Chapter 14
"Ok, do you want to elaborate us, who don't know, what Taskforce X is?" J'onn was the one to ask the question for those who weren't familiar with Amanda Waller's work, including the people of Earth-38 and half of team arrow.
Lyla sighed feeling uncomfortable explaining yet again the horrors the former head of A.R.G.U.S. had done. Amanda Waller was too paranoid for her own good and that paranoia had cost her her life. Amanda wanted to protect the world, but her intentions didn't justify the measures she took or the lives she was willing to sacrifice for the greater good. In other words, she wanted to be a hero but ended up becoming the villain in her own story. Lyla had struggled not a long time ago from becoming an Amanda Waller herself. Sitting on the big chair was more tempting to corruption than she had imagined. Decisions her former boss had taken made more sense now. Thankfully, Lyla had her husband to remind her of who she really was, to bring her back to the right path. Lyla knew that she had to tell the whole truth to them, no matter how hard it was for her.
"Taskforce X, or Suicide Squad as it is more commonly known, used to be a project the former director of A.R.G.U.S. had formed. Amanda Waller wanted to create her own little army to do her dirty work. She had gathered criminals with special skills, that she thought would be wasted if they just went to prison. So she implanted micro bombs in the base of their neck in order to keep them in line and to make them do whatever she wanted. If the operation went south, the taskforce was to be terminated and if something went wrong it was easy to blame the criminals."
"What kind of monster would do that to someone? Even if they were criminals?" Kara asked frustrated by what she heard.
Lyla nodded in agreement. "Amanda Waller was a monster. But she is no longer director of A.R.G.U.S. After she was killed I took her place and shut down all her non-human projects." She sighed again. "I've been trying to clean up the organization ever since and honestly I don't know when it'll end."
"Lyla is not like Amanda. I can vouch for her." Oliver told the director of the D.E.O. "Me and my team have worked many times with them."
"We have too." Barry added.
With the vote of confidence from team Arrow and Flash, J'onn felt pleased. He still didn't want a black ops government organization working directly with them, but he will have to have this discussion later with the whole team when Lyla has left the labs.
"Ok, then. Please continue." He encouraged her.
"We tried to trace back Cadmus' signal and enter their systems, but their firewalls are very good."
"They haven't met me." Felicity mumbled.
Oliver standing by her side was the only one who heard her comment. A ghost smile appeared on the archers face. His focus, though, never left Lyla as she continued her speech.
"We were able to obtain one thing. It is a pre-recorded video message. They haven't released it yet, but I have a feeling that they are going to do it in the very near future."
"What does that message say?" Sara asked.
Lyla exhaled before turning to the screen next to her. She plugged her USB in one of the ports and let the video play. Kara, Alex, J'onn and Winn recognized the Cadmus logo the moment it popped on the screen.
"Citizens of Earth." a disoriented voice spoke. "The days of superheroes has come to an end. These masked terrorists are no Gods and we shouldn't treat them like they are. We will no longer allow these individuals to take the law into their own hands and apply it as they see fit. The police force of U.S. has failed to restrain these vigilantes, but we are here to put order to the world. To make it like it is supposed to be. Earth belongs to Humans, not aliens and metahuman freaks. Humanity will rise again and Earth will be ours. To all the so-called superheroes, beware. We are Cadmus and your days ARE numbered."
"Their way of protecting Earth is very twisted." Rene remarked after the video message finished.
"You don't say." Kara uttered.
"So let me get this straight." Felicity spoke up. "This Cadmus decided to create Suicide Squad, the sequel to destroy all of us. I mean those who fight for justice and want to save people."
"You are right, Felicity." Lyla assured her.
Felicity's eyes opened wide and she made a weird expression with her face. In the end, she settled in a classic frown. "I agree with Rene. Their logic is definitely twisted." She whined.
Just then the satellite alarm went off. Cisco and Felicity were immediately checking the computers to see what the situation was. They both froze when they saw what the satellite had picked up.
"Why can't the bad guys just let us for once, just once, prepare before they attack?" Cisco groaned.
"Guys, what is it?" Oliver urged them.
"It's them. I mean Cadmus. I mean-"
Cisco cut Felicity off before the girl stumbled on her tongue and explained. "Black Siren, Weather Wizard, Kind Shark, Grodd, Shawna and some other lady I haven't seen before." He said and uploaded the satellite image to the screens on the walls of the cortex.
"That's Livewire." Kara said recognizing the white-haired woman immediately. "Cadmus much have gotten to her too."
"Where are they?" Barry asked.
"Coast City. "Felicity answered. "After you went to National City, Cisco and I thought that it would be better to reprogram the STAR labs satellite to not only report crime on Central City, but the whole U.S."
"Smart thinking." J'onn complimented. "Now how do we stop them?"
All heads turned to Barry. "What do you propose team leader?" Oliver asked the speedster.
Barry groaned out loud. He really hated it when Oliver made him team leader. Nevertheless, he was in that position now, so Barry had to think fast. And being the fastest man alive made fast as normal as opening a bag of chips.
"Ok, first things first, we need to take down Cadmus once and for all, before they try something worse than that. Winn, you have dealt with this before right?" the man nodded quickly his head. "So you are familiar with Cadmus' tricks?" he asked hopefully.
"I am, but it's nearly impossible to track them. Their signal comes for many different-"
"Felicity, work with him to find them. If the two of you aren't able to do it, no one can." Barry cut him off. They had very little time to spare in details.
"What about me?" Cisco complained.
The speedster looked at his friend. "I need you to be our eyes and ears. Hack into the surveillance and help when we go out."
Cisco nodded. "Got it." He said and his fingers immediately started dancing on the keyboard.
"What about the rest of us?" Sara asked this time.
Barry exhaled loudly. His brain was working at high speeds, trying to think of every advantage the villains had and how to counteract them. He grabbed the rail tightly and groaned. Finally, he looked up to his teammates.
"We have to split into two teams. Some have to stay behind and as soon as Felicity and Winn find Cadmus' headquarters go and shut them down. Ray for example."
"Why do I have to stay behind?" Ray complained.
"Livewire." Barry explained.
"He's right." Kara spoke. "She is living electricity. The moment you step into battle, she will steal the power of your suit and it will be useless."
"Point taken." The Atom raised his hands.
"Or worse. She could take control of the suit and turn it against us." Alex had an excellent point, Barry and Ray admitted.
"What do we need to know about the other metahumans?" J'onn asked.
Barry sighed again and started explaining as fast as he could. He would leave, though, the assignment of the teams to Oliver.
#
The skies of Coast City darkened out of nowhere and strong wind rose like a wild animal. Weather Wizard was in a good mood and at the top of his game. Mardon smiled sardonically at the thought of how many people he would be terrorizing today. Shawna had scowled at him that he shouldn't take so much pleasure in inflicting fear in others. But Mardon didn't pay much attention to her. It was like her words were spoken to a rock. Mardon knew that unlike him, Shawna didn't actually want to be doing this. The woman was a thief –she did everything in order to survive – but Mardon found a thrilling joy in causing chaos.
Two skyscrapers away, Supergirl eyed King Shark using her x-ray vision to see through the walls. Kara had fought many terrifying aliens the past two years of being Supergirl. But not even Parasite was as frightening as King Shark. Barry had told them how he was able to defeat the beast. But now Kara was wondering how the speedster was able to do such thing. On the other side, Kara could see the lightning of Kid Flash, as he cleared the area of civilians. Barry didn't want any citizens to be caught in the crossfire and Kara agreed with the speedster that they had to expect the fight to not be easy. Wally was not in the slightest pleased that he was on cleaning duty again. Or well...the cleaning before the actual cleaning. Supergirl waited for Kid Flash to finish, before making her move. The two of them were going to work together, after all, to defeat King Shark.
#
"Is everyone in position?" J'onn J'onzz heard the Flash's voice in his ear.
A number of positive answers came after that and Flash asked if they remember the plan. J'onn was ready to engage with Grodd at any moment. His telepathic abilities gave him an advantage no one else in the new team had. Barry had insisted for J'onn to be cautious and warned him that the ape was very powerful and strong. J'onn had appreciated the man's warning and told him that he would keep it in mind, but also that his own telepathy was more than a little powerful. Grodd better watch out, he was about to face his greatest challenge yet.
"MARTIAN." A growling voice echoed in J'onn's mind. "GRODD. SENSE. YOU."
This is it, he thought. The show has begun. "Surrender and we won't hurt you." J'onn pushed his thoughts to the giant gorilla.
"YOU. NOT. HURT. ME. BUT. GRODD. HURT. YOU." The voice answered back.
"We will see about that." J'onn responded.
"I. MAKE. YOUR. FRIENDS. HURT. YOU."
It was just as Barry had told them. Grodd's first move was to take control of other people's minds and make them do his bidding. Good thing J'onn had prepared for that. Grodd narrowed his eyes as he tried to enter the minds of Supergirl, Amaya, Nate, Black Canary and Firestorm. The gorilla was surprised to find out that he couldn't. Grodd didn't try to enter the minds of the Flash and Kid Flash. He knew he couldn't enter them, only project thoughts to them. Their minds were moving too fast for the super ape.
"WHY. CAN. I. NOT?" he growled angrily at the Martian.
J'onn's green face formed a smug expression at the gorilla's frustration. "I am guarding their minds from you. The only telepathy that is going to happen is between you and me."
Grodd roared. The sound of his growl resonated throughout the whole city. The Earth quacked and the buildings trembled.
"THEN. GRODD. CRUSH. YOUR. SCULL."
And that was the last thing Grodd said before he launched at J'onn, who took a fighting pose and waited for his attack.
#
"I have eyes on Shawna." Flash spoke to his teammates.
"You are in the clear, Barry. Everyone else is in position." Cisco informed him from STAR labs.
The Flash held tightly on the blindfold in his right hand. He prayed that the plan would work. He had chosen to go up against Shawna, while the rest battled the other metahumans. Out of everyone in the brand new Cadmus' Suicide Squad, the scarlet speedster knew that Shawna was the only one who would talk. Barry decided to make his move before he lost any more precious time. Yellow lightning sparkled in the Flash's eyes and in a blur of red and a gust of wind, he ran to Shawna, blindfolded her -so that she wouldn't escape- and ran her in an abandoned building two blocks away from the fight.
Shawna found herself separated from her teammates before she could realize what was happening. She didn't expect the Flash to be here, it was far away from his home. Or maybe a part of her did expect him to show up, but she was sure that the speedster would stop to make a snarky remark before he took her on. The fact that she couldn't see meant that the Flash had step up his game.
"Hello, Flash-boy." Shawna didn't even make an attempt to remove the blindfold. She knew she couldn't outrun the Flash.
"Why are you doing this Shawna? I know you wanted to have a normal life after your boyfriend left you to pay for his mess." The Flash demanded in with a soft voice. Shawna tried not to laugh. The speedster didn't have an interrogating bone in his body.
"You don't understand." Shawna shook her head. "I have no choice."
"Whatever bomb they have planted in the back of your head, I can phase it out. I can save you." The Flash told her, his hopeful voice was clear in Shawna's ears.
The woman chuckled, but it was a bitter laugh. "You may be able to save me from a bomb, but you can't save me from a virus. We either kill you, or we all die instantly." Her voice shook with tremor.
Barry felt himself freeze from the shock of the information. A virus? They had injected them with a virus? The Flash brought his hand on his ear and pressed the com.
"Guys?"
"We heard, Barry." Cisco told him. "In that case you can't defeat them. If they lose, Cadmus will activate the virus."
"Can't you block the signal?" the speedster asked, starting to feel panic rise in his throat.
"I can't." Cisco admitted defeated.
"And we haven't found the location yet. But we are close." Felicity spoke from next to Cisco.
"What if the signal couldn't reach the receiver?" Cisco suddenly thought out loud.
"How are you going to do that?" Winn asked.
"By changing the frequencies of the transmitter and the receivers."
"Like we did with Trickster's bombs." Barry realized. "We can bring them to Earth-2 and make a cure. Harry has power-dampener cells."
"What's a trickster?" Winn asked again.
Caitlin leaned over the desk, looking at the footage from Cisco's computer. "Story for another time." She told him. "Barry won't be able to take them all to Earth-2 in time."
"Then what are we going to do?" the Flash asked, desperation in his voice.
Caitlin bit her lip. She didn't want to say what was on her mind. Flashes of her being Killer Frost invaded her mind. She didn't want to go down that road again. Seeing Cisco looking at her with hopeful eyes, the doctor sucked in a deep breath.
"If the hosts are cold enough the virus will be inert, even if Cadmus activates it."
"Why do I have the feeling that there is a catch?" Cisco eyed her.
Caitlin bit her lip again. "If the stream is too cold, the hosts will die."
"So, Supergirl can't turn them all into icicles." Cisco groaned. "And she won't have the time to freeze all of them before Cadmus realizes what we're doing and activates the virus."
"Caitlin, you have to come." Flash realized.
"No, I can't. I can't become Killer Frost again." Caitlin shook in fear.
"We won't let that happen again." Flash tried to reassure her. "You have won her so many times. And you have all of us by your side. We won't let Killer Frost take control of you."
Caitlin felt tears in her eyes. She thought of all the terrible things she did when she was Killer Frost. She tried to kill her best friends more than once, she tried to kill Tracy Brand. She sided with Savitar. Cisco touched her hand softly. Caitlin looked at her best friend in despair.
"Caitlin..."
#
Kid Flash was running in circles around the water. He had practiced throwing lighting many times with Barry. His brother had insisted that Wally perfected the technique, though Kid Flash still needed more practice in aiming. With Supergirl relying on him, though, to electrocute King Shark when she throws him in the sea, Wally pressured himself to not let her down. Besides, the metahuman from Earth-2 was a big target, how could he miss him.
Supergirl had to admit that King Shark was one tough piece of fish. He could throw a punch as good as he received and his skin was almost as indestructible as hers. Kara maneuvered under him when King Shark tried to grab her. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Supergirl grabbed King Shark's extended arm and prepared to throw him into the water, where Kid Flash was going to fry him.
"Guys, change of plans." Flash's voice came through the speakers of everybody's ear. "We can't take them down. We have to freeze them."
"Why?" Kid Flash asked annoyed. He really wanted to do something else other than to run people away from danger.
"Just trust me. Supergirl, Caitlin is coming to help you. She will guide you through what to do. The rest of you just pretend to be fighting them. Cadmus needs to believe that the fight continues."
Supergirl blew out a desperate breath. She wanted this fight to end. She had been fighting with King Shark for a little more than thirty minutes and she felt like she had been hit by a train. Actually, if she had been hit by a train she wouldn't feel a thing. Supergirl considered calling in sick tomorrow at work. She felt she would need to sleep the whole day. Kara twisted King Shark's arm. The monster let out a roar of pain and waived his arm, successfully knocking Supergirl into the building behind her. Kara pushed her blonde hair away from her face and got to her feet. Her eyes glowed as she looked at King Shark with anger and launched at him.
The Flash was watching his friends battle the metahumans from the building he had taken Shawna. He hoped that Cisco vibes himself and Caitlin there soon so that no more damage could be caused. As a blue breach appeared in the middle of the crossroad and two familiar figures stepped out, Flash let out a deep breath.
"Come on. We are going to save you." He told Shawna before grabbing her and taking her to Caitlin.
At STAR labs Felicity let out a winning squeal and high-fived Winn who couldn't believe what they had just accomplished. "Guys, we found where Cadmus is."