After casing the base for two weeks wearing altering outfits, Victor was finally ready. He knew the schedule of the guards when they patrolled and even when they liked to smoke. Being prepared and with a plan in mind, Vic waited for the sun to go down. Under cover of darkness, he approached the Kryptonian vessel from the east, the direction that provided the most covered approach. After Vic reached the outer perimeter, the mechanical man stayed hidden while continually scanning as much ground as possible using his eye. Hearing no alarm, Victor was confident that he chose the right approach. In five minutes the next shift change would occur, and he would get the window he needed to infiltrate the ship.

When the moment finally came, he jumped over the fence, landed with a roll and without breaking his momentum, he began running. Sadly his eye couldn't penetrate the walls of the ship so the next part would depend on some luck on his part. But considering the size of the ship and how many soldiers were posted at the base he was confident in his chances.

Gaining entrance over the loading ramp Victor got inside what looked like a loading bay. It was full of U.S. military containers ready to be transported. He needed quickly to find a computer to find out if any cloning tech was already logged and inside one of these boxes. Looking around while staying hidden behind boxes he couldn't spot any guards. If there was no change today, they should have started their patrol on the other side of the base a few minutes ago, and he would have about 20 minutes time until they enter the ship for a sweep.

He planned to be either finished or hidden well enough by that time. It didn't take Victor to find an unmanned workstation. Instantly connecting to the laptop on the table he opened an internal console. He would have no password or access card this time and would need to rely on his hacking skills to answer this. He first rerouted the network over to his comlink and had it acting as a router. This way he would see every outgoing message and could block them if necessary. Knowing the standard responses, he quickly just faked a proper response of the authentication server and gained admin access to the workstation. Wasting no time he sieved through the data and copied any relevant data. There was no mention of a cloning device, but it looked like the monster which apparently got the code name 'Doomsday' was created in a pool inside the ship from DNA of one of the invading Kryptonians named Zod. That means it was possible to create a body inside this ship. He would need to find the device and do a full scan. Hopefully, he would be able to connect to Kryptonian tech.

He then got the layout of the ship before shutting down the computer and leaving for the cloning device. He passed three rooms before reaching his target. He hadn't seen or heard a single soul so far, and it looked like he was currently alone on the ship. Entering the pool room, he stood in front of a small lab. He knew that this computer should contain more information concerning the procedure. Using the same trick as earlier he easily gained access and immediately started his search. A grin spread on his face as he read through a file containing information about a project called Cadmus. The military was trying to clone Superman, but with a less volatile result then Doomsday had been. It was like Victor just had been gifted a blueprint for his plans. As disturbing it was to have the military try to create and control Superman they still were a long way away from any result. They lacked the genius Lex Luthor possessed when creating his Kryptonian.

A talent he was confident he could replicate with a think tank Cisco and him would create. He would need the liquid of the pool, as it was essential for creating tissue, so he took a sample and hid it in one of the many compartments inside his body. His estimated time was almost up, so he went towards the exit.

But as soon as he reached the door, he heard boots hitting the ground, lots of boots. He wondered when they had discovered him and why he hadn't heard any alarm? This was definitely not good. Victor tried to come up with an exit strategy that would evade any fighting and started looking at the previously downloaded map of the ship.

Unsure how to proceed, he hesitated and when the door opened he panicked. His fight or flight instinct kicked in and Cyborg chose later. He started running deeper into the ship, but just before he reached the first corner, he heard shots. Soon after Victor felt an impact on his back, but thankfully he was a bulletproof metal man now.

It wasn't even enough to send him sprawling to the ground. Victor instead also sped up and ran as fast as he could.

Not soon after he found himself in a dead end.

It was some kind of storage room the military hasn't gotten to just yet. In the middle of the room was a small podium with a box on it and at the back where several shelves filled with objects of all sizes. Most importantly this room had no other exit than the one he entered. The walls looked as if they were made out of steel and he was sure if they belonged to the outer hull they would be strengthened, but nonetheless, he went to wall opposite of the door and tried creating a hole.

He quickly realised though that he was going nowhere this way and he would need to fight his way out. Since the soldiers should storm the room any second now, he got himself ready by the door.

Maybe he could create enough chaos to escape quickly.

Having no real fighting experience, Victor would have to rely on his superior physique and the fact that they shouldn't be able to hurt him. Still, it was a genuinely unfortunate turn of events since he would reveal himself and in an antagonistic manner at that. He was clinging to the hope that he would just need to knock out a few soldiers and then bluff his way out. If they thought him invincible and to be some kind of new Superman they would definitely back off. There should be no need for a fight to the death.

When the door opened, Cyborg was ready and jumped to the first group of soldiers. Even without training, the fight was quickly over.

It was like he was ignoring his opponents' attempts to block. In a matter of seconds, he had knocked three people out. Meanwhile, the other soldiers had been shooting at him at every chance they got but without result.

Somebody in the back then shouted an order and one man jumped forwards holding an army knife.

And for a moment Cyborg had not been able to hit the man. He was likely a close combat expert that dodged Victors clumsy attacks. However, it took not long for a subroutine in his OS to start. It had analysed the fighting style of the experienced soldier and with his cybernetic eye cyborg didn't just see where his opponent was but was also seeing how he would move with what percentage. For example, Cyborg knew that a left hook would cause the man with 40% certainty to take a step back. The algorithm kept adjusting and the longer the fight took, the higher his chance to predict the movements correctly.

It didn't even take a minute, and he was destroying the other man in the battle.

With an aimed kick into the gut, he sent the man flying into a wall where he just collapsed.

But just as he turned around afterwards, it was him who was sent flying, and he got thrown back into the room.

It seemed like they had switched to some kind of explosive munition.

Sadly for the soldiers, it did not have any other effect on Cyborg then to knock him back and since he would be prepared know he knew he could mitigate the impact.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Victor activated his sonic cannon arm and shot a full power burst into the first row of soldiers.

When the sound wave hit, they were swept off their feet and hurled into the lines behind them.

But even this display of power didn't seem to shake Victor's adversaries.

He was now sure that they had to be some kind of special forces.

It was then, that he heard a rough voice from the backline, "Fire in the hole!" and then several grenades were launched into his direction.

It seemed the enemy had realised that they could not win without stronger weaponry.

But just because they were ready to sacrifice some of their own, didn't mean Victor would allow it.

He was not remotely ready to have more blood on his hands. That is why he jumped one the onto those thrown explosive with a shout "You fucking morons!".

He was trying to cover the blast with his metallic body.

As he was hoping that he hadn't missed any, it didn't take long for the grenades to explode and with a massive boom, everyone inside the floor was sent on their backs.

Luckily for Victor, he had survived even this, but his core had been damaged he got warning message after warning message. He would need to connect to a power source immediately, or he would die. Victor knew that it would be unlikely for him to survive.

But not ready to die after what he had survived in recent times, he could only continue his struggle. With a quick glance over his shoulder, he knew he had a couple of minutes, so he went back into the untouched storage room. Without wast a second he approached the small cube that had been in the centre previously and started scanning the box. The blast had knocked it down as well, but thankfully his scans confirmed that it was indeed something like a generator but would need some way to connect to it. When he lifted it, something unexpected happened, and the box revealed power ports Victor could attach to. Even pressed as he was, Vic stared in wonder. He did only wonder shortly though why the alien device had human tech ports and why they showed when he touched the cube.

With his time running out and having no other choice, Victor connected his power cable to the box.

As soon he plugged the wire into the box, it lost its form and latched onto him.

What he experienced then was even more surprising. He wasn't in such pain since his first transformation. It hasn't been long and even just thinking about it still made Victor flinch. This time every cell in his body hurt. He also felt pain from his metallic limbs it was as he was on fire.

Not being able to withstand the pain, he let out a deafening cry.

"Aahhhhhh!"

He didn't understand what was happening, how was this pain possible.

He was a machine, he should be in control of pain.

The next thing that happened was even more surprising. A ripple went through his body. It was as if his form was no longer stable.

It was a perplexing feeling, and besides the pain, Victor felt as if he was in a pool floating around.

It was a truly bizarre and paradoxical experience.

Not able to understand what was happening, Victor tried everything to regain control of his body, but other than willing and wishing it he was left without a clue.

After a few seconds, a thought appeared in his mind. Somehow this thought seemed foreign even while he understood that it was in his own mind.

'Synchronisation complete.'

Before even being able to begin pondering what that means a shockwave seemed to originate from him making a loud "boom" sound.

The few soldiers that managed to get up were thrown back again. Even more brutally at that then the shockwave created by the grenades.

Victor stood steady though. He began to check his current state. The interface to his system felt like a limb, like a new arm. It was as if he was no longer bound by preprogrammed commands, his system understood his desires. Before he even could voice the command, his own stats were displayed over his 'inner eye'.

Cyborg

Cybernetic Humanoid

Charging in Progress (2%)

Victor swallowed a gulp. 'Cybernetic Humanoid', not human. For several seconds he entirely focused on those two words. They hurt him on an existential level, it was a sharp pain as if he had been stabbed into his chest. Only after a few moments did he realise, that his systems didn't recognise him as Victor Stone. Instead, he was called Cyborg. Maybe he knew, on a subconscious level, that he lost the last part of his identity alongside the final strand of humanity. He could and would no longer be Victor Stone as long he had not regained his human body. When he heard the groans of the soldiers lying around him, he was once again reminded of his current situation.

He still needed to get away. Coupled with his low energy levels, he was still far from safe.

For now, he had to find a way out. He instinctively recalled the map he previously downloaded. He needed to head back to the loading bay. Ignoring the still incapacitated soldiers, Cyborg made his way towards the exit.

The effort was to no avail since the vessel was entirely surrounded by dozens of soldiers. When he arrived at the ramp, he was greeted by an overweight black women wearing a dark purple suit. She had a no-nonsense face, and her entire character screamed in control. On peek onto the surrounding soldiers revealed much of the same to Victor, since they were apparently waiting for her orders.

Even her voice radiated with authority to Victor as she said:

"You are under arrest for the trespassing of an off-limits ground, espionage and depending on their state agrevated assault or murder of US Citizens. Surrender now. This is your last and only warning."

As soon these last words were spoken, Victor had several alarms go off on his UI.

'Threat detected'.

Cyborg was speechless as his right arm started to change form into some kind of energy weapon. Knowing this was not the time to marvel at what was happening, he addressed the woman in charge and tried to bluff.

"I don't take well to threats." and with a lift of his a new weapon, he took aim "Who are you?"

"I am Amanda Waller from A.R.G.U.S., we noticed your surveillance of this place and we don't talk lightly to threats to our national security"