Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Young Justice—please support the official release.

AN: I have Adopted this Story Idea from another writer on this site. The original story has since been deleted from their page.

PROLOGUE

I remembered very clearly the day my life changed for the worse.

It was raining that day. I only just turned five, and the rain—so heavy I had trouble seeing anything out the car window—had made the roads slick. Sitting in front of me, in the driver's seat, I saw my father check the rear-view mirror every so often.

"You doing okay back there, Jericho?" he asked. Next to him, in the passenger seat, my mother rolled her eyes.

My dad's side of the family was really into comics. My grandfather had named my dad after his favorite character, Slade Wilson. When I was born, my dad kept the tradition going and named me Jericho. How he managed to convince my mother to name me after a fictional character was a mystery, but sometimes she would smirk, or huff when my dad called me by name.

"I'm fine," I replied, leaning my forehead against the cool class. "Just tired."

"I hear 'ya, kid." My father agreed.

We were driving home from my maternal grandfather's 57th birthday. My grandpa and I had never been close. He was a high-ranking officer in the army and lived a hundred miles away so we didn't see each other often. Our interactions had been limited to a few times a year on holidays and birthdays. And that was more than fine with me. He was a military man through-and-through who looked down his nose at his daughter's husband.

Spending even a day with him is too much, I thought with only a small amount of guilt. My grandfather was family, and I should love him, but the man made it so damn hard!

The worst part of it was that my grandfather didn't even try to hide how little he thought of my dad. Always making snide comments and giving out backhanded compliments. Then he would smirk like he thought he was getting away with some grand scheme.

"Boys..." my mother warned.

I sighed, but I didn't say anything more. Neither did my dad. We had both learned that no matter how much of a pain in the ass he was, my mother didn't like hearing us talk about her father. Which I understood. She had been raised by him, and she never hesitated to defend my dad when her father made comments that went over the line. Her family was the most important thing in the world to her.

The car remained quiet for a few minutes. My mother finally broke the silence. "So are you excited to start—"

My mother never got to finish her sentence. She'd been interrupted by the loud horn of an eighteen-wheel hauler. A truck driver who had been on the road for thirty-six hours had fallen asleep at the wheel and drifted into the wrong lane. He'd woke up when the headlights of my parents' car hit his eyes, but it was too late to move a truck that size.

All he could do was honk his horn.

My father, unable to see through the rain had acted on instinct and slammed his foot on the brake. Not that it did much good. We still collided head-on with a semi-truck. My parents had died on impact.

I survived.

That was ten years ago, and while the loss of my parents still stung, I had managed to heal. Not that it was easy. My grandfather obviously hadn't wanted to raise another child, but despite his attitude, the man did love his daughter. So, instead of foster families, I was raised on military bases.

My current home was a base in Germany. To my grandfather, I was just another soldier for him to train, so when I wasn't at school, I was running drills. Lucky for me, despite being raised like a soldier, I was still a minor and I got my room on the base. What little free time I had I spent there. Reading comics, watching movies and cartoons, just like I used to do with my dad.

I checked the clock above my bed. The hour hand was closer to one than twelve. If I didn't go to sleep now, I'd be too tired for morning drills. I flipped the lamp on my desk off and crawled onto the cot I called a bed.

Just moments after I closed my eyes, a shadow appeared in my room. "I feel so bad..." a voice whispered in the dark.

My eyes snapped open. I tried to sit up, but I couldn't move my body from the neck down. All I could do was turn my head, something I did immediately and I saw the face of the voice that had just spoken.

A small man in a three-piece suit was floating next to my bed. He had a goatee that had turned grey and his head was bald except for a few strands of thin hair that was combed over the top. "It's rude to stare," the man said.

"Who are you?" I demanded, still trying in vain to make my body move. He must have poisoned me, I thought as nothing happened. From the neck down, I was numb.

The man smiled. "Sorry, but I don't have time for twenty questions," he said, and then he snapped his fingers.

I was blinded by a white light. So this is it, I thought as I stared into the bright light. I had heard enough stories to know that when you're close to death and see a bright light it was going to take nothing short of a miracle to bring you back.

"Don't be so dramatic!"

The light vanished and I found myself standing in— a giant test tube? "What the hell is this?" I demanded. Finally able to feel the rest of my body, I lifted my hands and pressed them against the glass keeping me trapped.

The sharply dressed dwarf smiled and waved from the other side. "Calm down, I'm not going to probe you or anything," he said with an amused smirk.

"Who are you?"

The dwarf twirled in the air and bent at the waist in an exaggerated bow. "I am *%$ *" he introduced himself.

Oh great, so he's crazy, I thought as I registered the nonsense that spewed from the stranger's mouth. I looked down at my body and frowned. Why do I look so different, I wondered. My body looked completely different. I was taller than I was five minutes ago, and I was covered in muscles. I had never been out of shape, but I also wasn't a gym rat.

"Oops," the dwarf laughed. "I forgot that you humans can't register Fifth Dimensional name. To make things easier, you can call me Mr. Mxy."

I glared at the dwarf. He must have drugged me in my room and kept me under for months. But why? I couldn't of a reason. I was just a normal teenager. Nothing special about me.

"I'm here to make amends," Mr. Mxy said. "The car crash that killed your parents? A horrible, horrible casualty of a joke of mine."

"You killed my parents?"

Mr. Mxy waved his hands in front of him. "No, no! Their deaths were an accident, I swear. I didn't mean for them to die. The truck driver who hit your car? Well, I sort of promised him a billion dollars if he delivered something for me across the country in under two days and—"

"He fell asleep at the wheel, and he got tried for manslaughter." I finished the sentence. I had read the report enough times to have it memorized.

"That's right," Mr. Mxy nodded. "The authorities of the Fifth Dimension dampened my powers and court-ordered me to help out those I've wronged in order to use my powers freely again. You're the last on my list, Jericho."

This is ridiculous, I thought, shaking my head. Why was I even humoring this nutjob? The Fifth Dimension? Mr. Mxy? That was from DC comics. "Listen, I don't know how you know about my parent's death, but if you let me go, we can get you the help you need," I promised.

"I don't need your help. I need to help you," Mr. Mxy replied. "If I make up for what I did, then I get all my powers back and I stop aging like a human."

"You don't have powers. Comic books are cool, but they aren't real."

"You third-dimensional beings, so closed-minded." Mr. Mxy said, clucking his tongue. "I guess it doesn't matter if you believe me or not. Soon you'll have to accept the facts for what they are."

Mr. Mxy waved his hand through the air and a notebook appeared floating between us. The pages began to flip and I realized that it was my notebook. The notebook with the outline of the fanfiction that I planned on writing.

"This is what you want, right?" Mr. Mxy said, waving the notebook. "You want to be a hero, and I want to stop aging. So let's get this show on the road."

The notebook closed with a sharp snap and started falling. Mr. Mxy caught it and then it vanished. No puff of smoke or anything to hide a sleight of hand trick. The notebook was just gone. I tried to think of some way to explain what I saw, but I couldn't. The notebook really had just vanished.

Mr. Mxy looked up at me. "I know I told you I'm just doing this to get my powers back...but, I really am sorry about your folks, Jericho," he said. Then he snapped his fingers.

I felt a fog filling my brain. My eyelids drooped as my vision went black.

"Awaken..."

Hearing someone calling to me, I struggled to open my eyes. It was dark now. Nighttime maybe? But it wasn't pitch black; there was light. A bulb above my head. No, not just one, but a series of small bulbs spaced in even intervals along a wall that seemed to stretch on forever.

It was hard to breathe too. I touched the wall and found it squishy and soft. I snapped my hand back to my chest. Where the hell was I? Where was Mr. Mxy? How long had I been out? I had only closed my eyes for a second!

The hair on the back of my neck tingled. I could sense another presence near me. If I listened carefully, I could hear the faint sound of their breathing. Mr. Mxy? What would I do if it wasn't?

"Mxy?" I called out, tentatively.

"No." The reply came immediately. A male voice.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

"Calm down, you are not in danger," the voice said.

I could hear the sound of footsteps. It seemed like the speaker was moving closer. "Who are you?" I asked again.

"I am Dubbilex. I am a friend." the voice replied.

Dubbilex? I knew that name. It was from the DC cartoon: Young Justice. Dubbilex was the only known G-Goblin created by Project Cadmus.

From out of the darkness, Dubbilex stepped into the light. He was a tall, slender...thing?...with bluish-gray skin and red eyes. His head was radically different from that of a human, most notably in the presence of horns and the absence of a nose. He also had pointed, fin-like ears, and two ribbons of flesh, originating on his cheeks. He was wearing plain white hospital-like pants and a matching shirt.

That's Dubbilex alright, I thought as I got my first good look at the G-Goblin. The G-Goblin's horns began to glow red and I felt a foreign presence try to invade my mind.

I started to panic. Was Dubbilex trying to control me? Or just read my mind? Would that even be better than being mind-controlled? I wondered. If I really was in Cadmus, and Dubbilex was trying to read my mind, what would the G-Goblin do when he found out the truth?

Why was I even thinking about that? Cadmus wasn't real. I wasn't in a version of the DC Comics and Mr. Mxy didn't have powers. The man was obviously an insane magician who got his kicks messing with teenagers.

"I see. There is some sort of block." Dubbilex said, and I didn't hear the G-Goblins voice through my ears. The words were spoken directly to my mind. "Let me remove it."

In my mind, I felt something like a levee breaking, and memories flooded my brain. I could still remember living with my parents. Those short early years of happiness before the crash and the decade spent dealing with the aftermath. Mr. Mxy kidnapping me. It was all there. But now, there were new memories too. Memories of Cadmus and Dr. Desmond. Deathstroke and Professor Ivo's work. The Amazo android. Dr. Desmond calling me a failure and putting me on ice.

"I'm...a clone of Deathstroke?" I asked in disbelief. "With the powers of Professor Ivo's android?"

"Yes," Dubbilex said, aloud.

I shook my head. No, that wasn't possible. Mr. Mxy wasn't a Fifth-Dimensional being. This was all just a dream and I would wake up soon.

"No dream!" Mr. Mxy's voice filled my head.

"You!" I looked around but I couldn't see Mr. Mxy and Dubbilex didn't so much as blink at my mental outburst. The G-Goblin didn't seem aware that there was a third presence in the room.

Mr. Mxy laughed in my head. "He can't hear us. The G-Goblin might be an exceptional telepath, but not even he can combat my Fifth-Dimensional magic."

"Is this real?" I demanded. I had to know. I needed confirmation. Without it, I would go insane guessing.

"Very real," Mr. Mxy answered. "This is me paying you back for ruining your old life."

"By sticking me in Cadmus? How is that a better life?" I asked incredulously. Cadmus was founded by Lex Luthor as a means to counter Superman. There was no telling what kind of horrors I would be subjected to here.

"Calm down, you're about to escape," Mr. Mxy said exasperatedly. "You wanted to be a hero and I gave you the resources to become one. I wouldn't have gotten all my powers back if I was going to let you rot in Cadmus."

I frowned recalling that Mr. Mxy had said something about Fifth-Dimensional authorities dampening his powers. "So...now what?" I asked.

"Now, I take my leave, and you live your new life without my interference." A ghostly image of Mr. Mxy's face appeared in the air and winked. Then it vanished.

"...Hello?" I called out.

"Yes?" Dubbilex answered. Then the G-Goblin said, "I see you copied my powers."

"I guess I did," I replied, speaking out loud. I closed his eyes and imagined speaking to Dubbilex telepathically. Access: Dubbilex.

"Can you hear me?"

"I can."

I opened my eyes. "I need to get out of here," I told Dubbilex, speaking out loud once more.

"Yes, you do," the G-Goblin agreed. "Follow me."

I had no desire to spend another second in Cadmus and followed after Dubbilex. I walked along stiffly, keeping as far from the fleshy walls as possible. The ground wasn't smooth, but somewhat uneven, though it was still relatively easy to traverse.

As we walked, I stared at Dubbilex's back. I was really following a G-Goblin through Cadmus' secret underground lab. The same lab where Superboy was created.

I stopped. "Wait?" I said.

"What is it?" Dubbilex asked, but he didn't stop walking.

I hesitated, the said, "Nothing..it's nothing."

Nothing? Really? Was it really nothing? I wanted to save Superboy and expose Cadmus, but if I did then what would happen to The Team? If Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Robin never saved Superboy would the sidekicks ever form a team?

"What day is it?" I asked as I started walking again.

"July 4th..."

I held my breath...

"2009."

...And let it out in a relieved rush. Superboy was grown in sixteen weeks. Right now there was nothing for me to save. And if I exposed Cadmus now, Superboy would never be born. I can't kill Superboy, I thought as Dubbilex led me to the express elevator that tipped Robin off about Cadmus' secret labs.

The elevator doors slid open.

"Go," Dubbilex ordered, his horns glowing red.

"You're not coming?" I asked despite knowing that the G-Goblin couldn't.

Dubbilex shook his head. "I will stay here and erase any knowledge of your escape," the G-Goblin said. "To the rest of Cadmus, Project Amazo will have been terminated."

"Thank you," I said gratefully as I stepped into the elevator. "Will it be safe to—"

"Do not worry. Until you are free, I will keep the scientists under my control." Dubbilex promised. "Good luck, brother."

The doors to the elevator slid closed.

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