The next morning, Shiller woke up again amidst a cacophony of noise. He squinted his eyes and walked over to the window, pulling back the curtain and opening the window, where he saw a small blue figure bouncing around, shaking its head and wagging its tail amidst the crowd, with a girl in a pink uniform standing beside.
"Gwen Stacy!" Shiller called out to her, "Come on up!"
Soon, Gwen Stacy came running up with Jeff the Shark Dog in her arms. Jeff was clearly overexcited; as soon as he was put down, he panted with his tongue out. Gwen Stacy greeted Shiller energetically: "Good morning, Doctor. I received your email—the universe's strongest mercenary, Gwen Stacy, reporting for duty!"
"Alright, ma'am, come on in," Shiller said with a smile, "I have a job for you, the pay is quite good, you might want to consider it."
"Great, I'm short on cash lately," Gwen Stacy shrugged and said, "Tell me about it, what job? I surely can..."
Before she could finish her sentence, she saw a person climb onto the balcony behind Shiller. Instinctively, she drew her gun to aim and then heard a scream: "Oh, wait! Don't shoot! You disgusting pink impostor!"
Shiller turned around and saw Deadpool jump in, but his words got him into big trouble. With a "bang," a shot hit Deadpool, but fortunately, Gwen Stacy had fired not a real bullet, but a paintball.
But, it was only good news for Deadpool, not for Shiller's office—the exploded paintball scattered paint everywhere. Shiller sighed a little helplessly.
"Stop it!" he said, "Clean up the floor before you leave!"
Gwen Stacy stuck out her tongue but still put her hands on her hips and said to Deadpool: "I warn you, watch what you say, I'm no impostor. And besides, pink is the most beautiful color in the world, wearing all black is what's truly disgusting!"
"A gentleman doesn't argue with a lady," Deadpool snorted and said, "I'm here to take a job."
"What? You're here for the job too? Don't think you can compete with me!"
"Who's competing with you? I'm qualified by talent..."
"Alright, quiet!" Shiller said, "This job is for the two of you, meaning you have to work together. However, the pay is high, and it can be settled in gold and vibranium. If you don't want it, I can always ask Deathstroke..."
"No no no!" Deadpool quickly said, "My cousin is busy. A few days ago, I even heard them say, for some reason, many Batmen are after their swords. If he comes out for a job now, he might get caught, let's not bother him."
"But, to work with this little girl..." Deadpool looked at Gwen Stacy, puckered his lips, and fell silent.
"I'm not a little girl, you jerk! Don't make me expose your secrets!"
"Stop pretending to be mature, you dressed like me just to bring me bad press, stealing my fans and traffic!"
"As if you have that much traffic. Don't think I don't know, you act all goofy every day, bragging about 'fans' and 'traffic', terms that comic characters don't understand, just to grab attention. If I were a psychiatrist, I'd tell you, your problem is—you're forever misfit!"
"Alright, Gwen Stacy!" Shiller raised his voice a bit, but he still turned to Deadpool and said, "Gwen Stacy wasn't trying to copy you, it's just a misunderstanding. When they were customizing the uniform, the tailor misheard the word and thought of your name, so they made a uniform similar to yours. This shows you're popular—any tailor can recognize what you look like, isn't it?"
Deadpool was still in a daze, but upon hearing this, he snapped out of it and nodded vigorously, saying, "Yes, I'm quite famous! Otherwise, you wouldn't look so much like me. And besides, knowing you look similar to me and yet not changing your uniform, it means you're also a fan of mine."
Gwen Stacy made a vomiting gesture, but for Shiller's sake, they did not continue arguing. So Shiller said, "Alright, let me tell you about the mission. The Milky Way will be busy soon, we have a series of exploration and construction work to do, and the Three Great Empires will surely meddle. Just defending here won't work, so I need someone to cause some trouble for them."
"Wreak havoc? I'm good at that!" Deadpool said, "But I mean, don't bring this dead weight little girl, and that dog—are you expecting him to dress as a shark and scare the robots?"
Gwen Stacy gave him another fierce glare. Yet, Shiller shook his head and said, "No, you both have to go, it's the principal's requirement."
"Alright, alright, I'll do as you say," Deadpool said, waving his hand.
"Do you have any questions, ma'am?"
"Though I absolutely don't want to do the job with this guy, for the money's sake—alright. But I can't bring Jeff along, it's too dangerous, he could get hurt. Do you have any pet sitting services here?"
"Even if there is, they're unlikely to agree to board a shark with legs. But if you don't mind, you can leave him with me for a while, he had a lot of fun earlier, didn't he?"
"That's great! Jeff, be good and stay here, eat on time, don't run to the beach to scare people, got it?"
Then she stood up again and said to Shiller: "Jeff eats meat, and he also needs some dog food as a snack. You can deduct the meal expenses from my pay. Of course, you'd better keep a close eye on him, if he breaks something, I might not be able to afford it..."
Shiller nodded, took Jeff from her hands, petted his head, and then held the shark dog while explaining the mission to them: "Recently, the Emperor of the Sparta Empire has opposed the implementation of some articles in the security regulations of the Three Great Empires in his jurisdiction, which has angered the General of the Skrull Empire. They have been increasing troops there recently, probably wanting to teach the Sparta Empire a lesson. What you need to do is go to their camp and cause some chaos, the bigger the mess, the better, understand?"
"Mission guaranteed!" Gwen Stacy said.
"Hmph, you stole my line! But what I wanted to say is—mission absolutely guaranteed!"
"Mission absolutely, absolutely guaranteed..."
"Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely guaranteed..."
"Enough, just go." Shiller waved them both out and then went to buy dog food for Jeff.
Finding Gwen Stacy and Deadpool to go together isn't because he really expects them to come up with some earth-shattering plan that will disrupt the universe's situation, but because putting the two of them together will definitely create a big commotion.
Deadpool and Gwen Stacy, although they seem very similar, are actually two completely different people and it's hard for them to get along. Their understanding of the world and the ways they aim to change it are entirely different.
It seems like Deadpool is a very unruly person, with no filter on his mouth, dare to say anything, always making jokes as soon as he appears, not sparing the rotten jokes about pee and poop, even though he talks about wanting to join a lower age rating, he has no real achievements and always does actions that can't pass the review.
Many people, when they first see Deadpool's story, feel it is very fragmented, as if this personality doesn't completely match his experiences. Deadpool is a veteran, and although the mutation gave him a powerful undying ability, this matter is a tragedy for him, and he doesn't seem like he should be this lively and mischievous.
But once you see more of Deadpool's story, you will realize that his core is indeed tragic. All of his seemingly unacceptable antics are actually closer to a performance, a means to pursue something.
According to what he says himself, he is pursuing popularity, because only popular characters won't disappear. He has this kind of talk on his lips every day, and his behavior seems to revolve around this goal.
But in fact, if you conduct an in-depth analysis, you will find that this is contradictory to his whole being. Does Deadpool really not want to disappear?
Perhaps, everyone has a survival instinct, everyone wants to live. But Deadpool often exists in an undying state, no matter how much damage he takes, how severe the injuries are, he always recovers.
Some people have a strange behavior where the more they hope for something to happen, the more they insist "it absolutely cannot happen," which is a compulsive kind of thinking, forcing themselves to lower expectations to avoid disappointment.
"Over-denial" always reflects the deepest desires within people, representing fear, and the fear comes from empathy, worrying that the same thing will happen to oneself, yet it also reveals an awareness that there might be a quality within oneself that induces similar developments. This drives the person to panic, leading them to repeat themselves over and over.
Deadpool isn't exactly like this, but his repeated emphasis on popularity certainly has a part of this psychology. He knows he will die from lack of popularity, and this kind of death is total, it will not be just lingering on the edge and then recovering, not seriously injured but still jumping around.
If ordinary death cannot let him rest in peace forever, then disappearing as his popularity dwindles is the best ending he can find. Perhaps, hidden within the impression of fear he has constructed for himself, there exists a subconscious expectation for "thoroughly ending it all" that even he is unaware of.
And from the perspective of Behavioral Science, he is also constantly emphasizing that he isn't the kind of monster incapable of dying that others perceive him to be, that there is something that can completely kill him, that he too will walk into death, so he is the same as them.
Deadpool has an abnormal view of death, twisted by his special physical state. His repeated mentions of the popularity issue are an attempt to convey this idea, and the reason for conveying this idea is his desire for acceptance.
It seems that immortality is a very powerful superpower, no one does not want to live forever. But when facing someone who truly possesses such an ability, people's attitude is often not one of envy. Especially, for this undying superpower, Deadpool has paid too high a price; just like what he experienced in his life, it's a complete tragedy. The lack of death is a different kind of disability.
Thus, Deadpool is like a disabled person, constantly telling others: I am like you, I'm not missing anything more than you are, I too will die, only in an uncommon way. I am not an incomplete monster, I am an existence like you.
And he repeatedly emphasizes this because he wants to integrate. Whether raising some astonishing statements that people can't understand or creating all kinds of bizarre behaviors, are all about attracting others' attention. Only those who have demands for collectives and society will want to attract the attention of their peers. The more one yearns for belonging, the more one desires love, the more aggressive the behavior to attract attention will be.
Without a doubt, Deadpool wants it. He constantly emphasizes that he is very normal, he wants to tell everyone, he is a humorous and witty normal person, not a quirky monster.
Sadly, the dark humorous core spirit that makes Deadpool most attractive stems precisely from his inability to ever integrate. He keeps muttering insane stuff that others can't understand, always messing around, always failing, constantly healing from wounds, continually rallying strength.
The previous person who shared the same core spirit as him, and was revered as a model, was called Don Quixote. People mocked his absurdity, yet also fell in love with his absurdity.
The tragic elements in comedy, is like the kite's string. Without that fine string, whatever is drifting in the sky can no longer be controlled, becomes useless.
But no one can say the string is the savior of the kite because the existence of that string only benefits the kite's owner. Perhaps, without the string, the kite could obtain true freedom. Without the audience who appreciates absurd black humor, Deadpool's tragedy would be genuinely over—and there's no other way. That's precisely why it's a tragedy, precisely why it's charming enough.