...and someone else did. The helicopter sent in to evac the group was outside, most of the ARGUS agents had already exited the surrounding areas around the lab as well. It was loud. Between the techno organism roaring in pain, the helicopters, explosions, it was hard for anybody to really hear anything.

Five minutes earlier...

Between the phasing attacks of Red Ghost and the pinpoint accuracy of 'Ed' and Daz, the blue humanoid defense robot didn't stand a chance. Once Team 1 had reached the panic room, Cecil cracked the security system to get the Professor and his son Ted out in one piece. With Daz calling the shots Team 1 beat Team 2 to the extraction point. The Red Ghost just kinda floated, Ed and Cecil were both out of breath, and Daz just looked even more like the Terminator with small cuts and bruises as visible as her cybernetics from coming into close quarters combat with the blue defense android developed by Kord. King Shark and Vigilante both got word from Waller to make it to the extraction zone, the two of them were both now players in a much larger game that Waller was involved in. She didn't want to lose either, but she didn't mind losing an alien or random metahuman criminal once in awhile.

"Holy **** what a rush!" Ghost exclaimed looking around at his teammates, and the two people they were sent in to rescue. There were maybe four other agents of ARGUS on the transport as well, presumably to keep the team in check. The giant shark man scared the fourteen year old Ted Kord who just cowered behind his father. Nobody knew what happened next. Was the team to be locked up again until needed, would they ever find out why and how the Prof. knew Waller enough to call her? Time might tell sooner or later, but some of the members of Task Force X would likely be dead before finding out the answers to some of the questions.

"Thank you. Thank you all..." Prof. Kord said to everyone on board.

In the distance behind them, a fighter plane could be seen dropping two bombs on the lab that were sure to level it and anything left of the creature. The team survived their first mission. How long will each of them survive from here on out?

~KL~

Mission 002 wasn't far from HQ this time around. The underground laboratory where there was the threat of some half baked Super-clones was in St. Roch, Louisiana. Several inmates and agents of the government returned for the second mission. Daz, the cybernetic field leader, was among them as well as her right hand the aquatic King Shark. The inmates going back into the field included Red Ghost, Lady Nightmare, the crackshot calling himself 'Ed', and the new guy who's got an enchanted sword who goes by Blade. There's also another new recruit who's got four arms and a seemingly 'magic' guitar. Waller chose a team better equipped for this mission. A super smart guy like Cecil would be killed in seconds if sent into the field for this one. This was clearly a mission for the more physically dominant metahumans, or the ones with powers or weapons forged in the supernatural. Lady Nightmare could probably give the real Superman a run for his money, it was going to be entertaining watching her face off against these clones. Ed was well on his way to becoming the next Deadshot. The two new guys had a lot to prove to the rest of the team. And Ghost seemed to be coming out of his shell a bit...

"So... Superman clones only half cooked but with enough power to level a city... sounds like a Tuesday. IS it Tuesday?" the Red Ghost asked in a monotone voice to nobody in particular, as if finally lightening up a bit.

"Drop off is in five minutes people!" yelled the pilot of the plane, "There's nobody in the club this time of week, entry into the lab beneath it should come easy unless you **** something up!" he continued yelling back to the group.

Red Ghost eyeballed the new guy with the bladed weapons. He wasn't sure if the guy could be trusted or not. Then Stevens looked over at the shark man, who could probably eat half the team within minutes. Marcus definitely wanted to stay on that thing's good side. Secretly Ghost was crushing on the Terminator-like woman, Daz. Something about short hair on a woman that just did it for him.

~KL~

Johnny popped his neck, his back, his ams, and his hands, then his neck again, his wrists, his back again... In fact, it seemed he could either pop any join on purpose or else he was really good at being irritating. Who's to say? He stood up and shook it off before standing up with his hands in ready position and breathed out a thick black smoke that pooled in his ams like milk in a glass of watter until his lady was fully formed between his fingers.

"Five minutes? St, Roche? Supermen? Cool. I hoped for Solomon Grundy...Ah well."


"Now when I was just a little boy, standin' to my Daddy's knee.
My Poppa said 'son don't let the man get you, do what he done to me'

I can remember the fourth of July, runnin' through the backwood bare.
And I can still hear my old hound dog barkin' chasin' down a hoodoo there.

Born on the bayou
Born on the bayou
Born on the bayou
Born on the bayou.

Wish I was back on the bayou, rollin' with some Cajun Queen.
Wishin' I were a freight train, oh, just a-chooglin' on down to New Orleans.

Born on the bayou
Born on the bayou
Born on the bayou
Born on the bayou
Born on the bayou
Born on the bayou.

I can remember the fourth of July, runnin' through the backwood bare.
And I can still hear my old hound dog barkin', chasin' down a hoodoo there,
Chasin' down a hoodoo there. Chasin' down a hoodoo there.

Born on the bayouBorn on the bayou
Born on the bayou
Born on the bayou
Born on the bayou
Born on the bayou
Born on the bayou."

As he sang, his music began to have a subtle effect, more than just the usual head bobboing, it actually started to synchronise those that could hear it, bringing pulses to a similar rhythm with breathing. He fell into his gift of lead musician to try and get everyone on the same page.

The four armed man played his tune and the group closed in on the location. Red Ghost was a fan of CCR, so he didn't mind the music. The metahuman actually sounded like John Fogerty himself. Ghost could tell some of the others didn't pay much attention. This time the group looked dressed more in civilian clothes, since on the off chance somebody was to see something up top the identities of the inmates wouldn't be compromised. Jammers stopped most mobile phones, tv's, computers, etc from working within a two block radius. The ARGUS chopper landed on the roof of the 4 story club on the outskirts of St. Roch. Marcus was wearing a black Led Zeppelin shirt with the famous Icarus graphic, ripped jeans, and a red unzipped hoodie. He hadn't shaved in a few days and he looked a little more hardened without his mask.

The team went in tactically with two more ARGUS agents, as well as another face in the Knight Cat. Marcus floated half intangible until they got to the security doors.

"Thank God these haven't been breached yet. That means these half bred monsters are as dumb as they are ugly..." said one of the guards cracking the lock and opening the first locked door of three.

Several minutes and flights of stairs later the group had made it to the final door roughly half a mile below the club's basement level.

"We ever gonna see these ugly bastards or...?" Ghost started to ask.

The ARGUS agent opened the last entrance that looked like something out of Star Wars. In a large lobby like room of a lab with several smaller labs branching outward like a shopping mall four half cooked Bizarro like Superman clones were bumbling around in bright white solar suits with the pentagon shape of Superman thought not his S on their chests. One of them appeared to be female.

"Glad to know these idiot scientist are politically correct..." said one of the agents before being fried by the female's heat vision.

~KL~

John was glad to finally be getting out of jail for some field work even though he detested working for these big government PC dogs. Now he would be free to have some fun and it sounded like this mission was going to be a like a mad scientist experiment gone wrong horror movie and it intrigued John. He was especially interested in taking on Superman like clones to test to see if what was said about The Man of Steel was correct and that he could be taken down by magical weapons. He chuckled at Red Ghost's comment.

"I had no idea we had the Joker on this squad, please continue with your unique humor" he said with his voice full of sarcasm in it and he focused on the details of the mission given to them by. The pilot of the plane that they were on gave them the rundown of the status of the club that the lab was located under and how it should be easy to enter unless someone messed up the plan. He smiled.

"Only no-talent rookies would screw this up" he said as they approached the drop off site. Just then one of his teammates started to play his guitar and John didn't like it, but he also could feel that there were some weird effects going on with the music.
"I don't like the one making that retched music" his sword spoke to him with an annoyed tone.

"I am sure he will probably be one of the first to go" John replied to his weapon and Blood Bath laughed at that comment.

They soon got off the plane and he followed the squad leader down into the lab and was curious to see what these clones would be like, it sounded like they resembled the Superman villain Bizarro. When they got there he noticed that there was at least four of them and one looked to be female. One of the agents made a comment about the scientists being politically correct.

"F**k you Social Justice Warrior" he said to the agent and flipped him off for being a cuck in John's eyes. He smiled when the female clone fried the man with heat vision. The typical fate of a beta male he thought himself and almost burst out laughing at the irony. It looked like he was action time and he drew his sword and Parrying Dagger and was ready for a fight.

"It's time to dance" he said as he got in a crouch position waiting for the battle to begin.

"Yes! give me blood to drink!" his weapon spoke to him.

Knight Cat didn't pay much attention to the mission briefing. She only heard the most important parts Superman, clones, failure. Kill order was implied or inferred. She watched one of the agents die from heat vision. She turned to the other one. "You me five bucks." She grabbed grenades off the dead agent. She threw them towards the clones, one was a smoke grenade the other was a suped up flash bang designed to temporarily incapacitate Superman in theory, never been tested till now.

"What you waiting on girlies? Time to murder the Clones of Steel."

King Shark pretended to not listen to briefing but in reality he hung on every word. He did his best to memorize every bit of information given for the mission but he got the gist of the mission easily enough which excited him to no end. While he liked the act of clobbering as much as the next guy, the idea of testing his strength against the likes of an abomination of a extra-terrestrial genesis was an amazing thought to the enormous shark man.

There was only enough room for one genetically altered strongman in this world.

The entire helicopter ride The King kept his thoughts on the other's conversation to himself and instead chanted to himself in avid anticipation "I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready..."

The King was on auto-piolt as they entered the club and descended the levels and only was snapped back to reality by the smell of burnt government agents and ozone. The weak eyes of King Shark settled on a pale skinned figure in front of him which he immediately charged at all the while letting out an inhuman scream of bestial fury. He tackled one of the clones into the wall just before being knocked across the room by a might slap of the abomination. King Shark was stunned momentarily and focused just long enough to see a flurry of fists com his way from the knock-off superman. The King struggled to stay consciousness as he had the royal shite beat out of him. There was now a steady stream of blood being sprayed as the blunt force trauma from the part-Kryptonian punctured his skin. The sight and smell of blood coupled with the lack of blood now leading to the more refined parts of the Shark man's brain letting way to the chimera of bestial instinct.

As the Bizzarro prepared yet another punch, The King's hand shot up catching the punch and shoving it downwards as The King leapt to his feet and tackled the Bizarro once more but this time The King locked his jaws around the clone's shoulder and began to savagely claw at the abomination's back whilst keeping a firm arm grip around it's neck in order to protect himself from the devastating head vision of the monster.

Johnny let the song end without encore as they touched down. Now that they were on the job he shifted the way his guitar functioned, as he strum the strings, no noise came out as he was working his way up the scales. He smelled faintly of brimstone as he started to sweat from the effort of his silent solo, clearly he was preparing for something and only by His Infernal Majesty did they not encounter any guards before all hell broke loose.

One solider down by heat vision, one taking down the muscle of the group, and the knight about to take on a third. There was no way in hell he could take on even a half-baked clone, it wasn't his gig, but he could help in plenty of ways.

He took up his slouched stance, his spine in an exaggerated S-curve as he brought his arms down hard, releasing....nothing. Nothing that is, that any human could hear. One hundred and eighty decibles, the level at which ear drums rupture, at fifty hertz, the range of a dog whistle. A very limited range of targets, five targets. Let the bastards heads explode from the magical maelstrom if it works. He himself was immune to the sonic slam...and he hoped he didn't just melt the faces off of his whole team. but this is why they were a suicide squad.

The clones were something else. Ghost wondered how long it would take for one of them to soil themselves in their white solar suit pj's. He remained intangible for the most of the opening of this kill or be killed situation, saved one of the only ARGUS soldiers left's life, and managed to find a mini fridge with mini shots and a few cans of Pepsi. He went tangible for a few moments to open three shots and a can of soda, the latter of which was heat vision'ed out of his hand. One of the clones was mere feet away from the would be drunk metahuman, who downed the three shots without chaser. He threw the little bottles at the clone then went ghost mode. Marcus flew through walls, water coolers, tables, etc. but the clones still gave chase. That was when the convicted thief saw King Shark battling another in close quarters.

"Get outta the way Fish Man!" screamed Stevens before leading one clone into crashing into it's 'brother' that was taking a beating from the aquatic hero.

As it appeared King Shark was about to finish the job in killing his target, Stevens looked down at the idiot clone who chased after him. It was an abomination. He didn't believe in anyone playing God, though he knew this was some government run facility. Even still...

"This just wasn't your day, Charlie Brown." Ghost said as he phased through the concussed clone's head and mangled its soft skull tissue and brain matter completely taking it out of the fight.

The four armed new guy let out a sonic wave that rocked nearly everyone, though the remaining clones seemed to take it the hardest. One of the remaining male clones finally pissed himself. Marcus Stevens never thought he'd actually see it happen. The Red Ghost couldn't hear himself laugh, but he could feel it in his face. And afterwards there was a ringing in his hears, so he went ghost mode once again and floated through the floor to get his wits together.

~KL~

Knight Cat really hated this government agency sends you in to fight Kryptonian freaks without magic, Kryptonite, or a powered suit to up one's strength to beat him to death or near death however Superman survived the beating he took from Doomsday.

She studied their movement. They were not smart, reminded her of a child on a temper tantrum but with super powers, an extremely deadly combination. "The people behind these freaks better be dead otherwise I am gonna make them pay with extreme prejudice." She walked up to one and spoke to it like a child. "Does little baby needs his bottle?" She could see the heat vision forming in the eyes. She maneuvered herself to be in line of fire of another clone. Seconds before it fired the heat vision she ducked and let it hit the clone. She moved out of way just in time for the two clones to start fighting.