Checkmate (Earth 1) - SirJeffCena

**Checkmate** is a covert agency under jurisdiction of the U.S. Government. Their primary goal was to subdue and (if possible) enlist metahumans and superheroes, such as those involved with the Justice League and Justice Society of America, to defend the world from extraterrestrial threats. The agency also organized and employed the Suicide Squad, a black ops taskforce crewed by metahumans.

## Known Agents

### Command & intelligence

* The White Queen: Amanda Waller (unknown, presumed dead)
* The White Knight: Tess Mercer (retired)
* The White Knight: Stuart Campbell (unknown, presumed dead)
* The White Rook: Edward Lott (deceased)
* The White Rook: Paul Brenner (unknown)
* The White Pawn: Lois Lane (retired)
* Dr. King Faraday (deceased)

### Field operation

* The Black King: Maxwell Lord (unknown)
* The Black Knight: Ray Sacks (alive)
* The Black Pawn: Cameron Mahkent (unknown)
* Suicide Squad (active)
	+ Rick Flag (team leader)
* Though not exactly in the field, there is a medic that tends to wounded members of Checkmate within the very walls.

## Location

Checkmate's headquarters, nicknamed **The Castle**, is hidden within the Rocky Mountains of western United States. Inside its walls, the Castle is a command base with checkered black and white floors that look like chessboard.

A room that Cameron Mahkent remained in for consultation with Amanda Waller was conditioned with low temperature setting and color setting for him. When he was being detained after his failure, he was contained in a red-setting room with some conditioned heat.

Amanda Waller's office was more professional with a chess set for her to move her players (members) in their order.

## Identification and call

Members of Checkmate receive a chess piece or even symbol so their fellow members can be recognized in their place in society. When needed for operation for whatever the cause or time, the operatives perform without thought after seeing their chess piece sitting on their own personal setting that they convene to often.

## Transportation

Operatives use a truck for conducting spy operations or transporting unwilling individuals to their base. Checkmate transports contain militaristic cameras as well as weaponry.

## Tracking

Each agent contain within themselves an embedded device that tracks their very movement. It is capable of movement within the skin and buries inside the host should it even feel threatened.

## Released

The only way for anyone to leave Checkmate is to be put to death, for they cannot be trusted to let go with sensitive information. And if they were to be ever caught or monitored, Checkmate would activate an embedded chemical which would kill them as they foam at the mouth.

## History

### Early History

Checkmate approached the Justice Society of America, demanding that they work for them and for them to unmask themselves. When they refused, Checkmate uncovered the JSA's secret identities on their own, and then began to hunt them down with the help of the police.

The JSA members were arrested, but with no evidence or conviction to charge them with, they were released. Unfortunately knowing what the government was capable of doing to get what they wanted, the JSA chose to disband.

When Amanda Waller became leader of Checkmate, she hired a LuthorCorp employee named Tess Mercer to spy on her boss, Lex Luthor, and his alien investigations and projects.

Checkmate started an operation that included the recruitment of criminal individuals with special abilities (those that were imprisoned for their evil activities and those that happened to be the heir/protege of the original villain). For the imprisoned, Checkmate made an order to have their information and records missing to conduct their operations.

### Year Nine

Amanda Waller employed Cameron Mahkent, the son of the original Icicle, as a **Black Pawn** to begin tracking down and killing members of the Justice Society of America. First, Icicle killed Sylvester Pemberton aka the Star Spangled Kid and then Wesley Dodds the Sandman. He then killed Doctor Fate and took the Helmet of Nabu for himself.

While wearing the helmet, he faced off against a combination of the Justice Society and Oliver Queen's team of heroes. Icicle returned to the Checkmate agency hoping to kill more JSA members, but Waller revealed that she only wanted him to bring the JSA out of retirement. She then pointed a gun in his direction and said, "Welcome to the Suicide Squad"... and fired the gun.

Checkmate then turned their sights on the one called Watchtower, who they knew was the key to accessing many metahumans like The Blur, Green Arrow, and the rest of their team. To do this, they first kidnapped Green Arrow after a successful diversion by Agent Mercer. Bringing him onto one of their mobile bases, Waller met with Green Arrow, demanding that he accept Checkmate's invitation to join their ranks and serve his country. Green Arrow refused and managed to escape the van. Waller hounded Tess for not making sure the prisoner was secure, telling her that failure was not an option. They realized Green Arrow's team was onto them when Detective John Jones, a Martian, managed to make his way to Checkmate headquarters at "The Castle". Waller confronted him, telling him that the alien blood sample they had received a short time beforehand was proof of alien life (the blood sample had been given to Waller by Lois Lane from a scientist torturing Kryptonian's lab).

She trapped John with a cage of fire and left him while she had other matters to attend to. Meanwhile, Checkmate captured Watchtower, Chloe Sullivan, and brought her to "The Castle" after she had investigated Checkmate's connection to Icicle. Clark Kent, the one called The Blur, arrived to rescue her, thanks to interrogating the location of headquarters out of Tess, when he met with Waller. Waller demanded his and his team's loyalty, telling him that if he refused, Watchtower would die. A power outage ironically caused by Tess allowed the Blur the time to rescue Chloe and escape "The Castle". John Jones was able to break free of his prison thanks to his Martian shape-shifting abilities and he then destroyed the blood sample, before wiping the faces of Watchtower, The Blur, and Green Arrow from Waller's memory so she no longer remembered their secret identities. Frustrated by the loss of Watchtower and therefore the entire team that could help protect them from the coming alien invasion, Waller angrily went back to her office where a Red Queen chess piece awaited her. She realized an entirely new player had entered the game.

Maxwell Lord, the Black King of Checkmate, set his sights on discovering the identity of The Blur and using that information to get to the rest of the metahumans on the planet. He helped one of The Blur's enemies, Ray Sacks out of jail in order to help him find people with any information on The Blur. They collected people who had caught glimpses of The Blur and Lord used his mind reading abilities to force the images out of their minds and project them onto a monitor. Lord offered Sacks a Black Knight position in Checkmate for his services. After nearly completing the image and kidnapping Lois Lane, who held the last piece, The Blur himself showed up. He destroyed the monitor the moment it completed his image in anger after Lord tried to rip his image out of Lois' mind. Lord escaped but was found by a man who threw him into a limo where he met with the mysterious Red Queen face to face.

Checkmate recruited Stuart Campbell, a former hacker under Tess Mercer's employ, into their ranks and with his help, they successfully hacked Watchtower of all of the information on the aliens on Earth. Stuart, wanting revenge on Tess for shooting him, disobeyed Waller to not search for Tess and did so anyway. Meanwhile, Waller used the information they had taken from Watchtower to track down half of the aliens, the ones who did not have their powers. She took their leader, Faora, while intending to kill the rest. The remaining aliens were saved by The Blur while Waller tried to press Faora for information. The aliens' true leader, Zod, attacked Waller and threw her into a windshield, hoping to kill her, when The Blur arrived, hitting Zod away and saving Waller's life. Stuart returned to "The Castle" after being unable to track down Tess where he found Waller. Waller explained that the war had begun now that Zod had destroyed many of their bases and that they needed to contact the United Nations immediately on the situation. However, Zod was also at "The Castle" and had slaughtered many Checkmate operatives. Waller and Agent Campbell made a run for it as Zod unleashed a blast of heat vision, burning the entire castle to a cinder. Agent Waller's and Agent Campbell's fates remain unknown.

## Notes

* While antagonistic and believing that the Justice League could pose a threat, Checkmate also saw them as an asset and the world's best hope to fend off alien invasions.
	+ Waller manipulated Icicle into bringing the J.S.A. out of retirement and having them join forces with the Justice League, believing the world would need them if they were to stand a chance against the imminent arrival of Apokolips.
	+ Waller sought to draft members such as Oliver Queen as operatives for the organization, hoping they could combat the Kandorian threat.
	+ After John Jones erased Waller's memory of the League's identities, Checkmate attempted to hack Watchtower's servers to gain intelligence on the Kandorians and the team alike.