Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or any DC characters depicted within this story.

This is a direct sequel to Sigma Squad and is the fifth part of my own self-contained AU. I strongly recommend you all go read Sigma Squad before diving into this, but I will do my best to make this as friendly as possible to new readers. The main cast for this story will be Jason Todd, the original Roy Harper, and three OCs. Cameron Spear and Maya Ghale are characters from Sigma Squad while Hawkeye, Thomas Jackson, is the leader of the team. Hawkeye was the first OC I created for use in my first work, Strange New World.

For this story I will be borrowing from several different places in the DC universe. This first chapter is merely an introduction into the new universe while the next chapter will focus on the main characters and their situation.

I hope you all enjoy it!

May 1, 2017 – 8:30 p.m.
Checkmate Black Site Facility
13 Months after the destruction of Mumbai

Amanda Waller, director of Checkmate, walked the halls of the black site compound cautiously; keenly aware that a misstep on her part could get her thrown in prison, or worse. As she passed a pair of guards at the security checkpoint, the feeling of unease grew. These men were members of the most well-trained security force on the planet. Checkmate needed the best when they'd been assigned to capture renegade heroes, and they found and trained the soldiers to fight this new war. Now, the war against the vigilantes was winding down, so some of the men were now guarding key personnel and compounds. This is what gave a woman who earned the nickname "The Wall" grew more paranoid each day. She lived in fear that her actions in the first months of the war would be discovered, no matter who well she had been assured all evidence had been destroyed.

Following the events of the previous year the world had seen drastic change. When Mumbai was destroyed, the governments around the world summarily outlawed all vigilante activities, though their main focus was clearly ending what they perceived as the 'superhero menace'. Her organization, Checkmate, had previously been responsible for handling special ops involving the superhuman community, including intelligence gathering. They had been given the task of heading up the hunt for the vigilantes, and they were exceedingly successful in that endeavor. As she flipped through the security feeds of the occupied cells in the high-security prions on her laptop she reflected back on just how bad things had gotten.

Just after the destruction of Mumbai, and the successfully defense of the Reach invasion, there were several different reactions from the hero community once the government declared their activities were essentially terrorist actions. Some disappeared, going back into space or their home domains, protected from outside rule. Some stood in open defiance of the order to surrender. Others turned themselves over willingly, chiefly among them was Captain Atom. As the poster boy for military heroes, he was tasked with brining in his former compatriots who had run from the government. Waller wondered if the Captain knew exactly what happened to those who surrendered or were captured. As she viewed the footage of the catatonic, atrophied body of Billy Batson, she highly doubted that he did. Billy had transformed into his human form, but the soldiers who brought him in believed he deserved a more physical punishment for the deaths of so many people in Mumbai. In the end they strapped an inhibitor collar to him, preventing him from speaking and thus rendering him incapable of turning back into Captain Marvel.

As she continued her trek toward her office Waller thought about how the League's 'Trinity' was a microcosm of the whole event. Batman, quite predictably, had refused surrender and gone to ground, but not even he eluded the combined power of the entire world's military might. The Dark Knight had immediately set out to continue his vigilante work, even dragging a few young heroes with him. For a while they were successful, mostly due to a contact deep within the government. But when the government cracked the League's zeta technology, Batman and his team were easy pickings for the government's most powerful weapons. Only a few were taken into custody unscathed, Batman was not so lucky. As Waller flipped to the feed of Batman's cell she felt guilt at his condition. While his body had mostly healed from the trauma of his capture, his mind had not. The former Caped Crusader lay on his back staring at the ceiling, a catatonic-like stare hinted at the madness he was descending into.

Wonder Woman returned to Themiscyra peacefully. The military pursued, but the island had vanished by the time the fighters arrived. The biggest surprise of the bunch was undoubtedly Big Blue himself. Superman turned himself over to authorities within three weeks of the order from the United Nations. Waller could only speculate as to the reason for the delay, but the alien had mentioned squaring away a few dangerous projects so that no one would be harmed. What was done to him, and the meta-humans, was not something Waller cared to think about.

Aquaman had retreated to Atlantis, his home's military superiority protecting him from persecution. The Martian Manhunter and his niece had fled to Mars. Once in space, no human object could overtake them. The rest of the hero community was hard to track. Batman had managed to purge most of the League's files before Watchtower was compromised, so there were quite a few were living civilian lives, forced into permanent retirement.

The villains were another story. With the outlawing of their nemeses many went on a worldwide crime spree, adding to the chaos after the invasion. Many of the small time villains were executed, the government had little desire to capture and detain them while all their efforts were focused on the pursuit of the disgraced heroes. That policy was a slippery slope, which wholeheartedly lived up to the moniker. After a few months, when most of the heroes had been rounded up, the government issued standing orders to shoot perpetrators on sight, creating a military police state in many nations. The people were at first behind the move; even going so far as to elect Lex Luthor to the office of President behind a massive wave of human-first sentiment. During the president's first few months, the situation had cooled considerable, but now there was a new problem. The populace was beginning to show signs of unrest at the drastic change in the government.

All of these problems had caused considerably strain on Checkmate's director. Waller sighed as she reached her office and locked the door behind her. She sat behind her desk, pulling out the file of the various heroes on the governments watch list.

Batman – Resisted Arrest – Captured

Superman – Surrendered

Wonder Woman – Resisted Arrest – On Themiscyra

Aquaman – Resisted Arrest – In Atlantis

Maritan Manhunter – Resisted Arrest – Mars

Green Lanterns

Hal Jordan – Resisted Arrest – Oa

Jon Stewart – Surrendered

Captain Marvel – Surrendered

Hawkman/Hawkgirl – Resisted Arrest – Thanagaria

Black Canary – Resisted Arrest – Location unknown

Green Arrow – Resisted Arrest – Location unknown

Flash – Resisted Arrest – Captured

She closed the file, not able to get past the first page. Each name that read captured conjured images of their brutal treatment in her head, images she wasn't sure she could live with any longer. When the witch hunt took place, she told herself she would find a way to help the heroes. For a while she fed information to Batman, but that proved fruitless as he was captured along with nearly his whole team of 20 heroes. Waller didn't even want to think about what had been done to the kids, kids that she had been chosen to hunt down.

And now Checkmate had been tasked with brining in one of the last known active heroes. The man was only known by his codename: Hawkeye. There was no face, no age, hell they didn't even know what exactly his powers were! They only had the vaguest of descriptions of him from a few witnesses, but those reports were two or three years old so he'd obviously been active before the Reach invasion, but managed to stay off of everyone's radar. What Checkmate did know was that he had been breaking in and hacking into government files relating to the heroes, but each time he failed to get any evidence of what the government had done with their captives.
The most recent infiltration suggested that he was working with one or more partners, making the matter a much higher priority for Checkmate. An organization of heroes was exactly what President Luthor feared most. Waller pulled out the mostly blank file on Hawkeye, staring at the white space so intently she didn't even notice the black clad figure entering through the window behind her.

"Evening, Waller."

Those two words startled Waller so much that she lost her balance in the chair, spinning around so fast that she fell out of it. She reached for the panic button, but was unable to reach it as a throwing knife lodged itself between her hand and the button.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you." The man stepped forward into the light, his 6'2" frame towered over Waller, who had quickly picked herself up off the floor. The man stepped closer to her. His short brown hair came down just slightly above his eyebrows. His eyes, hidden behind a black domino mask with white eye lenses, bore into her. The man's muscular posture indicated he intended to beat the crap out of something. Yet, despite the tension in the room, the man suddenly stepped back and his face broke into an easy smile.

"Take it easy, Waller. I'm not here to kill you, quite the opposite in fact."

The man maneuvered around Waller to read over the empty file on the desk. Waller studied the man's uniform. In all honesty it was much like the vigilante formerly known as Nightwing, but there was a gold bird on the chest instead of blue. He carried an assortment of weapons on his person, mostly notably a compact baseball bat attached to his back. After taking the man's presence in Waller finally found her voice. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm the man in the file." He tossed the manila folder in her direction. It landed on the floor, the lone page within roaming the air for several seconds before it found the ground. "And I believe you and I can help one another."

Realization came to the head of Checkmate. Her eyes narrowed and her voice lowered in anger. "Hawkeye. How the hell am I supposed to help you?"

Hawkeye began examining Waller's laptop, even opening up the bottom casing. "Oh, and you can stop hamming it up for the cameras, I disabled them on my way in. I know you were the one helping Batman. Now you can extend the same courtesy to me and my team. But this meet and greet's going to have to wrap up soon, my distraction's nearly here."

Hawkeye's confident demeanor threw Waller for a loop. She hesitated for a moment, thinking on how to proceed. She quickly decided to act. "What do you need?"

"For you to answer one question; where are they keeping them?"

Waller needed no help to understand who them was. Her breath caught in her throat as she struggled to find the words to answer the question, the weight of the whole situation crashing down on upon her. "I don't know. They never told me where the compounds were. After they're captured they get sent to several sites. Meta's go to one facility for testing, aliens to another. Human captives get their own super max prison."

Hawkeye nodded in silence, digesting the new information. Explosions just outside of the compound drew both he and Waller's attention. Hawkeye cocked his head to the window. "And that would be Red Hood and Arsenal. Those boys certainly do love to cause a ruckus."

Hawkeye touched his earpiece. "We ready to roll, Colt?" Hawkeye nodded as he received intel from the other speaker. "What do you mean Renegade was too sick to make it? She better have a damn good reason! I'll be out in one minute, keep the engines hot."

Hawkeye turned his attention back to Waller after snapping off the comm device. "Well, I've got to go Waller, but take this." Hawkeye handed Waller a comm device. "It's an old JLA comm device we've modified. Keep it powered down to avoid them picking up the signal. Get to a secure location and turn in on tomorrow night at 2300 hours. I'll contact you then."

Hawkeye turned to leave through the window, but Waller had one last question. "What do I even call your team?"

Hawkeye smirked. "We're The Outlaws."

And as quickly as he came, Hawkeye slipped back into the night. Checkmate's leader smiled as she saw the hero had taken her laptop, but more importantly he had found and removed the tracking device within it. Despite how bleak the situation seemed mere moments ago; Amanda Waller felt something she hadn't felt in a long time: hope.

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