Dane opened the dream stone, releasing the power of the dream.
Outside the Atlantean capital, Peacemaker led the X-Squad closer to the Atlanteans' territory.
Because of their previous experience, their submersible this time had a more Atlantean-style disguise.
But unlike last time, Peacemaker clearly felt that Atlantis was much more eerie this time.
The dazzling lights were gone, and the once magnificent palace-like buildings in his memory seemed to have suffered the erosion of time, becoming mottled and crumbling.
"Is this Atlantis?" Killer Frost asked curiously.
She thought Atlantis would be more... more beautiful.
After all, when she watched Kuaishou, she found that these Undersea people's attire had quite artistic characteristics.
This time, it greatly disappointed her.
The Wise Man narrowed his eyes alone in the submersible. His intuition told him that something was not quite right.
Peacemaker opened the team channel: "Vixen, can you hear me?"
Vixen pressed her earbud: "I can hear you, speak."
"You can see clearly, right?"
The tantu totem around Vixen's neck allowed her to acquire the abilities of all known animals on Earth.
So, if she wanted to, she could have the same vision as Atlanteans in the almost lightless environment of the Undersea.
Under normal circumstances, the Undersea environment is dark, just like the underwater civilization of Talokan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
However, when Atlanteans evolved the ability to survive in Water, they also evolved dark vision.
This allowed them to use any faint light in the underwater environment to magnify its light source for imaging.
This is also why Arthur felt that jellyfish, sea anemones, and even fish emitted phosphorescence when he saw them in the deep Water.
That is essentially one of the Atlanteans' special abilities.
And this vision is not exclusive to the Undersea people; many other marine creatures also have this ability.
For example, some shrimp species have 16 types of cone cells, allowing them to see ten times more colors than humans. They can see ultraviolet, infrared, and even polarized light.
A stretch of Water that appears pitch black to humans is vibrant and colorful in their eyes.
So Vixen just nodded when she heard Peacemaker.
"I can see clearly."
As she spoke, she subconsciously clutched the necklace around her neck, which was the source of her power.
"Alright, I need you to go down and scout the Water ahead..."
Vixen immediately showed an unwilling expression, but with her leverage in someone else's hands, she had no choice but to comply.
So she activated the power of the tantu totem, gaining the underwater breathing ability of fish and the swimming ability of dolphins, and left the submersible like a fish.
She swam forward and soon saw the location Peacemaker had indicated: a huge bridge and a gate flanked by two massive stone statues.
Do they need to build bridges under the Undersea?
Vixen didn't understand the meaning of this, but she found that the bridge was littered with scattered vehicles, lying motionless on the bridge.
Vixen didn't see anyone. She decided to investigate further.
So she carefully swam forward, approached the bridge, and casually looked into the nearest submersible.
Inside was a pale-faced person, whose eyes were still staring straight out the glass window.
Vixen was startled by him and quickly kicked her feet back.
But a moment later, she didn't see the person inside come out, so she bravely approached again.
She fumbled around outside the submersible, found the door-opening switch, and pressed it. The submersible opened its door like a high-end supercar.
The person inside seemed to move outwards, carried by the current. Only then did Vixen place her hand next to the person's neck.
Now she was certain: this person was dead.
Could this be the great change Harcourt mentioned earlier?
Vixen looked at the other submersibles on the bridge, and a terrible thought suddenly popped into her mind.
She quickly swam to the other submersibles to check, and there were people inside each one, all dead in a strikingly similar manner.
They all seemed to have been infected by some sudden illness, leading to sudden death.
Vixen suddenly felt a chill deep in her bones; there seemed to be only one possibility that could cause such a situation.
"Highly contagious disease!"
She instantly clapped her hands in the Water, swimming quickly, trying to leave the place as fast as possible.
But not long after she started swimming, she felt a sharp pain in her heart. The pain twisted her face, and her whole body involuntarily curled into a ball.
To make the act more realistic, Dane reintroduced genetic weapons into this reshaped Atlantis.
Of course, this weapon was shaped by the Dream Realm; the real one had already been sent to the Hall of Justice.
If he hadn't been there, this place would very likely be what Atlantis was about to become.
Vixen weakly reached out her hand, as if trying to seek someone's help.
"Ansalie above, please help me..."
Ansalie is the ancient spider god who passed the tantu totem to the human Tantu.
However, in Dane's Dream Realm, Ansalie's divine power could not reach, and Vixen eventually collapsed on the bridge due to heart failure.
This outcome was also known by Peacemaker, who was behind.
Checkmate had already tampered with Vixen, able to monitor her heartbeat in real-time.
Peacemaker saw from the computer that Vixen's heartbeat went from strong to weak to stopped in less than ten minutes, which indicated that the genetic weapon was also effective against heroes with magic power.
This was exhilarating news.
Peacemaker had deliberately tricked Vixen into going out earlier; his purpose was to test the effect of the genetic weapon on metahumans.
Now it seemed, fortune favored them.
Peacemaker showed a strange smile, but when he spoke to the other members, his tone pretended to be puzzled.
"Vixen is not responding. All members, move out immediately! I want to know what happened to her!"
Katana was the first to respond. She was not a soldier, but her obedience was higher than any soldier. It was said that the people of this country had a higher degree of subservience, and she wondered if it was true.
Killer Frost was a bit slower than her. She didn't want to move at all, but the bomb in her head forced her to move.
The Thinker moved last. He grew increasingly suspicious of the true purpose of this mission, and an ominous premonition lingered in his mind, refusing to dissipate.
Waller, what are you hiding, you bitch!
Upon arriving outside Atlantis, Peacemaker located Vixen using a positioning device.
The other members of the squad, wearing fully enclosed wetsuits, descended onto the bridge.
At the edge of the bridge, Vixen lay face up, her eyes open, an expression of unresigned death.
"She's dead!" Killer Frost shrieked.
She had witnessed Vixen's abilities; even she would find it difficult to take her down. How could she have died here in such a short time?
Katana squatted down and used the life detector on her wetsuit to check Vixen's vital signs.
A moment later, she stood up.
"Her heart has completely stopped."
The Thinker stood at the back, carefully observing the surroundings. He noticed that the Undersea people and Vixen had died in almost identical ways.
He also had the same thought as Vixen; this must have been caused by some virulent infectious disease.
However, he thought more deeply: what kind of virulent infectious disease could cause such severe casualties all at once and in a short period?
He had seen relevant reports that Atlanteans possessed extremely high technological capabilities. Could their technology not cope with this disease?
No matter what type of virus, infecting the human body requires a certain amount of time, and theoretically, this time would have been enough for them to develop a corresponding antidote.
But the current situation suggested that the Atlanteans had all died uniformly while on their way.
What did this indicate?
It indicated that this virus spread incredibly fast, so fast that they died before they even had time to react.
This was no longer just a virus; even a deadly poison that killed on contact would be no more potent.
And even Vixen couldn't withstand it, showing how virulent this poison was.
They absolutely could not stay here any longer!
So he immediately suggested to Peacemaker:
"I think we should leave here immediately; this place is too dangerous."
He originally thought Peacemaker would realize the seriousness of the problem, but he never expected that Peacemaker was the one who caused the current situation.
Even more unexpectedly, he was no longer "he."
Peacemaker turned his head to look at The Thinker, a strange smile on his lips.
"I don't think so."
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