SECTION I: DAWN

Chapter 3: Lighting the Fire

Note: I do not own Young Justice, DC Comics, or any related characters. I'm merely borrowing them for creative purposes. Enjoy!

WASHINGTON, D.C.
JULY 4, 18:04 EDT
2020

The boy wearing the symbol of Superman stared intently at the three costumed heroes in front of him. The three couldn't even move, such was their shock. Suddenly, a strong burst of wind caught their attention, as the last remaining genomorph speedster saw an opening for escape. It raced towards the door in a streak of blue lightning, screaming as it outpaced the wounded Kid Flash. Escape, salvation, it seemed so close.

An immensely strong hand reached out and grabbed the speeding creature by the neck. The boy lifted the struggling genomorph up and looked into its eyes with cold blue orbs. The genomorph swiped at its assailant with super-fast claws, but the teen didn't even flinch. Kid Flash joined the team at Robin's side, his eyes wide. "Whoa."

Calmly, the boy snapped the genomorph's neck with one hand. As if someone flipped a switch, the blue lightning racing across the creature faded. The boy tossed his lifeless prisoner aside and beckoned to the heroes. "Come on, hurry! This way!"

The four other teens stood there, stunned at the casual killing of the genomorph. The boy groaned, frustrated with their indecision. "This isn't the time! Come-" A torrent of red particle blasts slammed into the boy's chest, eliciting a roar of pain. Guardian waved his remaining men forward. "Pour it on, boys!"

Guardian's actions snapped the four heroes out of their funk. No matter what he had done, the boy had saved them and was clearly in pain. "Move out!" Aqualad's order set the impromptu team into action. Kid Flash raced towards the security guards, knocking several to the ground before they could even blink. Aqualad raced towards the boy, who was now kneeling in an attempt to stay upright. His shield, summoned with his water bearers, kept both Aqualad and the other teen safe from the red blasts.

Robin and Speedy played the role of long-range support, using Batarangs and crossbow bolts to lay down fire on the encroaching genomorphs. The bulkhead on the other side of the room slid open to reveal six G-Trolls and an assortment of other genomorphs, including the strange figure Aqualad had seen in the elevator. Dubbilex pointed to the heroes, directing the genomorphs to attack. G-Elves charged straight at Kid Flash, who zipped out of the way and down the hallway the mysterious boy had come from. Aqualad helped him up to his feet, noticing the severe nosebleed he seemed to be experiencing.

The boy shrugged Aqualad off. "I'm fine. Just needed a second." Surely enough, the mystery kid ran off down the hallway at surprising speeds, leaving Aqualad to follow him. "Robin, Speedy, we're leaving!" Robin nodded and drew another two gas pellets, throwing them down to give them some cover for the escape. Guardian roared in indignation as he lost the last two heroes to the smoke. Robin cackled as they ran away, eliciting a wry grin from Speedy.

Eventually, they reached the end of the hallway, where an elevator was waiting with the other three already inside. Robin and Speedy sprinted towards the doors, three G-Elves on their tail. Kid Flash yelled at them as the mystery boy pressed the button to close the doors. "Come on!"

Robin and Speedy dove into the elevator just in time, the doors shutting on the incoming G-Elves. The four protégés breathed a sigh of relief, Kid Flash collapsing to the ground in exhaustion. Speedy rubbed his still-sore chest, while Aqualad turned to the mysterious boy. "Thank you." All he got in return was a nod.

Robin piped up, alarmed by the elevator's floor count. "Uh, why are we going down?" Robin reached for the emergency stop button, but the boy's hand closed around his elbow. To Robin's surprise, he couldn't move his arm: the kid had a vice grip. "No. We go down."

Robin nodded and the boy relinquished his arm. The Boy Wonder winced as the pressure faded to reveal a slightly bruised elbow. He rotated it to check for any loss of mobility, and seeing none, became content with counting his Batarangs. After a few more seconds, the elevator dinged, and the doors opened. Kid Flash raced out to check the hallway for enemies, but the boy simply walked out and turned right. "You don't need to bother. There's no one this far down since… at least a day ago."

Aqualad spoke up. "You seem to know Cadmus very well." By now, the group had reached a massive bulkhead, marked "Project Kr." The boy leaned down to press a code into the keypad, allowing the door to unlock and slide open with a whir of hydraulics. The stranger stepped into the room, waving the others in after him.

The room was expansive, yet entirely empty save for one console and some kind of stasis pod. The boy waited for everyone to enter, and then sealed the door again. "Expecting trouble?" Speedy's question, delivered with his usual sarcasm, was met with the same cold look that the boy had given the genomorph speedster before its death. The archer took a step back involuntarily, but quickly regained his composure.

The kid then walked to the console, inputting several commands into the keyboard. "So, who are you?" Aqualad's question was laced with curiosity, but also suspicion. The boy sighed and turned to face those that he had rescued. "I am the Superboy, a genomorph, created from the DNA of the Superman, created to replace him should he perish, to destroy him should he turn from the light." Superboy's words, given with such a lack of emotion, frightened every single one of the heroes standing in the room. Without another word, Superboy finished his work at the computer while rubbing his chest.

"Are you alright?" Aqualad walked up to place a hand on the Kryptonian's shoulder, only to have it shrugged off. "I'm fine. That red sun radiation just hurts." Robin gasped. "Of course! The blasts were laced with red sun radiation, so they can hurt Kryptonians! That's genius." Another glare from Superboy shut the Boy Wonder up shortly after his outburst.

His preparations finished, Superboy turned to face the assembled heroes. "It'll take them a while to bypass the security lockout. Can you hold down the fort while I charge up?" He jabbed a thumb at the pod behind him. Aqualad nodded. "Of course. We could use some rest ourselves."

Superboy climbed into the pod, resting comfortably on the cold metal surface. The glass doors closed before the pod began to hum loudly and shined bright yellow light at the Kryptonian clone. Aqualad turned to the group of heroes behind him. Kid Flash still nursed his wounds, Speedy now sat up against a wall, and Robin was busy hacking into Project Kr's files.

"Get some rest everyone. We may be here a while."

WASHINGTON, D.C.
JULY 5, 00:32 EDT
2020

Aqualad woke from a dreamless sleep to loud pounding and the groaning of metal. Shaking his head to dispel the last of the cobwebs, the young Atlantean looked towards the door to see small dents being formed by a force outside. He scrambled to his feet, his tattoos flashing blue as he grabbed his water bearers. "There's no need. They've been pounding for a few minutes now." Robin sat there, scrutinizing the files he managed to obtain on Project Kr. Unfortunately, he had only been able to scratch the surface of what exactly was sitting in a glass pod in front of them. What he did find, however, was still enough to shock him.

Aqualad joined the younger boy at the terminal, looking over his shoulder at the documents displayed on Robin's holographic computer. "Designation: KR16. Are there more?" Aqualad glanced around for another door leading to perhaps another lab, but Robin shook his head. "No, he's the first success apparently. There's reference to failures in the project files, but all were in the embryo stage. None progressed to a more advanced stage of life."

Robin pulled up another file, this one Superboy's stats and genetic profile. Much of it was redacted, but his power levels were listed on the page. "He was cloned with Kryptonian DNA, but I just don't know how. No scientist has been able to crack Superman's genetics, not yet." Aqualad pointed to the Kryptonian's power levels. Much to his surprise, they were far lower than Superman's. "How is he so much weaker than Superman?"

Robin shrugged. "Could be a number of factors. Age, altered genetics, the fact that he's lived his whole life underground. But regardless, he's a lot stronger than most other heroes. Only a few on Earth can match him in strength, durability, speed. If they had finished his conditioning…" Robin shuddered at the thought. A Kryptonian clone working for the bad guys? It was like something out of a nightmare.

Aqualad agreed. "It is imperative that we not allow him to be captured again." He looked at the computer terminal and its current display. 0:56. "Once he gets out, we'll need to move fast. Where are Speedy and Kid Flash?"

A whooshing sound accompanied Kid Flash's quick arrival, with Speedy joining the other three not too long afterwards. "Did someone call for a speedster?" Flash's protégé grinned at his friends, none of whom shared his amusement at the situation. Speedy tapped Robin on the shoulder, wincing slightly from his bruised ribs. "You ever figure out what those other genomorphs were? The fast ones?"

At that, Kid Flash's grin evaporated. It was rare for the speedster to get serious, but the encounter with the super-fast genomorphs haunted him. 'I've never been challenged by anyone besides Flash before today.' Robin grimaced and shook his head. "The deeper I go into any files, the harder the encryption is to crack. I don't even know what they're called."

A loud hiss preluded a familiar voice speaking up. "They're called G-Gremlins." The Cadmus pod opened with a whir of hydraulics, letting a fully revitalized Superboy step out to greet his new allies. Kid Flash whizzed up to him, taking care to stay out of arm's reach. "How are they so fast?" He was hoping beyond hope that Cadmus hadn't figured out some way to artificially imbue someone with the Speed Force: the world didn't need a second Reverse Flash.

Superboy looked to be deep in thought, trying to remember something buried within his psyche. He shrugged, obviously not possessing all of the answers. "All I remember is something about a lab on sublevel 39 working with… Velocity? Some kind of drug." Kid Flash's eyes widened, the speedster recoiling in horror from the revelation. The other three costumed heroes exchanged a glance, Robin asking the obvious question. "What's Velocity?"

Kid Flash turned to Robin, pale as a sheet. "Velocity 9. It's a drug developed by STAR Labs for B… I mean the Flash during his war with Reverse Flash. It was originally designed to boost his speed beyond his normal limits, but it was deemed too unsafe to use. Apparently Cadmus stole the formula and are using it to try and create speedsters."

The speedster looked like he wanted to collapse in shock, but Superboy, much to everyone's surprise, buoyed his spirits. "Don't worry: I torched the lab during one of my escape attempts. The only Gremlins successfully created were the ones you faced in the generator room." Memories of that fight brought up another question on the mind of the four heroes. Aqualad, the calmest and most understanding of the group, stepped forward to confront Superboy.

"Superboy, why did you kill that genomorph?" Superboy's eyes narrowed imperceptibly at the Atlantean, as if threatened by his question. The test subject of Project Kr turned away and pointed at the pod he had just exited. "When I first escaped from that pod, I had only one goal: survive. I saw what Cadmus had planned for me, the little messages that had implanted in my head. I know what they're capable of." He turned to Aqualad, his blue eyes now cold and unfeeling. The Atlantean feared for his life, instinctively ready to dodge any blast of heat vision the clone would throw at him. "It's kill or be killed here."

Speedy nodded his head. "I get where you're coming from. But we don't do that here. Trust, I've had my fair share of close calls with that policy, and it takes you down a dark road." He looked back at the other heroes. Robin and Kid Flash looked shocked to hear Speedy's comments, but Aqualad understood his best friend's struggles. The time that Speedy had operated in the Glades before Green Arrow had taken him under his wing wasn't something that he liked to talk about.

Superboy's eyebrows scrunched together, his eyes losing that cold gaze from before. Before he could say anything else, the pounding on the door increased in intensity. The Kryptonian narrowed his eyes, clearly scanning the hallway beyond the door. "We've got company. They're trying to muscle the door open with G-Trolls. Seven human heat signatures, too." He turned to the assembled heroes. "I can't take more hits from those Archer rifles." Much to their surprise, the protégés could see fear in the Kryptonian's eyes. He couldn't be put back in his cage.

Aqualad drew his water bearers, Speedy his crossbow. "Is there any other way out?" Robin looked to Superboy as he asked the question. Superboy shook his head, incredibly nervous at the prospect of facing those infernal weapons again. He would never forget the sensation of having his power stripped away bit by bit. "No. The only way is out that door."

Robin shot him a dopey grin, trying to calm his new companion. The Boy Wonder's confidence came with his years of crime-fighting, even though he was the youngest of the group. "Stay whelmed, SB. We got this." Kid Flash snapped his googles down over his eyes. A huge grin spread across his face as he rubbed his hands together. "Yeah, let's do this thing!"

Superboy nodded and walked over to the door to punch in the access code. Aqualad formed a shield and mace with his water bearers while Robin and Speedy took up positions at the rear of the formation. Kid Flash took the foremost position, lowering himself to the ground like a sprinter at a track meet. His eyes flashed with electricity as he summoned all the speed he could muster. He would have to be fast for this to work.

Superboy punched in the code and ran to join his new friends. The bulkhead unsealed and slowly slid open. As soon as there was enough room, Kid Flash took off, whipping around the door and towards the unsuspecting security guards. Before they could even blink, the speedster had snatched all of their rifles and deposited them several feet away. The seven soldiers looked down at their now empty hands in shock, their eyes wide as dinner plates. As they looked over to Kid Flash, he shook his head and pointed at the opening door.

The security guards looked back just in time to see the four other teens race out to engage them. "Oh sh-" Speedy fired off three bolts into the line of security guards, making sure to take non-lethal shots. Robin cackled as he leapt towards the ones still standing, felling one with a spinning kick to the head and dodging another's clumsy attempts to grab him. Superboy and Aqualad, on the other hand, took on the three G-Trolls that they had brought to open the door.

The Kryptonian teen leapt back to avoid a minivan-sized fist, his blood now pumping in the heat of battle. The other boy, utilizing his years of military conditioning, remained calm and collected as he leapt at the G-Troll, attempting to gain purchase on its back. The Atlantean used his water bearers to snag a hold on the creature, leaping up bit by bit as it struggled to throw him off. Eventually, he reached the genomorph's head, sheathing his water bearers in one smooth motion. His arms crackled with electricity as he brought his palms down to touch the G-Troll's temples.

Superboy dealt his opponent a powerful blow to its chin as Aqualad charged the third G-Troll. Superboy leapt into the air, descending to smash the dazed creature into the ground. The genomorph slumped like a puppet with its string cut, falling into merciful unconsciousness. A loud grunt alerted the Kryptonian to his new friend's struggle, pinned between the wall and an encroaching G-Troll. Superboy roared as he leapt again and smashed both of his fists into the G-Troll's leg. He heard a distinct crack as the gigantic genomorph's tibia snapped under the tremendously powerful blow. The creature roared in pain, but lashed back at Superboy. With its attention now firmly on the Kryptonian, the G-Troll was easily dispatched by an electrical shock courtesy of Aqualad.

Robin and Speedy finished up their skirmish as Kid Flash returned from his reconnaissance of the rest of the sub-level. "We're clear from here to the elevators. We should go now." Without another word, he was off again, disappearing down the corridor to ensure their path was still safe. Speedy looked to Robin with an eyebrow raised, eliciting a shrug from the Boy Wonder.

Aqualad and Superboy joined their non-powered companions, all four now setting off down the long hallway. Robin, shorter than the rest, had to struggle a bit more to keep up, but pulled up next to Superboy. "So, SB, how'd you escape in the first place?" The Kryptonian looked over to Robin with a wry grin on his face. It was an odd look for him, one that Robin had never seen in the clone's template. "I had some help. I assume you've met Dubbilex? Tall, glowing red horns?" Robin nodded, remembering the genomorph who had sent an army of genomorphs after them.

"He's a G-Goblin, designed by Cadmus to have telekinesis. But he apparently developed telepathy as well, since he's been communicating with me for about a week now. He showed me what Cadmus really had planned for me, who I really am. Yesterday, he deactivated our security system and let me free, but I haven't been able to make it to the surface. I've been penned in by those guards with Archer rifles, never got past sublevel 27." Superboy looked around at his newfound companions and smiled warmly. "But now it's different."

Robin spoke up, shooting Superboy a grin. "Now, you've got a team."

Up on sublevel 8, Doctor Desmond waited impatiently in a darkened conference room. The only source of light was a low-level LED on the oak conference table, which cast pale blue-white light across the walls. Desmond sat at the head of the conference table, alone, brooding over the failures of the last two days. Not only had the weapon escaped, but the four sidekicks were proving to be a particular nuisance as well.

The LED suddenly cut off, leaving Doctor Desmond in the dark. His heart sped up, a trickle of sweat ran down his brow, as he realized that it was time. He stood up and brushed out the wrinkles in his lab coat. It would not do to look disheveled. Not to them.

The room then lit up in a flash of bright white light. Seven screens, previously hidden in shadow, displayed the outlines of figures blurred out by the same light filling the room. Desmond had no idea who the seven figures were: only that they were not to be questioned. The previous director of Cadmus's D.C. branch learned that the hard way.

L-1, the man on the screen across the room from Desmond, spoke up first. His voice was a gravelly baritone, somewhat distorted by technology to prevent voice identification. "Doctor Desmond, report." Desmond gulped nervously as he fidgeted with his glasses. This would not be a good report.

"Sir, we've run into complications with the weapon. It continues to avoid our patrols, and has destroyed four more laboratories. We've managed to contain him below sublevel 27, but earlier tonight, there was… an incident. A small fire above ground attracted some unwanted attention."

The screen to the right of L-1, a man who went by the designation L-3, spoke with a more gracious tone, but Desmond wasn't convinced. L-3 was a master of manipulation: he had a way of getting into people's heads, making them spill every dark little secret for his nefarious purposes. That's why Desmond feared L-3 the most. "Just tell us what happened, good doctor."

Desmond ran his hand through his hair nervously, building up the courage to speak again. He huffed and shoved his hand back into his pocket. "Four sidekicks breached Cadmus around seven hours ago. While we've restored our external security protocols, internal surveillance feeds are offline. We cannot find them."

All seven figures remained silent for a moment before L-1 spoke again, rage evident in his tone. "Have they discovered the weapon?" Desmond turned white as a sheet, his mouth now completely dry. He clenched his fists tightly, willing himself not to look away from the screens in fear. It took an immense effort to stay rooted to the spot, staring out over the white screens. "Yes, they have. We had to deploy genomorphs to hunt them down, and in the process, the weapon discovered their presence. He's… unstoppable."

L-1, though his face was obscured by white light, still managed to radiate anger. Desmond did not shrink in the face of almost certain death. L-3 spoke up again, even his voice now tinted with emotion. "Doctor Desmond, you do realize that they cannot leave this place alive." Desmond nodded, frustration bubbling up to replace fear for a moment. Of course he knew that: they had seen far too much of the real Cadmus.

L-1 managed to bring his rage down to manageable levels, his invisible gaze falling solely on Desmond once more. "You are authorized to use any means to do so." Desmond's eyes widened as he realized what his superior had just said. His life's work would finally be put to the test. The scientist found himself grinning like a madman, despite his current predicament. "Yes, of course."

L-1 spoke one last time before he and his colleagues took their leave. "The weapon is no exception. If it will not serve the Light, then it must be destroyed." The screens flared even brighter for a moment, forcing Desmond to shut his eyes or be blinded. When he opened them again, the room was dark once more. He turned to exit the conference room, his eyes glinting with sheer ecstasy. It was time for Blockbuster to come into the light.

The five teens slowed to a halt outside the elevator doors, covering Robin as he hacked the door panels. He grimaced as he realized that Cadmus had stepped up their security protocols. 'Must have realized I was in the system.' Opening the door was taking too long, so he powered down his computer and stepped back. "SB, could you get that?" The super clone nodded and stepped forward, cracking his knuckles as he did so. He plunged his hands, fingers extended, into the seal between the two steel doors. The super-strong teen pulled apart the doors, sealed with hundreds of pounds of hydraulic force, like it was nothing.

The elevator had been recalled to a higher floor, leaving an empty shaft for the heroes to climb. Superboy grabbed Aqualad and leapt upwards, focusing all his might on ascending the empty passage. Speedy fired a grappling arrow upwards, following his teammates upwards. Robin cackled and used his signature grappling gun to bring up the rear with Kid Flash in tow.

As the clone of Superman rose higher and higher into the air, passing sublevel after sublevel, he felt himself slow down. "I-I'm falling." Incredulous, he did nothing to prevent his eventual mid-air halt, followed by his descent. Robin, luckily, threw a Batarang into the side of the elevator shaft, allowing Aqualad to hold on and save both from falling back down to the bottom. Superboy looked up the shaft, only fifteen sublevels between him and his goal. "Superman can fly. Why can't I fly?"]

Robin and Aqualad exchanged a look as they remembered their earlier conversation. Kid Flash interjected, the other three heroes having now joined Aqualad and Superboy on the ledge for sublevel 15. "Don't know, but it looks like you can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Still cool." Superboy nodded, finally bringing his attention back to his companions. Aqualad swung him down and over to join the others near the doors. The Kryptonian placed a hand on the Atlantean's shoulder as the elder boy landed next to him. "Thanks."

Aqualad nodded soberly in response. Speedy rolled his eyes: it was clear that the clone was most comfortable with his best friend out of everyone there. The young archer knew the feeling: Aqualad had a serenity about him that made even him feel calm. 'If Superboy has even half the anger I had when I first met Kaldur, he'll be in good hands.'

Robin looked up in alarm, noticing before anyone else the elevator descending to crush them. "Guys, this'll have be our exit." Superboy, once again fully determined to escape, turned and slammed his open palms on the elevator doors. The steel crumpled like tissue paper, sending the doors flying into the well-lit hallway beyond. Where sublevel 52 looked alien, with biological tissue covering the walls, sublevel 15 looked like a state of the art facility, with reinforced bulkheads and security cameras at every junction.

As the group ran forward, Robin and Speedy destroyed the cameras with their ranged weapons. They hoped to conceal their presence from Cadmus security, but their efforts were to no avail. No less than fifteen Cadmus troopers, backed up by another twenty G-Elves, stormed into the hallway. Robin's eyes widened as he fumbled for a smoke pellet on his belt. Speedy opened fire with one of his trick bolts, trapping four of the genomorphs under a weighted net.

The troopers took aim at Superboy with their Archer rifles, only to lose the group in a thick cloud of smoke. Robin hurried the other teens down a side hallway, exiting the smoke to find their path mercifully clear. Superboy felt a familiar presence in his head, smiling despite the terror he currently felt. "It's good to hear from you, Dubbilex." The other heroes were confused, glancing over to the clone as he conversed with his genomorph friend.

'Indeed, Superboy. I see you have found some new friends.' Superboy chuckled. "Yeah. I'm assuming that was your doing." It was weird to communicate telepathically for Superboy. He was used to being on the receiving end of psychic links, being force-fed knowledge and commands by G-Gnomes. He had yet to learn how to speak with his mind instead of his mouth.

'Yes. The fire I set above ground seems to have attracted the attention I wanted. Although I am disappointed that the Justice League did not come.' Superboy could sense Dubbilex's frustration at that, making him laugh once more. Robin's eyes narrowed. "Superboy, who are you talking to?"

The clone turned to the Boy Wonder, still grinning in an unusual display of happiness. "Dubbilex. He's disappointed that his little fire didn't bring in the Justice League." Kid Flash and Speedy looked offended, while Aqualad remained collected at the remark. Robin, true to form, cackled. "Well, tell Dubbilex that next time, wait until a sorcerer isn't blotting out the Sun." Superboy's grin only widened. "Thanks, I'll be sure to include it in my review."

Robin was shocked: did the brooding clone just make a joke? He followed Superboy, absolutely dumbstruck. Speedy brought up the rear, with Aqualad and an unusually slow Kid Flash running beside the Boy Wonder. Superboy took them through a series of turns, eventually leading them to a dead end. Kid Flash sighed in exasperation, turning to Superboy with his arms spread in a questioning manner. "Great directions, Supey. You trying to get us captured?"

Superboy frowned. "I don't understand." Robin ran up next to him and slapped a hand on the much taller boy's shoulder. The Boy Wonder was strangely thrilled with their current predicament. "Don't apologize. This is perfect!" He pointed up to the grate two-thirds of the way up the wall. "Everyone, into the vent."

Desmond stepped out of the elevator alongside his head of security. Guardian, still under the thrall of the G-Gnome on his shoulder, scowled at the elevator doors lying on the ground several meters away. "It's been through here recently." The two made their way down the hallway, meeting a Cadmus security guard at the next junction. "Sirs, Lieutenant Cannon is leading the pursuit. He told me to bring you to him." The three broke out into a jog, turning right and then left to join a group of heavily armed guards and about a dozen G-Elves. Lieutenant Cannon, a former Navy SEAL and second-in-command of the security at Cadmus, nodded to his direct superiors.

"Doctor, Guardian." Guardian nodded back to his subordinate, moving to run next to him as the group took a right-hand turn. "Report, Lieutenant."

The security guard showed Guardian his wrist-mounted computer, the readout displaying a map of sublevel 15. Five white dots in one of the ventilation shafts marked the position of the young heroes. They turned right at a junction, heading towards one of the bathrooms on the sublevel. Two groups of red dots, genomorphs, moved towards the junction as well, cutting the teens off from any retreat. "They took out our cameras, but we've still got motion sensors. They should be coming out up there." Cannon pointed to a men's restroom up ahead, a group of eight G-Trolls already standing by to provide assistance. Guardian nodded his thanks and took the lead into the bathroom. Four security guards, two on each side, flanked him as they took aim at the grate high up on the bathroom wall. "When they exit that grate, open fire. No mercy."

The guards acknowledged Guardian's orders and took aim with their Archer rifles. Rumbling could be heard from the grate as something closed in. The rifles whined as they powered up, a faint red glow emitting from the barrel. Desmond's maniacal grin showcased his utter delight at the situation. Soon, his Cadmus would return to normal, and he could finish perfecting Blockbuster. No group of adolescents would stop him from achieving his goals.

The grate burst outwards, prompting the security guards to open fire. All they hit were three G-Elves, who tumbled out of the ventilation shaft stunned by the particle blasts. Guardian growled as the assembled group realized their mistake. More genomorphs exited the grate as Desmond's eyes narrowed. "They hacked the motion sensors."

Robin's eyes were full of mirth as he powered down his holographic computer. "I hacked the motion sensors." The group had exited the ventilation shaft before the genomorphs could determine their position, finding themselves near an emergency staircase. Robin stood up, disconnecting a cable from an interface hidden in a wall panel. "Still plenty of them between us and out." Kid Flash, confident as ever, merely snapped his googles over his eyes. A cocky grin took its usual place as flickers of yellow lightning could be seen around his body. "But I finally got room to move."

The teenaged speedster burst through the door into the stairwell, ascending four levels in the blink of an eye. As he climbed the stairs, he saw a group of G-Elves form up on a landing, trying to block his path. 'I don't think so.' Now just a blur of yellow lightning, he leaned his shoulder into it and knocked the genomorphs to the ground. His friends followed quickly behind him, moving past the still dazed creatures without any struggle. Superboy glanced behind them as they reached the next landing, seeing even more G-Elves coming up to join their brethren. He stopped mid-stride and smoothly turned to deliver a super-strong kick to the top stair. The entire flight, swarming with genomorphs, collapsed down to the next level, the G-Elves screaming as they fell a story.

Nine sublevels later, Kid Flash burst out into another well-lit hallway. He looked left and right quickly, finding a massive door leading to another set of stairs. 'Must be the way out.' He sprinted down the hall, only to realize that the bulkhead was sealing itself. 'No, no!' The speedster tried to beat the closing doors, but ultimately was too late. "Oh, crud." He slammed into the door at reduced speed, rebounding off the steel door and landing with a loud thud. "Ow."

The other four heroes ran up behind him as he picked himself up, rubbing the back of his head where a bump was already forming. Aqualad stated the obvious. "We're cut off from the street." The speedster stood up, turning to the Atlantean with a dead-pan expression. "Thanks. I honestly couldn't tell." Speedy snorted: the young speedster was picking up a few quirks from his friends, himself included.

The two strongest members of the team, Superboy and Aqualad, tried to pry the doors open. Unlike before, the steel would not budge easily. Sweat formed on Aqualad's brow as he tried to help the Kryptonian, but he was outclassed. The hallway was now bathed in emergency lighting, lockdown protocols now in effect. Robin tried to hack the door, but shook his head in defeat. "Nope. Too much time." He turned to see G-Trolls marching down the hallway towards them.

"Hurry, this way!" He kicked open a door next to the bulkhead, running blindly into the next hallway. The other four heroes joined him, only to stop dead in their tracks. The T-junction they had just entered was cut off both ways by Cadmus security personnel and genomorphs. Guardian stood facing the young heroes, surrounded by seven other Cadmus security personnel armed with Archer rifles. A veritable swarm of genomorphs, from G-Elves to G-Trolls and even several G-Gnomes, accompanied him. The other way wasn't too enticing either, with Lieutenant Cannon and eight of his guards also backed up by genomorphs. Before the heroes could retreat the way they came, G-Trolls and G-Elves moved to block their path.

They circled up, prepared to make one final stand. Some of them readied their weapons, Aqualad forming swords from his water bearers while Robin and Speedy took aim with their ranged weapons. Superboy clenched his fists and took a basic fighting stance, while Kid Flash prepared to charge the opponents directly in front of them.

Before they could do anything, however, all the G-Gnomes' horns began to glow. Suddenly, as if they were puppets with their strings cut, the heroes fell simultaneously to the ground. Only Superboy, who had experience with telepathic assaults, managed to stay awake, but was still forced to his knees by the psychic blasts. He looked at Guardian, his eyes smoldering with visible wrath. The former hero merely chuckled and pointed to the group of heroes. The security guards began to move forward, their rifles trained solely on Superboy.

For some reason, they never made it. One by one, each guard began to feel woozy and stumble around. Guardian's eyes narrowed as his troopers collapsed to the ground, completely knocked out by some unknown enemy. He raised his shield and glanced at the various G-Gnomes placed throughout his genomorph security force. However, he too fell to his knees, still conscious but unable to respond just like Superboy.

A voice entered the genomorphs' heads, Superboy included. 'Perhaps, for the sake of all genomorphs, our brother Superboy should be allowed to speak.' The Kryptonian felt his mental shackles disappear, but could tell that his new friends were still being kept down. He shakily stood, turning to address the assembled genomorphs. "Listen. I know what you were created to do, the conditioning you went through. I had the same upbringing." He jabbed his thumb in his chest. "But I chose to be free. I chose to be more than just a weapon. And you can, too. You're not weapons: you're living, thinking creatures. You have the right to choose your own destiny." Slowly, the young heroes began to stir. Aqualad opened his eyes, listening intently to Superboy as the Atlantean rallied his strength.

"I was raised with one purpose: to replace Superman. Now, I realize, that to be like Superman, I need to have a life of my own. Beyond my solar suit, beyond my pod, beyond Cadmus. I need to feel the sun on my skin, the wind in my hair. Although I may owe my life to Cadmus, it is not my home. And it doesn't have to be your home either."

His speech concluded, Superboy waited for the other genomorphs to respond. A few seconds passed with no reactions from any of the creatures. Superboy closed his eyes and sighed: their conditioning was just too hard to break. However, when he opened his eyes once more, he saw the G-Gnomes begin to power down. His new friends were now fully awake behind him, picking themselves up off the ground. Speedy and Kid Flash both grumbled at their predicament, but Aqualad and Robin merely nodded their thanks to Superboy.

Guardian also stood up, shaking his head as the telepathic influence of the G-Gnomes lifted. He placed a hand on his temple, his stand steadying as he regained full control of his body. "What's going on? It feels… like a fog lifting." Speedy readied his weapon should the former hero try anything, but Aqualad stayed his friend's hand. The Atlantean teen turned to Guardian, his gaze questioning. "Guardian?"

As if remembering all the prior months he had been under Desmond's thumb, Guardian grimaced. He turned to fully face the young heroes. "Go. I'll deal with Desmond." The genomorphs nodded, now fully rallying against Cadmus and its tyrannical rule. Mad laughter filtered down the hallway as the heroes readied themselves to leave. "I think not."

Everyone's gaze shifted, falling onto a more disheveled Desmond standing at the end of the hallway. Guardian moved down towards him, not slowing down in the slightest as Desmond withdrew a glowing blue test tube from his lab coat. "Project Blockbuster will give me the power to restore order to Cadmus." The mad doctor popped the cork off the tube with his thumb and downed the liquid in one gulp.

The changes started almost instantly. Desmond began to groan in pain, throwing his head back violently as his muscles began to bulge. His glasses flew off his head, shattering as they hit the floor. The doctor collapsed to his knees soon after, then onto his elbows. As he lay hunched over, his muscles continued to expand until his lab coat was shredded. The doctor slowly lifted his head, his facial features sloughing off to reveal a new gray hide beneath. His eyes shot open to reveal dark retinas with red irises.

The creature formerly known as Doctor Desmond roared as he stood up, the transformation now complete. His skin now hung off his gray hide loosely, most having sloughed off during his transformation. The gray hide, reminiscent of a rhino's, was highlighted with red markings, all covering incredibly strong muscles. The creature clenched his teeth together and looked down at the incredulous heroes, panting like a mad dog.

The heroes readied themselves for a long fight.