I'm happy with the positive feedback so far. I hope you all continue to enjoy Metamorphosis!
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2 Years Later
A mysterious fire broke out in Cadmus and advanced research laboratory, taking the scientists who worked on the top floors by surprise.
They waved their arms at the firefighters who were trying to put out the flames, "Help!'
"Get us down!"
As the firefighters were trying to reassure them an explosion went off behind them and the two scientists were thrown forwards out of the window, and fell screaming, thinking they were about to die when a yellow and red blur raced up the building, grabbed them and threw them over the edge of the top of the building.
In place of the blur a boy in yellow and red spandex slid down the building trying to get a grip on the building before he managed to get a hold of the windowsill that the scientists fell out of.
The fire chief spotted him, "It's what's his name… Flash boy!"
The spandex wearing boy shouted back, "Kid Flash!" then mumbled to himself, "Why is that so hard?"
Behind him Robin, a young dark haired boy in a skintight red and black outfit with a yellow belt, a yellow and black cape and wearing a black eye mask hopped up onto the firetruck, and swung up to the window with a grappling-like gadget he took from his belt.
Once he was inside he helped Kid Flash up and through the window.
Another young man appeared behind the firefighters, his name is Aqua Lad.
He was dark skinned, with silverish eyes and pale blond hair in a close shave on his head.
He wore a skin tight red shirt with black markings on the stomach, a thick ring of black went around the arm holes, he had what appeared to be gills on his neck and his hands were slightly webbed, his pants were a navy blue with a fin on the back of each calf, he was barefoot.
A black belt went around his waist, a gold upside down A-like symbol in the center, black eel tattoos wrapped around his arms and disappeared into the back of his shirt.
"I need to borrow that." his eyes on the water coming from the hose as he took a pair of what looked like sword handles from his back, his tattoos began to glow and he pointed them at the water coming from the hoses.
The water began to flow to him, he then used it to lift his-self off the ground and up to the scientists Kid Flash left on the roof, "Step aboard." his eyes narrowed, "Now."
With that the scientists hopped on and Aqua Lad began to lower them.
When they reached the open window Aqua Lad stepped of and continued to lower the scientists to the ground.
He then hopped off the windowsill into the room where Robin and Kid Flash were snooping, Robin through Cadmus's computers and Kid Flash through their files.
"Appreciate the help." Aqua Lad stated dryly.
Robin continued to look through Cadmus's computer files, "You handled it, besides we're here to investigate. Poetic justice, remember?"
Aqua Lad walked out of the room and into the hallway, the ding from the elevator made him turn his head to see a strange silhouette as the doors closed, one thing he knew for sure, it wasn't human, "There was something in the…"
Kid spoke, "Elevators should be locked down."
Robin rushed past them, heading for the elevator and got a closer look at it, "This is wrong." he activated the holographic computer in his left glove, and found a match for the elevator, it was a Silver Slip Express Elevator, "Thought so, this is a high speed express elevator. It doesn't belong in a two story building."
"Neither does what I saw." with that Aqua Lad walked to the elevator shaft doors and forced them open, grunting at the force he had to exert.
When it was open he looked down to see a very deep, dark shaft with small lights lining it in pairs.
Robin crouched at the edge of it, "And that's why they need an express elevator."
With one of his grapplers in hand he raised it up, shot it at the ceiling, when it was secured he jumped into the shaft and fell, the cord from his grappler unraveling.
Aqua Lad and Kid Flash jumping and grabbing the cord one at a time, sliding down after him.
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Kagome hummed to herself as she sat in the middle of a field of flowers weaving them into a small ring.
When she was finished she placed them on the head of a napping Kilala.
Some of the pollen from the flowers sprinkled onto the demon cat's nose causing her to wake up with a sneeze, which dislodged the flowers and they fell into her eyes.
Kagome giggled at her when a familiar voice came from behind her, "Kagome."
Kagome turned and smiled at a pale skinned woman in traditional priestess robes and armor with a sword at her side, "Hey Midoriko."
The ancient Miko smiled down at the young woman, "It will soon be time for you to awaken and return to the real world."
Kagome's head drooped and she smiled sadly, "I knew it wouldn't last." she stood and looked down at Kilala, "Are you ready?"
A firm nod was her answer.
Midoriko had more to say, "Remember Kagome your body has undergone a serious change, it will take some time for it to readjust to the world outside of the cocoon. Besides you speed and strength I don't know what those changes will be, you will have to figure things out as you go along."
Kagome nodded, "I understand."
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Robin, Kid and Aqua Lad bypassed the security on a giant door they came across and were surprised by what they found inside.
The room was huge, lined on either side by stacked rows of cylindrical glass tubes, each containing a strange thin, six legged bug-like creature; they each seemed to be generating electricity from their bodies.
In the center of the room floating above the ground was what looked like a giant, round, pink, glowing crystal.
"Okay, I'm officially whelmed."
Kid walked along the left side of the room, taking in the creatures, "This is how they hide this massive underground facility from the world. The real Cadmus isn't on the grid; it generates its own power with these…things." he didn't really know what else to call them, "Must be what they're bred for."
Aqua Lad agreed, "Even the name is a clue. The Cadmus of myth created a new race by sowing dragons teeth into the Earth."
Robin caught on to what he was saying, "And this Cadmus creates new life too." something didn't add up though, "I don't see how that floating rock fits into this though." with that the Boy Wonder walked over to the computer terminal and did what he does best, hacking computer systems.
His holographic computer screen popped up from his left glove showing him the information from Cadmus's files, "They call them Genomorphs." he sifted through their information, "Woah, look at the stats on these things. Super strength, telepathy, razor claws, these are living weapons!"
Kid narrowed his eyes, "They're engineering an army. But for who and how does that rock fit in?"
"I was just about to find out." Robin resumed looking through the rest of Cadmus's files and found what he was looking for, "Got it. Project Cocoon. Looks like they got it from Japan two-years ago and have been trying to break it open ever since. Sledge hammers, diamond tipped drills, laser drills… they even used a nuke to try and break it!"
The other two looked wide eyed at the floating rock, Aqua Lad approached it cautiously, "Whatever is inside they seem to be desperate to obtain." he stood before the rock and saw a curled up figure lying in the center, their long hair floating around them, "There's someone inside."
He raised his hand up to the rock and placed it on the surface, 'It's warm…'
Suddenly the glow from the rock began to grow brighter until it was blinding the three young heroes "Dude, what did you do?" Kid shouted.
"I only touched it!" was his reply as they covered their eyes till it died down.
In place of the stone a beautiful teenage girl floated a foot off the ground.
She had sun kissed skin, plump rose colored lips and a petit nose.
Her figure was well-endowed, covered in a plain purple Chinese top, a pair of silken black pants with a white sash tied around her waist and she was bare foot.
Her long hair was a deep black with purple highlights and it floated gently around her, over her shoulders appeared to be a shear cloth, the ends covering her cradled arms.
The last of the light faded away and she began to fall forwards.
Aqua Lad reached out and caught her before she could hit the floor.
"Well, now we know what or rather who Cadmus wanted."
He pulled the mysterious girl up into his arms vaguely noting that the top was backless.
When he had her situated her arms loosened and the cream colored head of a cat poked out staring at them, "Mew."
Kid couldn't stop staring, "Okay, a really hot girl trapped inside a big glowing stone that can survive a nuke, I don't know about the two of you but this is definitely a new one on me."
Robin was about to reply when something on his computer caught his attention, "I found something else in the files, Project Kr… agghh, the file's triple encrypted I-I can't-"
"Don't move!" the three young heroes turned to see Guardian, a well-known hero running towards them with some of the razor clawed Genomorphs.
When he saw who it was he stopped, "Wait… Robin, Aqua Lad, Kid Flash?"
Robin looked at Kid, "Least he got your name right."
A growling noise came from the cat the girl had in her arms, its hackles were raised.
Aqua Lad glanced down at it before returning his attention to the man before them, "I know you. Guardian, a hero."
"I do my best."
"Then what are you doing here?" Kid questioned.
"I'm chief of security, you're trespassing, but we can call the justice league, figure this out."
Kid was surprised, "You think the league is going to approve of you breeding weapons?"
Guardian seemed confused, "Weapons? What do you-" he stopped in the middle of his sentence as the horns on the head of the Genomorph on his shoulder started glowing red, "What have I…" he placed his hand to the side of his head as he shut his eyes, trying to soothe the pain, "My head."
Suddenly they snapped back open and all traces of pain and discomfort were gone, "Take em' down hard. No mercy!"
At the same time as the Genomorphs attacked, the kitten in the unconscious girl's arms leapt at them and erupted into a giant ball of fire startling the young heroes.
Through the flames emerged a huge twin tailed saber toothed cat, it continued on with its course and collided with a few of the Genomorphs.
The ones that weren't fighting with the cat continued with their attack on the teen heroes.
Robin threw down a smoke pellet and got past them by going over head with his grappler.
Kid used his speed to dodge their attacks and leapt off of the wall barreling into the Genomorphs.
Aqua Lad had a tough time of fighting off the last couple of Genomorphs with the girl in his arms but he somehow managed.
He had just kicked a Genomorph away from him when Guardian rammed into him from behind and he lost his grip on the girl as he went flying.
Her giant cat appeared from nowhere catching her on its back and ran off in the direction of the door as Aqua Lad slammed into a metal machine panel.
As soon as he got up Aqua Lad had to defend himself against Guardian's relentless assault.
Guardian managed to get a hold of Aqua Lad and rammed him into the machine behind him.
Aqua Lad then did the only thing he could at the moment to end their struggle, his tattoos began to glow and instead of controlling water, Guardian was electrocuted and fell to the floor stunned.
Together Aqua Lad and Kid Flash ran for the door, a few of the Genomorphs following.
At some point during their fight an alarm had gone off in the building, red lights flashing along the hallways.
They both ran until they found the Boy Wonder hacking into the express elevator with the cat standing next to him, the girl still unconscious on its back.
Kid raced ahead and stopped beside Robin, "Way to be a team player, Rob." The red head complained.
The black haired boy was confused, "Weren't you right behind me?"
He finally managed to get the doors open and the three rushed in, the only person missing was Aqua Lad who was running down the hallway, the Genomorphs in hot pursuit.
At the last few feet Aqua Lad leaped forward and rolled into the elevator, the doors closing right behind him.
They all relaxed when the Genomorphs were unable to get through the closed doors.
The elevator began to go down, "We're headed down?" Aqua Lad questioned.
Kid wondered if his friend had lost it, "Dude, out is up."
"Excuse me? Project Kr, it's down on sub-level fifty-two." Robin said as if it was obvious that they had check it out.
They paused when they heard the girl groan in her sleep, they looked over to see her snuggle into the fur of her giant cat before she settled again.
Aqua Lad rubbed the back of his neck as he thought about the situation they had all gotten themselves into, "This is out of control. Perhaps… perhaps we should contact the league."
Just then the elevator dinged, signaling their arrival to sub-level fifty-two.
The door opened putting the three young heroes and giant cat on their guard.
They looked at the cavernous space before them, unlike sub-level twenty-six this space looked like it was just carved out of the rock with unknown canisters scattered around, ahead of them was a forked passage.
Robin went ahead as Kid turned to Aqua Lad, "We are already here." and rushed after Robin as Aqua Lad gave a long-suffering sigh and followed, the cat tailing after him.
They kept low, making sure that if there was someone around then they wouldn't be spotted, "Which way?" Aqua Lad asked.
Robin wasn't sure, "Yeah, bizarre looking hallway one, or bizarre looking hallway two?"
"Halt!" a voice cried out.
In what Robin dubbed 'bizarre looking hallway one' stood a humanoid Genomorph wearing plain white clothes; his horns began to glow and as he raised his arm up, some of the canisters rising into the air.
With the slightest movement from his hand the canisters flew at the teens, hitting the wall above them and exploding.
Robin threw one of his exploding discs but the Genomorph stopped it without touching it, forcing it to drop harmlessly to the ground as he raised more canisters and sent them after the retreating teens and cat as they went down the second hallway.
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Kagome enjoyed the soft warm feeling that surrounded her and frowned when it was replaced by a hard bumpy surface, she missed the soft warmth.
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Kilala watched over her knew mistress as she placed against the wall, it seemed that it would still be awhile before she woke up, but Kilala would protect Kagome with her life, after all Kagome is all the twin tailed cat demon has left.
She turned to take in the three strangely dressed males as they were gathered discussing the sleeping boy in the see through case.
She pawed at her ears when an irritating high pitched buzzing noise came from the teens, when it stopped they seemed concerned.
Kilala turned her head to the door where she could hear the humans and the strange smelling creatures moving around, trying to get the door open.
Her head snapped back to the teens and the tube at the loud hissing noise coming from the opening case.
His hand flexed, the knuckles cracking as he closed it into a fist, his eyes snapped open and he charged, attacking the teen heroes.
Kilala stood protectively in front of her mistress as the boy in the white body suit with a red symbol on his chest took the boys down one by one.
After he had knocked out the one that smelled like the ocean the boy turned to Kilala.
She growled ferociously and charged, tackling him to the ground.
She latched her teeth onto his shoulder and tore at it, blood flowing out of the wound.
The boy yelled out in pain and punched Kilala in the side of the head, knocking her out.
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Superboy looked at his wounded shoulder then at beast that caused it, 'I'm… I'm injured.'
The shocked thought flew through his mind before he shook it away, 'It doesn't matter, Superman has been injured before too.'
He glanced at the sleeping girl that he hadn't noticed up until now before deciding she wasn't a threat.
He walked over to the sealed door and ripped it open with ease.
Dr. Desmond walked past him and looked into the room taking in the sight of the unconscious teens with a smirk, "Atta boy."
He frowned when he saw Superboy's injured shoulder, "What damaged you?"
Superboy said nothing, he just turned and stared at the unconscious feline.
When Desmond saw what his weapon was staring at his eyes lit with greed at the sight of the girl and the cat.
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And that is it for this chapter, please review!