FOUR BOYS: The Path We Seek
Chapter 5: The Weapons
"Any weapon is a good weapon as long as ye can use it with honor and skill."
'All well-known scientists, had been assassinated without anybody knowing the reason'
...Flashback...
The ginger-head boy, was wearing a pair of sneakers, jeans, a green shirt, a blue jacket and a cap. He stood out of an alley leaving the corpse of his creator in the floor. His green eyes looked indifferently at the man. "Sorry baldy, I had orders, and that's the first thing you taught me remember… 'to obey the orders'."
(A ten year old boy screaming, his green eyes tearing up as the sixth wave of electricity cursed through his body, he was not able to run 200 laps in a minute and that was considered as disobedience, it also meant… punishment. The man who was in charge of him, smiled and repeated every time the electricity stopped… 'Obey, L.' They made him run everyday, giving him insane goals, too many laps in short amounts of time… and every time he failed, history would repeat himself.. )
S, dressed in jeans a black t-shirts and tennis shoes, cracked his fists, 'hm that was easy enough, it seems as if my powers are back now.' He thought watching the body of the leader scientist of crew S writhed in pain, as his bones had been crushed. He soon gave his last breath not before cursing, "Y-You useless clone.. Af-after all, you are not, will not e-ever be Superman, not - not even the shade of it, darn it you cursed weapon." Superboy glared he would soon be better than Superman, he then turned around leaving the lifeless body in the apartment.
Water had always enjoyed the sea, he was sure he enjoyed it before he became a weapon, a project, a killer. He moved the lifeless body of the scientist in between some rocks by the shore and began covering him. Drowning a simple human was an easy task, the mission was indeed easy as R had said, but the thought of him actually assassinating somebody was something that disconcerted him.
He had fulfill his mission the Light wanted to cut the loose ends, the guards and other member took care of the other scientists, while they had the 'privilege and reward' as Queen Bee said, to get revenge against their own crew leaders for the times they suffered. 'He was not a killer… he had no other options right… he had suffered in a greater scale for much more time, he almost died plenty of them… he was indeed not a killer… it was justice.'
R stood in front of Dr. Luke's study, he knew what he had to do, and he knew Dr. Luke was aware of his presence and motive. He made his way inside and saw the man sitting behind his desk, a cup to tea in hand. "Renegade." He acknowledged calmly. "I had hope to see you soon."
R nodded, "The order was given, doctor. The time has come."
"Indeed it has." The scientist said as he stood up and walked forward and hugged the boy. "R, I need you to do something, remember..." He began and whispered something int he boy's ear. At which the young one nodded once and returned the hug, before moving the knife to the scientist throat and with a clean slash everything was over.
If he was completely honest Dr. Luke meant family to him, or as close as the meaning of family could get to him.
...Wayne Manor...
"LUKE EVANS, JOSH DANIELS, PETER BARK, AND GERALD WOODS, ALL ACREDITED SCIENTISTS WERE ASSASSINATED TODAY IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE COUNTRY, TWO OUTSIDE THEIR PLACES AND TWO IN THEIR RESPECTIVES HOMES. WE HAVE YET NOT RECEIVED MANY INFORMATION ABOUT THE CASE, IN WHICH THE POLICE AND EXPERTS ARE WORKING ON. WE WILL BE SURE TO KEEP YOU UPDATED. THIS IS MARY LOCKE OF GOTHAM NEWS."
The billionaire Bruce Wayne narrowed his eyes slightly watching the news on the tv, while drinking his coffee. His butler stood behind him, seeing his charge's expression.
Alfred coughed lightly, "Master Bruce, don't you think it's too much of a coincidence if it has anything to do with the boys you've been searching for?"
The billionaire looked at back at him, 'of course Alfred would practivally read his mind, "I don't know for sure Alfred, but if it does we may be able to connect get to them."
After the meeting nothing else had been known about the case of the Four boys.
Aquaman took the task of seeking the source of the substance. Not knowing much more, the other Leaguers had occupied themselves with outer space mission, local missions and looking for any other clue about the boys.
Bruce stood up and headed to the bat cave. The news he had just heard, having to do with scientists that were killed the same day, was indeed more than just a coincidence and he hoped it had to do with the four boys they've met. He sat infront of the bat computer opening the new files and adding the information they know till now.
.
Project: Water
Name: unknown
Age: unknown (teenage years)
Race: (Before) Human / Atlantean
Ability: Hidrokinesis, Electrokinesis, Atlantean evolution, master fighting skills, masters water bearers.
Origins: unknown,assumed DNA testin
Additional data: part of The Light
.
Project: Superboy
Name: unknown
Age: unknown (teenage years)
Race: kriptonian
Ability: super strength, invulnerability, other Kriptonian abilities (Possible)
Origins: cloned
Additional data: part of The Light, genetic clone of Superman
.
Project: Lightning
Name: unknown
Age: unknown (teenage years)
Race: human/ speedster
Ability: superspeed, multiplication
Origins: unknown
Additional data: part of The Light, experimented with a variable of Flash's formula (possible)
.
Project: Renegade
Name: unknown
Age: unknown
Race: human (possible)
Ability: master tech, possible metahuman speed or strength, mostly unknown
Origin: unkown
…
Bruce stopped and began thinking, he was not sure about any of the information concerning the last boy. He had display master hacking skills, along with fighting knowledge, but he was not sure if the robots were already programmed before by scientists in case of an emergency, and the testimony Flash, Superman and Black Canary had given was full of gapes, the other leaguers themselves were not sure what had happened.
The billionaire rubbed his temple and looked at the clock, he had to go to Wayne Industries, with that he stood up and headed upstairs.
...The Base...
Groans, punches and laughs. Training day…
The four boys were currently fighting Klarion, they were engaged in a heated battle for 7 minutes now. The spiteful psychopath laughed as he trapped W in a red tornado, grinning he then turned his attention at the other 3, L and R were holding unto S as another tornado tried to trap him as W. Klarion readied an energy blast and fired.
R felling something coming, his instincts kicked in and dodged away, the blast collided with L and pushed him and S inside the second tornado. "Ha! Clever leader, leaving your teammates behind." Klarion clapped in amusement.
R stood forward in a fighting stance, "I didn't leave them behind, don't underestimate us." he said confidently. 'Were was his anchor?'
R took out two escrima sticks that were given to him the day of their first real mission. Klarion smirked, "Do you really think you can do any harm with that?" R launched forward swinging right, he frowned as he connected with nothing but thin air, he dodged the next blast that followed. R launched again and again in a great speed, following the same pattern, blasts hitting the object that were behind R as he dodged.
They got near the tornado that was keeping W trapped. R then threw a punch and surprisingly it connected, the witch boy was clearly not used to dodge high speed and deadly attacks. R grinned, Klarion screamed in surprise and slight pain just in time as W got out of the tornado and grabbed him, trapping Klarion in his arms. R wasted no time calling the cue.
S and L were both ready for the signal, as Superboy heard it he grabbed L and catapult him to the direction of the voice. Their aim was not for the magician but for his pet, which the speedster caught ad soon as the cat made himself notice.
"HA GOTCHA KITTY." he teased.
The tornadoes had stopped and before Klarion could asses the situation he was thrown to Superboy and his beloved cat was in W's hands.
"You fools!" He began, the red glowing energy was oozing out of his hands. He gave a psychotic laughter "HAHAHAAHAHA—AAAACK" but was soon cut off as W electrocuted the cat before he could transform into anything.
The which boy soon realized his anchor to earth was being severed. He glared at R who was standing in front 'How could they possible figured it out... that was secretly kept knowledge even from the Light itself, L ran to R's side both looked at the fuming magician with a satisfactory grin.
It was not funny, not funny at all for the lord of chaos.
...
"That was satisfactory." Queen Bee said as she watched behind the window at the fight that had just played in the training wing. Vandal Savage, and Lex Luthor were watching too, both soon left the scene as they had no critic or objection, the boys had done it well. Ra's Al Ghul instead narrowed his eyes it appeared they didn't have much trouble handling the situation with Klarion.
The training session was over. Ra's Al Ghul saw the angry sorcerer grab his cat and teleport away. Queen Bee had left at that point and before the four boys could get out of the training area, he stepped inside, stopping the boys celebration..
As soon as S, L, R and W, saw Ra's Al Ghul they quickly stood in a line straight and remained silent, you could see the ghost smiles behind though.
"It was indeed a great display of your powers and abilities." The demon head commented at which W answered with a 'Thank you Master' for the team.
"Still… it seems unclear to me, how you were capable of handling this situation so easily and not achieving the same results with the heroes." The man searched each face, seeing confusion and tints of shame in the young ones.
R stood in front "It was my fault, for not being able to make the right plan and choices… I failed the Light." he said unemotionally, though not daring to make eye contact.
"I'm well aware of that Renegade, and I'm sure you won't be making the same mistakes again. What I want to know however is, why didn´t you stop the leaguers as you did so easily here."
The speedster rubbed the back of his neck "Well… There was more than one opponent at that time."
"As I am aware, the kriptonian and the woman were unconscious, the scarlet speedster and the archer were down for some minutes. That left you with enough time to beat one non-powered opponent even if he is the Batman, children." Ra's added.
"Another question on my mind is, how where the Leaguers aware of the location of the facility... I do hope it has nothing to do with any of you four."
R was getting restless and the sudden interrogation. 'Hadn´t they had enough answers yesterday as it was.'
Water was not sure about the real reasons about the explosion and the events that night, but he trusted R. Watching the younger's slight discomfort he intervened.
"We are still inexperienced, although we had been taught fighting skills and many other knowledge it seems as we haven't master them enough in the actual practice. We underestimated the League and got confident, that allowed the heroes to recover, we were soon overpowered. Renegade had no other option as to order a withdrawal as we couldn't stop the heroes in time."
The clone grumbled a bit but nodded slightly understanding the situation. The speedsters face was red in shame, maybe some of it was true but not all of it. R looked to W with an unreadable expression and relaxed a bit. Ra's eyes were on W, his narrowed eyes looking for any suspicious hint, but soon nodded once and turned to leave.
The Light members had left to that point leaving the four boys to hit the showers and change out of their black training uniform.
...
L stretched his arms and called for R "HEY REN, would you mind getting your butt kicked in COD after we change?" He had make it one of his priorities to bond with his teammates.
To that the raven haired boy smirked "You seem overly confident about winning against me, wanna bet?"
"Lightning, I think it is not wise fighting battles you can't win." W called amused.
"WANNA BET WATER?! I WILL WIN AGAINST BABY REN HERE?" L mocked.
"HEY!" R called.
Before the clone could comment he was grabbed by the speedster "Supey is with me see, we are gonna kick your butt." With that both L and S entered the changing area leaving W and R behind.
It was the opportunity Water was waiting for, and with that he placed a hand in R's shoulder, getting the younger's attention. "I do not intend for you to explain your true reasons, but this is not a burden you should carry alone."
R turned away staring at the changing area hearing Lightnings bragging about his COD abilities to Superboy. They had come a long way till now, in such a short time they had become a family… his only family.
He looked at W his eyes narrowing slightly and said, "Taking down the enemy is the reason we were created. I'll strive to be …more accurate, and believe more in you guys but.. Don´t worry about me anymore, Water. Nothing good will come from it." W frowned clearly not agreeing.
The atlantean knew R was surely hiding something not only from them but from their masters, he decided to keep a close eye on his leader.
...The Base, The boy's quarter...
Two hours later, the four boys had spent sitting in the living room in front of a giant plasma TV. L had managed to get almost the same amount of kills as R. He was so close to victory... in 3, 2, 1
"AAH I WO- I WON! THE GREAT LIGHTNING DEFEATED THE TECH MASTER!" he shouted throwing his hands in the air.
He rapidly turned to the youngest. "So R what did you thi-" Renegade's body language was off, he was silent as if paying attention to something other than the COD game, his control had been left alone in the floor in front of him…
"Ren?" L tried.
R shook his head and smiled shortly at L, "Well it seems you don't suck so much at Tech."
Turning to S and W he said "We have our next mission, be ready to depart in ten." And with that he stood up everybody leaving their bonding activity behind.
S, L and W knew that R had secret talents and abilities, and he wouldn't tell or talk much about what he could do. Still they knew one of their masters would give the orders to R, it was some sort of mental link, or as R had explained.. His knowledge came from a master computer held in the Lights secret base. R had also mentioned that he could not access all the information willingly or he would get terrible migraines until passing out.
Soon the four boys found themselves in a dark room, the 'mission room' in front of seven giant screens, their masters watching their every move. They had geared up and were currently waiting for instructions.
Their bonding time was over, in missions they were no more than just weapons created for the sole purpose of defeating the League and accomplishing their masters' desires.