Dick waited patiently for the last set of footsteps to recede before mentally nodding.
It was time to escape.
He grabbed the toothpick previously placed in the tiny narrow space between the bed and the wall but hesitated.
His original plan was to remove the inhibitor collar with the help of a toothpick so that he could take advantage of his superhuman abilities, but the possibility crossed his mind that the collar might send a signal or something to the prison's security systems and directly to Waller and Bordeaux the moment he took it off.
It's better not to risk it, otherwise they won't hesitate to make my head explode and I don't really want to find out how far my healing factor extends. Not at this moment at least.
The acrobat tightened his cracked and chapped lips, doubts starting to torment him.
Would he be able to move with his entire body injured?
Between the tortures that took place yesterday, after the mission with the Suicide Squad, and a few hours before, there was not a single centimeter of his body left that wasn't screaming in pain.
His back felt like it was on fire with around 70 whip wounds in total and he could still feel several large trails of blood flowing like rivers and many pieces of skin peeling off with every single movement. His body was shivering from the cold from numerous waterboarding sessions and his lips were a color bluer than water. He was missing three teeth, his face and chest were full of dark bruises, he had many broken and fractured ribs as well as his bones, his left arm was practically useless, he was forced to limp due to injuries to his legs, he had an annoying and painful concussion, his head was throbbing so hard that it seemed like it might explode at any moment, his chest was badly burned, his body was crossed from top to bottom by numerous high voltage electrical discharges, his vision era mostly blurry, he still felt blood pooling in his mouth and even suspected internal bleeding and had other injuries that his brain could barely register.
Waller had gone hard on the torture.
Dick had counted on all his wounds to heal in seconds once the inhibitor collar was removed, but now there was the risk that Bordeaux or Waller or other agents would notice as soon as he took off the damned collar and he couldn't take that risk.
But it was also true that Dick was so hurt that the success rate of his plan had dropped dramatically.
His resignation and uncertainty were immediately replaced by fierce determination.
I didn't sleep all night, survived death and rape threats, groping and Waller's torture only to back out at this moment. I would rather die than spend another day in this hell.
Having made his decision, the mercenary slowly descended the ladder that led to the bunk bed, hissing at the pain that shot through every inch of his body, and, once he placed his feet on the ground, he avoided falling to the floor by holding on to the lower bunk. He advanced slowly and managed to reach the bars without ever falling and clung to them. He reached out holding the toothpick out of the bars and inserted it into the lock, starting to pick. It took him a few moments to hear the metallic CLICK, a sign that the cell had opened.
Renegade silently opened the cell, closed it without making a single noise and immediately moved away from the camera's range of action, using the moment of night to his advantage to blend in completely with the shadows.
He walked silently, his feet not making even the slightest sound. He ignored the burning sensation and agony that coursed through his body and simply gritted his teeth, his heart began to beat faster, bringing his adrenaline into play.
Thanks to the adrenaline I will be able to ignore the pain for as long as I need.
He passed most of the empty cells - that morning Waller only filled the initial cells of the D wing with new worst scum of humanity who fortunately learned from the other inmates to stay as far away from him as possible- and stopped when the corridor ended, leading him to several paths he could take.
His brain, still dazed and foggy and confused from the harsh concussion and all the pain in his body in general, took about twenty seconds longer to remember which path to take. He turned left, slipped silently against the prison wall, and advanced, still completely hidden and shrouded in the shadows of the night.
Dick wandered through numerous corridors, stopping several times both to remember where to go -come on, brain! You memorized the entire layout of the facility: don't make your efforts useless just because of all the wounds!- and because he ran into some guards who, even if they looked in his direction, never saw him thanks to his extraordinary ability to camouflage among the shadows.
Even though on those occasions his heart was damn near a heart attack.
After about five minutes of silent wandering around the prison -a time that would have been less if it weren't for the feeling that his brain might explode at any moment, both literally and figuratively speaking- Dick slowly poked his head around the corner of the corridor and, a few feet away, there were two guards in front of a door.
That door would lead to the room where his entire Renegade gear had been stored.
Dick pulled his head back and rested it against the wall, contemplating how to eliminate the two men without making any noise and in his current shitty condition.
The woody material hidden under his tongue gave him the solution he needed.
Renegade opened his mouth, raised his tongue and grabbed the toothpick. He turned it between the fingers of his right hand -injured but better functioning than his left- a couple of times before taking a soft breath. He counted to three in his head and sprinted, quickly turning the corner and throwing the toothpick with all his strength.
The toothpick pierced the throat of one of the two men who fell to his knees, making soft choking noises as blood sprayed violently in every direction from the fatal wound. He fell to the ground, unable to do anything but choke on his own blood and be destined to bleed to death within seconds.
The other guard stared at his dying colleague with wide, shocked eyes and knelt to his level. He was about to open his mouth to scream for help but his eyes moved forward just in time to see a blur before a crunch of breaking bones sounded followed by total blackness and darkness.
Dick grabbed the body of the second guard and placed it silently on the ground, not feeling the slightest bit sorry about having just killed two prison guards.
Literally not a single guard in that facility had moved a single muscle to stop the numerous scums when they attempted to gang rape the seventeen-year-old Renegade. Dick thought the guards were just as scum as the inmates themselves, if not more so given the important role they were supposed to play.
Dick dispelled his darkest thoughts and, after retrieving the toothpick -currently his most trusted and loyal ally- he placed a hand on the door handle, mentally rejoicing when he heard it open. He opened it silently and stepped inside, frowning when he encountered total darkness.
What I would give to have my enhanced vision right now.
Dick stood still, not knowing where to move because the room was much darker than the rest of the prison and he didn't know where the hell the light switches were. The memory of Slade making changes to his mask a few years ago flashed through his mind and he felt relief washing over him with more force than a truck going 100km/h.
He raised his hand and activated his mask's night vision, smiling when he could finally see into the room as if it were broad daylight.
For once your paranoia was useful, Slade.
The young assassin entered further into the room and it didn't take him long to spot his armor and weapons in an abandoned corner and his happiness increased when he discovered that none of his weapons or gadgets were missing. He stripped himself of his prison clothes and put on the armored boots first, followed by the greaves and breastplate, mentally sighing with relief as he felt the comforting weight of the entire armor. He fastened the utility belt around his waist and in one of the countless compartments he placed the toothpick, put his pistols back in their holsters, fastened the escrima to his waist and his two trusty Promethium chain mail swords to his back, crossing them.
For the first time in about three days Dick felt powerful again, despite all his injuries. Only his Talon abilities were missing from the roll call: only once he had them back, he could say that Renegade was back.
One step at a time. Having regained all the equipment is a huge step forward.
The next thing the young assassin did was drag the corpses of the two guards into the room as silently as possible and erase their traces of blood in such a way that no one would notice their death, even if it looked as if the muscles in his arms could tear at any moment due to physical exertion in his current totally shitty condition.
Once that was done, with a huge shit-eating grin Dick held up the holographic glove and began typing, albeit slower than usual both due to his injuries and because he didn't have superhuman speed and quickness.
His phenomenal skills as the best hacker in the world remained the same, though: Talon or no Talon.
The first thing he did was to hack the cameras and play the same feedback video over and over for the next few hours. If Dick had disabled every camera, security would have noticed and sent out alerts immediately. Instead, they would never have noticed that the screens were showing them the same video feedback loop since technically no one other than the guards should have been visible.
Renegade subsequently hacked the A.R.G.U.S. systems. It took him numerous minutes to enter the systems without leaving a trace and bypassing their every security and defense system without being detected, much longer than it would have taken him if he were in normal physical condition. In any case, in the end he was successful and in a short time, without giving the feds even the slightest chance of recovering them, he destroyed every single piece of evidence, information and secrets regarding the heroes and their civilian identities that they had accumulated over the years.
Eventually Dick also canceled the DNA testing that was still in progress so that he would no longer have to worry about A.R.G.U.S. would have learned of his and Slade's civilian identity.
He left the room, closing the door silently behind him, and walked away.
Next destination: Bordeaux office.
It took him several minutes but in the end without too many problems and avoiding all the guards thanks to his extraordinary stealth and shadow camouflage skills he managed to reach the door that would lead to the office of the director of this prison and of A.R.G.U.S. Dick knew the woman would spend the night in the office because he had heard several guards mention it in the morning.
He hesitated at the door, his attention falling on the cold metal surrounding his neck.
Dick longed to take off the damned inhibitor collar so he could finally be completely himself, especially now that he had his equipment back, but he knew he couldn't.
He knew Waller and knew that she always carried the device with her ready to explode his head even while she slept and she would not have hesitated in the slightest to activate it and the same was true for Bordeaux for both things.
So he couldn't take it away.
Not yet, at least.
As soon as the inhibitor collar was removed, it would send a signal within milliseconds and Dick did not have the speed of Flash to be able to hack it and cancel it: it would instantly reach Waller and Bordeaux with a specific sound and in this case his head it would have gone BOOM.
This also prevented him from killing or making Bordeaux mysteriously disappear because the news would soon reach Waller and she would blow his mind.
And this is where the hardest part of his plan came.
Somehow he would have to kidnap Bordeaux but make it appear as if she left the facility of her own free will, without giving away any suspicion. All without his superhuman abilities, without being able to remove the inhibitor collar because otherwise it would have sent the warning signal and still with his body burdened with so many serious injuries that it was honestly a miracle he hadn't passed out yet.
Man, adrenaline is so powerful and lifesaving.
Dick took a deep breath, his brain working overtime despite the dizziness and confusion.
I can always threaten her with revealing the Suicide Squad project to the entire world, thereby making the United States and the president look bad. It might work.
The antihero nodded to himself and after another short breath he abruptly opened the door and slammed it shut behind him.
Dick's gaze fell in front of him and he froze in place, his eyes widening in utter shock.
I can't believe it…