Sup, I'm not really sure where I was going with this, but I wrote it in about two hours and I kinda wanted to try something. Lemme know what's up.
Peace.
"Alright then Ma'am, if you'd like to follow me we can head back out to out-processing and you can finish up whatever paperwork that you need to. I trust your stay was enlightening?"
Amanda Waller gave the the short man that walked alongside Flagg and herself a sharp and evaluating glance. He was an older and graying man, with white hair that covered his head and continued into a well-trimmed beard. The white coat that he wore suggested a doctorate of some sort, but then again… looks were incredibly deceiving.
As the man was currently trying to be.
His nametag placed squarely on his chest said that his name was Ray Buktenica, but Waller had done more than her fair share of homework before even entertaining the idea of Task Force X. His real name was near impossible to track down, but after a few favors with some of the more… shady side of informants… the man's name was revealed to much displeasure.
Hugo Strange, a man who worked with very-well known vermin in order to create genetic freaks and abominations. The beasts would fetch hefty prices at many crime-family auctions and parties, and Belle Reve wasn't his only base of operations. He was well known for working mainly out of Arkham, yet as of now he had been operating almost exclusively out of Belle Reve. Normally, anyone else doing their investigation would've come up cold, but Waller's connection with Calculator had brought up some… interesting information that had only enforced and cemented the idea of Task Force X.
"Actually Doctor, I have one more stop to make. Captain?"
Captain Hunter Griggs, the slovenly and disgusting excuse for a human being stepped forward with that repulsive smile on his face.
"Yes Ma'am?"
"I'd like you to escort myself and Colonel Flag down to your sub-division. I'd like to see the occupant that I came for."
Griggs' face scrunched up in confusion. "Uhhh, Ma'am? I don't know how to tell you this, but there ain't no sub-division here. Ain't never been one, at least none that I ever seen—"
"And there's never been one!" Strange – or rather Buktenica – cut in. "I'm afraid that you must have confused Belle Reve with Arkham Asylum, Ms. Waller. I assure you that if there was any sort of division in this complex I would—"
Amanda rolled her eyes at the man's near-frantic rambling. "Colonel!"
"Ma'am?" The man answered in his southern drawl.
"It seems like Doctor Buktenica is looking somewhat ill. I think some outside air might do him good."
The Colonel grinned, understanding what his boss wanted to happen. "Sure does look like it. Hey Quinton, you an' Ritner take the good doctor outta this shit-hole, man looks ready to swoon an' keel over."
"I must protest, I feel perfectly fine and—"
"On it sir. Come on doc, let's get you some nice muggy air out on the load dock, yeah?"
"I— Ma'am! I must insist on you— get your hands off me, I'm perfectly capable—"
"Let's go pal. We need to do our civic duty for the day."
The sounds of the 'good doctor' and his simpering voice being removed from sight and mind brought a ghost of a smile to Waller's face. She'd prosecute the absolute hell out of him later, but for now she needed to concentrate.
Her next meeting needed her to keep a sharp mind.
◦╟Џ╢◦
It was almost amusing to see Captain Griggs' expression as he escorted the pair to a small stairway that he claimed that led to a breaker/boiler room suddenly open up to an incredibly dark hallway made up of concrete with steel supports.
The corridor was haphazardly lined with lightbulbs that were nearly as dim as the Captain's future with his wife, some were even out completely. It was nearly a good five minutes of walking before the hallway started to brighten up steadily. The concrete looked less and less like it needed serious repair, and instead started to look very-well kept. There were no more drips from the ceiling, the lights were brighter and a small sense of homeliness seemed to permeate the atmosphere. Waller even thought she could smell cinnamon.
Finally the long hall came to an end at a great metal door with several incredibly high-tech locks and keypads imbedded in the walls. With Buktenica's personal key rings that Flag had seen to appropriate, the door began an airlock sequence and a loud HISS escaped the metal slab.
"Hey, uh… if y'all don't mind, I'll let you have your meeting and I'll just be… outside. Y'know, just to ensure your privacy. Make sure no troublemakers like Scutty or James tries anything. There was this one time during a smoke break, where they—"
"You need to stop runnin' your fuckin' mouth."
"Yessir!" Flag's commanding tone brought the Government Task-woman out of the warm feeling she was currently feeling and simply waved off Griggs. The man looked relieved to see her acquiescing and moved out of their way. After the door opened, Flag and Waller stepped into a small airlock and waited for the compartment's cycle to start again.
As the door closed behind them, Flag turned to Waller.
"Ma'am, are you sure this is a good idea to have a powder keg that would make Santana blush?"
"We don't just need firepower Flag. Subtlety is what will make this Task Force thrive. A telepath will make communication a non-issue in—"
"I'm damn well aware of the benefits, but I don't think you've quite thought up a list of the shit that could happen with a man that can make you do the can-can over a minefield. Did you even read the same briefing that I did?"
Waller's ever-present glare shifted over to the man who had been one of the fiercest pushers for the initiative to be passed. His little girlfriend's freedom was a tremendous reason for it, but he didn't need to know that she would never be without a chain around her neck and heart for the rest of her life regardless.
"Colonel, I don't think that you understand your position here. You agreed to lead this Tasking, not take charge of its construction. The only reason you're here with me today is so that you can get a feel for the criminals that you're going to be leading. You do not have say over the selection process. I will not hear another complaint of the roster again, and if I do then you can enjoy time with your little girlfriend from a monitor's feed for the rest of her life. Is my position clear?"
Rick set his jaw and locked it, refusing to give a response as he simply stared ahead at the massive door opening in front of them.
"Flag!" Waller barked.
"Crystal." He ground out, as he stepped forward into the next room with the woman.
They could both say with absolute certainty that neither of them were expecting to see the sight in front of them.
◦╟Џ╢◦
The interior was incredibly homely, nearly the picture of a middle-class suburban house and lifestyle. A family was sitting around a television, all of them huddled against one another as their eyes were glued to the screen.
The father was a rather rotund fellow, with a beard that made Buktenica's look like nothing more than a chinstrap for a motorcycle helmet. His wife was nearly the same size as her husband, with near translucent-white hair that reached her shoulders. A small girl, presumably their daughter was a small thing, no older than six years. Her attention was focused on the cat that was in her lap more than the screen, but she looked happy and content nonetheless.
The fourth and final member of the family was a boy around ten years old, with short brown hair that was cropped up and parted to the side. He was dressed in gym shorts and a shirt with the Batman's symbol displayed proudly on the front. His eyes were alight in wonder, watching as the characters on the screen waved swords of light and clashed against each other.
It was a scene that was – quite frankly – adorable. A plate of cookies that smelled of cinnamon and baked nuts sat on a small coffee table within easy reach, and quite a few of them had already been claimed. A blanket was covering them all, and the scene was almost picturesque.
Except for the man standing and watching them from the hallway around the corner. He leaned against the wall, watching the family with a fierce intensity that seemed like he was trying to commit every single tiny detail there to memory.
Waller made to step forward, but the man chuckled slightly.
"You know… I really have to thank you for coming here today. I had almost forgotten this entirely. I'm still not sure about the cookies though." He pointed to the cookies sitting on the tray, and as Amanda looked closely at them, the nuts suddenly vanished from them entirely. "I still can't remember if the cookies had nuts in them or not. I don't think I like them, but until I try them again I can't be sure."
Waller suddenly realized what all of this was, and stepped forward to the man.
"You must be Daniel Taight."
"And you must be Amanda Waller. And no, before you ask, I'm not reading your mind. It says so right there on your clearance badge." The man nodded towards Flag, still a couple feet back with his arms crossed in front of him. "Colonel Rick Flag. I'd salute, but I think it'd come off a little bit more rude than I'd intend it to be. So I'll stick with a simple 'Hi,' if that's alright with you."
"Pleasure."
Daniel smiled and turned back to the scene folding out in front of him. Then suddenly and without notice, the scene faded away like it was vanishing from time and space. Like a wind blowing away a bit of smoke, the images passed into oblivion, until there remained a cold, dark, empty room with the smell of cinnamon still lingering. Daniel remained, standing against the edge of the room against the damp concrete, and stood at the center of the room before sitting down on a chair that appeared behind him like magic.
"So… why exactly are you here?"
◦╟Џ╢◦
Amanda finished her explanation of her Task Force Initiative, with Daniel remaining stoic throughout the entire brief. Flag said very little, opting to let his boss do most of the talking and content to watch the man in front of him for signs of… well, anything. But that was what was throwing him for a loop; the man simply gave nothing away. He had nothing: no tick, no tells or twitches. Hell, Rick was sure that he hadn't even seen the guy breathe once. It was incredibly creepy, but he remembered that the man in front of him was the most powerful telepath on the continent, and perhaps even the world.
According to his file, he had convinced his family to set fire to their house when he was eleven years old. Their charred corpses had been found inside the wreckage of the house, almost no recognizable features remaining on them whatsoever. He had disappeared after that, but evidence that he was around was evident in some cases. Some such instances included robberies that happened when every single person in the bank, from tellers behind their booths to pregnant women taking out a few dollars in cash would suddenly drop what they were doing and empty the vaults into an outside storm drain where they would be gone by the time the first responders arrived.
Unsolvable, until now. It seemed like the man in front of him had nothing but a stain for a heart, and even now he was using his powers to conceal his true self.
It seemed like Waller also noticed this, as after her briefing was over, she closed her notebook and made for the door.
"Leaving so soon?" Daniel raised an eyebrow, leaning back in his chair.
"You've not been honest with me."
"I literally haven't said anything during your entire sales pitch."
"No, but you've been deceiving me through your actions this entire time." Waller pulled out his file, and showed it to Daniel. "The date of your disappearance shows you vanished at age eleven. That was five years and three months ago."
Daniel sat forward in his chair, his face suddenly hard as stone.
"You've kept up this charade. You're – at the most – seventeen years of age. You honestly didn't think I saw through this little disguise of yours? You aren't old enough to grow a mustache yet, and yet you think I'd buy this?"
The room was silent for a bit, with the only sounds in the room being a faint dripping noise that could barely be heard.
Drip, drip, drip, drip.
It was steady and ominous, and coupled with the look that Daniel gave her, it made Flag reach for his sidearm slowly but steadily.
In one quick motion, Daniel stood from his chair and it flew backwards before vanishing like the scene before had. The room seemed to shake, the lights flickering in and out as the dripping noise continued.
Drip, drip, drip, drip.
Flag had pulled out his sidearm, the Hi-Point out in a single fluid motion and aimed at the illusion in front of them.
"You know, I thought I was being nice. I thought that no one would ever want to see me." 'Daniel' chuckled. "Shit, even I don't want to see me. But every day he makes me look at myself. Any you know what?"
The cinnamon smell was suddenly gone, replaced by the gross and disgusting odor of mold, mildew, blood, and feces mixed in together. It was a horrible acrid smell that made Waller and Flag both feel like voiding their stomachs.
Drip, drip, drip, drip.
"I thought that I would be nice to the people who made the 'good doctor' forget to put my dampeners in today. I thought that since I was going to be meeting new people for the first time in years that I should be nice. I thought I was being nice."
Drip, drip, drip, drip.
"You know what?! You want me? You want to see me!?"
The rumbling was gone.
And like a windowpane, the world that they stood in shattered like glass.
◦╟Џ╢◦
Drip, drip, drip, drip.
The room was littered with instruments of all kinds, ranging from some that looked like they'd be better placed in a horror room scenario to a few that looked ridiculously expensive. A radio sat on a pushcart littered with bloody rags. A drain was sitting beneath it, and the area around it was stained into the concrete a rusty, metallic red.
But what held Flag and Waller's full attention, was the small figure that was strung up in front of them
A small, gaunt boy clothed in nothing but a simple loincloth hung from an X-shaped table that was stood upright at a near forty-five degree angle. A small bag of substance that had a needle on the end of it was stuck into his incredibly thin arm, and dripping from a small hole in the side of the plastic.
Drip, drip, drip, drip.
Scars littered the young man's body, yet they were all precise and well-lined. Some were very old, while others were still stitched up from previous encounters. The boy's eyes were heterochromatic, his left eye a deep hazel while his right was a haunting orange-red hue. They stared with an intensity that both screamed furiously at them whilst pleading for release of any kind.
"Now do you understand?"
The boy's voice came both from his lips and his mind. His voice was harsh and cracking, while his mind spoke cleanly and evenly, almost sorrowfully.
"Yes," Spoke Waller, her glare at him directed in her mind at someone else. "Yes I do."
So... Yeah. Not sure what to do with this, but if I anyone like this mess than I'll probably clean it up and see how to continue.
Thanks all.
Peace.