Author's Note: And so it begins...I'm not happy with this chapter, not one little bit. So I'll be doing some renovations here and there within the next few days and spiffy it up. I just really wanted to get this done today. Also, please bear with me, I'm still trying to figure out this site so there are alot of little mistakes. I'll get them all smoothed out within a few days.

Did you like what you read? Have questions? Want to see some more art? Come visit my tumblr: todojustice

I will try to update this story on the 13th of every month.

6/28/15 UPDATE: Fixed it up at little but I decided to add a whole new section while I'm at it so I re-uploaded it. I will never do this again, you guys are going to get nice, completed chapters here on in.

3/1/15 EDIT: Much thanks to my Beta CharismaBell for shaping up this chapter!

Independence Day

"Cadmus changes today. With Desmond out of the picture, the Board's placed me in charge. Dr. Spence, you're Acting Chief Scientist."

Guardian's steely eyes drifted from the genomorph to the scientist standing in front of his desk before dropping his gaze down to his complacently folded hands on the cool steel surface. He watched his fingers curl into determined fists before continuing.

"No more G-Gnomes suppressing our wills, no more secret breeding projects...This is a kinder, gentler Cadmus."

Guardian's voice resonated off the cold metal and concrete walls of the lab and carried itself through thin, recycled air, bouncing between dusty test tubes. It echoed down elevator shafts and empty hallways, whittling away to a mere breath of air as it went. The whisper finally died decades below Guardian's feet in a chamber filled with containment tubes that held monstrosities caught in an endless frozen slumber. There were countless rows of icy pods hidden away, buried under a mile of metal and concrete. The only movement among the frozen specimens was the sluggish drifting of the cold fog as it crept between the steel and ice, keeping the inhabitants of the room trapped in their icy and dreamless sleep. Suddenly, something hidden in the dim light stirred, making the shadows twitch. There was an abrupt flash of green that sliced through the dark before flickering out like a dying flashlight. Nestled in an ice cocoon the creature stirred again, it's glowing eyes flickered to life and pierced the gloom.

It hadn't been a week since Guardian was put in charge of Cadmus and things were already coming undone. Guardian was leaning on his desk, scanning the scattered reports of a wandering child that were strewn across its surface. He had been telling himself for days now that Dr. Spence and the other scientists were seeing things. That the child they saw darting into the shadows of dark corridors and hiding in the corner of their eyes were the hallucinations of a sleep or oxygen deprived brain. The sudden chills they felt and the flickering lights whenever the child appeared were all the after effects of a giant, hulking Desmond tearing through floor after floor of wiring. But now Guardian had seen the child himself. He had caught a flash of a white, gently glowing child shaped creature hiding in a dark corner of the lab before vanishing into the wall.

He placed his hand over one of the reports, written by a clearly shaken scientist. It was guilt. It had to be. He had very nearly gotten the sidekicks killed and his subconscious was administering its own brand of cruel justice, sending a child to haunt his waking hours. The other scientists must also feel a similar sort of guilt, as they all played a part in creating and imprisoning Superboy as well as attempting to clone and dispose of the other young heroes. Guardian crumpled the paper under his hand into his fist, this child couldn't be anything more than a product of tired and suggestible human imagination. He looked up from his musings to see a white figure making its way across the room, his head snapped up, fully prepared to challenge a figment of his guilty conscience only to be greeted with calm regard by Dubbilex. The G-goblin glanced down at the papers scattered about the desk as Guardian reasserted himself and settled back into his chair.

"It appears that you and I share a problem, brother."

Dubbilex paused to gently turn one of the papers to face him, aware that Guardian's eyes were narrowing in frustration but determined that his annoyance wasn't directed at the G-Goblin but rather at the realization of what his words meant.

"This 'white child' had been seen by several of our genomorph brothers."

Guardian said nothing, but he lowered his forehead into his hand and rubbed his eyes thoroughly before rising to face Dubbilex and grabbing a pen.

A weight pressed down onto his chest as he came around to the truth. He doubted genomorphs could hallucinate, and if it was possible it wasn't likely that they would be so suggestible to have visions of a child, much less a human one. The child was real. Dubbilex spoke on behalf each of the genomorphs who had seen the entity, offering a decent description of the child and where it was seen. As soon as he had finished with his report he exited as quietly as he came, leaving Guardian to his thoughts. If the white child wasn't an illusion the next possible theory was that they were dealing with a ghost. Guardian was never one to believe in ghosts, but next to aliens, super-powered humans, and genomorphs a ghost wasn't too far off. He looked over his own hastily scribbled notes carefully. The G-gnomes described a boy maybe 10 or 12, white hair, white skin, wearing something skin tight and black. Tights. Guardian's stomach lurched at the thought that perhaps this was the phantom of some unknown hero or sidekick. Perhaps Desmond had killed the boy in one of his experiments like he had almost done with the young heroes who tried to rescue Superboy or maybe the kid was a failed clone that had been disposed of. Either way, if this really was a ghost his presence in the lab could only mean he met a terrible end. Setting his jaw in determination Guardian made his way down to the floor where the child was last seen.

Guardian found himself in a deserted lab, staring helplessly at a blank wall, he had made at least a dozen patrols of the floor, checking each room and dark corner for any sign of the child, but there was none to be found, not even the dust was disturbed. He was about to give up when, in the corner of his eye, he saw the child gliding slowly across the room. Fearlessly Guardian turned to face the child who hadn't seemed to notice that he wasn't alone in the room. As Guardian drew closer to the entity he began to see him more clearly through the child's glowing white haze. The kid looked tired, his shoulders were slumped over and his was drifting across the room sluggishly. At a loss of what to do Guardian edged a little closer to the entity before gently calling out,

"Hey..."

The child twitched and immediately darted forward, sliding right through a wall. Guardian set his jaw and ran for the door determined to end this once and for all but soon as the door slid open the boy was already melting into the opposite wall. Guardian dashed madly for the next room and the next. Corridors and laboratories flashed by as Guardian darted between hallways and through doors, plowing past scientists and genomorphs, determined to keep the entity within his sights. After a long and breakneck chase the child was within reach, Guardian reached out to grab him only to have the child literally slip through his fingers like water and melt through the floor. With a frustrated grunt, Guardian gave up the chase and walked away.

After a long and defeated trudge, Guardian reached the elevators. But as the numbers counted down to his floor his bored eyes wandered over to a fire escape map hastily taped to the wall, probably by scientist made wary by the recent faux lab fires. A chilling realization suddenly washed over him and he tore the map from the wall to get a closer look. The spot the child had slipped through the floor was in the room furthest away from any elevator or stairwell. The kid had led him away from the stairs and elevators so he wouldn't be able to follow. He knew the layout of the lab. This wasn't an unthinking entity or a simple shade, this was something intelligent. The elevator chimed softly, announcing it's arrival, but Guardian didn't move. This was a very real threat. This child, ghost, or whatever could have been sent by someone to gather intel or infiltrate the lab. Guardian gritted his teeth and stepped onto the elevator. Even if he could even find the kid there was nothing he could do.

A day had passed without any sign of the white child, but Guardian was still on edge. Being unable to sit still with something potentially dangerous moving about the building he began a patrol of the largely unoccupied laboratories, checking each empty room with a quick glance. Empty room after room passed Guardian by and the rare scientist or genomorph he encountered had nothing new to offer. He found himself standing in the doorway of Desmond's lab, boredom egging him on to take a closer look inside. After a moment's hesitation curiosity won him over and he stepped over the threshold, letting the hallway cast a dim light over the lab. In the center of the room stood the containment unit for the Blockbuster formula, open and bare, it contents long since destroyed. Guardian glanced at the dead, blank monitors, the unfinished lab notes scattered on top of the tables and lab equipment that was already starting to develop a thin layer of dust. Nothing had changed since Desmond's departure. Guardian made his way to the door but something caught his eye and stopped him in his tracks. In the fine layer of dust on a table just beside the door, there was a small, barely noticeable handprint.

Pulse quickening Guardian began to search the room, checking behind the desks, in cabinets, unsure of what he'd find if he found anything at all. He glanced quickly, almost absently behind a table and caught a glimpse of strange, dark lump huddled in the corner. Guardian hesitated for only a second before cramming his hand into the crevice and giving the lump an awkward but gentle swat but the creature didn't stir. Grunting he shoved the table away from the wall with a screech, letting the lab equipment teeter and fall onto the ground with resounding crashes but the small, dark form still didn't move. Breath catching in his throat he kneeled down to examine the small, dark creature in the dim light. It was a child that was huddled against the wall, matted black hair covered in filth that stuck to his face in long strands and covered his eyes. He looked more like a teenager but he was so thin it was easy to mistake him for a few years younger especially at a distance. Guardian swallowed fearfully as he reached down to touch the child's neck as he searched for a pulse. When a weak beat answered him he released a breath he didn't even know he was holding. He had found the white child and he wasn't a ghost or an illusion or a threat. This was someone alive and in need. Carefully Guardian maneuvered himself into the tight space and gently dragged the child out of the niche. The guardian picked the woefully thin child up and carried the boy out into the light.

"Cadmus. This is the Watchtower...are you present, Guardian?"

Guardian couldn't remember when he had started trying to make contact with the League or even when he even entered the com room so when Martian Manhunter's alien voice crackled over the speaker he jumped back and scrambled to come up with a reply.

"Yes! We uh..have a kid here...he's really beat up and..."

He paused awkwardly to look around the room for the child and saw him splayed out in one of the large office chairs, head hanging off the armrest like a broken doll. He didn't even know how to describe the kid or even how the League could help but it wasn't like he could take him to a normal hospital. As human as he looked his physiology had to be different, the kid's powers made him unique they made him...

"A child?"

...alien.

"I uh...think I have a might have Martian here...a Martian kid."

The was a startled silence on the other end and Guardian took it as an invitation to continue.

"I guess that's a little ridiculous but I've seen the kid walk through walls, float and I guess even change shape..."

The other end of the com link remained silent, Guardian glanced over at the kid again, doubting his theory already and mentally kicking himself for voicing it before thinking it through. The kid was probably a metahuman or even an experiment or clone with maybe some martian DNA thrown in. It might be a little far-fetched to have another full-fledged Martian in his midst.

"But he's a little too white to be-"

"Beat up?"

The martian's voice sounded strained, worried. Guardian hesitated before replying, trying to choose his words carefully to try and reascend his ridiculous martian theory.

"Yes. But now that I-"

"I will come to retrieve her."

"Wait, I don't-"

There was a shuffle and a frustrated grunt from the other end of the com link before Martian Manhunt interrupted Guardian again,

"No. I will have to send someone. Guardian, remain there."

The com abruptly faded into static and left Guardian in silence. He walked over to the child be for gingerly picking him up, going over the conversation in his head. Something in the conversation's mess of confusion stood out to him.

"Her..?"