InsaneJournal

Slipping free of Copperhead’s crushing grip, Redbird turns and axe-kicks his head down onto a desk. The clone’s head bounces from the devastating impact, and he flops onto the floor.

Redbird races after Jace Tresser, finding an unconscious clone of Captain Boomerang first. That at least tells her she is heading in the right direction. The next clue to his whereabouts is even clearer but less comforting.

Redbird follows the trail of blood. The amount of blood isn’t anything horrific, but it does leave a steady trail to follow. It could easily be from a flesh wound.

This becomes less believable when Redbird bursts into the control room and finds much more blood, along with a stained boomerang on the floor. Tresser is standing in the room in front of a computer, using one hand to hack into it. His other hand is busy clutching his abdomen, largely failing to hold back the flow of blood.

“I wasn’t expecting him to flat-out stab me with one of those things. It looks worse than it is. Trust me. I’ve been a doctor at least half a dozen times.” He doesn’t look at her, focusing on the computer instead. “I’m changing the settings for the farm. Temperature and chemical composition of the tanks. It’ll sterilize the tanks. I hope you’re not a pro-lifer.”

Before Redbird can say anything back, the tiger-striped clone intrudes through another door. Thanks to Tresser’s briefing, Redbird now knows this to be a clone of the Bronze Tiger, one of the greatest martial arts fighters possibly ever.

Tresser looks back at Tiger and then to Redbird. “You got this, right?” He needs more time on this computer.

------

Warhawk and the clone of the General come crashing through the wall, scattering cloning tanks as they ride an avalanche into the same large room as Artemis and the apparent clone of Atom Smasher.

When Artemis recovers from the surprise, she looks back to see Chris’ clone not attacking her but running for the far wall. It also happens to be the outer wall of the building. With both glowing fists forward, he jumps through through it, blasting a large hole through the concrete and steel.

Artemis breaks into a run and skids to a stop right at the edge of the hole, spotting the clone running across the street. She immediately jumps out of the building and goes running after.

Warhawk slams down on the floor just in time to see Artemis disappearing through a hole leading outside. “...Hey! Not the pla-- shit!” He rolls clear of the giant clones foot stomping down.

Back on his feet, Warhawk swings his boom-hammer into the side of the clone’s knee. Then, he pumps the handle as he swings it around and blasts the clone right under the jaw. “You clones come with a warranty?”

A large hand catches Warhawk’s arm as he brings the hammer down. Warhawk is overpowered and thrown against a tank, crushing it with his impact. Before he can get up, the clone grabs him by the chest plate and slams him to the wall.

“You got it wrong, soldier.” The General glares at Warhawk with his flesh already visibly healing from torn and burnt flesh Warhawk’s boom-hammer inflicted. “I’m not a clone. I’m in charge here.”

Reeling back his fist, the General plows Warhawk on through the wall and into the concrete floor with a punch.

------

Redbird palms a syringe gun as she bashes against a medical station in her fight against the Bronze Tiger’s clone. It is hard to say whether this is easier or more difficult than last time. She understands his fighting style much better now, but she no longer has Wildcat running interference for her.

With someone possibly bleeding to death in the other room, this isn’t the time for a prolonged fight, so she’s going to play dirty. She feigns vulnerability to lure Tiger in and nails him with the syringe gun, along with whoever the hell is in it. Lucky for her, it does turn out to be a sedative of some kind.

Redbird returns to the control room and finds Tresser slumped onto the floor. He has lost a lot of blood.

“What? I lied. It’s really what I do.” Maybe it is as bad is it looks. “I lied about Roy too. Didn’t meet him in Santa Prisca. Don’t have any tattoos either. I guess I banked on you being too distracted to have noticed that...” He says that last part with a weak smirk.

“I did know Roy. I knew Master Hawke too, but... not going to disrespect him with lies. Roy... sure. It’s Roy. Heh. He’d get a laugh out of it.”

“Op’s done. I did what I needed to with tanks. We’re good if the others did their part. You better get the others ready to extract. Or...” He trails off, looking past Redbird.

Another Tiger has entered the room, and there isn’t a syringe in sight.

“You got this, right? Heh...”

------

“Watch it! He’s the real shit!” Warhawk dives clear of another punch from the General, warning Starman and Question as they arrive on the scene.

Starman joins in the fight, fortunately having plenty of loose metal debris to whip up in a frenzy around the General. It is also nice to have someone specific to blame for all this now.

But there is a reason not even Superman could deal with the General singlehandedly. No matter what hits Warhawk and Starman nail him with, he begins regenerating almost immediately. They may as well be attacking him with pillows for all the progress they’re failing to make in bringing him down.

Starman is swatted away and bounces off a far wall. Just as he’s about to fly back into the fight, Question taps him on the shoulder. She has kept herself occupied while the boys have been fighting and holds up a large metal syringe, telling Starman to put it in the General’s brain.

“Idiots.” General pitches Warhawk away from and looks around, assessing the situation. “A real leader knows when to cut his losses.” He large finger taps a device on his belt just before Starman rams that syringe into the back of his head. He reaches back for it but goes limp before reaching it.

Warhawk sits up, having seen what the General did before going down. “I think we got a problem.”

------

It is at about this time Artemis wishes she brought along her chariot.

A block away from the hospital, she climbs up a building’s fire escape after Chris’ clone. He isn’t heeding her calls to stop, and it is little wonder why since she was just holding him at arrowpoint a minute ago.

The chase turns into a run across rooftops, suiting Artemis better because she is more skilled at it than Chris was or Chris’ clone is. She finally starts to close some distance when she sees the clone stop abruptly at ledge a few buildings away.

Something has startled Chris’ clone, and as he turns, she has see what. There is a flashing light blinking from a subdermal implant on his chest. He wouldn’t have a clue what that is, but Artemis knows from Tresser’s briefing. All of the Suicide Squads are implanted with small bombs, putting the suicide in Suicide Squad. Someone back at the hospital has activated the implants.

Artemis slides to a stop, bringing up her bow and firing an energy arrow right into the clone’s chest. The arrow pierces him right where the implant is embedded, and stunned, he falls back off the building.

------

Redbird’s eyes go a little wide as the flashing light on the chest of the Bronze Tiger clone. The two of them are fighting in the control room, and now, it seems her opponent is about to explode. The stakes of this fight have just radically changed, and defeating him becomes meaningless.

She needs to get away from him, but any move to escape will open up her defense. She wouldn’t get far from him.

There is also the matter of Tresser on the floor.

The flashing of the light quickens more and more as it gets closer to detonation, and still, she has no luck in putting Tiger down long enough for to get away.

A moment away from the light going solid, Tresser suddenly comes up with enough strength to legsweep Tiger to the floor. “Door! Now!”

Redbird jerks for the doorway, pausing just outside of it to realize what is happening. Before she can turn back, an explosion bursts forth from the room, hurling her down the hallway with its shockwave.

------

Other explosions, from other clones of the Suicide Squad, go off in unison all over the restricted hospital wing. Fortunately, these minor explosions do no structural damage, and automated emergency systems kick in to deal with the fires.

Question observes that the chemical solution and temperature of one of the cloning tanks as changed, making it incapable for preserving any genetic material -- cloned or otherwise. Taking this to be true for all cloning tanks now, she assumes Tresser has succeeded in doing his part.

A signal is sent to the Justice League Satellite, informing Brainiac 5 to carry on with the last part of the plan. Manning the console in the teleporter bay, he begins extracting each member of the Justice League from Viceroy and bouncing them back down to Superior City.

One by one, members of the Justice League join their teammates in Superior City as the situation Felony Circus is being wrapped up. Question lingers on the sidelines, as if she has always been there. Starman gets right to the business of assisting the prison transport in leaving the scene. Warhawk is pleased to appear near a fleeing Human Bullet, who takes the boom-hammer to the face. Redbird is on the ground, picking herself up and slowly realizing she is no longer in the hospital.

And Artemis lands on top of a parked car in Superior City, nowhere near the alley Chris’ clone fell into back in Viceroy.