GOTHAM CITY

JULY 4, 2010

11:55 EDT

I tensed as I watched Freeze….well, freeze everything he could see. I glared at him, wishing to be down there beating his ass but Selina had insisted I watch this one out. I didn't fully understand but didn't question her.

I saw a Batarang fly out from a tree and hit Freeze's gun, saving the last of the unfrozen people, letting them escape. Due to my amazing hearing and gadgets I could hear everything that Freeze was saying.

"Batman," Freeze spoke, turning to look at the tree where the Batarang had come from. "I was wondering when-"he was cut off by the sound of laughter, I narrowed my eyes and could just about make out the shape of the Boy Wonder before he pounced on Freeze, pushing him to the ground and swiftly turning, firing two Birarangs as he did.

"Oh," Freeze started, obviously not amused by his company, "Boy Wonder. The Bat sent you to send me off to prison? To be honest, I'm quite underwhelmed." I chuckled softly at that last part; Robin was going to have fun with that later.

"Great, but I'm kinda in a hurry here" Robin sighed, looking over Freeze's shoulder, throwing his hands up as he did.

"Kids, always in such a rush. I prefer to preserve these moments, forever" Freeze commented.

"Not talking to you~" Robin sang exasperated.

Freeze's face displayed one of confusion then shock, I realised why. While Boy Wonder was keeping Freeze busy, Bats had snuck up behind them, leaping up from the rock and proceeded to deliver a swift knock-out punch to Freeze.

I grinned slyly and sat up from my perch on the building opposite.

Well I better introduce myself. Hey, I'm Lynx, as in the cat? Yeah. And I'm Catwoman's protégé/daughter, not biologically of course, according to my real mum, I'm dead, but I don't care, what's done is done, no way to change it. As for why I'm here, well, today is the day.

I looked down just in time to see Bats and Robin jump into the Batmobile, which was my cue to leave. I unlatched my whip from my right hip and used it to swing from building to building, following the rapid speed car through Gotham and out the other side.

I lifted my hand to my ear to activate my com unit, "You in place?" I asked, my eyes never leaving the vehicle.

"Of course, kitten, right outside. See you in a few." Catwoman clicked off and I leapt off the roof into an alleyway where my civilian clothes were hidden.

I quickly pulled on the dark outfit over my suit. My suit was pretty much the same as Catwoman's but a few alterations had to be made to fit me personally. For one, my long, ash hair wasn't tied back in a hood like her, the only thing that sat on my head were my ears, and there was also a hole for my tail to fit through, plus the fact I have a domino mask to hide my true identity from the world.

As soon as I was done changing I ran out of the alleyway and hopped on my catcyle and took off after the two birds.

WASHINGTON D.C.

JULY 4, 2010

14:00

As I drew nearer to the infamous Hall Of Justice I pulled over and parked my bike, rushing quickly into the shadows before anyone could detect I was there.

"Hey kitten, didn't think you were gonna make it. Washing your tail again were we?" Catwoman's voice cut into the silence beside me. I turned to face her and scowled lightly.

"Jealous?" I teased, bringing my tail out from under my coat and flicking it behind me. She smirked at me and turned to peer out from behind the corner.

I always stumped her with that comeback because in fact she is, jealous, I mean. My tail and ears are real; a part of me just as much as my arms and legs.

Before meeting Selina I was tested on as a guinea pig, trying to see if you could combine human DNA with other mammals. I grew a tail, cat ears and my nails grew longer, my hearing and sight also improved. When Catwoman found me she saw hope and took me in.

"They've just entered; we'll have twenty minutes before anyone comes back out." Her voice brought me out of my thoughts and I nodded at her, ready to pounce into action. We waited for a few more minutes then suddenly Catwoman vanished.

I quickly took her place and peered round the corner to be met by the sight of Speedy storming out of the Hall and speeding off on his bike. No pun intended.

I rolled my eyes and pulled my touchscreen device out of my breast pocket and scrolled through my files hoping to catch something that needed checking out. Catwoman wouldn't be finished for a while and all I was doing was observing. I was pretty bored,

"Hey Catwoman, Cadmus claims to have just opened something on Sub-Level fifty-two, mind if I go check it out?" I radioed, hoping for her to give me the all clear.

"Sub-Level fifty-two? What could they be creating down there?" She paused for a moment on the other end of the line, obviously trying to decide whether going was a good idea or not. After a few seconds of silence she radioed back. "Fine, but be careful, if you're not back by midnight, then I coming to get you, okay kitten?"

"Copy that Calico." I grinned as I heard her growl at the other end of the link before it was abruptly cut off.

WASHINGTON D.C.

JULY 4, 2010

14:20

I entered Cadmus and quietly slipped towards the elevator, hoping no one would see me. My hope slowly died out as I heard someone shout out from behind me. I groaned and stayed put, fishing out my mini-bombs from inside my sleeves of my jacket. When I heard the running feet slow down, indicating they were not too far away I spun round quickly, hurling the bombs, which exploded in mid-air, creating a smoke barrier whilst also setting fire to some drapes. I ditched the civilian clothes in the midst of the smoke and threw more bombs behind me, listening to them explode and the screams of people following.

With everyone distracted I sped down a hallway and into an empty side room filled with computers.

"Time for an update." I mused, plugging my USB wire into the port, pulling up a hologram screen, hacking and downloading the newest Cadmus files to my cat suit.

Once I was finished I tiptoed my way out of the room towards the elevator. I pried open the doors and jumped. I flew down the elevator shaft until I landed gracefully on all fours on the top of the empty elevator; I looked up to the wall, Sub-Level forty-one. I sighed and pulled myself up onto the ledge, bypassing any systems that would suddenly set of any alarms.

I pried open the new set of elevator doors and set off down the dim hallway. A couple of times I had to press to the wall to avoid being seen by the Genomorphs; didn't want Desmond to know my location before I knew his.

After a while of walking I reached the emergency stairs. Opening the door, I looked down over the railing. The stairs spiralled down all the way to Sub-Level fifty-two. I smirked, perfect. I took two steps back and ran at the metal bar, flipping over it expertly and, once again, flew towards the ground and, once again, landing on all fours.

I opened the door and let myself in, to what looked like the inside of a vein. Red cells coated the walls, trailing off down two similar hallways. I had already searched down creepy corridor A last time I was in D.C. so I could safely say that whatever Desmond was hiding was down creepy corridor B.

I took off running down the hallway, pausing when I reached a large metal door, only stopping to disable the lock so I could enter. Lucky for me the room was empty with only a large tube situated in the middle.

I stared in shock at the test tube in the centre of the room, inside was a boy, to be more precise a Superboy. He looked about 16 and had his eyes closed peacefully, almost like he was sleeping. I shook my head to try and clear my mind of any shock that was still plastered there.

"I knew they were cloning Superheroes, but seriously, Superman? They must be desperate." I commented, plugging my USB into the computer, trying to find out what I could about the newest Genomorph.

I froze when I heard soft footsteps heading towards the chamber I was in, a quick glance at my wrist showed I had only downloaded 80% of the files; I had a couple more seconds before the scientist got too close. I flicked my tail nervously as my ears craned to place the footsteps in a definite position. My gaze flickered from the door, to my wrist, to the clone. Eventually the downloads were complete and I shot up and latched myself onto the ceiling just in time to see the door open and a woman walk in with a clipboard in her hand.

I waited there for a few minutes before she eventually turned around muttering statistics under her breath. When she was halfway to the door I silently dropped down to the ground and pounced back on the computer, hoping to dig up what she had been doing.

I heard more footsteps move towards the bay and not shortly after a shriek from the female scientist. My ears flicked up registering that three more people were about to enter. I heard one person enter, closely followed by two others. The sound of the door slamming behind us made me roll my eyes in annoyance.

"I disabled the door." I heard a familiar voice say. "We're safe."

"We're trapped." Another voice joined in.

I rolled my eyes again typing quicker, trying to find something to work with.

"Uh, guys…" yet another voice trailed off. "You'll wanna see this." I could see their stunned faces reflect off the glass of the test tube.

"Big K, little R." The third voice registered, walking closer to the pod. I realised they hadn't noticed me yet, even though I was stood at the controls, not at all trying to hide. "The atomic symbol for Krypton. Clone?"

"Robin, hack." The second voice interjected.

"No need," I said, speaking for the first time. "Already done." I turned around looking smug at all three confused faces.

"Lynx?" Robin asked me slowly. I bowed sarcastically.

"The one and only. Anyway as I was saying I've already hacked his file. 'Weapon designation Superboy. A clone force grown in sixteen weeks. From DNA acquired form Superman.'"

"Sixteen weeks?!" Robin asked in complete disbelief.

"Stolen from Superman." Aqualad corrected me.

"No way the big guy knows about this." Kid Flash added, eyes widening.

"'His solar suit allows him to absorb yellow sun radiation twenty-four seven.'" I continued, pulling up the basic files. Robin appeared next to me and plugged his USB device in and proceeded to download the files that I had already acquired.

"Genomorph gnomes. They're force feeding him an education." I informed Aqualad who was pointing a finger to the three Genomorphs connected to Superboy.

"They're like…making a salve out of….well, Superman's son." Kid Flash commented in realisation. "Hey wait, when did Lynx get here?!"

I sighed in irritation and turned to them. "I arrived at Cadmus about an hour ago; I've been down here for twenty minutes already. Oh and it took you guys long enough, I already hacked most of the system before I realised you had entered." I turned back to the computer, typing away.

"Now we contact the League." Aqualad instructed. I rolled my eyes and continued typing before turning around and leaning against the desk.

"No signal." Robin said, I smirked.

"We're in too deep. Literally." Kid Flash joked, no one laughed.

After a few seconds of silence we all exchanged looks. I rolled my eyes, again. I noticed I was doing it a lot lately. "I'm just gonna say it," They all looked at me expectantly. "This is wrong."

"We can't just leave him here." Robin agreed, perching next to me on the desk, his hand just a few millimetres away from mine.

"Set him free," Aqualad commanded, sending me a warning glare. "Do it." I spun round quickly and inputted a few codes, waiting for the pod doors to open.

Superboy's eyes suddenly flew open; he snarled and flew towards Aqualad effectively tossing him halfway across the room. I immediately jumped into action, front flipping towards the two, attempting to knock Superboy out by one swift kick to the head. He grabbed my arm and threw me to the ground next to Aqualad, delivering a quick punch to my cheek.

Robin and Kid Flash were trying to restrain the super-powered clone, but he didn't seem fazed as he threw Kid towards an empty test tube, effectively smashing it and knocking him out.

Robin then placed a smoke bomb in Superboy's mouth, choking him. Aqualad and I used this distraction to kick the Kryptonian away launching him into the controls. Robin offered me a hand and I took it wordlessly pulling myself up off the floor.

Once I was up, Robin ran forwards a bit, extending electric wires to Superboy and activated them. The latter just looked down and pulled Robin towards him, stepping down on him, cutting off his breathing.

As soon as Robin was forced to the ground I unlatched my whip from my hip and started clipping Superboy's leg, trying to get him to release Robin. Using my distraction as an advantage, Aqualad whipped out a hammer and hit Superboy over the head with it.

I quickly ran over to Robin and helped him up. "Robin?" I asked, shaking him slightly. I received a groan in response and then he collapsed. "Robin? Robin!" I cried out shaking his shoulders. No use. He was out.

Superboy had now gotten up and was facing a determined Aqualad.

"We are trying to help you." He explained, obviously desperate. However Superboy was not impressed, he again launched himself at Aqualad who in turn stepped out of the way and pushed him into a wall.

When Superboy kicked Aqualad back I took it as my cue and pulled out my whip and clicked a button on the side, electrifying the weapon as it struck Superboy numerous times. He stood up in pain, grunting slightly every time I struck him.

"Lynx!" I heard Aqualad shout, but before I could turn to see what was up I was thrust into the wall, Superboy's hand around my neck, squeezing tighter and tighter until all I saw was black.