A strange world. A familiar trash can.
Alex had long since learned to selectively ignore that particular object. If Pietro had been here, he would've definitely made a snide comment. But Petra, who was going through her first multiverse jump, had no idea.
Unlike Alex, Petra had not yet recovered from the emotional shock of destroying her own timeline with her own hands.
Alex patted her on the shoulder in silent comfort, exhaled lightly, and then turned his attention to their surroundings.
Night had fallen. Sand swept across the land like a golden sea, but now it was cloaked in darkness, as if the earth had been draped in a black curtain. Around them, aside from the trash can, dozens of cars were parked.
"Looks like we're in a gas station parking lot," Alex murmured as he surveyed the area, eyes falling on a large truck thundering down the distant highway.
"So, this is another parallel universe?" Petra came up beside him, curiosity in her voice.
"Yeah." Alex nodded, giving her a bit of a heads-up. "Most of the universes around here are in a state of decay. So whatever we run into—don't be surprised. Anything can happen."
"I get it," Petra said, forcing a small smile as she looked at Alex. "Don't worry. I'm not some clueless kid. No matter what happens, I won't lose control."
Bang!
Before her words had even faded, a gunshot rang out not far from them.
The sound made Petra flinch violently. The years of experimentation and modification she'd endured had left her with a deep-rooted PTSD. Her body instinctively shifted into a combat-ready stance.
The gunfire had only happened once, and silence fell again almost immediately.
Alex sighed as he watched Petra, who looked like she was about to unleash her mutant powers. He wasn't sure if he should say anything.
After holding her stance for a while with no follow-up threat, Petra realized she might have overreacted.
She awkwardly straightened up and turned her eyes elsewhere, avoiding Alex's gaze. "Ahem... Sorry, habit."
"It's fine. Being on alert is a good thing," Alex replied calmly, not dwelling on the matter. "This is an unfamiliar world—we don't know what we're walking into."
He glanced in the direction the shot had come from. It wasn't too far, but several parked cars blocked their view.
"Let's go take a look."
Right now, the top priority was to find Deadpool and figure out what the TVA was up to.
Before that, Alex needed to determine which universe they'd landed in.
"I used Deadpool's coordinates to teleport. If we've arrived here, it means there's a Deadpool in this universe—and he should be nearby."
Petra quickly nodded and followed after Alex.
Under the dim station lights and the glow of ads playing on the gas station's large display, the two of them approached the source of the gunshot.
Uncertain of the world's hostility, Alex chose a car as cover. He raised a hand to stop Petra, then cautiously peeked out toward the scene.
On the damp road ahead, a long black Cadillac limousine was parked. A group of shady-looking men surrounded the front of the car. From their attire, it was obvious—they weren't good guys. More likely gang members or criminals.
At the rear of the car, an old man lay flat on the ground. Due to the distance and lighting, Alex couldn't make out his face.
But something about the scene felt extremely familiar.
"What's going on?" Petra whispered, peeking over.
Alex simply raised a finger to his lips, gesturing for silence, and kept his gaze fixed ahead.
In the quiet darkness, the sound of metal scraping against metal echoed faintly. Even at this distance, Alex could tell those thugs were trying to remove the limo's tires.
This sort of thing was pretty common. Car tires—especially from luxury vehicles—could fetch high prices. Some of them could be sold for thousands on the black market.
Stealing a whole car was risky—you couldn't resell or even drive it without major complications. But tires? That was different. Plenty of underground dealers would take them.
That's why many low-level street punks often resorted to this kind of petty crime. Even Jason Todd, before he became Robin, had once tried to jack the Batmobile's tires.
But what was happening here wasn't just a simple tire theft.
"Oh, fk."
The old man lying on the ground stirred, groaned, and began slowly rising from the gravel.
"Fellas…"
The moment he spoke, the thugs froze in shock. They shined their flashlights directly at him, their faces full of disbelief. Two of them even raised their guns.
"Hey, guys… seriously. You really don't want to do this."
Under the flashlight beams, Alex got a clear look at the man's face.
At that moment, Alex's pupils contracted sharply, and his whole body froze in place.
Now he finally understood why the scene before him had felt so familiar—because he had just recognized who the old man was. And with that, he was certain which universe he was currently in.
"What is it?" Petra, still shielded behind Alex, noticed the change in his expression and frowned in concern.
She had also heard the commotion nearby. When Alex said nothing, she slowly leaned out to take a look for herself.
As her eyes landed on the group in the distance, she was stunned to see metal claws extend from the old man's hands—not six, but five claws?
Wait... five?
Petra froze for a moment, then watched in shock as the old man reached over with his other hand and forcibly pulled out the fifth claw, which hadn't extended properly on its own.
"Logan!?"
Her mouth fell open in disbelief, her eyes wide. She couldn't believe she was seeing one of the greatest teachers the world had ever known—again.
Alex was just as stunned. He never imagined that he would end up in the universe of Logan—Wolverine 3: The Last Stand.
Was Deadpool even in this world?
Actually… yes.
Alex recalled a deleted extended post-credits scene from Deadpool, where Wade had obtained a time-travel device from Cable and was hopping across different timelines, stirring up chaos.
One of those timelines was this one—Deadpool had come to the site of Wolverine's grave and attempted to use an X-gene serum to restart Logan's healing factor and bring him back to life.
But after hesitating for a long time, Deadpool ultimately gave up on the idea—just like how he had returned to wartime but couldn't bring himself to kill that baby.
Still, if Alex remembered correctly, that particular scene had been cut.
According to Kevin Feige, this version of Wolverine had already lived a complete life. His story was over, and they wouldn't be changing that. Meaning: even if Deadpool 3 featured Wolverine, it absolutely wouldn't be this universe's Wolverine.
"Miss Minutes, I need you to check your locator. Are you sure this universe has a Deadpool?"
Hearing Alex's question, Miss Minutes hesitated for a moment.
[Confirmed. Although I can't pinpoint which Deadpool it is, I can guarantee—there is a Deadpool in this universe. My lord, have we come to the wrong place?]
"I'm afraid it's not just the wrong universe. We may have landed at the wrong temporal anchor point too."
Alex frowned deeply, a storm of thoughts whirling in his head.
The timeline he was currently in was the beginning of Logan's story. But the Deadpool he was trying to find—assuming he even existed here—wouldn't appear until after Logan's death, and only in that deleted scene.
The biggest problem was: would that Deadpool even come here at all?
Right now, the TVA was actively hunting Deadpool across the multiverse. No one knew exactly why, but considering that particular Deadpool had traveled through so many worlds without ever being caught, it suggested something important—the TVA had always chosen to turn a blind eye to his time-traveling antics.
And it made sense. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was no longer confined to the Sacred Timeline. Loki had personally freed the multiverse, so time travel had effectively become "legal."
But then again, if time travel itself no longer triggered the TVA… then why were they targeting Deadpool now?
While Alex was still lost in thought over this question, the group of people in the distance had already broken into a full-blown scuffle.
The thugs, wielding crowbars and beer bottles, repeatedly attacked Old Man Logan. One of them even raised a gun, aiming directly at his head.
"No—don't hit the car!"
Logan, staggering from a punch, turned to see one of the thugs swinging a crowbar toward his luxury car. The near miss clearly enraged him, and with a snarl, he drove one claw straight into the man's thigh.
"Kill him!" shouted the gang leader. Seeing the "freak" still trying to fight back, he kicked Logan hard to the ground and pressed a shotgun to the back of his head.
Watching from cover, Petra couldn't help but tremble at the sight.
She whipped around to look at Alex. "That's Logan—Wolverine!"
"I know who he is," Alex replied, frowning.
"Then we're just going to sit here and watch him get beaten to death? He doesn't look right, like—he's not in his prime anymore. And he looks so… old." There was pain in Petra's voice.
Alex tapped his fingers restlessly on the car window, his thoughts in disarray.
Something about this felt wrong.
He didn't know why, but he had the uneasy sense that he had walked into some kind of setup—one that had been designed specifically for him.
"Mr. Crow," Petra whispered again.
Alex's fingers paused mid-tap. His eyes shifted back to Logan, exhausted and bloodied, still trying to fight off the attackers.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Alex finally gave a small nod.
"Take them down."
.....
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