Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 416 SUICIDE

I woke up in the new world to find I was in a cell. Beside me was a single bed. The walls around me were white painted cinderblocks. A full steel metal door straight ahead, there was a toilet, small sink, and some pictures taped to a wall. The pictures were all of nude women, which wasn’t too much of a shock for me. It appeared that I was in a jail cell, which was a first for me when coming to a new world. 

I moved to the sink, but there was no mirror. The toilet was stainless steel but far from clean. Annoyed, there was no water in the toilet either. I couldn’t look at my reflection to get my memory meld. Unsure what else to do I extended my Observation haki out. Hyper focusing it around me I found a sharp object hidden in the bed rolls.

Digging for it I pulled out a shard of a mirror with cloth wrapped around the wide part for a handle. “My own prison shank,” I said in pride as I studied myself. Before the memories came in this time though, I noticed that I was old. Far older than any of my other versions had been. I was even older than the me from Returner’s Magic. Wrinkles on my face, gray in my hair, I guessed late 40s. Which was insane, I could have sworn L said these versions would all be younger. 

As the memories flooded in, pain wracked my body as it expanded out with new muscles. Cursing, I dropped the shiv as my hand began to bleed. My mind and body screaming at me, I began to remember it all. 

I was Weston Walker, also known as Rift. Due to an accident involving a power collider, and some mislabeled chemicals, I was given the power to open rifts in space. Of course, the me in this world used the power for his own gain. Able to ignore bank vaults and most any locked doors, I jumped from one heist to the next until an up and coming Superman found me and threw me in prison. 

That was where I had been for the past 20 years of my 43 year life in the world. Day in and out, surviving in a prison full of super villains, just another once great bad guy forgotten and forced to grow old until he died. 

“Fucking hell,” I said with a laugh as the notification came. 

I frowned as I stared at the notification. Let’s see what you can do sounded ominous. Was the System telling me something? Or was it L? I never understood who controlled these worlds. 

Another first for me, it was like the System was finally offering me a path in the worlds I chose. I knew that the middle three were a possibility. Although I only had the Villain role in one place, I hadn’t really received that bad of quests. I was mostly tempted to try for it in DC world. Villains always got away in the world, and were far more interesting than in most comic worlds. It was a possibility I never really considered before. 

Curious, I extended my Observation Haki outward. Usually I was brought to these worlds at some sort of pivotal moment. Where a choice could be made to help lead the narrative of the canon. In Marvel I had been able to join the X-Men, Invincible I was whisked away to a new planet, so I needed to find out what was up with DC. 

As I made out the details around me, watched people I did and didn’t know move about, I tried to think of what I knew of the world. “Superman is a thing,” I said. He was young when he caught me, very young, maybe 16 or 17. That was 20 years ago though. “So he is in his 30s now, which sounds about right.” 

“There’s no Batman?” I asked. In this world I was actually born in Gotham. I had gotten my start in the crime ridden city, but left after I pissed off the mob. Now that I thought back, I actually had some run-ins with a young Commissioner Gordon back when he was a beat cop. I was brought to justice on the West Coast though. Far from Metropolis and Gotham. None of the villains I knew were from the East Coast, so maybe Batman did exist now, I just didn’t hear about him. “I doubt that,” I mumbled. Batman was always famous. I really hoped he was in this world just because the world would suck without Batman. 

“What else do I know?” I mumbled. I had heard reports of the Flash, but no one had seen him or got a picture, just glimpses. “Is Oliver Queen a person?” Queen sounded familiar, I was pretty sure they were a huge company. “Wonder woman? Raven? Any heroes? Aquaman?” I didn’t know about any of them, which meant I must have been at the beginning of the story again. 

“No Justice League…do I form it?” I asked. “I don’t know, I’m kind of tempted to take the Villain Role.” But that sounded too cliche. The Anti-Hero was what I would prefer, but Superman was always a thing. 

“Did Superman disappear?” I mumbled. They tried to limit news in the prison, but I was fairly certain rumors about Superman disappearing were going around. Far less bad guys caught as of late. “Could he have been killed?” I mumbled. 

“Fuck, I hope not. I don’t want to deal with the bullshit in DC without Superman and Batman,” I admitted. If that was the case, I really would just take on the villain persona and deal with the bad stuff that happened to Earth as it happened.

“Crap,” I said. “I need more…” I stopped talking as I felt something odd. I had lived in the prison for years, I knew it like the back of my hand. I felt three men in full riot gear heading my way. Guns at their sides, I cursed, hoping my cell wasn’t about to be tossed.

“Watch out,” I hissed out the food slot. “Tossing cells!” My voice echoed down the halls in either direction and the people around me began scrambling. Flushing letters, pictures, and contraband down toilets, I decided I didn’t care if they came for me. I needed to stir things up if I was going to escape or whatever I needed to do to get out of there. 

The gate at the end of the hall opened and I felt the trio of armed guards walk in unison. They came close to me, their heart rate increasing as they became more and more nervous, then they turned right before my cell. 

The lead guard pounded on the door. “Open on 20!” He yelled down the hall. An alarm sounded and the door opened. 

“Killer Croc,” the lead guard said. “Come with us or-”

The half-man half-crocodile hissed at them from the cell and they cursed. Throwing in tear gas the croc made his way to the door, but they pulled out cattle prods. Zapping him over and over the man-thing cried out and fell to the ground. They continued zapping him over and over until it stopped moving completely. Then without a word they had his arms and legs in manacles and were dragging him out of the cell. 

“What the fuck…” I said slowly. I had never seen that happen before. Usually they drugged his food to get him out. “Wait no…” Old me in this world hadn’t seen that happen. The me from other worlds had. I started to get excited. They were recruiting. And I knew what they were recruiting for. 

My mind went through the implications quickly. I could get out of prison without breaking the law. I could gain time to pick my role in the world. And with luck I could get a quest. With the thought another screen popped up. 

That meant I could use my new super power outside of the world. Something I very dearly wanted. It was a no brainer from there. I knew that Suicide Squad missions were usually hard, but every quest I did was hard and could end in death. It was time to reap some rewards from my hard work. 

I closed my eyes trying to access the new power that this body had for over 20 years. It was like talking to an old friend. That part of my body that could ignore space. Most of my superpowers had been a part of my brain that activated to make it happen. Fusion, my Spark, flying, all of it was just something that awoke in my mind. This power was slightly different though. 

I felt everything going on in my body as I called the power. Rather than just my brain, there was an energy in my chest that tried to push outward. I held it in place, on the cusp of opening a portal. It was almost like a specific energy inside of me could ignore space. Or was I actually messing with dimensions? 

Unsure, the me in the world really hadn’t played too much with the power. Just using it for short distances he had been inept at figuring things out. The current me had spent years understanding my powers to make them evolve, grow, and help one another. I used all of that knowledge currently as I pushed outward. As I did, a crack appeared in space itself. 

Much like the cracking that happened to the air when I used my Tremor Fruit. Instead of resembling glass cracking though, there was one upward jagged line from floor to ceiling. Power continued to pour out of me, opening the crack wider. As it became bigger the area behind the wall became visible.

My rifts in space could only open a short distance currently. I had been able to go a full 20 feet once. That was 20 years ago when I practiced more often. After numerous failed escape attempts, the me before simply stopped using the Rift power. 

The cobwebs blown off the skill, I jumped through the crack to reveal the wetwall behind my cell. Piping and ductwork all around me I closed the Rift and felt the power pull back into me. 

“Interesting,” I said as I began to navigate around the pipes. My Observation Haki picking up the guards dragging Killer Croc away, I came to a locked door at the end of the cell block. 

Annoyed, I knew that if I had chakra this would be as easy as breaking out of a daycare. Without it, I was severely limited. Cameras all over the place, guards patrolling, and not to mention also prisoners that held no loyalty to anyone but themselves. This was going to take all of my skills. Far harder than breaking out, I was going to have to break further into prison. 

I smiled wide. This wouldn’t be a quest without some difficulty. Taking a breath, I used my Observation Haki to monitor everything outside the door. Two guards coming my way, there was a camera pointed at them. Counting steps I closed my eyes, unlocked the door, and as they walked past I used Timeflow.

Time slowed to a crawl around me as I quickly opened the door and moved as fast as possible to walk behind them. Using Zetsu to hold in my aura I held my breath as I walked in tow behind the guards as I released Timeflow. Long seconds passed as they leisurely made their way forward. Mostly blocked from the view of the camera I used Timeflow again and darted to another sidehall.

This one led to an intersection where a guard was posted at a desk that monitored the cameras. Jumping up to the ceiling, I fused my fingertips to the concrete and began to drag myself along down the hall. Once I was past the monitoring station I knocked out another guard, grabbed his keys and was outside the cell block. 

Walking briskly outside, no one suspected me. It was almost lunch time and there were quite a few inmates bustling about on busywork. My Zetsu kept my lifeforce hidden, no one really paid attention to me. To them I probably resembled the scenery at first glance. It would take-

I stopped thinking as an alarm went off. “Fuck,” I said, not as stealthily as I had hoped. Feeling the guards head off to another building I ran toward them. Instead of following though I ran to an exterior wall and opened another Rift. The process happened more quickly and my crack in space let me into a guard break room. 

Guards running outside as the alarm went off, no one noticed me as I stood by the refrigerator. “I’m a ninja,” I reminded myself as I felt everything around me. A locker room near the break room, I found a spare guard uniform and put it on in a rush. Once inside it, I zeroed in on the guards and Croc. They were in a large conference room.

Whistling as I walked outside the door, more guards ran this way and that. The place on high alert, I jumped from guards to guards, blending in until I was at the room Killer Croc was being held. Once inside, some prison guards gave me a weird look, but their focus was on the other criminals inside the conference room.

I recognized two others there. One was an Australian douchebag that had trouble letting things go, and the other was a black man that I was pretty sure was an assassin. Along with a slowly waking up Killer Croc, all three were shackled to the chairs they were in. The room itself was flat and long. Probably made to house training videos for the guards about making sure they beat the prisoners humanely. At the far end of the room was a gorgeous woman. 

She was tall with an imposing aura. Honestly she was the most beautiful woman the me from this world had seen in decades. Long black hair, dark skin that appeared to have been recently lathered in lotion, dark gray business suit, she wore heels and stared at the three prisoners as the alarm died down. 

When the alarm ended, she began speaking again. “I am Amanda Waller,” she said, her voice chorus to my ears. I pushed back the lust, imagining the less attractive version from the Suicide Squad cartoons and comics. It hadn’t been too long ago that I was having sex with five beautiful women. But the me in this world hadn’t gotten laid in a long time, it was building up. 

“I came today to provide you all with an opportunity. A once in a lifetime opportunity,” Amanda Waller said.

“I don’t want any part of your time share, mate,” the Australian man spat. 

“Well too bad,” Waller said. “That is what I’m offering you. Work for me, and you earn time off your prison sentence.”

“How much time?” The black man asked. Killer Croc growled from his seat, interested as well. 

“If you complete this mission, all of your time,” she said. “I don’t care what you did before. This mission is that important.” 

Now that was intriguing. I thought it was a few years here and there, but all of my time off would save me a lot of hassle. I listened intently.

“What’s the mission?” The black man asked. 

“I can’t tell you that,” she said. “The group I am forming will be named Task Force X. Luckily your fine establishment has a few members I want. I will be recruiting at other…similar locations. You would be transferred to a more centralized location and given some extra amenities.”

“So…we get to go to a country club?” The Australian asked, perking up. 

“Yes,” Waller said with a sadistic smile. I knew that wasn’t going to happen. “Of course there will be risk involved. And you people are the scum of the Earth. So I want some assurances. After a minor surgery I have some documents for you to sign and-”

“Minor surgery?” The black man asked. “What kind?”

“Nothing major,” she said, downplaying the whole ordeal. In the comics and movie they had a bomb implanted in their skull or spine or something. I seemed to remember Gon using Nen to protect from a similar thing happening so I doubted I would be in real danger, but it was still something to worry about. 

The group spoke more. Everything vague, no real details given. They each had their own reasons for agreeing to sign up. After they agreed I decided it was time to make my appearance. Raising my hand I asked, “Is it a problem for me to join as well?” I took off my hat to reveal my full face. It wasn’t long until guards that had spent time on my block were pointing their guns at me. 

“Get on your face douchebag!” One yelled.

“So hostile,” I said with a smile, unphased by their bravado as they tried to manhandle me. I shot Sparks over my body, hitting each of them and getting some revenge for past me. Knocked out and down, the guards were no problem. The military personnel with Waller pointed their guns at me. “What? I am simply interested in joining Task Force X. How do I apply?”

Waller raised her hand to make her men stop. They lowered their weapons slightly and she picked up a tablet. Scrolling through it she announced, “Weston Walker. Charged with aggravated assault, assault on an officer, breaking and entering, theft, grand theft, grand theft auto, blackmail…and quite a bit.” I shrugged. Old me had been in prison for a reason.

“Has the ability to open space,” she said, reading further. “But quite old for what I am looking for.” She frowned looking at the downed guards. “But fine. You seem to be able to handle yourself, though you haven’t made an attempt to escape in over 10 years. You want in?” 

“I do,” I admitted and the quest finished. 

“Good,” she said. “We have quite the mission ahead of us.” Guards began to get off the ground slowly. Some cursed me. Others planned to kill me if I stayed there. I didn’t much care either way. “Since I have you agreeing on tape, you all should know what our target is.” She pulled out a folder and announced, “You all need to kill Superman.”

My eyes widened as my heart quickened. All of us raised our hands as one, “I quit.” 

“That’s…that’s fucking suicide,” I added, unsure what the hell I expected.