Suicide SKWAD

Chapter 4: Three... Two... One...

Six Hours Before Mission 1

"Come on, Lawton. Time to go." Griggs peered through the slot on the armored door, smiling at the prisoner inside. "You gonna come easy?"

"If you think I'm ever gonna let you push me around without a fight, you haven't been paying attention." Lawton smiled at Griggs, knowing he was about to be rushed. "Besides, you wouldn't let it be easy."

"You're not wrong." Griggs chuckled as he began to unlock the door. "Glad we have an understanding, though."

Lawton clenched his fists, bringing them up in a fighting stance. His heart was beating faster, "Let's go."

The door swung open, and several men in riot gear rushed into the room. Floyd got a few good punches in, though he mostly hit shields and armor. It took only a few seconds for him to be forced to the ground and put it chains. It was pretty much the usual routine,  save for the fact that Griggs wasn't kicking him. 

Several doors down, a very different scene was playing out. The cell had been absolutely torn apart- the mattress from the cot had been thrown against a wall, the bed frame mostly dismantled, and various plastic and metal scraps littered the floor. Digger Harkness was sitting in the corner of the room grinning like an idiot. He had managed to fashion a pair of boomerangs using pocketed silverware from his meals, screws and springs from the bed, aluminum cans, a roll of duct tape, and a few lighters he'd snuck from the guards. Say what you want about Captain Boomerang, but he was resourceful as hell. 

He lifted one of the boomerangs near his face, spinning it in his hands, examining it. It wasn't near as pretty as he would have liked, and the edges weren't as sharp and clean as his razor boomerangs, but they would do. He could throw them, and even without perfect shape, he had enough control over his throws to make sure they returned. Drastic circumstances had to call for drastic measures. Even a few weeks inside a cell was too much Digger, and he wasn't going to let himself be turned into some American government tool. 

Digger knew that any minute the guards would be by with his lunch, which would allow the perfect opportunity. The food slot was just large enough to throw a boomerang through. With the correct trajectory, he could bust one of the fire alarms in the hall. And when the fire alarm went off, all of the cell doors in the block would unlock, allowing the perfect escape. That still left him with a spare boomerang he wasn't willing to part with, so he did the logical thing: placed it on the side of his abdomen, and wrapped duck tape around himself. 

Tha plan probably would have worked if the slot would have flipped open and the meal slid in like usual. Instead, as Digger stood staring at the flap, the entire door opened. The door opened, and he was holding a contraband weapon. "Well, fuck me dead, if it ain't the big man 'round here!"

"Drop it." Griggs stood in the hallway shaking his head. "You're being called to action."

"I'm not dropping shit." Boomerang figured he still had a chance of escaping; he just had to modify his plan. He threw the boomerang directly at Grigg's head; it was a direct hit. However, a direct hit with a sharp piece of aluminum doesn't do a whole lot to a riot gear helmet. 

Griggs raised an eyebrow and glanced at the boomerang that had simply fallen to his feet. "Really?"

"It's the thought that counts?" Boomerang smiled sheepishly. "At least I tried."

~~

Meanwhile, on the other end of the sprawling Belle Reve complex, all was calm. The sun shone through a single barred window, the only interruption in an otherwise monotonous cell. In the center of the room was a lone woman, legs crossed and eyes closed. She was meditating, tuning into the universe. Despite the large scar across her left cheek, and tattoos covering her head and neck, she seemed almost monk-like. 

Aura could feel the energy flowing around her body; she could see it even with her eyes shut. Focusing on everything and nothing at all allowed the perfect transfer of energy between her and the world around her. She was recharging. She had to get out of the abyss she often found herself in when without meaningful human interactions. Without interaction, her flow was usually obstructed. Without flow, she went insane. 

She was running into one problem, though. Belle Reve was full of some of the worst criminals in the world, and they carried some terrible energy. She was used to being around bad energy, but it wasn't usually the only thing she could feel. It made the process of recharging and reconnecting very slow, painfully slow. Three hours had gone by since she'd taken her seat on the ground, and she was still there. The only benefit of her environment was that she was becoming very familiar with her teammates' auras. They were rather far away, but when she tuned in like this, she could still feel them. From Killer Croc's familiar maroon glow, to the newer mustard yellow of Deadshot, they were all there. The base colors of each of the people she had met a week earlier, flickering around her. 

Aura sighed and opened her eyes, peering at the man standing a few feet away from her. "Can I help you, Colonel?"

"You're being called into action; there's a terrorist event occurring  in Michigan as we speak." Rick Flag motioned with his gun for Aura to stand up. "Lucky for you, I'm supposed to escort you to Midway City"

"Only me?" Aura pushed herself off of the ground and smiled softly at Flag. "I'm not sure why Amanda puts so much trust into me; all I've ever done is cause her trouble."

"Don't get cocky; you're just the only one being held at this end of Belle Reve." Flag rolled his eyes as he turned back towards the doorway. "Griggs and his men are collecting the rest of Task Force X, and they're gonna be going the same place as us."

"Then why aren't you cuffing me? I'm as much of a threat as any of the others." She didn't exactly believe what she was being told. "Just cause I'm a girl doesn't mean I'm weak, if that's what this is about."

Flag paused for a moment, looking back at Aura. "You're weak because they cut you off, not because you happen to be female. It'll be a few hours out of this room before you get your strength back." He began walking again and soon heard footsteps following him. "Better keep up."

"What's bothering you, Colonel?" Aura wasn't going to argue about her lack of restraints or the fact that she was weak; he was right. However, she was curious as to why Flag's base violet color had darkened significantly since they had met. "Don't bullshit me, I'll know you're lying."

"I'm a patriot, and our country is under attack." Flag responded quickly, but his words seemed cut and choppy. 

"Not gonna tell me then?" Aura sighed and kept walking, not pushing any further.