I do not own Nightwing or any other DC characters.

Ch 3 More Than I Bargained For

You know I never understood why Cadmus had a secret base right outside of Metropolis. The home of the big guy. But they do hide everything pretty well from Superman and the public. Hell, even Batman. All he had on them were the possible locations of their base in his Bat-computer, which I gladly downloaded in my flash drive while I was recovering. Honesty, when people say that the Bat family's utility belt holds everything, they weren't kidding! So when I remembered that I had my flash drive with me, I thought, hey, I'm near the Bat-computer, so why not take some nice info on certain people and places like Cadmus; hopefully, B won't mind…

Hopefully.

Anyways, after I looked through the data, it showed me the possible locations of where Cadmus might be. Most of the sites were abandoned buildings that were out of Metropolis city. I then installed the cameras in all the possible locations and made sure they were out of sight, then I went to Metropolis, rented a room in one of their motels, sat on the bed, and opened my laptop, which displayed all the cameras views.

Then…! I waited.

And waited and waited until seconds turned to minutes, then minutes turned to hours... You know the saying.

For the past 18 hours, I did nothing but stare at the screen, waiting for something, anything to happen. But sadly, there was no suspicious activity going on in any of the cameras. Literally nothing, and now I'm starving. God, I should have ordered take out.

I waited for another few more hours and was about to give up for the day. Then there was movement. My eyes were fixed on the screen of camera five as I watched three men making their way towards the abandoned building. They were all wearing long-sleeved jackets with their hoodies on and hats on top of them, sheesh, talk about being suspicious.. As I zoomed in on the group, I noticed that two of the group were armed while the other one was holding a small container. I couldn't see what was inside the box, but knowing Cadmus, it wasn't good. I kept watching them as they entered the building and disappeared from my view.

Good, now I know where Cadmus is located. Still, though, this was all easy. Too easy. Their secret base was not too far from Metropolis, the home of Superman. Even though Bats had a hard time finding them, all the possible locations of Camus were just outside of Metropolis and nowhere else. Hell, even the guys from earlier weren't hiding anything, their guns or whatever they were carrying. Something is not right. It would've helped a bit if I installed more cameras inside the buildings, but I couldn't risk them spotting me. There was another way of getting more information about Cadmus, but it would require me to ask specific people, the same kind that lives right next door.

…..

Kryptonians. I was talking about Kryptonians, who are an expert when it comes to Cadmus. But asking them would immediately make them suspicious of me and making them suspicious would make the big bat suspicious, and that would cause a lot of trouble for me. Anyways the only way in is getting in through the building. Luckily I had come prepared. I pulled my arm towards my face and opened the hologram computer that was attached to my glove and hacked into one of the government's satellites. Yes, I hacked into a satellite, which is awesome~! I pulled up the thermal images of the building and detected no heat signatures inside the building. I also checked to see if there were any hidden cameras or electrical devices in or out of the building, which is a big risk. Still, I'm willing to take it and found none, and there was no one blocking me or tracing my signal. Meaning the building is just a front, and there is a hidden entrance inside. I closed the hologram, walked a few steps away, and came in front of a buggy safari. It was a two-seated buggy, and there was a duffel bag on the front seat. I pulled it out of the buggy and opened it. Inside the bag were my work clothes for this mission, and again I did not bring my Nightwing suit, cause that would draw attention to me, and if Cadmus found out who infiltrated them, there would be consequences. Anyways I took out my computer glove and casual wear and wore my suit for the mission.

After getting my powers, I decided to change the suit to suit my standards. Instead of the long black sleeved shirt, I bought a black tank top and a black bulletproof vest. And the rest of the costume is the same as the last op, but not exactly. See, when I said that I have a suit that meets my needs with my new powers, I was serious. The whole outfit was made from anadaptavie nano-weave structure that is malleable on the sub-molecular level. Basically, when I stretch, it stretches as well. You might be wondering how in god's name did I get these textiles? Well, my friends, I got it from B, or to be precisely the bat cave. I mean, he has a lot of things there, so thanks to Dicks memories, I know where he hid them.

I took some before heading to Cole city, knowing I will need it later, but not that much, only a few so that he won't notice, ah who am I kidding, of course, he will know, hence why the black tank top. I could've made the long sleeve shirt, but instead, I used the last of the nano-weave to make a bulletproof vest in case I lose focus with my powers. I also brought a special tool with me. A high tech contact lenses that can do everything the bat cowl can do…. Almost everything. The system used in the lenses is similar to the one used in young justice. Once I was done changing, I put the duffel bag back inside the buggy and made my way towards the building. I quietly entered one of the window frames and looked at my surroundings. There was nothing in there but dirt, trash, and a couple of garbage here and there. I activated the lenses and used x-ray vision and looked around the building for any hidden doors. After a couple of minutes of looking around, one of the floors under me had a door that was made of metal, specifically, lead.

I turned off my x-ray, then cracked my fingers. I increased the size of my hands until they became two giant hands, then dug them onto the ground and ripped away the floor, revealing the led door. Cadmus will know they've been breached, but if this plays out as I have planned, I will be long gone before they notice anything. I then stretched my whole body and squiced myself into the tiniest gap and until I got passed through the led floor. Once in, I….was falling! There was no floor, nothing! Just metal parts and pipes all around me but no floor! As I kept falling, I saw I was getting closer and closer to the ground. So before I reached the ground, I stretched my arms and legs on the walls around me and managed to stop myself from falling. I stretched my neck and peeked through the wall. There was a vast empty hall that seems to stretch for miles. I activated my high tech lenses and scanned the area for cameras or heat signatures. Finding none, I de-stretched all four of my limbs and landed on the hydraulic lift, which explains why I was falling earlier. I noticed there were several doors on the walls with no nameplates, signs, or glass walls, just doors with more mystery. I kept walking until I reached a massive door with a name on it.

"Project Meta."

Geez, that doesn't sound menacing at all. I used lenses to bypass the security door; once the door opened, I walked inside and felt the door close behind me.

And in that room, I witnessed utter horror.

There were thousands of tubes all around the place, and inside these tubes were….were people. They were wearing nothing but underwear and had oxygen masks, and they were surrounded by some green liquid, which is probably keeping them sedated. I walked around the room, looking at this horror show. The people in these tubes looked deformed and messed up. Then I came across a large computer with a centrifuge beside it. I slowly approached the computer and noticed that the screen was still on. There were plenty of files there. But there's one file that got my attention. It was named project Meta. It had the same name as the door for the room. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the file and read the details inside. It was….disturbing. It talked about how Cadmus was trying to create their own soldiers to replace the g-gnomes.

The subjects were human inmates that had death sentences. Knowing no one will look for them or care about them, they faked the inmate's death and brought them here. They were experimenting on them trying to give them abilities. Turning them into...Metahumans. I continued scrolling down the page to see what else they had on the file, but that's all it had. I looked at the other files, and all they had were the names of the inmates and which prison they have come from. Finding nothing else, I used my high tech lenses to take pictures of everything that was on all the files. Once I was done, I noticed there was one more file I haven't opened yet. I clicked on the file, and it displayed the same results as the rest of the files, such as the names of the inmates, but there was something else there. Near their names, there were other things that were not mentioned in the other previous files.

Some have increased strength, increased speed, increased endurance, regenerative healing factor, psychic. Wow, from these states, it looks like they're creating super soldiers instead. As I continued reading, I stumbled upon something familiar. Project X. The same project that turned Slade Wilson into Deathstroke. That would explain all the powers the subjects have, though they did something some changes to the formula so that the inmates won't get all the same abilities Slade has. Making it easier for them to contain them in case they rebel or go crazy. But it seems that when they tried to change the serum and made a weaker version of it, some of the inmates mutated, hence the reason they look deformed. But what I don't understand is the psychic ability. Project x never gave Slade telekinesis or telepathy. Could this be another serum instead? Either way, my top priority is the serum for project x. I finished taking pictures of all the files and moved my attention to the centrifuge. I opened it and saw a couple of vials inside, having no idea what was in the vials, I picked up one of the vials and took a closer look at it. It had a yellow color, and there was a label on the center of the vile. It read "X." Wow, that was easy, I guess I found serum, yeah. Anyways I placed the vile inside my pocket and looked at the rest of the viles. There were a total of 9 viles there, half of them were yellow while the other was purple. Out of curiosity, I took one of the purple vials and looked at the label. Psi. Holy shit, I found the physic serum. Wow, how convenient, well now I can finally leave.

Now I know, I just sneaked my way through one of the government's most secretive bases and found all sorts of evil things they cooked up in there. Well, to be honest.

I don't give a damn.

Seriously, what else can I do? Destroying the rest of the vials is a waste of time since they already have the formula for both the serums. Delivering evidence to the public or the Justice League will not help, since they will make this a political problem and make it go away. Hell, even if I go crazy and blow the place up, with a hundred percent guaranteed certain death, it won't accomplish anything. Anything I do here won't be much of an accomplishment since they can just pack up, move somewhere else, and start over. Besides, these are inmates who did crimes that earned them death sentences, meaning they were going to die either way. What else can I do but leave?

I'm not a bad guy. I am just another guy trying to live in this crazy world.

I then closed the centrifuge and walked towards the door that I entered from. As I got closer to the door, I felt something and stopped dead in my tracks. This feeling I have right now is something I have become all too familiar with. I was being watched. I turned my head back to see who it was and saw nothing except one of the inmates inside a tube. He looked jacked, but in an abnormal way, his neck was a bit longer than an average person. But the most noticeable feature about him was his right arm and shoulder. They were huge and had a lot of muscle mass, while his life arm looked normal. Short version, he looked like a charger from left to dead, but with a slightly longer neck and normal-sized left arm.

I stared back at it and waited. Its eyes were closed, but I know what I felt, something was watching me, and I don't think it was Cadmus. After a couple of seconds of having a staring contest with whatever it is. I turned back and continued walking. I must have imagined it or something, I mean come on what are the chances of it being awake and i'm completely surrounded with other inmates in tubes, and that could put anyone on edge while being freaked out. I continued walking and stopped dead in my tracks again.

The feelings back.

I slowly turned my head back, telling myself that I'm just stressed out after breaking into a secret base and-

Its eyes were open.

It was staring back at me.

It pulled back its huge arm then punched through the glass.

"Oh shit!" I screamed to myself and watched in horror as this creature broke the glass dropped to the floor as the green liquid was being spared all over the place. The creature slowly got back up and looked at me. Its oxygen mask was still on, but damn did it look scary. All of a sudden, it roared and charged straight at me with its huge arm. I dodged its attack and watched it hit the wall and going through it.

Then all hell broke loose.

DRRN, DRRN, DRRN.

The alarms were ringing, and the door of the room was closed with another metal door, really they're that paranoid? Then the rest of the inmates woke up and smashed their tubes and got out. Great now I'm trapped in a room full of mutated experiments. Not what I thought my day would be. The creatures began getting up from the floor, and the mutated arm guy just came out of the wall. I'm surrounded, I count 20 and possibly more. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. This may not look like it, but it's a perfect opportunity to test my powers. As the creatures made their way towards me, I stretched my arms and enlarged my fist. Then spun them around, hitting any monster that was within my reach. Then I heard stomping coming, already knowing it was the mutated arm guy, I jumped forward, avoiding its attack, and landed on its back. I then held on to its neck, performing a chokehold. Its neck was thick, but luckily my ability allows me to increase my own muscle mass. The creature stopped its rampage and fell on its knees, gasping for air. I can hear its neck cracking on my arm and feel its neck softening. Right now, I could easily just break its neck and put it out of its misery. How easy it is to just kill it and be done with it. After all, it ain't human anymore.

Dick may not be a killer.

But people change.

And oh how I've changed.

Crack!

I let go of it and watched as it fell to the floor. I just killed a person, oh god, what was I thinking. No, I wasn't thinking at all. Did I change? What the hell got over me! I mean I was going to leave them there and I didn't feel guilty or anything, but killing them..I..was this me or was this Dick, I don't know maybe our combination resulted in this. I am a guy who will stop at nothing until I get what I want, while Dick is a man who has a lot of darkness in him. Then I was brought out of my thoughts as I heard the creatures coming closer. It would be easier just to go and get out of here, but I can't. If I get out, so will these things, and Metropolis is not that far from here. I know the Big man can easily take them out, but he will probably find out about this place and maybe about me entering. And I do not want to get involved with him, not yet anyway. So I've decided that the only way out of here was to take care of them. I ran towards the closest monster. It was green, long and half of its face was missing, and it threw both of its fists forward, trying to smash me, only to miss me as I slid between its legs, then grabbed its neck and performed a reverse bulldog. (For those who don't know, it's like Dolph Zigler's Zig Zag from WWE.) I then got up and dodged another fist, that was amended for my face, from a smaller monster that was 4 feet tall. I then enlarged my fist and punched the monster with so much force that it flew back a couple of feet.

I held my head as I felt enormous pain imitating from my head. I looked around and spotted what appears to be a combination of a human and an octopus. It was holding its tentacle/hand out, and its eyes were glowing red. Knowing who was causing this. I enlarged my right leg and jumped forward, covering the distance between me and the human octopus in a matter of seconds as I was in range, I punched the wanna be Squidward in the face with a large fist, knocking it backwards. As more and more monsters were closing in, I kept hitting and hitting, trying to knock them out, but they just kept getting up. I began to take raspy breaths as my body began to feel fatigued after fighting monsters for several hours. Yet they won't stay down. It's like they don't feel pain at all. I turned to look at the direction of the mutated arm guy I dealt with and saw how he was on the ground, motionless. I closed my eyes and began to convince myself that the only way out of here was to kill them. I have no other choice. And besides, if I want to continue with my mission, then killing is something I have to get used to. With my mindset, I opened my eyes. And unleashed hell. Every creature I took down, I kept beating on its face, till there was no head. For every creature I get behind, I would crack its neck and toss it on the ground. I used many methods to bring them down, and one by one, they fell until I was the last person remaining.

I was covered in blood from head to toe, but finally, I had taken them out. I took out both vials from my pocket and was thankful they were not damaged during the fight. It may not seem like it, but during these hellish hours of battling mutated inmates, I was careful with the way I fought so that the vials were not damaged. As I looked at the vials, I noticed the blood in my hands. Now it's coming, the guilt. I buried the feeling inside since there is no time to be wanted for feeling miserable. At this point, Cadmus already knows I'm here, so I rush towards the shielded door and rammed it with my enlarged shoulder, getting through. I ran back towards the same palace I entered. Then enlarged both my arms to pull me up towards the led door and smashed it open. I didn't stop there, I continued running, leaving the abandoned building until I reached my buggy and drove out of there.

Cadmus 2 Hours Later

There were many people wearing hazmat suits, cleaning the remains of the mutated inmates. Another person was wearing a hazmat suit, was using the computer. Then an incoming call came from the computer. The person clicked on accept, and the screen came to life, revealing Lex Luthor.

"How is cleaning up going there, Mercy?" Lex spoke.

The one now known as Mercy replied back. "Everything is going good. We collected most of the remains of the experiment."

"Good then, send me the results of the test and contact me once you finish swooping the area."

"Understood, sir."

The call ended, and Mercy released a long sigh. To this day, she is still impressed with how her boss is always ten steps ahead of anyone. He knew someone would eventually find this place, so he decided to make that an opportunity. So instead of cameras, he installed two motion sensors halfway through the hydraulic shaft. He specifically made these motion sensors so carefully that they have a very small electric frequency that they are almost impossible to detect, also the fact no one checks for any electric frequency while using the hydraulic lift. So when the motion sensors detected movement. Everyone abandoned their projects and headed toward the control room. There weren't many staff and security working here, so they were all able to fit in there. Once the intruder entered the room the operator looking through the camera, that was also made by Lex Luthor and having the same effect as the motion sensors, then activated the alarms and sealed the door trapping the intruder, then he awakened the test subjects. The scientists opened their notes, ready to record the results of the subjects. Basically, it was a test for their experiments. And what is the test you ask?

It's how efficient they are with killing.

She almost felt sorry for the intruder when he was sealed in, approximately. But she did not expect the intruder to survive, let alone take out and kill all of the test subjects. They couldn't even touch him, and who would have thought that a metahuman would break into Cadmus. Could it possibly be one of Lexs enemies? I mean, the guy has plenty of enemies. Either way, the guy tore through the test subjects and managed to getaway. She asked Lex if she could send a tactical team to retrieve the intruder, but he said no and instated that this was a perfect opportunity to improve the project. He rarely lets anyone who messes with his possessions go that easy. He's probably still busy perfecting the serum of project x and physic. Or maybe he will deal with the intruder once he perfected the experiment and then send new test subjects after them. Yeah, that sounds like him. She informed him that nothing was taken from the computer, but two of the vials were missing, her boss said nothing, but instead laughed for a solid minute, then said.

"Good luck trying to use the formula."

Yeah, so the physic formula is still incomplete, the mutated test subjects say so, and the project x formula is useless without Deathstroke's blood.

Good thing he doesn't know that.

Voila, another one done, you know Cadmus was really confusing for a while. One day they're bad, then they turn good, then they revert back, and now it's taken by Leviathan. Really messes with your mind.