Poppy was awoken by the sound of an object banging on the door to her cell.
"Wake up, Princess! Time for work."
The sudden nosies caused her to jump in fright. This became a problem, since her jumping in fright caused her to roll off the side of the cot and face first onto the hard concrete floor.
"Ow..."
The door to her cell opened, letting a ray of light in. A man stood in front of the girl, a large gun in hand. He was wearing army camouflage and a baseball cap was resting on the top of his head. This definitely wasn't Amanda.
The girl sat up and rubbed her sore temple, "Who the heck are you?"
"The name's Rick. Rick Flag. Amanda sent me to come get you."
"Why?"
"Enough with the questions, just follow me."
The only thing Poppy could do was obey, after all he was the one with the gun. The man lead her further down the hallway and into another room. It looked like a conference room. Only more menacing. A group of people where already sitting at the table, all dressed in prison clothes. Amanda stood at the front of the room, near a large computer screen. They all turned to look as Poppy and Rick entered the room. Amanda gave a forced smile.
"Glad you could make it, Poppy. Please take a seat."
Poppy sat down with a huff next to a wide-chested man with scaly skin. "You know you could have just set an alarm."
"Stop complaining. We have work to do."
Poppy frowned. This lady was gonna get her killed.
"Who is she?" questioned a man with a thick Australian accent.
Amanda walked around the table, standing behind Poppy and placing her hands on her shoulders. "Everyone, this is Poppy. She's a new recruit, so I'm expecting you to help show her the ropes."
"What she do to get here?" questioned a man with smooth, brown skin.
Amanda went over to the computer screen and pushed a button. A video popped up, the same video Poppy was shown before.
"Damn..."
Poppy held a finger up, "That wasn't me."
"Looks like ya," the Australian man noted.
"What, you have a vendetta against football or something?" questioned the dark skinned man.
"I might after this fiasco," Poppy mumbled to herself, crossing her arms over her chest.
"What exactly do you want us to train her for?" a woman piped up. She had blonde hair, with the tips dyed pink and blue.
"I'll explain, but first let's get something for Poppy to eat." She signaled over to a soldier that stood in the corner, and he brought a plate of toast and a glass of water. Poppy took the toast in her hand and began to lift it to her mouth, but stopped midair.
Her eyebrow lifted as she looked up at Amanda, "Is this poisoned?"
"Only one way to find out."
Poppy sneered, taking a bite of the toast. She swallowed it, but she didn't fall over dead. Guess it wasn't poisoned.
"Now can you explain?" the man with dark skin retorted.
"There's been strange signals being sent over the radio transmitters. We've tracked the signals and it seems to be coming from a distant planet. We need you to go there and find out what these messages mean and if they are hostile or friendly."
Poppy had been chugging down her glass of water during this, but at the realization that she would have to travel in a spaceship to another planet made her choke and spit out her drink onto the table, "What?!"
Everyone turned to look at her. Poppy frowned at Amanda, she was trying to get her killed! "Listen lady, I didn't sign up for this. I am not about to be sent up in some cramped little rocket just to be killed by some alien creatures."
Amanda shook her head with a laugh, "I hate to break it to you, Poppy, but you signed your life over to me and I'm the only one who gets to decide what you signed up for or not."
Poppy stared at her with a blank expression, her lips parted slightly. What to say? What to do? How would she get out of this?
Amanda turned to the others as Poppy stared blankly into space. "Now that that's settled, you will have two weeks to prepare for your mission. I will prepare the space craft and the supplies, you just focus on getting ready for whatever this planet will have in store."
"That's it?" the Australian grinned, "Class dismissed?"
Amanda nodded, "Class dismissed."
Amanda then left the room, Rick and the others stayed behind.
Rick was the first to speak up, "Alrighty then, Poppy. Show us what you can do."
Poppy looked over at him with a confused expression, "What?"
"Your powers. Show us."
"But I don't have any."
The woman with blonde hair giggled, "She's funny."
Poppy looked over at her now, "Who are you anyway?"
The woman stuck her hand out, "Harley Quinn. Nice to meet ya."
Poppy cautiously took her hand in hers and gave it a firm shake. Harley was the first to let go.
The Australian man spoke up next, "They call me Captain Boomerang, but you can call me whatever you want, darlin'," he gave her a playful wink.
The man with brown skin slapped the Aussie on the back of his head before turning to Poppy and introducing himself. "I'm Deadshot," he pointed over to another woman who was standing off in the corner, "That there is Katana."
"I'm Killer Croc," growled the creature that sat next to Poppy. This was the first time he had spoken. Poppy gave him a weak smile.
"Now that that's settled," Rick piped up, "Show us your powers."
Poppy rolled her eyes, "Listen, Rick..."
"That's mister Rick to you!"
Poppy raised her eyebrows and narrowed her eyes, "Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot my manners."
Rick just stared at her blankly.
"As I was saying, mister Rick, I don't have any powers. That wasn't me in the video and I don't know anything about shooting purple crap out of my hands."
"Lying doesn't get you anywhere in this place, Cupcake."
Poppy stood up and slammed her hands on the table. Everyone jumped back, "Don't you call me that!"
A man started to point his gun at the girl, but Rick motioned for him to lower it.
"What will you do if I call you Cupcake again?"
Poppy furrowed her brows, "Don't you dare call me that again."
"Cupcake."
Poppy grabbed the cup of water and threw it at the man, just barely missing his face. It crashed against the wall, sending little pieces of glass flying.
"Cupcake!"
Poppy clinched her fists together, hard. She hated him. She hated Amanda and she hated that she was stuck here. Her heart was full of pure, unfiltered rage.
"Look at her hands!" exclaimed Harley.
Poppy gave a confused look as everyone looked down at he clinched fists. She looked down as well.
They were glowing... purple?!
"Damn," Deadshot took a step back.
"It worked," grinned Rick Flag.
"Oh this is bad," Poppy stared at her hands with wide eyes, "This is really really bad."
"I think it's kinda cool," Captain Boomerang stated.
"No, no you don't understand! I've never done this before."
"Alright, Poppy," Rick laughed, "Whatever you say. You can turn it off now."
"What?"
"Turn your powers off," Rick crossed her arms over his chest.
"But I don't know how!" Poppy filled with panic, this was insane. Her whole world was turning upside down. Everything she knew was a lie.
Rick laughed again, "Sure you don't. Come on, Poppy, stop being stubborn."
"I'm not being stubborn!" Poppy yelled. With her anger a purple fireball shot out of her hands and hit the floor. The concrete shattered apart, leaving a deep hole. The soldiers that stood guarding against the walls pointed their machine guns at her, preparing to shoot as soon as Rick gave them the order.
"I don't think she's lying this time, Rick." Deadshot looked at the girl with concerned eyes, "I don't think she can control it."
"She could control it pretty well when she was shooting her powers at innocent civilians," Rick argued.
"That wasn't me!" Poppy yelled again. This time nearly missing one of the soldier's heads as another fireball randomly shot out of her hands.
"Make her stop!" Harley shrieked, ducking under the table.
"Stop it, Poppy!" Rick demanded.
"I can't!" Poppy felt hot tears streaming down her face. This was insane. This was crazy. She was loosing her mind. This had to be a dream. She wished with everything in her that this was a dream.
A sudden gunshot rang out, and Poppy felt something sharp sting her neck. She reached up and touched it, a dart? She felt a strange feeling wash over her as colors began to swirl together. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she passed out and began to fall onto the floor. Killer Croc caught the girl just before her head hit the table. She was asleep. He frowned deeply.
"Did ya have to shoot her?"
"Did you want to die?" cried out one of the guards. Killer Croc only sneered.
The purple glow from her hands finally faded out as Rick walked around the table to take the sleeping girl back to her cell. He reached out for the Croc to hand the girl over to him.
"That was crazy," Harley popped her head out from under the table as Killer Croc carefully set the girl in Rick's arms.
"I'll say," Captain Boomerang gave a forced laugh.
"What do we do with her now?" Harley questioned.
"I'm going to take her back to her cell," Rick stated, "Then I've got to tell Amanda about this."
"So, moral of the story," Deadshot sighed, "Don't make this chick mad."
Amanda came rushing in, another group of soldiers followed behind her. "What on earth was that noise?" she demanded.
Rick gestured with his head towards the sleeping girl in his arms, "She lost control of her powers."
"I don't think she had control of her powers to begin with," Deadshot interjected.
"What do we do?" questioned Rick, "We can't have the girl loosing control of her powers like this. She could end up killing us all."
Amanda shook her head, "Put her back in her cell. We'll have to find someone who can teach her to control it. I'm not sure who would be willing to do this though."
"She's fine as long as she isn't mad," Captain Boomerang noted.
"We can't rely on that," Amanda argued, "We don't know this girl. She could be mad all the time, who knows."
"Then we should find her a therapist too," laughed Deadshot.
"We'll figure it out," Amanda sighed, "We always do."
Rick shook his head sadly and left the room. He went back to the girl's cell and set her gently down on her cot.
She dreamt all sorts of happy things.