-1-Washington DC, Four months ago....Wilkerson and Malthus looked at each other. They were sitting on uncomfortable plastic chairs in a dark basement room.
"We're in the Pentagon," Wilkerson breathed.
"Yes, I did notice," Malthus returned dryly. "I had called them originally. Some of them appreciated the....sample of your work."
"But?" Wilkerson prompted.
Malthus sighed. "But, I wasn't able to get us into as commanding a position as I hoped. We're someone else's pawns. Again."
"Do you know who?"
"Vaguely."
Wilkerson sighed. "We need to get into another line of work."
"Tell me about it."
"Well, you see...."
"Shut up."
*****************
-2-Belle Reve, now.Sarge Steel stepped into Waller's office.
"Want to check that I'm me?" he asked dryly.
Waller didn't appreciate the humor. After the Enchantress and Frost fiasco, shape shifters had infiltrated Belle Reve, and she had had to kill one that had taken Steel's form.
"We could always take a blood sample," she deadpanned, staring at him.
He blinked. "If you feel you must," he said.
She sat back and blew out an irritated sigh. "You called ahead. I presume you aren't here on a social call."
"Not remotely. Checkmate got a call from the Pentagon. They're willing to help with the Squad...in exchange for some influence over membership and direction, of course."
Waller sat very still. "Is this the President's doing?"
"He's aware of it, but very ambivalent. The impression I got is that the Pentagon would like to use the Squad for some of their own black ops missions. You would remain in control, there would just be some....dialogue."
Waller knew beauracratspeak well enough to understand she would be at least partly answerable to the Pentagon. "Has my stock fallen so far that we have to agree to this?"
"We have to see them, certainly. We can always say no. And honestly? I think it might help to get us out from under Checkmate. Make us our own entity."
Waller raised an eyebrow. "You're in Checkmate."
"That's classified," he said lightly. "And it doesn't mean I don't have my own opinions."
"Could you elaborate, or is that classified, too?"
"Nobody has exactly had any shining successes since the Starro Affair, Checkmate included. It's true you did lose two members--three if you count June and Enchantress as separate people--but at least you secured the staff. Not to mention that you've actually managed to stop several disasters during your tenure as warden, keeping control of that dark staff not least."
"So?"
"So I'm saying, if you need oversight, obviously Checkmate isn't doing a bang-up job. Not that I trust the Pentagon either. But I want to keep all options open."
"Walk another political tight rope, in other words," Waller sighed.
"It's nothing new, Waller. You know how the game works."
"Okay, but we're going to do this our way. I want the whole Squad to come with us." Waller eyed him. "In costume."
"Yes, I rather think they want that." Steel was continuing to wear that politically ambivalent expression. "They want to review the troops, as it were."
Waller hated that. "All right, but we won't enter where they want us to. I'm violating protocol. I want them to know where we stand on this."
Steel smiled. "Ever the diplomat, Waller," he said, but not unkindly.
Waller snorted, but she could tell that, in his own way, he approved.
*****************
-3-The Parademon was uncomfortable.
Though no other Squad member besides Mistress Knockout could tell by looking at him, this world had mellowed him somewhat. Not trying to kill every waking moment, not having to declare his loyalty to Darkseid every second as well; having time to rest, to think, to listen to what Mistress Knockout told him about their new world....
The genetic engineering that created him did not allow him much leeway for thought, but even so he felt more hope....more life....than he had ever dared dream.
His Mistress Knockout was even teaching him the local language of this particular part of the world (Earth it was called, Earth), but that was slow going.
She opened the door to his cell. "Come," she told him in their own dark language. "We are needed."
He rose slowly but gladly. "Yes, Mistress," he replied in thickly accented English.
She gave him a surprised, sad smile and led him out.
*****************
-4-The Pentagon Brass who had contacted them wanted them to come in by the river entrance. But Waller had, as promised, demanded they enter through the Mall instead.
All stopped and stared at them, bureaucrats and military officers alike. The staff running the various restaurants positively stared. A couple soldiers even gripped their weapons more tightly, though none opened fire.
Cavalier strutted in front, arrogance on full display and enjoying every moment of it.
Vixen followed behind him, loping along like the wolf whose powers she had summoned from the Tatu Totem.
Knockout was next, marching along, disdain in her eyes, leading the Parademon on a most literal leash.
Electrocutioner and Manhunter followed then, side-by-side, glaring around like the killer vigilantes they were.
Waller and Steel brought up the rear. They had called ahead and were expected, so nobody opened fire, but clearly tensions were strained.
Exactly as Waller had wanted.
"Not sure about this," Steel murmured in her ear.
"I'm not sure about us coming here in the first place," she shot back.
The Parademon was causing the most unrest, she knew. The memories of the Apokolips invasion were still raw for many. Only that it was in their custody was preventing panic over that point.
"Mister Steel! Administrator Waller!" a thin, nervous voice called. "Would you direct your....ah, retinue....this way please?"
They turned and looked, the entire Squad turning and staring with them without having to be told. A thin, nervous man was walking towards them, trying not to run, trying not to sweat, holding on to a very thin smile. His hair was salt-and-pepper and receding, a pencil thin mustache and sad brown eyes completed the image of just another bureaucrat in shirt and tie.
"Roberts," Steel said, shaking his hand, ignoring the implied insult by calling him Sergeant. Surely the man knew he was in Checkmate now, even if he could not identify him openly as such. "I remember you. Weren't you a Congressman from Nevada a few years ago?"
"Two terms," Roberts agreed, turning to shake Waller’s hand, who stared at him for a long moment before extending her own in return. "Officially I work for the Air Force now," Roberts went on.
"And unofficially?" Waller prompted.
Roberts' grin became wider and a tad more sincere. "Let's just say there are a lot of people, both in the Pentagon and elsewhere in Washington, who appreciate what you do. Come on, let me take you down to G level."
"G level?" Manhunter echoed.
"Pentagon floors are designated alphabetically," Steel put in before Roberts could answer. "F and G levels are below ground."
"So we're going to the absolute bottom of the barrel," Cavalier mused. "How...interestingly symbolic."
"Cavalier," Waller warned.
"No," Roberts laughed. "That's all right. Dark and secretive ops are the norm for you guys anyway. That's part of why we want your help."
Nobody was reassured by that statement.
*****************
-5-They stepped out of the elevator. The corridor was well lit, but musty and vaguely claustrophobic. For Waller and Steel, it was nothing new, it but it made the others various shades of uneasy. Even the Parademon. Knockout just got angrier and warier.
"Ever since the Starro affair," Roberts went on, "Washington has been...uneasy. Anxious. You know that as well as any, Steel."
"And your point is?" Steel said, politely but with an edge in his voice. This cat and mouse game was getting to him, too.
"How often have you--both of you--wanted to be more proactive? Wanted to seek the villains out, rather than waiting for them to cause trouble? To stop being firemen, and start being hunters?"
"Checkmate and the Global Guardians each do that, to a degree," Steel said. He sounded tired. "But no team can really be dedicated to that idea."
"Can't they?" Roberts asked. "Why not?"
"It's just not feasible, or viable. This is a well worn discussion." Steel's tone was flat.
"Maybe that's because we haven't really tried to find an answer," Roberts said. He opened a door. "They're here, General."
The man who stood up from behind a table was Marine Corps, not Air Force. Granted, the Pentagon brass had their own pecking order, but even so this cross-service fraternizing was another warning flag to Steel.
"Waller, Steel," he extended a hand. "I am--"
"General Brent," Steel shook his hand. "You were quite busy with those 'Checkmate' soldiers during the Starro crisis, I seem to recall."
"And Wade Eiling before that," Brent admitted freely. "It was a tough time all around."
"Before Lord shot him," Steel agreed.
"Probably the only thing that bastard ever did right," Waller said.
"Yes, but for the wrong reasons, eh?" Brent returned.
"A tale we're all familiar with," Manhunter said. "Look, can we get down to business?"
"Ah yes," Brent agreed. "Mister Roberts has already covered some of the basics. Let me assure you we do not come to the Squad empty-handed. Checkmate has cleaned up after some of your cases, but not all. Some of the time it was us." He held up a hand. "That's not a criticism, you understand; such loose ends are almost inevitable.”
"To begin, we have in our custody former team member Samuel Malthus, and his sometime geneticist partner Aaron Wilkerson. We have put both of them to work for us."
"How.... charming," Vixen said, eyes narrowed.
"We also helped stabilize the reign of King Twaba after you departed. We have two villains from that escapade in custody. The chemical-wielding Hellbore, and the twisted old man Lazarium."
"Is this supposed to be reassuring?" Electrocutioner put in.
"I don't see why it would be any different from any of your current membership," Roberts said. Waller started; she had forgotten he was there. But Knockout hadn't, she was glaring at the bureaucrat from close range.
"It's the terms of membership we question," Cavalier put in.
Brent smiled and sat back down again. "As I said, we don't come empty handed. Roberts, if you would..."
Roberts gladly stepped away from Knockout, went over to a control panel, and pressed a button. A flat screen TV monitor glided out of the ceiling and locked into place. Then he turned the lights out.
They saw Wilkerson bent over men tables, injecting them with something. "We retained the virus he was working on when you caught him," Brent said, "But we didn't find the plague viable for any tactical use."
"Thank God," Waller murmured.
"But he has been able to create new soldiers for us,” Roberts chimed in. "Not the freaks that wore Checkmate uniforms during the Starro crisis, but simply enhanced humans."
"Backed up by Malthus' robots," Brent went on. "Though we weren't able to make much of either in these past few months. But during that time..."
They saw Hellbore and Lazarium, backed up by small numbers of the enhanced soldiers and Malthus' robots, taking on some blue-clad men wielding strange silver balls.
".... they took out the Anti-Supers Association, which had previously clashed with the Titans,"
* Brent said. "And last.... but not least...."
The image cut to Resurrection Man and June vanishing into a thick swatch of jungle.
*Teen Titans #32 *****************
-6-The lights came back up.
"We lost track of them," Brent admitted sadly. "But they were definitely headed into the Amazonian jungle. We believe they were after Enchantress, as she clearly had some kind of falling out with Moone as a host, but we are unsure of their exact progress. We have continued to search for them, and would be glad to assist you in their apprehension and debriefing. In return for you assisting us in turn, of course."
There was a long pause. Vixen and Manhunter exchanged an uneasy glance.
"How did you obtain that surveillance of them?" Waller asked. She seemed to have difficulty speaking.
"Surveillance is everywhere these days," Brent said, smiling. And the worst part about it was that the smile wasn't in any way sinister or hostile. It was a calm, relaxed smile. On the other side of the room, Roberts was also smiling, nervously, but that just seemed to be his nature. Nothing overtly hostile or sinister there, either. "And as I believe Roberts has told you, we believe in a more proactive approach."
Waller and Steel looked at each other for a long moment.
"Speaking as a representative of Checkmate," Steel finally said, "I find I cannot agree with your proposal."
"And for my part," Waller added, "While your offer of helping us find Enchantress, Mitch and June is very tempting, it still looks like bait in a trap, to me."
Brent sat very still for a moment. Then he blew out a sad sigh. "We had hoped you would be more forward in your thinking. But if it must be this way..."
"It is," Waller said. "We're leaving."
Brent continued as if she had not spoken. "...then the hunters must take out the firemen."
He pressed a button on his desk, and the lights went out again. But there was a dull whine of an alarm, and abruptly the door burst open. Soldiers in dark green body armor and matching helmets were there, as were some robots recognizably of Malthus design. And in the light from the corridor behind, they could see Hellbore and Lazarium.
"They have refused their duty to protect our national security," Brent's voice said form the darkness, not loud but piercing and commanding. "Arrest them. Kill one or two if you have to."
Cavalier and Vixen went for Brent immediately. He retaliated by pulling a gun and firing. He had, in the moment of the lights going down, slipped night vision goggles over his eyes, so he could see them better than they could see him. But even so, he had been a desk jockey for many years, not a front line soldier; and they were much faster. So he only got one shot off. That one punched through Cavalier's leg, but the swordsman stumbled forward and lunged with his blade, grabbing the edge of the table for leverage. His blade found Brent's shoulder, punching into it and through it. Brent shouted in pain.
Vixen smashed the table to kindling with the power of an elephant. But as she loomed over the injured Brent, soldiers and robots smashed into her.
Manhunter was already fighting through soldiers trying to get to Roberts, but that sniveling little coward had already retreated through the doorway, and Hellbore and Lazarium covered his escape. More robots were in the way. The soldiers were tough, but no tougher than Manhunter himself, but they did crowd him.
Electrocutioner tried frying the enemy. This was moderately successful on the troops, but the robots were shielded; Malthus had evidently learned his lessons well.
This was not a problem for the Parademon and Knockout, of course. They were smashing their way through the foe with ease, leaving bodies and broken parts in their wake.
Until Lazarium touched Knockout lightly on the shoulder. She gasped and sunk to her knees, suddenly weak.
"I'm afraid you're outclassed, my dear," the old man smirked.... then the Parademon's axe found his neck. Lazarium's long and eventful life was over.
There are very few weaknesses on the Parademon's body, but the lower half of the face is exposed. Even as Lazarium died, two of Hellbore's syringes found his face and injected their poisons. Neither could kill the Parademon, but their combination produced an interaction in his system that dropped him like a rock and left him whimpering and shaking on the floor in a fetal position.
Steel and Waller were no pushovers, but neither had brought guns into the Pentagon. They knew Brent was pinned down in a corner, but couldn't get to him through the crush of people and robots.
Brent, for his part, had tried to cover most contingencies; he hurled a pair of smoke grenades into the room. On hands and knees, he crawled out of the corner, away from Cavalier and Vixen who were still trying to get to him.
Manhunter went down between three robots and a soldier.
Electrouctioner had had enough of this. He had seen Parademon and Knockout go down; this was not how he was going to let it end. He left fly his electricity every which way, taking down the remaining soldiers and Hellbore. Brent avoided his lightning and scrambled into the corridor, following the already-escaped Roberts. That only left a half-dozen robots against him, Vixen, and the wounded Cavalier.
"No contest," Vixen spat. She summoned the spirit of a rhino and took out four of them with one strike. That left two; they were closing in on Electrocutioner (and Waller and Steel behind him), absorbing his electric blasts with their shielding.
But he stopped as Vixen came up behind them, picked them up, and slammed them together.
Then she rushed to Manhunter's side. "He's alive," she breathed.
"So is the Parademon," Electrocutioner said.
Knockout was groaning and trying to get up. Cavalier was limping along the wall, trying to get over to where Hellbore was to finish him.
"They both got away," Waller said.
"And," Steel added, "We are trapped in the bottom of a Pentagon that now believes us to be a threat to National Security. Any minute now more soldiers will be coming. Not the brainwashed goons of Wilkerson, but honest to god soldiers trying to defend their country."
Sure enough, they could hear the thunder of many booted feet....
