Gotham, at night.
The dim yellow streetlights emitted a faint glow as two men walked down the street, arguing passionately.
"That's nonsense! Miss Jill is clearly more beautiful!"
"No way. I admit Miss Jill is good-looking, but she just has bigger breasts, longer legs, and a more attractive face. She can't compare to Lana!"
"Hah! But Miss Jill is the mayor's daughter. Even if you suck up to her, she won't even know you exist."
"If that's the case, Lana is a movie star in Metropolis. As if she would know you either."
The two men suddenly fell silent.
"Hah, you make a good point."
"And you're not entirely wrong either."
"Whatever, it's not important. Let's go grab a drink."
"Yeah, let's go drink. Why argue over such nonsense?"
With that, the two of them walked arm in arm, humming tunes and singing songs as they made their way to the bar.
Until a figure appeared in the darkness ahead.
From the silhouette alone, it was clear she was a woman. As she got closer, under the dim streetlights, it became evident that she was an exceptionally tall woman with an incredibly stunning figure. Her body was curvaceous, with long, shapely legs that were bare, standing on the cold ground. Her face was hidden in the shadows.
What was even more unusual was the peculiar, loose cloak draped over her body, made entirely of what seemed like woven feathers, resembling a peacock's plumage.
With just one glance, it was obvious that under that cloak, she was wearing nothing at all.
Through the exquisite cloak, one could faintly see her plump thighs, and even a bit higher, a round, smooth curve.
The two men's eyes widened instantly.
Was it really possible to be this bold?
One of the men whistled loudly and immediately approached her. As he got closer, he caught a whiff of a captivating fragrance that was intoxicating.
"Miss, do you need some help?"
"Are you lost?"
"On a cold night like this, do you need some warmth?"
"Come to my place; it's quite spacious."
The woman raised her head, and an eerie green light flashed in her eyes.
"Sure, I do need some help."
As she spoke, her pale arm shot out from under the cloak like a bolt of white lightning. She moved incredibly fast. Her hands grasped the throats of the two men, lifting them off the ground with an astonishing amount of strength.
The faces of the two men turned beet red instantly, veins bulging on their necks. A deep green mist began to flow from the woman's fingertips, pouring into the men's throats, following the complex pathways of their veins, entering their bodies.
Both men screamed in agony.
Their bodies started to swell rapidly, their sleeves ripping apart into shreds. Their skin turned rough and hard, and their spines bent, transforming them into long, twisted, zombie-like creatures.
The woman let go. The two men fell to the ground on either side, kneeling down with their heads lowered, making some incoherent sounds from their throats.
She retracted her hands back into her wide green cloak and lazily said, "I need you to help me find someone."
---
Syrina didn't witness how Vatoqs met his end.
Fortunately, she had not acted together with Vatoqs. The reason they had split up earlier was to avoid any unforeseen circumstances.
She didn't possess Vatoqs's formidable strength. If Vatoqs could handle a situation, her presence would only be ornamental. If he encountered an opponent he couldn't defeat, her presence would be a liability.
In fact, Vatoqs was supposed to have a surveillance device on him. It would record everything he saw and encountered during the battle, informing the team of the kind of enemy they were facing.
This way, even if he met a mishap, Syrina, hiding far away, could bring this valuable information back to the Phantom League to devise a new strategy.
However, the footage that was supposed to be transmitted back had been interrupted by some unknown interference during the battle.
This fact alone made Syrina realize something was wrong. How could a civilization classified as Level 3 possess the means to disrupt their signal transmission?
It was becoming increasingly clear to her that this planet—especially the organization known as "Checkmate"—had depths far beyond what appeared on the surface.
The last thing she received from Vatoqs was a brief, yet intense, encrypted message sent back through an emergency backup channel.
It was short and direct, filled with a sense of urgency:
"Earth is terrifying. Run!"
Only now did Syrina start to believe that the two teammates who were lost before might not have been because they were weak.
This planet was indeed problematic!
She had to hurry back and inform the League, notify the higher-ups.
She had a hunch that finding the missing Kryptonian girl on this planet might not be as easy as it seemed.
It might even require the terrifying beings within the organization to take action personally.
"Checkmate"—she had remembered the name.
---
At Checkmate Headquarters.
The incident at the Gotham branch was quickly reported to Amanda Waller.
Recently, "aliens" had clearly become the top sensitive topic on Checkmate's radar. The alien parties who fought at the branch—both the one doing the beating and the one being beaten—displayed overwhelming power that conventional weapons couldn't handle.
Especially the Ultraman they had been monitoring for some time now. This time, not only did the giant Ultraman appear, but also a combat mecha that seemed to be his teammate.
Checkmate's weapons experts had conducted an overnight study of the mecha's combat data and quickly compiled a report.
Its mobility was astounding, the propulsion system was incredible, and the energy output was outrageously inexplicable. The technology behind its energy weapons was at least a generation ahead of the current world.
In short, the conclusion was something like this:
"Even if you shot me in the head, I still wouldn't understand the dozens, if not hundreds, of god-tier patents on that suit of armor."
Waller was furious.
She didn't understand science. But she thought, "They've already made the thing and demonstrated its capabilities. And you're telling me you don't get it?"
"Is this an open-book exam where you still don't know how to copy the answers?"
The experts were also frustrated.
The technological content of this thing far exceeded human comprehension; it wasn't something they could figure out with their current theoretical foundation.
To put it simply, this wasn't an open-book exam. It was a complex, multi-step problem with the reference answer only providing the final result and a casual "steps omitted."
However, the clueless leaders didn't care about any of that. The clueless leaders simply thought, "I may not understand this, but you guys are just incompetent."
Compared to the mecha, which they could barely grasp, the giant was completely beyond their understanding of biology.
Based on the two brief appearances of Ultraman, this creature's very existence seemed to defy all known laws of physics. Just looking at that gigantic image made Waller's head hurt.
But there was nothing she could do; perhaps aliens indeed weren't governed by Newton.
---
"Achoo!"
Amanda Waller suddenly sneezed.
"Caught a cold, ma'am?" her deputy asked.
"Mind your own business and focus on your work," Waller replied coldly.
"Yes, ma'am."
The deputy, feeling rebuffed, turned and continued his work.
Waller rubbed her nose and frowned, a bit troubled.
She couldn't shake the feeling that someone was thinking about her—or maybe it was just her imagination.
She even had a vague sense that somewhere, someone might be framing her.