BIOGRAPHY - page 17
Deadpool furiously tracked down Patient Zero for manipulating him, but ran across an equally 
furious Spider-Man. Spidey was livid at Wade not only for killing his "boss", but also for abusing their friendship. He wondered if anything between them had been real, or just part of Deadpool's set-up to get to Parker. Worse, Mephisto had left Spider-Man with an absence in his soul during the afterlife, tending him towards less moral and more aggressive behavior once he returned. Deadpool experienced almost the opposite effect -- by abandoning murder as a solution to his problems and experiencing a truly heroic change in his behavior (in part from Spider-Man's faith in him), Wade felt spiritually blessed for the first time in years. His scar tissue even vanished, restoring his normal looks, and Spidey speculated that Wade's outer ugliness might have always been a reflection of his lack of inner peace. Their encounter with Patient Zero proved to be inconclusive. The villain indicated his attack on them both was personal due to past slights, but he refused to reveal his true identity before teleporting away. [Spider-Man / Deadpool #8]
Spider-Man and Deadpool reconciled as a crime-fighting duo, but soon crossed paths with Patient Zero's ultimate creation: Itsy Bitsy. An obsessive woman genetically spliced with Wade and Spidey's DNA, she had all of their powers and an insane dedication to murdering criminals and evildoers in order to gain the affection of her "daddies." Patient Zero lost control of his experiment and was killed by Itsy Bitsy before he could reveal his true identity or how to stop her. [Spider-Man / Deadpool #9-10] Spider-Man took his responsibility towards Itsy Bitsy seriously and was furious at how she was killing in his name. As he began gravitating towards the final solution to end her threat, it was Deadpool who tried reining him in, to find another way. An increasingly unstable Spider-Man lost control in a training exercise and cut off Deadpool's head. Shiklah used the opportunity to arrange a parley between Deadpool and Patient Zero while his spirit was between worlds. Wade learned that Zero was his old pal Weasel, who had been killed months ago by Macho Gomez without Deadpool even knowing it. Weasel made a deal with Mephisto to be resurrected and seek revenge on Deadpool and Spider-Man, with the devil hoping to corrupt Spidey's soul by luring him into committing the act of murder. [Spider-Man / Deadpool #13-14]
When he recovered, Deadpool raced to stop Spider-Man from killing Itsy Bitsy. Spidey wouldn't be deterred, however, and had crafted a Plasma Breeder device powerful enough to decouple the atoms of Itsy Bitsy's body, overcoming her regeneration. To prevent Wade from interfering, Spider-Man even threatened Ellie's life. He claimed to have snuck into the Preston house and planted a jamming device that would shut down the technological invisibility preventing Deadpool's enemies from locating the residence. Wade rightly called his bluff, but even putting Ellie's safety on the 
table was a betrayal of their friendship. Deadpool also realized that Spider-Man intended to sacrifice himself to the Plasma Breeder while carrying Itsy Bitsy through it, as the absence in his soul was becoming too much to bear. Finally, when Spider-Man would not relent, Deadpool took matters into his own hands. He broke his own vow to stop killing and thrust Itsy into the Plasma Breeder himself, killing her so that Spider-Man wouldn't have to. This apparently broke Mephisto's spell, making Parker's soul whole again and leaving him filled with remorse over what he almost did. It also restored Wade's original scarred appearance. On shaky grounds, the two men nevertheless vowed to repair their friendship and continue forwards as best they could. [Spider-Man / Deadpool #17-18]
Deadpool continued to operate with the Avengers and as a mercenary out of the Schaefer Theatre. In some ways, he was considered the Avengers' ace-in-the-hole for their ongoing pursuit of the telepathic Red Skull, since his weird brain protected him from psychic manipulation. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #5-6] Deadpool took a case protecting a crooked Wall Street investor, primarily because his mob clients had hired Typhoid Mary to kill him. Wade still wanted revenge against Typhoid for raping him years ago, and put his client at risk in order to pursue his own goals. Finally, though, Deadpool recognized that Typhoid Mary was sick, not evil, and he couldn't punish the vicious Typhoid without hurting the innocent Mary. He joined up with Daredevil to get Mary into a mental health treatment facility. [Deadpool (5th series) #13]
When a S.H.I.E.L.D. black bag prison called Pleasant Hill went off the rails, the Avengers Unity Division joined up with Iron Man's Avengers to deal with the situation. After another round of "I can't believe Rogers made you an Avenger," Deadpool had had enough and told off Tony Stark. He said Rogers made him an Avenger, a flawed everyman of a vigilante, to remind guys like Iron Man that the Avengers weren't gods who were above the law. Wade was made an Avenger against his will by Cap, but he was tired of apologizing for it and was only trying to do his part. Deadpool proved more effective than most of the Avengers in dealing with Kobik, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sentient Cosmic Cube in the form of a young girl. His time with Ellie, as well as his own empathy with being treated as a tool or a weapon, allowed Deadpool to bond with Kobik, and convince her to restore the Avengers to their natural state. [Standoff: Assault on Pleasant Hill crossover]
Avengers business became bad for regular business, though. When Hank Pym returned from space bonded to his insane robotic creation Ultron, the team had doubts that he was really in 
control of himself. Sure enough, Ultron was revealed as the guiding intelligence behind the merger, and caused massive damage to the Schaefer Theatre in the fighting. At the Wasp's go-ahead, Deadpool was prepared to take the kill shot on Hank when an EMP brought down Ultron temporarily, believing Jan knew best what the real Hank would want in this situation. Cap ordered him to cease, however, resulting in only a warning shot. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #9-12]
Deadpool continued to operate with the Mercs for Money in his spare time, using them more like a team of mercenaries now instead of as solo Deadpool substitutes. They experienced a series of mishaps trying to secure a Rigellian Recorder, which supposedly had knowledge of the future. [Deadpool & the Mercs for Money (1st series) #1-5] The team also struggled with a job from Umbral Dynamics to locate and detain a variety of radiation-powered super-beings who were allegedly a danger to themselves and others. Deadpool's antics were increasingly grating on his employees, though. The Mercs saw the lack of research and planning before jobs as a consequence of Deadpool's carefree style. However, while he had a healing factor to cover all his mistakes, most of them didn't. After a series of missions for Umbral were mishandled or escalated by Deadpool beyond the needs of the job, the team was on the verge of walking out. [Deadpool & the Mercs for Money (2nd series) #1-3]
The final straw, however, came when the Mercs for Money performed crowd control services for Deadpool and the Avengers in a major battle with a Death Celestial. After Deadpool snubbed his 
team to go party with the Avengers in their tower, Solo and the Mercs decided to bail. They located Deadpool's stash in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey where he kept their exclusivity contracts and planned to destroy them. Wade followed, and the group got trapped in a bank vault for the night. The close quarters did nothing to resolve their issues and they had to lie to the authorities to get off the hook for all the chaos they caused. The Mercs were done. [Civil War II #1, Deadpool (5th series) #14-17]
The Avengers Unity Division also suffered during this period. Rogue and Cable were increasingly willing to bend or break the law in pursuit of a cure for M-Pox and stopping the poison clouds of Terrigen Mist from afflicting mutantkind. Deadpool was particularly sympathetic after learning that Ellie was X-gene positive, and would likely manifest as a mutant when she grew up. However, Steve Rogers was cracking down on any illegal behavior by Unity Squad members, putting Wade in the middle of the two factions. Unbeknownst to all, the real Steve Rogers had been replaced by a fascist doppelganger when his youth was restored in Pleasant Hill. This Captain America had his own agenda, and was willing to manipulate his fellow "heroes" to achieve it.
When Deadpool covered for Rogue and Cable's raid on a U.S. military installation experimenting with the T-Mists, Rogers found out. He declared the Unity Squad to be untrustworthy and 
unilaterally disbanded the team. Rogers was particularly harsh and personal towards Wade, laying it on thick how Deadpool was just a lowlife who abused his trust and never should have been an Avenger. He went so far as to call Wade a "failed experiment," the deepest of cuts due to his history with Weapon X. This dressing-down was so crushing that Deadpool was actually speechless for a few minutes afterwards. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #13-14]
Things continued to fall apart for Deadpool. He was still in the doghouse with Preston for using Ellie as bait for Madcap and causing trouble with the Mercs for Money. She began denying him visitation with his daughter and Wade could hardly disagree. He came home to the Monster Metropolis and found Shiklah sleeping around with a werewolf, leading to a no-holds-barred marital brawl between the husband and wife. It was clear their marriage had nearly run its course.
Wade found a surprising source of support in Rogue from the Avengers. She had come to respect his skills on the Unity Squad, and understood how tough it was to stand with them against Steve 
Rogers. Deadpool took Rogue into his confidence, showing her Ellie and revealing his daughter was a potential mutant. He asked Rogue to look after her should anything ever happen to him. [Deadpool (5th series) #17-18] Deadpool and Rogue were wallowing in their team's disbanding when Doctor Voodoo alerted them to a threat in Japan. This helped rally their spirits and, after the mission, the entire Unity Division team decided to remain together at the Schaefer, regardless of whether they had Captain America's permission or not. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #15-17]
Deadpool also went to work cleaning up his mess with Umbral Dynamics. He learned Umbral wasn't curing or rehabilitating the radioactive super-beings he brought them, but were instead torturing the captives and siphoning their power. Even without the Mercs for Money, Deadpool 
planned to infiltrate the corporation and rescue Negasonic Teenage Warhead and the others he turned over to them. Wade was surprised when Domino arrived with a NEW Mercs for Money team she assembled to help him out, including Machine Man, Gorilla Man, Hit-Monkey and Masacre from the first group. Umbral's plot to revive the radioactive entity known as the Presence was thwarted, and Negasonic joined Deadpool and the new Mercs. However, Domino insisted she was in charge of the field team, despite using Deadpool's resources and the Schaefer as their headquarters. Wade tried several times to reassert his authority, but to no avail. [Deadpool & the Mercs for Money (2nd series) #4-6]
Deadpool continued searching for leads on Madcap's whereabouts and tracked him to the Central Park Zoo. He was overpowered by the mad assistants Madcap had "boop"ed with his powers and sprayed with an unknown substance that left him blind and debilitated. Deadpool learned Madcap had bonded to someone close to him, incubating in their gut like a chest-burster while his own body regenerated from disintegration. Wade couldn't see the face of Madcap's host before he passed out, though, with Madcap laughing that he had already destroyed Deadpool, he just didn't know it yet.
Wade woke up on the autopsy table of the local morgue, with the authorities believing he was dead based on his injuries. After putting himself back together, Deadpool couldn't find any trace of Madcap. He got a text from Preston inviting him to family dinner, and he welcomed the idea to 
reconnect with Ellie considering how mad Preston had been at him recently. When he arrived, though, Preston said she never sent any text. They decided Ellie must have sent the message from Preston's phone, and Emily relented to let Wade stay for dinner. The nice family evening was interrupted by a call from Adsit. The morgue attendants were dead. Deadpool's body had been infected with a highly virulent and contagious bio-weapon. Sure enough, Wade saw the living members of the Preston family start bleeding and collapse before his eyes.
Emily Preston's LMD body made her immune, but Ellie, Terry, Terry Jr and the cabbie who drove Wade to dinner were in critical condition. Deadpool and Presbot tore up the city looking for criminal contacts who might have engineered the bio-weapon for Madcap. Time was running out for the infected, however, and no one at S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers had any ideas on a cure. Deadpool finally gave in to temptation and made a call he never expected to make. At some point in his past, Cable's clone Stryfe had reached out to Wade and given him his contact information. Stryfe traveled into the future to find a cure for the bio-weapon and returned it to the present. Ellie, the Prestons and the cab driver were saved. Deadpool now owed Stryfe four lives, which he would return to claim someday soon.
Wade didn't have time to consider the devil's bargain he just made. He and Preston calmed down enough to review the situation and realized Madcap must have sent the text that lured Deadpool to his family's house for dinner, not Ellie. Once they determined Madcap had spoofed Preston's phone, they tracked his signal to a Hydra splinter cell and found the killer clown infested in the guts of Bob, Agent of Hydra. Deadpool confronted Madcap with some history he had dug up on Madcap's original accident, questioning the clown's memory of his own past. This provoked Madcap into lunging at Wade, severing his parasitic connection to Bob. Madcap set off a series of explosions and escaped, leaving him free to haunt Wade and the Prestons. [Deadpool (5th series) #21-24]
Deadpool was more focused than ever on finding and killing Madcap. He took a shot at reconciliation with Shiklah on Valentine's Day, but Madcap interrupted their evening when he sent Wade a human heart with some chocolates. He tried to lure Deadpool into killing an innocent man dressed as Madcap, but Wade was too smart to fall for the lure. [Deadpool (5th series) #26] Despite the official disbanding of the Unity Squad, Captain America continued to seek Deadpool's assistance for S.H.I.E.L.D. and black ops business. This only began to happen more often after Maria Hill was deposed as S.H.I.E.L.D. director after the Pleasant Hill debacle, with Rogers taking her place in the global hierarchy. [Deadpool (5th series) #27]
Tensions finally boiled over between the human race and the Monster Metropolis. A beloved monster surfaced in the subway system and was shot dead by New Yorkers, prompting Shiklah to declare war on humanity. She uncovered the Sceptre of Manticore to summon all monsters to her side and tried to imprison Deadpool so he couldn't oppose her. Wade escaped and joined forces with Spider-Man to track down Dracula, believing the Lord of the Vampires was the only thing that could stand against Shiklah's forces at this point.
After retrieving Drac from Latvia, Deadpool and Spider-Man returned to New York and joined up with Blade and the Mercs for Money in opposing monster rule. Dracula's presence swayed the vampires from the influence of the Sceptre to fight the other monsters. He did betray his allies, of course, and renewed his offer of marriage to Shiklah in order to end the fighting between their 
forces before turning on the humans together. In the end, however, the spirit of Ben Franklin inspired the Legion of Monsters and the civilian population of the metropolis to cast aside monarchies all together. Shiklah was unwilling to force her leadership on her people, and decided to take her new husband into exile until the monsters of Earth wanted them to return. Shiklah and Wade shared their bed one last time before she declared their marriage over and moved on to the next phase of her life, and Deadpool to his. ['Til Death Do Us... crossover]