This looks like a job for me
So everybody, just follow me
'Cause we need a little controversy
'Cause it feels so empty without me.
The obnoxious rhyme blasted too loudly through the speaker, making the car vibrate with each hit of the bass.
I groaned, shifting in my seat and squeezing my eyes shut tighter. Being awoken by Eminem wasn't my ideal way of doing so, especially since I had a pounding headache.
I squinted my eyes open, shutting them closed immediately after doing so when the light from outside increased the intensity of my headache.
"Shiiit." I dragged out, reaching up to rub my temples but was stopped when both hands lifted together. My eyes shot open and I looked down at my wrists, seeing them bound together with handcuffs.
Suddenly, I remember what happened before, how I got captured and that J and fucking Frost left me behind. I closed my eyes again, huffing as I leaned my head back against the seat.
My head hurt too much.
Whatever crap they knocked me out with was rough.
"Task Force X member #7 is awake, sir." I heard a stern, almost robotic voice say in front of me.
Task what? Member number who? I don't remember joining any forces, recently that is.
Before I could think much of the matter or even open my eyes to see who was speaking, an excruciating, sharp pain erupted in the side of my neck.
"Ow!" I screamed, eyes shooting open as I attempting to pull away. Some guy dressed in camo, military, fully protected gear injected something into my neck, and held my head in place so I couldn't move.
"God!" I exclaimed once he was done, growling and placing my hand over where he shot me protectively. "What the hell was that?!"
He sat back in the seat facing mine, in between two other men wearing the same uniform. Each had matching riffles that they held with both hands, ready to fire whenever necessary.
"Don't be such a baby." A rough voice next to me spat out aggressively.
My mouth dropped defensively, knowing that I was in no way a baby, that thing stung like hell. I turned to the perpetrator, ready to chew them out.
It was some man with dreads, dressed in some weird, black costume. He wasn't facing me, but instead was staring forward at the men with guns, a scowl on his face.
"Who the hell are you?" I snapped.
Before he could even respond, the van we were held captive in jerked to a stop. If it weren't for the tight seat belt restricting me to my seat, I would have fallen onto the floor of the car. Thankfully, all it did was choke me when I came forward and thrusted me back against the seat.
"Okay," I rasped out, coughing and shaking my head before saying "This is not my day."
The guards jumped out of the van first, one of them grabbing Mr. Grumpy Dreads and pulling him out with him. I began to slide out, after struggling with unbuckling my own seatbelt. It was a hard task to perform while wearing handcuffs.
They unhandcuffed him, giving him the opportunity to sock some lady in the face. My eyes widened and jaw dropped, leaning out of the van but still inside.
He shrugged nonchalantly, explaining himself briefly with "She had a mouth."
I don't think anyone asked, but whatever.
I slid out of the van after he was pulled away, helped briefly by one of the guards. He uncuffed me and I immediately began rubbing my wrists.
"Slipknot and Electrisha have arrived, sir." One of the guards informed somebody; I didn't care enough to see who.
Slipknot? Like the band? That's a dumb name for a villain.
"Lisha?" A familiar voice came from my left. I snapped my attention over towards it, feeling a rush of joy when I saw Harley sitting on some wheeled dolly looking thing.
"Harls!" I called, jogging over and ready to give her a big hug.
This made my job easier. I didn't think that they'd lead me right to where I wanted.
Maybe this was the Joker's plan all along.
Nah, who am I kidding? He's just a dick.
She jumped up out of her dolly, spreading her arms wide in an overdramatic way to invite me in for a hug. I accepted it, accidently shocking her only enough for her to say "Ouch." and jump back.
"Sorry." I said, backing away a bit.
She laughed it off, sticking her elbow out that I grabbed with a cheesy grin. She grabbed mine too, then plopped back down onto her wheely chair.
"Your boyfriends an ass." I informed her as I walked around the dolly, wrapping my arms around the handle and leaning against it.
She spun around and asked, defensively, "What'd he do?"
"What'd he do?" I repeated in disbelief, "What didn't he do is the real question."
Before I could finish explaining myself, some goof dressed in camo cut me off.
"The injection you got, it's a nanite explosive." He addressed the whole group. I took this time to look around, taking in all their appearances.
"It's the size of a rice grain, but as powerful as a hand grenade."
Well there was the guy I came in with, Korn or Slayer or something, some guy with full body tattoos, some fidgety man with an accent I heard earlier when he was slammed up against a van by camo guy, some reptilian-looking fella that scared me enough to steer clear of him, and then Deadshot.
Because c'mon, who doesn't know Deadshot?
"You disobey me, you die." He said, placing his hands on his hips, walking down the line to stare down each of the inmates. He must have thought he was all high and mighty.
"You try to escape, you die." God, can't this guy just get on with it? I feel like we're all getting the point; he's way up there and we're all so low the bugs can't even see us.
I leaned my chin on the handle, both Harls and I staring him down until he decided to finish.
"You otherwise irritate or vex me, and guess what?" He asked rhetorically, waiting for the grand finale. I mouthed the last part with him mockingly.
"You die."
Harls' hand shot up, and just as I was about to smack it back down she stated, "I'm known to be quite vexing, I'm just forewarning you."
"Hey lady, shut up!" He snapped, and she crossed her arms pouting.
Her mood immediately shifted when she giggled and said jokingly, "I don't shut up, I grow up," She turned back towards me, and I rolled my eyes before finishing with her, "And when I look at you I throw up." Sticking out our tongues at each other and giggling, we earned stares from nearly everyone there.
"What, does crazy have a sister?" Deadshot deadpanned. I'm not gonna lie, I was kind of hoping he'd know who I was. But I wasn't about to take it personally or anything…
"This is the deal," Camo said, ignoring Deadshot's question, "You're going somewhere very bad, to do something that will get you killed." I raised my eyebrows, looking around to see if anyone was falling for this guy's bullshit. "But until that happens, you're my problem."
"So that was your peptalk?" Deadshot asked, but before I bothered hearing what he had to say, I looked down at Harley.
"What's going on, HQ?" I asked, and she turned to look at me confused, "Who are these people?"
She shrugged, turning back around and playing with her nails. "Beats me."
"Ah, thanks, that helped a lot." I retorted sarcastically, pushing myself off the dolly and groaning when she responded with "Any time!"
"Go get your things. Get ready for a fight." Camo stated, nodding his head in the direction of our things.
Harley squealed, grabbing me by my wrist and running over to where the trunks were. I let myself get dragged along, but I did not like it.
Not one bit.
I already had most of my things, I'm assuming, since I was still dressed in my costume.
Harley pushed off the top of her trunk, squealing once again when seeing everything inside. She pulled out her jester costume, holding it up to herself and smiling fondly.
"Oh God," I said, disgusted when I saw my own jester costume lying underneath hers. I picked it up with two fingers, holding it away from me like a diseased rodent. "Where the hell'd they find this ugly thing?"
We dug through the trunk, most of it being Harley's things, but the only other stuff in it that was mine was my gun and a bag of bubble gum. I grabbed it out gleefully, giving one piece to Harls and treating myself to one as well.
As Harley changed, I stood next to her unphased since I saw her naked on nearly a daily basis, against my will, of course. She wasn't a huge believer in wearing clothes when at home. Well, at least she wasn't the last time I saw her home.
Everyone here, however, was not used to this uncommon trait. It also didn't help that they were all guys. They stood there gawking, to which Harley responded with a confused "What?"
They all went back to their business, hurrying themselves in getting dressed. During this time, I made it a point to read all their boxes to learn their names.
The reptile's name was Killer Croc, the Australian was Captain Boomerang, which I found highly unoriginal once he pulled out a boomerang, and then Slipknot's name was, well, Slipknot.
When I read the name El Diablo, my heart nearly gave out. I looked at the tattooed man in disbelief, kicking myself for not recognizing this guy before.
He was all over the news after he burnt an entire prison, and I remember being so mad at him for giving metahumans a bad name. But then, I saw another article months later about how he vowed never to use his powers again, and ever since I had followed his story. He was kind of an inspiration.
I mean if he could go without his powers, why couldn't I?
I mean, if it weren't for the whole 'I work for the craziest villain in Gotham and he'd literally kill me if I refused to use my powers' thing.
Once we were all dressed, we were escorted back to where we were originally standing, again in front of camo, who was now holding an IPad and wearing stupid-looking sunglasses.
"Behold, the voice of God."
When the screen switched to reveal the face of Amanda Waller, I felt like the wind was getting knocked out of me.
Although surprised, I should have known that she would be behind this. She had been on my ass, even before the Teen Titans, to work for someone good. No matter how much I explained my situation and how, even if I wanted to, I would never be able to work for someone who fights against evil, she was still adamant about me using my powers for good.
"For those of you who don't know me officially, my name is Amanda Waller."
"Man, that's a face I never wanted to see again." I mumbled to Harls, who was playing with the gum I gave her. She let it go and sucked it back into her mouth, getting me to give her a look of disgust.
"You know this lady, Lish?" She whispered back, earning a glance for Deadshot.
I looked at her for a second, before looking back at the IPad. The whole Teen Titans thing was still an insanely touchy subject with her and J, despite it being years since it happened. I brushed it off by shrugging and saying, "We've met."
"I'm sorry, uh," Deadshot interrupted, making me realize I had just missed Waller explain our entire mission. Not that it mattered though, I didn't want to be on it anyway. "For those of us who don't speak good-guy, what is HVT1?"
"The only person who matters in this city, the one person you can't kill," She answered curtly. "Complete the mission you get time off your prison sentence, fail the mission you die."
Wow, harsh.
Also, I don't have a prison sentence so I'm not sure what that means for me.
"Anything happens to Colonel Flag, I'll kill every single one of you." I looked at Harls, pointing at camo and raising an eyebrow to silently ask if this was Flag.
She nodded, to which I responded with, "What, she's got a crush on him or somethin'?"
Harls broke out into laughter, only stopping when Flag yelled at her to once again shut up.
"Remember I'm watching." I shook my head at this statement, not nearly as intimidated by this woman as I should be, but I guess that happens when you work with someone.
"I see everything." And with that, the screen went black.
"There's your peptalk." Flag said cockily.
"So that's it? What, we're some kind of suicide squad?"
Suicide squad? I like it; got a nice ring to it.
"I'll notify your next of kin."
Me and Harley looked at each other, her grinning and me smirking.
"Notified."
A/N: Hey guys! College so far is pretty fun! There's some people in my hall who are a little annoying and I woke up my first day with a nose bleed but that's the worst so far haha.
also , my roommate was going to invite me to a frat party last night but I was already asleep and if that doesn't describe my life idk what will.
My classes start on thursday and i might be doing work study (probably not until next quarter tho) so i'll keep you guys updated on how much I can post.
Love you guys!
-Rosie.
