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"Niiiiice!"

Oliver Queen sat back in a plush easy chair. The room he was in was tastefully adorned, obviously a place meant to convey comfort. Queen had thought many things in his life, but Bruce Wayne having good taste was not one of them.

"I'm glad you appreciate the décor," said Wayne . His face was on a holographic projection broadcast in front of Queen. "I trust everything is going well?"

"As good as can be expected," said Queen. "The Outsiders succeeded in their mission. Chance was rescued. But then, you knew that, right 'My King'?" The sarcasm was evident in Queen's voice.

"Yes, I was aware of that," said Wayne . "I meant overall. Still having second thoughts about joining me?"

"I'll admit," said Queen, "That I was very leery of cooperating with anything to do with bureaucratic fatcats like this, but you did good. You held up your end of the deal."

"Star City has never looked better," said Wayne .

"I agree," said Queen. "You said you'd get government dollars into rebuilding the city after Merlyn and Dr. Light's attack and you did. Of course, I can't help but think that the current President had something to do with it." Queen gave a wink and nod to Bruce.

"That made things easier, yes," said Wayne . "It still wasn't easy, but having Jefferson in the Oval Office has definitely been an asset to Checkmate."

"And Star City ," said Queen. "Who would have thought that Black Lightning would end up President of the United States ?"

Bruce smiled. "Life can take some interesting twists and turns, my friend."

 

DC Infinity Proudly Presents

Issue #2

"Stealth & Shadows"

By Mike Hintze

Special Thanks to D. Golightly

 

Barbara Gordon stretched out her arms and groaned. She had been at the computer for sixteen hours straight. Organizing lightside operations for Checkmate had been more work than she had bargained for, but these past few weeks had been exceptionally busy. If Bruce Wayne had been determined before as Batman, then he was almost fanatical now.

Barbara was the White Queen of the current incarnation of Checkmate. When Bruce had approached her with his plans at first, she had been astounded at the scope he was envisioning. Using Checkmate's resources to change the world, for the greater good and not for political gain. The plan had involved 'convincing' many American government officials that a reorganization was required, but it had been the assassination of President Jonathan Horne that had truly paved the way for Checkmate.

With Horne out of office, the opportunity, however unfortunate it had come about, led the way to Jefferson Pierce, the former Black Lightning (and former Secretary of Education in Luthor's defunct Presidential cabinet) to take office. Even Pierce himself was unaware of how much influence in the background she and Bruce had been in securing Pierce's nomination. If she didn't know Bruce as well as she did, she might have thought him behind the assassination. As it stood, there was a suspect still on the loose, known only to high ranking government officials..and Checkmate. Prometheus had been totally off the grid since the assassination. Bruce even had a team check the White Zone, the otherdimensional space that Prometheus called home, but there was no trace of him. He had disappeared so effectively that even Bruce had been impressed.

There was one thing Barbara hated about this assignment with Checkmate: the lying to her new husband, Dick Grayson. Dick had been involved at the onset of Bruce's plans to reorganize Checkmate's resources, but eventually made his opinions clear: he was not in support of this new endeavor. It smacked too much of Bruce's last failure, that of losing control of his metahuman spy satellite that came to be known as Brother Eye. Granted that had been because of Max Lord and the machinations of Alex Luthor, but the OMACs and the rest that followed would never have happened as easily as it did if not for Bruce's paranoia. Nightwing had been against this nearly from the start. Barbara on the other hand, had been in total support, seeing it as a logical extension of her own Birds of Prey. She had remained involved with Bruce and Checkmate, all the while keeping Dick in the dark as to her true intentions. She knew she couldn't keep this up forever: Dick was a crimefighter overseeing Gotham City in Bruce's absence, but he was also a detective. He would eventually figure this all out, and on that day Barbara knew they would have words. Why couldn't he understand that Bruce's mistakes of last time couldn't happen now? There were checks in the system, others overseeing priorities and missions that Bruce may have missed had he gone it alone. This time, it would work.

Barbara looked up at her situation board on her monitor screen. Oliver, the White King, was still in conference with Bruce. She tied into her communication array and connected to her's and Oliver's White Knight.

"White Knight, this is White Queen. Status report?"

" Nothing as yet ," said Connor Hawke. " Everything seems quiet still. No activity since last report. I don't think he's in there ."

"Patience, Connor," said Barbara. "If Bruce says he's there, then he's there."

"Not to doubt Batman ," said Connor, " But I think this time his intelligence may be wrong."

"Give it another hour," said Barbara. "Then we'll make a decision, fair?"

"An hour it is. White Knight out ."

Barbara consulted her situation board again. There were many agents across the world undergoing missions and surveillance at this very moment. Some were Checkmate agents personally vetted by Sasha Bordeaux and Bruce, others were metahumans and other costumed agents that Batman personally vouched for. His approvals of some agents were questionable to say the least, but Barbara had learned to trust Bruce. He had made mistakes in the past, but was learning from them.

She just hoped keeping her Checkmate involvement from Dick wasn't going to be a regrettable mistake for her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tom Tresser took aim and fired.

As always, his shots were impeccable. Six rounds had been fired at the target and all that was shown was a single hole. Despite his minor injuries sustained in rescuing Christopher Chance, he was still as crack a shot as there was.

He set the gun down and released the clip, reloading it. He wore sound proofed ear protection, but was still aware of someone approaching him. Without looking back, he said, "Hello, Sasha."

Sasha Bordeaux stopped in mild surprise. "I never could get the drop on you, now could I?"

Tresser removed the protection and turned to Sasha. "One of these days, you'll learn."

Sasha smiled. "One of these days you'll let your guard down."

"Maybe," said Tresser. "Not today."

"I have the latest field report from Spencer," said Sasha. "Looks like our intelligence was righteous."

"I suspected it would be," said Tresser. "Bruce is seldom wrong."

"I'm glad he's being cautious, though," said Sasha. "He may be a smart and dangerous man, but he's still a man that can make a mistake."

"That he is," said Tresser. "Just a better one than the rest of us."

"Speak for yourself," said Sasha, "I never said anything about women making mistakes."

"Touche," said Tresser. He had finished reloading the pistol and slid the clip back into the gun. "Want a try?"

"Absolutely," said Sasha. She took the gun from Tresser's offered hand and with one hand, aimed at the target Tresser had just used. She fired six times in quick succession. Where Tresser had shot the target in the chest, Sasha shot it in the head. Like Tresser, there was only one visible hole.

"You've been practicing," said Tresser.

"No," she said with a smile. "You have."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kate Spencer was bored out of her mind.

She had expected some tedium with her new assignment, but even a day in court was nothing like this. From a District Attorney to a costumed vigilante to an agent of Checkmate..she had changed careers three times in the past 3 years, or at least it felt like it. She had yet to run into a judge in district court that had bored her over the past three hours like this man had.

"William, you are one of the most intelligent men I've ever met," said Kate.

"My dear Sonia," said William Zard, aka the Wizard, "From you, that is an exceptional compliment." He sipped his wine.

The table they were seated at was in one of the poshest restaurants in Rome . The Wizard was dressed in a stylish tuxedo. Kate, under the alias of Sonia Grace, was dressed in an elegant dress with the slit up the side barely covering her thigh. Normally, Kate wouldn't be caught dead wearing something like this. While working for Checkmate, things of this nature were a necessity.

"My dear, perhaps it is time we retired for the evening?" asked Zard. His tone and leer made it evident what his intentions were.

"Why, William," said 'Sonia', "I thought you'd never ask."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So, what's next?" asked Grace, cracking her knuckles. The sounds were like pistol shots.

"Now, we wait, rest, take it easy," said Rex Mason, aka Metamorpho. "The boss man will let us know when we're needed again." He reclined on sofa and stretched out.

"We took down a Society stronghold, flattened a platoon of H.I.V.E. agents and rescued a billionaire," said Thunder. "I think we deserve some time off."

"This is sure a lot different than the days with Nightwing," said Grace. "I see now where he got his attitude from. Homegrown, I see." She chuckled at her dry wit.

"Bats may be a hardass," said Rex, "But he's the best at what he does. Back in the days of the original Outsiders, we were a force to be reckoned with. It was because of him. Pay your dues, and he'll trust you. The only reason you two are part of this is because Nightwing trusted you. That goes a long way in Bats' book."

"I think we've proven ourselves enough," said Grace. "Who the hell is he to say we need to be proven? I didn't see him jumping in to the battlefield in North Korea ."

"Don't you see, Grace?" said Thunder. "The fact we were sent on that mission says a lot about his faith in us. Checkmate is going to totally change the way the world looks at proactive superhuman defense. Batman is taking the Outsiders' mission and going global with it."

"Maybe," said Grace, "But I still don't like the idea that we have something to prove. We went through a lot as Outsiders. We've taken our lumps."

"That you have," said Rex. "Just remember: there's more to come..and you'll need to be ready for it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh! William, you devil!"

'Sonia' playfully pushed back The Wizard as he kissed the nape of her neck. Despite her reservations about this mission, she had goosebumps on her skin. Super-criminal he may be, but the Wizard definitely knew how to give a woman the shivers, and not in a bad way.

"My dear," said William Zard, "Tonight will be a night you will not forget." He removed his tuxedo jacket and began to unbutton his dress shirt. 'Sonia' saw that his bare body was adorned with multiple tattoos. They seemed to be occult symbols of some kind, but she couldn't be sure. Her glasses took high-speed pictures for analysis later.

Zard gently pushed her towards the bed in the opulent room at the Hotel Bernini. His hand slowly moved down to the bare skin of her smooth exposed leg. He moved his mouth back into the nape of her neck, hoping to elicit another shivery response..

Pain exploded in his groin as 'Sonia's' knee jammed upward into his testicles. He couldn't even scream, the pain was so unbearable. His vision was swimming, but he saw 'Sonia' reach around her other leg and pull out a small rod. It quickly extended out to a full length of six feet. 'Sonia' flipped it around and jammed into Zard's throat.

"I think," said Kate Spencer, "That's right..for one of us at least." Energy arced from the staff and then everything went black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zard awoke, no idea how long he had been unconscious. He tried to get his bearings, but found it hard to think. He was a master of illusion and even had an affinity for magic, although since magic had effectively been destroyed by the acts of the Spectre over a year ago, he had found his appetite for using such power severely curtailed. He tried to break free, but found he couldn't move any limbs. His mind just wasn't working right.

"Feeling a bit out of it?" asked a familiar female voice. This time, however, the voice was full of contempt, nothing like the sultry tones he had heard earlier and expected to hear long into the night. "You can thank the wonderful world of pharmaceuticals for that." The Wizard, now feeling the dull ache in his groin return, opened his eyes. It was Sonia, but she was wearing a red suit with a dark star design on the left hand chest. Her gloves were metallic and vicious looking. Her mask hid most of her face, with her nose and mouth revealed. Her hair came out the top of the mask in a kind of ponytail.

"Sonia?" he asked feebly.

"Manhunter," she said.

The Wizard had heard of her. Supposedly, word around the underworld was that she had killed the assassin called Copperhead in a Los Angeles sewer a couple of years ago. With Batman or Superman, you knew you were going to survive the attack if they brought you down. With Manhunter, all bets were off.

"You have a contact in the Society," said Manhunter. "You're going to tell me who it is and how to get ahold of him."

"Or else..what?" he mumbled.

"Or else," she said as she brought her bladed gloves up to his face.The claws shone in the dim light. "I start a disappearing act of my own..with parts of you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I have an assignment for you."

The four men and one woman turned all their attention to the man at the podium. His face was good looking and pleasant to look at, except for his eyes. They shone with nothing but malevolence.

"You are to assassinate this man." A picture came up on the screen behind him. "Full discretion is authorized. I only ask one thing."

"What is that, master?" asked the man called Raze.

"See that he dies in the most painful way possible." A smile crept on his lips that matched his insane eyes.

"As you wish, master," said the woman called Fantom. Her image seemed to wink in and out of existence every few seconds.

"Raze, Fantom, Speedbolt, Stellarus, Enigma..you are my fist. See that nothing stands in your way, my Shadows."

Speedbolt went to one knee, seemingly in the blink of an eye. The rest followed suit. In unison, they all chanted, "As you will it, Lord Humanite. For the glory of the Society."

"Yes," said the Ultra-Humanite. "For the glory of the Society."

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Next Issue: More with the Shadows, more with Manhunter and much more on the new structure of Checkmate! All in Checkmate #3!