Heir to the Demon ⇢ Suicide Squad

ii. Pep Talk

MIDWAY CITY AIRPORT
EVACUATION ZONE

Talia grilled the armrests of the wheelchair she was strapped to, between Harley Quinn and Deadshot. She didn't know who she found more annoying, the psycho or the hitman; the two managed to talk excessively.

"Alpha, Bravo team, on me," The man that had appeared in Talia's cell the day before said, as he approached the villains who had been brought to Midway Airport for reasons unknown to them. "Unlock'em."

Talia raised a curious eyebrow at his order. The soldiers did as told and unshackled everyone. Talia managed to catch a glance of every other 'villains' around her. They should be consider more like idiotic vermin than villains, Talia thought and rolled her eyes at the mere sight of them.

"Hi, boys! Harley Quinn," Harley said and held out her hand to one of the soldiers. "How do you do? Haaah? What was that? I should kill everyone and escape? Sorry. It's the voices... " Harley sinisterly laughed out. "I'm kidding! Jeez! That's not what they really said."

Talia gave her a look of annoyance before turning towards the man in charge, who said, "What do we got here? Twelve pounds of shit in a ten pound sack. Welcome to party, Capitan Boomerang."

A pair of soldiers approached he group and dropped a bag before them. A psychotic looking man jumped out, looked around, searching for escape, "Hey, hey, hey... What's going on, man?"

"Calm down," Rick Flag, Talia heard another soldier call him this, said and placed an arm around Captain Boomerang's neck in order to calm the man down. Talia raised an eyebrow at his immense and strict hand of power. He was strong; this fact she had to admit.

"Hey, one minute I'm playing Mahjong with me nanna then this red streak hits me outta nowhere," Captain Boomerang lied and stared down at Rick, who still held his hand against his threat while his back was pressed against a cargo freight.

"Shut up! You were caught robbing a diamond exchange," Rick spat at the Australian and let him go.

The thief acted shocked, "I was not!"

"Here comes Slipknot, the man who climb anything. Wonderful," Rick said, introducing him to the others. Talia follow his gaze and watched a black-haired man exit a government vehicle, before proceeding to punch a woman in the face.

"She had a mouth," Slipknot defended himself once he approached the group, which caused Harley to cackle.

"Listen up!" Rick called to the villains around him. Talia reluctantly focused her attention on him. "In your necks', injection you got, it's a nanite explosive. It's the the size of a rice grain, but it's as powerful as a hand grenade. Rules are simple. You disobey me, you die. You try to escape, you die. You otherwise irritate or vex me, and guess what? You die!"

"I'm known to be quite vexing. I'm just forewarning you," Harrly raised her hand and informed Rick. Talia narrowed her eyes at the unnecessary interruption. The main focus of the assassin was to finish whatever mission Waller had for her, in exchange for Damian's safety.

"Lady, shut up!" He cried at the former psychiatrist, which caused Talia to mentally thank him. "This is the deal. You're going somewhere very bad, to do something that'll get you killed, but until that happens you're my problem."

"So was that like a pep talk?" Deadshot curiously asked the soldier. Talia slightly laughed making Rick glance at her before he answered, "Yeah. That was a pep talk. There's your shit. Grab what you need for a fight. We're wheels up in 10."

"You might wanna work on your team motivation thing. You heard of Phil Jackson? He's like a gold standard. Okay? Triangle, bitch. Study," Deadshot called to him as Rick walked away from them. Talia's attention turned from him to the clothing chests thrown towards them. Talia approached and opened the chest thrown at her and found everything that had been previously taken from her: her katanas, her armor, her blades, her throwing knives, her entire arsenal, and a picture of Damian.

Rick Flag watched the assassin with strange curiosity as she rummaged through her belongings. Her mood completely changed when she took out and held a picture. Rick narrowed his eyes and thought the person in the picture must've been the person she was trying to protect by willingly being imprisoned and placed on a black ops team. His thought of the women softened while he continued to gaze at her.

After dressing and equipping her body with its usual array of weapons, Talia stared at the picture of him. It was almost impossible to forget how vibrantly green his eyes were. Talia smiled at this, before she folded his picture, and placed it in her pocket.

"Won't fit anymore?" Harley asked Deadshot as he examined his mask. "Too much junk in the trunk?"

"Nah. Every time I put this on, somebody dies," Deadshot explained to her, tightening his grasp on the object. Talia turned to look at him, not understanding his dilemma, "And?"

"I like putting it on," He replied with a devilish smile. Talia nodded at his response and Harley said, "Goody. Somethin' tells me a whole lotta people are about to die."

"Yeah. It's us," El Diablo said to them, after overhearing their conversation. Talia raised an eyebrow and turned towards him with curiosity. "We're being led to our deaths."

"Speak for yourself, mate," Captain Boomerang smirked at him and then examined the tattoos across his body. "Hey, what's that crap on your face? Does it wash off?"

"Hey, if you like a girl, can you light her cigarette with your pinkie? Because that would be real classy," Harley commented once she remembered about Diablo's powers. Talia rolled her eyes; at the moment, she thought that if she rolled her eyes enough, they might fall out. Then maybe, she would able to end the torment this group was causing her. I'm surrounded by idiots, she thought with an exhausted sigh.

"Hey, y'all might wanna leave old boy alone. He could torch this whole joint. Ain't right, ese?" Deadshot said, keeping his eyes on Diablo. Diablo shook his head at his comment, "Ain't got nothing to worry about from me. I'm cool, homie."

Talia was able to detect the lie he told. The only problem was, she didn't know whether he was lying to them, or himself. Pushing the thought towards the back of her mind, Talia finished preparing. Once everyone had finished, Rick called them to gather.

"Behold the voice of god," Rick said and held a tablet out with the face of Amanda Waller on the screen. "For those of you who don't know me officially, my name is Amanda Waller. There's an active terrorist event in Midway City. I want you to enter the city, rescue HVT-1 and get them to safety."

"I'm sorry, for those of us who don't speak good guy, what is HVT-1?" Deadshot asked, also noticing the others confused expressions.

"The only person that matters in the city, the one person you can't kill," Amanda informed him with a caustic face. "Complete the mission, you get time off your prison sentence. Fail the mission, you die. Anything happens to Colonel Flag, I'll kill every single one of you. Remember, I'm watching. I see everything."

"There's your pep talk," Rick said after the screen went black. Talia scoffed in amusement at his remark.

"Compared to your shit, she killed it," Deadshot remarked with sass laced in his voice.

"So is that it then? We are some kind of Suicide Squad?" Talia said, with heads turning to the assassin who had barely said two words since they arrived. Rick stared at her with intrigue before unknowingly answering, "I'll notify your next of kin."

Talia felt her heart clench at his words while her expression remained stoic. Rick felt a little guilty about his remark towards her, but pushed the feeling aside and announced, "Alpha, Bravo team, Mount up!"