Following Ocean Master's defeat at the hands of the Justice League, Amanda Waller dispatches Task Force X, consisting of Deadshot, Count Vertigo, and criminal couple Punch and Jewelee, to recover a flash drive containing leaked intelligence from Tobias Whale. The mission succeeds, but Vertigo and Jewelee betray the team and kill Punch. Having become lovers in jail, they plan to copy the flash drive and sell it once their time is served; but Waller, overheard everything through Deadshot's communicator, detonates Vertigo's head bomb and Deadshot mercy-kills Jewelee.

In Present Day Gotham City, Professor Pyg is kidnapped by Scandal Savage and Knockout for a "patient in need of medical attention". Waller discovers that she is diagnosed with a terminal illness and reassembles Task Force X with a new roster: Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Killer Frost, Copperhead, and Bronze Tiger. Their mission: to find a man named Steel Maxum and retrieve a mystical black card emblazoned "Get Out of Hell Free."

Finding Maxum in a male strip club, Task Force X battles Professor Zoom, Silver Banshee, and Blockbuster. The squad escape with Maxum and learn he was Doctor Fate. He explains that the card allows the user to skip Hell and gain access to Heaven, but it can only be used once. Scandal and Knockout stole the card from the Tower of Fate, which resulted in Maxum being stripped of his title by Nabu.

Upon finding Scandal and Knockout's apartment, the team acquires the card, but they’re intercepted by Vandal Savage and his men. Savage retrieves the card but leaves the wounded Knockout to die despite Scandal's pleas.