Wade had still been busy yesterday collecting money, hoping to raise a million dollars as soon as possible and pay Alaric to help him find Francis.
But Francis had no intention of sitting quietly. After learning that Wade had survived the experiment and became his "most successful product," he decided to capture him again or eliminate him.
Francis, together with his right-hand woman, Angel, went to the bar where Wade and Vanessa used to spend time. There they found a photograph of the two of them.
As soon as he learned about this, Weasel hurried to warn Wade.
Unfortunately, Wade arrived too late. Vanessa had already been kidnapped.
"Damn it! Damn!"
"Guns! I need all the guns!"
"I'm going to tear him apart with my bare hands!"
The furious Wade nearly ripped the bar door off its hinges.
At that moment, the phone rang.
"Find that phone! Quickly!" shouted Wade.
"I know! Calm down!" replied Weasel, who was frantically rummaging through the cluttered table until he finally found his phone.
"Hello! Wade, Vanessa… no, actually Francis sent you a message!" said Weasel, quickly opening the SMS.
"You want to see her? Then show up at the scrapyard at noon. Love my Ajax."
He read the message in a tone full of contempt.
"Pack the weapons!" ordered Wade.
"Which ones?" asked Weasel.
"ALL of them!"
"Alright, alright!"
The two of them turned the whole room upside down and stuffed a large bag with weapons – pistols, rifles, knives, bombs, everything they could find.
"What's your plan?" asked Weasel.
"I'm going to kill him."
"I don't mean that, I mean, are you going alone? Won't you ask for help?"
"I know two people who could help." Wade thought of Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead from the X-Men.
They weren't always on the same wavelength, but he could rely on their strength.
"And what about that guy?" asked Weasel.
"Which guy?" Wade looked at him in confusion as he arranged the rifles in the bag.
"That mutant… or whatever he is… who promised to help you find Francis."
"Right! Him too! Wait, I'll call him!" Wade finally remembered Alaric.
"You know… now that Francis has come to you looking for a fight, it's no longer really his job, is it?" Weasel remarked.
"Then take it as a reward for his help!" Wade shot back, completely uninterested in the agreement he had made earlier.
At this moment, the only thing he cared about was Vanessa, not the money.
He picked up the phone and dialed a familiar number.
"Wade?" a voice came from the other side.
"Damn it, they took Vanessa! Buddy, I need your help!" Wade spoke quickly and breathlessly, pacing the room like a caged beast.
"Me? Don't you have those two X-Men?" asked Alaric in a calm tone.
"I do, but the more hands, the better! And I've gathered that million I owed you, I'll give it to you when you come."
"Keep the money, you'll need it for Vanessa. Where and when?"
"Scrapyard, tomorrow at noon!"
"Alright. See you on time."
"Great! Thank you, buddy!"
Wade hung up the phone, grabbed the bag of weapons, and hurried to the door.
He still had to stop by the X-Men school and ask Colossus and Negasonic for help.
---
After the call, Alaric paused for a moment, lost in thought.
He wondered what the current state of the X-Men was.
Was the team led by the young Charles Xavier or the older professor in a wheelchair?
But what interested him most was not their hierarchy.
He wanted to know where Jean Grey was and in what condition, the host of the Phoenix Force.
Alaric had no intention of randomly inserting mutant genes into his own DNA.
That was a risky, complicated, and often unsuccessful process.
But the Phoenix… that was something else.
Jean's power was not an ordinary mutation.
The Phoenix is a cosmic being, a force born from the primordial chaos of the universe, the embodiment of life and consciousness.
It exists beyond time and space, eternal and transient at the same time, the pure essence of creation and destruction.
If he could grasp its essence, Alaric might be able to create his own version of the Phoenix's power, just as he had previously created his own concept of divine magic.
The Phoenix is the link between the consciousness and life of all beings in the infinite multiverse, the source and origin of spiritual power.
Its energy is ancient and unimaginably powerful.
Alaric was hungry for that knowledge.
Even if it put him in danger, he was ready to try.
---
The next day, exactly at noon.
Wade arrived on the outskirts of the scrapyard in the company of Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead.
The three of them got out of the taxi, and as soon as Wade stepped onto the dusty ground, he started talking.
"Wait a second… what are we even doing here?" Negasonic asked irritably, her arms crossed.
"We're waiting for a friend of mine," Wade replied.
"You've got another helper? Is he also a mutant?" asked Colossus, whose massive metal figure cast a shadow over half the parking lot.
He hoped that this friend of Wade's might be interested in their school for gifted youngsters.
Maybe he could become one of the X-Men and find a better purpose in life.
But the truth was that Alaric had no such ambitions.
He wasn't interested in any school, any uniforms, or any rules.
He had his own goal.
He hadn't come to fight for anyone's ideals.
He hadn't come to save the world.
He had come because he wanted Jean… or, more precisely, he wanted the power of the Phoenix.
For everything else, he didn't care.