(Mojave Desert, 65 Northwest of Las Vegas)
At a roadside café, a waiter asks someone if they want more coffee. The customer says they’re good and pulls out a twenty dollar note and asks if that’ll cover it. A little stunned at seeing such a large note for a simple order, he says it’s more than enough and the customer tells him to keep it.
A man walks in the café and wipes his sweaty forehead with exhaustion. He asks the customer if that’s his bike out front, to which the person says it is. The man replaces his hat and sits down. He tells him to be careful, as it’s already over one hundred degrees out there and the weather man says it’s going to get hotter. Walking towards the door, the other customer says that the weather man is right. Outside in the parking lot, the customer, Johnny Blaze aka the Ghost Rider, puts on his sunglasses and approaches his bike.
(Las Vegas)
One of the casino owners stares at Deadpool, who is in the Wildcard armor, and asks what he means when he says he quits. Deadpool says that the job sucks and he doesn’t want to do it any more. One of the other bosses yells that they had an agreement but Deadpool yells back that he has a gun. With that, he aims one of the guns on his armor at the man and charges it up. He asks if he’s made his position clear and they tell him to leave. Deadpool turns to leave but one of the bosses says they can get any idiot to wear the armor; there was never anything special about him. Becoming annoyed, Deadpool tells them he shouldn’t have said that.
Outside the door, the receptionist hears a number of loud bangs and cries coming from inside the room. Deadpool, minus the armor, walks out of the room cracking his knuckles. One of his inner voices points out that what he just did wasn’t very heroic. He tells his voice he disagrees. Those guys were evil men. They prey on people’s weaknesses… How many lives have they ruined and for what?? Money, what’s what. He stops walking and looks at somebody stood in front of him. He asks the person if they are just going to stand there looking scary or are they going to say something.
Johnny is stood in the corridor next to his motorbike. However, he has activated his Ghost Rider powers and now stands with a flaming skull for a head and holding a chain. He tells asks Deadpool why he should say anything, he has said it all. He calls him Wade and tells him to hold on tight. With that, he whips his chain around Deadpool’s neck and drives away on his bike, dragging the mercenary behind him. He explodes through the window and onto the street below. As the flaming bike lands on some cars, he yells to Deadpool that he has had this coming for a long time but now he will face vengeance.
As Deadpool chokes on the chains, Ghost Rider says he will pay for his transgressions. Deadpool asks if it’s about the parking tickets but Ghost Rider doesn’t see the humor and tells him he is an assassin. As they head out of Las Vegas, Deadpool yells that he isn’t an assassin… he’s a mercenary and there’s a difference. Ghost Rider says there isn’t one to him.
Deadpool manages to climb onto the back of the bike. He says that he could explain the many differences between the two or he could just to this. With that, he lunges forward and grabs the brakes, causing the bike to flip over and both men to be catapulted into the air. Deadpool manages to draw his guns and shoot at Ghost Riders head… shattering the men’s skull. They both land on the tarmac in twisted heaps. Deadpool slowly picks himself up and realizes that it probably wasn’t the best idea to do that. He is covered in cuts and his costume is torn.
He hears a whooshing sound from behind him and he turns to see a perfectly fine Ghost Rider walking towards him. Ghost Rider grabs him by the scruff of the neck and holds him up high. He tells the mercenary to look into his eyes and to feel the pain of penance long overdue. Deadpool asks that the *%&%* he’s talking about. Ghost Rider explains his penance stare reveals all his past sins through the eyes of those he has wronged or those he has destroyed. Deadpool asks if it’s like a highlight reel, to which the Ghost Rider simply says yes. Deadpool glares at him and tells him to roll the tape.
Ghost Rider begins his penance stare but something weird happens and he is blasted back from Deadpool. Once again, both men lie in heaps on the floor. Ghost Rider gets up but realizes that he is now back in his human form of Johnny Blaze. Johnny stares at his hands for a minute and then walks over to Deadpool, who is still lying on the ground. Deadpool’s eyes are glowing and he remains still.
(flashback)
A blurry-eyed person wakes up. As their vision comes into focus, they see a man sat in front of them reading a book. They start to speak but only muffled noises come out. The man, who is dressed in a smart suit, stands up and says that they have a tube down their throat. He reaches forward and pulls it out as the person gags. They cough and ask why they are there. The man, leaning on some hospital equipment, says that it’s because they survived… with a little help. At that, he raises his hand slightly and then asks if they remember hanging themselves. The person says they don’t and the man asks them why they did it. The person replies that they did it because life’s %*%&* and it’s just better to get it over with.
The man tells them that they’re nineteen but they correct him and says they’re eighteen. The man reiterates that they’re nineteen and says they have been in a coma for twenty one days and their birthday was two days ago. Their funeral was nine days ago but they shouldn’t feel bad that they missed it because no-one else showed up either. Standing in front of the hospital bed, the man calls the patient “Wade” and says he doesn’t have many friends does he?
Later on, the man in a suit is showing Wade around his facility. He tells him that Oscar Zero is a clandestine self-sufficient cell of agents operating under the CIA’s directorate of operations. But they aren’t overseen by anyone. It’s not that the suits don’t want to know what they do, it’s just they don’t want to know how they do it. Wade asks what they do. Looking down through a window into a room below, they see a group of soldiers practicing fighting techniques on a set of dummies. The man tells Wade they kill people. Wade asks what kind of people and the man replies the kind that deserves it.
The man tells Wade he wants him. He has more clean kills than any three men in his battalion and he hasn’t even seen combat. The man says they have been watching him for a while. Wade asks what happens if he says no to which the man replies that he will go back to being dead… which is what he wanted. The choice is his; he has a second chance to either live or die. The man asks him what it’s going to be. Wade just stares at his reflection in the glass. The reflection staring back is of a teenage boy with blonde hair and a sad expression on his face.
Later on, a group of soldiers is massacred with gunfire. They collapse on the floor as blood drips down the wall behind them. Someone shouts out Wade’s name and he turns to see another group of soldiers enter the room. One of them smiles and tells him to leave some for the rest of them. Before he can do anything, Wade vomits over the man. He collapses on the floor as one of his squad rushes over and asks if he’s been hit. As he blacks out, Wade tells them he feels sick.
Wade wakes up once again in a hospital bed with the same man in a suit standing over him. The man welcomes him back and Wade realizes he’s back in the States. The man tells him of course he’s back; they wouldn’t leave him at the mercy of some third world medicine man. Wade’s their top scorer, only the best for him. A doctor enters and Wade asks what’s wrong with him. The man stalls and Wade demands he answers. The man tells him he has cancer, something like thirty-one tumors. The doctor corrects him and says thirty-four. Wade asks if they can cut them out and the man says they can’t without killing him.
Wade realizes that he’s done but the man says that isn’t necessarily true. They have been working with Canada on a project that may help him but it’s volunteer only. The choice is entirely his. Wade asks what kind of project and the man just smiles back at him.
(present)
Wade wakes up and looks at his shackled hand. The skin is partially missing and the bones and muscles underneath are exposed. He turns to see his reflection in some glass. He is strapped at a table that has been rotated into a near-vertical position. He screams as he sees his entire body is skinless and wires and tubes and protruding from his body. Shadows of doctors can be seen behind the glass.
Back in the present, Deadpool lies on the tarmac as his eyes glow brightly. He screams and sits bolt upright. Johnny is crouching down next to him and Deadpool punches him in the face. Johnny is thrown backwards and he lands on the tarmac too. Deadpool asks if he’s the Ghost Rider and Johnny replies that he is sometimes. Standing over Johnny, Deadpool says that he is Deadpool all of the time, and he doesn’t need to be reminded of it. Deadpool grabs him by the scruff of the neck and Johnny asks what he saw. Deadpool lets him go and says he saw nothing he hasn’t seen already. He then asks which way it is to town. Johnny points down the road and tells him its eight miles that way.
Deadpool asks if he can fix the bike with his powers. Johnny says no but he can fix it with his spanners. As Johnny works on his bike, Deadpool sits a little way off on a little ridge overlooking the nighttime desert. Johnny eventually walks up to him and tells him it’s fixed. Deadpool says that someone once told him it’s not the things they’ve done they regret but it’s the things they didn’t do. Johnny says that it’s about right and Deadpool goes silent for a few moments.
Deadpool gets up and asks Johnny if he came to kill him. Johnny tells him he didn’t come after him, it was the Ghost Rider. And no, if he wanted him dead then he would be. Deadpool asks if he thinks he deserves to die. As Johnny gets on his bike, he says that, based on what he knows about Deadpool, then yes he does. Deadpool thanks him for his honesty.
