Issue 3: "Bang and Blame, Conclusion"

Captain Atom was flying as fast as he could. His silver body streaked through the sky like a bullet. He knew right where he had to go and what he had to do, didn’t he? His mind felt like a pinball out of control. He tried to focus. Atom’s thoughts strayed to his wife Angela. He misses her so much. All he wanted to do was set things right. Go back and undo the wrongs committed by him. Captain Atom was a hero. Nathaniel Adam was a murderer. How many dead? Six? Sixty? Why can’t he remember? He was promised a chance to redeem himself. He was banking on that chance. He just needed one opportunity to set things right. Who promised him? How long was he held in that dark room unable to move, unable to think? Do his memories betray him? All Captain Atom had were images that float in and out of his consciousness. He remembered going crazy and killing everyone in his unit. He remembered their blood on his hands. Wait, there wasn’t any blood! Why wasn’t there any blood? They said he was tried and convicted for his crimes. He was sentenced to die. Days before he was to be executed he was told that there was a chance he could redeem himself by ‘volunteering’ for a top-secret project. He was told he would be a free man. He would have a clean record and be honorably discharged as a captain in the United States Air force. He agreed. He didn’t have a choice did he? There wasn’t any blood! But he was a killer. He would die otherwise. Never see his two kids grow up. Never be able to hold his wife again. They wrapped him up in an alien metal and discharged a fifty megatons nuclear bomb beneath him. Did it save him or destroy him? It was Eiling who had made the promise to him. Survive the Atom Project and you’re a free man. That was the promise. But he emerged eighteen years later and everything he cared about was gone. His wife, his children, his entire life was gone. Eiling promised him a new life, a new chance to serve his country and be a hero. He once again agreed. What happened? Why can’t he remember? Something went wrong. Why did he feel he was losing control? He remembers hearing them talk when they didn’t think he could hear them. They said it was over. Time to cut their loses. He overheard them say that they would tell him that with his Quantum powers he could be sent back in time and everything he wanted would be waiting for him there. Was it possible? Did he agree? Why did he have to keep it a secret? Why couldn’t he tell Eve? He loved Eve like he never thought he could love again? Was she in on it? Was it another lie? Why can’t he focus? No! It was all a lie. Everything! Captain Atom was not a hero. Nate Adam was a killer. It was too late to change the past. Nothing left but to make things right. Nothing left but to kill the people responsible for what he has become. Eiling was going to be the first to die. So was anyone who tried to stop him. He deserves this much. He deserves this peace before he loses it completely!

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. Abraham Lincoln said it first, but these words ran through Bill Vickers mind as he prepared for his teams mission. The sun was slowly rising in the east as he stood on the balcony of the Carlyne house, the headquarters of the Force of July. Bill Vickers is Major Victory and he is proud to see this day arrive. Finally his team was ready to serve their country on a mission they were made for. Eric Blairman received the call less then an hour ago. He was told to assemble the Force of July to take down a group of terrorists headed to Washington D.C. Mr. Blairman was their government liaison and had sent the team on several test mission over the past several months to see how they acted as a team. Major Victory was the group’s leader. He possessed enormous strength and endurance from his government manufactured battle suit decorated with the colors of the American flag. Lady Liberty, it’s only fitting that she is a woman of French origin. She channels her energy-manipulating powers through a vessel shaped like a torch. Silent Majority is a man capable of producing identical replicas of himself, each as cunning and ruthless as the original. Mayflower is a young woman who controls and accelerates the growth in all forms of vegetation and plant life. Finally there is Sparkler. A young boy Major Victory fancies as his sidekick. He has the power to produce firework like displays that he can project as weapons at his foes. “Yes.” Bill Vickers said out loud “We are ready and it’s a good day to be an American!”

The SS1 found its way through Nightshades dimension and Briscoe sat dead still for a moment. When he regained his composure he quickly began to check the flight instruments. Most of the digital read outs on the EFIS had already begun to automatically adjust.

“I don’t think I want to know how that happened or how it worked but it did. Everything is checking out fine.” Briscoe cleared his throat, still not completely recovered from the experience yet.

“Good.” Flagg responded as he stood up and helped Ben get Eve off the floor and into the seat. “You did good Eve.”

“Colonel I queried the ECAM twice. Believe it or not we are twenty minutes out of Washington airspace.” Briscoe glanced over at Eve and then looked back at the control panel.

“Ben, get Waller on the horn. Find out what we are heading into.” Flagg said, stepping out of the cockpit. Nemesis jumped up from his seat and met Flagg in the aisle way.

“What the hell happened? Was that Eve’s doing?” He demanded.

“Yes and we are almost in Washington.” Rick answered before looking over at the rest of the group. “This isn’t over yet people.”

“Like hell it’s not!” Bolt shouted, slowly standing up. He was obviously still a little worse for the wear from his encounter with Djinn. “I didn’t sign up for this kind of crap!”

“Sit down and shut the hell up! This is over when I say it’s over. You just remember…” Flagg shouted and put his finger in Bolts face forcing him back in his seat. “I am not your friend, your parole officer, or your Daddy and I don’t have to be nice to you!” A silence fell over everyone for a moment.

“Man sure knows how to get a woman all hot and bothered, doesn’t he?” Frost grinned, looking over at Deadshot.

“Long as I get to shoot someone.” He grinned back, glancing down at his double wrist magnums.

“Don’t worry Floyd.” Mitch Shelly said seriously “ I’m afraid you’ll get your chance before this is through.”

The Suicide Squad was totally expendable. The government’s super team with one hundred percent deniability if things ever go sour. That was Amanda Waller’s pitch when she sold the idea to the President. Rick Flagg was the field leader of the Suicide Squad. He was in charge of making the right decisions that ensured a successful mission. The problem was, this mission was setup to fail from the beginning. Now his focus had turned to damage control. Get in, defuse the current situation and then get out. Stop Captain Atom from tearing apart the nations capitol and prevent him from killing the man responsible for what had become of him. That same man had been behind the scenes as the government liaison for the Squad, Wade Eiling. Flagg discovered Eiling was involved with Marlo. It almost made sense now, he thought. Flagg had doubted his ability to lead this team after Algeria, that’s why he took off to Vegas. He had been used before so he recognized the foul taste it left in his mouth. He let the government talk him into spying on a group called the Forgotten Hero’s. He never questioned his orders and it nearly cost him his life then. Now he found himself in another situation that was spiraling out of control. Had the Squad been patsies the whole time? Was the entire thing an elaborate scheme for power hungry bureaucrats to have pawns they could use up and toss aside when they were through? Were Waller and Eiling in on it from the beginning? He doubted it. Waller was too much of a megalomaniac herself. Either way, he was keeping what he had learned to himself for now. When this was all over he was going to get answers. That was, if he got out of his current situation alive.

The Squad landed outside of Washington at Bolling Air Force Base. That was where they discovered The Force of July waiting for them. Flagg quickly dispatched half the team to find and contain Captain Atom. Eve swiftly transported with Nemesis, Mitch Shelly, and Bronze Tiger. That left Flagg, Deadshot, Bolt, Killer Frost, Angle Man, and Enchantress to deal with the rest.

“Briscoe! Issue our standard clearance code. That should keep the Air Force out of the way for now. We don’t need our cover blown if it already hasn’t been.” Flagg yelled. “Everyone exit this plane now! I want this ended quickly. Pick a target and take them down. I do not; I repeat do not want deadly force used. That goes for everyone Deadshot!”

Flagg thought they looked like characters from propaganda hate films other countries show to their people about America. Despite how silly they may have appeared, they were dangerous and were quick on the attack. Within minutes a battle erupted across the tarmac runway. Major Victory stood before Rick Flagg.

“You dare bring your filth and bile to American soil!” Major Victory shouted as he leapt at Flagg, tackling him to the ground. Flagg quickly spun around and kicked him in the chest, forcing him to the ground landing flat on his back. He pulled out his gun and pointed it in Victory’s face. “I do not know what you were told but this ends here and now!” Flagg scowled, cocking the hammer on his gun. “Call them off now before someone gets hurt!”

Major Victory lay there catching his breath. “This country will no longer roll over and play dead for you and your kind.” He reached up and pulled the gun out of Flagg’s hand, snapping his wrist along the way. Flagg was surprised at how fast he was able to move. He was still feeling the pain in his wrist when Victory leapt to his feet and in one swift motion lifted Flagg up over his head and threw him to the ground.

Silent Majority was as good as his name. He spoke not a word as he quickly divided into over a dozen copies of himself and closed in on Bolt and Deadshot. Bolt thrashed away at half a dozen attackers while Deadshot kept picking off the copies one by one with precision shots. But as quickly as one disappeared another formed to take his place.

“This is getting us no where!” Bolt shouted over to Deadshot. “There’s too many of them!”

Deadshot didn’t say a word but continued to increase his pace at taking them down until one reached from behind and struck him square in the middle of the back. He fell face first to the ground. He nearly blacked out from the pain of being struck in the same place Rustam had wounded him earlier. He blocked out the throbbing wound as he rolled over and shot the replica, which then quickly disappeared. He had been agitated because of what occurred earlier and wanted to shot someone, but this was ridiculous. He jumped up and taped a button on the side of his mask. His vision filter switched to infrared and he quickly scanned the crowed of facsimiles until he found what he was looking for, the only one that registered any body heat. The original stood the furthest back out of harms way. Deadshot aimed his wrist magnums and fired two shots striking each kneecap on the original Silent Majority. He hit the ground and uttered his first sounds as he shrieked in pain as one by one the duplicates vanished.

Amanda Waller sat alone in her office. She had not been in communication with the Squad in over an hour. Ben told her what had happened in Qurac and that they were almost in Washington. She couldn’t get a hold of Eiling. Everything had fallen apart around her and the Squad. Why hadn’t she seen this coming? Had she been so over confident that she didn’t bother to put all the pieces together when they were right there in front of her the entire time? Waller was not the type of person to wallow in pity and self-doubt. Nor was she going to sit around questioning herself and her actions. She had come too far in her life to begin doing that now. Lost in thought she was startled a bit when there was a knock on her office door.

“Come in.” She yelled.
The door opened and a man entered quickly and shut the door. “I wasn’t aware you were so eager to die Mrs. Waller?”

“So they sent Eddie Fyers to kill me?”

“They did indeed.” He said smiling to her.

Amanda sighed and buried her head in her hands. “God this is going to be a long day!”

Another child? Angle man thought as Sparkler ran towards him. This is the second time today! I should have picked the French dame in the long dress. That could have been fun.

“Give it up, terrorist scum!” Sparkler screeched as he stood ten feet in front of Angelo.
Angelo laughed out loud as the kid clinched his fists and pointed them Angle Man.

“You are in way over your head, my young adolescent fool.” He laughed as Sparkler sent a barrage of fire works at him. Angelo quickly used his triangle to create a small force field, which stopped the assault.

“Well aren’t you a crafty old dude.” Sparkler said half smiling.

“Aren’t their child labor laws your daddy over there is violating?” Angle Man gestured in the direction where Major Victory was fighting Rick Flagg.

“I am sixteen and he isn’t my Father. He is the greatest American hero I know!”

Angelo laughed again. “Well since I know you are too young to know William Katt, I will assume you mean he is a twisted man who gets his kicks dressing up young boys in spandex!” That set Sparkler off as he charged towards Angle Man. When he got close enough Angle Man pointed his triangle at the kid that sent him flying straight up in the air. “Oh my god! Do kids never learn?” He said as began to walk away. Where’s that other female at, the one tangling with witchy woman?

Angle Man began to look around when out of the corner of his eye he noticed Sparkler flying back down with his fists glowing bright crimson. He turned to point his triangle at him but it was too late. Sparkler turned and fired one large fire assault that hit Angle Man directly in the chest and exploded on impact.

Sparkler looked down at Angelo Bends lifeless body with a panicked look on his face. He looked around to see if anyone had seen what happened. He thought about picking up the triangle but instead flew off as fast as he could.

Ok, Mitch, now what? He crushed your hand and it hurts like hell. It will heal. What made you think flying off with him in tow was a good idea? What now? Tell him to go sit in his room till he can act like an adult? This was a bad idea.

“You should have stayed out of this.” Atom shouted as he pushed Mitch off of him.
Mitch looked down but he couldn’t tell how high they were up. He hated to fly. It didn’t feel natural. He charged at Captain Atom and swung at him with his good hand. He missed badly, unable to adjust his balance in the air. Atom elbowed him in the chest. Mitch felt several ribs crack from the impact. Atom looked around then flew off. Mitch took off after him. The cold rushing air emphasized every pain in his body. He caught Atom off guard when he grabbed him by the leg and swung him back around. Atom stopped and appeared to just float there for a moment. The silver metal that encased his entire body was starting to crack. More excess energy began to spill out as the cracks widened.

He watched as Atom began to freefall. He raced down after him and pulled him back up. It was then when he realized what was going on. He held on to the now incoherent Atom and flew straight up. He felt his body burn. Everything felt like it was on fire. He kept pushing harder and faster. There wasn’t any more air in his lungs but he had already forgotten how to breathe. It didn’t matter anymore. This was it. He prayed that Nathaniel Adam would find the peace he had lost on earth. Mitch also said the same prayer for himself he had uttered too many times to count now. He wasn’t afraid anymore. The darkness would soon be gone and the pain would disappear. It had been so long he hoped his soul would find its way. He thought of June. She saw in him everything he had thought was lost. He hoped she would remember.

It ended in with a bright crimson flash high above Washington D.C.

Epilogue One:

Eiling sat in the back seat of his car. He had already put the glass divider up so his driver couldn’t hear the conversation he was about to have on his phone. He took a deep breath and dialed the number. After one ring someone on the other end picked up.

“I am on my way to the White House now. It’s nearly over.” He said.

“It better be.” The man on the other end of the phone replied. “We lost our control in Qurac and it will be sometime before we can get our own man inside the Middle East again.”

“The death of President Marlo was unexpected and unfortunate.” Eiling said. “Captain Atom and the Squad have been dealt with.” Eiling continued in an attempt to shift to some of the more positive outcomes.

“Captain Atom was a powerful weapon you never fully utilized. Also, losing the Squad was unfortunate before we had a chance to use them future.”

“We can replace them sir.” Eiling clenched his phone tighter.

“No! We will cut our loses and move forward with our plans. But we have suffered a lot of loses from this Eiling. A lot of loses that has made you look very poorly in the councils eyes.”

“Well, with Amanda Waller out of the way sir I don't foresee any more setbacks on this end.”

“Yes, it seems Amanda Waller was a bigger problem then you realized .No more set backs Eiling. You are out of second chances.” The man demanded before hanging up the phone.

After a few minute the car stopped and Eiling got out. He didn’t stop until he walked into the room, handed the President a file, and sat down. "It’s done, Mr. President,” he said. “The Suicide Squad is dead. The file on them is closed."

"And Waller?" President Lord asked.

"Waller was confirmed dead last night, Sir." Eiling replied, “And anyone else associated with her and or the Squad is either dead, or in deep hiding"

"Well," the President continued as he leaned back in his chair, pushing the file across the desk in front of him. “I told her that the success of the squad would depend on her ability to be a team player."

"You can't win them all, Sir." Eiling sighed as he got up and headed towards the door.

"Eiling." the President said, standing up and walking toward him.

"Yes Sir?"

"Sorry about your lose."

"It was a set back, Sir. But we will be up and running again in no time." Eiling headed out the door. Yes, he has suffered several set backs but he has never let that stop him in the past. Captain Atom and now the Suicide Squad are on the short list of failures against a career full of successes. Eiling was once again confident as he walked back through the White House. Soon this would all be his! Once outside, he followed a narrow path that lead to his limousine parked along side the road. Another man was standing next to the limo, waiting for him.

"You finished briefing the President so soon, General?" Sarge Steel asked, taking a step away from the limo.

"Well there wasn't much to say. Everything was in my report." General Wade Eiling said as he approached Steel and stood next to him.
"Everything? Even the senseless deaths of American heroes?"

"Heroes huh?" General Eiling clinched his teeth "Steel, we are talking about thieves, murderers and criminals; not heroes. The day people like that become heroes is the day I resign." Sarge Steel just smiled at him. Eiling looked at him for another few seconds and then opened the back door of the limo. "And another thing...." He started to say as he got in the limo but before he had a chance to finish his sentence, Steel shut the door and the limo drove off. Sarge Steel took his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. Someone on the other end picked up.

"Now it’s finished, Sir." Steel said and then hung up.

“Hello Eiling.” Someone said sitting across from him in the limo.

“Amanda Waller!” he exclaimed.

“You look a little disappointed General, or is that confused? Either way, Eddie Fyers wanted me to tell you hello.”

“I will kill you myself!” Eiling screamed as he lunged toward her
“Sit your ass down,” Amanda said as the glass dividing the front of the limo rolled down. He looked up and saw Floyd Lawton driving and Ben Turner next to him smiling. “Now that’s definitely confusion I am certain of it!”

Eiling sat back in his seat. “What do you want?”

“Nothing. Unless you want to tell me about the Council.”

“I do not know what you are talking about!”

“I didn’t think so.”

“The President will not sit still for this…”

“This is the Presidents idea!” Amanda raised her voice at him “I think his exact words were, lock him up and throw away the key. So it doesn’t matter whether you talk because where you are going you will no longer exist!”