she'd discovered.

After teleporting inside, Wanda found herself falling through a dark, steep tunnel. She managed to grab hold of a ladder, but it cost her several more fractures and, consequently, new pockets of sickness.

"God damn it!" The woman hissed more in annoyance than pain. Wanda knew that her almost atrophied instinct for self-preservation was to blame, but habits were stronger than common sense.

Reaching the bottom, the mercenary took the only direction available and after a few thousand cautious steps in the darkness came to the dimly lit area in front of the massive doors with the Shield emblem. Except Wilson wasn't sure if it was the real base, or just another fake like the Parker kidnappers and the three who had ambushed her at the base entrance. They were probably waiting there on purpose for anyone who might be on the trail of the missing guy.

Unlike Venom and Spiderwoman, Deadpool didn't break in, which probably would have surprised anyone who'd known her before or herself in the past.

On examining the place carefully, she discovered that the route she had taken was not the only one. Which was quite obvious: there must be more than one secret exit from the base beneath the city. According to one, a group of two women and one man, all three in formal suits, arrived shortly thereafter.

Sensing that her own attire, as beautiful as it was, was not quite suitable for a secret entry into a secret base beneath the city, Wanda, grudgingly, decided to change her attire. In order to do so, she had to "persuade" shield employees, this time real ones, to share with her their passes, clothes, and information regarding the inner workings of the base. Of course they gladly acceded to the mercenary's request and were even kind enough to agree to wait in a dark corner of the tunnel while Wanda went about her business and not raise the alarm.

After all, eloquence is a great power, especially when any word from an opponent will result in the immediate detonation of a grenade placed in his mouth.

"I'll be back for you, boys," Wanda patted the tied up operative's cheek, and left her unexpected helpers behind.

It was very fortunate that one of them was a blonde about the same height as Wanda, a little makeup on her face for camouflage, and she might even be able to get into the base without raising the alarm.

She's now Susan Stofato, a senior scientist with level five clearance. The only pity is that the weapon will have to be stashed for the time being: laboratory rats are not supposed to carry several dozen pounds of weapons.

Pulling up the collar of her blouse to cover the ugly scar on her neck, Wanda successfully passed first the outer and then the inner security checkpoints. The photo on the pass wasn't very good, and who looks at those passes anyway? Thanks to her persuasive skills, Wilson found out from the previous pass holder both about the very fact of the invasion by her friends, and the supposed location of the isolation cells, where the mercenary thought the prisoners might be held. Fortunately, Stophato's workplace was in a completely different wing of the base - Susan's work was centered around creating new equipment for the shield operatives. Naturally, she was not involved in work directly with prisoners.

However, Susan's specialization gave a good reason why she might need to get to the isolators and personally talk to one of the prisoners. And that was a reason Wanda was going to take advantage of, especially since it would be too risky for Wilson, with her far from perfect disguise, to show up at the real Stofato workplace, as it would be in general to have contact with those who knew the real Susan well.

Adhering to the cardinal precept of the true spy and saboteur - in every situation pretend to have every right to be here - Wanda made her way to where, according to Stofato, the isolators were to be located. For a while everything went smoothly, even too smoothly: no one paid any attention to the mercenary, and Stofato's pass was faithfully opening one door after another. But it couldn't go on forever.

At some point the fifth level of security clearance wasn't enough to get past another barrier to the isolators, and as luck would have it, a red light on the panel caught the eye of an agent who was passing by. It was a five-and-a-half-foot tall, shaven-haired man. His eyes behind his rounded glasses had an exceptionally unkind squint. That look alone was enough to give the slightly obese man with the somewhat puffy face an extremely imposing, even somewhat threatening, appearance.

"Problems with your pass?" Without bothering to introduce himself, the agent inquired.

"Yes, I need to get into the isolation room, but I only have a level five security clearance, it seems that's not enough," said Wanda with the most honest expression on her face.

"What for?" The man looked sternly at her face and then asked her why.

"For my work: I'm studying the equipment seized from... hmm," Wilson coughed, pretending she wasn't comfortable saying her friend's superhero nickname, "Spiderwoman."

"Your name?" In her usual commanding tone, the agent demanded.

"This is what happens when men are put in leadership positions!" Wanda thought with irritation, but of course she didn't show it, "They immediately start reveling in every bit of power they have!"

"Susan Stofato, senior engineer in the Third Department," the mercenary smiled openly, as if she were in no way offended by this impromptu interrogation.

"Hmm..." the agent relaxed somewhat, "You won't get into the isolation rooms without Dr. Calvin's permission anyway. Follow me."

After which the agent, who never gave his name, with his badge opened the door Wilson wanted.

"You work in the isolation ward, don't you?" Wanda clarified, with a touch of timidity and uncertainty in her voice, as the door closed behind them.

The look the man gave her spoke volumes about his opinion of such an intellectually gifted senior engineer. But when he saw that his companion was not at all embarrassed, he condescended to a short "yes" in response.

Turning his back to Wanda, he no longer saw how the ingratiating smile on her face was replaced by the grin of a predator who had smelled prey.