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[Arcalian]

Changeling held his hands up. "Let's keep this professional, shall we?"

Terra nodded. "I didn't even expect you to come, to be honest."

Changeling shrugged. "They needed a shapeshifter. How is Mirage, anyway?"

Terra looked down. "About as well as you'd expect. Things were hairy there for a while, especially consider that the 'dear father' is currently working for Raven--"

"That isn't Raven," Gar said sharply.

"And I'm not my predecessor," Terra responded.

Gar shifted on his feet. "I did really wanna know how Mirage is."

"Surviving. The first few weeks were the worst. STAR labs is giving her the best of care. Under Checkmate observation, of course."

Dagon cleared his throat. "Shall we get to business?"

"Right. Um, does Gar get a bracelet?"

"No time to make one," came Prestor Jon's voice from the communicators. "But would he be willing to tolerate an earpiece?"

Changeling nodded. "Yeah."

"Third drawer to the left."

Changeling went over and fished an earpiece out of a drawer, and popped it in his left ear. "Testing, 1 2 3...."

"We're in business. I've got the datafiles."

"Then let's get started," said Tara.

The group settled on the couches, and Prestor Jon, the ever versatile AI, dimmed the lights and lit up a monitor screen, showing a few armored toughs. Jon's voice took on a studied, almost professorial tone. "Intergang, as some of you may know, is a crime syndicate based primarily in Metropolis--where they occasionally give Superman fits, sometimes as cat's paws for LuthorCorp, sometimes independently--with operations around the globe, though primarily in North America and Europe. They specialize in high tech weaponry and experimental, bad science. By bad, I mean both the immoral and the unlikely. Such organizations are the main type of threat that Checkmate was developed to fight. Intergang has a presence in Zandia, of course."

"What criminal organization doesn't?" Dagon snorted.

"Indeed. That is also why Arsenal went undercover there. It is largely through Arsenal's efforts that we have the following information."

The picture changed to show a smouldering crater, with Intergang soldiers loitering around. "This is a meteor strike near the Markovian--Lithuanian border. Intergang got their first, and spirited something away from the site."

Terra twitched. "Which side of the border?"

"The Lithuanian side, but by less than a mile. Another reason why our group was chosen, rather than, say, the Suicide Squad."

The original Terra had been from Markovia, and the curent Terra had unwillingly inherited some of her DNA, as well as her looks and powers. Everyone in the room was well aware of this. There was a long pause.

Jon resumed, "The meteorite fragment--or whatever it was--was taken to an Intergang safehouse in the former Yugoslavia. Whatever happened next--we suspect they were experimenting on their find--caused a large explosion."

"Radiation?" Asked Killowat.

"None. Unfortunately, more Interang reinforcements arrived before anyone else could, and spirited the find away again, this time to a submarine in the Mediterranean."

"I hope," Terra said as carefully as she could, "That Checkmate has noted the apparent profligacy of Intergang in Eastern Europe."

"That's another reason for our involvement, Tara. There may be follow up missions."

"How are we supposed to find the thing if Intergang vanished with it into the sea?" Changeling pointed out.

"We found out the hard way where it went next..."