She couldn't help but express her concerns to Harley.
"Do you think Dane might be in danger?"
Harley looked at her, utterly bewildered. "How is that possible? With his abilities, it's a miracle he doesn't harm others; how could he possibly be harmed by someone else?"
Huntress perked up her ears, very curious—who was Dane?
She wasn't stupid; Poison Ivy had clearly asked about Shazam just now, but the next second she asked about another name.
Could it be... Shazam's real name was Dane?
Huntress felt like she had stumbled upon an incredible secret.
Just as the three of them were in the Hall of Justice discussing the matter, the Hall of Justice door suddenly opened.
The three immediately stopped their conversation and turned to look.
First to catch their eyes were a pair of long legs, then a perfect figure, and finally that exquisite, art-like face—it was Wonder Woman.
"Uh oh, the mistress meets the wife," Harley blurted out without any filter.
Poison Ivy turned back and glared at her fiercely, almost as if she wanted to kill her.
But their interaction caused a huge shock in Huntress's heart.
What the hell was going on?!
...Meanwhile, Katana, along with Killer Frost, quickly contacted Harcourt.
"Katana?" Harcourt's surprised voice came through the communicator.
"You're out already?"
Katana steadied Killer Frost and calmly spoke into the communicator: "Harcourt, I have important information to report..."
Katana paused there.
She suddenly thought, since those freaks could change their appearance, was it possible that Checkmate had also been infiltrated by them?
Could Harcourt be absolutely trusted?
So she suddenly asked, "Harcourt, can I trust you?"
Harcourt sensed the seriousness of the situation from Katana's words, and her heart tightened.
"Of course, you can completely trust me!"
She was going to check later if their brain bombs were still functional.
Katana didn't know if she believed her, but she said:
"Alright, we're at XXX now. Come alone.
This matter is confidential. Until I'm sure, I won't trust anyone, including you."
With that, she hung up the communication, then cut the communicator in half with a single slice and left with Killer Frost.
If she confirmed that even Harcourt was one of those things, her fate would be no different from that communicator.
As for whether she could distinguish between them and humans, you might be disrespectfully doubting Dane's abilities.
At the Checkmate Base.
Harcourt frowned, looking at the disconnected phone in her hand, lost in thought.
Why would Katana, who was always cautious and obeyed orders, suddenly make such a move?
She didn't quite understand.
But she immediately found a technician and asked them to check the X-Squad members' locations.
After they entered Bermuda, since no signal could penetrate out of there, they couldn't track signals from their end.
However, once they left that area, the positioning system would reactivate. Theoretically, they couldn't escape Checkmate's tracking.
But the setback came quickly: the technician told Harcourt that they still couldn't track the location of the wetsuits.
There were several possibilities: one, they didn't carry their N-alloy battle suits when they came out, so there was no way to locate them.
Two, the battle suits had been destroyed.
Three, the signal was being jammed by an unknown force.
But Harcourt didn't think the third possibility was likely. As far as she knew, there were no organizations in the World with technical capabilities exceeding Checkmate.
Clearly, she was somewhat ignorant.
"Check again if the bombs can still be activated."
This was the most important thing. Harcourt had to ensure these individuals were still under Checkmate's control.
They hadn't installed positioning functions on the micro-bombs because the technology hadn't reached that level yet.
A positioning device capable of covering the entire East Coast, no matter how small it was made, would be difficult to implant into a human brain.
However, confirming whether it could be used and activated was possible; this belonged to a certain quantum technology, and Checkmate already had mature technical samples.
But unfortunately, the technician brought Harcourt very bad news.
"The bombs on them are currently out of contact; they cannot be confirmed or activated."
Now the pressure was on Harcourt: should she go alone to meet Katana?
This was a dilemma. She was a bit worried about Katana defecting, and the problem was she didn't know how many people were with Katana.
X-Squad's organizational method was, after all, inhumane. Although Katana usually appeared obedient, she was Japanese, and their obedience didn't necessarily mean loyalty.
But if she didn't go, would those people disappear from Checkmate's sight forever?
That wasn't impossible.
As long as they chose to live under assumed names and moved to another country, no matter how capable Checkmate was, they couldn't possibly send out all Agents to scour the World for these few people, could they?
And even the most capable Agent probably wouldn't be enough for Katana alone to kill; that Japanese girl was fierce... So, after much deliberation, Harcourt decided to go.
She had to find out what exactly happened on the Undersea, and why Katana had emerged but Peacemaker remained completely out of contact.
Without hesitation, Harcourt and Amanda were, to some extent, the same kind of person; their careers held absolute priority in their lives.
And Harcourt, to advance her career, even dared to put herself in danger.
Three hours later, as Katana had instructed, she truly arrived in Metropolis alone.
This was the city guarded by Superman, so she had to act cautiously.
There were rumors that Superman listened to the entire city 24 hours a day. Harcourt didn't know if the rumors were true, but she preferred to believe them rather than not.
Clark, of course, couldn't be that perverted; even if he was Superman, he occasionally needed rest and entertainment.
Moreover, his morals wouldn't allow him to monitor the privacy of everyone in Metropolis 24 hours a day; wouldn't he even hear people doing 'happy' things?
Wouldn't that be perverted?
So the real situation was that he only reacted when there were particularly loud noises, such as terrified screams, gunshots, or car crashes.
His super brain routinely managed this information for him, filtering out unimportant sounds in real time.
As for Katana and Killer Frost, their submarine was directly teleported by Dane's magic, making no sound.
Furthermore, their fight with 3/5 of the Birds of Prey happened to be in a suburban area, where Clark didn't use too much of his power, so he didn't hear it.
Dane understood him very well.
So Harcourt's worries were completely unnecessary. Too many people entered and exited Metropolis every day; Clark didn't have the leisure to vet them one by one.
After he started dating Jane, such things became even more impossible.
So, along the way, Harcourt, without any alarm or danger, walked into the address Katana had given her—a very secluded, dilapidated old factory.
Harcourt almost didn't find the exact location when she entered.
She cautiously drew the pistol from her waist and pushed the door open.
There wasn't even a single light inside, and Harcourt felt a bit nervous.
Although she had received some combat training and was a good shot, she was still too weak in front of a professional Killer like Katana.
"Good, you really came alone."
The voice came from behind Harcourt. She spun around, aiming her gun behind her, but there was no one there.
But in the dark, she felt a pair of eyes scrutinizing her; if her guess was correct, it must be Katana's gaze.
Damn it, could she have gambled wrong this time?
Harcourt felt uneasy. Her biggest fear was Katana defecting, which would leave Checkmate facing a very tricky opponent.
She tried to regain some initiative: "Katana, is that you? Why choose to meet in Metropolis? This is Superman's territory."
"Under the power of My Lord, Superman cannot detect us."
Katana's faint voice seemed right next to her ear, but Harcourt just couldn't find her.
"I came as you said, why don't you come out?"
"I'm watching."
Harcourt felt strange in her heart: "Watching what?"
Katana suddenly appeared before her, almost giving her a heart attack.
But she instinctively went to pull the trigger, and Katana drew her sword at a speed she couldn't react to at all.
Harcourt's pistol was directly cut in half and disassembled!
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