Kakashi and Deadpool followed a lead to a supposed facility.
The facility had been hidden beneath an abandoned pharmaceutical warehouse on the outskirts of the city, exactly the kind of place that would normally escape attention.
There were no guards outside, no obvious security cameras, and not even a sign suggesting anyone had used the building in years.
That alone made Kakashi suspicious of the place. He stood across the street with Deadpool who was studying the warehouse through a pair of binoculars.
"Nothing," Deadpool said, lowering them. "No guards, no cameras, no suspicious men in trench coats. This place is either completely abandoned or the villain equivalent of a luxury spa."
Kakashi kept watching. "There are signs that people have been here recently."
Deadpool looked at him. "So secret underground laboratory?" Kakashi nodded. "Most likely." Deadpool drew his sword. "Excellent. I was getting bored."
They entered through a maintenance entrance Kakashi discovered behind the warehouse. The lock was sophisticated enough to discourage ordinary intruders, but Kakashi dismantled it in seconds.
Deadpool stared at the open door. "You know, when I first saw you in some videos shown by those time geeks, I thought you were just the quiet ninja guy with the magic eyes."
Kakashi slipped inside. "I have other skills." Deadpool followed. "Apparently."
The two descended several flights of stairs until the sterile smell of chemicals became impossible to ignore. The deeper they went, the more advanced the facility became.
The walls changed from old concrete to reinforced metal, automated doors opened with barely a sound, and cold white lights flickered to life as they passed.
Kakashi's eyes narrowed. "This facility is active." Deadpool looked around. "And here I was hoping we'd find a secret evil laboratory with cobwebs."
They eventually reached a massive underground chamber, and Deadpool stopped joking.
Rows of glass containers filled the room, each connected to tubes, wires, and monitoring equipment.
Some were empty. Others contained human bodies suspended in pale liquid. Many were badly mutilated by the experiments performed on them, their bodies covered with surgical marks, implants, and unnatural alterations.
Deadpool slowly lowered his sword. "Oh." Kakashi didn't answer. His eyes moved from one tank to another, taking in the medical equipment and the identification numbers attached to each chamber.
These weren't simple cloning experiments. Essex had been testing how far the human body could be pushed before it failed.
Kakashi stepped closer to one of the chambers. The subject inside was young, barely more than a teenager, with faintly glowing veins running along his arms.
Another tank contained a body whose bones had been deliberately altered. A third held a mutant whose body had been repeatedly exposed to different genetic treatments.
Deadpool stared at them in silence.
They moved deeper into the laboratory and found a central control room. Kakashi sat down at one of the terminals, removing his gloves.
Deadpool looked at him curiously. "What are you doing?"
Kakashi cracked his fingers. "Accessing the system." Deadpool stared. "You can hack?" Kakashi glanced at him. "I worked alone before joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers so I had to do this stuff myself."
Kakashi connected himself to the system and began bypassing layers of encryption. His fingers moved rapidly across the keyboard while his Sharingan tracked the security protocols.
He had not used these skills seriously in years. After joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and Avengers, he had mostly relied on the organization's technology and his teammates' expertise. But old habits had never really disappeared.
The security system fought back, but Kakashi dismantled each layer methodically. "Essex has compartmentalized the network," he muttered. "Most of the files are isolated."
Deadpool leaned against the desk. "Can you get around that?" Kakashi's Sharingan spun as he viewed the code in slow motion. "Give me a minute."
Several seconds passed before the screen suddenly filled with hundreds of directories. Deadpool whistled. "That's a lot of evil science."
Kakashi began opening files, but after only a few seconds, his expression changed. "What?" Deadpool asked. Kakashi didn't answer. He opened another file, then another, his eyes narrowing further each time.
The files weren't simply records of Essex's experiments. They contained genetic profiles, biological scans, memories, behavioral assessments, and photographs of the same man at different ages.
Nathaniel Essex appeared again and again. But the dates were impossible. Some versions were decades apart. Others appeared to have been created only months ago.
Kakashi opened a genetic comparison and stared at the results. "They're identical." Deadpool leaned closer. "Identical what?" Kakashi brought up another file. "Every one of these subjects carries Essex's genetic signature." Deadpool stared at the screen. "You're saying…" Kakashi nodded slowly. "He cloned himself."
Deadpool looked around the laboratory. "How many?" Kakashi scrolled through the database. The number kept increasing. Hundreds of active genetic profiles. Thousands of archived ones. Different bodies. Different ages. Different modifications.
Yet all carried the same genetic foundation. Deadpool's voice became quiet. "Those aren't just clones." Kakashi nodded.
"They're vessels." He continued reading. "Some are being grown specifically to mature at different rates. Others are being modified to withstand different environmental conditions. He's created replacements for himself."
Deadpool stared at the screen. "So which one is the real Essex?" Kakashi's fingers stopped moving. "That's the problem."
There was no designation for an original body. No primary subject. No master clone. Every record referred to the others as iterations, but none was identified as the source.
Kakashi opened the oldest available genetic record and found that even it contained the same genetic markers as the newest clones.
He leaned back slowly. "There isn't a main body here." Deadpool frowned. "What does that mean?" Kakashi's expression became grim. "I don't know."
He looked at the thousands of files again. "If Essex transfers his consciousness between these bodies or have consciousness in all of them at once, destroying one won't kill him. There may not even be a single body that can be considered the original."
For the first time since entering the facility, Kakashi felt genuinely unsettled. The entire operation reminded him of someone he had encountered long before coming to this universe.
The laboratories, the obsession with genetic modification, the creation of artificial bodies, the willingness to sacrifice countless lives in pursuit of immortality, it all reminded him of Orochimaru.
Kakashi's expression darkened as memories he had not thought about in years resurfaced. "This is like Orochimaru," he murmured.
Deadpool looked at him. "Who's Orochimaru?" Kakashi just gave a brief answer. "A scientist from my world."
Kakashi closed the files and stood. "We need to leave." Deadpool nodded. "Agreed. We've seen enough." They began moving toward the exit, but Kakashi stopped halfway through the corridor.
Something had caught his attention. Footsteps. Multiple people. Coming from the entrance. Deadpool immediately drew his pistols while Kakashi's hand moved toward his kunai pouch.
The first was a massive man with a feral appearance. Behind him came several other mutants, each carrying weapons or wearing specialized equipment.
One of them stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
Deadpool slowly leaned toward Kakashi and whispered, "Please tell me these are the guys who are going to explain everything before trying to kill us."
Kakashi's eyes remained fixed on the newcomers.
The largest mutant stepped forward and said, "We're the Marauders."
He smiled coldly. "And we're employed by someone who would very much like to know why you're snooping around his facility."
-----Author Notes---------
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