Annie paced back and forth in her cell. All while her cellmate, Pamela Isley, better known as Poison Ivy, was sitting by the windowsill.
"Will you stop?" Ivy told her.
Annie turned to her cellmate.
"I don't know how much I can take. Why did they separate us?" Annie asked her.
Ivy sighed.
"You and I possess metahuman abilities, hence the collars. Your boyfriend and his stupid friends do not." Ivy said.
"What's the layout?" Annie asked.
"Besides the human and metahuman wing, there's also extreme isolation." Ivy said.
"That sounds like solitary confinement. Why would a mental institution have that?" Annie asked.
"That's where people such as Zsasz and Joker are sent to." Ivy explained, Annie could notice the vitriol in her words regarding Joker.
"When can we leave the cells and get something to eat?" Annie asked.
"Soon." Ivy replied.
"Would you be willing to protect me?" Annie asked.
Ivy turned to Annie.
"Excuse me?"
"I was a former superhero back in my world. I have a target on my back." Annie explained.
Ivy started to laugh.
"You were never a superhero, kid. All you were was nothing more than a corporate spokesperson." Ivy said.
"I saved lives." Annie defended.
"Sure you did, but tell me what did you do to ever make a difference as your employers polluted your Earth?" Ivy told her.
Annie was silent.
"I would have spoken up, they fired the Deep when I brought up what he did to me." Annie said.
"Not when you threaten their stock price. Tell me something, did people even have respect for that man even before you brought up what he did to you." Ivy said.
Annie was silent.
"Reform is pointless, when rot is rooted to the core you have to pull it out." Ivy said.
"You're an eco-terrorist. Why am I having this discussion with you?" Annie said.
"Fine bury your head in the sand if it makes things easier for you." Ivy said, turning her back.
"So I take it that you agree with what the clowns are doing to Vought?" Annie said.
Ivy's body tensed and stood motionless.
"I read about you and his girlfriend, Harley Quinn, is it? I wonder what it is you and her boyfriend have in common? Other than the fact you both are clearly homicidal maniacs." Annie said.
In an instant, Ivy lunged at Annie and began to choke her out.
"Take it back! You take it back! You little…" Ivy was cut off from speaking as the guards broke into the room and pulled her off of Annie.
"I don't suppose you have a plan to get us out of this place, love?" Butcher whispered into the phone.
"My plan is underway. We have already contaminated the ingredients that will be served for dinner in the entire ward you are staying at." Waller said.
"So you're going to give us food poisoning?" Butcher asked.
"No, pretend that you've eaten your meal, and then once you start to notice the others being sick mimic them." Waller said.
"Alright, then what." Butcher said.
"We've replaced a crew with employees unaware of your true nature. The more "normal" residents will be taken to Gotham General. Once you're in the ambulance hijack it. You won't have much time before they catch you, but there will be a nearby plane waiting for you not further." Waller told him.
"What about the girls?" Butcher asked.
"We have a different plan in mind for them." Waller said.
"Are you in or out?" She asked him after a moment.
"In." Butcher said.
A Vought cargo ship sealed freely, there was nothing to be seen but the ocean. Suddenly, the ship stopped moving; The captain couldn't understand what happened, he looked over and saw the water around the ship had frozen. They got stuck on ice, which could only mean one thing. He ran to the radio but all the lights on the ship went down, a man wearing a comically large blue helmet shaped like a magnet flew above them and removed all their guns. The crew felt something hit the ship.
Black Manta's crew invaded the ship and gunned the security. The men ran to the boxes and desperately opened them. V24 and needles. They injected themselves and their limbs lit up golden. They were able to fight back against Black Manta's crew but that was only a temporary triumph, before they could even get to Black Manta, Cheetah, a mix between a woman and the animal attacked and slit their throats with her claws. Black Manta walked over to the boxes and kicked one of the corpses.
"These idiots wasted the merch on themselves." He said. "But there's plenty."
"I don't get it." Cheetah said and licked the blood out of her paw. "This didn't even make them that strong."
"You fought Wonder Woman, they're weak for you. I could loot this bucket on a bad afternoon, sure, Dr. Polaris and Bizarro speeded things up but I didn't actually need them. But with these, they became dangerous, especially in numbers." Black Manta showed Cheetah his hands full of V24 flasks. "And we have numbers."
Black Manta went back to his submarine with Cheetah. Dr. Polaris sank the ship with the remaining crew deep into the ocean.
"Bizarro, don't get rid of the evidence." Black Manta contradictorily ordered from his earpiece. "Make sure their people can see the ice."
Bizarro used his fire breath and melted all the ice left. It was like the ship was never there and was just the ocean and nothing more.
It was not long after her scuffle with Ivy, that Annie found herself back in her cell.
"Ivy's being transferred to a new cell." She heard someone tell her.
She turned around and saw Red Robin in her cell.
"What do you want?" Annie asked.
"Information about Vought and the Seven." He said.
"Why should I tell you? I thought your boss was getting us transferred." Annie asked him.
"Because you have a target on your back." She heard a familiar voice, she looked out of the cell and saw Wonder Girl with Beast Boy.
"'Sup!" Beast Boy waved.
Annie didn't respond.
"What happens after, I tell you?" Annie asked.
"You're free to go." Wonder Girl said.
"And the others?" Annie asked.
"Does that include the British guy?" Beast Boy asked.
"It does." Annie said.
"Why do you want him to be free? From what I've heard, it sounds like he hates you just for breathing the same air he does." Wonder Girl asked.
"I don't want him free. But Hughie does, so I have to include him." Annie said.
"Annie, listen to us, we need any shred of dirt you have on the Seven. Homelander and Stormfront are trying to mobilize a movement against us. All the while more villains are starting to attack your world. Homelander and Stormfront are also isolating Ryan." Cassie told her.
This caught Annie's attention.
"You know about Homelander's son?" Annie asked.
"His mom met with Superman, she told the League everything. We need any amount of proof as fast as possible." Red Robin said.
"Where's Becca?" Annie asked.
"That's confidential, sorry." Red Robin said.
Annie eyed Wonder Girl with an annoyed frown on her face.
"What's Wonder Woman like?" Annie asked her.
"She's my hero, obviously, she can be a bit overbearing at times. But she means well. I take it that this is about Queen Maeve?" Cassie said.
"How is she doing? I can't imagine that being around the improved model is helping her psyche." Annie asked.
"Diana told us that her self-confidence has taken a beating as of late. She's been downing more alcohol than a college frat house as of late from what I've overheard." She told Annie.
"I have information, but I want to meet with the League first." Annie said.
"Done." Red Robin said.
"Ships do not disappear out of thin air, Mr. Luthor." Stan Edgar said from a screen in front of the skull table of the Society
"You'd be surprised." Luthor said.
"In my world, I'd certainly be. Your formula is impeccable, we manufactured large quantities but it's worthless if I can't move the product. Modern problems require modern solutions, if you are interested in being my associate, I expect a solution from you."
Edgar turned off the call. The eyeholes of the skull on the table lit up red and an electronic voice announced: "OCEAN MASTER". And the announced villain appeared in his usual seat, completely wet as expected.
"Vought's ship is at the exact location they lost signal." Ocean Master explained. "But deep, too deep for it to have just sank, it was pushed down. Not just that, there was damage in the bottom, it was frozen and pierced with ice spikes, and the source came from two concentrated beams of cold.
"Bizarro. The Legion of Doom stole it."
"They have become a problem, we need them out of Earth Seven if we want that world." Ocean Master told him.
"We don't have a problem, the Justice League does. And they'll solve it as they always do. All we need to do is make sure the League and the Legion bump into each other."
The Boys were playing cards at a stairwell Butcher told them to meet at. After a while, Butcher spoke up.
"I got us a way out of here." Butcher told them quietly.
This caught their attention.
"You did?" MM asked.
"What is it?" Hughie asked.
"Amanda Waller, someone from the government here is going to stage our break out. At dinner, do not eat anything. We pretend to get sick and line up with the more average patients here. Then we hijack the ambulance they put us on and meet at an airstrip." Butcher said.
"Why can't we just wait and take their offer?" Hughie asked.
"You really want to spend any more time here?" Butcher asked.
"No." Hughie admitted.
"What about Kimiko?" Frenchie asked.
"They have a different way to get them out." Butcher said.
"Annie too right?" Hughie asked.
"Yeah her too." Butcher said.
As this happened Kimiko sat in her cell clawing at the collar wrapped around her neck. Then all of a sudden she saw a guard slip a piece of paper through the slot on her cell door. Kimiko grabbed the paper and felt something made of metal on the back. It was a key, Kimiko looked at the paper and found there was writing on it:
"5:30 use this key to unlock the collar. Do not eat."
For a moment, Kimiko felt joy at the prospect of escaping. However, she noticed that the letter did not mention Annie. Kimiko looked at the key trying to figure out a way to hide it. Until she remembered something, if the food is going to be tainted then it wouldn't seem suspicious if she threw up. The key looked like it would be easy enough to swallow. She readied herself before hiding the key.
Annie looked around her new surroundings, it was unlike anything she had ever seen. The Watchtower looked like something out of a high-budget sci-fi blockbuster. The Titans were escorting her to meet with the League. She was taken to what looked to be a questioning room. She still had her collar on. On the other end of the room was another door and outstepped Wonder Woman.
"Starlight." She greeted.
"It's Annie." Annie bluntly told her.
"I see. What do you wish to tell us?" Diana asked.
"First, I want you to answer some questions for me. If that is alright with you?" Annie asked.
Diana looked to be thinking it over before she decided on something.
"Very well proceed." The Amazon princess said.
"Wonder Girl mentioned you know about Ryan and that Becca told you everything, so you would know how he was conceived. Why haven't you just ended all of this? I feel that ninety percent of you could have stopped Homelander a hundred times over, but you haven't. Why?" Annie asked.
"A good number of your population are unaware of Homelander's true nature. If we immediately proceeded to attack him and the rest of your world's "heroes" we would look like invaders. He and Stormfront are using his image to rally against us, which is making things more difficult. We would look like invaders trying to subjugate your world." Wonder Woman explained.
Annie digested what Wonder Woman told her. She understood what the League was doing.
"How are the rest of them doing?" Annie asked.
"Noir is recovered, but Vought does not want to put him out on the field. We've marked him as a person of interest regarding something else, which I cannot share with you. A-Train was excommunicated from the Church of the Collective. The Deep might not be far behind after his incident with Aquaman. Queen Maeve's alcoholism has grown worse and risks Vought's new image for her." Wonder Woman told her.
"You mean that she's just bi and not a lesbian?" Annie asked.
"Yes, that one." Wonder Woman said.
"I have something that would be very useful for you." Annie told Wonder Woman.
"What is it?" Wonder Woman asked.
"Stormfront's a Nazi." Annie told her.
Wonder Woman did not seem to be taken aback by this.
"When I say that, I'm not calling her some alt-right dipshit. I mean she was a legitimate Nazi who had brunch with Hitler." Annie said recalling a photograph of Stormfront sitting at a table with Adolf Hitler himself.
Wonder Woman was silent, clearly taking in the information.
"You don't believe me." Annie said.
"No, I have no reason to doubt your claim so far. Becca mentioned she used to be a superhero known as Liberty. One of the prisoners here, Vandal Savage, is over ten thousand years old and aligned with the Nazis in World War II." Wonder Woman told her.
"She was, we talked to the younger sister of one of her victims." Annie said.
"Where did you come across this?" Wonder Woman asked.
"A-Train gave it to us, Stormfront used to be a part of the church. They had information regarding her past. The folder should be at our hideout. It will have everything you need." Annie explained.
"Thank you for your cooperation Annie." Wonder Woman said.
"So what happens to me now?" Annie asked.
Wonder Woman's smile disappeared, she looked a little upset.
"We'll need to debate that, I'm afraid." Wonder Woman said.
All the Arkham inmates stepped out of their cells for a lineup as the guards took notes and confirmed none was missing. Psycho Pirate removed his mask, it was the first time Hughie saw his real face and heard his real name.
"Roger Hayden." A guard referred to him and put a checkmark on his notes. He then moved to the next cell. "Chuck Brown."
The man in the other cell was thin, not naturally, he didn't eat well, and he looked weak and poorly clean. The guard checked his wrist for new wounds, still the same old scars.
"That's Kite-Man." Psycho Pirate told Hughie.
"I thought a guy with that name would be more fun."
"A judge sent him here after he tried to kill himself in Blackgate. He was killed by Ugly Bruno Manheim in 52, but when history changed again, he came back with a brand new tragic backstory."
"Oh…" Hughie said, remembering he was talking to a man clinically insane.
"His son died but I'm pretty sure he didn't even exist before."
"I heard you, Pirate." Kite-Man said.
"You heard the truth. I didn't use exist on this Earth, neither did your kid exist."
"Kite-Man!" Chuck Brown yelled and tackled Psycho Pirate, they both fell on Hughie. "Hell yeah!"
The guards pulled both of them and dragged the two villains and Hughie away.
"I didn't do anything." Hughie pleaded.
"You were on the floor with the two assholes, you're going with them."
The Boys witnessed Hughie being taken to isolation before the food was served as Waller planned. Hughie went through the metahuman wing, he looked around looking for Annie but not sign of her. He saw Kimiko, who ran to the bars and watched Hughie with worry.
"Kimiko, hey, where's Annie?" Hughie asked.
"Keep walking." A guard said and pushed him.
They passed by the metahuman wing and rich a series of cells similar to solitary confinement, but unlike in prisons, these were actually rubber rooms. The guards forced Hughie in a straightjacket and locked him in.
It was late in the afternoon, Elena sat in the living room of her sister's home. Her sister was not due back until another hour thanks to some work delay. Elena heard the doorbell ring, then incessantly as she made her way to the door. She opened it and on the other side was a woman dressed like a barbershop quartet. There were holes in the sides of her hat that acted as an opening for her blonde twin tails. The large smile on her face mixed in with the uncanny doll-like stare of her blue eyes unnerved her. She took out something from her pocket: a kazoo and blew into it.
"Ooooooohhh…" She was about to sing before Elena shut the door.
Almost immediately, the doorbell rang incessantly no doubt because of the woman. Elena opened the door.
"If you don't leave I will be calling the cops!" Elena threatened.
"Sorry, but my client paid me three g's ta sing to ya. If I don't I have ta pay her back." The woman said.
Elena sighed she had no idea that Maeve would be this desperate.
"Tell her I said to stop." Elena said.
"You can tell her yourself." The woman said. "She's in the back of my truck." She added.
Elena sighed, she felt that she had no other option.
"Take me to her." Elena said.
"Okie dokie." The signer replied in a childish manner.
"She wants ta speak with you." The woman replied, tapping the back of the truck. "She's kinda shy, it'll take her a bit to coax her out. I need to get something out front. It won't take long."
Elena sighed.
"Maeve, I know you're in there. I'm sorry, I thought you would understand after that incident. Is this about Wonder Woman? I can't help you with that." Elena called out.
Just then the back of the truck opened up, inside the back was no one.
Elena knew what was going on she quickly turned around, but saw the woman holding what looked to be a cork gun. She fired, knocking Elena into the truck all while something wrapped around her. It looked like a multi-colored string. The woman, Harley Quinn jumped into the truck and shut it.
"No! Let me go!" Elena pleaded.
Harley put her finger against her mouth and shushed.
"Don't worry, I've got just the thing." Harley said, pulling out a roll of black duct tape. She tore out a piece and put it against Elena's mouth. She then wrapped some more against her ankles. Harley then took out something else in her pocket. It looked like a red sharpie. Elena tried to break free.
"Stop strugglin'!" Harley said as she drew what appeared to be a smile on the duct tape.
"There! All bettah!" Harley said before heading over to the door and opened it. Outside the door was The Joker.
"Sorry, Harley. I thought our passenger would get lonely being all here by herself. Tell you what, you drive us to the place and you can listen to all of your favorite songs." Joker said.
"Really?"! Harley asked giddily as she ran past The Joker.
"Sorry about all the hassle, Elena. Harley can be a bit empty-headed at times, but she means well." Joker said.
Elena could only muffle out sounds.
"Good, glad to know there are no hard feelings involved." Joker said as he sat down.
Elena struggled to try to break out of her bonds, but could not free herself.
"Oh relax, I'm pretty sure you've heard all about me. Especially all of the horrible stuff I've done, but don't worry. I'd say about only ninety percent of those claims are true." Joker said. "Besides, I'm not going to kill you. Well, hopefully, I won't kill you. It's nothing personal I just need something from your ex. I think you know what I'm talking about." He added.
Butcher, Frenchie, and MM lay in beds in Arkham's nursery, they pretended extreme pain. Some of the inmates who had actually eaten the poisoned food were vomiting blood, and Waller went the extra mile to make it look authentic. The staff was among the youngest in Arkham and less experienced in Arkham, as Waller planned and they had no idea who the Boys were. When they checked the Boys' data, they found fake names and they appeared to be non-violent patients with mental issues that wouldn't be too much trouble.
The trio were taken in stretchers out of Arkham but when they were leaving, Aaron Cash and his guards stopped them.
"What are you doing?" Cash questioned.
"They're severely ill, we're taking them to Gotham General." The nurse explained.
"You even know who these guys are…?"
Butcher kicked Cash's stomach. The others dropped the act and took the guards' guns and pointed to their heads. At this moment, the lights went off. Butcher looked at the watch on the wall and smiled.
"Right on time." He said.
In her cell, Kimiko used the key on her inhibitor collar and freed herself. She used her reacquired super strength to put down the metal door. She remembered the way out of Arkham, instead she ran to the isolation cells to get Hughie.
Back in the Arkham entrance, Butcher kept the gun at Cash's head, there was a hospital crew there with their hands up. Butcher looked at them and asked.
"Which of you is the ambulance driver?"
"I-I am." A man answered.
"Give him your keys." Butcher said, and the driver tossed his keys to Frenchie. Frenchie knocked out the guard with the gun and ran to the ambulance. Right after Frenchie left, the phone in the reception ring rang. "I believe that's for me."
MM grabbed the phone and tossed at Butcher.
"Leave now." Waller said.
"What about the others?"
"Miyashiro went on a little detour to rescue Campbell, you don't have the time."
"You'll have to wait."
"An airplane landed near Arkham isn't exactly lowkey, Butcher. I said go…" Butcher turned off the phone. "We may have to wait a little bit."
Hughie scratched his face in the walls, but the rubber room did not satisfy his need to scratch. Suddenly, Kimiko arrived and ripped off the door. She broke his straightjacket and he finally could scratch his nose.
"Thanks." He said. "Are we still on time?"
She answered by shrugging her shoulders and the two ran out of Arkham.
At the entrance, Aaron Cash attempted to grab his radio, Butcher hit him in the face with the gun. Hughie and Kimiko appeared, Butcher and MM hit the guards and they all ran to the ambulance. Frenchie already had it running and the back was open, they jumped in and he raced as fast as he could. They could see the guards following them in cars and shooting at them. Butcher shot back.
"Are we there yet, Frenchie!?" He yelled.
"Getting there." Frenchie answered. "Oh non."
The plane was already taking off, Frenchie stepped further and they jumped out of the ambulance. They yelled that they were there and the back of the plane opened. They ran but there was no way they could get in. Kimiko grabbed Frenchie and Hughie and hurled them both inside the plane, then did the same to Butcher and Frenchie. She tried to jump in herself, but the plane was too high.
"We can't leave her!" Hughie said, he could see the worry on Frenchie's face.
The four held hands and held onto the plane, Frenchie with almost his entire body out trying to offer his hand to Kimiko. She climbed a tree and jumped, she was able to grab Frenchies hand and the others pulled them both inside the plane. The back closed, and they all lay on the floor breathing heavily too tired.
"What now?" Butcher asked the pilot.
A glass wall shut in the front of the plane, separating them from the pilot, and gas was discharged inside the plane, causing them all to pass out.