'Time runs short…'

'You must awaken!'

'You must awaken now!'

I gasped as my eyes shot open in surprise, and I panted desperately. I blinked twice before realizing that I was trapped inside a glass pod. I couldn't move my body. I was glad to at least see that Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad were here with me.

I wasn't alone. Not anymore.

Superboy stood in front of us, glaring menacingly. "What? What do you want?" Wally demanded. Superboy only stared back.

"Quit staring, Copy Face!" I shouted at the clone, as he wouldn't stop glaring at us, this only made him look angrier.

This was just perfect.

"Uh, Timeless, how about we don't ridicule the guy who can fry us with one look?" Robin suggested, raising an eyebrow at me.

"We only sought to help you." Kaldur explained.

"Yeah, we freed you and you turn on us! How's that for gratitude?" Wally rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Kid, please be quiet now." Aqualad threated Wally. "I believe our new friend was not in full control of his actions."

I huffed, and grabbed for the pin that I always held beneath my gloves just in case.

Black Canary always suggested that I came prepared for any occasion. It proved that her advice was incredibly helpful.

"What if I—What if I wasn't?" Superboy questioned Kaldur's theory.

"He can talk?" Wally exclaimed in sarcastic surprise.

I glared at him, "Stop it, Kid." I did not want to take more of his stupid snarky remarks. They were driving me nuts.

"Yes, he can!" Superboy grunted in annoyance.

"Not like I said it." Kid Flash rolled his eyes.

"The genomorphs taught you, telepathically." Kaldur spoke.

"They taught me much. I can read, write, I know the names of things." Superboy answered.

"But have they ever let you see any of those things? Have you ever seen, for example, the moon? The sun? A park?" I asked.

I knew the answer to these things already; I just wanted Superboy to know that the environment in which they held him in wasn't good.

"Images are implanted in my mind," Superboy answered, and as an after thought, ", but no, I have no seen them."

"Do you know what you are?" Robin pried for information.

As Superboy gave a detailed explanation of what exactly he was, and we kept trying to convince him that he should leave Cadmus, a man in a lab coat showed up.

"Activate the cloning process." The man demanded. My heart started beating violently, what?

"Pass, Batcave's crowded enough!" Robin growled. I stared at him, what was it with him and his overprotectiveness of his and Batman's 'territory'?

"And get the weapon back in its pod!" The man shrieked.

"Hey, how come he gets to call Supey an it?" Kid retorted.

"Because you're younger than Superboy? Respect your elders!" I joked around, even though I was afraid for what could just be about to happen to us.

"Don't start thinking now!" The man shouted, and made one of the genomorphs to control Superboy's mind, it's horns glowing bright red.

As soon as Superboy left the room, two metal arms burst out from under me. I sucked in a tight breath, and they pierced the flesh of my chest. I screamed out in pain, I struggled against my metal holds, wriggling to get free, but it would not work.

My metal pin had fallen down onto the bottom of the pod when I got shocked. I could only shriek and shout out, knowing that if I stopped time, it would get a very hurt-filled sensation, so my powers would not work.

The electricity shooting out from the metal arms sucked in four tiny cylinders of my blood, and I whimpered in between the screaming.

I opened my eyes as the electricity stopped, and I kept whimpering for a few seconds before stopping.

I took a look around; Superboy was pushing away the Project Cadmus workers, and Robin had broken free, he opened up the pods, and I came stumbling out.

I fell down on the floor, still in shock and gasping, and Robin grabbed me by the arms, lifting me up on my feet. "If you're alive, you're alright." He smiled.

Robin always told me this; if I was breathing then I was fine. It was a short boosting pep talk he always gave me if I was in pain. If I were alive then it would be all right.

The five of us ran out of the room in a hurry, "You'll never get out of here! I'll have you back in pods before morning!" The man in the lab coat shouted.

"That guy is not whelmed." Robin said.

"And you are not sane!" I chuckled as we ran away after Robin exploded the tanks with our blood samples in them.

As we ran through the bizarre hallways to the elevator, we encountered the giant genomorphs, and the smaller ones appeared behind us.

The four of us protégés ran around the mammoths, but Superboy stood behind and started giving some serious pounding to every genomorph in his sight.

"Superboy, your goal is escape!" Kaldur reminded the clone. "Not to bury ourselves here!"

"You want escape?" Superboy shouted in uncontrollable rage, I staggered back, laughing at his angry facial expression.

Then, as he clutched a mammoth and threw him on top of the other genomorphs, I smirked; super strength, my friend.

Kaldur opened the elevator doors, and Kid jumped in. Robin tugged my waist suddenly, making me press up against him without a second to react before we were going up. We saw Superboy jump with Kaldur, but he quickly fell down, making me eyes widen, "Robin!" I tugged his arm.

He quickly threw a batarangs for Kaldur to hold on to. "Superman can fly, why can't I fly?"

"Don't know, but it looks like you can jump high distances. Still cool!" Kid grinned.

"Guys, this will have to be our exit!" Robin shouted as we saw the elevator cabin hurtling down on us. We got out at sublevel fifteen as the elevator kept going down, barely missing us.

We ran to our left as we saw genomorphs coming towards us. We kept fleeing as Superboy and Kid went ahead of Kaldur, Robin, and I.

Suddenly, Superboy shouted, "Turn left!"

"Left!" He shouted again as the hallway forked out. "Now right!"

Where the heck did Superboy just gain the information of our location so quickly?

We ran into a dead end, I knew it; Superboy was going to get us all killed.

"Great directions, Supey! Are you trying to get us re-podded?" I heard Wally shout as Kaldur, Robin, and I caught up with them two.

"No…I don't understand…" Superboy stammered.

"Don't apologize! This is perfect!" Robin looked up, and I realized what he was talking about. The wind chutes would get us out of here lickety-split.

"Oh, man, I'm sorry I doubted you! This is probably the best idea you've had yet, Superboy!" I slapped his shoulder as he boosted me up after Robin.

When we got in Superboy frantically shushed Kid, it was probably a super hearing thing. "Genomorphs are coming from behind!" Superboy whispered.

"Not to worry!" Robin smirked as he got his arm computer out and started hacking the security cameras, and other complicated things that were encrypted so I couldn't make out what they were.

As we kept moving Robin suddenly turned to us and announced in a proud voice, "I hacked the motion sensors!"

"If I could kiss you right now, I would, we now have a good chance to make it out!" I cracked a relieved smile.

Robin winked. "Why not do it then?"

Wally cleared his throat, "Sorry to call you out on this, Timeless. But all of us also helped escaping? Actually, you helped us too, so you should kiss yourself!"

"Shut it, Kid Mouth. You're just jealous because no girl offered to kiss you after we get out of an evil facility." I smirked deviously.

The amazing speedster Wallace West did not have a girlfriend. In fact, he was a bit of a, let's say, non-popular kid at his school.

"Never mind that!" Kid shouted when we got out of the wind chutes, "I finally have room to move!" He ran ahead, showcasing all of his speed power. Whenever he did that, he made my hair flutter, it kind of reminded me of an airplane taking off, but it was right next to you and not so loud.

"C'mon guys!" I started jogging towards where Kid had sped off.

Wally parted the genomorphs clogging the staircase we were going up in.

I punched one of the ugly looking guys in the face, just as a little revenge for them trying to shred me to bits and pieces. "There's more behind us!" Robin shouted, looking at his arm computer.

"Not a problem!" I smirked as I willed time to stop itself.

I grabbed a laser from my dark grey utility belt and melted the staircase where the genomorphs were coming from, cutting off them from us. Time returned back to normal.

"Do you know how weird it is when you do that?" Robin muttered, rubbing his head.

"Do you know how weird it is when you disappear like Batman?" I mocked him.

"No, but seriously, I don't actually know what you're doing when you stop time. I only have a splitting headache that makes me know that you just stopped time!"

I rolled my eyes. "You've known me for three years, Bird Boy. You should have gotten used to it."

I looked at Superboy, who stopped a few meters behind us, rubbing his head. I ran back to him, "Hey, Supey, it's normal to get headaches the first time you experience the stopping of time. Especially if you're this close to a time controller. The hurting will go away soon, alright?"

He nodded, and we bounded off to the rest of our little unorganized team.

When we got out of the staircase we were met by alarms blaring and the whole hallway tinted a bright red. Kid was strewn on the floor; he probably slammed onto the steel door in front of us as he was running by.

"We're cut off!" Kaldur growled in frustration.

"Thanks, my head hadn't noticed." Kid sassed back. I rolled my eyes, helping him to his feet, and trying to see if the bump in his head was going to cause more harm than just physical pain.

"Hey, mom, there are genomorphs coming. My head is fine, stop worrying." Wally grabbed my hands away from his head and led me to a whole in the wall that Robin kicked open for us.

We piled in, but at the other side, we were met by another group of genomorphs, and Guardian. We were surrounded and outnumbered one to one hundred.

We got into our fighting stances, but the smaller genomorphs' horns started glowing and the next thing I saw, we were all crumpling on the floor like heavy sacks of rice.

I could only see black.

"I choose freedom." Superboy's voice called out into my mind as I regained consciousness and stood up, looking around to see if anyone else was harmed.

"Feels like…fog lifting." Guardian realized. I felt the same way as he did. After I was out of the genomorphs' control, I felt like my mind was finally clearing.

Guardian was under mind control, like I just was a few seconds ago!

"Guardian?" Kaldur hesitated.

"Go." Guardian answered with more certainty that I had heard in anyone's voice tonight. "I'll deal with Desmond."

I'm guessing Desmond is the creepy guy in the white lab coat. At least I know he has a name now. "I think not." The genomorphs parted to reveal Desmond himself.

"Speak of the devil." I crossed my arms.

"Project Blockbuster will give me the power to restore order to Cadmus!" Desmond's voice was so sure of himself that it gave me the very reason to be alarmed when he drank the fluorescent blue liquid in the glass cylinder.

He started twitching, his bones cracking, and his whole body twisted in ways that disgusted me so much, he probably broke a muscle or two, but it didn't matter. When he stopped twisting, Desmond had become a huge rock-like monster, shreds of his lab coat surrounding in enlarged frame.

His eyes glowed as red as the horns of the genomorphs.

"Everyone back!" Guardian commanded as he charged at Desmond but got knocked over.

Superboy's rage started showing as he leaped and punched Desmond in the face continuously, weakening the monster more and more. It kept going on for longer than I would have liked.

Superboy got hit, Desmond got hit, Superboy hit, Desmond hit.

They jumped up and into the ceiling, creating a massive hole.

"Okay…" Robin grabbed my waist. "That's one way of busting out." He shot his grappling hook and up we went with Wally grabbing onto my hand. Kaldur jumped after us.

We watched in amazement as Superboy kept getting hit. He was just like Superman, got trampled at first, but would probably defeat the bad guy in the end, always does.

Superboy got thrown to Kaldur, and Robin, Kid Flash, and I grabbed them by their arms. We couldn't lose two valuable players if we were to win a fight with Desmond.

The five of us took our fighting stances as Desmond charged, and we ran to meet him with some serious pounding.

I gave the monster my most powerful kicks in the underside of the elbows and the knees, easily breakable spots in the body. It was enough of a distraction for Desmond that Kaldur and Superboy combined their strength to hit him.

Kid stood up behind Desmond, making him fall over.

Superboy charged again, but got sent back to a column and kept getting hits in the face from the big bad baddie.

Luckily, I turned around to be met by Robin's 'I've-got-an-awesome-plan' smirk. We really needed one of his master plans right now.

"Alright, Bird Boy, what are you planning?" I asked him.

"You'll see. Call Kid first, okay?" Robin said. I nodded.

I shouted for Wally to come running towards where Robin was crouching down with his arm computer open. He explained to us the plan, I must admit, that boy could have brains when he needed them. Apparently, in school (English and Art class), he didn't intend to use his intelligence much, though.

Kid and I ran in different directions, Robin in between us with chalk that he pulled out of his utility belt. He drew x in one key place, as Wally and I got ready and into our stances.

Kid went first, grabbing a piece of flesh from Desmond's face and taunting him to chase him. Kid ran around, making one pillar fall down, but Desmond quickly realized chasing a speedster would get him nowhere, that's where I came in.

I jumped up in a flip and landed on Desmond's back, and as the monster tried shaking me off, I covered his eyes and started kicking him with all my might.

He ran around backwards, toppling over two other pillars, and with my head having some pretty close calls with the wall. Luckily, I stopped time right before I hit a pillar and changed position, just so I wouldn't get harmed.

I scrambled off of Desmond's back as Kaldur slammed his back onto the ugly's face, making the monster mad at him.

Three pillars down, four more to go.

As soon as I thought that, Superboy came in, making Desmond stagger back to another pillar with one blow in the gut.

Kid Flash and I made enough noise so Desmond would follow us in a patch of water that Kaldur created. Desmond, being stupid and big, slid across the water, landing on the white x that Robin had drawn on the floor.

Kaldur shot electricity in the water, it reached Desmond, and the big guy growled in pain.

"Move!" Robin shouted. I noticed the batarangs he had shot in the last three other pillars as we ran past.

When Cadmus crumpled all around us, I was certain that we were dead meat, we escaped and probably mortally harmed Desmond, but we could have died with the whole building collapsing on us.

I stopped time just before the building collapsed though.

I grabbed Robin and Kid first, dragging their frozen bodies out of the building's collapsing range. Then, I slid Superboy, but couldn't carry Aqualad with him. Superboy was definitely heavy. Finally, I heaved Kaldur's body out of the range, and returned time to normal.

When Cadmus stopped crumbling, the guys realized what had happened, and patted my back in appreciation. I coughed some of the ashes from the fallen building out of my lungs.

"Thank you, D." Robin squeezed my shoulder.

"Don't mention it, Bird Boy." I grinned back at him.

Kaldur smiled, "We…We did it!"

I laughed in delight, falling down on the floor.

Robin and Kid Flash high-fived but grunted in pain afterwards. I laughed louder.

"Are you okay? You're not high on Joker Gas, are you?" Robin joked.

"I'm totally fine. This is probably the best I've felt in a while!" I smiled. It was true, I finally demonstrated, even to myself, what I was truly capable of.

"See? The moon!" Kid Flash gestured to the big white circle above us. Today, it was especially huge, like it knew Superboy needed to see it, and bask in it.

I stood up, and placed a hand on Superboy's shoulder. "You could say 'thank you', you know?" I raised an eyebrow jokingly.

He nodded, "Thanks."

"Any time, Supey!" I let out a laugh again.

Then, a dark shape flew across the moon towards us, no question who it was.

No, it wasn't a bird!

Nor was it a plane!

Or a frog!

It was Superman!

I just found that little saying from the movie and the series so ridiculously funny.

Now, where there is a Superman, there is a Batman, and where there is a Batman…there is a Black Canary ready to incinerate my body and kill me again when she dies and meets up with my soul.

Goody!

"Oh, and Superman! Do we keep our promises, or what?" Kid grinned.

"I'd say, or what…" I grumbled, suddenly dreading being out of Cadmus.

Robin looked toward me, nodding in agreement. We are going to die and I don't want to die yet.

Soon enough, the entire League landed on the ground that was once Cadmus, and I looked up at Green Arrow and Black Canary.

They were scowling at me; Ollie was shaking his head as if to say, I already had a rebel act today. I didn't want another one.

Superboy walked forwards, showing the 'S' mark on the chest of his body suit. Superman looked shocked and even disgusted.

Superboy turned back to us, the hurt of rejection evident on his face. I had the sudden urge to pull him to me and let his sorrow go away, he didn't deserve such a look from his father after he saved us all!

"Is that what I think it is?" Batman demanded.

"He doesn't like being called an it!" Kid Flash muttered.

"And if you don't like getting slapped, then I suggest you cut it out!" I whispered back at him.

"I'm Superman's clone!" Superboy burst out. Wow, way to put it out there.

All the adults looked at each other in shock, I bet they were thinking about how it happened and what they were going to do about it. I would be, too.

"Start talking." Batman commanded after seconds of stunned silence.

As we explained everything that happened in our crazy adventure, Green Lantern and a few other Leaguers took Desmond away.

I was secretly glad that he was gone; I hadn't stopped thinking about what he'd do if he suddenly woke up.

We all waited in silence as all the adults talked in small separated groups. "What do you think they'll do?" I asked Robin who was next to me.

He rubbed his face, "Honestly? I have no idea anymore."

"Cadmus will be investigated, all fifty-two levels, but let's make one thing clear—" Batman was interrupted by Flash. "You should have called!"

"—And results aside, we are not happy." Batman finished. "You hacked Justice League's systems, disobeyed direct orders, and endangered lives. You will not be doing this again."

I looked at Dinah and Ollie; they were nodding in agreement, silently discussing something, probably my punishment. I didn't want patrol taken away from me, and that was probably what my punishment would be. Oh, the joy!

Kaldur looked at all of us, and I understood what he wanted. It was crazy, but I felt the same, despite being grounded. "I am sorry, but we will."

"Aqualad, stand down!" Aquaman ordered.

"Apologies, My King, but no." Aqualad spoke. "We did good work here tonight, the work you trained us to do. Together, on our own, we forged something powerful."

"If this is about your treatment at the hall, the four of you—" Flash got cut off.

"The five of us, and it's not." Kid said.

"This was about us doing what we could to save innocent lives, we stopped a whole invasion force! We did the things you do, but by ourselves, I say that we deserve to be heard without any further interruptions!" I retorted back at the League, it was probably something stupid of me to do.

"Batman, we're ready to use what you taught us, or why teach us at all?" Robin spoke softly, probably not wanting to anger his foster father.

"Why let them tell us what to do? It's simple, get on board, or get out of the way!" Superboy said angrily.

We all looked at our mentors, filed in a line, and in that defining moment, I thought we had made the right choice standing up for ourselves. We were demonstrating courage, strength, wits, and ambition.

I had never been prouder of myself and of my little group of superhero friends.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Mount Justice

July 8, 08:04 EDT

"This cave was the original secret sanctuary of the Justice League." Batman announced. "We're calling it into service again, since you five are determined to stay together, and fight the good fight. You'll do it on League terms."

I couldn't help but smirk at that despite the last four days having been horrible torture without being able to help any civilian or use my phone to at least socialize. I was under house arrest practically.

I still found it funny though, how we went behind the Justice League's back, a bunch of teenagers, and kicked some genomorph butt at Cadmus.

Batman saw me smirking, and glared at me. I could tell that Bruce wanted to smile too, but Batman commanded respect.

"Red Tornado volunteered to live here and be your supervisor. Black Canary is in charge of training. I will deploy you on missions." Batman finished.

Okay, back it up, so my mom was going to train us? Great, she probably just wants to keep an eye on me.

"Real missions?" Dick asked, and from behind his sunglasses, I saw his blue eyes sparkling with doubt, but hope, too.

"Yes, but covert." I sensed a slight change of tone in Batman's voice, it took a protective feel to it, I smiled. Their dynamic was really sweet.

"The League will still handle the obvious stuff. There's a reason we have these big targets on our chests." Flash joked.

"But Cadmus proves the bad guys are getting smarter. Batman needs a team that can operate on the sly." Aquaman looked towards Batman.

"The six of you will be that team." Batman finished.

"Cool!" Robin grinned.

"Whoa, slow down, the six of us?" I questioned. The four boys in our team realized Batman's words.

Batman looked toward something behind us, and all of us turned around. "This is the Martian Manhunter's niece, Miss Martian."

"Hi!" Miss Martian waved shyly at us.

I grinned, "Great, another girl in the team! I won't have to endure boys bragging about being better in video games alone!"

I hugged Miss Martian; it was pretty common in South American, where I was born in, to hug someone you first met instead of just shaking hands. "Hi, I'm Diana Crane, also known as Timeless. Nice to meet you!"

I had been born and lived in Colombia with my parents until I was seven, then we moved to Gotham City. I had adapted the culture from my father's birthplace.

Miss Martian smiled, visibly relaxing. "Nice to meet you, too!"

"I'm liking this gig more every minute!" Wally smirked flirtatiously. "Welcome aboard! I'm Kid Flash, that's Robin, Aqualad…It's cool if you forget their names."

I rolled my eyes, but smiled nevertheless.

"I'm honored to be included." Miss Martian clapped her hands together; I could tell she was going to be a really cool addition to the team.

Everyone crowded around her, trying to get to know her.

"Hey, Superboy, come meet Miss M!" Robin raised his arm up, gesturing Superboy to come with us. I knew our little group seemed smaller than it was supposed to be.

Miss Martian's shirt changed from white with a blue cape to black and no cape. "I like your shirt."

Superboy gave her a small smile, and I nudged him with my elbow alongside Dick and Wally.

"Today is the day." Kaldur spoke up.

I couldn't have agreed more with him.