Chapter 2: Freedom
I fly my way towards Project Cadmus as Kid Flash speeds his way there and Robin and Aqualad leap from building to building. From where I'm flying, it looks like the fire at Cadmus aren't so bad. But I'd rather contain it now before it gets out of control.
I see Kid Flash racing his way up the building, catching two scientists and placing them on the roof.
I see a scientist hanging from a window, looking like he's about to fall. I fly my way down there and create a catcher's mitt construct to catch him safely. I raise the mitt to the roof of the building, letting the scientist jump to safety.
I look below to see Robin, oh so joyfully, gliding to the window, pulling Kid Flash into the building. I look further down and see Aqualad bringing out his water-bearers - Atlantean hilts that can use water to form anything - to draw water from the fire hoses, creating a pillar of water below him, raising him up to a window to bring more scientists to safety.
I fly over to the window that Boy Wonder and KF stepped into, waiting for Aqualad to make his way up to the window. He reaches the window, stepping into first. "Nicely done."
"Nicely done yourself, Green Lantern", he comments back.
As I'm about to enter the building, I get this feeling that I'm being watched. I turn around and I see someone on the roof of a building far away from me. A woman, a girl maybe. Blond hair, wearing a white jumpsuit and leather, carrying a bo staff as well.
I create a binocular construct to get a better look at her, but looking into them at the building, I don't see her. I don't see anyone there.
Who was that girl? Am I seeing things? Maybe seeing Hal and Carol today has got me thinking about girls now. But still…
I shake it off and go inside to join my friends. I see Robin on the computer, hacking into its system for information, with Kid Flash next to him. I turn to see Aqualad heading for the hallway, and I decide to join him. "There anyone out here?"
Aqualad shakes his head, but my attention goes toward the elevator to our left, closing with someone in there. Someone with horns.
"You saw that too, right?", I ask Aqualad. He nods in agreement, but looks on in disbelief, probably wondering what we just saw. Glad I'm still not seeing things, though I kinda wish I were.
Robin and KF join us in hallway, wondering about the elevator as well. Robin goes over to the elevator to check it out and notices something strange. "This is a high speed express elevator. It doesn't belong in a two-story building."
"Neither does what we saw", I reiterate as Aqualad opens the doors to find a very long and very deep elevator corridor.
"And that's why the need an express elevator."
I descend downwards to see how far it goes as Robin follows my lead, attaching a grappling hook to the ceiling. Aqualad and KF jumping onto the rope as well and slide behind Boy Wonder.
I keep going downwards more and more, losing count of how many floors there are. I stop for a moment and realize that Robin and the others are way above me. I fly up to where his rope stops, catching them at the floor they're at. "Sorry about that, didn't realize how far the elevator went down."
"With how fast you were going, it seems to me that there's more to Cadmus than anyone could have thought", says Aqualad.
As soon as Robin bypasses security for the floor doors, I'm able to push them open, bringing us to our destination. "Welcome to Project Cadmus."
Before anyone could think of what to do next, Kid Flash runs off on his own, making me go after him. As soon as I catch up to him, I find him about to be trampled by, by I don't know really.
They look to be large creatures with gnarling teeth and large, rigged horns. These things are like nothing I've ever seen on this planet, or any other.
I throw a rope construct over to him, looping onto his foot, and pull him over to me before these creatures stomp him into the ground.
Robin and Aqualad join us as I help Kid up to his feet. We all stare in shock and confusion as these elephant like creatures walk on as if no one is in their way. Thankfully we're all on the side and not in their way now.
On some of them are smaller creatures, like groundhogs, with smaller horns. One looks our way and it's tiny horns glow red. That doesn't look too good. Then again nothing down here looks good at all.
We wait for them to leave the hallway, not wanting to be trampled to death. I do not want to die from a stampede from these things, and I would really die if the Corps knew that.
We continue down the hallway until we reach a sealed door, which means it's Robin's cue to hacking into it. Of course Boy Wonder is able to open the doors, but when they open we all become whelmed.
Inside the room, we find more creatures, different from the ones from the hallway though. They're a little bigger than the miniature ones, and all in tubes, charging with electricity.
"This must be how they hide this massive underground facility from the world", Kid Flash realizes. "The real Cadmus isn't even on the grid. It must generate it's own power with these… things."
"Even the name is a clue", Aqualad adds to the statement. "The Cadmus of myth created a new race by sowing dragons' teeth into the Earth."
"And this Cadmus creates new life too", Robin says. "Let's find out why."
Robin's hacking skills never fail as he finds out everything about these things, which are called genomorphs. "Whoa! Look at the stats on these things - super strength, telepathy, razor claws. These are living weapons!"
"They're creating a mass army, but for who?" I ask.
"Wait there's something else. Project Kr. The file's triple encrypted. I can't-"
"Don't move!", someone shouts our way. We turn towards the man to see who he is, a man in blue uniform, wearing a gold helmet and a gold shield on his left arm. On his right shoulder is a smaller genomorph, and with him is pack of bigger genomorphs, with razor sharp claws from the look of it. Stay away from those claws, don't want to get ripped to shreds.
He stops when he gets close enough to see who we are. "Wait, Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Green Lantern?"
"Can't say I know who you are sadly." I reply back to him.
"I know you, Guardian, a hero", Kaldur realizes.
"I do my best."
"So then what are you doing here?", Kid Flash asks him.
"I'm chief of security. You're trespassing, but we can call the Justice League this out."
"You think the League's gonna approve of you breeding weapons?"
"Weapons? What are you- What have I-" Guardian raises his hand to his head, seemingly having a headache. But I think it's more than that. The small genomorph on his shoulder, it's horns are glowing red, like the one from the hallway. Something is very wrong here.
"Take them down hard! No mercy!" Guardian orders his pack of genomorphs to attack us. "Scatter!" I yell out loud as we all go in different directions. Robin leaps ahead of the genomorphs while Kid Flash, Aqualad and I avoid and try to fend off from their attacks. Guardian then steps in as he and Aqualad have it out. I create an anvil construct and send it his way, pushing him far from Kaldur and him hitting the floor, hard.
We rush out of the room and find Robin hacking alone, as usual. He opens the door to the elevator and it closes back up as soon as Aqualad and I just make it in.
Aqualad and I see that we're going down instead of up. "Why are we going down?", I ask Boy Wonder.
"Project Kr, it's down on Sub-Level 52", he says answering my question.
"This is out of control", Aqualad states as we continue down. "Perhaps we should contact the League."
Just before anyone says anything else to that, the elevator stops, reaching Sub-Level 52. As soon as the doors open, Robin rushes out into the new floor, with Kid Flash following after, leaving just me and Aqualad in the elevator.
"Those two have never listened to us before. What makes you think they'll start now?", I tell Aqualad. "Come on Kaldur, someone's gotta make sure they don't get into too much trouble. If they even know they meaning of 'trouble'." Aqualad sighs in agreement as he and I take our leave and follow our friends.
Before we can figure out which bizarre looking hallway to go down, we here a shout. "Halt!" We look we find a humanoid genomorph, which surprises me to be honest, wearing only a white lab outfit. His large horns on his forehead glow red, along with his eyes, which means trouble.
He telekinetically lifts two explosives and sends them our way, going over our heads. I create a shield to keep us safe from the explosion, while Robin throws his batarangs at the man, but only for them to be stopped in front of him. He then picks up another two explosives and throw them our way, forcing us to take the right bizarre looking hallway. He should've been able to hit us spot on, he wasn't too far from us. It's like he wanted us to go down this hallway, like he didn't want to hurt us…
Still running for cover, we see at the end of the hallway a female scientist coming out of another room, too preoccupied with her notes to see us. That is until Kid Flash runs past her, accidentally tripping her over. Catching up to him, we see KF moving an air tank between the closing doors, making sure we get into the room and to safety. I take to the air and swiftly fly my way through the doors, being followed by Aqualad and Robin.
I head over to where Kid Flash is, who is standing in front of a computer set, while Robin disables the doors over by them with Aqualad near by.
The only reason I find Kid Flash over there is because of his bright yellow suit, for it's too dark in here. "Hope no one minds if I shed a little light in the room." I raise my hand high up and let my ring's green light shine big enough for the whole room to become seen and known. But it's what's in front of me and KF that shocks me more than anything else today. "Guys, you're gonna want to see this."
In the middle of the room is a large glass tube, with a teenage boy asleep, with three small genomorphs sleeping above his head. The boy himself looks to be around our age, definitely strong and muscular, while wearing a white one piece with a red S on his chest.
On the glass of the sleeping tube is Kr. "Project Kr. Krypton."
"The atomic symbol for Krypton", adds Kid Flash. "Clone?"
"Robin, hack", Aqualad tells the Boy Wonder, who is still staring in shock and awe, but it seems to shake him loose.
Robin is able to bypass through Cadmus' security and finds out the information he needs about our new friend. "Weapon designation Superboy, a clone force grown in… 16 weeks? From DNA acquired from Superman."
"Stolen from Superman", Aqualad corrects him.
"No way the big guy knows about this", Kid Flash points out, which is most likely true.
"Solar suit allows him to absorb yellow sun radiation 24/7", Robin continues on.
"What about these little guys up above him?", I ask the hacker genius.
"Genomorph gnomes, telepathic, force-feeding him an education."
"Sounds more like brainwashing if you ask me."
"They're making a slave out of, well, Superman's son", Kid Flash calls him.
"Now we contact the League", Aqualad states, which I have no arguments with.
We each try to contact our mentors, but none of us are able to, not even I can get a hold of Hal Jordan. I must be out of range with his ring, or my ring's charge is too low to communicate with him. Or he's still too busy stopping Wotan from trying to plot out the sun and all. With the others it sounds more like something is jamming their communications, which makes it impossible for any of us to contact anyone.
I turn my attention to the sleeping Superboy, wondering what he's dreaming of. In all my life, I'd never imagine the world would have another Kryptonian, especially like this. He looks more like a prisoner in there, with those G-gnomes brainwashing and keeping him in check most likely. Just makes me so angry right now, I want to pummel whoever's in charge of Cadmus so they can feel my anger.
I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I look over to see it's Aqualad. "Kyle, calm yourself." I then look down to notice my ring's bright light is dying down. "I'm sorry Kaldur, it's just… This is wrong. I can't leave him like this. I won't leave him."
Kaldur nods in agreement with me. "Set him free. Do it." He tells Robin, which he does so quickly.
The glass case opens up, giving our new friend more and fresher air to breath. His hands moves first, stretching and then clenching up into a fist. He then wakes up, opening his eyes. And then he jumps towards us. Oh super.
He crashes over to Aqualad, landing on top of him. He gives a few punches before Robin and Kid Flash try to hold him down, while I try to help Aqualad up and from our new 'friend'.
Robin and Kid Flash try to talk him down, but to no avail as Superboy punches Kid Flash back into a glass case, hitting the floor right after. Doesn't look like he's waking up anytime soon.
Robin then tries to gas him by placing a grenade in his mouth, giving Aqualad the chance to kick him off, sending him to the floor over his old home. Robin then sends to electric ropes towards him, hoping to shock him into submission my guess. Though unfortunately it doesn't even shock him, and he pulls Robin in with the rope, grabbing him by the chest and putting him down to the ground, stepping on him like a bug.
I send a giant fist construct his way, but he puts out one hand and smashes it to pieces, without even trying. "We're in so much trouble."
Aqualad then joins me in this fight by bringing out one of his water-bearers and making it take the form of a hammer, swinging it Superboy's way. "Enough!" The hammer sends him flying to the stand he was just sleeping on. As Aqualad checks on Robin, I create a barrier construct over him, hoping that contains him for a moment.
"We're trying to help you", as I try reasoning with him. He ignores me and pounds on the barrier, but my will is fueling it more and more, not letting him out. I look over to see Robin not waking up. I turn back around to see Superboy breaking through my barrier, then connecting his fist to my chest, sending me towards the wall.
My back feels like it is on fire, but I'm still awake. But I don't think I'm gonna be moving for while. I look over to see Aqualad facing him on this time, actually fairing off against him. He gets a hold of him from behind, grabbing his head and shocking him thanks to his Atlantean eel tattoos that help him due so. But this is not taken so lightly with Superboy, so he jumps up against the ceiling, with Aqualad taking the brunt of the hit. He jumps again, knocking Kaldur off his back and hitting the floor, taking a nap along with the others. Which leaves just me.
I raise my hand and shoot him with construct-filled gun I just made. He finally takes notice of me shooting him, which he doesn't find enjoyable. He makes his way towards me, making me worry more. "You don't have to do this, please. Help us and we can help you." But when he's right in front of me, he grabs my chest and throws me to the door. Guess I couldn't talk him down.
While I'm heading for the door in midair, I take off my GL ring. I know that we're going to be captured, but I'd rather them not take the ring. Not that they could use it anyways.
I finally hit the door, but I hit it with so much force that it breaks from where it holds and hits the floor along with me.
I lay on the ground, in pain, along with my friends, who're in the same state as I am. Defeated and helpless. I look the other way to see the scientist from before, Guardian, the human genomorph, and another scientist, from the looks of it probably the man in charge of Cadmus.
As I'm about to black out and take a nap, I see Superboy standing next to the man, being patted on the shoulder for a good job. Even with being beaten up by him just now, I can't help but feel sorry for him, being used as a weapon by Cadmus. We need to help him…