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Cordelia's POV
Half out of choice and half out of reflexes gained from Rogue she reached forward to tear the androids arm in half to free Xander but before she got closer than three inches the machine raised its other arm. With only a moment to register a flash of purple light she suddenly found herself thrown backwards, coming to a stop only when she hit the wall. It wasn't enough to daze her, really, but because it'd been unexpected it took her a second or three to recover. Looking back up, she could see that Barda, Knockout and Xander's bodyguard were moving to do what she'd failed to do, only to run into a force field of some kind.
Tin plated hussy's got all sorts of tricks. She stood back up. They ain't gonna save her!
Charging forward she began to wail on the force field alongside Knockout and Barda, with the intent of overtaxing whatever was generating it, forcing it to collapse. However their blows only seemed to be causing minor sparks and jerking motions to manifest in the android, so it made her think that this might take a while.
It was then though that something occurred to her.
"Why haven't you fried her circuits or turned her into spare parts yet, Magneto?" she asked Xander, not wanting to give away his civilian ID in front of Cadmus lab jockeys.
"I'm… trying…" Xander growled out even as he tried to physically pry the hand from around his throat. "Something's…wrong…"
Not something she wanted to hear.
It meant that either the android was somehow suppressing Xander's considerable mutant power or, in the worst case scenario, was feeding off of it. Looking at the only point of contact, she didn't see anything at first but just before she was about to look elsewhere she saw it: a single spark of electricity leaving Xander's throat and disappearing into the android's hand.
"She's draining him!" she yelped with urgency even as she began to pound even harder on the force field. "Pour on the pressure!"
Everyone was quick to follow her orders, with Barda bringing out her Mega-Rod and unleashing its destructive power on the force field. As for her and Knockout, they just kept pounding on it with their fists, pouring more and more brute force into their blows in an effort to break through.
"Hostile activity reaching moderate threat level," the android said before reaching out to her pod with the less complete and functional looking arm. "Bypassing assimilation protocols and beginning phase two protocols."
Thinking that the android intended to access some machine in the room through the pod she'd been in, she paused in her efforts to look about for anything moving that hadn't been earlier. When nothing happened she wondered if machines could bluff but it was only when she looked back to the damaged arm that she realized the truth. Even as the pod began to disintegrate like it'd been made out of sand, the little arcs of energy flickering between the machine and the android gave her a link to follow. When she looked at the opposite end of the connection she saw the truth because, before her very eyes, the arm responsible was regenerating. Damaged parts were becoming whole and new parts were coming into existence seemingly out of thin air. At the rate things were going it'd be minutes, maybe less, before the formerly damaged and less than functional arm would be good as new, save for having no fake flesh to cover it up.
Not wanting that to happen she tried to figure out what they could do in order to get rid of the force field so that they could turn the android into scrap metal, but nothing was coming to mind. While not stupid, Rogue hadn't been one of the scientific genius' of the X-Men, so that option was out and she'd just been a genius at navigating the social jungle of Sunnydale High School, so bupkis there too. It was only when she saw Knockout reach for one of the pouches Xander had integrated into her costume that a new element was brought into play.
"Fuck this! Father Box, bring down this forcefield!" Knockout poined a metal box a little bigger than a pack of cigarettes at the force field.
PING! PINGPING!
With all the snap of a bubble bursting the force field was gone and apparently the feedback of having it happen caused the android to stagger back a few steps, releasing Xander and putting an end to its own regeneration. Lunging forward she brought back her fist and prepared to deliver a punch that would go THROUGH the machine's head, putting an end to the threat once and for all. Sure, without the head where any person of common sense would put the brains of an android, the value of the femme-bot would be lowered but it was safer for the rest of them. However, before she could fully execute the punch, a beam was fired at the floor from the newly repaired arm and, in a move that defied what she knew, spikes erupted out of the tile floor, taking the punch instead of the android.
Damn! Dazed and she still managed to bring her guard back up. she thought as she swung her arm horizontally to sweep aside the spike barrier. Gotta press on, though!
It was as she advanced on the android that her eyes met the machine's optics and she got the oddest feeling that a soul was looking back at her through it.
"Cousin Timmy thanks you for the haircut!" the android blurted out in desperation even as it tried to move away from the oncoming fist.
Brain crash.
That was the only way to describe how she reacted to the bit of knowledge that no one outside of her or her immediate family should know anything about. Years ago, while still in junior high, she'd had a cousin that used to come to visit with his parents often and one of the things she often did with him was practice her haircutting skills. Given that she was largely self-taught meant that the results varied from a justified period as a baldy to giving a professional the difficult task of minimizing the damage. Remembering those times, a part of her wondered why her aunt and uncle allowed things to go on for so long before their visits stopped.
Probably a generous 'gift' from her parents or a reminder of some 'damaging information' that might slip out if too big a fuss was made.
In any case that bit of information caused her to screech to a complete halt since she really wanted to know how the android from another time had known about her cousin.
While Barda notice this and stopped herself from starting her own offensive, Knockout ignored the development, entirely focused too much on getting her own shot in thanks to what probably looked like a prime opportunity. Fortunately for the android Xander had recovered largely by this point and, with a gesture, a mish-mash of metal formed a wall between the aggressive redhead and the blue skinned android. This broke through Knockout's warrior mindset, though from what she could see the girl clad in She-Hulk clothing didn't appreciate the interference even if she did come to a stop.
"You've got one chance to explain yourself," Xander said in a no nonsense tone of voice. "After that violence is back on the menu and with surprise not on your side anymore I don't like your chances of staying out of the scrap heap."
"My name is Indigo and I know about Cordelia's cousin because you'll tell me about it, father," Indigo replied with all the duplicity of a nun.
Needless to say, while there was some whispering of disbelief in the back of her mind and likely in everyone else's mind, the majority of them gave serious weight to the statement.
"That's a pretty serious statement and since we're on the clock I have just one thing to ask," Xander said, letting the barrier fall to the ground. "What birthday was it that I wanted a toy fire truck?"
"Your seventh birthday," Indigo replied promptly, without any hesitation or delay that might've implied that she'd had to do some deduction to come up with the answer.
"Fine. For now you're with us," Xander said, losing any hostility towards the android but not quite lowering his guard. "We'll hear the details after we're someplace safe."
"Just like that she's with us?" Knockout asked, sounding a little incredulous.
"She knows two bits no background check or other piece of detective work would've been able to find out about and would've been overlooked as worthless if by some chance someone did find out," Xander replied as she moved towards the door to the lab. "She's either an ally or someone who knows a lot more about me and Rogue than I'd like. So until we know more I'm keeping her where I can keep a close watch on her."
"Magneto's got a point," she said, throwing her support behind the dweeb but not letting her eyes wander from Indigo. "Besides, time's a wasting."
Barda nodded in agreement, Cassandra just nodded in deference to her client's decision and Knockout fumed for a moment to show her displeasure before giving a sharp nod.
With that they left the lab and proceeded at a brisk pace to their next destination.
"Where we headed now?" she asked, not really remembering the map or the destinations.
"Project Aeaea. Two hallways that way and four floors down," Xander replied as he pointing at an upcoming turn. "After that, assuming we don't run into more trouble, we'll head for Project Atalanta, which according to what I dug up is in cold storage on sublevel fifty-two. All in all getting everything then getting out shouldn't take more than forty-five minutes. An hour, tops"
"Then let's move on out," she said, going airborne since she could fly faster than she could run. "By now the locals gotta know we ain't your ordinary trespassers. They're gonna up their game."
"We'll be ready," Xander said without any hint of worry.
She wished that she could say that she shared his confidence but, with all the surprises that they'd come across so far, she couldn't help but worry.
The unknown was something to be wary of and only a fool ignored the possibilities be they good or bad.
Chairman Mark Desmond's POV
"THEY WHAT!?" he exclaimed, his voice matching his current emotional state.
They acquired all relevant research data for Project Brigid as well as the specimen itself and are currently on the move. Guardian replied telepathically through his G-Gnome. Based on what Doctor Haller told me they're after more than just that.
THEN STOP THEM! he telepathically communicated back. Project Brigid represents a considerable asset to Cadmus even if our specialty is more genetics than robotics. The board of directors will not be happy if these new intruders get away with it.
I already have G-Elves patrolling the hallways of every floor in force and the men in the security hub keeping an eye out for them through every security camera, Guardian explained telepathically to convey how hard he was working. We currently have a general area to work with but-
BUT WHAT?! he thought back almost not really wanting to know.
The intruders appear to have some sort of electronic jamming technology, Guardian replied telepathically while managing to remain professional. Every camera that comes within range of it goes offline and then comes back online once it's free of the device's effects. As for the G-Elves, the intruders… kill them before they can relay any useful information.
This only served to further heighten his anger and anxiety since he couldn't think of a rational justification for chewing Guardian out despite the fact that the clone had let TWO groups of intruders run rampant in less than twenty-four hours. Cadmus' first line of defense was the fact that no one knew about the sublevels and everything above ground was legally sanitized to keep anyone from getting suspicious. The fire that'd originally drawn the attention of the sidekicks might've been enough to draw in the local fire department but it shouldn't have warranted costumed heroes. Even then he was still puzzled at how they'd learned of the sublevels since nothing about the elevator doors above ground level implied how deep the complex really went. Every one of them looked like every other civilian elevator, so there was nothing to be suspicious about.
As for the new intruders, he knew that they entered through one of the sublevels, indicating that his early recommendation that the network of underground tunnels close to Cadmus and even the sewers be filled in with concrete was the right move to make. Too bad the board of directors had overruled him, stating that it was unnecessary but then no one argued with them very long, one way or another.
He certainly had no intention of doing so.
Still, he needed to bring this second group of intruders to heel quickly before they could do any more damage to the various projects currently assigned to Cadmus.
Stop chasing them through the hallways. Redeploy the G-Elves and G-Gnomes to protect projects of the same security level as Project Brigid. Get some G-Trolls there if you have to! he thought to the 'head of security'. Once the intruders show up at one of them have the two groups guarding projects closest to them converge. You should be able to overwhelm them from all sides and put an end to this mess.
And if they go after one of the less important projects? Guardian asked, pointing out the flaw in the plan.
Both high priority and lesser projects are mixed as far as which labs they're assigned to. If we lose electronic security in any of them send a group to investigate.
Understood. Guardian out, the 'head of security' thought before the telepathic connection was cut.
Honestly it was times like these that had him wondering if it'd been the right move to genetically limit the clone's intelligence. When Cadmus had been founded by the board of directors four years ago the security had been a mix of cutting edge technology and mercenaries with a history of excellence when it came to protecting a location. However when it was discovered a year later that one of them was squirrelling away classified information to sell, it'd exposed the flaw in relying on outside help. As a result the mercenaries were cloned, their memories up until their hiring copied and then the fakes were released back into the world as sleeper agents to monitor those dealings that the board of directors didn't already have a source of intel in. As for the originals they were used as 'raw material' for various experiments, many not surviving the tests they were subjected to.
After that it was decided to use the genetic material of a recent specimen to clone a chief of security that'd be grown to its physical prime and then fed a false history that would connect it to a deceased costume hero of the past. Naturally steps were taken in order to prevent any problems, half of which was modifications to the mind as well as ensuring that a G-Gnome was with the clone at all times, but it was never a perfect arrangement. Indeed it was one of the reasons he supported Project Brigid being housed in Cadmus rather than some robotics project that the board of directors controlled. It'd been his hope that, once they learned how to replicate the android, one of the units would replace Guardian as chief of security. After all, machines didn't have minds of their own and could not disobey the orders programmed into them. In fact they wouldn't possess any of the troublesome traits that might lead them to WANT to go against the orders, thus making them the perfect security force.
However now that was all in danger thanks to these new intruders!
Hmmm…perhaps its time to finally put that failure of an experiment to good use. He thought as he walked quickly for one of the containment rooms that was on the same floor as him. She might be unstable but she'll follow orders in the short term and then, if she stays true to form, she'll deal with the intruders while hopefully being taken care of by them at the same time.
As he recalled, the failed subject he was going to use had been the pet project of a Doctor Mokkari, who'd thought that finding a way to splice together certain animal traits with humans would produce good operatives for covert work and security. Personally he just thought the man had a sick interest in animal people but the project had been allowed to proceed, albeit with limited funding and resources. If it produced results then the funding and resources would be increased proportionally but it hadn't. Even when thrown a few of the disappeared mercenaries in as test subjects, the results always fell into the same general area.
The altered humans were unable to control the new animal instincts they were saddled with, resulting in abnormal behavior that would make any covert missions fail before being even halfway completed. If it wasn't the predatory instincts then it was often the conflict those instincts had when the human side of the equation fought against them. Eventually all but one of the test subjects had to be put down, with the lone survivor only being kept alive as a minor concession to Doctor Mokkari so the man could try to salvage something of use from his failure.
Well the time for leniency was over and he was going to put the failure to use, and if the last subject of Project Moreau was killed it'd free up valuable lab space for something more encouraging.
Opening the door to the lab, it didn't take him long to zero in on the failed subject that was being kept behind titanium bars. Predictably the animal senses and instincts that'd been spliced into her reacted to his presence almost immediately, thus causing various growls and hisses to be issued. Not that he let it bother him since, as far as he was concerned, research specimens only mattered if they were successful and even then they'd never be treated as equals. Wearing an unkempt blue bodysuit tailored to accommodate her feline traits, he took some notice of the fact that she'd apparently retained enough of her human thought processes to care about cleanliness.
Not that she'd been given the necessary toiletries to aid in such things but it made her less repulsive to be in the presence of.
"Well, my dear, you'll be glad to know that a situation has arisen where you can be of some use to Project Cadmus," he said as he went to the control console of the cell the subject was imprisoned in. "We have a group of intruders that are being rather… elusive. However, given the enhancements you've been given, it should be a simple matter to follow their scent and then deal with them."
"Rrrggh… why should I… hisss… help?" the subject asked, forcing her human side to the surface.
"Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but it's not like you really have any choice," he said as he began preparing his contingency. "Well, you do, but it's more along the lines of doing what you're told of your own free will or not. So what do you say to that?"
The subject yowled like some jungle cat, expressing her anger.
"I figured that that would be your response," he said before pressing the execute button on the console. "The hard way it is then."
Two panels on either side of the cell opened, revealing strong looking robotic arms with half a collar on each of them. The subject was quick to pick up on what was going to happen and tried to fight it but, as fast as she was and as strong as she was, the arms were three times better than her. In less than a minute the collar snapped into place around her neck and, once there, administered the first part of the control process that'd been designed for Project Moreau. This successfully made the subject more docile, its eyes glazed over somewhat, and then, when a hatch in the ceiling opened, a golden colored mask slid down over her face. With audible clicks and snaps the mask was secured to her head and to the collar in order to ensure that it would not easily come off.
Then came the visual bombardment of images, words and phrases that would activate the subliminal programming all subjects of Project Moreau had undergone. He poured all the intel they had on the new intruders into the subject's mind, along with the orders to locate them and then subdue if possible but kill if not. While his current mood made him want to go for the latter, he didn't want to anger the board of directors by dismissing potential research specimens and the benefits that might be born of them.
It took only a minute for the programming to be completed and, once he was satisfied, he opened the cell and pointed to the door.
"Execute your orders, X-24," he ordered with absolute authority.
Without any acknowledgment the cat-woman loped out of the cell and out the door, heading for the lab where Project Brigid had been kept. From there she could catch the scents of the intruders and follow them much more precisely than simply prowling about the current blind spot in the electronic security systems.
Honestly he didn't expect much from her but if she could at least keep the intruders busy long enough for Guardian and the combat genomorphs to arrive then she will have served her purpose.
Approaching the Lab of Project Aeaea
Xander's POV
An android daughter from the future… He turned a corner and saw the destination in sight. Why do I get the feeling that this is gonna send people's thoughts in the wrong direction?
Probably because, even with all the changes he'd been through in his life, he still tended to have the same sort of luck despite his best efforts to change things.
Still, he'd burn that bridge when he came to it.
For the moment, though, they were still in enemy territory, with only one of three kinds of leverage to hold over Cadmus to get them to back off. Soon it'd be two of three but he seriously hoped things went smoother this time than it had with Brigid. While it hadn't hurt when the android had siphoned off some of his power to repair herself, it hadn't been a pleasant experience either so he was in no mood for a repeat.
Reaching out with his hand he prepared to rip the door off like he had with Project Brigid when Indigo reached up and stopped him.
"While I know you like to show off, Dad, I think it might be better to take the subtler approach," Indigo said, walking up to the security keypad next to the door. "Less chance of letting them know where we are and all that."
Curious as to what she could mean by that he lowered his hand and decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. The secret knowledge that she'd fired off had been enough to lend some credibility that a future version of him had somehow created a daughter and sent her back but he still had questions. For one thing why would he create an android daughter in the first place? Did he get injured in some painful way in the future that made having a biological daughter impossible? If that was the case then why didn't he just adopt? Not that he had anything personally against his 'daughter's' artificial nature but, try as he might, he just couldn't come up with a credible reason why he'd take that particular route to parenthood.
Still, there's a time and a place for finding out more and this ain't it, he thought as he watched Indigo extend her more intact hand to the keypad.
For a moment he didn't see anything but then, almost too fast to be seen, he spotted little bolts of energy leap from her hand into the keypad. Again and again it happened until the indicator light at the top turned green followed by the sound of a lock being undone, causing the blue skinned girl to open the door before gesturing them inside. This lab, for one reason or another, looked to be empty of people and that was something he liked since it'd leave fewer witnesses to relay anything useful back to the Cadmus head honchos. Much to Cordy's dislike he'd continued surgically killing any of the creatures they'd come across in the hallways before they could get a clear look at them. Thanks to that the bad guys were still on the WHO the intruders were and WHAT the intruders were. Until they got past those two spots and arrived at HOW to stop the intruders then his little intrusion team was doing good.
"Okay, let's grab some files and if they got one-" he said as he let his gaze pass over the room, only to freeze when he came to a high tech examination table.
Immediately he turned away from it, forever glad that his helmet obscured his face well enough to keep people from seeing his expressions very easily. Nevertheless his eyes had taken in the being on the examination table and his mind was sharp enough that, even though he'd turned away immediately, he could still remember most of what he'd seen.
Stuck on the table, thanks to some thick metal restraints, had been a girl about his own age with dark skin that had him thinking Middle Eastern origins, who looked to be barely conscious. However conscious didn't mean coherent as evidenced by the unfocused eyes and general flopping of her head to the left, so she was either really weak or was just starting to come off drugs that were in her bloodstream. However the thing that made her stand out the most were the patches of scales and the claw-like fingernails she had, making him wonder if they were natural or if Cadmus had done something to her.
However the thing that'd caused him to turn away immediately had been the fact that the docs that'd been working on her had chosen to forgo the decency of providing their lab rat with something to preserve her modesty. Completely naked and restrained made him remember some of the kinkier adult magazines that he and Jesse had looked at before Buffy had come to town and IMMEDIATELY he shut down that line of thought since it'd only make what they had to do harder.
I REALLY don't need hints like this universe! he thought, directing his words to the universe that he was sure was arranging all this on purpose.
"See if you can get her out of those restraints," he said without looking back and heading for the lab's main console. "I'll see to the files."
Yes, that was safe.
In NO way could he be called a pervert just by uploading them into his forearm computer.
"Make sure you make copies of the photos, Dad," Indigo said as sounds of breaking metal entered the air. "They'll come in real HANDY later on."
"Leave it to the dweeb to build a daughter as pervy as he is," Cordy snarked, clearly interpreting the words in the most negative way possible.
"What do you mean?" Indigo asked, sounding confused and innocent. "I just thought it'd be a good idea to have copies just in case she had unique dietary or medical needs. There's only so much you can understand with words alone. What's so perverted about that?"
"You mean you… and you didn't mean… NEVERMIND!" Cordy said as she backed herself out of an awkward position.
Well, it was nice to know that his 'daughter' apparently had some scientific knowledge in the realm of biology since he had to agree that, depending on what Cadmus had done to the girl, they'd probably need all the info they could get.
And with that in mind he connected to the console before running the hacking programs stored in his forearm computer.
"Of course in three years you won't need photos to see Auntie Pris like this, Dad," Indigo whispered into his right ear from behind him. "Only caught the epilogue but, from what the others said, you two were pretty loud."
THAT had him freezing up as all sorts of images went through his mind but he immediately clamped down on them and shoved them into a titanium mental safe. He was not going to fall into the same trap as Cordy and assume something pervy was being implied when it was completely possible that there was a more innocent explanation. He had to focus on the task at hand, after all, and they still had one more stop before they could bail and make their demands from a safe distance.
All in all it took him five minutes to get past security and from there only ten more to upload all the best-looking files into his computer's hard drive. The storage was looking to be about half full so far but that was okay since he figured they'd be able to fit in the data from the last stop. When he turned around he was grateful to see that the girls had wrapped the newest member of their little group in a lab coat that must've been lying about somewhere.
"So did you find out who she is?" Knockout asked as they left the lab and began to make their way to the closest elevator.
"Oddly enough yeah, but it's kinda weird," he replied as they moved at a brisk pace.
"What do you mean?" Cordy asked from his right.
"Normally when you kidnap someone to do illegal experiments on them you get rid of anything that makes you think they're human," he replied as they turned a corner. "That obviously means their name is the first thing to go but it was right there in the file."
"So what was it?" Barda asked, moving things back to the initial question.
"Priscilla Kitaen. Florida girl, according to the file," he replied, remembering what he'd read as the files were uploaded. "They nabbed her while she was doing some night jogging before shipping her up here. Apparently she had some sort of genetic quirk that made her a prime candidate for getting alien DNA grafted onto her human DNA. No names attached to the alien DNA used, though; just numbers."
"When we get back home I'll ask Father Box if it has anything similar on file," Barda volunteered upon their arrival at the elevator doors. "Best to find out sooner rather than later if they're dangerous."
"Whatever powers she's got I doubt she can take all of us even if it was by surprise," he said, not too worried about how things might go if a fight broke out.
While he still might have a ways to go before being considered his costume personae's equal, he liked to think that he was good enough that it'd take something pretty impressive to give him trouble.
Level Fifty-Two
Big Barda's POV
I hope that Xander will not grow too greedy with his efforts to gain leverage against this facility and its leaders, she thought as they descended to the fifty-second sub-level. If this were Apokalips, securing this much leverage against another Female Fury or one of Darkseid's lieutenants would've been sufficient to have them do anything we wanted. Surely Earth cannot be all that different.
For now, though, she would defer to a local's judgment until such time as it proved to be grossly in error.
Decelerating her flight disks as they reached their desired level, she waited until Xander opened the doors before flying through in order to strike first and to act as a decoy so that the others could exit the shaft unimpeded.
What she found made her eyes narrow.
"Looks like our time of minimal enemy interference has come to an end," she said as she beheld the forces arrayed against them.
Coming at them from all three hallways were a combination of the big brutes, the packs of claw wielders and those deceptively small telepaths. So thick were the forces in the three directions that just trying to bolt their way past them wasn't an option. The one thing in their favor though was that, because of the numbers opposing them and the location of this confrontation, the creatures could only assault them in small numbers.
"We can't get pinned down here," Xander said as the last of them exited the elevator shaft. "Even if we can kick all their asses I'm betting they can wear us down with sheer numbers. Rogue, Barda, punch us a hole through their lines that way!"
It was a sound course of action to take. She had fought these forces before and it was true that individually the creatures were not dangerous enough to do more than be adequate sparring partners, but as a group of unknown number they could turn this struggle into a war of attrition. Fighting consumed stamina and, if there were sufficient numbers of enemy creatures and they did try to defeat every one of them, it was conceivable that they might lose.
With that in mind she propelled herself forward, Mega-Rod in hand, even as Cordy flew towards the foes with the same intent as her.
Choosing to sweep aside the pack of slicers down the hallway and allow Rogue to deal with the larger threats, she soon felt the intrusion of the small creatures in her mind. Fortunately for her, though, while not harmless, she had suffered much more under the watchful tutelage of Granny Goodness and it had included rejecting any foreign mental influence perpetrated by the enemy. With the techniques she'd been taught and her unbreakable will she would be difficult to hinder, much less stop, making it much more likely that she would defeat them before they would subdue her.
Upon reaching her chosen foes she began to dispatch the clawed creatures as swiftly as she could. A feint to expose a neck for her to crush, a ruthless blow to the chest to cave in the ribs and a forced impact of a head into the solid wall, crushing the skull, made short work of the nimble creatures. In all honesty these creatures weren't even as good as Darkseid's Parademons and they were universally recognized as the cannon fodder of Apokalips' armies. Their only purpose was to acquire raw organic material to increase their number and weigh down those with any real power so that their betters could deliver decisive as well as fatal blows.
Against the sort of targets Darkseid would see slain, these creatures wouldn't even fit the description of distractions.
Hearing and feeling the impact of the larger creatures, she glanced away from her own efforts to see that Cordelia was managing to hammer them down, albeit with minimal skill. While not entirely amateurish, it was clear that the girl relied on her considerable strength to win the day rather than any significant degree of skill. Hammering blows and thunderous kicks sent the giants into the walls or brought their skulls bouncing off the floor, while in return the great beasts only managed a single grazing blow.
It was when the majority of the giants had fallen that the little ones lost their nerve and ceased their efforts to telepathically attack her and most likely the others. This was a useful bit of tactical knowledge since it implied that while subservient to their masters they still possessed sufficient free will to choose self-preservation over completing their assigned task. If all of the creatures were the same then a strong enough opening strike, one designed to stab a blade of fear into their minds, would keep any future encounters brief, allowing them to accelerate their agenda.
"We've got our opening! Move!" Xander ordered as he used a hastily created shell to transport the rest of their group down the chosen hallway.
Firing a blast from her Mega-Rod to cave in the ceiling, she took up the rear position as they all moved swiftly as they could with their only map holder leading the way.
As they progressed, though, she noticed an odd change occur in the composition of the hallway. In the beginning once they left the elevator it looked like all the others that she'd seen so far inside of Cadmus: artificial and precise. However as they went further, organic material started to get mixed in with the artificial parts until they utterly dominated everything except the floor the group was walking on.
"O-kay… this is getting creepy," Magneto commented, sounding a bit stunned by what he was seeing. "It's like we're not in a building anymore."
"More like a beehive, sugah," Cordelia stated with a distinct Southern accent. "Look."
Directing her gaze in the direction indicated, she saw numerous amber eggs as well as cylinders encased in the organic material that now embodied the walls and the ceiling. When taking her familiarity with insect hives into account, she could see the similarities. Still, it meant that they had to be wary of the eggs in case they contained additional creatures that could be hatched to harass them.
"Stay alert but keep moving," Xander said without slowing down.
An obvious order and not one that really required stating since no trained warrior would lower their guard, regardless of whether or not enemies were visibly present at the time.
A few minutes later they arrived at the half-open door to a new chamber but it showed visible signs of damage and the beginnings of a repair job.
"Looks like someone else was interested in this room and didn't have a key," Indigo said, taking a moment to examine the damage. "Whoever they were they possessed superhuman strength sufficient to leave handprints in the door."
"Here's hoping that whoever did it isn't inside and is keeping the rest of the security forces busy," Xander said as they entered the room.
Inside the room there were various pieces of equipment all centered around a pod, indicating that this room was another project lab but the pod was vacant. If this was the location of the last piece of leverage then it was already gone and had been taken by someone else.
"Looks like we won't be able to go three for three after all," Cordy said, setting down on the floor of the room.
"Don't be so sure. Project Atalanta was never in that pod," Xander said, walking over to a nearby wall of organic mass, "It was just the closest room to where our last target really was."
Pushing both hands forward the man made a wrenching motion and, in response, the organic mass was torn apart and the shearing of metal revealed the presence of an artificial wall behind it. Cold air gushed into the room from the hole, dispersing the momentary white mist that'd been present to reveal some sort of cryogenic storage room.
"From what I managed to pick out of the quick skim of the file, the Project was shelved when the primary subject failed to show any reaction to outside stimuli," Xander said as he proceeded into the cold storage room. "They were planning on getting back to it once they'd come up with a better way to wake their subject up."
"If she's such a big success then why're we even bothering?" Knockout asked, sounding less than enthused by this potential acquisition.
"We care because their level of encryption tells me that Cadmus cares about this project," Xander replied as he continued to navigate the rows of tubes lined up inside the room. "Maybe whatever stuff they used to make it can't be found or synthesized easily. Maybe it takes too long to make, period. Whatever the reason is, it's important and that makes it worth taking."
She could not fault the logic in that. It was often the logic that the dreaded Desaad used to explain why some of his experiments were taking so long to produce results and it usually worked.
Usually.
Despite what some might think, the deformities and scars that made up Desaad's appearance were not all of his own effort but rather the results punishments handed down by Darkseid for displeasing him.
In this case, though, she'd follow Xander's lead.
"The tube we want should be… right… here!" Xander said before coming to a stop in front of a slightly larger than human pod.
"Woah! Is that who I think it is?" Cordy asked, sounding positively shocked at what she was seeing.
Looking into the tube, she found herself looking at a young woman roughly the same age as Cordy and Xander with shoulder length black hair and roughly five feet nine inches tall. At first she didn't see anything odd about young woman and certainly nothing that'd cause such shock to come from her newest roommate at Xander's cottage. Turning to her current benefactor, she was about to ask if he knew what had his friend so floored, but the expression on his face instantly had her wary. It wasn't so much a particular emotion but rather the absence of emotion. During her time at the cottage she had gained a grasp of the young man and, while never overly emotional, he still remained quite human in how he behaved at all times.
To see such qualities suddenly absent put her on edge, even more so when he reached out with one arm for the pod's control panel.
"Xander? What're you doing?" she asked politely, though unable to keep her concern from showing.
Xander's POV
I really wish I had an answer for you, Barda, but I don't, he thought, pressing buttons only loosely being aware of the fact that they would initiate the pod's defrosting process.
All he knew was that the moment he'd laid eyes on the occupant of the pod he'd been seized by an overwhelming compulsion to follow a set of directions he could only barely perceive through a curtain of mental fog. Normally this'd be the part where he focused everything he had into resisting until he got answers or some sort of explanation but two things stopped him.
First there was the fact that as strong a grip as the compulsion had on him, it didn't feel evil. Insistent and unwilling to be denied but not even close to what you'd expect from an evil telepath or magic user.
Second was the fact that his instincts were screaming that there was a connection between him and the young lady in the pod. It was a connection that oddly enough reminded him of how he felt towards Willow back when they were both growing up in Sunnydale.
By themselves neither reason would've been enough to keep him from fighting to regain control of his own actions but together they proved to be enough to get him to go with the flow. Watching each button be pressed, he had to wonder what connection he could possibly have with a pod person who looked remarkably like the one and only Wonder Woman. Sure, there existed a visible age difference and a few facial features that seemed off but anyone looking at the occupant would clearly think that the young lady and the member of the Justice League were related.
The problem with that was he hadn't read a single news article or seen anything on TV to indicate that Wonder Woman had a daughter or a sister of some kind. Sure, there was a chance the girl had been on Amazon Island until recently but, if she'd been taken, then why wasn't the princess of the Amazons going nuts looking for her relation. Even with the discipline she must've gained in becoming a warrior and grown even more as a hero, there was no way anyone could keep their cool when someone they cared about was missing and likely in danger. Indeed, he'd have expected that the entire Justice League to be scouring the world in force for any clue as to the young Amazon's location.
So where did that leave him? No clue.
With a hiss of released pressure the pod opened up, leaving nothing obstructing his view of the occupant but thankfully, unlike Miss Kitaen, she had clothes on. Nothing more concealing than ladies spandex biking shorts and matching exercise bra but he'd take it since it meant less embarrassment for him and no slanderous comments from Cordy.
Too bad Murphy must've been listening in because the the hand that he'd used to press the buttons on the pod's controls reached forwards. This time, though, its target appeared to be the center of the pod occupant's chest and that was NOT an appropriate place to touch a lady that you weren't intimately involved with. Deciding he'd let whatever was compelling him have enough free reign he began to put conscious effort into resisting it, or at least redirecting his hand to someplace a little more neutral. However, even as he did this, the foreign force adjusted its strength level accordingly to keep his hand on course despite his best efforts.
Even worse, when Cordy and Barda moved to prevent him from doing something anyone their gender would find offensive, his powers flared, sending out a wave of energy just strong enough to knock them back a couple of steps.
In the end he was forced to commit an act that might well result in him losing the offending hand and beginning research into the construction of an advanced prosthetic.
That was not the end of it, though.
Less than two seconds later he felt… something… a spark, maybe, go off inside of him and then one became two, became many and before he knew it arcs of electricity were jumping out of the treacherous hand and into the unconscious Wonder Woman clone in the pod. He could see little twitches, muscles tensing and then relaxing, but that was only the beginning. As though something inside the young woman had gotten a taste and decided it was ready to move on to the main course he suddenly found himself reliving what had happened with Indigo but on a more visible scale. Arcs of energy lunged out of him as thick as his arm and all of them were slamming into the pod's occupant with all the subtlety of a fastball to the gut.
Then, instead of building up to a big finale, fate decided to skip to the climax that turned out to be a sudden massive repulsion between the two of them. Flying backwards through the air, he had just enough time to think 'why does the universe hate me' before slamming into something hard enough to knock the air from his lungs.
It took him a couple of moments to regain his lost air and order his thoughts but, when he looked back the way he'd come, he saw something that he knew should've surprised him but didn't.
The young lady in the pod that looked like a clone of Wonder Woman? Instead of being unconscious like she had been she was now pulling herself out of the pod like she'd just been sleeping and all the noise had woken her up. When she raised her head and their eyes met, it was like a lightning bolt briefly connected them but then it was gone and all that was left was: what now?
"Sorry for waking you up, Wondy, but unless you like being in a frozen sleep we need your help," he said as he rose to his feet.
"What do you mean?" 'Wondy' asked, her voice scratchy due to lack of use.
"The people who put you into that pod and placed you in a frozen sleep threaten me and my friends. We have come here to learn their secrets, to take what they value and use it to keep them at bay," he replied, sticking as close to the truth as he dared without making an enemy of the young lady. "It was while we were doing that that we found you. I think they had you on ice because it was the only way they could imprison you. Will you help us take a stand against them? If you help us I promise to make sure that no one will ever imprison you again."
He knew he was making a promise without knowing all the facts but she was not behaving at all like someone too dangerous to be allowed to roam about. Besides, the more he saw of this Cadmus, the more he was convinced that this was a place of horrors were good things were treated like fodder for ghoulish experiments and evil was allowed to have its way. Until she did something to make him seriously worry, he would treat her like another innocent being held against her will to be experimented on in a way most foul.
Looking at the expression on her face, he could tell that she was considering her options and this pleased him since it meant there was less chance of an irrational act.
"Very well. I will help you," Wondy said, her movements stronger and her eyes showing her resolve. "But if you are lying to me I will make you regret it."
"I'm not but I wouldn't blame you if you punched me if I did," he said, nodding in agreement to her terms. "Now let's get going. We have what we need and staying any longer'll wear out our welcome."
He was just about to lead them back out the way they came when an ominous growl froze all of them in their tracks and the cause of the noise stood, or rather crouched, in the hole he'd made. At first he thought that it was another of the creatures that he'd fought before but it took less than a second for him to disregard that idea. Wearing a bodysuit and some sort of mask was a were-cat of some kind, making him wonder if Cadmus knew about the supernatural. Sure, the only half-human, half animal lifeform he knew of were werewolves, but that didn't mean that there were not others he didn't know about so he was only slightly thrown by the sight before him.
"Looks like one of their guard dogs found us," Knockout said, sounding like she was willing to give this new threat a go. "I'll handle this one Magneto."
The redhead charged the she-cat but he could tell from the look on her face that his tenant didn't consider the foe in front of her to be threatening. Indeed, of all the hostiles they'd faced thus far, none of them had proven to be especially hard to defeat making numbers the primary source of trouble. A single foe would barely be worth a token exchange of blows.
At least that's the way it should've been.
With movements unlike anything he'd seen before and inhuman agility, the cat-woman evaded Knockout's opening blow by leaping over it and twisting mid-air to execute a kick to the head. Fortunately it looked as though the were-cat, while not limited to human levels of strength, didn't quite have the power necessary to do more than stagger the redhead. Another swing from the native of Apokilips was likewise evaded but this time by crouching low beneath the oncoming limb before lashing out with clawed fingers.
This time though his ally was better prepared and was able to evade the slash.
Mostly.
Four parallel tears were created along the belly part of Knockout's outfit but he saw no blood, so there hadn't been enough pressure exerted by the claws on the flesh to cut anything. When the fiery woman attempted to retaliate, though, the excellent reflexes and speed of the hybrid proved enough to once more evade the blow.
"Well, well! This is MUCH better!" Knockout declared as the two warriors circled one another. "This is no animal. There is intelligence in her mind! I'm going to enjoy this!"
He wanted to tell her that this was not the time to be indulging in her battle lust but he knew he'd be wasting his breath. In the time since they'd first met he'd learned that to her a good fight was like good sex was to everyone else and just as enticing. Given how unsatisfied the redhead had been so far since they'd set foot in Cadmus, there was no way that he'd be able to convince her not to savor her current foe and end things quickly.
Guess I gotta hope that the furrier version of Black Cat has poor stamina, he thought as he turned to begin looking for all the possible ways that Cadmus' security forces could come at them.
However, when his eyes swept across the pod he'd been slammed into by the earlier repulsion, he saw that like the one that'd been opened it looked to contain a person. Deciding that, since they had the time, he'd take a peek inside to see who else Cadmus had on ice just in case it turned out to be someone worth saving.
I probably shouldn't, he thought as he used his hand to wipe away the frost that'd accumulated on the glass portion of the pod. Our group's large enough as it is. If I get too greedy we won't be able to move fast when we need to.
So far Miss Kitaen was the sole unconscious member of their group being carried by Indigo and, with Wondy joining up with them, their group numbered eight. Of those eight only five of them had skills that were known to him and could be of use in combatting any threats they encountered on their way out. He had no idea what sort of battle potential Indigo had and Miss Kitaen, in her present condition, couldn't fight anyone. As for Wondy, even if she had power on a comparable level to Wonder Woman, he didn't know if she had similar warrior skills. There could also be lingering side effects from being cryogenically frozen that he didn't know about that could cause her to stagger at a crucial moment.
Adding even a single more unknown into the mix could make all the difference between successful departure and a less desirable outcome.
However, as he finally cleared away enough of the frost to see who was inside, when he saw the sleeping face of the young man within, he realized that he no longer had a choice.
Like it or not they were getting another person added to their group because there was no way that Cadmus having someone that looked like Speedy could mean anything good.
Knockout's POV
This is GLORIOUS! she thought as she continued to dance the dance of battle with the beast person.
With every moment that the fight did not end her foe proved to be ever more worthy in her eyes and the battle they were fighting ever more satisfying.
Oh, the beast wasn't as strong as she was, that'd been made clear with the first blow that the cat person had landed, and, while not as primitive as those she'd swept aside before, did not express a clarity of skill most disciplined warriors had. Nevertheless there was challenge enough in matching blows with her opponent to keep her entertained and so she savored it all, drinking deeply from the cup of conflict.
"C'mon! Is this the best you can do?" she asked her foe gripping her enemy's forearms to restrain her. "Show me more!"
For a moment her enemy tried to use shifts in position or bursts of strength to break her stance, most likely to be followed by a breaking of her grip. When that failed, though, the beast lunged forward and, in a shocking move, bit down on one of her arms. Too bad for her opponent that all Apokaliptian warriors possessed a level of durability that made such a primitive attack pointless unless the one doing the biting was powerful enough and just as durable.
Still, she noted with some interest that the young woman's teeth didn't break upon contact with her skin but neither did they do any damage.
Her enemy might as well have been trying to bite through solid stone.
The lengths that her foe was willing to go in order to defy her brought a smile to her face, though.
"Not bad!" she declared before throwing her opponent into the air. "But not good enough!"
Watching as the cat person fell down into an assortment of containers, she waited like a predator ready to pounce, eagerly awaiting what else she could expect from her foe. Would it attempt to use something in this room as a crude weapon? Would it once more try to get in close to tear her apart with its claws?
Her blood was dancing with anticipation to find out.
"That's enough, Knockout," came an unexpected voice before bits of metal lashed out at the cat-person, tying her up in moments. "As much as I'd like to see how things turn out we're on a timetable. Time to go."
"NO! This is the first decent fight I've had since we touched down on Earth!" she yelled as she whirled on Xander. "Let her go so we can finish this!"
"Not going to happen. The mission takes priority, not your love of a good fight," Xander said, an unknown young man in his arms missing half of one arm. "Now let's go."
For a few seconds she didn't do anything. She considered defying him and going over to her foe in order to use her strength to rip the metal restraints off so that they could resume their fight. However that plan was futile since she knew with minimal effort Xander could just replace the torn off metal and, while strategically this meant she should remove her host from the equation, she wouldn't.
For the moment staying in his good graces was important.
While she believed that she'd gained a good grasp of life on Earth, she still didn't have the resources to live on her own. Sure, she could steal the money she needed, the human banks might as well have been made out of cardboard as far as she was concerned, but that didn't appeal to her. What she sought, what she liked, was the struggle that came with forcing your will on the world around you. Naturally combat was what came easiest since that was what had been pounded into her for most of her life, but she knew there were different forms of combat. There were battles of words, battles of thoughts and battles of passion. Each of them could be satisfying to varying degrees but there were also things that could sour the experience.
In this case, while punching Xander into a wall would let her resume her fight with her feline foe, it would also damage her relationship with him as well as the others.
More than that… she knew that her 'Big Sister' Barda would be disappointed in her.
Despite being surrounded by the Female Furies who embraced the shades of darkness that embodied Apokalips, Barda managed to stay true to who she was. She said the words and went through the motions of one loyal to Darkseid but on the inside there was nothing but the strongest of metals. It was this that had drawn her to her sister and the thought of losing the closeness they'd gained over the years… she didn't want to lose that.
Indeed she didn't know what could ever compel her to cross that particular line.
"Fine, but you'll owe me big for this," she said as she forced herself to slide out of her state of battle alertness.
"I know. I'll make it up to you," Xander said before leading the way out of the room back the way they'd come. "I promise."
With two people unconscious and the rest uncertain they made their way to the elevator shaft and, with the help of three suitably thick pieces of metal, they began their ascension back towards the surface as well as the open air. If things went well from there they'd make a quick stop at the motel room to pick up their things before leaving Washington for someplace more remote. She'd asked why they were doing this and, according to Xander, it was so that a bit of confusion would be sown into the minds of the enemy.
The enemy would expect them to return to their cottage outside Central City so, when the facts indicated that they were going elsewhere it would puzzle them, resulting in many theories being tossed about. After this'd gone on long enough they'd vanish from the proverbial radar and set up shop someplace else. They could make secret trips back to the cottage to grab whatever couldn't be replaced and, with their various methods of travel, they could get most of it in under four trips.
Of COURSE it was as they passed sub-level five that things took a turn for the worse in the form of a thunderous boom from above and some bits and pieces being knocked loose from the shaft around them.
"Looks like whoever had the same idea we did bumped into some heavy hitting trouble," Cordelia stated before turning to Xander.
"Then let's get out of here before we get caught up in anything troublesome," Xander said as they reached the sublevel they'd entered the facility on.
Running down the hallway to the entrance they'd made when they'd first arrived, she could hear the sounds of battle raging a few floors above them and was quite interested in finding out who the combatants were. Too bad she was pretty sure Xander would object to her finding out, though.
However it was when a rumbling began but did not stop and in fact began to get louder even as cracks began to form rapidly in both the walls as well as the ceiling that she realized continuing straight up to the surface might've been the better course of action.
"Sounds like they're bringing the house down," Indigo said before a large part of the ceiling came down blocking their path.
"Everyone get close to me! NOW!" Xander ordered with authority that clashed with what she usually heard from him.
Nevertheless her training and the level of trust that she'd come to place in him made her swiftly relocate as close to him as she could without invading his personal space.
Not that she'd mind invading that space if she could be sure that he wouldn't squish like she was sure every other human on the planet would under her PASSIONATE efforts.
Once all of them were as close as possible, her skin tingled as she felt more than saw power expand outwards from his body, solidifying into a dome of energy. As more debris of various sorts fell from the ceiling she watched as it bounced off the dome as though they were as inconsequential as dust. However, as the size of the debris increased, she began to worry that it might place some significant strain on the dome.
"Don't worry. It'll take more than this to shatter my shield," Xander said, not showing any sign of weakness physically or verbally.
As the debris continued to mount ever higher, blocking all else from sight, she sure hoped that her friend was up to the task. She might be quite durable and possess a regenerative ability no human could match, but digging her way out of the rubble of the Cadmus facility was going to be a serious pain her ass.
Maybe later I could get Xander to massage that pain away, she thought idly with a smile. After all, just because I cannot 'massage' him doesn't mean he can't do the same for me.
The Remains of the Cadmus Surface Building
A Short While Later
Robin's POV
"W-we… did it…" Kaldur gasped from the exertion of pushing the concrete they'd been pinned under.
"Was there… ever… any doubt?" he asked with his usual confidence.
The truth of the matter, though, was that while he had faith in his friends, this had been a LITTLE too close for comfort.
But then what choice had they had.
Hours ago they'd decided to get back at their mentors for rewarding them with 'a glorified backstage pass' for all their hard years of training by investigating a lab in Washington that Batman had suspicions about. It'd been their plan to show their teachers that they were ready for more and that it'd been wrong to underestimate them. It'd started out fine, rescuing of some scientists from the burning building, but when they'd stumbled across their first anomaly it'd been a descent into weirdness.
Literally.
It turned out that Cadmus was conducting research into creating new forms of life with stats that put them into the superhuman range. Everything from super strength to generating enough electricity that, in large enough groups, could supply the lab with all the power such an operation could require. Even as he'd hacked the system he'd been copying files into his forearm computer so he'd have some evidence to show Batman to prove the infiltration had been worth it but, just as he'd gotten the location for Project Kr, Guardian had shown up. Surrounded by gangly things with fangs and claws, the truth had been aired out but, instead of bringing peaceful debate, it'd sparked a fight.
Outnumbered, he Wally and Kaldur had bailed for the elevator but, instead of doing the obvious like try to escape back to the Hall of Justice, he'd taken them down.
Down to sub-level fifty-two.
To Project Kr.
A few close calls later he'd learned that his call had been the right one because it turned out that Project Kr was a clone of Superman being telepathically force fed an education. None of the trio had been willing to believe that the man from Krypton had voluntarily donated some of hid DNA and that meant it'd been stolen or acquired covertly. THAT was the final nail in the coffin for Cadmus: they were up to no good and needed the spotlight cast upon them. However, when they'd tried to use their com-devices, they'd discovered they were either too far underground or were being jammed. THEN, of course, things got even worse.
No more than a few seconds after they'd opened up the pod that… Superboy had been in, the clone had silently attacked them, showing all too clearly that he deserved the title of Superman's son. Him, Wally and Kaldur had done their best to stay standing while trying to talk the aggressive rescuee down, but it hadn't worked. Before they realized it they had all been taken out only to wake up in restraints as well as pods of their own, with Superboy staring up at them like a guard dog. Kaldur had tried to talk their way out of the situation since they couldn't do anything else, but just as they'd been starting to make some headway the local wage tyrant had shown up. It'd been your typical villain monologue he'd heard dozens of times before but the one useful nugget had clued them into the trio's immediate future.
They were to be cloned and it didn't take the greatest detective in the world to figure out what'd happen to the originals.
He'd known that they had to get out but one of the things Batman had taught him was that, when planning to escape, you needed to time it right or it'd fall to pieces right in front of you. So when the mechanical arms had slammed into them and used some sort of electric shock to facilitate the extraction of DNA, he'd held back. Assuming the Grand PooBa was telling the truth, this process wouldn't kill them and couldn't be allowed to if their memories were to be copied to their duplicates. He'd wait until they were alone before he'd use the hidden lock pick in his glove to get out of his pod then free the others.
As it turned out Superboy had experienced a change of heart and had come back to rescue them, giving him the chance he'd needed to get out. Once all of them were free they'd made a run for the surface, with the top dog of Cadmus swearing that they'd all be back in pods by morning.
That guy was SO not whelmed.
The ascent had been tough but fortunately, with his hacking and some creative thinking, they'd managed to make it up to sub-level one before they'd been cornered on all sides. His brain was a little fuzzy on what'd happened then but, when the memories cleared up, Guardian had chosen to let them go while he dealt with his boss.
Too bad the boss didn't agree.
Didn't agree to the point of drinking a glowing blue cocktail that turned him from a forty-something human male to a massive mountain of muscle with the strength to punch through the ceiling. In true hero fashion they'd followed the fight up to street level but, despite their best efforts, the thing that Desmond had become was just too strong for the direct approach. So he'd done some thinking and had managed to come up with the hairbrained scheme of dropping a building on the transformed human in the hope of that working.
Looks like it did. He looked at the mostly covered form of Desmond, who clearly was out like a light. Any victory you can walk away from, right?
A high five with Wally, though, made it clear that they hadn't come out of the situation much better off than their costumes. Nothing felt broken but soreness was definitely present, along with probably a few pulled muscles, but he'd dealt with those things during the first year of training under Bruce.
"See? The moon," Wally pointed out, gesturing to the full moon hanging in the sky.
For a moment he wondered why that was so important but then he remembered what Kid Flash had said while they'd been in those pods and then it made sense. Right now Superboy was getting his first taste of the free air and had proof that the three of them could make good on their promises. All in all it looked like the mess that had been the Cadmus investigation was all over with and all that was left was to call in the Justice League to take over the cleanup.
Assuming they didn't get pulled into a lecture for going off on their own without permission into a dangerous situation that might've gotten them killed of course.
He was just about to contact Batman when the ground beneath his feet began to shake, making him wonder if in destroying key supports above ground that it'd done damage in the sub-levels too. If they were about to get dropped several more floors into the complex, he was SO never going to hear the end of it.
As it was the ground wasn't going to fall out from under them but rather something from the sublevels was breaking out.
With displacement of concrete rubble and various other debris that indicated something BIG and STRONG, a section a dozen or so feet away bulged upwards. Reaching to his utility belt just in case something else was going to try to kill them, he waited but when he expected to see something poke its head out he instead saw a crackling barely perceivable dome of energy. Only once the rubble was a third of the way pushed aside did he see what was generating the dome and it left him wondering just what the heck was going on.
"What the-?" Wally asked, clearly of the same opinion.
Nine people. Most were in costume but three of them were wearing the temporary clothes you'd see hospital patients or something wear instead of normal clothes. Two of the patients were unconscious and being carried out while the other was conscious and in good enough condition to stand on her own without assistance. Considering the color schemes of the costumed ones, he'd have thought that they were either superheroes or super villains. However, aside from the girl with the white stripe in her hair that'd shared the TV spotlight with Wally a while back, he didn't recognize them.
Or rather he hadn't recognized anyone other than skunk girl until the newcomers noticed the three sidekicks and turned in their direction.
"Speedy?" he gasped looking at the unconscious form in the arms of a guy wearing a bucket helmet.
His brain was producing errors all over the place because, while the teenage guy being carried was without a doubt Roy, all logic said it couldn't be. They'd seen Roy Harper, aka Speedy, only a couple of hours ago and, as far as he knew, hadn't known anything about the Cadmus situation. Then, of course, there was the fact that the unconscious person was missing his right arm from the elbow on down and he DEFINTIELY would've noticed that at the Hall of Justice.
So what the hell was going on?
"So I was right," the Bucket Guy said, looking down at an unconscious… Roy Harper. "Doesn't exactly give you the warm fuzzies to know that Cadmus had this guy in cryo, does it? One more reason not to trust this place."
"Cryo? What do you mean?" he asked even as his brain came up with some possibilities.
"Down on sub-level fifty-two in a freezer there were tons of cryogenic suspension pods and he was in one of them," Bucket Guy replied, sounding perturbed. "Reminded me of Speedy and I didn't like the thoughts that led to so I took him out. I'm no doctor but I think we should get him to a hospital since I think he's been in the cryo-pod for a long time."
No shit.
During the various times that Mister Freeze had gone on a crime spree, Batman had made him study up on the various uses of extreme cold, including what Freeze's cold gun could do to the average person. Even if the victims were tended too as soon as possible, there'd be some moderate recovery time involved and, as for freezing people for the purpose of preserving them and waking them up later, that only exacerbated the situation.
Whatever the case, he was all for getting whoever this new Roy Harper was medical attention, if only so he could get some answers once the guy was strong enough to talk.
"Woah! Guys! Check her out," Wally said, pointing at the group.
For a moment he was figuring that his friend was just pointing out how hot one of them looked but, when he followed the junior speedster's finger to what it was pointing at, he reconsidered. At first it just looked like your average teenage girl in gym clothes but, when he began comparing her face to anyone he knew or had seen, it didn't take him long to piece everything together.
The girl looked like Wonder Woman; a Wonder Woman regressed in age to a teenager but still WONDER WOMAN.
He'd been floored when he'd found out that Superman had been cloned to create Superboy but to find out that Cadmus had also cloned Wonder Woman… it made him wonder if the entire Justice League had been cloned.
"You know, it's rude to point," Wonder… Girl… stated, looking a bit annoyed.
Well, at least she's better at first impressions than Superboy, he thought as he tried to figure out how best to handle this.
Then the leader, the one carrying the teenager who looked like Roy, started to walk over to him and he wondered what was about to happen. A part of his brain was still trying to figure out which one was the real Roy Harper and which one was a clone but so far he didn't have enough information. That was another one of the things that Batman had pounded into him during that first year of training: don't rush to conclusions. Gather all the facts, piece them together and then decide on a course of action. So in the spirit of that lesson he'd wait until Bucket Guy said or did something before he decided on anything.
"Since this is connected to you and your friend I'll leave him your care," Bucket Guy said, setting 'Roy' down on the ground in front of him. "But take a piece of advice from me: make sure wherever he gets treatment, it's a place where no one outside of you or the Justice League can get to him. Whoever's backing Cadmus has deep pockets and obviously doesn't care about things like the law. Send him to a civilian hospital and you're practically begging the stockholders of this place to take him back."
While he did think that Bucket Guy was exaggerating things a bit, he did think that, wherever 'Roy' wound up, it'd be necessary to keep it under close surveillance. They'd just kicked over a major anthill with Cadmus and he wasn't oblivious to the fact that there'd be consequences for that when whoever was in charge decided to do damage control. Either they'd try to kill everyone that'd seen the sub-levels, abduct them or exact some sort of payback.
Well, we could always stick this guy up on the Watchtower, he thought with a bit of snark. No way could anyone get to him up there.
It'd be kinda amusing that this 'Roy' would get to go to the Justice League's real HQ sooner than the Speedy that'd stormed out of the Hall of Justice would.
Still, he knew that Batman would kill him, metaphorically speaking, of course, if he didn't try to get at least some information on this group of unknowns.
With that in mind… "Who are you?"
"My true name is for my friends but you can call me Magneto," the Bucket Guy, Magneto, replied as he turned away.
He was puzzled about the name but that was cleared up in a hurry when every visible piece of metal in the immediate area seemed to come to life. One after another the fragments extricated themselves from whatever place they'd been stuck before converging on Magneto's location. It was then though that he witnessed something amazing: the bits of metal were changing shape. When he'd first seen the converging pieces he'd thought that a simple and crude platform would be made, but he'd been wrong. As though the metal bits had been fashioned from steel grey clay they began to change until they were all more or less flat planks and then they came together like pieces of a puzzle. Before long a platform had been made, a few chairs integrated into the design for passengers.
One by one the remaining members of the group sat down and, once all were ready, the platform lifted into the air with no visible sign of propulsion. It didn't take a genius to realize what Magneto could do and how the platform was rising off the ground.
Magnetism. Magneto could obviously generate potent magnetic fields that allowed him to manipulate metal to various degrees and apparently fly, based on what he was seeing.
Made him think that Doctor Polaris might have some competition.
However, when he saw the platform come a stop, he wondered why but fortunately Wally was able to help with that.
"Hey! The moon and Superman," Wally said, stepping to Superboy's side. "Do we keep our promises or what?"
Looking up into the sky he did indeed spot the familiar form of Superman coming in for a landing but that wasn't all he saw. One by one forms emerged from the darkness of the night and it wasn't just in front of them. All around them the members of the Justice League members descended until everyone who'd been to the lower levels of Cadmus were encircled. Clearly they'd spotted the building collapsing or had managed to track him, Wally and Kaldur here and they probably wanted answers.
He SO wasn't looking forward to that.