You’ll have to play some hide and seek first.

*Whomp-whomp-whomp*

The deafening noise of the helicopter’s rotors could barely drown out the screaming choir of emergency sirens emanating from the dark city below.

“Jeeeezus. This city will never recover from this,” you muttered into the mic of your communication headset.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic darling. Gotham’s come back from worse,” Catheryn replied via the headset.

You continued to stare down at the dark concrete jungle where millions of lights are glimmering up into the night sky from below like a galaxy of stars while numerous columns of smoke and flames continued to rise across the city-scape, threatening to blot out their shine.

“This looks worse than Kabul at the height of the war. Shouldn’t the national guard do something about this?” You asked.

“If it goes out of control, the governor will probably make that call,” replied Catheryn.

“This is considered still under control?”

Catheryn chuckled. “Like I said, Gotham’s seen worse. But I agree this is a little more severe than usual. I think I have an idea why that is. Gotham’s the domain of the Batman, and he is a little preoccupied at the moment together with his Justice League friends.”

“Are you telling me the entire city’s contingency against collapse hangs on a single emo-goth guy who dresses up as a bat?”

“Worked pretty well so far. Don’t fix what’s broken. That’s the motto of most local governments nowadays.”

“Damn. America’s fucked.”

“Batman being out of town could actually be a blessing in disguise. He doesn’t take kindly to external elements meddling in his city. But you should still keep a lookout for the other costumed vigilantes who calls Gotham home. There is more than one bat in this city and intel has confirmed that several of them are currently active down there, trying to bring order back to Gotham.”

“They wouldn’t mess with us would they? Aren’t they on the side of the law?”

“We’re not the law, John. Remember, we don’t even exist.”

You sighed and scratched your cheek over the black balaclava mask you are currently wearing to conceal your face. “Right… Hush-hush.”

“I’ll go over the brief one more time,” Catheryn said, “Here’s what we know. A group of high-risk inmates who escaped Belle Reeve has returned to Gotham and decided to cause a ruckus. There doesn’t appear to be a clear objective for this other than to cause rampant anarchy. It is highly likely that each of these villains have their own agenda in mind and is only using the chaos as cover for their own activities. They have busted open Arkham asylum and a couple of other high-security prisons and also encouraged local criminal elements to join the fray.”

You absent-mindedly checked your battle-rifle and other gear as you listened.

Catheryn continued, “Your objective is to recapture 5 targets whom intel has confirmed to be present in Gotham City. You’ll be able to use the chaos brewing below to your advantage. It would be preferable to keep collateral to a minimum, but as is always the case in our line of work, it will be left to your discretion. Accomplishing the objectives comes first above all else.”

“Only five targets? According to the reports there’s got to be at least a hundred nutty costumed freaks crawling around in this god-forsaken city. I could always snag us a few more for the squad.”

“Your enthusiasm is heart-warming, darling. But we’re trying to assemble a lean team here, not an army. After Waller’s debacle, the higher-ups are a little leery about the continued viability of Task **** X and they have tightened our purse-strings somewhat. We’re aiming for candidates with skillsets of proven utility… and susceptibility to our control protocols, if you catch my drift?”

“Gotcha.”

“Of course, if you come across another viable target or two who fits the criteria for our Suicide Squad… Well, just subdue them and radio them in. We’ll pick them up like the others. We can always get rid of them later if it doesn’t work out.”

“You’re one stone cold bitch, you know that?”

“Hahaha. I’m running a government-sanctioned clandestine **** of violent super-criminals, not a daycare.”

You glanced over your shoulder at the only other person in the back of your chopper. The cool redhead, Anastasia, was decked out in black tactical gear like you and cradling her own rifle. She wore a face mask that covered only the lower part of her face and her red hair was secured neatly on her head in a bun. She was gazing quietly out the door on her side of the helicopter.

“Honestly, I was expecting a bigger team than just the two of us,” you said to Catheryn.

“We’re stretched pretty thin. Most of our operatives are scouring the world for other candidates and escapees. Agent Redline is the best operative I have ever known. You’ve read her file, so I recommend you trust her judgement on the field, particularly in combat.”

“Yeah… about that…” you muttered as you raised your rifle and aimed it at Anastasia’s head.

The red haired agent glanced at you, her face impassive as always.

“You felt that?” You asked.

“No. I’m on comms and I could tell from the sound of your voice that you are being an imbecile,” Anastasia replied, “Also your safety is engaged.”

You lowered your rifle and chuckled. “Your file says you perceive lines which are theorized to be manifestations of causality. What does that even mean? Can you see the threads of fate or something? Are you a fortune teller?”

Anastasia seemed to ponder the question for a moment. “I see only the red lines,” she finally answered, “And they always lead to ****. The redder they are, the closer they are to ****. It would be more accurate to call me a misfortune teller.”

“Damn, that’s actually pretty cool!” You exclaimed, “So you can sense bad luck? What do you say we hit up Las Vegas after this op?”

Anastasia rolled her eyes. “Not bad luck. Just ****. If you’re planning to use my ability to gamble, it wouldn’t do you much good, unless…”

“Unless?”

“The red lines signify one’s proximity to ****, so the only way it would work is if losing the gamble would cost you your life. Or at the very least maim you enough to threaten your continued survivability in the short run.”

“So if I decide to blow my brains out if I don’t win at blackjack?”

“That might work, but you’ll have to truly mean it. It’ll work better if the circumstance is out of your control. Like a bomb in your head that will go off right away the moment you lose a round.”

“Now that’s way less cool. So how accurate are these… red lines?”

“From my experience, they’ve always held true. Also, you should consider that even if I can sense these red lines, the best I can do in most cases is to walk away from them. I can’t stop **** if the conditions are ripe and imminent for it to manifest. So in your Las Vegas scenario, I might very well just slip away and leave you at the blackjack table if your hand puts too many red lines on you.”

“That’s an incredibly reassuring thought coming from someone who’s supposed to have my back on this mission.”

“Stop teasing Mac Daddy, Agent Redline,” Cathryn said, “And get ready, the both of you. We’re approaching the last known location of your first target.”

You glanced out the door again as your chopper started circling the rooftop of an office high-rise in the heart of Gotham.

“Which target is that?” You asked.

“The loudest and least conspicuous of the bunch. She’s the easiest to track so far. Harley Quinn,” Catheryn replied.

You snorted. “The clown girl? This is gonna be a breeze. She doesn’t even have any powers.”

“Be careful… Daddy. She’s one of the most dangerous and longest surviving member of the previous Suicide Squad. She has quite literally become the face of the squad. That accounts for something.”

“Yeah, yeah…” You mumbled as the chopper came to hover over the building’s rooftop. You grabbed the secured grappling line and leaned out of the door, preparing to grapple down. Suddenly, Redline slammed into you from behind and pushed you out of the chopper.

“Look out! INCOMING!!!” You heard the chopper pilot scream just as you tumbled out of the helicopter.

As you fell towards the building’s rooftop, you watched the helicopter attempt to veer violently away from the roof but a glowing missile immediately slammed into its side, triggering a massive explosion.

You hit the ground hard. Luckily the helicopter wasn’t hovering too high up from the roof to cause you serious damage from the fall, but you still got all the wind knocked out of you.

Redline landed beside you a split second later and rolled forwards nimbly. She immediately scooted across the open ground to take cover behind a large AC compressor unit.

Coughing and groaning, you turned around to look for the chopper but it was already gone. Literally a split second later you heard a loud explosion rock the streets at the foot of the building.

“Were there r-red lines?” You sputtered weakly at Agent Redline.

“Not anymore…” Redline replied, cocking her rifle, “For now. I recommend that you take cover.”

“Fucking hell…” you groaned, crawling to take shelter behind a separate AC unit a short distance to the right of Redline.

“Yoooo hoooo!” A cheery feminine voiced suddenly called out from across the rooftop.

Cautiously you poked your head out from behind cover to look in the direction of the voice. You noticed a perky figure standing on top of a raised platform with railings where the roof entrance was.

You recognized Harley Quinn immediately from the pictures from your briefing. The nubile, punky, bright-blonde haired girl wore her hair in messy pigtails with blue and pink highlights. She wore heavy makeup which did little to detract from her natural beauty and was clad in tight risqué shorts, top, and fishnet leggings that revealed much of her fit, toned body. She was lazily hoisting an empty, smoking, spent RPG rocket launcher on her shoulder as she bent forwards and squinted in your direction with a hand placed over her brow, trying to spot you against the backdrop of the burning city.

“Oooh, there you ahhh!” Harley Quinn squealed in her heavy Brooklyn accent. “I knew if I left some breadcrumbs, someone looking to crash Mistah J’s party would bound to show uppp! But I was hoping to catch a couple of bats, not a couple of rats!”

As she spoke, Harley nonchalantly dropped the spent rocket launcher and picked up a compact submachine gun instead. She started spraying bullets in your direction, while you quickly ducked behind cover again.

“Rats are just bats without wings anyways, so die you bastards! Ahahahaha…” Harley cackled maniacally as she peppered your location with lead.

Harley ran through her magazine within seconds. “Just a moment. Stay riggghhht there while I reload this thing!” She exclaimed cheerily.

You and Redline immediately aimed your rifles out of cover and blasted away at Harley who squealed and dipped down for cover.

“Heyyyyy! Ruddde!” Harley cried out, “And two against one is so unfair. Can’t blame me now for balancing the scales, can ya?! Go get them boys!”

You heard multiple crazed chuckles and approaching heavy footsteps. Suddenly, multiple bursts of gunfire started to rain down on your cover again.

You carefully checked your flanks and spotted several armed henchmen in clown masks circling towards your position. You took several shots at them and managed to hit one while the others immediately ducked and scattered, whooping and giggling like a pack of laughing hyenas.

You glanced back over your shoulder to check on Redline and discovered that she was already gone. As if on cue, some more gunfire started going off indiscriminately in the distance, accompanied by panicked cries from the henchmen.

“What the! Get that chick!” Someone could be heard yelling.

“Where is she? Where is… Arghhhhh!” Someone else screamed out.

Your military training kicked in and you started moving cover to cover to flank the enemies on your side.