NightQuinn II: Fear Itself

I Spy

"I spy with my little eye, something beginning with..." Harley, Boomerang and King Shark made their way through the hallways of the Intensive Treatment building of Arkham, casually playing Eye Spy as if it wasn't a life or death suicide mission. "B!" Harley continued, enjoying the game.

"Beginning with B?" Boomerang responded, intrigued. "Well, we've had boomerangs, bullet holes..."

"Blood!" Shark guessed, proud of himself.

"Ding ding ding!" Harley exclaimed, imitating the sound of a bell. "We have a winner!"

They'd been on a few missions before, the three of them. Shark was a more recent addition to the team but Harley and Boomerang were among the first members of the Squad, along with Flag, Slade and Deadshot. They'd each seen their fair share of deadly enemies, just as deadly friends, near death experiences and impossible missions. Everyone was surprised that they hadn't each killed each other by now, but here they were. The Suicide Squad shouldn't have worked, put a bomb in the heads of a bunch of criminals and send them on a suicide mission, then hope the right people live and the right people die. The members of the team knew this, self aware to the point where they know how many times they should have died. Still, they survived despite all odds, they still struggled to get along, bickering along the way and being so wildly varied in skills that they've got the Justice League beat in sheet variety of abilities, which is probably the only category they're ahead in. They were the perfect storm of chaos and eccentric personalities.

As the three team members made their way towards Anarky's broadcast location, the lights suddenly went out. "Not good." Said Harley, trying to find light in the darkness. A TV monitor ahead of them lit up, and bore the insignia of the anarchic villain. Then, the masked man himself appeared on the screen. "You've made it!" He exclaimed. "Oh, I'm just so happy to see you here. Because now, I'm about to show you why this place needs tearing down. You see, people get sent here to get help, Quinn, I'm sure you know that, having worked here. The reality, however, is far different. If you'd just like the follow me, I'll show you how." Just then, a series of overhead lights turned on in sequence down the long corridor ahead of the three. They couldn't entirely see where it headed, the corridor was seemingly unending and dark, despite the lighting. "Oh that doesn't look sketchy at all." Harley sarcastically remarked.

"Yeah, no chance I'm going down there." Boomerang agreed.

"If you wish to live in ignorance of what the authorities here see as justice, just walk away." Anarky bargained. "But if you want to open your eyes, follow my light."

"I mean, the guy's put the effort in, I don't wanna let him down." Shark reasoned.

Harley and Boomerang shrugged and made their way down the corridor, following the lights. As they walked underneath the dim lights, the cells around them lit up. Within them were the corpses of patients, all killed in a variety of ways. Some clearly killed via electrocution, some killed by asphyxiation, some suffered even worse fates. "What you see now is what the people in charge would have you believe is justice. These tortured and murdered individuals who were sent here to get better are punished for their psychiatric needs. Arkham Asylum is flawed. Gotham is flawed. The justice system is flawed. Justice is fundamentally flawed. Yet here I stand, the only man willing to stand up and make a difference. I try to do the right thing, and make a positive change for the good of this god forsaken city and what do I get? I get assaulted by our watchful protector, thrown in here and tortured." As Anarky explained this, Harley, Shark and Boomerang made their way to the room at the end of the corridor. "Now, be compliant inmates, and enter the next room." They stepped through and into a flooded room. The door opens onto an elevated platform, overlooking the flooded depths below. In those depths is an electric chair. "Do you see it? The throne that those in need of mental help get to sit in. The electric cure for the deranged. I think it's time we give those in charge a taste of their own medicine. A light turns on above the trio of Squad members, revealing a control room with Anarky at the controls. He pulls a lever and releases three Arkham doctors hung up by their arms. Anarky flips a switch and the generator for the electric chair fires up underwater. "I'm going to give you a minute. Sixty seconds to do one of three things. One, you allow these awful people to die as I release them into the electrified water. Two, you convince me that they're innocent, and I decide to clear them of all charges and let them live. Or, your third option: You can try to free them, risking everything just to get everyone killed in the process. I'll leave this up to you. Your time starts...now."

Harley looked around for what she could to to help them get out of this. What could she see? Reinforced glass stopping them from getting to Anarky's control room, that wasn't gonna be any help, unless there was something strong enough to break it from a distance. On her left she spotted a weak wall that could probably be broken through with explosives, or maybe just hitting it hard enough with something big, but Anarky would see them going that way. Down below was the electrified water, the generator down there looked unstable, easy to destroy or deactivate. Then there was something else she noticed. Behind them was a large iron door that had been blasted off from somewhere, it looked heavy

She had an idea. "Hey, Shark?" She asked

"Before you ask, no, I'm not going down there." He replied. "I'm not called King Electric Eel, and that's for damn good reason."

"No, I got a better idea." She motioned to the heavy iron door. "Think that'll break the glass up there?"

Shark moved for the door quickly, picked it up and hurled it at the control room, shattering the reinforced glass. At the same time, Harkness threw a boomerang just afterwards. Anarky managed to dodge the door, the glass and the boomerang and went to drop the guards. Just as he reached for the controls, the boomerang circled back around and clocked him on the back of the head, knocking him out cold and saving the guards. The three squad members smiled at their victory. "Look, I'm not gonna say I just saved the day here," Boomerang started. "but if I didn't throw that, they'd be dead right now."

"Y'know what?" Harley looked at him. It wasn't often Boomerang ever had a legitimate claim to have done something right. "I'm just gonna let you have this one."

They looked up at the control room, someone had to get up there to shut off the power. Shark and Harley both looked at Harkness and then smiled at each other, before Boomerang could see, Shark threw him into the control room window. Landing with a thud, he got to his feet. "What was that for?!" He shouted baxk.

"So you can help us save the day again." Harley smiled.

"And also because I thought it'd be funny." Shark admitted. "You see the controls up there?"

Harkness looked at the buttons infront of him. "Yeah, yeah, I got it."

They freed the three hostages and left them to watch over Anarky after having tied him up in the control room. The three squad members left the trap room and went back along their way. "Y'know, this really reminds me of when we had to defuse that hostage situation in Keystone." Boomerang admitted.

"What, when we gave you the job of negotiating with them?" Harley recalled. "I'm surprised they didn't just shoot ya that day."

"For once, I actually agree with you, Quinn." Boomerang smiled, he felt at home as a part of the Squad again.

"Hey guys, let's get back to I spy, I'll start." Shark jumped in. "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with F"

"Gee, I dunno." Harley thought deeply "I mean, I'm thinking of a lotta not nice answers beginning with F, but I was always told that if I had nothing nice to say, I shouldn't say anything at all."

"Yeah, I got nothin'." Boomerang yielded. "What was it?"

"Family." Shark smiled with his razor sharp teeth.