A/N: So this is all I got for today! I'm hoping to keep my posting schedule to weekly (sometime on Sunday, maybe late Monday) but we'll see how long that holds up.

Project Cadmus

July 4

15:10

To absolutely nobody's surprise, Robin had wanted to get to Cadmus via Batmobile. But as none of them could legally drive and nobody trusted the 14 year old boy to handle a sports car packed with more ammunition than a tank; it was quickly decided they'd get to the genetics lab on foot. With Kid Flash running on the ground, Robin and Aqualad using the tops of buildings, and Zephyr flying alongside the latter two.

The first thing any of them noticed were the sirens. A small team of firemen with a single truck were attempting to put out the fire raging through the windows of both of the building's stories. From the second story, two men in white lab coats were waving out a window at the firemen. However, just as the heroes pulled up to the building, an explosion threw the two men out, and sent them tumbling towards the ground.

Kid Flash, the first to arrive due to his speed, took off like a bullet towards the fire. Running up the concrete side, catching the scientists, and throwing them to safety at the top of the building. Unfortunately for the speedster however, he lost his footing at the final step and had to grab onto a window ledge to keep himself from falling to the ground.

"It's whatshisname...Flash Boy!" One of the firemen exclaimed.

"Kid! Flash!" The ginger yelled back.

"So smooth." Robin chuckled as the remaining three heroes arrived at the scene.

"Does he always have to run ahead?" Aqualad grumbled. "We need a plan, we-"

Aqualad was cut off by seeing that, while he and Zephyr were looking away, Robin had disappeared from their side.

"I forgot he does that…" Zephyr sighed, as she and Aqualad looked around for the boy. Not a second later, the sound of Robin's high-pitched laughter echoed through the air and the two older teens looked to see him hopping from the top of the fire truck to the building, grappling through the window and grabbing Kid Flash on his way in.

"How much weight can you carry?" Aqualad asked Zephyr after taking a moment to sigh in irritation. Simply smiling in response, Zephyr circled her hands outwards; gathering the necessary Winds before moving her hands outwards again as to surround both herself and her partner.

"You may want to hold on." The French girl said, and Aqualad promptly grasped her shoulders as they took off. As the pair flew, Zephyr kept her arms moving in circular motions and kept them balanced as they made their way up to the top of the building. As they approached the two scientists, Zephyr gathered more Winds, straining to keep them all together in the process.

"I'm going to float you two down gently, okay? Please remain as still as possible." Zephyr explained as she used one hand to guide her new Winds around the men and carry them down, and the other hand to keep her and Aqualad afloat. Once the two men made contact with the ground, the Winds brought the two teenagers down to the window their partners had entered through.

"Well that answers your question." Zephyr sighed as she clenched and unclenched her fists to rid them of any residual tension. She looked over at Aqualad. "You good?"

"Yes, thank you." The Atlantean nodded and released her shoulder.

Zephyr nodded back with a small smile and the two of them jumped down from the window ledge and into the room connected to it.

"The weight of four, that's a little much don't you think?" A voice hissed bitterly into Zephyr's ear. Other voices, some raging in anger, made themselves heard but their manipulator blocked them out and waved them away.

"Appreciate the help." Aqualad said bitterly as they met with their younger partners, Robin going through files on a computer and Kid Flash shuffling through a filing cabinet.

"You two handled it." Robin handwaved. "Besides, we're here to investigate. Poetic justice, remember?"

Aqualad and Zephyr shared a look before the two of them made their way to the hallway, which was surprisingly peaceful for a burning building. Dark and silent, but peaceful in its own way. As the two of them scanned the corridor, the sound of a chime caught their attention and they turned to see an elevator closing its doors…

With a skinny, humanoid silhouette inside with two, long horn-things sticking out the top of it's head.

Alerted by the sound, Kid Flash and Robin ran out to the corridor.

"There was something in the-""Elevator's should be locked down." Kid Flash cut Aqualad off.

"Emphasis on the 'should'..." Zephyr hummed.

Robin ran forward to the elevator, scanning it for a moment with a frown on his face.

"This is wrong." The Boy Wonder said, pulling out his holo-computer. He pulled up a new file and typed for a moment. "Thought so, this is a high-speed express elevator. It doesn't belong on a two-story building."

"Neither does what we saw." Aqualad replied. Walking forward, the Atlantean grasped onto the crack between doors and with his enhanced strength, pried them apart. As the entire team took a look down the elevator shoot, they were surprised to find that it went way, way down. Like a bottomless pit of metal and wires.

"And that's why they need an express elevator." Robin quipped, taking out his grappling hook and firing it to the top of the vertical tunnel. As the 14 year old boy began his descent down, the other three turned to make eye contact with one another.

"I believe the expression is 'down the rabbit hole'?" Zephyr shrugged, giving the two boys a small smile before beginning her flight down. Behind her, she could hear the sounds of her two pseudo-teammates zipping down Robin's grappling chord. It didn't take long for Zephyr to catch up with Robin, deciding to slow down to stay neck-and-neck with the young boy.

"So…" Zephyr hummed, looking at the passing giant floor-numbers. "How long is that rope?"

Not a moment later the boy slowed down to a stop at sub-level 26.

"That long, apparently." He shrugged, and swung to jump onto the small ledge by the floor's door. Soon being joined by Aqualad and Kid Flash, each of the boys collected on the small ledge; Kid Flash needing to be steadied by Aqualad as he lost his footing mid-jump.

Promptly, Robin bypassed the security and signalled Aqualad to pry the doors open. After each of the teens were able to access the hallway, each one of them became very aware of how different this hallway was to the one they had seen upstairs. The one they were currently standing in was more metallic and seemed darker, even with the red-tinted lighting. It almost felt like they had been transported into an underground bunker of sorts.

"Welcome to Project Cadmus…" Robin muttered, and the four youths began to scan through their surroundings. Kid Flash, however, sped off without another word; dashing through the connecting corridors before anyone could stop him.

"Kid, wait!" Aqualad called out, but it was of no use. The ginger speedster had already ran down the hall, beyond the other three's reach. Running after their friend, Robin, Aqualad, and Zephyr soon found that the hallway intersected with a larger hall, one that Kid had obviously tried to get to before it was blocked off.

Blocked off by what one may ask? Why a procession of mammoth-sized creatures with tough grey skin, red eyes, and tusks, of course.

As the heroes froze at the sight of the new and terrifying creatures, all of them (even Kid Flash who had found himself almost being squished by one of the creatures before rolling out of the way) found themselves speechless as their eyes grew to the size of saucers; all save for Aqualad who mumbled a sarcastic "No...nothing odd going on here…"

The creatures truly did seem like mammoths in a way, mammoths with the thick, leathery skin of a rhino, only decorated by symbols that almost looked like tribal markings. Upon closer inspection, and once the teens took note of how they walked, on all fours with their weight towards the front, leaning on the knuckles of their finger-type appendages, a sort of giant ape semblance came about them. The tusks attached to their jaws were only paired with the spikes that sat on their shoulders, and the jagged shark-like teeth their open mouths revealed. On top of the giant creatures sat much smaller ones, small enough to lay in a person's arms like a cat. The smaller ones bore the same skin as their larger counterparts with the same symbol-esk patterns, but their tusks were much shorter, hardly even there at all, while their eyes were much bigger and small horns poked out of their heads.

Once all the creatures had passed and vanished down the hallway, hardly even sparing the teenage heroes a passing glance whilst they did so, the team of four walked through and over to a set of doors on the opposite end. After Robin hacked the doors open, the group entered only to find themselves even more confused.

"Okay, I am...officially whelmed."

Everyone felt inclined to agree, as they peered around at the room. The chamber was full, floor to ceiling, with electric blue canisters that contained insect-like creatures who gave off what appeared to be small sparks of lightning. There wasn't any light fixtures in the room, but the room was bright nonetheless with the power the creatures were giving off.

"What...is this?" Zephyr found herself asking aloud in sheer shock.

"This is how they must hide this giant underground facility from the world." Kid Flash explained, scanning the room. "The real Cadmus isn't on the grid, it generates its own power with these...things. Must be what they're bred for."

"Even the name is a clue." Aqualad said. "The Cadmus of myth created a new race by sowing dragon's teeth into the Earth."

"And this Cadmus creates new life too." Robin walked over to plug his holo-watch into a nearby computer. "Let's find out why."

It only took a moment for Robin to work his magic, hacking into the system and pulling up the files he was looking for.

"They call them Genomorphs." The Boy Wonder explained. "Woah! Look at the stats on these things; super strength, telepathy, razor claws...These are living weapons!"

Zephyr looked around at the creatures, walking closer to a wall of them to get a better look. They were so still, they could have easily been mistaken for inanimate objects instead of living, breathing creatures. The girl wondered if they knew of their situation, of their apparent enslavement.

"Their engineering an army, but for who?" Kid Flash questioned.

"Is anyone especially disturbed that they're creating living beings just to force them into labour?" Zephyr asked her comrades.

"Well hopefully this'll help turb you Zeph', there's something else: Project Kr." The youngest of the group began furiously typing, his body growing more and more tense as his fingers danced on his holographic keys. "Wait, it's triple encrypted. I can't…"

Robin's frustrated growling was interrupted by a low voice, yelling at the group of teenagers to freeze. Whirling around, the four saw a male figure standing in front of them, accompanied by more Genomorphs. These ones were only a little larger than the ones that were atop the mammoths, and acted almost like cats combined with some kind of goblins, with more human-esk arm movements that screamed 'predatorial'. The man wore a blue and black plated hero uniform, and a gold helmet that covered his head and face. The similar features to a certain hotheaded archer immediately struck Zephyr and Aqualad and the two of them exchanged looks, confirming to one another that they indeed knew who this man was.

"Wait...Robin, Aqualad, Zephyr, Kid Flash?" The man asked, surprised.

"At least he got your name right." Robin chuckled, causing a nasty look to be thrown at him by his ginger best friend.

"I know you." Aqualad stated. "Guardian, a hero."

Zephyr was amused at the Atlantean's ability to pretend the man was just your run-of-the-mill hero, and not the uncle of their best friend.

"I do my best." Guardian explained offhandedly as he continued to scan over the group.

"Then what are you doing here?" Kid Flash questioned.

"I'm chief of security, and you're trespassing. But we can call the Justice League and figure this out."

"Do you really believe the League will approve of all this?" Zephyr asked the man, motioning to the canisters. "Of Cadmus breeding weapons?"

"Weapons? What are you…my head..." Guardian's speech suddenly slowed as his emotions turned to one of clouded confusion. The teenagers noticed the small Genomorph's-the kind that had been on the back of the larger ones in the procession-horns were glowing an eerie red. Guardian winced in pain, lifting his hand to touch his helmet-covered head, before suddenly straightening up with a look of rage.

"Take them down hard! No mercy!"

The sudden onslaught of Genomorphs shocked the young heroes, Robin seeming to be the only one prepared as he ran to the front, threw down a smoke bomb, and grappled away.

Initially not wanting to hurt the creatures, Zephyr took a defensive approach and resorted to simply using a few smaller Winds to form a current around herself to keep the creatures away. But when they started pushing through, she was forced to use more strength and quickly moved her arm in a semi-circle around her, drawing what Winds she could, transferring them to the other arm, and then shooting the Winds out towards the nearing Genomorphs. Her long air-strike managed to get rid of a fair amount of thea attacking creatures, but as more neared her Zephyr grabbed onto the smoke around them and launched them away from her.

Before Zephyr or any of the Genomorphs moved again, the wind manipulator felt something strong altering the Wind patterns behind her. The feeling was soon followed by the female hero getting swept off her feet and carried at top speeds. Out of fear and confusion, Zephyr began clinging onto the thing carrying her.

Once they had escaped the smoke-filled room, Zephyr looked to see that it was a familiar redheaded speedster who's arms she was in, being carried bridal-style.

"You are seriously tiny dude." Kid Flash exclaimed. "Do you even eat?"

"Yes yes, shut up." Zephyr sighed, but didn't move to try and escape the speedster's arms. "Thanks for the quick escape."

"Not a problem Madam." The speedster winked in reply.

As the duo pulled into the hallway with the elevator, Aqualad not far behind them, they were met with the sight of Robin crouched down in front of said elevator. Kid Flash slid to a stop and put Zephyr down. While the ginger focused on his crouching best friend, the girl turned to focus on the corridor; awaiting Aqualad to join the group.

"Way to be a team-player, Rob." Kid Flash glared.

"Weren't you right behind me?" Robin replied, his signature mischievous smirk lacing into his voice.

As the Boy Wonder opened the elevator doors, the trio ran in just in time for Aqualad to turn the corner...quickly followed by a swarm of Genomorphs. Thankfully, the Atlantean rolled into the metal box just as its doors closed in front of the creatures.

The teenagers were only guaranteed a short breath of reprieve before Aqualad made an important observation.

"We're headed down?"

Kid Flash and Zephyr looked up to see that indeed, the numbers indicating what floor the elevator was on, were getting larger in value.

"Dude! Out is up!" Kid Flash exclaimed to Robin.

"Excuse me? Project Kr? It's down, on sub-level 52!" The youngest of the group countered.

"This is out of control." Aqualad stepped forward, sounding lost. "Perhaps...perhaps we should contact the League."

The group fell into a sort of tense silence where the weight of their situation fell onto them. Doubt began to seep into their minds, thoughts that they may have gotten too far out of their depths.

However, this silence only lasted for a moment before the elevator chimed, signifying that the machine had reached its destination. The heroes jumped to attention, forming defensive battle stances and preparing for anything as the doors opened.

But they weren't met with any resistance. No, what they were faced with instead were hallways made up of what appeared to be red, living organs of some sort. Almost like the trip down to the sub-basement had taken the group into the belly of some kind of alien beast.

"Well...this is disgusting…" Zephyr thought.

Robin, as the mission's theme would entail, ran ahead first, leaving the other three in the elevator.

"Welp...we are already here…" Kid Flash mused, facing the others before running off. Aqualad and Zephyr shared a defeated sigh before looking to one another.

"Look on the bright side," Zephyr shrugged, "if we all, you know, die down here we won't have to explain this...merdier to the League."

Aqualad-understandably-did not seem to be comforted by her words.

Running to catch up with the others, the duo found the younger heroes crouched down behind some metal containers in front of a fork in the road.

"Which way?" Aqualad asked, sounding more than a little annoyed.

"Yea...bizzare-looking hallway one, or bizzare-looking hallway two." Robin exclaimed, seeming to have just as little of an idea.

"Hold!"

A sudden unfamiliar voice ripped the teenager's attention behind them, and they were shocked to see that a skinny, man-like figure with horns and the same kind of skin as the Genomorphs had appeared behind them.

Zephyr and Aqualad hardly had enough time to register that the figure matched the silhouette they had seen in the elevator earlier, before his horns glowed red and he lifted his arms; telekinetically throwing a metal canister in the group's direction.

The teens dodged just in time for the cannisters to explode on the wall they had just been in front off, before they all darted for one of the hallways to escape the attacker. Robin attempted to throw a couple of his birdarangs at the figure, only for the creature to use his abilities to stop the projectiles mid-flight, drop them to the ground, and send another couple exploding canisters at the group's escape path.

As the collection of heroes followed the pathway, Kid Flash and Zephyr found themselves in the leads as his superspeed and her flight made them the fastest. But this soon proved to be less of an asset as they turned the corner and crashed into a woman wearing a white lab-coat. The speedster attempted to slide to a halt, but this only succeeded in causing his body to crash into the scientist who in turn fell straight into Zephyr.

Quickly picking himself up from his fall, Kid Flash took notice of the giant metal doors in front of them. The giant metal doors that were promptly closing, apparently automated. Acting quickly, the ginger hero picked up one of the large metal capsules nearby and placed it in the door's path, stalling it's closure.

"Hurry!" The speedster cried, in time for Zephyr to pick herself up, and Robin and Aqualad to join them. All of them darted behind the door, Aqualad being the one to kick the capsule out from the door behind them, just in time to shut it on the group of people and cat-like Genomorphs that seemed to have began chasing them.

Right away, Robin got to hacking on his holo-computer as the room became flooded with darkness, save for a few dim lights around the room.

"I disabled the doors." Robin stated after a beat. "We're safe."

"We're trapped." Aqualad corrected, scanning their new surroundings despite the dark.

"Uh…guys?" KF piped up. "You'll want to see this."

Pressing a button, Kid Flash flooded the room with more lights as a white aura appeared in the center of the room. The lights main focus? A clear, glass pod attached from the floor to the ceiling with reinforced metal. But it was what the pod contained that interested the group.

There in the container, lay a seemingly unconscious teenage boy. A boy with the very familiar face of Superman.

"Ce que…" Zephyr guffawed.

Kid Flash slowly walked over to the pod, focusing in on the symbol 'Kr': the project's designation.

"Big-K, little-R." Kid Flash exclaimed. "The atomic symbol for Krypton!"

The speedster turned to face the others.

"Clone?"

"Robin," Aqualad called in a commanding tone, "hack."

"R-right…" The young boy suddenly spurted back to life, snapping out of his daze.

Only taking a moment to bypass security, Robin entered the computer files and began scanning over the information, the others anxiously looking over his shoulders.

"Weapon designation: Superboy." Robin began to read off. "A clone force-grown in..16 weeks? From DNA acquired from Superman."

"Stolen from Superman." Aqualad corrected.

"No way the big guy knows about this." Kid Flash exclaimed.

"Solar-suit allows him to absorb yellow sun radiation 24/7." Robin added.

"What about these little guys here? There was one on Guardian's shoulder in the energy-grid room, and on the procession of giant Genomorphs." Zephyr asked, pointing to the three small Genomorphs that appeared both in the file's picture, and above the clone's head in the pod in front of them.

"Genomorph gnomes." Robin explained. "Telepathic, force-feeding him an education."

"And we can guess what else." Kid Flash hissed. "They're making a slave out of, well, Superman's son."

"Now we contact the League." Aqualad commanded, and without any question all three of them attempted to call out. The Atlantean pressing the 'A' on his belt, Robin attempting to use his holo-computer, Zephyr pressing the com-bud in her ear, and Kid Flash pressing on the lightning-shaped headpieces that were attached to his mask.

As nothing but static flooded the teen's communication system, they soon pulled away from their respective devices.

"No signal." Robin explained.

"We're in too deep," Kid Flash muttered, "literally."

There was a beat when the seriousness of everything began to settle in again with the young heroes, before they all focused in on the boy in front of them.

"This is wrong…" Kid Flash said.

"We can't just desert him here, leave him to...goodness knows who or what is behind all of this." Zephyr agreed. She, Kid Flash, and Robin turned to Aqualad: the oldest and justifiably most responsible of the group.

"Set him free." The Atlantean decided after a quick moment of thought. "Do it."

Robin quickly typed more into his holo-computer and not long after, a large gust of air was released from around the glass pod as the sides of it began to slide open.

All was still for a moment.

And then Superboy's fists clenched. Followed by his eyes opening.

And then he launched himself into Aqualad.

As the clone's sudden attack sent the two of them flying a good few yards, Superboy came out on top and began brutally punching Aqualad in the head.

Running to their friend's aid, each of the boys grasped onto one of Superboy's arms as Zephyr reached around to wrap her arms around his body and try and pull him off. This proved to be fairly ineffective as it only succeeded in holding back the punches.

"Hold on Supey!" Kid Flash growled through a tensed jaw.

"We're on...your side!" Robin gasped.

This didn't sway the clone at all, as Superboy pried his arm loose from Kid Flash and directed a punch at the speedster, launching him straight into a nearby column.

"I don't want to do this!" Robin exclaimed, before yanking something out of his utility belt. "Zephyr, move!"

Listening, the air-manipulator quickly let go of Superboy and darted out from behind him, just in time for Robin to slap the device he had pulled out into the clone's face. A cloud of dark gas emitted from the device, distracting the powerhouse enough for Aqualad to pry out from under him and deliver a strong kick to Superboy's jaw.

The dual attack sent Superboy back to the control panel in front of his pod, but the reprieve was short lived as he quickly got back up again. Robin tried to add onto the attack by shooting a taser-gun at the clone's chest, but this had little to no effect as Superboy simply grasped onto the chords and yanked Robin over to him, promptly slamming the Boy Wonder into the metal floor.

As the clone stepped directly onto the young hero's ribcage, Zephyr sprung into action; shooting the biggest gust of wind she could collect at him. However, the speeding Winds only knocked their target back enough to get Robin out from under his foot. This seemed to mostly irritate Superboy as he directed his attention onto the girl, quickly launching himself at her. Zephyr was able to dodge his attack, ducking just in time, and sent another strong gust at him, throwing him off-balance and into a nearby wall.

"Please! We mean no harm!" Zephyr tried to plead, but was thrown off-guard when Superboy launched himself at her again. This time crashing into her at top speed and smashing her into the metal floor by the neck.

Having literally all the Wind knocked out of her, and with her respiratory system now blocked by her opponent's hand, Zephyr found herself defenseless as the corners of her vision began to darken.

"Enough!" The sound of Aqualad's voice roared, and Superboy was knocked off of Zephyr. However, even as air was once again able to flood back into her lungs, the room around her was still very dark and growing darker still. Her lungs weren't inhaling the air it now had access too, her diaphragm refusing to move after the impact.

Zephyr could vaguely feel her body being tilted upwards, and could hear Aqualad's voice muttering her name. But it sounded so distant, and the girl couldn't find the strength or the air to respond.

Not a moment later, Lina was completely engulfed in darkness as she blacked out.