"Pew! Thud, thud! Boom!"
The speakers beside the monitor blared with gunfire. Orange-juice-colored blood splashed across the screen, and the character let out a scream and fell. His gun dropped from his hand, and his killer picked it up.
"Heh, your aim is terrible, Wade. Didn't you say you used to be a professional soldier?"
The killer on the other side kept crouching and standing over the corpse until the next round began.
At the cluttered computer desk sat a figure in pajamas. Hearing the voice chat through the speakers, he felt his rotting face twitch.
"I'm just having an off day. Every man has a few days a month when he doesn't feel right. It's like the seasons turning. You're still young, Peter. You don't understand that kind of pain."
"I thought your large-cell neuroendocrine cancer had made you unable to feel pain."
Peter kept playing. This time they were on opposing teams, so he deliberately hunted Deadpool down, then made fun of his aim.
Online, Peter was just like he was with his mask on: he never stopped talking, and he could be a bit of a smart-ass.
"Who knows? Sometimes I can feel pain. Could you stop coming after me and kill my teammates instead?" Wade shook his head, picked up a rock-hard slice of leftover pizza, and stuffed it into his mouth. He offered a slice to Aphrodite, who was watching him play.
Yes, he hadn't gone back to the love nest he shared with Inez. Instead, he was staying in Aphrodite's basement again. How a blind woman watched someone play video games wasn't important.
"No, I want to play with you. Ned's family went abroad on vacation again. Ever since that time, his parents seem to have gotten addicted to traveling. They should all be