Tony Masters, the infamous Taskmaster, liked to think of himself as a practical man. He ran a training business, has worked with both heroes and villains, and barring one or two unfortunate encounters, has mostly stayed out of the limelight as a major
villain.
He also managed to stay out of most major crises as well. Granted, not so much when he was forced to work for the Initiative, and then there was that whole mess with the Skrulls, but now that he had been set free, he went out of his way to get out of the
way of any major apocalypse.
As it just so happens, he missed the changes happening to the world by sheer accident.
While adventuring with Deadpool to steal an artifact of power, he was seperated from him. A trap was triggered by Deadpool, one that activated where Taskmaster was. He saw it coming, and used a technique Deadpool often used to try and dodge it. One issue,
though: he wasn't Deadpool (ie, completely crazy).
He avoided the lethal parts of the trap, but was knocked out by a stray flail. He fell into a magically protected chamber, and missed the transformation the world underwent entirely.
One half of the world's population was transformed. And they decided that they LIKED IT, and wanted it to have always been this way. And the magic shifted the world accordingly, so that no one from the other half of the world's population would know that
anything had changed.
Except one...
"Ow..." Taskmaster said, rubbing his head where the flail had hit him. He staggered to his feet, dusting himself off. His padded costume had protected him from the fall, so he wasn't too injured, but he was still stiff. "How long was I out?"
He checked the device in his pocket, and shook his head. "Two days?" he muttered. "No wonder I'm thirsty." He grumbled. "Knowing that dink Deadpool, he's probably already left."
Climbing back up to the main island, he found that Deadpool had indeed left, and left the artifact behind as well with a note taped to it.
Taskmaster scowled underneath his skeletal mask as he read the note: "Treasure hoax. No magic at all. Left to get laid. Sorry!"
Taskmaster crumbled the note. "Hmph. His ugly mug must be in a 'not-that-ugly' phase if he's trying to actually get laid," he said, remembering that Deadpool's skin, especially his face, tended to shift in appearance due to his healing factor constantly
fighting the super-cancer in his body. Taskmaster threw up his hands, giving up, and headed back to the beach, finding his boat still there, along with some supplies, including medkits, food, and water.
"Thank goodness for small favors," he muttered. He ate the provisions and drank the water in the cooler, patching up his injuries, and changing into a civilian guise. He then left, guiding the boat back towards the mainland, deciding to head for America
to see if he could find Deadpool. Whistling softly, he drove the speedboat back. He came upon a Coast Guard ship that hailed him down, and brought the ship to a halt.
"Afternoon!" he said, producing one of his fake ideas for the Coast Guard officer. "I'm just heading back for a vacation, ran outta food," he said, showing the empty case. "As you can see, I didn't plan that well."
The Guardsman frowned, but nodded, going to check the ID. Taskmaster whistled to himself, not worried, as he always triple checked all of his fake IDs before going anywhere.
After a few minutes, though, he frowned. This was taking much longer than usual...
Next Chapters
Or add your own