Suicide Squad: Planet

Trust (No More)

    Poppy rubbed the back of her neck as she slowly sat up in her cot. She had been out a while, and where the dart hit her neck still hurt. She looked down at her hands, at least she wasn't glowing anymore. That was good.

She stretched, joints popping. The door to her cell swung open as soon as the girl stood on her feet. In came Amanda, followed by Rick and a group of armed solders. Their guns pointed at her, prepared to pull the trigger if any funny business occurred.

"Come with us," Amanda said. Then she added quickly, "But don't try to pull any funny business."

Poppy only nodded as she followed Amanda and Rick out of the room. The guards followed behind her, still pointing their weapons at her. To be honest, Poppy was terrified. This whole situation was crazy, and she just wanted to go home and live life like a normal 21 year old.

Amanda lead the group down the hallway and out a door, which opened up into a large, inclosed, prison yard. Like the ones you would see on TV. There were guards all stationed around the complex. Amanda lead the group to the center of the prison yard, and there stood the rest of the members of Amanda's little project.

"Today," Amanda announced arrogantly, "We are going to train for our mission to this new planet. You will all have a chance to strengthen your unique abilities by the training sessions I have set up. Each one of you will also be a part in training Poppy to control her own powers. Does everyone understand?"

The group of vigilantes nodded quietly.

"Rick will go over what each of your training sessions will be," Amanda gestured to the man, "Rick, please enlighten us."

Rick stepped up and began, "Deadshot will be honing in on his abilities to shoot and aim. We have developed several new firearms for this trip to another realm, Deadshot will be the first to test these. Harley and Killer Croc will be learning martial arts techniques and boxing techniques, to develop their skills in hand to hand combat. Captain Boomerang will be testing new technologies in spy gears and hacking techniques. Katana will be continuing her own training with her sword and martial arts abilities."

Amanda spoke up next, "That leaves Poppy. As we have learned, her abilities are strong, but not up to their full potential. Harley and Killer Croc will teach her techniques in martial arts. Deadshot will teach her techniques in aiming her powers to hit targets. Captain Boomerang will teach her how to use technologies to work in her favor. Katana will teach her how to control her abilities through the power of meditation. She will also teach her sword techniques in case anything should happen where she would need to use a sword."

"Um," Deadshot rose his hand, "How come we're the ones training her? I mean, she can't even control it. Shouldn't Batman or someone teach her? And whose to say she won't loose control and hurt someone?"

"Batman at this time is unable to train anyone," Amanda explained, "There is much going on that he must take care of. And in the event someone does get hurt, all I have to do is pull her plug."

"Pull my plug?" Poppy looked at Amanda with narrow eyes.

The woman pulled out a device, with pictures of each of the members of the squad. Underneath each was a button. "One push and you're dead."

Poppy felt goosebumps travel down her arms. This was bad.
 
   "Now," Amanda grinned as she stuffed the device back in her shirt pocket, "If all of you would follow me."
      
She lead them further into the prison yard, to where a large circular object stood. It wasn't too big. Just big enough for a grown man to walk through. It was guarded by heavily armed guards with machine guns.  Amanda stopped in front of it, and the rest of the squad went closer up to the object. Poppy stayed put as Katana pushed past the girl, glaring at her with cold eyes. Poppy raised an eyebrow as Rick leaned closer to her and explained, "She doesn't trust you."
     
Poppy had to hold back a laugh. Of course she didn't. The girl rolled her eyes.
     
Amanda spoke up as the group studied the machine that was in front of them, "This is how you will get to this other planet. It's a portal that a group of top scientists developed using space materials that they discovered in an UFO crash. All we have to do is turn it on when you're ready and let you walk through it."
    
"Amazing," Captain Boomerang mused as he traced a finger over the cold, alien, metal.
  
  "It certainly is," Amanda agreed.
     
Poppy only frowned. Okay, she had to admit, it was pretty cool. But she really didn't want to find out what was on the other side of that portal. The others all seemed pretty pumped up for it though. Well, except for Katana. She was busy staring Poppy down.
     
Amanda and the others started to talk about what they would need for the journey to this new planet. They all started to walk back into the facility building, to listen to Amanda talk about her marvelous plan and what not. Poppy started to follow, but as she was walking, Katana pushed by the girl once more. This time their shoulders connected, hard.
     
Poppy had had enough. "Hey, what's the matter with you?"
     
Katana turned to face the girl with a defiant sneer. The rest of the squad stopped to see what the fuss was about.
     
Katana spoke in some language that Poppy didn't understand, but by her body language Poppy could tell that it was nothing nice.
    
Poppy took a step back, a smirk grew on her face, "Oh? You want a piece of this? Come on then, Miss Face Lift. Show me what you got."
    
Miss Face Lift began to unsheathe her sword.
     
Poppy only laughed, "Seriously? You think that's gonna scare me? You think I'm scared of any of you? Well, I'm not scared. I'm not. I won't let you jerks keep pushing me around. You can go find someone else to bully, I ain't about to have none of it."
    
Katana pointed the sword at the girl, a sneer on her face.
   
"What you gonna do? Cut me up in little pieces and feed me to Crocodile Dude? Fine by me," Poppy outstretched her arms, "Bring it! You got a clear shot. Do it. I don't care. Come at me, bruh. I gotta warn you though, you ain't gonna want this soul trapped in that sword of yours."
      
Katana started to raise her sword, but Rick stepped in the middle of the two before she could charge at the girl. "Enough!"
    
"You need to calm down!" Rick stared down angrily at Poppy, "Picking fights isn't going to make this any easier."
  
   "Then she shouldn't have shoved me!" Poppy argued.
 
    "Considering the circumstances, I can understand her actions. We are all a little untrustworthy of you, Poppy."
     
Poppy shook her head, waving him off and starting towards the facility once more, "Forget it. Whatever. Just take me back to my cell, blow my head off, whatever. At this point I don't care anymore." 
    
"Don't be like this, Poppy," Amanda pulled the girl's arm back, so as to face her, "We need your powers. We need your abilities."
    
"You don't need me, you have them," Poppy gestured her head to the group of vigilantes.
 
   "You don't understand, you're the only one who has your type of power. You can wipe out an entire armada with a wave of your hand. If these aliens are found to be hostile, we will need your help."
   
Poppy rolled her eyes, "Okay, okay. Whatever. I'll do what you want. Just let go of my arm. It hurts. You're squeezing too hard."
   
Amanda let go. Poppy rubbed her sore arm with a frown. This whole thing was idiotic.
    
Deadshot scratched his chin awkwardly, "So, what now?" The whole situation just then had made him uncomfortable. For a minute there he seriously thought that Katana was going to kill the girl. And the girl didn't care. It was like she had a death wish. Although, sometimes he wish he were dead too. Especially when he had to go months without seeing his daughter. He wondered if something similar was going on with Poppy.
    
"Would you like to start training?" Amanda suggested. She didn't seem fazed by the little episode that they had just witnessed.
  
  "Oh!" Captain Boomerang raised his hand in the air, "I want to try out that new spy stuff you talked about!"
    
Harley giggled, "I wouldn't mind learning boxing."
    
The others talked excitedly amongst themselves about the new things they were about to do. This mission was starting to make the group excited. How many people could say that they went to an alien planet? Not many.
    
Poppy, however, was dreading the entire thing.

  ☠️☠️☠️

   
Poppy sat on the sandy ground, making circular patterns as the rest of the group stood, watching Harley and Killer Croc learn some simple martial arts moves. They were all fascinated by it, especially Captain Boomerang. Honestly, it was like the guy found anything and everything interesting.
    
But Poppy was bored.
    
She wasn't just bored, she was depressed. She wanted to go home. She missed her mom. She missed her friends at school. Heck, at this point, she was even missing Mrs. Lard. The angriest teacher on the entire planet. Okay, so that might be an exaggeration, but she was definitely the angriest teacher on campus. She was funny though, when she made sarcastic comments.
     
Killer Croc and Harley had decided to take a break, and now Katana took the stage. She started practicing with her sword, but Poppy wasn't interested in that either. Harley stood next to Deadshot, watching him fiddle with one of his new guns. Poppy was surprised though, when Killer Croc sat next to her on the ground.
    
They sat quietly for a minute, before Killer Croc finally spoke up. "You okay?"

    "I'll be fine," Poppy assured him. She didn't look up from the sandy ground she was tracing her finger in.
  
"Ya know, I don't blame you for getting angry. I woulda been pissed too, when Katana shoved you."
 
   Poppy laughed, "Thanks."
    Killer Croc didn't say anything after that, he just huffed and pulled the hood of his jacket back over his head.
     
That's when Deadshot motioned for Poppy to come up next to him. "Come on, let's teach you how to aim."
    
Poppy got up and dusted the dirt off of her pants. She walked up next to him. He tossed her a gun, "Let's start with one of these first before you try that purple glowing thing."
    
Poppy smirked, "Good idea."
  
  Deadshot took his own gun, loaded it, and pointed it a target that sat just a ways ahead. He looked through the scope and said, "All you have to do is line up the cross with the target you want to shoot. X marks the spot. Don't worry if you miss the first time. Everyone's nervous when they first handle a gun, but all it takes is practice and confidence. Got it?"
     
Poppy nodded, "Got it."
     
Deadshot then pulled the trigger, and shot right in the bullseye of the target.
   
  "Now you try."
     
Poppy stepped up to where Deadshot stood. She lifted the gun up to her eye, looking through the scope. She tried to line the cross with the center of the bullseye. Once it seemed to be pretty close, she pulled the trigger. It hit just a little below the bullseye of the target.
     
"Not bad for a first time," Deadshot nodded, almost impressed, "Keep trying. You'll get it."
     
So Poppy spent the next few hours practicing her aim. She didn't stop until she got right in the middle of the bullseye.