No one has to die

Deadpool woke up later than everyone else in the lair. If it was a competition he would be tied with Jarred for the title of Team Member who sleeps the latest.

He went to the kitchen, warmed up a burrito and then, meal in hand, walked into the monitor room where Jarred was quietly sitting back with his feet on the dashboard and smoking a cigarette.

This is more or less what he did if he was not on a mission or practicing his knife throwing.

"'sup, Jarred." Deadpool greeted. He took a couple of bites and looked at one of the monitors. Much of what was shown on these screens are movies or television series in the Author's reality.

The Author, Deadpool realised by the way, was nowhere to be seen.

Still- he rather chose to ask about Cassandra.

"Out in the gym training with Sephiroth... Those two seem to like kicking each other's asses..."

"She could have asked me..." Deadpool remarked in a seemingly hurt tone. "I have skills..."

He then started wondering...

"Why are you not training with them? Your fighting skills really suck! Don't tell me it is because your arm compensates for that..."

"Yeah I know..." Jarred lazily replied. "Boss says I am going to undergo some intensive training for my next mission to fix that. Seems I am going to receive magic lessons from some guy called "Constantine"..."

"Nice!" Deadpool exclaimed with clear excitement. "Do you know whether it is going to be the Keanu Reeves or Matt Ryan version?"

Jarred gave Deadpool a dumbfounded look... He did not share Deadpool's knowledge of the world beyond the Fourth Wall.

"So..." Deadpool began steering the conversation to a more comfortable topic. "Where is the Boss?"


The Author was on a boat in the Arctic Sea. It was the day before an explosion on the ship would disable the ship's generators and make large holes in the hull. After a long while of thinking he decided that the best way to change the story's end would be if it never took place.

The Author had managed to get on board as a member of the ship's crew. His knowledge of a ship's engine, however, was not that good. Let's rephrase- he did not have any knowledge of a ship's engine and how it works.

So- he did the best that he could. He searched for the ship's mechanic...

The mechanic was in the kitchen, having coffee- or something that seemed to be coffee...

"We have to cut the engine!" the Author exclaimed in the most urgent of tones as he stormed into the ship's kitchen.

"Something wrong?" the mechanic asked.

"The engine is making a weird sound and sparks are coming out of it!" the Author continued.

The mechanic put his cup down.

"I knew something funny was going on with this engine..." he muttered.

After having shut down the engine and taken a good look at the engine the mechanic found nothing that could make a funny sound or sparks, but he did find that the crankcase was ready to go. In fact, he was amazed that it had not already gone.

But now- he had no spares and he dared not switch the engine back on.

"We have a problem..." the mechanic sighed. "We need a spare crankcase and we do not have any spares on board..."

The Author was not around to hear him, though. He was now on his way to the lab where Zoe Kimura was poring over something on a computer screen.

"Dr Kimura...?" he asked.

"Professor..." Zoe corrected him.

"I am afraid that your ship's engine needs repairs and that we do not have the parts necessary to make these repairs..."




Zoe gave the Author a puzzled look and only then realised that she was supposed to worry...

"But..."

"Rest assured, however..." the Author interrupted her. "If you call the coast guard they can patch you through to the Phoenix Foundation. They have an engineer that can help you fix this problem."

Zoe was not following... "Shouldn't the mechanic..."

"Oh trust me..." the Author said with a mischievous smile. "You'd rather speak to the engineer yourself..."






Zoe and the mechanic went to the Captain's station as the Author watched them from a bit further away on the deck.

Later Zoe ran out to fetch her laptop and ran to the engine room.

The Author followed her just far enough to make sure that he can hear the conversation that he was waiting for. Standing out of sight outside the engine room's door he waited, listening...

The moment he heard "Hi Zoe. My name is Angus MacGyver and I am going to get you through this" he walked out onto the deck and opened up the portal...