Thanks to Ansa88 for beta-ing once again.

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April 2nd
Mount Justice
2:00 pm

After he'd passed out from blood loss, he heard voices every now and then. He had apparently been moved to Green Arrow's hideout. From what he gathered the startling revelation about his condition led him to be transported to another location for further testing.

"Whoa!" He said as he opened his eyes to see his futuristic surroundings. Wherever he was it was very high tech, much more than anything he'd ever seen. Taking in this new environment he hoisted himself off the table before noticing two strangely dressed men standing on the opposite side of the room conversing in hushed tones. What is up with this place?

As he stared at the two men he heard the one with the black cape and cowl speak. "It seems our guest has finally decided to wake up." How the man had seen him he couldn't figure, seeing as how both men had their backs turned to him.

As the costumed men turned to face him all he managed to choke out a question. "Uh, yeah. Would either of you mind filling me in on where the hell I am and who you are?"

This time the green clad man spoke first. "You're in a private medical facility. Though we were actually hoping you could answer a few of our questions first."

"What did you have in mind?" Thomas asked with trepidation. The glare from the man dressed like a bat was unnerving him to say the least.

"Before we get to that I guess introductions are in order. Your name?"

"Thomas."

The green one said openly, "Nice to meet you. I'm Green Arrow and this is somber fellow on my left is Batman."

At this statement, Thomas balked. "Bullshit. How do I know you're not just trying to pull one over on me? Seriously, who calls themselves Batman and Green Arrow!"

The man who called himself 'Green Arrow' shook his head, not believing the kid didn't know who they were. "Because we're superheroes. Have you been living under a rock? I mean, I don't like to brag, but we're kind of big deals."

"I hate to insult your ego, but I've seriously never heard of any superheroes at all, let alone either of you too."

Green Arrow looked shocked at his response. "So you've never heard of superheroes? What, do you have amnesia or something?"

"No, on both questions. I know who I am and where I'm from. And there are no superheroes there."

"Well, I think we've got a pretty good way to settle this one." The man known as Green Arrow stated with a little smirk tugging at the edge of his mouth.

At this, 'Batman' signaled said something on his comm and in flew a red caped, blue costumed giant of a man who promptly began to melt the table that Thomas had just been laying on moments ago. At this, Thomas's eyes nearly bulged out his sockets and he was at a loss for words. He saw Batman, who now he acknowledged was not kidding around, giving a short nod to the floating man with an S on his chest.

"Was it really necessary to melt the table? Those things are quite expense, even for the League." Batman sounded a tad annoyed with the man.

"Hey, you said make a point. So I did. I need to go; Metallo decided it'd be a good day to hold the Metropolis mayor hostage on top the Daily Planet."

As Superman left, Batman turned to face young man, who was utterly confused by what was going on around him. His jaw was still nearly on the floor and he had the look of a person in total awe of what they just saw.

Thomas literally couldn't believe that someone had just flown in like it was nobody's business and melt a table with his eyes. Damn, now I feel like a jackass. He hardly noticed when Batman turned to face him, but when he did he gulped noticeably and focused solely on the man in black. The veteran hero looked at Thomas. "Now, from the beginning, tell me who you are and how got to Star City. If you're lying, I'll know."

"Trust me," Green Arrow quickly interjected. "he'll know." Looking at Batman the Emerald Archer sheepishly added, "He is after all, the Goddamned Batman." He smirked after that, as if he was remembering a funny story from the past, which clearly irritated Batman, as GA couldn't move fast enough to get out.

Thomas took a deep breath before starting his tale. "Well, it all started when my dad met and my mom back in '82…and when a man really loves a woman he gives a special hug." He cracked up at that point but sobered up when he saw that Batman wasn't too keen on the joke. Thomas straightened his smile and went about telling Batman what he needed to hear. "Hey, I sometimes deal with problems with humor, sue me. I mean, where I'm from there are even vigilantes, let alone people who can melt tables with their eyes!" Thomas took a breath before getting back to his story. "All right, I was on my way to Wal-Mart with my buddy Chris to get some stuff for grilling seeing as how on March 10th it was 70 degrees outside."

"Stop," Batman sternly interjected. "we want more concrete information. The basics: who you are, where you're from and then get into how you got here."

"Dude, are you going to let me tell you the story or not?" Thomas asked a little frustrated with the Dark Knight. His only response was a stern glare. Note to self, Thomas thought, don't call Batman "dude". "Fine. Well, like I said, my name is Thomas. I'm from a farm in northern Iowa…."

Five minutes later Batman walked out of the room with a quick turn leaving Thomas standing there with only his thoughts to keep him company. How the hell did I get myself into this mess?

Outside, Batman was about to converse with several members of the League to determine their next course of action. Red Arrow was also present, seeing as he'd been the one that found him in Star City in the first place. Roy was the first to question the Dark Knight as he exited the exam room.

"So who is he?"

Roy had always been blunt, which hadn't changed since he became Red Arrow. Batman, for his part, simply went to computer and began looking up information on the new arrival. After completing a quick search, he turned to face the League members in attendance.

"It appears our guest here may have been pulled from an alternate reality. Either that, or he was cloned. It's also possible that both of those scenarios have taken place, based on his blood work."

"Wait, so he's from another universe and a clone?" Flash was looking at Batman incredulously. "I mean, we deal with crazy every day, but this is a whole new level of weirdness."

This time Superman stepped forward towards Batman, his large frame commanding the league's attention.

"I agree with Flash. Someone would have to go through a lot of trouble to both bring him here and then clone him. If that is really what happened, then we have to assume that said person or group had a plan and that he's either on the run or they set him loose. Any results from the blood screen?"

Batman had stood silent while his associates stated everything he'd already thought of. It was frustrating sometimes when every single one of them felt the need to re-state the obvious, especially to Batman, who of all people, had already thought of it!

"Yes Clark, I got his blood results back just before he woke up. That's what led me to believe that he indeed was a clone. It's his answers that led me to think he's from an alternate universe after I checked out his story."

While Batman called up the interview and the information he'd been searching none of them, not even Batman had noticed a certain 13-year old acrobat had snuck into the meeting area. Had Bats caught him, Dick knew that he would have been punished, but also he knew that Bruce would probably be proud that he'd gotten in without him even noticing.

Or maybe he did notice and doesn't care? That paranoid thought shook Dick out of his reprieve in the shadows. The Boy Wonder had been listening enough to be quite intrigued by Batman's information on whoever was in the locked med bay. Superboy had bruised one of Robin's ribs and he'd been trying to get some wraps when he had first come across the locked door, making him even more suspicious when he saw half the League coming to meet Batman.

Batman's voice again drew Robin's attention. "There is indeed a Thomas Jacobs from the location that our guest told me. However, that Thomas still lives at that location, has never been reported missing, goes to the same college, and is four years older than our guest. I bring age up because the Thomas we have locked in the med ward thinks or maybe remembers that he's 21. I've had Manhunter scanning his memories from outside the room to corroborate his story and it so far appears to check out. His workup shows that physically he's actually about 17, which lends support to the clone theory."

So that's why Manhunter was in the hall earlier, I thought he was here to see M'gann. Robin thought, kicking himself mentally as well. I should have suspected something, not too often something's pulled completely over my eyes like that.

"In summary," Batman's voice again drifted into the shadows to Robin's ears, "he's telling us the truth. In his universe there are no superheroes, he is completely unaware of who we are and what we do. Outside of that our worlds for the most part do appear to be similar in many respects. Judging from our DNA analysis, we know that the Martian race existed at one time in his world, but we speculate they do not any longer.

"Wait, how do you know this has to do with the Martians?" Wonder Woman's interruption seemed to slightly annoy Batman, who pressed on with the briefing.

"That will be dealt with shortly. Regardless of these facts, when he first appeared in Star City he drew the attention of Red Arrow, which is why the latter is sitting in on this meeting."

Roy stepped up to Bats. "And here I thought I was actually here as something other than an outsider." A quick glare at GA and Bats and he continued. "As mentioned I was out on patrol and I noticed the kid running down an alley toward a mugging/rape. Outside of something with speed abilities, I've never seen anyone run that fast. He picked up a bat from the ground and completely shattered one of the three attacker's knees. Faster than I thought possible, he hit another in the face with the end of the bat, and I hit said target with a Taser arrow. While he was going for the third and final guy, Thomas was stabbed in the right shoulder and dropped the bat. I wasn't in position for a good shot as Thomas was literally only inches from the attacker. Thomas just looked down at the knife and then back up at the man. It was like it barely even fazed him."

"And why didn't you help him Roy?" Green Arrow leaned forward to talk to Roy and he tried not to sound too hostile. He still wanted the kid to come home and be his partner, but he didn't see how to get the young man to realize it.

"I was getting into position for a shot when Thomas used a left uppercut to punch the guy in the gut. The guy flew 30 feet backwards!" A few members of the League all of sudden seemed to focus and pay attention to Roy again.

Great, so it's only when something like this happens that they even care what I say, Roy thought before going on with events of the previous night. "I zip-lined down to make sure that the women was all right and then proceed to check on the attackers. When I knew they'd all live, I came over to Thomas, who wouldn't tell me his real name and just said to call him Hawkeye, which was pretty weird. Anyways, I kind of got in his face about hitting the guy like that when he could have killed him. He seemed shocked about the whole ordeal and then he just passed out, he'd lost a lot of blood from the stab wound, though the knife not being taken out had helped to keep it from getting too bad."

Diana, who'd been on monitor duty at Watchtower, spoke up. "And that's when I got a call from Red Arrow asking me to let Green Arrow know that Roy would be using his facility. I sent Hal over to check on the situation and he seemed quite adamant we needed to call Batman."

Robin still watched from the shadows as the League turned to Green Lantern. "Well, the preliminary reports from GA's computer in the 'Arrowcave' showed some odd blood results." Robin snickered at the 'Arrowcave' comment and slapped himself for blowing his cover. If Bats hadn't heard him he knew that Supes would with that annoying super-hearing.

"Robin!"

He heard Bats scolding voice, though Rob couldn't remember how his mentor hadn't gotten over to him so fast. "Out now! Go home and we will discuss this later."

Robin found himself on the receiving end of a stern Bat-glare, though he couldn't help but crack a joke at Oliver's expense.

"Arrowcave, really? Seems a little like a knocknoff."

"Yeah, well your mentor doesn't have a monopoly on caves. What you would name it, Boy Wonder?" Ollie didn't take too kindly to his hero work being called into question by anyone, let alone a 13 year old kid.

"I don't something cooler. Maybe 'The Quiver", you know, to keep with the archery theme or just stay with something simple yet classy, like 'The Cave." Robin knew that Bats was bearing down on him so he ran as fast as he could toward the zeta-tube.

Recognized, Robin: B-01. With the computer's confirmation that his ward was gone Batman turned back to the group who were looking at him amusedly. Superman was the first to speak.

"He certainly picked up your annoying spying habits."

That earned him a stare down from Batman, who wanted to get the meeting back on track.

"So let's get back to it. Hal?"

Earth's first GL spoke hurriedly. "Right, so I called you about the story and the apparent super strength and you took him here for examination. If I recall you said it's be safer than Watchtower since we didn't know what he could do just yet."

"Correct." Batman had jumped into the conversation to deliver his final thoughts on the matter. "Thomas's DNA shows signs of genetic manipulation that could only be done during the process of cloning someone. Doing this to a living person would kill them." While Batman spoke, J'onn walked into the room.

"I believe that Batman is correct." Heads around the room quickly spun the Martian. "But the only way all this fits together is if somehow they found a way to download his mind into a new body." J'onn noticed the quizzical stares from his comrades and endeavored to explain himself. "Human memories cannot be downloaded and uploaded with today's technology without leaving pieces behind, but this is a complete transfer. Why that would have been done is beyond my comprehension and whoever is responsible was quite thorough in erasing his memories of the incident. He still thinks it is March 10th as opposed to April 2nd. The people responsible for this undoubtedly had a gifted telepath to wipe said memories from his mind. When a telepath wipes an individual, it leaves traces that someone like me can detect. Those traces are still present in Thomas's mind. Whoever did this held him for quite a long time."

Roy was the first to react to the news. "So what did they do to him?" His simple question seemed to be what most of the League also were interested in.

Batman continued speaking. "It appears that they have somehow found a way to evolve his DNA. My own theory is that they were trying to create a human super soldier. By all appearances, he appears to be a more highly evolved human. The only thing we had similar in our database was Vandal Savage's DNA. I have an idea about how it was done, but perhaps Martian Manhunter can fill you all in on the implications of his changes."

All eyes turned back to J'onn, who drew a deep breath before elaborating on Batman's statement. "What I am about to tell you will undoubtedly shock many of you, especially my human friends. Eons ago the White Martians were of equal strength with my Green Martian ancestors. This was before our great civil war decimated the White Martians. Our scientists, working together discovered that our sister planet, Earth, had developed life on a similar evolutionary path to that of Kryptonians."

"What the hell!?" Flash seemed utterly confused. "What the heck happened to us then?"

J'onn sighed. "I am getting to that, my friend. The Green Martians believed that we should allow your race to develop naturally. Our White Martian brothers deceived us and experimented on this early human population, hoping to unlock their genetic secrets that would eventually give them so much power. Their leaders had known that these experiments would genetically cripple the humans, given their small gene pool at the time, but still they proceeded with the experiments. The end result was essentially humanity as it is today, though a few pockets of humanity, like the Amazons, overcame the genetic tampering. As we know it today, ordinary humans have no powers and there is only a sprinkling of genetic mutation allowing for a few meta-humans per hundred million. Even after all this time, humanity is only beginning to recover from the White Martian's barbarism. It appears that in Thomas's universe, a similar phenomenon occurred. The same genetic tampering appeared in his genetic makeup, but it was nearly completely reversed in Thomas's genetic code. Whoever did this had the specific goal of either neutralizing or reversing that genetic tampering. While it may not have been the work of Martians, it would appear to be a logical conclusion. Yet Thomas's world has not appeared to recover as this one has. There are no meta humans where he is from, nor has there been any contact with alien civilizations."

"So let me get this straight, you're telling us that we could have been like him?" Black Canary had finally spoken up and was point directly at the Man of Steel.

J'onn was quick to continue. "Not exactly my friend, you would have been similar in many ways to Kryptonian physiology, but the barbaric treatment by the White Martians squashed that promise. Needless to say, when my ancestors found out they sought to stop the White Martians. Ultimately this incident is what led to our civil war and the near annihilation of the White Martian race.

"Damn, J'onn. That's pretty messed up. How come this is the first we've ever heard of this?" Hal was a little nonplussed over this whole ordeal and just wanted to answers.

"I feared that if humans knew the truth they would be too distrustful of the Martian race and that conflict would be inevitable. I hope this information does not leave this room, but it is yours to do with as you will." J'onn simply put his down in shame for what his people had done to an innocent race.

Red Arrow was the first to speak. "Not to really try to change the subject, but how does this relate back to Thomas?" Roy certainly had a one track mind and he still hadn't figured out what the heck was going on. It was starting to piss him off.

J'onn shook himself out of his shameful reprieve. "Apologies for the long-winded explanation, my young friend. I mean to say that Thomas's DNA looks like what humans were always meant to be at the genetic level. At the same time there are genetic markers present that are usually only present in cloned specimens. The technique used appears to be highly similar, if not identical, to the one used on Superboy. Based on your report of the incident, I believe the preliminary reports are correct and Thomas's mind has been downloaded into an untainted clone of himself."

"WHAT!?" No one had seen Thomas enter the room. They couldn't know that he'd gotten mad at his situation and punched the door, or that said punch bent the door out and shorted the lock thus enabling it to open. While they knew none of that, it was plain as day that Thomas was shell shocked at the bomb that J'onn had just dropped on everyone.

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