As Beatriz Da Costa climbed from the back of the taxicab outside the Citadel, she wondered once more why she had agreed to Sergeant Steel’s job offer. 

In the eyes of many, including herself at times, she was a sub-par superhero who was only good at riding the coattails of heroes like Superman and Batman.  Her role in the various renditions of the Justice League had been nothing more than that “green haired woman who could light stuff on fire.” 

When she had been invited by the Martian Manhunter to rejoin the ranks of the Justice League, she thought her luck was changing.  But that League had been no League at all.  She had been asked to rejoin only after the Big Three had opted to part ways and handle their own affairs.  That coupled with her low self-esteem and Beatriz had left the Justice League once more, her future uncertain.

It seemed like no time had passed before Sergeant Steel had approached her with an offer to join Checkmate’s new meta-human strike force.  He had remained vague on the details but was very intent on her participation.  Bea wondered why he felt so strongly for her, but decided to simply be flattered and sweat the details later.

Carrying her lone suitcase, Bea made the short trip from the road to one of the exterior exits of the Citadel.  When she stuck up her arm to wave a greeting at the Checkmate agents guarding the door, they pulled their guns on her.  Bea stopped and gulped.  That hadn’t been expected.

“You’re trespassing,” the man on the left said.  “Turn around and leave now.”  He contemplated his words and shrugged.  “Or don’t and make our day.”

“My name is Beatriz Da Costa.  You might know me as Fire,” she said.  The agents weren’t impressed.  “I’m here to meet with Sergeant Steel, the, uh…Black King?  I’m expected.”

The two agents looked to each other, wordlessly considering Bea’s words.  Finally, after a lengthy silence in which Bea thought she was going to be shot, the one on the right said, “Go ahead in.  Take the elevator to the fourth floor.”

The agent on the right even opened the door for her.  Neither, however, made any attempt to apologize.  She brushed off the altercation and moved inside.  As the door closed at her back, she thought she heard the agents laughing, more than likely at her expense.

Great, Bea thought as she hit the button to activate the elevator, even here I’m the butt of jokes.  Why did I agree to this shit?  Stepping into the elevator, Bea shook her head.  This was a huge mistake.

The elevator rode up four floors and opened.  On the other side of the doors stood a war torn man who had definitely seen his fair share of fights.  The man’s sudden appearance caused Bea to gasp in surprise.  He had just taken a hit of his stogie when he extended his hand.  “Sergeant Steel, Ms. Da Costa,” he said, taking her hand.  “I’d heard you had arrived.  Welcome to Checkmate.”

XXX

Waller America's Personal Meta-Team...


:Division of Checkmate

“Hard Feelings”
Task Force X #14 - January, Year Six by Matt Hrubey


XXX

Amanda Waller found Neal Emerson standing outside the entrance to the Brig, his body rigid and his eyes narrowed as if in a deep trance.  He made no move to enter as his eyes drifted back and forth across the doors, contemplating what was on the other side.

Amanda moved to Emerson’s side without him even noticing.  “What the hell are you doing?” she asked, snapping her fingers in front of Emerson’s face.

He started.  “Wha…I mean…um…hi?”

“What are you doing down here, Neal?” Amanda asked.  She felt like a mother who had just caught her son getting friendly with himself.  Her arms crossed across her massive chest when Neal didn’t answer right away.  “I’m waiting.”

“I, uh…”

Amanda chuckled as she put the pieces of the puzzle together in her mind.  “I should have figured her being here would have some effect on you.  I didn’t expect you to become a creeper though.  Well…a bigger creeper.”

“I’m not a creeper,” Emerson shot back, “and she has nothing to do with it.”

The she being referred to was Frances Kane, the villain self-named Magenta.  She was infamous for being the only female on the Flash’s list of Rogues.  She was presently residing in the Citadel indefinitely after unleashing hell in the Russian countryside.  She had taken a liking to Emerson that he was trying damn hard not to reciprocate.

Waller waved off Emerson’s defensiveness.  “Whatever.  You can keep your perverse fantasies to yourself.  That’s not why I’ve been looking for you.  I need your help.”

“With what?”

It took a few minutes, but Amanda proceeded to tell Emerson everything.  About the new Suicide Squad, the secret mission to Qatar even the Black King knew nothing about, and how the Suicide Squad had been defeated and half its membership captured.  It didn’t lay out a pretty picture but when Waller finally stopped talking Emerson knew what she was asking of him.

“I’m not doing this for free,” Emerson responded before Amanda could lay out any kind of mission parameters.  “This isn’t a Task Force X op and I’m sure you’d like to keep it that way.  Plausible deniability or some stupid shit like that.”

“What do you want for your cooperation?”

Emerson felt the familiar sense of arousal pulling at him.  Magenta knew he was outside the Brig and she was calling out to him the only way she knew how.  He took a deep breath and adjusted himself to hide his growing erection.  “I want unfettered access to Magenta.  Day and night.”

“She’s a criminal serving time, Neal,” Amanda replied.  “I can’t just—”

“Don’t give me can’t.  You’re the White Queen for god’s sake.  Don’t insult my intelligence.”

Amanda frowned.  “Is that all?”

Emerson shrugged.  “It’s a start.”
XXX

It had started with a simple training exercise.  With one new member of Task Force X already, and a second on the way, the Black King had felt it was necessary that the team members train together to prevent them from falling over each other in the field.  What he hadn’t taken into account was the history that certain team members shared.

The Black Canary had purposely avoided Cheshire since arriving at the Citadel a week and a half ago.  She knew that a face-to-face between the two would more than likely end in a violent altercation.  Stepping into the training session now, however, Dinah knew that it would end badly.

The session itself went as well as expected.  Certain Task Force X members like Black Canary and Captain Atom were accustomed to working in team environments and were extremely conscientious of others in battle.  The others, Cheshire and Doctor Polaris, went about looking out strictly for themselves.  There were a few minor bumps but nothing more.

When the session ended, Dinah breathed a sigh of relief.  Cheshire had said nothing to her, much less looked in her direction.  She could now go back to her quarters, shower, and go about her night.  However, when she felt the foot strike her in the back, throwing her to the ground, Dinah knew that her night had just been put on hold.

“Attacking from behind, Jade?” Dinah asked, peering over her shoulder at the former assassin.  The woman was snarling.  “Isn’t that a little beneath you?”

“Any concept of respect that I have does not apply to you,” Cheshire shot back.  Her fingers were twitching.  Dinah had learned long ago to avoid the fake, poisoned fingernails that Jade kept on her person at all times.  “You stole my life, my lover, and my daughter from me.  All you deserve from me is a swift death.”

“I’ve heard it all before, Jade,” Dinah replied as she rose to her feet.  She took up a fighting stance, her eyes sweeping the room to take in the expressions of Atom, Emerson, and the various agents that were in the training facility. She hoped for their sakes that they didn’t try to get in the middle of this.  “Are we really going to do this again?  Are we really going to do this here?”

“Afraid, little bird?” Cheshire asked.  She was smiling like her namesake.

Dinah growled at the nickname Lady Shiva had given to her.  “Nope,” she replied.  “I was just seeing if you could take the embarrassment of getting your ass handed to you in front of all these people.”

Cheshire lunged.
XXX

Qatar

Her body swayed back and forth to the sounds of the ethnic beat flowing from the decade-old radio.  She ran her hands up and down her body in a sultry manner, causing the lone man watching to smile with glee.  It was all so easy to him, exploiting a feeble-minded woman.  He had the power to make this American super-villain do whatever he pleased.  It was a power yet to get old.

Bette San Souci slipped down the zipper of her uniform, her full and exquisite breasts being exposed to the world.  She took a step toward her voyeur, then another.  Bette reached down to grasp the man when he put his hand up and she stopped.

“That’s enough,” Adnan Al-Ansari, self-appointed ruler of Qatar, said in his native tongue.  “Go amuse yourself elsewhere.”

Bette spun and left, her hips shaking seductively with every step.  She said no words as she vacated the room.

Adnan, meanwhile, sat in the chair behind his desk.  He flopped his feet atop the stained wood desktop and ruminated.  He had almost died again.  It wasn’t the first assassination attempt on his life, but it was the closest he had come to feeling the icy grip of death in his heart.  He had been afraid.  But in the end, everything had worked out in his favor.  He had survived, the city was rebuilding…

And he had new playthings; Bette San Souci, Plastique, and one other.  Both criminals in their own right and now Adnan’s to control.  They were useful for multiple purposes, many of which had yet to be discovered.

He sent out a psychic call, summoning Floyd Lawton.  Deadshot appeared a few moments later, his mask removed but his wrist-mounted weapons locked and loaded.  He said nothing, just waited for his instructions.

“I’ve abstained from reading your mind because I’ve found the events of the last few days…overwhelming to say the least,” Adnan said, knowing that Deadshot would not respond unless prompted.  “Now that things have returned to normal, the time has come to find out who financed your little assassination attempt.”

He read the necessary thoughts, his consciousness sliding into Lawton’s mind without resistance.  He saw the faces of his cohorts: Bette, the Weather Wizard, and the one called Vertigo.  He saw a black woman infamously referred to as the Wall.  Adnan saw many things and knew what he had to do next.

“Find Weather Wizard and Count Vertigo,” he told Deadshot, “and kill them where they stand.”
XXX

Cheshire was disappointed with herself.

She knew a battle with the Black Canary was inevitable, but she had let the blonde bitch get to her.  A few words and Cheshire had cracked, lashing out like an emotionally drunk teenager.  It was…embarrassing.  However, now that she had acted, there was no taking it back.

She swiped at the Canary’s face but the new field leader of Task Force X ducked just in the nick of time.

“Trying to poison me already, Jade?” Dinah asked.  “Roy would be disappointed.”

Cheshire couldn’t hold back the scream that erupted from her mouth.  It was years of built up frustration exploding in one shrill shriek.  Dinah hesitated for a moment and fell victim to a kick to her stomach.  An uppercut sent the Canary to the floor.

“You don’t say his to name to me, bitch!” Jade screamed.  She kicked up and threw her leg down, the added momentum enough to shatter a skull. 

Dinah moved her head to the side just in time, nearly avoiding the fatal attack.  She twisted her body on the floor, her foot catching Cheshire in the ankle.  The assassin collapsed alongside the Canary and for a moment both women simply glared at each other.  Dinah hoped that this out of control situation was over.  A punch to the face told her otherwise.

Flipping back to her feet, Cheshire took up a defensive fighting stance.  “Why are you even here?” she asked.  “You’ve already taken my lover and my daughter’s love.  You’ve made me an outcast in their eyes.  And now what?  You’re here to make my life even worse?  You should have stayed away, Dinah.”

“Don’t you dare blame me for your shortcomings as a human being,” Dinah retorted, climbing to her feet slowly.  “You lost Roy and Lian because you couldn’t stop killing people and take the time to focus on being a family.  My being here has nothing to do with you, I promise you that.  Get a reality check, Jade.”

Cheshire growled.

The fighting continued.
XXX

“This is the last stop on our tour,” Sergeant Steel said as he stopped before a pair of thick metal doors.  “This is the training room.  Its purpose is pretty self-exclamatory.  Right now, the rest of your teammates should be finishing up a team training exercise.  Of course, once you’ve settled in you’ll be expected to participate.”

Beatriz nodded her head.  “Of course.”

Steel typed a code into a number pad situated next to the doors.  A brief moment more and the doors began to part.  The sounds that emanated from within were the grunts and screams of two bitterly angry women.  Instead of the team exercise, Steel and Bea were witness to the battle between Black Canary and Cheshire.

“What the fuck is going on in here?” Steel exclaimed, running to the side of Captain Atom.  “How did this happen?”

“A cheap shot, sir,” the captain reported.  “Cheshire hit Dinah from behind.”

Steel rubbed the sudden exhaustion from his eyes.  “I should have seen this coming.  Scratch that, I knew this was coming.”  He elbowed Captain Atom in the ribs.  “Is there a reason that you haven’t tried to pull them apart?”

“You really want me to get in the middle of those two?” the captain asked.  He laughed.  “It would take the jaws of life to get between those two and their issues.  I don’t even think I’m strong enough for that.  I figured letting them work it out was for the best.  Besides, I was planning on stepping in if things got lethal.”

“Pussy,” Steel muttered.  He turned to Bea, who had been standing silently at his side.  “Fire, would you mind separating your new teammates before they rip each other to shreds?”

“No problem.”  Bea took one step toward the entangled women before the emerald flames at her control flickered to life and spread across the exterior of her body.  She levitated into the air, taking a position over the women far enough out of arms reach.

Fire took a deep breath, and as she exhaled the flames licking her flesh stretched outward, forming into a wall that separated Dinah and Cheshire.

“What the fuck?” Cheshire exclaimed, her eyes following the trail of the fire back to its source.  She snarled.  “Mind your own damn business!”

Dinah spotted Fire as well and breathed a sigh of relief.  She chastised herself for being taken down to Jade’s level.  The fight had been the result of long suppressed anger at first, but had quickly degenerated into a bar brawl sans bar.  Dinah could have kicked herself for her actions, but now the fight was over.

“What the fuck happened here, ladies?” Steel asked them.  He appeared about ready to slap them both upside the head.

“It was a…misunderstanding,” Dinah muttered.

“Yeah, I’ll bet it was,” he replied, glaring at them both.  “This kind of shit cannot be happening.  The work we’re doing here is too important for your problems to be interjected into the mix.”

Cheshire growled.  “You have no idea what this bitch has done to me.  In many countries, she would be dead for her actions.”

“I know exactly what Black Canary has done to you,” Steel shot back, getting right up in Cheshire’s face.  She could smell the stagnant remains of the cigar he had smoked.  “I’ve read both your files and I’m telling you that I don’t give a flying fuck!  This is America, not one of those intolerant nations where people lose body parts for pitiful reasons.  Whatever happened between you two is officially in the past.  I don’t want to hear another damn word about it or you’re both off the team.  That means back to prison for you, Jade.”

Cheshire kept her mouth shut, fuming on the inside.  Dinah looked down at the ground, ashamed.

“Do you both understand me?” Steel asked.

Dinah replied, “Yes, sir.”

Cheshire said nothing.  She simply nodded her head once.

“Good,” Steel said before turning on his heel and heading out.

Left alone, the present members of Task Force X shared a look.  Cheshire growled once more like a rabid animal before stalking toward the exit. 

Bea smiled a goofy grin and waved awkwardly.  “Um…hi?”
XXX

Washington, D.C.

The office of the United States Department of Meta-Human Affairs sat on Constitution Avenue just down the road from the Department of Justice.  The two men stood on the building’s steps, studying the regal architecture of the building.

Preston Varner felt overwhelmed with the task before them, but he knew that failure was not an option.  Not if he wanted to keep his position within the Strong Arm of Humanity.  Not if he wanted to continue living.  He took a deep breath and wiped the sweat from his brow.

“Are we going to stand here all day?” Drew MacKenzie, Preston’s second-in-command, asked.  “Or are we actually going to go in?  It’s hot as hell out here and I have things to do today.”

Preston glared at the man that wanted his job.  He always appeared calm, even under the most stressful of circumstances.  It was something that Preston both admired and despised about his cohort.  “Yes, we’re going to go in.  I’m just trying to collect my thoughts.”

“Do you want me to do the talking?” Drew asked.

Preston waved away the assistance.  “No, you’re here strictly in a support capacity.  This is my problem to solve.”

Drew rolled his eyes as he opened the door to the building.  “Lead the way then,” he said.  He motioned for Preston to enter first and the man did so hesitantly.

The interior of the building was just as beautiful as the exterior and Preston found it daunting.  How was he going to stand up to Amanda Waller, the department’s head hand chosen by the President of the United States?  He couldn’t even handle the building she worked in.  Preston sighed.  This was going to go poorly.

The secretary of the building was a gorgeous, red-headed teeny bopper.  She looked up through her thin framed eyeglasses as the men approached her position.  She pasted a fake smile on her face when they arrived at her desk.  “Can I help you, gentlemen?”

“We’re here to see Secretary Waller,” Preston responded.  He attempted to smile handsomely, but it came out looking nothing short of uncomfortable.

“Do you have an appointment?”

Preston glanced at Drew, who shrugged.  “We don’t, but this is extremely important—”

“I’m sure it is,” the secretary interrupted, “but Ms. Waller isn’t in at the moment.  I’m afraid you’ll have to make an appointment if you want to see her.  She’s a busy woman and only in the building a few hours a week.”

“Typical bureaucrat,” Drew muttered.  “She’s never where she needs to be and hardly ever doing her job.”

The secretary glared.  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you both to leave.”

“We need to see Amanda Waller,” Drew replied, leaning over the desk.  “If you could just tell us where she is and how we can get in contact with her, we’ll be on our way.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“Can’t or won’t, miss?”

“Both actually,” the secretary replied back snidely.  She reached for her desk phone, prepared to call security when Drew ripped the phone from her hand and slammed it back into its cradle.

Preston’s eyes widened.  “What are you doing, Drew?”

“What you don’t have the balls to do, Preston,” he shot back.  “We need to see Waller and we’re going to see Waller.  This little bitch isn’t standing in our way.”

The secretary held out her hand.  “I’m not afraid of either of you.  Now give me back my damn phone and leave.”

“Where is Amanda Waller?” Drew asked.

“Drew, we should really—”

“She’s not here,” the secretary interrupted Preston.  “I already told you that.”

“Not good enough.”

“Security!” the secretary yelled.  “Security!”

Drew reached across the desk and grabbed the woman by the throat.  The shouting ended immediately.  She gagged as she failed to intake the oxygen she needed.  “Why can’t you just tell us what we need to know?” Drew asked the struggling woman.  “This could all be over if you would just—”

“Would you please unhand my employee?” another voice asked from behind the two men.

They turned as one and found the object of their search standing within the doorway they had entered minutes before.

“Ms. Waller!” Preston exclaimed.

“Let her go,” she told Drew, who immediately obeyed.  The secretary fell back into her chair, clutching at her throat as she wheezed.  She was shooting daggers at Drew, who turned away from her as if she didn’t exist.

“What seems to be the problem, gentlemen?” Waller asked.  “It must be important if you resorted to fisticuffs.”

“I’m sorry for that,” Preston said quietly.

Waller rolled her eyes at the man’s blatant weakness.  She looked to Drew.  “What’s the problem?”

“We need to ask you a few questions,” he replied, “about Doctor Polaris and why you released him from jail.”

Amanda Waller eyed both men.  Finally, she walked past them and motioned for them to follow.  “Let’s talk in my office,” she said.


XXX


NEXT ISSUE:  The lights go out at the Citadel.  Chaos ensues.

Story © 2009 Matt Hrubey and may not be reproduced without permission.