Post by Ultimate Silentking on Aug 9, 2012 0:15:54 GMT -5
Ultimate Suicide Squad #1
Terrorist Hunt Part 1: Gathering the Team
Undisclosed Location
A bald man wearing tinted rounded glasses and a raven black beard with a stark white uniform sits at a desk writing out a report. The room he is in is empty for a single door behind him and one window five feet and a half from the floor in front of him. Outside the window, one can easily see snow falling towards the ground. The room is definitely bland, but the bald man does not mind. What he does mind is being interrupted as three beings open the door. “Your appointment isn’t for another three hours. So what is it that you want?”
The black woman, who is clearly the leader of the three, frowns at the bald one’s statement. “I am not one of your patients, Professor Strange.”
“I know. But, I was not expecting you to arrive for another three hours, Amanda Waller.” Waller’s frown grows larger at the reveal that Strange already knew who she was. What disturbs her even more is how he was able to recognize her just by the sound of her voice. “I had been waiting a long time for this. But I was hoping to finish my report before you and the rest of Checkmate arrived. Especially after I had attempted to hack into your organization’s files a year ago.” Hugo Strange stops writing and then stood up. He turns around and puts his arm in front of him, as though he was expecting handcuffs to be placed on them at any moment. “But I shall go to jail an honored man. I promise. No tricks. No resist of any kind. I shall just go. If I had properly thought about the consequences of hacking into the data about everyone involved with the U.N. Had I not given into my desire to learn everything about the greatest beings in the world. My desire to learn everything there is to know about this world. I would never have done it. I am aware of the chaos I had spread. The fear that everyone had that I might one day reveal to the black market the secrets and weaknesses of so many important people. I was greedy for knowledge, blinded even. But, that is in the past. I am ready to face trial for my sins.”
Amanda Waller looks briefly at the two people behind her, an African-American male in a bronze costume and another in a tight, full bodied black and green costume, before turning back to Professor Strange. “Hugo, we are only going to arrest you if you refuse to accept a deal I want to make. And believe me; you can make yourself far more useful to society by saying yes instead of rotting away in jail for the rest of your life.” Hugo raises an eyebrow before lowering his arms. “It is true that I am a member of Checkmate. But I am not here on their behalf. I want your data gathering skills and mastery of psychology to help with a team that I am reforming.”
Seeing that Strange is interested and is willing to listen first, Waller continues. “I want you to be apart of a team I call the Suicide Squad. Complete ten missions with us, and I promise that you will have full amnesty.”
Strange rubs his chin before responding. “And if I refuse, I will have to go to prison, where I belong. I have been off the grid, so to speak, for ten years. Not counting last year when my greed for knowledge got the better of me. So, events may have happened that would change your behavior. But if memory of what my psychological report on you is correct, the core mission of this Suicide Squad will most likely be to eliminate high level threats, steal important data from countries, and to sabotage the works of the illegal kind in ways that would get you in jail if the United Nations ever found out? And the mortality rate is extremely high, especially given the name of the team?” As Amanda gives a simple nod, Hugo smiles in anticipation. “I fully trust you that the targets will deserve what’s coming to them. I’m in.”
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Streets of Metropolis
Lester Buchinsky, also known as Electrocutioner, is running through the streets of Metropolis as cops shoot at him. Sure, the suit he wears give him powers. But he can only discharge electricity out of his hands. He doesn’t have anything that can protect him from bullets. Well, he can try to fry the guns, but there are too many cops in the area. If only he hadn’t fried one of the MPD. Then they wouldn’t have gone to such extremes to take him down.
Lester takes a quick turn into an alleyway. He sees a ladder leading to a fire escape. He makes a quick jump and manages to grab onto the bottom rung. He then starts to climb until a cop shoots him in the arm. Screaming with pain, Lester lets go. Only to be caught by someone who was already on the fire escape. “Electrocutioner, I am the Bronze Tiger. I have a deal to make as soon as we get away from here. You will either say yes, or you shall be heading to jail for thievery, breaking and entering, assault, especially assaulting a cop, and murder.” He then hauls Lester up just as a man in a black and green costume distracts the cops away from the two of them.
Lester and Bronze Tiger soon arrive on a rooftop where a small helicopter is found. The Electrocutioner looks in confusion under his mask at the airborne transport. “We are getting away in that? You realize this city is protected by a guy who can fly, right?!”
“From what I can gather on the psychology of the so called Superman, I doubt he will show up.” Lester and Tiger turn to Hugo Strange as the bald man opens the door of the helicopter. “But first I want to ask you something on the behalf of our employer. What are you willing to give up just to keep yourself out of jail?”
The Electrocutioner does not respond for several seconds. He then hears the sound of cops trying to get up the fire escape. The man in the strange costume that Lester had spotted earlier apparently wasn’t able to keep all of them away. “My life.” Hugo smiles at the irony of the man’s words. He then nods towards Bronze Tiger who immediately punches the Electrocutioner out.
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Bank of America in Malibu, California
A man in a green costume and orange antennas whistles loudly as he puts a bunch of money into a sack. “Boy, this is a breeze! I have robbed ten banks all over the world already and no one has even tried stopped me. Maybe I should hit Gotham next.” He then puts the bag over one shoulder before his antennas glowed. He then appeared in an abandoned warehouse. “Cliché, I know. But there is a reason why robbers and gangsters use warehouses as a base of operations. Especially ones that are abandoned. Now, what was I saying again? Oh yes, Gotham.” He then dumped the contents onto the ground before teleporting back into the bank. “Oh sure, there is that mythical Batman. If you ask me, the reports on that guy makes him seem like a creepy non-sparkling vampire. But I bet I can handle him. Okay, maybe not in a straight up fight, but he can’t catch me.”
The man then wistfully grabs even more money and puts it into his sack. “Maybe I should go to Blüdhaven? I hear that there is this new superhero there called Spoiler. I even hear rumors that Spoiler is actually a girl! Maybe I can get her to go on a date with me sometime?” After stuffing the sack, the man teleported back to his hideout. “But with my luck, which is bad outside of thievery, the rumors about Spoiler being female will be false. Or is simply underage. Teenagers, will do anything to get out of homework, am I right?!”
He then transported back to the bank after dumping the contents of the sack. “Or maybe I should quit this gig. It is getting boring, although it has made me a rich man. Plus, no one knows that I did them. Maybe I should try to apply for the JSA? Imagine that. I, the great and powerful Ambush Bug, part of the Justice Society! Although, they should change their name to something cooler. Maybe the Justice Leag-?” Ambush Bug then stops his rambling as he feels a strong fist connect with the back of his head. “What the freaking hell?!” He then sees an African-American male who is astonished to see Bug is still conscious. “What is with the face? The suit does more then just this, you know.”
He then disappears before Bronze Tiger could get him. “Yeah, good riddance to you, buddy! Now to- Aw, come on!” Ambush Bug finds a man wearing a bandana around his head with glowing hands.
“Irwin, come with me. The people I work for want to-” But before the Electrocutioner could finish his sentence, Ambush Bug already disappeared. “…should have fried him when I had the chance.”
Meanwhile, Ambush Bug is breathing heavily on his back on top of a rooftop in Malibu. “Okay Ambush. You almost got knocked out by some dude in a costume. You then get back to your fun little warehouse only to find it compromised by another dude in a costume. And then you teleported the heck out of there before you could be harm, but left the money you stole in the process. And now you are on top of a random rooftop, all…alone…” Ambush Bug then stood up and jumped to the left as a man in a black and green costume tried to tackle him. “Leave me alone, you asshole!” Ambush Bug then teleported out of there.
Multiplex then stood up in anger at missing an easy target. He then heard a voice in his head. The voice of the ever annoying, to him at least, Hugo Strange. “Don’t worry, clone #3. Return to the original Multiplex. Although it is hard to figure out the mind of Irwin Schwab, I am certain that he will have randomly teleported somewhere near clone #5.”
At that moment, another clone of Multiplex then saw Ambush Bug appear right in front of him leaning against a wall trying to catch his breath. “That… was… too close.” The poor thief was then tackled by the Multiplex clone and got stabbed by a needle before teleporting again. “Why does everyone want me?! I am just a nobody thief who simply gets lucky! You don’t have to go to such extremes to catch me!” He looks around and sees no one is around him. And that he is on another rooftop. How original… “Oh. Must have given them the slip.” A second later, Irwin feels something grab one of his legs and pull him down onto the ground, making him hit it face first, before he could teleport away. Having hit his head hard, Irwin is temporarily dazed before Multiplex grabbed said head.
“Listen, Irwin! A clone of mine has injected a bunch of nanobots in you! These nanobots are programmed to explode if you stray away from a certain person in a certain amount of distance. Or if a button is pushed. You want to live, right? And especially not go to jail?” After Ambush Bug squeaked out a yes, Multiplex continued. “Good. Remember the nanobots when you wake up.” He then stomps on Irwin’s head, finally knocking him out.
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Random Peruvian Cell
A guard reluctantly opens the cell door and lets Lester, out of costume, and Benjamin Turner, aka Bronze Tiger who is also out of costume, in to speak with the occupant inside. The guard then addresses the two in English. “You get 15 minutes. When done talking, you both leave. Understood?” As soon as the two made it clear that they understood the guard turns towards the occupant who sits silently on his bed. “Paul Dekker. You have guests. 15 minutes!” The guard then leaves the three men alone.
Benjamin looks at the helmet in his hands and shudders at the feelings of déjà vu. This feels too much like when he recruited Thinker. Hopefully, this man won’t meet the same fate as the now deceased Suicide Squad member. “Paul, I have a present for you.” He then handed Mr. Dekker the helmet and he begins to feel it over. He gasps with surprise and has a face of wonder at the familiarity of the helmet. “Paul Dekker, aka Crazy Quilt. I will warn you that this just a copy of the actual helmet. You will be to have your sight back, but you won’t have the same capabilities as the real one.”
Quilt doesn’t respond as he slowly puts the helmet on. After a couple of seconds, he quietly sobs into his hands. “I… I can see! I can see again!” The man stops and wipes the tears from his eyes as he looks at the two before him. “I am guessing that you only hand this to me to partially earn my trust?” As Lester nods, Quilt just sighs before he continues to talk. “Okay, let’s hear it. What do you want?”
This time, Lester responds instead of Tiger. “We want to sign you up for a group called Suicide Squad. You will do dangerous missions for the ‘good’ of the world. I am not sure how much you will have to do before you are let free. That will be told to you directly by our boss. We promise that if you make it out alive, you will be free of all charges. You can do whatever you please with your Crazy Quilt helmet. Refuse, we take away the helmet you currently have and let you rot in this cell.” Quilt scratches his chin, before nodding yes. “Good. We will give you the real helmet back at base. I will go pay for your release right now.”
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Suicide Squad HQ, two weeks after the recruitment process
“The guard then fell on his bum and asked ‘Who are you?’ And I answered ‘I’m the goddamned Ambush Bug!’ It was hilarious! And yet, I felt as though I heard it before. Like in some universe, a crime fighter said a form of it at least once and a lot of people in another universe where that universe is false makes other variants of it. Like it became a huge internet meme! Honestly, sometimes I think this world is false and is just some writing that a nerd is hammering out on a computer. Get what I am saying, doc?” Irwin then looks at Hugo Strange to see his response.
“You are an interesting case, Mr. Schwab. But, I want to bring a few details to light before we continue with your session. One, I am a professor, not a doctor. Two, please sit in a chair. It is unhealthy for your mind to pretend that you are lying on a sofa. And, no. I won’t try to order one just so you can lie down while we talk.” Irwin sighs in defeat as he stood up from the floor and sits down in the only other chair in the room. “Now, tell me. How long has it been since you were unable to remove your suit and how does it feel to be stuck in it?”
Before Ambush Bug could answer, a voice goes out from the loud speaker. “Suicide Squad! Report to the main lobby. Incoming transmission from Amanda Waller.” Hugo Strange stands up, relieved for the interruption, and walks out of the room. Ambush Bug follows in sadness that something had interrupted his fun session with Strange.
Soon, everyone arrives, all feeling bitter that their activities were interrupted. Though everyone is in anticipation for their first, except for Bronze Tiger and Multiplex, assignment. Their first step towards freedom. Soon, Amanda Waller appears on the big screen in the lobby. “Squad, I have received word about a terrorist group operating in France. Checkmate refuses to think of them as a big enough threat for them to worry about. But I don’t want to take chances. I have reason to believe that they will blow up parts of the Eiffel Tower and cause it to fall onto a huge portion of France. I want you to find their leader, kill him, and completely decimate his group. Lethal force is allowed. I want this to be swift and efficient. Bronze Tiger will be the field commander. Hugo Strange will stay here and give radio support. Stray too far or disobey his orders for the wrong reasons, and the nanobots within you will go off. Waller, out.” Ambush Bug immediately jumped and shouted out “Road trip”. This caused some of the members to face palm themselves and wonder why he is even here.