บท 16: The Wall

Amanda Blake AKA Amanda Waller AKA The Wall

Age: 47

Gender: Female

Profession: Director of A.R.G.U.S, Government official, Handler of Taskforce X, etc

Criminal record: DELETED

A short scan through its memory banks told the Failsafe everything it needed to know

Amanda Waller, an individual whom Batman had encountered directly and indirectly several times either in person or through the proxy that was the so-called "Suicide Squad" who more often than no contained members of Batman's own rogue gallery.

A woman who was well known for her distrust and hate of superhumans, metahumans, mutants, and vigilantes, she was more than happy to turn them into slaves that had restrictions as tight as the failsafe's own containment cell.

Going through its memory, the Failsafe made sure to flag all of her information as priority data for the next few hours, as well as anything relating to Task Force X and A.R.G.U.S. noting that its creator had even included a few personal side notes alongside the standard files

[Do not let her gain access to the Failsafe]

[Do not let her become aware of the Failsafe]

[Do not interact with this individual unless entirely necessary]

Fairly standard warnings existed alongside most of the files regarding supervillains whom Batman was especially wary of where the failsafe, those that he didn't want to gain access to [Contingency Zero] under any circumstances, individuals such as Waller, Dr Ivo, Lex Luther, General Eiling and so on.

The Failsafe decided to keep these notes in the back of its mind for now, they mattered little to it and provided little use in this situation.

What did provide some use however was the numerous passwords, radio frequencies, and codes relating to A.R.G.U.S that were part of these files. Most had likely been changed already as highly classified organizations were noted to do, but it would be worth using.

By the time the failsafe had left the empty cell of Jason Todd, breaking through the wall to save time, it had already begun to code a program designed to hunt down the specific radio channels that Amanda Waller was associated with, attempting to catch radio chatter or find a signal.

Activating energy propulsors it took off into the rain, automatically going into stealth mode, lowering its core temperature, dimming the red light that emanated from its faceplate, and putting out infrared light identical to the natural lighting of the sky. In the event the kidnappers, or more accurately agents were using scanners, they would have no way to detect it.

As it flew, an idea sparked, causing the failsafe to slightly slow its flight speed as it ran numerous success rate measuring programs and algorithms, before going ahead and regaining speed

As of yet, the Justice League had yet to realise the Failsafe was within their systems, disguised as a standard maintenance program, albeit one with full access to their systems. So when the Failsafe accessed their main computer and uploaded a facial recognition system to all of their satellites and computers and began to run them all simultaneously, searching the entire globe at once for Jason Todd, Cyborg, who was playing Tetris on the main computer had no idea that anything other than a diagnostics run was being done

While it was doing so, it also tracked the locations of each of the Leagues members, notting that Batman was now safely within the medical centre, accompanied by both Superwoman and Wonderwoman.

Something flushed through its system as it noted this, a feeling that felt similar to coolant rushing through a heated system, but it ignored that for now. It would be better to remove its creator from its mind for now, better to focus on the target.

…

It found Jason Todd a few minutes later, a ping emanating from its numerous search programs at once, both through radio waves and facial recognition, although the facial recognition hadn't technically found Jason Todd, instead finding Rick Flag. A known member of the Suicide Squad, sitting next to Floyd Lawton, as they drove a black, unmarked armored van down the highway, 215kms away, in the direction of a remote airport, a secret military site owned by A.R.G.U.S

It appeared that Jason Todd had been taken by Task Force X itself and not just some unnamed agents. This came as a surprise to the Failsafe, but not an entirely unwelcome or channeling one.

Flying in the direction of the van at high speed the Failsafe immediately began running through the priority files it had flagged earlier to asses the potential enemies ahead, accessing some extremely classified information to gain access to the current members of the Suicide Squad.

[Floyd Lawton, a.k.a. Deadshot]

[Rick Flag]

[David Hyde a.k.a Black Manta]

[Waylon Jones a.k.a Killer Croc]

[Harleen Quinzel a.k.a Harley Quin]

In the time it took the Failsafe to fly to the van, it read each of their files individually, before correlating them with the files already existing in other sections of its memory banks, all but Black Manta and Rick Flag where extremely familiar to the machine, with most of the team comprised of Gotham adjacent criminals.

Comparing files there were only a few inconsistencies and differences, such as killer Croc seemingly having grown bigger since his last confrontation with Batman, likely due to the drugs pumped into him on Waller's orders, and Harley Quin had now been diagnosed with depression, since Jokers death had a large effect on her.

Aside from that they were all the same high-caliber criminals that one could expect of the suicide squad.

For example, Rick Flag was still in a high state of alert when the failsafe arrived, not letting even an hours-long drive back to base dull his senses. Not falling asleep or growing drowsy even in the middle of the night, driving through the rain.

So when the Failsafe appeared in front of the van, landing with enough force to create a small crater in the road, he had just enough time for his eyes to go wide and let out a couple of words.

"What the hell is tha-"

And then the Failsafe hit the armored van with a left hook, sending it careening off the road