A/N: I'm a review addict, and I got a surprising amount of Favs in my inbox this morning, so I felt that in order for me to get more, I should post faster, yeah? Anyways, here's chapter 2, and chapter 3 should probably be up tomorrow around this time - that is, if i get enough reviews :)
Oh, and if you're curious as to what Echo looks like in my head, I'm going to put a link to my DeviantArt account, where I posted a picture of her. Now, on with the story!
Echo's POV
Sirens screeched as the building in front of us continued to burn, while two scientists stood in the window, begging to be let down. And what were the upstanding firefighters of DC doing about it? I'll give you three guesses. If you guessed nothing, you would be correct.
"Stay put," one man called through a megaphone. I'm beginning to really hate those words in context together. "We will get you down!"
"Yeah, maybe in a year at the rate you're moving," I glared back as they gave me offended looks. "Hey, KF! Let's –"
"Already on it," he zoomed past me, making my hair fly into my face, and intercepted the scientists just as an explosion racked the building, knocking them out the window. He scaled the wall with ease, placing the scientists safely out of harms way on the top of the building when – just kidding, he slipped when he got to the roof.
"Genius," I muttered, grappling up the side of the building so I could help save the hero. Ironic, isn't it?
"It's what's-his-name! Flash Boy!" I snorted at that, and came up behind 'flash-boy' pushing his feet to help him through the window.
"It's Kid Flash!" he hollered out the window angrily and turned to me. "Why is that so hard?" Robin flew through the window next to us, cutting off whatever witty response I was going to give him. Where was Aqualad?
Figuring he could handle himself, I turned to Robin, who was busy hunched over a computer. "Jesus, you little computer gremlin, aren't we supposed to be investigating? The freaking building is on fire, shouldn't we be doing something about that, too?"
"What do you think I'm doing?" he bit back "Besides, the fire department has it handled just fine."
"Sure didn't look like it," I grumbled, just as Aqualad entered via platform of water and gave us all a look.
"I appreciate the help," he said sarcastically.
"You handled it," Robin replied. "Besides, we're here to investigate. Poetic justice, remember?"
I followed Aqualad into the hallway, intent on finding some sort of material to help us with our search. I didn't plan on rifling through files for hours. Figuring I should look for any other scientists left in the building, I sent out a wave with my mind – echo was my namesake, after all – to locate them. I gasped and stumbled back into Aqualad when I felt a strong presence, and my head shot up to see a strange looking man enter the elevator. "Aqualad, look!" I pointed to the man, who was as thin as a rod and had giant horns sticking out the top of his large head. The doors closed, cutting off the view of him.
"There's something in the –"
"Elevators should be locked down," Kid Flash interrupted, making me jump. I turned around to glare at him.
"We saw something enter the elevator, and it was not human," I frowned, and Robin rushed around the corner, pushing the down button repeatedly.
"This is wrong," he stated, and pulled up schematics for the elevator on his holographic projector from his watch. "This is a high speed express elevator; it doesn't belong in two story building."
Aqualad leaned over his shoulder to look at the image. "Neither does what we saw." He moved forward and wrenched the elevator doors open, revealing a seemingly endless elevator shaft.
"Two stories my ass," I whistled. "That's a long way down."
"And that's why they need an express elevator," Robin muttered, and shot his grappling hook toward the ceiling. Once it was secured, he jumped off the side and disappeared into the darkness.
"What, Rob-" I sighed, before grabbing onto the line and sliding down after him.
"I'm at the end of my rope," he stated, surprised, before swinging off to the side and leaping onto the small landing in front of the doors. I followed suit, trying not to look down and holding on tightly to the walls with my gloves, which stuck to smooth surfaces like suction cups, thank god.
"Sub-level 26," I read off the side of the shaft, turning to the younger boy as Aqualad landed beside me. "How many levels does this thing have?"
He ignored me, and announced as KF was helped onto the landing. "Bypassing security...okay, go."
Aqualad wrenched the doors open, and my mouth dropped open as we entered the hallway. Holy crap this was real.
"Welcome to project Cadmus," Robin mused, and I pressed my fingers to my temples.
"I'm searching for other life-forms..." I explained as they gave me weird looks. The waves rippled through the air, and bounced back. "Oh, yeah, there's definitely something here. A lot of somethings."
"Which way?" KF asked, and I pointed to the right. He shot off without another word. "Wait!"
We ran after him, just in time to see him almost get crushed by a giant monster. The ceilings in the hallway were about 30 feet high or so, and these...things' heads were pretty close to the top. Their faces looked like something from a horrible alien movie, with slanted red eyes and giant tusks from their bottom mouths. They were walking around on their fists like apes – giant, menacing, elephant-alien-apes. What really shocked me, however, was the intelligence radiating off the little things on their shoulders. They looked sort of like grey, hairless monkeys with giant red eyes. One turned to look at us, and it's red horns flashed creepily, sending me stumbling back into Aqualad for the second time today. "Sorry." He nodded, continuing to watch the herd of...whatever they were, pass us.
"No, nothing odd going on here," he remarked dryly as we stared open mouthed at the creatures.
I paused, and sent out another wave after they passed. "C'mon, this way." I led the others toward a door, and Robin began to hack. "There's a lot of freaky stuff going on behind...Jesus Christ!" The doors opened up, revealing walls completely covered with pods that contained freaky looking animals that radiated electricity.
"I'm officially whelmed," Robin stated.
"This is how they hide this massive underground facility from the rest of the world," KF began and walked in with the rest of us following behind. "The real Cadmus isn't even on the grid. It generates it's own power with these...things. That must be what they're bred for."
"Of course, even the name is a clue," Aqualad said. "The Cadmus of myth created a new race by sewing dragon's teeth into the earth."
"And this Cadmus creates new life, too," Robin remarked, before walking towards a computer position off to the side. "Let's find out why."
"This is so wrong," I whimpered, shying away from the creature that looked like it was staring into my soul. "What are these things?"
"They call them Genomorphs," he said, flicking through different pictures. "Whoa, look at the stats on these things. Super strength, telepathy, razor claws...these are living weapons!"
"They're engineering an army," KF muttered, squinting at the monitor. "But for who?"
"And for what cause?" I continued, moving to the other side of Robin.
"Wait, there's something else...Project Kr. Ugh, the file's triple encrypted, I can't –"
"Don't move!" We froze and whirled around to see a man with a gold helmet rush in with a group of Genomorphs that looked even more like monkeys at his sides. Wait a second, I recognize him from somewhere... "Robin, Echo, Aqualad, Kid Flash?"
"At least he got your name right," Robin remarked to Kid Flash.
"Not the time, Rob," I glared, still frozen at the sight of those ugly things glaring at us, poised to strike.
"I know you," Aqualad said. "You're Guardian, a hero." So that's what where I knew him from!
"I do my best," Guardian replied modestly.
"Then what are you doing here?" KF asked, bewildered.
"I think that's my question, boys." I coughed, shooting him an angry look. "...and girl. I'm chief of security, and you're trespassing. But we can call the Justice League and figure this out."
"You think the League's gonna approve of you breeding weapons?"
"Weapons?" Guardian repeated, and the horned Genomorph on his shoulder turned to look at him. "What are you...what have I...ugh...my head..." The Genomorph's horns flashed again, and Guardian's expression suddenly changed from confused to enraged. "Take them down hard! No mercy!"
The elf-like Genomorphs jumped into action (you know, I'm just going to call them G-Elves from now on), and ran at us full speed. Robin quickly threw down a smoke bomb and disappeared, leaving the rest of us to fight blindly for our lives. I used my echolocation to locate a G-Elf, which was rushing right at me, and used my sonic scream to knock it back into another. Fumbling with my belt, I quickly shot my grappling gun to a rafter near the ceiling and shot off. The others will be fine, I reasoned. I just gotta get out of here.
Sensing Robin at the end of the hallway, I skidded to a stop beside him and pushed him away from the computer he was trying to hack. "What are you doing?" he yelled over the sound of the alarms.
"No time for hacking," I replied. "Plug your ears!" He did as he was told, and I let out a wail that short-circuited the system, and the door to the elevator hissed open. "Let's go!"
We dashed into the elevator, with KF following behind. "Way to be a team player, Rob."
"Weren't you right behind me?" I noticed we were missing a member, and gasped when I saw that our missing member was heading towards us.
"Aqualad!" I shouted, as he sprinted down the hallway, a group of G-Elves chasing him. He dove in the elevator, and we quickly closed the doors. I winced at the sound of bodies hitting the doors as the elevator sprung to life. "Wait, we're going down. Why are we going down?"
"Yeah, dude, out is up!" Kid exclaimed.
"Excuse me, Project Kr is down, on sub-level 52," Robin scowled.
I bit my lip. This was way too much to handle. "We need to get out of here."
"Echo's right; this is out of control," Aqualad sighed. "Maybe we should contact the League."
The elevator suddenly stopped moving, and a dinging noise signified that we reached our destination. The doors opened, and we all posed to defend ourselves should something attack. Nothing.
Robin immediately ran off, leaving me to trail behind him. There was no way I was letting him out of my sight again. We crouched down behind some discarded barrels, and I tried to see if there were other life-forms, but the walls – which were a squishy pink that reminded me of muscle tissue, with strange sacks of red and blue clinging together in random places – felt as if they themselves were alive, and I couldn't pick up a proper reading.
"Which way?" Aqualad asked, coming up behind us. I shrugged.
"Yeah," Robin agreed. "Bizarre looking hallway one or bizarre looking hallway two."
"Either way we're screwed," I added, rolling my eyes when they all shot me a look. "Just saying."
"Hold!" a voice shouted, and the creepy guy with the giant head and horns walked out into the open. He lifted a hand, and two barrels flew towards us, I somersaulted away, jumping to my feet as they hit the ceiling and exploded. It was almost as if he wasn't intending to hit us at all.
"I vote hallway two!" I shouted, stumbling as more explosions racked the ground. We sprinted down the hallway, until we reached another door. KF slid and kicked a lady scientist's legs out from under her, and used another barrel to keep the door open.
"Hurry!" he shouted, and I dove in after him, the other boys following behind. Aqualad kicked the barrel out from the door, and it locked with a hiss.
"I disabled the door, we're safe," Robin said as I walked over to a pod in the center of the room.
"No," Aqualad frowned. "We're trapped."
"What is it?" I asked tentatively, turning around to look at Kid, who was standing at the control panel. "It looks like a person."
He pressed a button, and the lights inside the pod lit up. I gasped, mouth dropping open as my suspicions were confirmed. "Uh, guys, you'll want to see this," KF stuttered.
"Whoa," I heard Robin gasp, but I was too busy staring at the person inside the pod to notice. He was a tall, muscular boy who looked to be around 16 or so, with jet black hair. His facial features were very familiar to me, and I struggled to remember who he reminded me of. Suddenly, I noticed the symbol on his chest – the same S on Superman's costume – and gasped in realization.
"Guys, doesn't he look kinda like..."
"Big K little R!" Wally began. "The atomic symbol for Krypton!"
I gave them all a certain look. "He's a clone."
"Robin, hack," Aqualad ordered, and the boy did as he was told, fumbling a little from the initial shock. It's not every day you see the clone of Superman...thank god for that.
"Weapon designation Superboy, a clone force grown in...sixteen weeks? From DNA acquired from Superman!"
"Stolen from Superman,"the Atlantean corrected.
KF agreed immediately. "There's no way the big guy knows about this."
"His solar suit allows him to absorb yellow sun radiation 24/7," Robin continued.
I continued to stare at the boy inside the pod, just noticing the three monkey-like things sitting in their own pods with wires running from them above the Clone. "And the creepy, hairless, alien monkey babies?"
"Genomorph gnomes," he answered (Robin, not the Clone). "Telepathic, force feeding him an education."
"And we can guess what else," Wally sighed. "They're making a slave out of, well, Superman's son."
"Now we contact the League," Aqualad said, pressing the symbol on his belt as the others tried to do the same. I pressed the com link in my ear.
"Echo to Black Canary," I muttered softly, "Do you read me?" All I heard was static. "I've got nothing, guys."
"We're in too deep...literally," KF frowned worriedly.
I felt an energy pulse from the G-Gnomes, and their horns flashed for a second. "Uh...guys?" I made my way back to the pod, staring up at the clone. Something bad was going to happen in a second, I could feel it.
"This is wrong," Wally stated.
"We can't leave him like this," Robin continued, and I nodded. We needed to set him free, I was sure of it.
Aqualad sighed, but gave his consent regardless. "Set him free, do it."
The pod opened up, and we all waited with bated breath for Superboy to do something. His hand twitched, and he curled it into a fist. I saw the horns of the G-Gnomes flash for a moment, and then the clone's eyes opened. This isn't good, I thought, and tumbled away just as he launched himself from the pod, barreling into Aqualad. They tumbled, and the clone landed on top, beginning to punch Aqualad with his giant fists. I rushed forward as the boys desperately tried to pull him off.
"Hang on, Supey!" Wally growled.
"We're on your side!" Robin shouted, just as Superboy landed a punch on KF, sending him flying through a giant glass tube. Rob hooked one arm around his neck as Superboy tried to hit him again. "I don't want to do this, but..." he stuffed something smoking into Superboy's mouth, and I screamed, making him fly across the room. I extended my hand toward Aqualad, who took it graciously, and hauled him up.
"Are you alright?" I asked. His face changed from grateful to horrified in a matter of seconds. "What –"
"Echo watch out!" he shouted, and I whipped around just in time for Superboy to plow into me, sending us both flying into a wall. He moved to punch me, but I moved my head out of the way just in time, and released a loud screech, causing him to fly away from me. Robin whipped out a taser and shot it at the clone as he landed on his feet, but Superboy simply grabbed the lines and ripped them off, tugging on them to send the Boy Wonder flying towards him. He batted him away like he was a fly, knocking him to the ground and standing on his chest.
"Enough!" I shouted, rushing forward at the same time as Aqualad, who had in his hands a giant hammer made form the water in his pack. He swung and hit Superboy dead on, sending him back into the upright table in the pod. The attack hardly seemed to phase Superboy, as he stood up almost immediately and began to walk towards us. I lifted up Robin slightly, and he winced. "Are you alright?" I asked, but he had already passed out.
"Stop! We are only trying to help you," Aqualad shouted, but the clone jumped at him again, but didn't reach his target. Instead, he veered for me, and picked me up, throwing me against the wall. I slumped forward after the initial impact, feeling my vision swim as everything started to dim, making it hard to discern what was going on. Stay awake, I thought desperately. You have...to...
It was a matter of seconds before everything went dark.