Part One is here. Check out more Mayhem at the library.
DC Mayhem Presents: Suicide Squad #0.2- Deadshot
Each man stood on one side of the hallway. On one end was the former Robin, Jason Todd, currently known only as Red X. Across from him was the world's finest marksman, Floyd Lawton, better known as Deadshot.
"I don't have a key!" Red affirmed.
"I don't believe you." Floyd responded.
Red X examined his target. He looked for any weaknesses, he could uncover in the short time he had left to react. That’s it! He thought, spotting the burn marks over Lawton's left hand. One of his wrist pistols had been destroyed. He also perceived the look of the assassin's armor. His jumpsuit was riddled with scratch marks and fresh powder burns. He had fought recently, but with who? The timer on Floyd's collar was already under the halfway mark. Did Savant send him out earlier or where there more rules that the former robin was not informed of? Right now, there wasn't enough time to deduce any viable answers.
A crimson glare twinkled off of the corner of the single ocular hole in Deadshot's mask as the sharpshooter steadied his wrist. Jason knew of the trouble he was in, anyone who stayed within the path of this assassin's barrel welcomed death itself. X focused, knowing that the slightest error in movement would guarantee his own demise. In that moment he could notice the pressure increasing in Lawton's grip. With one clean thrust, just nanoseconds ahead of the shot, Jason fired an energy projection from his hand, melting Deadshot's bulled midflight.
Floyd rolled out of the incoming blast and returned fire just before the shifting walls of the maze rose in a new formation.
Jason jumped and teleported upward above the walls. As he swung his arms at Deadshot two solid X-shaped shuriken flew toward Deadshot's wrist and his eyehole. Floyd shot one of the shurikens, but couldn't destroy the second. With a quick turn of his head the shuriken missed Deadshot's eye and instead grazed his cheek. He prepared to shoot again in retaliation but Red X vanished from his sights.
Lawton wiped a drop of blood from the gash on his cheek. Beneath his expressionless grey mask he smiled. "That's right, make me work for it. It's more fun that way." He thought aloud.
3 Days Ago
Deadshot was furious. Not only had his assassination attempt on District Attorney Dent been botched, his own client, Rupert Thorne, had sold him out to the Batman. As much as he would love to get even with Rupert he had more pressing matters to attend to, namely escaping the Batbrats, Robin and Batgirl.
What seemed to be a simple task proved to be more difficult than you could handle. Sure to the outside world he was getting his ass whooped by a pair of teenagers but by now no villain could underestimate anyone associated with the bat. Floyd had run harder than he had ever had to before, these mini caped crusaders had been chasing him relentlessly for 40 minutes straight. By now all three of the masks had been battered; the bones in Batgirl's hand were broken from a clean gunshot between her knuckles, Robin had taken three bullets to the torso, they were blocked by the armor but the nerve damage was still severe, and Deadshot's ribs were shattered by a well place staff strike. Running-fighting-running-fighting-running, something needed to give, Floyd needed to think quick.
More batarangs flew through the sky as Deadshot countered with haste. It would have been one thing if the Bat had come himself but there was no way that his ego could tolerate being captured by sidekicks. This time he fired another shot, piercing through Robin's batgrip. Once the grapple shattered the young hero glided into a kick but he wasn't fast enough to dodge the countershot.
"Watch out!" Batgirl yelled, knocking Robin out of the way. The bullet lodged into her shoulder as the both crashed into an alleyway. Floyd grinned. This was his chance to make a swift exit.
VWI-VWI-VWI-CH!!!
Lawton could hear Batgirl's grapple reach the rooftops again, they would try to close in soon. Suddenly text started to type in the corner of Deadshot's ocular monitor.
Three Buildings Left...
Two Allies Ahead...
One Building Right...
"Who writing this?" Floyd asked.
...A Friend...Call me...Savant...
"Screw it" he thought aloud, "anything's better than this."
He followed the oncoming directions as best he could while being chase. After three minutes he had followed the directions to a dead end. He stared at the Gotham Bay until a final order appeared.
Jump.
Lawton mouthed the words slowly to make sure he comprehended them. "F*ck you--you jump!" Deadshot roared.
Time is running out... the computer responded as both teen vigilantes where steps behind. Floyd leaned on the edge than dove into the water. As he was coming to a middle aged man with Red hair punched him in the face.
5 Minutes Ago...
“Good luck!”…
As the door opened Floyd had already spotted a target. Approximately 300 yards away, burly man wearing an insulated suit stepped out of his cell into Deadshot’s eyeline.
As Lawton aimed with a wrist pistol he noticed that the target had turned to the side, revealing a key on the back of his collar.
Too easy. He thought to himself. As he prepped a clean headshot he noticed very light footsteps to his right. Upon pivoting to face the attacker he could only make out red locks of hair rising over his head. Small limbs coiled around his body before Deadshot was suplexed to the wall of his cell door.
He intuitively recovered from the impact of the toss by flipping off of the wall into a nearby guard rail. Deadshot rapidly drew arms at his attacker, but to his surprise the red haired female did not run from the guns, in fact, she smirked. What was so damn funny? Floyd mused. Just then, his train of thought was derailed by a rapid cacophony of noise.
Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The small flashing red dot bleated from his left wrist pistol. There wasn’t enough time to take off the glove.
“Clever!” Deadshot remarked, with a newfound respect for the unknown adversary.
Boom!!!
The microbomb exploded ferociously, propelling Deadshot backward. As Floyd came to he quickly tried to gather his senses. His first response was to check behind his head. As he figured his key had been stolen. He then looked at his numbed arm. Though the weapon was decimated, his hand was still connected to his body. Whichever explosive the redhead was using was as accurate as it was powerful. He used both hands to pull down his collar as he attempted to read below the horizons of his immediate eyeline. His time was now halved, leaving him with just over twenty five minutes remaining.
Lawton rose to his feet. He knew he was down to one gun but in his mind, that only made the match even. As he searched across the room for the woman he caught a new prey in his sights. Across the shifting maze he noticed another walking key dodging turret fire.
I could use a bit of target practice before I start round two with bomb girl. He thought. “Well, what the hell?” He said, shrugging his shoulders.
Now…
Deadshot scoured each of the rising corners nearby, his target might have gotten a lucky shot in on the cheek but no one could outmatch Floyd Lawton in a long distance fight. Suddenly a cloaked figure zoomed between hallways.
Taptaptap!--
P-Taff!
The suit might have made Red X invisible but his footsteps where heavy enough to trigger the turret sensors. When X’s first step lit the floor beneath him Deadshot noticed. Between nanoseconds Floyd used X’s second step to predict his target’s next movement and fired ahead of the third step, grazing Red X’s shin.
Jason teleported away before Deadshot could deliver a kill shot. He grimaced when he examined the new wound. The bullet may not have immobilized Todd as intended but it now left a blood trail for Deadshot to follow, making his suit’s invisibility function pointless. Luckily Jason had a plan as well, but he needed to act fast.
Deadshot quickly dealt with the emerging turrets.
P-taff! P-taff! P-taff! P-taff! P-taff! P-taff!
Each of the six shots terminated the robotic sentries. As a wall to Deadshot’s left dropped, Red X emerged with an extended X shuriken. Deadshot twisted his body to fire off a headshot in midair, but instead he heard a frightening sound.
Clk!
Sh*t--clip’s empty! Floyd realized. He swayed to the side as the elongated shuriken sliced above his kidney and punched Red X in the face. The two masked men traded blows, but at this range, X had taken the upper hand in the exchange. As Deadshot managed to knock the large blade away Jason had slammed him against a wall. Floyd parried the oncoming flurries with a leg sweep an reloaded a clip into his right wrist. Red X blasted Deadshot’s quad and rose with a spring kick, knocking Deadshot back. Both men lunged for the firearm as they locked their arms together.
As the grappling continued, each party struggled to push the pistol towards the other’s head. Despite the straining pain through each limb neither of the inmates would give in. They each felt a numbing sensation overcome their pain. It was a strange feeling, almost as if the numbness was animated. It exponentially swept through their bodies, first in the toes…then the legs…up the spine…around the shoulders…until even their arms where paralyzed. This strong numbness was now a different feeling altogether, a feeling that Jason encountered only once before, one that Floyd had only ever dreamed of. They were frozen solid, left as cold as corpses.
Each furrowed their brows at one another until it was clear that neither of them knew what had just happened. From the neck down they were both encased in solid ice. The room was now frozen into stagnation; the staircases had stopped rotating and the walls had stopped elevating.
The subdued inmates could hear the sound of boots clomping on the icy floor as a female emerged over the white, foggy, floor.
“Well look what we have here, two keys for the price of one.”
“I’m really starting to enjoy this game.” Deadshot whispered to Red X.
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