Chapter 9: Independence Day part 2.

…

Hi guys, I'm back. I know. I know. I was gone for a few months. But I'm done with my grad. Study now. So, it's good to be back. Here the 9th chapter.

…

The plan was about to be completed. All the pieces fell perfectly into places.

Or that what the foul and evil sorcerer Wotan thought. The Amulet of Aten gleamed with power. When the eclipse was at its zenith, his ritual would be completed. He would be unstoppable. Not by the league, not by anyone.

He would be invincible.

Then the sky cracked opened with a bright divine light. Out of the light came his blasted foes.

The Justice League.

"A second-rate sorcerer with a mumbo jumbo requires a full respond of the high and mighty Justice League…." The unfamiliar marbled white figure said to Batman. "Seriously?"

"Second rate!? Insolent fools." The evil sorcerer bellowed. "Wotan will crush you like a bug."

The Amulet of Aten burned bright by the power of the sun god it's named after. With a flick of Wotan's wrist, the entire power of the sun was unleashed in a form of a searing beam.

Or that was it supposed to happen if it didn't explode right on the sorcerer's face. The explosion rocked the sky and sent Wotan plummeted straight down.

The pale man smirked. He turned toward Batman just at the moment the blue flash in his eyes died.

"Problem solved." The pale angel said as he rubbed his own hands. "You mortals always messing with a power beyond your understanding. Yet, you seemed surprised when things go wrong."

The entire League was still stun from the sudden divine teleportation. All except one.

Wonder Woman.

"Apollyon?" She asked.

"Diana. Long time no see." He gave her a peck on her cheek.

If it was any other man, doing that would be a death wish. But Apollyon was not any other man. The action threw the League in confusion, to say the least. Some raised their eyebrows; some shook their head in disgusted. Especially among the three feminine members of the league.

"Thanks for revealing my identity by the way. I thought I could go for a cool mysterious alias like Halo but …. never mind."

"Sire. What did you do?" Asked Batman as he signaled his peers to lower down their guard.

"Well. Elementary my dear Batman." He said in the most patronizing tone. "I reverse the arcane polarity on the amulet to burn out the circuit. The accumulated power then built up until the amulet couldn't contain it. Then … you know … a Big Boom." He explained as he danced around with childish hand motion.

"How? The artifact was ancient, probably crafted by the god Aten himself. It should be impossible to be tampered with."

"For you, maybe, Giovanni. Not for me. Your wife, on the other hand, might be able to pull that off. If she was probably trained, that is."

"Wait a minute. Guys. Everyone stop!" Yelled the youngest member of the League. A 10 years old boy in a body blessed by the false gods. "What was that? And who are you?"

The angel scoffed. He needed to do an introduction again. So instead of using words, he shapeshifted to his human form. There was not much of a reaction from the others as most of them still didn't know who he was.

"Well. I still don't know who you are." The boy-man scratched his head.

"Seriously. I thought I was on the news." He looked around, no response. "Apollyon Morningstar…." Yet, no response. "… The owner of the finest nightclub in Gotham, Masak Mavdil. …" There were few raised eyebrows, but no comment. "Come on, now you guys are taking a piss. Batman, Diana, a little help please."

"Oh no. I'm enjoying this. Actually, I should record this on a camera." She then proceeded to take out a phone and hit a video record. "So many people going to enjoy this."

The other leaguers were … perplexed. To them, Wonder Woman was a no-nonsense Amazon princess. Sure, she might crack jokes from time to time. Being friendly, or in a rare case, intimate. But never once, she was shown to be this … silly. And, somehow, that scared them more than the world ending scheme they came to stop.

"Wait! It's you!" Interrupted Giovani Zartara.

"Che Bello! Good job, Giovanni. Tell them who I am."

"You are the guy that stole a holy relic from the Vatican when I was a kid!"

"For fuck sake!"

Everyone tensed up, apart from Wonder Woman who resisted the urge to laugh out loud by this point. The fallen angel was invincible but didn't mean he was flawless. When looked beyond the uncaring narcissistic exterior, deep down he was just a goofy man with a mess up upbringing. At least, that was she thought.

"Oh, Polly. Should I add enigma to your list of powers." A comment that caused Apollyon to look at her and rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, I would like to chat for some more. But there was 10 Class-9 Gordanians' Bloodstars heading toward Thanagar's space. Those fuckers still dare invade even after I told them Thanagar was under my protection. So, please redirect all the questions to Batman and Wonder Woman."

"What!" Shouted the two Thanagarians.

"Katar. Shayera. Call your superiors and ask about what happened. By the time that you do, I will probably be done with them anyway."

The fallen angel then disappeared with a blinding light.

"Errr. Guys." Asked Shazam, who was scratching his head. "What the hell was that!"

…

Meanwhile, In the Hall of Justice

"So … are you three gonna stare at me for the rest of the night or we are going to do something about the burning building." Asked Artemis. "Come on, boys. Chop. Chop."

Silence fell inside the room. Three boys looked at each other, then back to the girl, then back to each other.

"Alright, time out! Excuse us for a minute, miss …" Said the young speedster.

"Tigress."

"Miss Tigress." Winked the Kid Flash. He smiled, then got punch on the arm by Robin. "Ouch."

Three young heroes moved to the other corner of the hall.

"Dude. What are you doing?" Asked Robin.

"Nothing. Just being friendly."

"That weird thanagarian just warned us about flirting with her!"

"I can't help myself, man. Come on, look at her. That's a ten." They turned to look at the one they talked about, of which she waved back.

"She's wearing a mask."

"Enough, two of you. We have a situation to be dealt with." Interrupted Aqualad. "They have a secret HQ in space. What else are they not telling us?"

"I have a better question. Why don't we leave with Speedy?"

"I have some idea." Kid Flash tilted his head toward the newcomer.

"That's a rhetorical question, Wally."

Once again, they went silent, until Aqualad broke it. "What is … Project Cadmus."

"Don't know …" was Robin responded. He paused then smiled. "… But I can find out."

They moved toward the main computer. Robin proceeded to search for something.

"You boys done yet?" Asked bored Artemis. "What are you doing now?"

"Justice League Business." Robin replied.

"ACCESS DENIED."

"Sure you are." Artemis was not impressed. But then the entire monitor shifted into a master control mode. All useless letters and data flood through the screen like in the movie The Matrix. She was not sure what that was for, but it seemed interesting.

"ACCESS GRANTED." The computer responded by opening a file of the Cadmus project.

"All right. Project Cadmus. Genetic labs. Here in DC. … That's all there is. But Batman's suspicious. We should investigate."

"Solve their case before they do. It would be poetic justice."

"Hey. They're all about justice." Joked Robin.

"But they said stay put."

"For blotting out the sun mission, not this."

"Wait, are you going to Cadmus. Because if you're going, I'm going." Asked Flashed. Robin nodded. Then both turned to Aqualad with the widest smile on their face."

"Just like that, we are a team on a mission … alright then … Wait. where is she?" Aqualad turned only to find that the girl was not there anymore. There was, however, a note written on a piece of paper.

I didn't come for a playdate. You boys were so useless, I decided to leave for Cadmus on my own. See you there if you want to come and have fun.

"And there's that. We better head out."

"Agreed."

…

Cadmus Advance Laboratory Research

The fire was burning on the upper floor of the lab. Even though the firefighter had already arrived, it was barely contained. The stranded scientists were in a mass panic.

"Help!"

"Get us down!"

The firefighter tried to calm the victim down, but the explosion sent them flying out of the window. All seemed lost until a shadow figure flew in and grabbed the scientists, bounced on the wall, did a backflip, and landed then to safety on the ground.

That shadow figure was Artemis/ Tigress.

Before anyone could ask a question, a yellow blur caught up with her. It was Kid Flash.

"Anything that I can help? Milady."

"Huh. Charmed. You're quite fast."

"Fastest boy alive." He flexed whatever a little muscle he had.

"Oh, that's very brave. … to admit that you are a two-pump-chump."

"Wait that's not what …"

"Too late. So, where're your friends?"

"Oh. They're coming. Want me to give you a lift?" He winked again.

"How gentleman-like. We are barely met." She smiled back and extended her hand toward him. Just as he tried to grab it, she pulled away. "I'll find my way up, thanks. You can go on ahead, fast boy."

From the distance emerged two figures, Robin and Aqualad.

"Does he always have to run ahead? We need a plan. We …" Aqualad asked, only to find that Robin was no longer there. He looked around and found that Robin parkoured himself toward the upper floor, which followed by Kid Flash running up vertically.

Letting out a long sigh, he ran toward the building and extend his blade handle. "I need to borrow that." He controlled the water from fireman's hoes and used it to create a moving platform upward.

"Hey. Care to give me a lift?" Asked Artemis, waving at the Atlantean. Silent was his response, as he continued upward.

"Alright, Artemis. Think. What can you do to get to the upper floor?" She said internally.

"You can use your super strength, for one." An answer came into her head in Apollyon's voice.

"Polly?"

"How it's going my sugar plum fairy. I record this message in case you want to know more about the armor. Give it a try and tell me how could get it improved."

"So. What can I do?"

"What can you not do? The armor was forged in the deepest bowl of hell. It will grant you all the abilities of a demon. Super strength, agility, stamina. Fire-proof. Healing factor. Calling other demons. Et cetera, et cetera. And also something I call Oh-Shit-Hit-The-Fan-Override-Protecting-Artemis-Mode. But I hope it would not come to that."

So, she concentrated. Imagine that she could jump 2 stories high. "Here goes nothing." She took the leap of faith and found herself flying off the ground. The feeling was amazing. Then, she perfectly landed in the same room that the three boys went in.

"I can't believe you left me behind? How gentleman you are."

"You are not supposed to be here. It's too dangerous." Argued the Atlantean.

"Dude, she just jumped 2 stories high. I'm pretty sure she could handle herself." Argued Kid Flash. "Are you an Amazon or something?"

"I'll neither confirm nor deny that statement."

"Played hard to get I see."

"Enough distraction. I saw something." Interrupted Aqualad as he walked toward the elevator.

"The elevator should be locked down." He was cut off by Robin, however, as the youngest among them checked with the data on his wrist.

"This is a high-speed express elevator. It doesn't belong to a two-stories building."

"Neither what I saw." Aqualad rammed his hands at the elevator's door and ripped it opened. The shaft was deeper than the building seemed.

"And that's why they need a high-speed elevator." Added Robin. He shot the grappling hook to the top of the ceiling and descended. Aqualad and Kid Flash quickly leaped on the line and followed. Seeing that, Artemis did the same.

The wire stopped at level SL26. The team jumped off and Robin did the hacking. No one said a word. Either it was because of the nature of a recon mission or they were just not that familiar with each other, no one would know.

"Bypassing security … There." Robin gave the signal for Aqualad to bust the door open. They walked in just to be stunned by what they saw. The hallway was long and seemed out of place. This was no laboratory, it was a military base.

"Welcome to Project Cadmus."

Before anyone would say anything else, Kid Flash took off. Only almost to be trampled by a giant genomorph. Luckily the genomorphs did nothing and ignored them.

"Does he always do that?" Asked Artemis. She was officially not impressed with the sidekicks. No coordination, no planning, no thinking at all. The other two looked at her but didn't say anything. A silent treatment.

Yep. She declared this sidekick team officially suck. Still, she had to admit that her behavior was … let's say, quite a bitch. But hey. This was her first day.

The team continued forward into another section of the lab. The room was littered with hundreds of genomorph suspended in an unconscious state. The creatures generated electricity, powering the lab off the grid. It did not take long for Robin to find a computer terminal and hacked it. The result was … intriguing.

"They're engineering an army. But for who?" Asked Kid Flash.

"Wait, there is something else. The project Kr. The file is triple encrypted. I. I can't .."

"Don't move!" Someone interrupted their discussion. Someone in armor with shield and a squad of small genomorphs. The man looked blank like he was not fully there.

"Ah. A fight. Finally." Smiled Artemis. At least she could do the test run on her armor.

"Wait, Robin? Aqualad? Kid Flash?" He recalled the young hero name. Then he looked at her. "And who are you?"

"Don't worry. She's new.… and she's with us." Answered Aqualad. "I know you. You're Guardian. A hero."

"I do my best."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"I'm chief of the security. You're trespassing. But we can call the Justice League. Figure this out."

"You think the League will approve of you breeding weapon?"

"Weapon? What do you …" Guardian stopped midsentence as a genomorph on his shoulder lit its horn. "What have I …. My head …" His eyes shifted. There was no remorse in there, no emotion, only command. "Take them down h…!" Before he could finish his sentence, he was kicked across the room by Artemis.

"Are you boys gonna help or what?" She asked as she drew her sword. The fight began soon after.

The genomorphs went into a rabid frenzy. Their horns flashed read as they screamed. The closet one lunged at Artemis. With her instinct, she cleaved it in two with her sword. The dead genomorph immediately combusted to a black smog.

Then, the horror. The rest of the genomorphs screamed in pain. Their eyes widened as they wailed on the floor.

"They feel pain? They're alive?!" She asked in. "Shit!" Two more pounced at her but she deflected them with the flat of her blade. With the continuous momentum, she sheathed her weapon and punched the incoming threat. The demonic enhanced strength was enough to knock them out cold.

"What part of 'living weapon' did you not understand?" Robin yelled. He dodged the incoming enemy and hit it with his bo staff.

"If my sword could talk, I will not be using it!" She retorted as she threw the last one at the wall. "Well, that the last one?" Just as she finished, ten more appeared. The others look at her as if telling her 'you just jinx it' when Robin threw a smoke bomb and disappeared.

"We can't stay here. We need to move." Ordered Aqualad. With a cover of the smoke bomb and the 'three ran. It did not take them long before reaching a dead end with a locked elevator. Robin didn't spare anytime to hack into it.

"Can't you go any faster?" She asked. A comment that gave Kid Flash a snickering.

"Almost there. Now!" The elevator's door opened and the four got in as fast as they could. The genomorphs missed them by only an arm's length. Finally safe, The four young heroes took some time to rest.

"Quite a good move you got there, bird boy. I'm impressed." Artemis initiated small talk. "Especially a ditching us and run part."

"Hmm. You're right after me aren't you? So. What's the problem?" Robin replied with a smug.

"Err guys why did the number increasing?" Interrupted Kid Flash.

"We headed down?" Asked the Atlantean. He was not amused, not for a newcomer, not for their breaking of rules, not for their fight with another hero, and especially not by Artemis accidentally killing of a living weapon.

"Out is up!" The speedster added.

"Excuse me. The project Kr is down, on sublevel 52."

Yep. Artemis finally confirmed. This group of sidekicks had no teamwork at all.

"This is out of control. Perhaps we should contact the League."

Just when the boys about to argue, the elevator stopped. They had reached sublevel 52. The door opened to reveal that it was not a laboratory anymore. It was a lair of some sort. It made Artemis uncomfortable. Quite a feat considering that she lives with a bunch of demons.

The teens explored deeper into the lair only to stop at the forked path. There were monitor screen and some lab equipment everywhere, but something that could be called project Kr was nowhere to be seen.

"Hold!" They heard someone shouted. The owner of the voice came out from the corner. He was a human-looking genomorph. Without further conversation, his horn lit up. The barrel on the floor was levitated and thrown at them with blinding speed.

The four dodged just by a nick of time and escaped the explosion unharmed. Robin countered with his Batarang only to found that his aggressor could stop it with his mind. Seeing that, the four ran away deeper into the den.

"What was that thing?" Artemis yelled.

"Don't think. just run?" Kid Flash replied as he speeded past her. Lucky for them, they were heading to the right place and the door just opened. "Whoaaa." Kid Flash tried to stop as he saw a scientist walking out of the room. He slipped and crashed into her.

Seeing the door to their destination was closing, Kid Flash picked up a power cell and jammed it, urging the others to hurry up. Once again, the four escaped by a strand of a hair.

"I disabled the door. We're safe." Said Robin. He was stressed, that could be clearly seen. They all were, but he was more than the others.

"We are trapped." Replied Aqualad. He was not happy about it either.

"Err. Guys." Interrupted Kid Flash fiddling the console. "You'll wanna see this." He pressed a button and the main tank in the room lit up. Out of light came a familiar face. He looked like Superman but younger.

"Damnnn!" Exclaimed Artemis. "Is that who I think it is?."

"Big K, little r. An atomic symbol for Krypton. Clone?"

"Robin. Hack." Commanded the Atlantean. The pretense of nicety was abandoned at the point.

"Right. Right." Robin hacked and read what he discovered aloud. "Weapon designation Superboy. A clone forced grown in … 16 weeks! From DNA acquired from Superman." He then continued. "The solar suit allows it to absorb yellow sun radiation 24-7."

"And this creature?" Asked Aqualad pointing out a small creature in the tank.

"Genomorph gnome. Telepathic. Force feeding him an education." Robin answered.

"And we can guess what else. They're making a slave out of … well, Superman son."

"Now we contact the league." Aqualad press Atlantean's symbol on his belt. The other two did the same but there was no signal.

"We are in too deep. Literally."

Artemis observed and said nothing. "Okay. How could I contact Auntie Ran." She concentrated.

"Well. You're doing it right now. Boy. You are so natural."

"Thanks."

"I'm a recorded voice, Arty. I can't hear you. Make sure to do it to my face alright."

…

Masak Mavdil's Manager Office

The serpent queen was chilling around in her office as she waited for the time the club to be opened. Abaddon had told her to stay put as there might be a call from her little Artemis. He also left her some instruction that she didn't agree with, but hell what could she do?

The call indeed came. She picked it up from her totally-not-demonic-device.

"Hey, Arty. How it's going my sweet little rascal."

"Ran. I need help here. I was trapped in …"

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Did you have your armor on?"

"Err. Yes, I do. Why?"

"Then I can't help you. Abaddon command the others that your armor should be enough, he went fighting some alien fleet on the other side of the universe, and I have a night club to run."

"What!" The girl screamed at the other end of the line.

"Trust me, you will be fine. So, give them hell, alright! You go, girl, XOXO."

…

"Well. Shit." Artemis cursed as she hung up her first psychic call. "The good thing is, I got through. The bad news is there will be no help coming. Don't ask me why. It's complicated."

The three boys glared at her. She couldn't believe that the tension could be higher. "Well. That aside. What do we gonna do with him?"

Artemis and the other two boys looked at Aqualad. They might not willing to admit but he seemed to have all the answers.

"Set him free."

…

That's the wrap-up, folks. I'm not sure how well I portrayed the character here. When I introduce the change, I want the world to feel more alive than just putting another character into the story and let everything else pan out the same. Not sure I achieve that though.