I do not own any part of DC or the Suicide Squad. All characters belong to their respective owners. OC's are either mine or a friend of mine's used with permission.

Episode 1: The Origin

Iraq, 2003

Captain Amanda Waller saluted her commanding officer in the ops tent. "Colonel Keyes, sir!"

Keyes gave her a salute back. "Captain. I have a mission for you."

"Sir?"

"It's an off-the-books job. No word gets out about it. You do what needs to be done, and get out. Noone even thinks of it again."

Waller nodded. "What's the op sir?"

Keyes handed her a folder. "We've had a tip-off that there's some illegaly owned ex-Soviet nuclear warheads buried in a village west of Fallujah. Blow them up."

Waller looked at the front of the folder. It read: "Team 7" in red stencil letters.

"Inside are the cadidates for your team. I believe you'll find them to your liking."

Waller nodded as she flipped through the files. "Okay. I can live with this."

Mission Briefing Tent, 2 days later

Waller stepped into the tent and the sergeant near the door snapped straight and saluted. "A ten-hut!"

Soldiers in desert fatigues stood up from the benches. The sergeant stepped in front of Waller. "Staff-Sergeant Lawrence Duren, ma'am. We're glad to have you."

"Cut the bullshit, sergeant." Waller nodded to him and walked past him, taking a stance with her hands on her hips. "I'm Captain Amanda Waller. I'll be your new commanding officer for the next mission. You will follow my orders, and only mine that I pass down through the ranks. Is that understood?"

The men nodded and muttered.

"I can't here you!"

The squad snapped to attention. "YES MA'AM!"

"Good. You will now be known as Team 7. Now to know your names." She pulled out a clipboard. "Higgins, Dean M!"

A man with long hair and a sneer raised his hand. "Present."

"Lance, Kurt!"

Brown-haired man with a large combat knife. "Present."

"Rock, Franklin!"

Blonde guy with scars and his sleevers ripped off. "Here!"

"Cash, Cole!"

A soldier wearing a red mask with black stripes over the eyes. "Here."

"Unknown Soldier!"

One with a bullet-proof vest on and bandages wrapped around his face. "Ma'am."

"Wilson, Slade J!"

Dark-haired man with a beard and cigar. "Accounted for."

"And Staff-Sergeant Duren." Waller nodded at the black man. "You are now Team 7, an off-the-books government strike team hand-picked for this specific mission."

"Hand-picked my ass, lady." The Unknown Soldier pointed to his face. "These is from you! Your Q-course!"

"And I apologize for that. But you are the only ones to pass."

Higgins looked around. "You mean everyone else flunked?"

"Or died."

Cash made a puking sound. Duren grimaced. "What's the mission, captain?"

Waller took an "at-ease" position. "We have been tasked by Colonel Keyes to locate and destroy ex-Soviet warheads buried in a village west of Fallujah."

Cole raised his hand. "Uh, Captain? How the hell did they bury those big-ass missiles? I mean, one would take up the whole village. Right?"

Higgins slapped him in the back of the head. "Warheads, man, not missiles. The nose cones!"

"Ooooh."

Waller restrained herself from facepalming. Lance giggled and Wilson shook his head. She continued. "We're leaving tomorrow at oh-seven-hundred hours. Be prepared."

With that, she walked out of the tent, towards her own barracks.

0800 hours, the next day

Waller watched the village as the helicopter flew over it several times, looking for a spot where nobody looked like they would blow it to shit. "There's fine."

The helo landed and her team piled out. The civilians watched them. Some looked fearful. Others' eyes were filled with hate. The kids stopped playing to let the myriad of strange Americans pass through. Duren began asking the people in Arabic about the warheads. Waller watched most of them shaking their heads. "Wilson, Cash, search the right side of the street. Lance, Rock, you take the left side."

The troopers peeled off to their respective sides. Waller, the Unknown Soldier, Higgins and Duren stayed together, trying to get info from the natives. Rock handed one of the kids a piece of a candy bar. Duren shrugged at Waller. "Noone knows, or wants to tell us."

Waller picked one of the men up by his shirt and yelled into his face. "Where are the warheads?!"

Higgins put a hand on her arm. "Captain, maybe they don't know."

"Shut the fuck up, Higgins!" Waller elbowed him in the stomach and turned around. "I've lost good men to civilians who 'didn't know'. So don't give me any bullshit unless I ask you to!"

Higgins quieted and seemed lost for a second, before reassuming his "ready" stance, slowly scanning the area for hostiles.

Waller let the quite obviously scared man down and turned away as Duren began comforting him in his own language. Cash came running out of the thrid house he and Wilson had entered. "Ma'am! Ma'am! You have to see this!"

The group followed him at a jog into the house. Wilson was staring into an open trapdoor in the floor. "It's an elevator."

"It's an elevator ma'am," Waller corrected him. "We're going down."

Wilson lept down into it and helped Waller down, followed by Cash, Higgins, Unknown Soldier and Duren. Waller put a hand to her earpiece."Lance, Rock. Get across the street ASAP and watch this house. Nobody in or out."

"Roger." Lance pocketed a golden ring from the table and looked towards Rock. "Hey c'mon man. The Wall wants us over there now."

"Hang on, hang on." Rock smiled at the couple they had forced into the corner and held up a golden tooth he'd pried from the man's mouth. "Thanks."

He walked up to Lance. "Let's go."

Then the building exploded.

The team felt the rumble as the elevator traveled downwards. Waller looked up. "What was that?"

Duren looked around in concern. The other soldiers were just as confused. Wilson frowned. "IED maybe?"

"IED doesn't make that big a ripple." Cash shook his head. "That was some hardcore TNT."

"Damn straight." The Unknown Soldier sighed. "I think Rock and Lance just met their fate."

Waller shot him a look that could've stopped a tank in it's tracks. Duren swallowed as the elevator stopped. The doors opened and the team stepped out, gasping in awe. Higgins somewhat grinned. "Wow."

The whole "basement", if you will, though it was more like a compound, was gigantic. It must've taken up twice the area of the village. And in it, was more than fifteen ex-Soviet warheads.

Waller was dumb-founded. "Okay team. Stay unnoticed and plant the explosives. Noone screws up."

They began to move forward. Higgins went with Cash and Wilson with the Unknown Soldier. Waller followed Duren, drawing her pistol as the sergeant took a block of C4 from his bag and placed it on the huge cone-shaped warhead. "How long ma'am?"

"Ten minutes."

Wilson watched the Unknown Soldier put some of his payload on a warhead, before moving to another one. "Hurry it up, man."

He gave Wilson a look and continued to set up the bombs. Higgins whistled quietly and turned to Cash. "Hey man. Why don't we bug out?"

Cash stared at him. "Why?"

"Well, see, Waller's got a rep for losing her men on ops like this." Higgins managed to hold back a smirk even as he spread the rumor.

"How?" Cash's veil-like mask swayed as he leaned in closer to his comrade.

"Like this!" Higgins gripped him by the back of his collar and threw him forward out into the open floorspace. The several Iraqi guards (or so they seemed to be) turned, shouting in a language that was not Arabic and began firing towards the American. Cash screamed as his body was riddled with bullets.

Waller heard the gunshots and tired to look around. "The hell? Who the fuck's shooting?"

Wilson and the Unknown Soldier looked up. "Holy shit! It's started."

They popped out from behind the warhead and began firing at the guards. Bullets spanged off the railings. The non-Iraqis shouted back and forth at each other as the Americans returned fire. Waller swore and fired several times, moving to behind another warhead.

Higgins grinned and raised his hands high. "I give up! I give up!"

Waller snarled and fired twice at him. "Fucker!"

The guard "capturing" Higgins, knocked him down and took the bullets in his arm. Firing his AKM wildly with one arm, he helped Higins up and retreated as a mechanical door hissed open and allowed them to withdraw.

Duren put a few rounds into a guard with his M4A1 and backed towards her. "Captain! Let's go before the bombs blow us to hell!"

Wilson and the Unknown Soldier were moving steadily back too. More guards were moving out of the door and firing at them. The Unknown Soldier shouted and his arm flopped, allowing his rifle to fall to the ground. Wilson slapped the man's sidearm into his hand and the Unknown Soldier fired three times with his left hand. Wilson watched him take another bullet, this time in the knee, and grabbed him by the arms, dragging him towards Waller.

Regrouping behind the warhead, Duren knelt to dress the Unknown Soldier's wounds while Wilson and Waller provided covering fire. "You're gonna be alright, man!"

The Unknown Soldier coughed up blood and grinned slightly. "I better be! Or I'm sueing your ass, sarge!"

Duren laughed. Then, a bullet splashed into his back, just above the top of his kevlar vest and he fell backwards, his eyes looking skywards. The Unknown Soldier frowned and pulled himself along the floor to where Wilson and Waller were. "Let's go!"

Waller picked him up by the arm and began running towards the elevator. "Wilson, let's go! There isn't much time!"

Wilson slowly backed up, following their path. "Right behind you!"

Waller set the Unknown Soldier on the floor of the elevator. "Wilson, let's go! We got like seven minutes!"

Wilson almost made it to the elevator, when a guard's round whacked him in the chest, and he slumped over. Waller swore and shot her pistol, franticly tapping the buttons on the panel. The armored metal door shut and the lift began to go upwards.

Waller leaned against the wall of the steel box and breathed heavily. "Jesus. Now we have to get out of here. This whole village is going up."

The Unknown Soldier nodded and coughed up more blood. "I...I might not make it."

Waller shook her head. "Yes you will!"

The elevator stopped and Waller threw open the top, allowing some of the villagers to help them up. She spoke to them in Arabic. "This place is going to blow up soon! We have to get everyone out!"

They understood and ran out, spreading the word. Waller and another villager helped the Unknown Soldier to his feet, supporting him as they walked out. They placed him on a truck with some of the civilians. "Just stay with them. I'll find you after this is all over."

She ran as the truck started up, to help the evac. "C'mon, go! Go! Go!"

Groups of people were running from their houses across the sand. There was about five hundred in all the village, hot-footing it across the desert. Waller looked at the count-down clock on her wrist and there was less than five minutes to detonation.

There were too many to get them all out. Waller could only hope that she did her best. Her clock read three minutes. Too little. She decided to start running too.

Keeping the pace, she managed to stay with most of the group as they all ran, and kept running. One minute.

Thirty seconds.

Twenty.

Ten.

Five.

Detonation.

The blast's shockwave slammed Waller to the ground, hard. She felt her right arm go with a bang. People were tossed into the air. Trucks and carts flipped over and splintered. She looked at the giant orange and black blast cloud, rising slowing, and dissapating. The small village had been wiped off the face of the earth. Along with a supply of nuclear warheads.

Waller pushed herself up with her right arm and stood, slowly. People picked themselves up to watch the pieces of stone and metal that had once comprised their home rain from the sky. Waller shook her head slowly and turned around, walking away from the destruction.

CIA Headquarters, 5 months later

Captain Amanda Waller, US Army (ret), stood at attention, waiting. It had been a grueling five months to get this meeting. After visits to the families of her team (Wilson's wife and Duren's mother were not happy to see her), she had sat in psychiatirc rehab, trying to convince the spooks that the only thing she had left from that op was a broken arm, not PTSD. That wasn't to say she slept well or ate much.

The man she had been waiting to see, entered, and sat at a desk, shadowed by the dark. She saluted. "Sir!"

"Sit down Waller. I've heard you've come a long way to tell me something. So tell me it."

Waller sat down in the seat and placed a file folder on the Director's desk. "Sir, after the failure of my last mission with Team 7, I began thinking. What if there was a full-time unit of operatives to take on impossible missions. And well, sir, I want to make that team. A new team."

"Like Team 7?"

"Not really sir. I want to use criminals with nothing to lose and everything to gain. I want to create," Waller smiled, "A Suicide Squad!"

Thanks for reading. I would love for you guys to review my story and advice is well appreciated.