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Nia whispered to Jon. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
Jon didn’t think so, but nodded anyway. “We aren’t fit to be heroes right now.”
Deadshot sniffed, taking another long draw on his cigarette. “I can’t help you with that, kid. I usually shoot my problems.”
Catman, who was sitting beside him, honing one of his knives, squinted at Black Alice. “Did you have to bring these three back with you? They seem sort of needy.”
“Well I wasn’t going to introduce them to Bane!” Black Alice protested.
“Hell no. Isn’t he still worrying about that daughter of his?” Deadshot said dryly.
“Don’t let Scandal hear you call her that.” Catman paused and ran a thumb over the edge of the blade he was working on.
“Nah, I heard he’s got this sort of clone daughter person now. Vengeance or something? Amazed he didn’t adopt her on the spot. Anyway, I thought Scandal was still shacked up at her beach lovenest.” Deadshot paused and coughed, smoke trickling from his lips.
“No, she’s working a job at the moment. She was complaining about the JSA last time I spoke to her.” Catman switched to a finer grade sharpening stone.
Jon broke in, a feeling of horror sweeping over him. “Bane? You work with Bane?” All he could think about was Damian’s face drained white, when Jon had, extremely tentatively, given his condolences over Alfred’s death.
Three heads all swivelled to look at Jon. Deadshot snorted. “He’s not too bright, is he?” he said, turning back to Black Alice.
“Oh I know, but they all got screwed over by Waller, and well, we all know what that’s like. And if you’re going to beat yourself up about your recent criminal past, there are worse places to do that than with us.”
“You were a different matter,” Catman said casually. “Nobody was asking us to take responsibility for you.”
“And we didn’t,” Deadshot added. “You looked after yourself. None of us were tucking you into bed at night like good little heroes need to be.”
“Are you sure Jeannette wasn’t available to babysit, Lori? She likes you a lot more than we do. And it wouldn’t hurt her rep, being seen with these three.”
“Jeannette took off right after that thing in Kahndaq,” Black Alice said patiently. “I think she’s gone to ground in the House to stay out of the way, with everything going on recently. I should have joined her, but…” She spread her hands. “Waller managed to keep me locked down. And now the House is missing.”
Deadshot grumbled, dropping his cigarette stub and grinding one heel into it. He examined the result, then repeated the action. “Fine. You get that we’re mercenaries, right?” he said, looking Jon squarely in the eye. “We don’t play pretty, we aim to kill, we do what we’re paid to do, and we’re perpetually on both the good and the bad guys’ shitlists. And we don’t have time for squeamishness or being soft-hearted.”
Catman coughed. Black Alice snorted.
“Ignore both of them.” Deadshot growled.
“Welcome to the Secret Six!” Black Alice said.