1,292The Inquisitor
Chapter 41
Hole in the Sky
A/N: As always, please read and review.
-Seattle, the Inquisitor's Secondary Base-
The news about the situation in Bludhaven had been blaring all late afternoon and into the early evening. Sure enough, the very instant that the Inquisitor had been made aware of this development, his mind was awhirl with thoughts on how this of all things had happened. He had trouble believing Klarion was behind this despite the Lord of Chaos's dark and conniving nature. Klarion had apparently been around causing trouble on the Earth for millennia, so why would he only open a Warp Rift now of all times? True, the ways of the Archenemy were inscrutable, but this felt more complicated than that.
Then, in an instant, Dante remembered a certain Sorcerer from the Justice League who dared to ask about the Warp and spoke of the power he sensed within it. The damned heretic must have decided to ignore his warning and study the Warp in secret. Fury laced through every fiber in the Inquisitor's body. He would slaughter Zatara for his heresy and the entire Justice League if they tried to interfere.
The Inquisitor turned his attention from the TV even as he noted that the military was, at the very least, putting up a heavily armed cordon around the city in an effort to contain the situation. However, he knew that given the capabilities that the US military possessed and that of the denizens of the Warp, it was a hopeless gesture at best. Not to mention that there hadn't been any footage of what was happening inside the city either from news outlets or videos that would typically be swarming the internet at this point.
It was likely that the Warp Tear was responsible for this, as judging by the screaming and other noises coming from the city, there were still some survivors trapped within. It was a pity that they would need to die regardless. Everyone in that city was exposed to the warping taint of Chaos, and they needed to be dealt with. Absolute containment needed to be established, no matter the cost.
Of course, Dante was not so stupid or arrogant as to think he could do this alone. Daemonic incursions, even ones as relatively nascent as this, always required massive military intervention. He would need help, and he knew precisely where to find it. The only question was whether or not his overture would work.
The Inquisitor grabbed Amanda Waller's PDA and activated it. There was a long pause as the machine booted up and began contacting the government agent. For what felt like an eternity, Dante stared at a seemingly blank screen.
At last, Amanda Waller's face appeared on the screen. Her countenance was dire, and considering the seriousness of the circumstances, it was completely understandable. "Inquisitor, I assume that this has to do with the hole in the sky?"
Dante didn't mince words any more than she did. "Correct, and from what I've gathered, all contact has since been lost with anyone in the city. I will not mince words with you. I know exactly what this is, and you should know that it is only the barest taste of the horror to come. If it is not stopped quickly, then every man, woman, and child in this world will become little more than playthings for horrors beyond most mortal comprehension."
If this had been any other time, with any other government official, Dante knew that his warnings would have been dismissed. She seemed to be considering it, however, and Dante decided to continue, "Have you already sent scout teams into the city?"
She looked up at him and cocked an eyebrow, "We have…" she answered hesitantly. "Can I safely assume that you have lost contact with all of them and that shortly before losing contact, they reported encounters with entities that could only be described as…daemonic, or perhaps they simply all went completely mad?"
That seemed to get Waller's attention. "All right, so how do you know about all of this exactly?"
The Inquisitor knew that he'd have to reveal some information, but he'd keep it brief: "I'm not from this version of Earth. More specifically, I'm from either an alternate reality or the future; I haven't figured out which yet. Either way, I'm part of an organization that has spent the last ten thousand years fighting these abominations."
The look on Waller's usually schooled face all but screamed: 'Well, it's not the strangest thing I've ever seen happen.'
"So how do we stop it then?" She asked, which allowed Dante to let himself relax at least somewhat. She was at least listening; now, he just had to convince her of the necessity of the actions they would need to take.
"We will need to kill the one that is channeling the tear between worlds; there is no other alternative but to kill them. Of course, we know that the League will lack the stomach to do what needs to be done."
Waller was certainly in agreement on that one, and Dante continued, "I advise against using any high-powered bombs or nuclear ordinance at this juncture. Even if the skies were clear, the resulting damage would be catastrophic. The best-case scenario resulting from this act would be that the resulting surge of immaterial energies would quite literally tear the planet in half."
That almost shocked Waller as she visualized just such an outcome. "Dare I ask what the worst-case scenario would be?"
Dante let out a bated breath, "The worst-case scenario would result in the portal becoming even more unstable and quite literally pulling the planet into the reality where these entities reside. If you want any approximation to what that might entail, imagine a quite literal hell on earth. We also have no idea how long the world would be in that place; it could be a day, or it could be for a literal eternity."
For a brief second, Waller's typically controlled expression slipped, and she almost looked afraid. Good. This meant that Dante's words had the desired effect. "But we can prevent either of those outcomes by killing the one responsible, who, judging by what I can tell, is in the center of the city."
"What do you suggest?" asked Waller.
"Do not needlessly throw men into the meat grinder; the militaries of this world are completely and utterly outmatched by what is coming. All you will do is provide fresh meals for these entities. It would be best if you threw up a cordon around the city. Position as many troops, as many guns, and as many tanks, artillery, and whatever else you might have in front of it, and use other neighboring cities as secondary fallback areas if necessary. For an offensive action, I recommend sending in strike teams comprised of the best yet most expendable assets you have on hand."
Waller almost smiled at that. "I think I have a few of those that I can use."
Dante nodded; now came the tricky part. He knew how many balked at what came next when it came to containing a Chaos incursion, but it needed to be done. He'd start with the easy part: "These entities are also able to draw power from any who know the nature of their existence. You need to keep the news from getting any information from inside the city, or they will become more difficult to contain."
"We can do that easily. Besides, whatever this is knocked out, the cell towers immediately after it started. We managed to get a handful of radio transmissions, but that was all. We'll start jamming all transmissions coming from the city save for military frequencies." Well, there was something good to say about that. At least the images of the Daemons pouring out from the Warp wouldn't become a widespread topic on the internet.
The hard part came next: "Have there been any survivors who have managed to escape the city?" Dante asked. Waller cocked an eyebrow, unsure as to where the Inquisitor was going with this. "Only a handful, a little less than a few dozen…why?"
The Inquisitor let out a bated breath and stated, "What I am about to tell you is something I do not make lightly. Everyone from that city, both living and dead, must be destroyed and their bodies burned to ashes."
It seemed as though Waller had suspected that Dante was going to say something like this, and her face hardened considerably. "You're asking me to murder American citizens based on your word alone."
"I know how this sounds, but the entities that have been brought forth through that rift are able to completely alter the minds of those around them into worshipping them, if not outright possessing their bodies. I'm sorry, but this must be done if we have any hope of fully containing this threat."
Waller still didn't look convinced, and Dante sighed. He reached the back of his helmet and pressed a small button. Air hissed out of the sides of his helm, and with both hands, he removed it. Waller's eyebrows shot upwards, surprised by the action, but she didn't say anything and instead waited for him to speak.
"Waller, I am not exaggerating when I say that if any half-measures are taken, any mercy given, then every man, woman, and child on this planet will be begging for the sweet relief of death by the time it is over. If that is not enough reason for you to do what needs to be done, then I have one last bargaining chip—the secret identities of several members of the Justice League. As an olive branch, I will tell you that one of them is that Batman is really Bruce Wayne."
The government agent seemed interested in this yet was still reluctant to go through with killing her countrymen. "Are you sure that this is the only way to stop this?" she asked, her face completely serious.
Dante lowered his head somewhat. "If there was any other way, I swear I would be using it right now."
Waller let out a bated breath, "All right, I'll do what I can and start sending in some of our best yet most expendable assets as strike teams; I'm assuming you're heading into that mess, too?" Dante nodded. The ARGUS member gave a small smile and said, "Then good luck to you."
"And you as well."
With that call done, the Inquisitor knew that this was the most straightforward conversation he would have today as he opened up a communications channel to the rest of the Team. "Aqualad, is the team at the cave?" There was a pause as Dante heard the reply, "Good, get everyone to Seattle immediately…yes, I know exactly what is going on; get to Seattle now!"
-Seattle, Alleyway-
When the Team received the call from the Inquisitor, the majority of them weren't entirely sure what was going on or why he wanted them to get to Seattle immediately. Frankly, they thought that he would be right at the Cave before any of them even got there, given his dedication to his duties and all that. Instead, when they arrived after hearing about the hole in the sky and the insanity going on in Bludhaven, they found that not only was he not there, but that he had contacted them and ordered that they all head to Seattle.
While they were confused and wanted to ask what the hell was going on, they went through the Zeta-Tube to Seattle without much complaint. Of course, they speculated with one another about what was going on while they headed to the city. The very instant that the group emerged from the Zeta-Tube, they found the Inquisitor waiting right in front of them.
Kid Flash all but jumped when he saw their leader waiting for them, not expecting him to be right there. "Jeezus, man, don't scare me like that." The Inquisitor ignored the mutant and, instead, he looked at them and said, "Follow me." It wasn't a request, and they all knew it.
"So, Inquisitor, what's going on-" Aqualad didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. "Later, follow me now." He stated curtly, leaving no room for argument.
While they were a little miffed about not getting the answers they wanted, they didn't complain too much, aside from a few mutterings about what might be going on. The only one who was completely silent throughout the whole thing was Miss Martian, who knew precisely what was happening. While she kept herself as stoic as she could, she was utterly terrified about what this meant for every living thing in the world.
He led them to a nearby van and gestured for them all to get inside. While somewhat reluctant to go in without at least some answers as to what was going on, they did as they were told and boarded the vehicle. From there, it was a relatively short drive to an area by an abandoned subway line. The Inquisitor led them out and into the subway line.
At that point, Robin expressed everyone's thoughts and said, "So where exactly are we going?"
The Inquisitor stopped in the middle of the abandoned tunnel and turned to face the group, and they all simultaneously wondered if Robin shouldn't have kept his mouth shut. "We are going to one of my bases. But first…" he trailed off and looked directly at Zatanna, who felt as though she was staring at a very angry predator.
Zatanna didn't even have time to utter so much as a single syllable to ask what was going on before the Inquisitor shoved her against the wall of his base. He pressed one hand against her mouth, preventing her from using her magic while placing a blade up against her throat. "Attempt to move, speak, or use any of your sorcery, and I promise it will be the last thing you ever do."
The first one to actually react to the seeming madness going on in front of them was Artemis. "Inquisitor, what are you doing?!" She demanded.
The Inquisitor didn't turn from the other sidekicks even as they drew their weapons, his attention entirely on his target.
"My duty." He stated in an ice-cold tone before elaborating, "Some time ago, her father approached me, asking about the Warp and how to use its power. I warned him against attempting any experimentation due to its corrupting and destructive nature. What is happening over Bludhaven right now is the infancy of a tear in reality, one that can only be done through sorcerous means." The Inquisitor didn't even move his head as he bored into the terrified eyes of a very possibly soon-to-be-dead traitor.
"I am going to start asking you questions now, Zatanna, and you will answer by blinking once for 'yes' and twice for 'no.' Miss Martian will scan your thoughts. Should you lie even once, I will slit your throat."
"What the hell?! You can't just-" Kid Flash started but was cut off by the Inquisitor, who utterly ignored him. "Did your father begin acting abnormally starting two months ago?"
There was a moment's hesitation as Zatanna looked up at the death-masked Inquisitor, eyes wide, before she finally blinked once. "She's telling the truth," stated Miss Martian.
"Very well. Did you have any idea what your father was experimenting with?"
There were two blinks that time.
"Did you at any time think he may have been experimenting with something that might be dangerous?
Another two blinks.
"Did you sense anything that might be abnormally wrong with your father?"
Another two blinks.
The questioning continued for another few minutes, and each time, Zatanna answered truthfully and didn't give off any sign of corruption. It was still more than possible that she was fooling M'gann with her words. Still, for now, he would need to keep a close watch over her.
The Inquisitor removed the blade from the girl's throat but didn't sheathe it. Then he removed his hand from her throat. "Know this: if I suspect, even for a second, that you become corrupted witch, I will end you without mercy."
"Is there a reason that you're threatening to kill her?!" Robin demanded. "Because, in case you hadn't noticed, we don't-"
He didn't have a chance to finish his lecture when the Inquisitor turned to look at him, glaring behind his helm. "Where I come from, a daemonic incursion such as this is not only a planetary threat but potentially a sector-level threat. Some of the more powerful daemons can cause the populations of entire worlds they tread upon to go completely insane or turn into fanatically loyal servants simply due to their mere presence. Servants who would happily torture their friends and families to death, laughing all the while in the name of their new masters! There are at least thousands of such lesser entities in that city alone, and each one is capable of causing untold destruction if left to their own devices for too long."
Everyone became more than uneasy as the Inquisitor's words truly started to sink in. "W-what about my dad? Can't we do something?" Zatanna asked.
"The forces of Chaos leave nothing to save; the Daemon is using your father's corpse as nothing more than a puppet, and the only way to close that rift is to terminate the one keeping it open."
"But there has to be another-" started Aqualad, only to be interrupted by an unexpected source, Miss Martian.
"There is no other way!" she exclaimed, almost angry at the utter denial her friends and teammates were in regarding the situation. "The Imperium has fought these things for ten thousand years. Ten. Thousand. Years! Don't you think that if there were another way, they would have found one long ago and that he'd be using it right now?!" She demanded, her voice filled with barely restrained fury at the sheer presumption that her teammates were showing.
Everyone looked at her, shocked by what she was saying. "You knew about these things too. You saw them in the Inquisitor's memories." Robin stated having been one of the first people to recover from the shock of M'gann of all people coming to the Inquisitor's defense.
'Maybe we shouldn't be surprised, given everything that's happened,' thought Aqualad.
M'gann looked hesitant, but eventually, she nodded after the Inquisitor gave her a nod. "Much of it, and he's absolutely right. I'm sorry, but this isn't something that the Justice League can fight."
"What's the big deal? The Justice League have fought big threats like this before; they can-"
It was at that point that the Inquisitor took over again. "No, they haven't. No one in this world has, save for myself." He stated it with complete and utter finality. "During our ten millennia-long war with Chaos, we learned the hard way that half-measures and acts of mercy would only be met with our species' corruption and eventual destruction."
The others did remember what they had been told about the Imperium and the foes it faced on a daily basis in the universe that the Inquisitor called home. "There were times when it was determined that the only way to end a daemonic incursion that had nearly claimed a world was simply to deny them their prize by destroying the world."
Everyone seemed horrified at this, and at this point, Artemis pointed out something that would generally have been quite obvious: "Then why didn't you tell us? We could have prevented this and-"
"Doomed us all sooner." Dante countered calmly, "What is that supposed to mean?" Demanded Kid Flash.
"What I mean is precisely that. The reason that the knowledge of these entities is so well guarded is because any and all concessions made to them feed their power. Even knowing they exist is enough for them to gain strength, and as more become aware or investigate it, the easier it is to corrupt the minds of mortals. And it is more than capable of doing so; there have been countless people who have been seen as beacons of purity who completely and utterly fall under its sway, and when that happens, it cannot be undone. You would have damned us all by allowing this knowledge to spread; its taint to take root everywhere."
There was a long silence as the Inquisitor's words truly began to sink in, as they realized just how bad things were going to get.
"W-what about my dad? Is there anything we can…?" Zatanna trailed off even as the Inquisitor glanced at her and said, "That thing out there is not your father. Your father is dead; what is out there now is a daemon using his corpse as a puppet and using it to unleash hell upon the world. When we confront that thing, you won't be looking at your father; you're looking at the thing that killed him."
Zatanna looked at the ground at that and almost seemed to be holding back tears.
"We must keep moving; there is equipment that we will need for the upcoming battle."
The Inquisitor led them for a while along the old metal tracks into the old abandoned subway line until they reached what was once some kind of maintenance facility. It had been renovated recently, though, with several portable generators, computers, and other electronic equipment. In one of the corner areas, though, was something that really stood out to the group. There were what looked like some living quarters, and there was a large bookshelf that was stacked to the gills with various books.
Curious as to what their leader was reading in his spare time, almost everyone on the team started to make their way over to the bookshelf and took a quick look at what their leader considered good literature. Much to their surprise and mild disappointment, there wasn't anything genuinely esoteric, unique, or even racy in the titles. In fact, most of the books were classical literature, like Shakespeare's and other famous historical writers.
The vast majority, though, were just plain history books, ones that anyone could find just about anywhere. In fact, some of them recognized the volumes as textbooks from some of their schools.
"You've been reading history textbooks?" asked Kid Flash as he examined one of the books in his hands, the title of which read "World History Vol. 1" on the cover. The Inquisitor looked over as he grabbed a crate with a two-headed eagle symbol emblazoned on the top.
"Do you have any idea how much knowledge was lost during the Age of Strife? The Imperium knows next to nothing about the Dark Age of Technology and absolutely nothing of what came before. What you take for granted, we lost long ago. In fact, if I were to return to the Imperium tomorrow with these books and their authenticity were to be confirmed, those in power would be tripping over themselves to offer me lordships over whole worlds, if not indeed whole sectors of space, just to glance at a single passage from one of these books."
Kid Flash's eyes all but bugged out of his head as he turned from looking at the Inquisitor and back to the cover of the book before putting it back. Of course, there were similar reactions from the rest of the group, and it was easy to understand why that was the case. Sure, they had been told about what had happened to humanity during the Age of Strife, but it hadn't truly hit them until now.
Almost everything that they took for granted, the Imperium and humanity as a whole, had been lost a long time ago. This was a dark and rather humbling thought.
They were broken out of their thoughts when the Inquisitor opened one of the cases he had brought out of storage. Inside was a rather bulky gun with what appeared to be a series of metal grills running down its length. There were even what looked like vents on the sides of the barrel. All in all, it looked like some strange weapon from a science fiction movie. Then he pulled out another similar weapon, one that looked almost exactly like the first, only it was more like an oversized pistol.
"What are those?" asked Superboy. "Ryza Pattern Plasma Guns. They will be far more effective against daemons than anything you are carrying." He turned to face the rest of the group, who were looking at him with odd expressions.
"…Okay, and where exactly did you get those?" asked Troia. There was a slight pause before the Inquisitor answered, "I managed to sequester some supplies away from the crash site of my Stormraven before the mercenaries or the League arrived."
While they were curious as to how in the hell the Inquisitor had managed such a feat, they didn't have the time to question it. Especially as he opened yet another crate, this one containing dozens of grenades, he clipped four of them to his belt and then looked at the rest of the group. "Each of you should grab at least two of these; there's a four-second fuse and a lethal range of 12 meters."
"Wait, we can't just—" Robin started but stopped when he saw that M'gann was already grabbing a quartet of explosives without so much as missing a beat. She noticed the rest of her friends giving her odd looks and elaborated, "Most of the weapons we have aren't going to do us much good. If we want to have any hope of surviving this, we'll need better weapons."
The rest of the Team looked at one another and, with no small amount of reluctance, picked up a pair of grenades. Even Superboy, who had once been reluctant at best to use any of the equipment that the Team was now using, got himself an entire bandolier of the explosives, especially after he was told that it was more than likely that the Daemons would be able to cut straight through his near invulnerable skin given their otherworldly and magical nature.
Once everyone had finished acquiring some grenades for themselves, the Inquisitor looked over at the rest of the group and asked, "Do any of you have firearms experience?" As he began to open another weapon crate.
This one contained a series of rifles that, while closely resembling human weapons, clearly weren't of any make on Earth, or at least not this version of Earth. The Inquisitor pulled out one of the rifles and held it up for everyone to see. "This is a Ryza pattern Hotshot Lasgun but is more commonly called a Hellgun. Most patterns are connected to backpack-mounted power cells. Still, this particular variant can use specialized power cells that work as easily, though they don't have as much ammunition as the backpack. It's a more efficient and powerful variant of the standard issue lasgun issued to the common soldiery."
Everyone looked at the Inquisitor blankly as he held the weapon in his arms before placing it up against the wall and pulling out a few power cells for the gun. "Now, I'll ask again. Do any of you have firearms experience?" The Inquisitor asked as his skull helm looked directly at Artemis.
The girl's eyes widened a fraction as she wondered, 'How does he know.'
-ARGUS, Classified Facility-
When Floyd "Deadshot" Lawton woke up, he had a massive headache and a stinging pain in the back of his neck. Instinctively, he reached and ran his hand down the back of his neck to find a small bandage placed there. It was then that he started to take in his surroundings. He was in yet another grey cell, this one larger than the one he had been staying in for what felt like an eternity after his botched contract with the League of Shadows. He also noticed several others in the room with him. Some of whom he had worked with before, others only heard of, and some he never wanted to meet.
The first one that caught his attention was a certain Russian mercenary and hitman, Anatoli Knyazev, AKA KGBeast. Just about everyone in his circles knew about the guy. Even among the more…enthusiastic hired guns, Anatoli was especially bloodthirsty and direct when it came to his work, especially with all the cybernetics he had put into him.
A woman was starting to stir as well, this one with pale white skin and long blue hair. Deadshot recognized her as Louise Lincoln, also known as Killer Frost. She'd been imprisoned for a wide variety of crimes, which included murder-for-hire and armed robbery until a certain green-clad archer caught her.
Another was the girlfriend/accomplice of the Joker himself, Harley Quinn. Though it was odd seeing her without all the makeup or the clown outfit, she was still recognizable. What she was doing here instead of being locked up in Arkham Deadshot had no clue.
A groan brought Deadshot to look over at a red-haired man with muttonchops who was already picking himself up off of the ground. "Bloody hell, who spiked the damned drinks? I've got a hangover the size of Aus over here," he said in a thick Australian accent. Deadshot knew the man as George "Digger" Harkness, a bank robber that the news had called "Captain Boomerang" who had been captured months ago by the Flash.
The last three were the only ones who weren't wearing prison uniforms. This told Deadshot that they were probably captured recently. The only one he did recognize among the bunch was Maxie Zeus, another one of Batman's rogues who thought that he was literally the god Zeus. One of the ones he didn't recognize wore a weird outfit that reminded Deadshot of those Goth Rockers that his daughter told him about from time to time. The other had a completely white uniform that was covered in differently colored polka dots of all things.
"Does anyone know what we are doing here?" asked KGBeast, his voice a mix between crushing rocks and a low growl. There was a round of negatives on that one, though there was one of them that had their own unique response. Maxie Zeus dusted off his toga and scoffed. "No matter the reason, no one can hold the true King of the Gods for long."
Many of the other captives gave the delusional idiot flat looks. The only one to truly address this was Captain Boomerang, who spoke in a voice positively dripping with sarcasm: "Right then, why don't you go and use your mystical godly powers to just leave, eh?"
Maxie Zeus seemed to miss the sarcasm from the robber completely and instead nodded, "And I so I shall. Behold, lowly mortals!" He called out, and Deadshot could see everyone else wondering whether it would be more interesting to see the insane moron get his ass handed to him by whatever security precautions this place had or just risk the ire of said security to snap his neck right then and there.
They didn't need to wait long as the metal door leading into the room leading into the room slid open, and a very overweight dark-skinned woman stepped into the room, flanked by four guards wearing gasmasks and an unmasked man with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes wearing combat fatigues.
What Deadshot noticed that most of the others didn't was that neither the woman nor her associates were wearing anything that could be used to identify them. The only people who didn't wear anything to identify themselves like that were civilians or black ops, and it was blatantly apparent that none of them were civilians.
The door remained open, but none of the prisoners attempted to make a break for it. They were crooks, but they weren't stupid, and the guards looked more than ready to pour lead into their bodies until they stopped moving if they tried anything stupid. Not to mention the fact that none of the super-powered criminals hadn't attempted to use their powers yet, it made Deadshot wonder if their powers were being dampened by whatever was put in their necks.
"My name is Amanda Waller, and I'm here to indoctrinate you convicts into the US Special Forces, more specifically, an off-the-books strike team simply designated Task Force: X. If you succeed, then I'll shave time off each of your sentences."
The idiot wearing the polka-dot outfit gulped and asked, "And if we fail?"
Amanda Waller's expression remained neutral: "Then you all die. Does anyone else have any stupid questions?"
"Yeah, what's in our necks? Some tracking device?" Asked Killer Frost.
At that, Waller's face took on a sinister smile. "As a matter of fact, yes." A screen descended from the ceiling and displayed an X-ray of the human body; it showed a device roughly the size of a rice grain in the base of each of their skulls: "And a powerful nanotech explosive. Run away, get yourselves captured, disobey an order, and I'll blow your heads clean off."
There was a smug, condescending laugh that echoed throughout the relatively small room. Everyone turned to look over at Maxie Zeus, who was giving everyone an arrogant smirk as he stood up, hands on hips. "Even if this pathetic attempt at a bluff was, in fact, a genuine threat to our lives, one cannot kill the King of the Gods!"
Waller simply cocked a brow before stepping aside. "Go on then. Try me." She challenged. The three soldiers stepped aside as well, only farther away as if stepping out of a splash zone.
Though he missed the obvious signs playing out in front of him, Maxie Zeus swaggered his way out of the room and into the hallway. At first, it seemed as though nothing had happened with Maxie Zeus, who turned around with a triumphant smirk on his face as if to try and rub how superior he was into his captors' faces. However, neither Waller nor the other guards reacted to this display.
Then, just as quickly as Maxie Zeus' look of smug victory came over his face, it turned into one of utter terror. A slight beeping noise came from the back of his neck. Maxie Zeus looked over at Amanda Waller, whose face was completely blank. The supposed 'King of Gods' looked like he was about to say something to her. Whether it was to beg, plead, or something else, none would ever know because just mere moments after that, everything above his head no longer existed.
There was a loud bang, like a gun going off, and suddenly, the walls and floor of the hallway were painted with the blood, brains, and skull fragments of what was once a deluded idiot who thought he was Zeus.
"Anyone else?" Asked Waller, but silence was the only answer she received. "Good, now you will all be working directly under Colonel Flagg. An order from him is an order from me; if he dies, so do all of you."
Everyone nodded or gave some variation of an affirmative. "Now, as for your mission, there's a situation being caused by a madman in Bludhaven." The screen changed from an x-ray of everyone's necks to a map of the city of Bludhaven.
Upon hearing the name of the city, Harley piped up with a small smile, "Ah, Bludhaven, that's where me and my puddin' went for our first anniversary. It was so romantic when we blew up all those banks." The clown's girlfriend had an almost love-struck look on her face.
Waller ignored Harley Quinn's comment and continued, "Your job is to get into the city and assist Colonel Flagg and his unit in terminating the target."
Deadshot spoke for everyone when he asked: "When do we start?"
If doing this meant that he could get out early and see his daughter again, he'd walk through hell itself.
Little did any of them know just how much of an understatement that would prove to be.
To be continued.