Star City, California, USA. Earth-16
November 25th 2004, 22:45 EST
It was a cold and wet evening in Star City, people were in the streets, busy with their own lives and business, but that's not where our story takes us. No, the story takes us to another location within the city
A car was saw, barrel down a freeway while passing the other cars on the road.
"***, are you sure that they won't get to us?" A long red-haired Asian woman asks a spiky-haired American man who was the driver of the car they were in as they were barrelling down the freeway
"I'm positive ***. I set the house to ablaze just before they came there for us." The blonde man says as he continues to drive
"But…do we have to leave? We were so happy with our lives in the city." The woman says, feeling that
"I know, I know that this was sudden and I know that this was your dream to come and raise a family in New York but we had to drop everything and escape. They're after our son, you know his meta-gene is something I've never seen during my time as a researcher. His Mete-gene is…extraordinary. I've never seen anything close to his in my life and career as a scientist." The man says, narrowly dodging a car. He looks at his flip phone and searches through his contacts for the one person he thinks thought to help them out
"I'm going to call ***** and ask him if he hides us in his house. Just for a little while until this whole thing cools down. If he can't, call your sister and ask her if she can come and take our son and hide him while we divert the attention away from him." The man says, the woman looks at him with a look of uncertainty
"I…don't know. I haven't talked to *** in ages. The last time I spoke to her was when she came to look after him when a few months from he was born and that was years ago." The woman says. She wasn't even sure that her sister was still out in the open since she hadn't any news on her in recent months "But…you know, if we do this, we might never see our baby again. Right?" The woman says, she turns back to the backseat and looks at the child in question
"I know, and I'm fully prepared for that. Even if it means, I'll never be able to see my son grow up and be in his life again just to keep him safe. I'll gladly pay that price." The man says, with competent
Just then, another vehicle collides with their car, sending them flying and rolling quite a distance right before they crash into the divider of the freeway. The other vehicle that collided with the couple's car was a black unmarked armored truck. The truck drives up to the wrecked vehicle and comes to a stop. Just then, someone exits the truck and walks over to the wreckage, and looks into the car. They see that the blonde man was dead due to how his neck was twisted the other way. He looks over to the woman and sees that she was knocked unconscious. His attention is then turned to the backseat of the car as he spots a 5-year-old spiky blonde-haired boy wearing a black beanie hat on top of his head, with sun-kissed skin who was also unconscious. That boy was his target. He picks up the unconscious boy and reaches for something in his pocket, it was a device, he presses the device and an image started to be displayed from the device, then a voice spoke from it.
"Do you have the child?" A voice spoke through the device
"I got him, sir." The masked man says, showing the boy
"Good, bring him to Washington. There is a lab there where we can bring our little package there and begin our projects. And make sure that you leave the scene as if a hit and run had happened." The voice says as the masked man nods
"You got it, boss." The masked man says as he shuts the device off and starts to walk towards his truck. Just as he was reaching the truck, he hears movement coming from the totaled car. He turns and sees that the woman was still waking up and looking around
"N-N-N-Na…" the woman was trying to say through the pain as she tried to get out of the car and rescue her baby.
Knowing that this will cause problems for him and his boss. The masked man walks over to the car and stands in front of the woman
"Sorry lady. I really hate doing this but, it's part of my job." The figure says as he reaches towards his back and pulls out a .44 Magna. He cocks the gun and aims it at the woman. The two look into each other's eyes as if they were having a conversation right before…
*BANG!*
A loud gunshot went off. The figure was now walking towards his truck the boy starts to cry as he woke up from the gunshot
"Calm down kid. Soon, you'll be the first to be of many to be used, for the new world order. For The Light." The figure says as he and the child step into the truck and drive off into the snowy landscape as law enforcement were arriving at the crash site.
Young Justice: Shinobi (Arc 1)
Awaken
Washington D.C.
July 4th, 2010, 17:30 EDT
Six Years Later…
"They call them Gynomorphs. Whoa, look at the stats on these things. Super Strength, telepathy, razor claws. These are living weapons!" A fairly short teenage boy with a lean, well-toned build says as he was looking at a hologram that was projecting from a monitor wrist as he was reading about some strange creatures on it with three different various of creatures: G-Goblin, G-Troll, and G-Norm
He was wearing an outfit that comprised of a red vest held closed by three yellow rectangular fasteners on the front, black leggings, boots, and gloves, all of which seemed to be made of a sort of protective body armor that still allowed him great mobility. On the left side of his chest, he had a yellow stylized "R" symbol in a black circle, and around his waist, he wore a yellow utility belt with pouches for his various equipment. He wore a cape over his shoulders that was black on the outside and pale yellow on the inside.
He also had a black stylized domino mask on his face, covering his eyes
"They're engineering an army. But for who?" Another teenage boy says as he looks at the hologram screen. He had spiky red hair, freckles, and green eyes. He had a lean yet slightly muscular build.
He was wearing an outfit which was a yellow spandex suit with red pants, red gloves, and yellow shoes, with a symbol of a red lightning bolt within a white circle on his chest. He also wore red goggles.
There was one more person with them.
This person had light blond hair cut at the bottom, deep brown skin, pale green eyes, high cheekbones, and was lean built. He possessed black, eel-like tattoos that run across his back and along his arms. He also had a set of gills around his neck.
For his outfit, it was a skin-tight, full-body, red-and-blue swimsuit that exposes his arms and feet. The costume has a set of small dorsal fins on the back of the calves with an A symbol was a belt buckle, he also had a high-tech backpack strapped onto his back
"Wait, I found something else. Project: Kr and Project: Maelstrom. Ah, the files are triple-encrypted. I can't…" the Dimono mask-wearing teen says as he saw some files on the hologram and just as he tries to go to them…
"Don't move!" They heard someone yells as they turn and saw someone had entered the room they were in. It was a strongly built Caucasian male with blue eyes. He wore a dark blue jumpsuit with a golden helmet and golden shoulder and wrist pads and he had a small golden shied attached to his left arm
"Great…" The red hair kid grumbles
These three boys were Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad, known sidekicks to Batman, The Flash, and Aquaman respectively.
You see, the reason why all three were in this situation and why they were sneaking around was something else entirely. Today on one of the greatest days in American history, was supposed to be the day they and another now ex-sidekick, Speedy, one to Hero Green Arrow, were supposed to be inducted in the Justice League, or so they thought due to some of the League members feeling that they were just not ready, they were denied. And this angered Speedy since he felt that he was ready, an argument broke out and Speedy quit being Green Arrow's partner and stormed out of the Hall of Justice.
Before anything could be done, a distress call came in from Superman, altering the League of an Explosion in Project Cadmus. This did lead Batman to some suspicion about it and it could have been the perfect opportunity to investigate the building but another call came in from another League member, Zatara, altering the League for a villain attack, forcing the entire League to abandon the first alter call and letting local authorities to handle it. However, this forced the Mentors to make their stay behind and wait for their return. While this did make the young heroes upset, this did lead them to investigate Project Cadmus themselves behind their Mentors' backs, as a way to prove to them that they were ready. Once gaining info on the lab, they were there to do a further investigation at the site. Once they arrived, things to a slight turn than they wanted, leading them to discover that Cadmus had an underground section and the three went down to investigate this further. They stumbled upon a room that had these creatures inside of kinetic glass tubes, which seemed to power the underground felicity, Robin connected to the main control panel to the room and started gathering info on what these creatures were and they soon realized what Cadmus was really doing off the grid. They were building an army, but for what? And…for who?
The man that had entered the room with some of the creatures looks at the young heroes and realized who they were
"Wait. Robin? Aqualad? Kid Flash?" The man asks
"Least he got your name right." Robin chuckles, knowing that most people got Kid's name wrong. Aqualad looks at the man and he recognizes him
"I know you. Guardian, a Hero." Aqualad says, he had heard of this man's deeds
"I do my best." The man, now known to be: Guardian says
"Then what are you doing here?" Kid Flash asks, finding it strange for a Hero to be here
"I'm Chief of Security here in Cadmus. And you're trespassing, but we can call the Justice League. Figure this out." Guardian says, gesturing to them that they should leave. However, Kid Flash wasn't having that
"You think the League's gonna approve of you breeding weapons?" Kid Flash asks, making the man just confused by his question
"Weapons? What are you…What have I?" Guardian was saying by the small creature that was on his right shoulder the entire time had turned its head to him and its horn glowed red. Guardian holds his head for a bit "My head…" He says, feeling like he was getting a headache from something. Suddenly, his eyes open wide and he glares at the heroes
"Take them down here! No mercy." Guardian yells, making his squad of Gynoms charge at the heroes. Robin quickly disconnects from the panel and throws a smoke bomb to the ground, creating a smoke screen. He pulls out his grappling hook and fires the hook at a beam above them and shoots up to it. A Gynom charges through the smoke and toward Kid Flash as it starts attacking him with slashes, Kid Flash uses his speed to dodge the slashes before hopping onto a wall behind him and leaps from it and hitting two Gynoms in the face, he rolls and leaps onto another wall before jumping off it, flipping mid-air and kicks another Gynom to the floor. Aqualad had one on his back and it was trying to claw at him but he gets it off of him and tosses it away before kicking one that was coming at him away. He suddenly gets blindsided by Guardian, causing him to soar crossing the chamber and hitting a cabinet. He gets up and sees Guardian charging at him and the two engage in hand-to-hand combat with Guardian trying to hit Aqualad while the Atlantian was blocking most of his attacks. A few punches and kicks here forced Aqualad to back up onto the cabinet as Guardian was about to strike him with his shield but Aqualad caught his arm and using his powers, sent electricity onto the shied and electrocuting the Hero and causing him to fall along with his Gynom. He and Kid Flash out of the power chamber and caught up to Robin who was at work trying to hack through another door. They turn and see a group of Gynoms coming toward them
"Way to be a team player Rob." Kid Flash says, annoyed by Robin ditching them to fight
"Weren't you guys behind me?" Robin asks, genuinely confused as he was sure they followed him. He manages to hack into the door and it opens to show it was the elevator. He and Kid Flash run into it and see Aqualad running as well with the Gynoms chasing right on his tail, he leaps and rolls into the elevator and Robin presses a button, closing the door right as the Geons were about to get them.
They look up to the level indicator and saw that the number was climbing, not decreasing
"We're heading down?" Aqualad asks, confused about why were they heading down instead of up
"Dude, out is up, not down." Kid Flash points out, Robin just turns to them with a raised eyebrow
"Excuse me, but have you forgotten about Project: Kr and Project: Maelstrom? They're down on Sub-Level 52." Robin says
"This is getting out of control." Aqualad says, rubbing his neck as he walks around the elevator. He felt that this was getting too much of them all and felt if things were to continue this way, it'll get worse. He turns to the others "Perhaps…perhaps we could contact the League." He says, making Kid and Robin look at each other in a decision with each other. Before any of them could decide the next course of action, the elevator came to a halt and the door opens, the heroes stood ready for anything but they saw they were the only ones there. They had reached Sub-Level 52. Robin looks around before running out of the
"We are already here." Kid Flash says as he bolts out of the elevator. Aqualad just sighs and runs out to join the others, hiding behind some crates
"Which way?" Aqualad asks
"Yeah, freaky looking hallway 1 or freaky hallway looking 2?" Robin asks, pointing toward the two hallways. Before Aqualad could say anything else…
"Halt!" Someone yells, the heroes turn and see a thin. This person's horns and eyes glow red, just like how the Gynomorphs do, and holds his hand out, lifting a few barrels up in the air and throwing them at the young heroes. They dodge the barrels which explode as Robin throws one of his Birdarangs at this person but it stops in mid-air just by its face before falling to the floor. The heroes run down one of the halls just as this person throws a few more barrels at them. It sees them running and its horns and eyes stop glowing, suddenly, the elevator door opens and Guardian with his backup arrives at the level with this person turning to them
"They are headed for the Projects." This person says. Guardian and his Gynoms run down the hall chasing away the heroes.
Down at the end of the hall, was a large metal door with the labeling: Project: Maelstrom & Kr. The door opens and out came an African-American woman in a lab coat, holding a clipboard in her hands and reading it. She looks up and sees Kid turning the corner and running toward her. Startled by her, he skids to a halt and crashes into her, knocking her off her feet, and slides across the floor behind her. He sits and turns toward the large door that was now closing and sees the labeling, knowing this was the right place. He turns and sees the others coming and knew they weren't going to make it before the door closed, he quickly gets up and lifts a piece of the equipment that was there and places it in between the door, causing it to remain open
"Hurry, I don't think this will hold for long!" Kid yells, he and Robin jump through the opening but Aqualad stops momentarily and sees the security rushing toward them, he steps through the opening and kicks the piece of equipment out from its spot, and lets the door close. He turns and sees Robin typing onto his holo-screen and the door snaps
"I disabled the door. We're safe." Robin says, discarding the holo-screen
"No, we're trapped." Aqualad says
"Uh…guys. You might wanna see this." Kid says, he was by a control panel and was reading something on it. he presses a button on the panel and the lights in the room turn on, showing the heroes they were in a large lab of some sort, and in the lab, were two things that shocked them
"Whoa…" Robin mummers. They were seeing two pods in the middle of the room in front of them but that wasn't what shocked them. What shocked them was who was in the pods.
In the first, larger pod, was a Caucasian male with short black hair. He was noticeably tall and quite muscular.
He was wearing a white skin-thigh suit that had an S-shield in red.
And in the other pod was a short child, who looked to be or either 11-12 years of age. He was slightly more tanned than the other male in the pod. He had sun-yellow blond, wild spiky hair and what was more noticeable thing about him was that he had three whiskers on each of his cheeks.
He was wearing a black body suit with a fingerless glove attached to the suit with orange trim lines running in various places on the suit but he did have a red circle symbol on his chest
Kid Flash walks over to the pods and inspects them and the occupants inside of them. He looks at the bigger pod and notices the label on it.
"Big K, little r. The atomic symbol of Krypton. Clones?" Kid Flash asks, turning back to the others
"Robin. Hack." Aqualad commands, snapping Robin out of his thoughts
"R-right, right." Robin says as he inserts his Gantlet cable into the monitor's USB port and begins to hack it right before gaining access to the data on the computer of the occupants in the pod
"Weapon designation: Superboy, a clone force grown in 16 WEEKS!" Robin yells, shocked at how young this clone was, he shakes the shock off and continues reading the info. "He possesses D.N.A. acquired from Superman." He reads, looking up at the others
"Stolen from Superman." Aqualad corrects Robin, knowing fully well that there was no possible way Superman would have willing-volunteered to give his D.N.A away to the bad guys
"No way the big guy knows about this." Kid Flash says
"Solar suit allows him to absorb yellow sun radiation 24/7." Robin reads off the info
"That would make sense. The source of Superman's strength and abilities comes from the Sun and since there isn't any sunlight underground, it had to be supplied in an alternate way." Kid Flash says
"And these…creatures?" Aqualad asks, pointing to the creatures on top of the pods with glowing horns just above The Superman clone
"Gynomorphs. Telepathic, force-feeding him in education." Robin says
"And we can guess what else. They're making a slave out of, well…Superman's son." Kid says, trying to figure this whole thing out
"And who's he?" Aqualad asks as he points to the unknown young blonde
"Let me see here." Robin says, he taps away on his keyboard looking for any info about the child until he finds a file on him. "Got it. Weapon designation: Maelstrom. A bio-modified meta-human child turned into a weapon for the sole purpose of…destroy the Justice League!" He shouts, eyes widening at reading the info
"What?! How?!" Kid Flash yells, finding it hard to believe that one person could take the whole Justice League out. And he wasn't the only one.
"It's not listed here. The only thing that is listed is that he's shown great potential, better than what Superboy has. And that he possesses a Meta-Gene that grants him massive energy which is used as a source for another ability. Now that's concerning. And they inserted other abilities into his D.N.A!" Robin yells, now this was concerning. If Cadmus were able to do this, just what other things were they capable to do?
"Whoa, what kind of powers does he have…or…was given?" Kid asks, Robin looks for the files, and he finds them but runs into an earlier issue he had faced
"No clue, all info on him is triple encrypted. Just like before, even I can't get into these files. Better download them for later." Robin says, he starts the download as Kid Flash just looking at the sleeping blonde boy
"How long has he been here?" Kid asks, wanting to know just how long has he's been here alongside the Superman clone
"He's been here…since 2004…" Robin says, they were shocked in hearing this. That Cadmus held a child for Six or more years and was doing experiments on him, for what?
"Six years, in there? Oh man, poor kid." Kid says, looking at the sleeping child as he pities him
"Now, we contact the League." Aqualad says. The two nod and they go to their commos to contact their mentors and the others for backup. But all they received was static on the line
"No single." Robin says, seeing the single range which wasn't there due to how deep they were
"We're in too deep. Literally." Kid says, knowing things were getting harder for themselves.
Outside the door, Guardian and his Gynoms were waiting by the door as the African-American scientist was busy at a panel, trying to hot-wire it. They hear someone running toward them with Guardian turns to see who it was and sees a man who had long brown colored hair tied in the back in a ponytail. He wore a standard white lab coat, glasses, and brown sandals and had slight wrinkles on his face and streaks of white in his hair, an indicator that he may be well into his forties. After consuming Project Blockbuster his appearance transformed into a large, grotesque, dark-colored monster with a daunting demeanor.
"They're still in there?! With the Weapons?!" This man shouts, slightly panting due to his poor stamina. He was Dr. Mark Desmond, head and leading researcher at Cadmus.
"We can't get the door opened." Guardian says, showing Desmond the African-American woman was at work hot-wiring the door. Desmond turns to a tall slender blue-skinned man whose head was radically different from that of a human's, with the presence of two horns and no nose and he had pointed fin-like ears and two ribbons of flesh originating from his cheeks. He wore plain white hospital-like pants and a matching shirt
"Use your Telekinesis." Desmond says, pointing to the door but the creature just shakes his head
"I have tried, to no avail." This creature says, angering Desmond
"Useless. Utterly useless!" Desmond yells. he turns back to Guardian "Get some G-Trolls down here to muscle the door open. Now!" he yells
"Already on their way." Guardian says, crossing his arms over his chest
"You do realize once we get in there, we can't even let them leave. They know too much about Project Cadmus and the weapons! We need to keep them here, by any means doable." Desmond says, but Guardian found that request to be difficult
"Doc, these aren't your typical "meddling kids." They're the prodigies of three members of the Justice League, you don't want to get onto the wrong side of the League." Guardian says
"I'd rather prefer getting on their wrong side than getting on the wrong side of the Cadmus Board of Directors. Believe me." Desmond says. He looks at Guardian's right shoulder and looks at the small Gynom sitting on him
"Contact the Gynoms inside Kr and Shinonbi. Activate them and process to stop the intruders." Desmond commands the Gynom. It nods and closes its eyes with its horns beginning to glow
Inside the lab, in the pods. The three Gynoms inside the two pods wake up and their horns being to glow. Receiving the orders, they began to connect to Kr and Maelstrom. Meanwhile, with our heroes, they look at the pods and were thinking about something
"This is wrong. So wrong." Kid Flash says, feeling disgusted at this…this act of inhuman acts
"We can't leave them like them. Who knows what else they do to them." Robin says. Aqualad thinks for a bit before coming to a conclusion. He turns to Robin
"Let's set them free. Do it." Aqualad says. Robin nods and types onto the panel before pressing two buttons. The pods open and release them. Kr's hand twitches a bit before it clenches into a fist, knuckles cracking while Maelstrom just falls onto his knees and took deep breaths before red energy begins to form from him. Aqualad's eyes narrowed at them, sensing something was wrong here. Kr opens his eyes, revealing they were blue while Maelstrom lifts his head up and reveals his eyes are sky-blue and were starting to glow
Suddenly, Kr shoots at Aqualad at speeds that he couldn't react to and tackles him to the floor. He starts punching him a few times before Robin and Kid Flash try to go to him and pry him off from Aqualad, before Maelstrom suddenly appears in front of them and jumps in the air, and delivers a kick to Kid Flash, sending the Speedster flying across the room and hitting the control panel and get knocked out from it. Maelstrom then turns his attention onto Robin and starts to attack him with punches with a blue aura surrounding his sift, this forces the Boy Wonder to evade and dodge the attacks.
Aqualad manages to roll and kick Kr away from him, sending the clone soaring toward a wall. The Atlantian looks and sees Robin was evading Maelstrom's punches, as he runs and tackles the boy to the floor but he gets punched in the gut by the blonde before kicked off from him, as Maelstrom gets up, Robin pulls out two Birdarange and throws them at the blonde boy but they hit the floor. Just before Maelstrom could do a thing, the Birdarange release a gas that caused the blonde to start coughing and gets electrocuted by a taser Robin had pulled out and fired at him.
Just before Robin was about to pull out another gadget, Kr appears next to Maelstrom and grabs the electric line of the taser, and pulls them off the blonde who falls to the floor from the pain. He reels them in, pulling Robin along. Kr grabs the boy by his face and tosses him to the floor and puts his foot onto Robin's chest and applies pressure, slowly crushing Robin's chest, causing him to grunt from the pain. Aqualad sits up and sees his comrade was getting crushed, he acts fast and grabs his weapons
"Enough!" Kr looks up and gets hit by a hammer made of enchanted water used by Aqualad. Kr is sent falling back and colliding with one of the pods. Aqualad then grabs hold of Maelstrom who was tossing around in an attempt to get off from him.
"We're only trying to help you." Aquadlad says, Maelstrom wasn't responding to him except he was growling, his eyes glow profoundly, and suddenly he leaps in the air and crashes into the ceiling, forcing Aqualad to take the hit, he repeats this again and Aqualad lets go as they land on the floor again. He was about to get up but Maelstrom stands over him and lifts his hand up and points it at Aqualad as The Atlantian is suddenly sent flying back and collided with a wall with the collision having enough force to render him unconscious.
Kr stands up and sees the blonde was standing near the bodies of the fallen heroes as the two then walk toward the door and each grab a side of it and force it open. Desmond and his company see them with Desmond enters the room and seeing the heroes were down, he grins and looks at the weapons
"Good boys." He says as he instructs the Gynomorphs to take the sidekicks to another room for holding, while he goes upstairs and prepares to report this to his superiors, who he knew that they would not like this at all. However, two decided that they were by the ones to carry the heroes to the room
[Time: 00:01 EDT]
"Time is running short. You must awaken…AWAKEN NOW!"
The three young heroes wake up, and something yelling in their minds that caused them to awaken. Once they did and gained their bearings, they saw they were in Pods, restrained by cuffs. They look down and low and behold, they see Kr and Maelstrom standing in front of them, staring at them with intense expressions
"W-What? What do you want?" Kid yells at the two but they don't say a thing and continue staring
"Quit staring, you're freaking me out!" Kid shouts at them
"Uh, KF. I really don't think ticking off a guy who can fry us with a look and an unknown is a good idea." Robin says, shutting Kid Flash up as he realizes that.
"We only sought to help you." Aqualad says
"Yeah, we free you guys and you turn on us. How's that for gratitude?" Kid Flash says, annoyed by how the two turned on them when they helped them. Aqualad turns to Kid
"Kid, please. Be quiet now. I believe our new friends were not in full control of their actions." Aqaulad says, causing the two weapons to actually think about their actions
"W…What if I…" Project Kr softly spoke, of this was the first time he ever spoke. He clears his throat before looking up at the three. "What if I wasn't?" Kr says, surprising Kid Flash, unaware of any of them, Robin pulls out a tool from his glove and began to work on his restraints
"He can talk?" Kid Flash asks, surprised by this as Kr just clenches his fist
"Yes, HE can." Kr says, with force in his tone. Robin and Aqualad turn to Kid Flash who just looks around
"What? It's not like I called him it." Kid Flash says. Aqualad just ignores the Speedster and turns back to the clone
"The Gynomorphs taught you? Telepathically?" Aqualad asks. Kr just nods
"They taught me much. I can read, and write. I know the names of things." Kr says
"But have you seen them? Have they ever actually let you see the sky? Or the sun?" Robin asks
"Images are implanted in my mind…but… no. I have not seen them." Kr says before looking down
"And him?" Kid Flash asks, looking at the young blonde who was silent during this. He looks at the Clone who just nods his head and turns to the heroes
"Yeah, I can talk as well. They also taught me stuff. Same things Kr has been taught, that's all. I've been taught at a school level, elementary I believe. That is all." Maelstrom says
"Do you two know what you are? Who you are?" Aqualad asks, the two weapons loo
"I am the Superboy. A Gynomorph. A clone made from the D.N.A of Superman, created to replace him should he perish…or to destroy him should he turn from the light." Kr, now known as Superboy, says
"I am Maelstrom. A bio-modified Meta-human, designed to be the perfect weapon/solider. To be the one to guard Planet Earth should there be any danger…Or Destroy the Justice League should they turn from the Light and pose as a threat to the world…" Maelstrom says, emotionless which sent chills down the three young heroes' spines
Robin and Kid Flash turn to one another, startled by how the two speak. Aqualad, however just looks at them
"To be like Superman and to be…perfect, are worthy aspirations. But you both need to understand that should not be your true and only purpose in life. Like Superman or any begin on this planet, you both deserve to have a life of your own, beyond those proposes that you were created for. Beyond Cadmus, as it is not your home." Aqualad says, this angers Superboy
"I live because of Cadmus! It is my home!" Superboy yells at them
"And it is the only place I truly know." Maelstrom says
"Dudes, your home is a test tube in an underground lab." Robin says, speaking to Superboy before turning to Maelstrom. "And you've been down here for six years. This isn't your place, it's a prison. We can get you two out of here. Show you the sun, show you the world, show you that you have a place that isn't here." He says, but Kid Flash looks at him
"Uh, I'm pretty sure it's after midnight Rob." Kid Flash says, with Robin giving him a flat expression, but he turns to the two weapons. "But we can show you two the moon." He says
"We can show you, take you, and introduce you two to the Justice League. To Superman." Aqualad says, causing the two to get interested in his offer, however…
"No, they can't." The five look behind them and see Dr. Desmond, Guardian, The Female scientist, and a few Gynomorphs entering the room "They'll be, otherwise occupied for the foreseeable future." Desmond says. He approaches the pods containing the three heroes before turning to the female scientist
"Activate the cloning process." Desmond says, causing the three eyes to widen
"Pass. Batcave's crowded enough." Robin says, Desmond however just ignores him. He turns to Guardian
"And get the weapons back in their pods." Desmond demands. Guardian walks over to the two and places his hand on their shoulders, the two then turn to Aqualad who had a pleading expression
"Help us." Aqualad pleads with the two boys. Both of which actually looked like to ponder on the idea. They look at Guardian and move their shoulders off his hands. Desmond sees this and decides to intervene
"Don't start thinking now." Desmond says as he walks up to them. He looks at their Gynoms and nods at them as they look at him and their horns glow red, causing the two to freeze up with blank expression. "See, you two aren't real boys. You're weapons. And you belong to me…well to Cadmus, same thing. The point is you are nothing more than weapons. Now get back to your pods!" He yells at the two.
Superboy and Maelstrom nod with blank expressions and turn around and process exiting the chamber toward their pods. As they left, Desmond turns to his assistant who was at a control panel that operated the pods the sidekicks were in, and nods at her. She nods back and types in commands onto the control panel and mechanical arms pop out from within the pods and stab into the three sidekicks, causing them to scream while getting electrocuted as their blood was being extracted from them and inserted into containers just below them as the cloning processes was commencing. Desmond and the others watch on
"Where's Dubbilex?" Desmond asks and the creature from before walks out from the shadows of the building, startling Desmond "Oh, lurking as usual." He says as he composes himself. "Get the Gynoms downloading their memories. When's that done, delete the source material." He says with a hint of venom at the word delete as Dubbliex nods
"As you wish sir" Dubbilex says as he moves back into the shadows. The trio continues to scream from the pain as Aqualad tries something
"Superboy… Maelstrom. You both live." Aqualad whispers. Outside the room, the two boys were walking back to their pods and they hear Aqualad speak thanks to their enhanced hearing
"That gives you both the right to choose and follow your own paths. To be weapons, or to be your own person. The choice is yours to make but before doing so, ask yourselves: What would a Hero do? What would Superman do?" Aqualad finishes
The two stop walking as they think over this, was this really what they wanted? To be weapons? Weapons that could be discarded once they were done using their worth? Or, to live and…be someone that they wanted to be? To be themselves. They look up and turn to each other, having a conversation with their eyes, telling each other what the other was thinking of before coming to a decision
Back at the cloning room, the scientists and security watch as the young heroes scream until two bangs on the metal door were heard, causing them to turn and see two dents. Two more bangs went off as the door got ripped from the wall and Superboy holds the large door over his head.
Thanks to this, the system within the pods short out, and the electrocution of the three heroes stops, making them a sigh of relief as Aqualad looks at the two arrivals and smiles. Superboy tosses the door to the side and he and Maelstrom enter the room without their Gynoms. Desmond sees them and grits his teeth
"I told you two to get back to your-" Desmond was saying before he got cut off when Maelstrom smacks him across the face, sending him to fly and hit the wall. Superboy took quick action on Dubbilex and Guardian as he swats them to the other side of the room and had them incapacitated. The female assistant runs out of the room to save herself.
"Don't give us orders." Maelstrom hisses at Desmond as he and Superboy look back to the heroes
"You two here to help us or finish the job from earlier?" Kid asks. Superboy narrows his eyes at them and stares for a bit before realizing something
"Ha, I don't seem to have heat vision. So I guess helping you is my only other option." Superboy says
"I'm just going with the flow of things." Maelstrom says. Robin finally unlocks his resistance and exits his pod
"Ah, finally. Lucky Batman isn't here or he'd have my head for taking so long." Robin says, rubbing his wrists. Kid Flash just looks at him, bewailed
"Seriously? That's what you're worried about? The whole League will have our heads after tonight!" Kid yells
"Does he ever shut up?" Maelstrom asks
"Nope, you'll learn how to tune him out." Robin says, smirking
"Dude!" Kid yells. Robin runs toward the control panel and presses a button, opening the pods
"You two free Aqualad and Kid Mouth while I hack into the system." Robin says, connecting back to the system
"Don't you give us to order either." Superboy growls to Robin. He and Maelstrom leap to the two trapped heroes and rip their resistances off with ease.
Aqualad was released from his bonds as Superboy catches him, the Atlantian looks at the two
"Thank you." He says with the Super Clone nodding to him. Maelstrom looks at Kid Flash's restrains as his eyes glow and the resistance suddenly get crushed by an unknown force which frees the yellow-dressed hero as they land on the floor
Once Robin had finished his hacking, the five run toward the door as Desmond starts to recover and see them leaving
"Y-You'll never get out of here! I'll have you all back in pods before morning!" Desmond shouts at them, seeing them escape
"That guy's not whelmed. Not whelmed at all." Robin says, shaking his head. he pulls out three Birdarange and throws them at the pods they were in while beeping
"Dude, what is with you and this whelmed thing?" Kid Flash asks as the two run out of the room. The Birdaranges hits the pods before exploding, destroying the pods and the stolen D.N.A. along with it. Desmond stands up and sees the destruction, he turns around to the door and glares at it while his Gynom clone hops onto his shoulder and looks at him
"Activate every Gynomorphs in Cadmus." Desmond says. The Gynom nods and focuses on a connection between every active and non-active Gynom in Cadmus.
In a hallway where the five were running through the hallway
"We're still 42 levels underground. But if we can make it to the elevator, we might make it to the outside." Aqualad says with the others nodding. They continue running before they stopped upon seeing five large Gynomorphs in front of them. And as they watch the five Gynoms appear them, they hear commotion from behind, turning around, they see Gynoms of various shapes and sizes were emerging from the walls of the hallway they were in and quickly take position in blocking the other way, the Heroes were surrounded. One of the large Gynoms in front of them tries to smash them with its fists before the Heroes leap out of their way as it smashes the ground.
Superboy and Maelstrom were the only ones who didn't leap out of the way and instead chose to attack the giant Gynoms with Superboy connecting an uppercut to one as he lands and is smashed into the floor by another Gynom while Maelstrom just charged toward and jumps in the air, soaring headfirst into its midsection as he brings it down to the ground before sending a barrage for punches onto it, causing it to groan from the hit. But while sending the barrage of punches onto his opponent, Maelstrom didn't pay attention to the one next to him until it grabs him off from the downed one and throws him into a wall, with his body colliding into it and leaving a deep imprint on it. Maelstrom slides out of the imprint and hits the floor as he sits up and spits out some blood from his mouth while some was leaking out of the corner of his mouth, he looks up and sees the one Gynom who tossed him advancing to him as he grits his teeth and his eyes glow profoundly as he lets out a roar and leaps toward the Gynom with his fist raised in the air as blue aura like energy was forming around the fist and he connects the fist into the Gynom's body which gets sent flying and gets embedded into the wall on the other side.
The three young Heroes leap over one giant Gynom and land on the clear side as they felt a shake, they turn around and see Superboy and Maelstrom still fighting the army of Gynoms as each of their attacks sent the Gynoms to fly into the wall, causing the shakes and the hallway to crumble apart.
"Superboy, Maelstrom! The goal is to escape, not bury ourselves alive!" Aqualad yells at the two which causes the two to turn to him as they both had furious expressions
"You won't escape?!" Superboy yells as he turns to the one Gynom he was facing against. "You'll get escape!" He yells before he leaps up into the air and sends down a heavy punch down to the Gynom before grabbing its leg and starts spinning around with the Gynom, he uses it as a weapon in taking out the remaining Gynoms before letting it down and sending it flying back to the lab they escape. Maelstrom meanwhile stares down his opponent as he leaps over it and grabs its horns and flips it over into a vertical suplex as it lands into the concert headfirst which actually caused one of its horns to break off. The two regroup with the three heroes and start running down the hallway
The group arrives at the elevator where Aqualad kicks the door, tossing them into the empty shaft and sending them flying down to the very bottom sub-level floor. Robin pulls out a retractable grappling hook gun from his belt and fires the hook to the top floor as he grabs Maelstrom and the two start ascending up the floor. Kid Flash hops to the side and starts running up the walls along with Robin and Maelstrom. Superboy grabs Aqualad and he takes off soaring up the shaft, passing the others. However, as the two reach sub-level 10, Superboy found himself beginning to slow down. His eyes wide at this as he and Aqualad come to a momentary halt in the air
"I'm falling…?" Superboy utters as they drop, much to the shock of others. Maelstrom sees this and lifts his hand at them as they suddenly stop in the air as they were gently set down to the side over to the door of sub-level 15.
"Superman can fly…why can't I?" Superboy asks, confusion present on his face. Kid Flash meets up with them while Robin lets go of his grapple and lands next to them with Maelstrom in tow
"Don't know, but it looks like you can leap tall buildings in a single bound. That's still impressive." Kid Flash says with a smirk
"And Maelstrom, how'd you stop them from falling?" Robin asks the young blonde who blinks and looks at his hands
"I…don't know…I've always been able to do that. It just…felt right." Maelstrom says. Superboy looks at the young blonde and nods at him
"Thank you." Superboy says as Maelstrom just nods back. Taking the thanks. They hear something above them and see that elevator was coming down them
"Guys, this will have to be our exit!" Robin yells, pointing to the door next to them. Using his super strength, Superboy easily breaks the door apart as they jump out the shaft and watch as the elevator goes down, seeing how close they were to death. Turning back in front of them, the five see more Gynomorphs heading toward them as they run down a hallway.
"Turn left Brother/Young One." A voice speaks through the minds of both Maelstrom and Superboy, catching them off guard as they look at one another as if they knew the other one heard the same thing as the voice felt…familiar and they felt that they could trust it. They gain a serious look and nod
"Go left!" Superboy yells as the two run fast, going ahead for the group
"What? Why?" Kid Flash asks
"Go left, trust us!" Maelstrom yells. Looking at one another, the three heroes decide to let the two lead them as they turn left down another hallway
"Turn right." The voice spoke in their mind once again
"Go right!" Maelstrom yells as the group turns a right into another hallway and runs down it before coming to a stop at a dead-end with there being a vent
"Great directing Supey and Wildcard. You two trying to get us re-poded?" Kid Flash asks, looking at them
"What? I…I don't understand…" Superboy utters with confusion on his face
"That voice told me to…" Maelstrom utters, equally confused about why that voice led them here. Robin looks at the dead-end and gains an idea
"Don't apologize you two, this is perfect!" Robin says/ The others turn to him and watch go into the vent, ripping it open and entering it. "C'mon! This will help us get to at least sub-level 10!" He yells, the others look at one another before they enter the vent and crawl through it for a bit before coming out of it in another hallway. They see there was a door to the stairs which they thought it'd lead them all to sub-level 1
"Wait a minute, guys. Still need to do something." Robin says as he goes to the wall and pries off a metal piece of it and crouches down and connects his gantlet to a wire and pulls out his holo-screen and keyboard. He types onto the keyboard for a bit as he grins at what he saw
"And, done!" Robin says, tapping on his final key
"What did you do?" Superboy asks
"I hacked the motion sensors. Meaning they can't track us." Robin says with a smirk
"Sweet!" Kid Flash says
"That also means there are plenty of them and the way out." Robin says, having disconnected from the building's system
"And I finally got enough room to really move." Kid Flash grin as he pulls down his red lensed googols and turns to the door that led to the stairs once he enters, he sets off at a high speed, turning into a blur, he starts climbing up the stairs, passing floor after floors in mere moments, as he continues to run, Kid Flash spots a group of Gynomorphs coming down the stairs in front of him, gritting his teeth, he ups his speed and cuts right through the group, taking them out as he runs further up the stairs. Behind him, Aqaulad, Maelstrom, Robin, and Superboy were following him as they pass the fallen group of Gynoms, Robin's gantlet displays his holo-screen, he looks to see what was up and notices something
"There's more behind us!" He yells back to Superboy. The clone stops and looks down to the flight of stairs and sees more Gynoms were coming up, chasing him. He grits his teeth before lifting his foot up and stomps the stairs behind him, completely destroying it and cutting off the Gynoms path.
Back with Kid Flash, he makes it to sub-level 1 as he exits the stairs and runs down a hallway. While running, he is shocked in seeing a big metal gate begin to close in front of him while a red siren lit the hallway
"Oh, crap." Kid Flash says, skidding across the floor before bouncing off the gate with a painful grunt
"We're cut off from the street." Aqualad says while Kid Flash sits up and rubs his head
"Thanks, my head hadn't noticed." KF sarcastically says. Superboy steps up, cracking his fists as he rushes to the gate and punches it with his strength but there was no dent from the hit. He then tries to pry the gate open as Aqualad helps him with this but even with their combined strength and effort wasn't working as the gate wasn't moving at all. Robin was busy on his holo-screen, typing away on it as he was trying to open the gate.
"Can't hack this fast enough." They hear a growl and look back to see more giant Gynoms coming. Robin turns and spots a door next to them, and kicks it open
"This way!" Robin yells as the group race in, right before ending up surrounded by all the Gynomorphs and Guardian. They glance back to the way they came in, only to see the giant Gynoms blocking their way. The group tense up as they get ready for a fight, only for something unexpected to happen. Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash faint as all the small Gynoms' horns glow while Superboy and Maelstrom fall to their knees, barely keeping their consciousness
"Perhaps, for the sake of all Gynomorphs, we should let our brother Superboy and the young one make up their mind." The two hear the voice speak in their minds once more as they hear someone approaching them. they turn and see…Dubbliex coming. The two boys' eyes widen in shock as realization came to them
"It was you…" Superboy thought
"The one who guided us back there." Maelstrom thought. Dubbilex nods to the two
"Yes. I was the one who set the fire and lured your new friends down into Cadmus's true nature. Woke them when they were in danger…" Dubbilex thought
"And guided the both of us." Superboy thought, he and Maelstrom getting the picture here. Dubbilex nods
"Correct Brother." Dubbilex thought
"Why? Why do all this? For what reason?" Maelstrom asks, wanting to know the reason behind all this.
"Because you Superboy, you are our Hope. The Gynomorph Hero." Dubbilex thought, this shocks Superboy as he looks around to all the Gynoms in the room and saw they were looking at him, as if telling him that they felt that way. The Gymon on Guardian's shoulder stops its ability and hops off him as the Hero starts to stir. "You will blaze a trail for all of our brothers, showing us the way to freedom." He thought before looking down at the young blonde
"And for you young one, this is something that was taken from you from a young age. Something that was stripped from you. A chance to be…you." Dubbilex thought as
"To be…me?" Maelstrom thought.
"Yes." Dubbilex thought. He kneels down to Maelstrom and looks at him in the eyes. "You possess a power greater than mine or Superboy's. A power that has the power to shift thoughts, into reality. This power is too great, enough for dark forces to use you and make you into their tool. My one request to you is, don't be. Be someone different from what was laid out for you. What was made for you? Become…you." He thought, he then turns to all the other Gynoms and tell them to stop. They comply and stop their telekinesis as the other young Heroes start to regain their conscience. Dubbilex then looks back to Maelstrom and places his hands on the young blonde's shoulders as he looks at them. "You may have lost a part of your life, but it is you that has the choice to be who you want to be. The person you strive to be." He thought as Maelstrom ponders this. What did he want to be? This…actually got him in a loop
"What are your choices, Brother? Young one?" Dubbilex thought. The two boys ponder the question as their lives were on the line here. After some thinking, Superboy finally makes a decision as he looks up to Dubbilex and has a determined expression
"I…chose…freedom." Superboy says with conviction in his tone, making up his mind on this while Maelstrom thought about this further, weighing in the pros and cons of this decision. He looks at Superboy and then at the three heroes and that is when he finally makes his decision. He looks to Dubbielx and with a look of certainty, he speaks
"I…I…chose…to…be…me." Maelstorm says. Dubbilex looks at the blonde and smile
"Excellent choices. We hope that your journey is well. We believe in you brother." Dubbilex thought as he goes to Maelstrom and hugs him, much to the blonde's shock. The Gynomorph releases the boy and looks at him. "And in you Young one. And before you go. I leave you with this." He thought as his horns glow profoundly and Maelstrom's eyes widen as they turn white and started glowing for a brief moment before they stop as he blinks and looked visibly confused as he processes what had happened. Guardian shakes his head
"Feels like…fog lifting…" Guardian says with a soft tone as he regains his senses and remembers everything. The young heroes stand up and look at him
"Guardian." Aqualad questions. The hero looks at them with his fist clenched but it wasn't because of them
"Go." Guardian says, he had regained his senses. "I'll deal with Desmond." He says, making the three feel relief that he was on their side
"I think not." A voice behind Guardian and the G-Trolls proclaims as they turn and see Desmond there, glaring at the intruder with hate-filled eyes. He had a vial in his hand as he lifts it up to reveal it had glowing blue liquid in it. "Project: Blockbuster will give me the power to restore order to Cadmus." He says before pouring the liquid down his throat.
Superboy moves in front of Maelstrom as he and the rest watch as Desmond begins to change. His body inflates with his skin stretching beyond a normal point as it tears apart to reveal a dark hide underneath, his eyes become red windows and his jaw widens with the bridge of his nose stretched to the edge of his brow. Whatever this was from Desmond roars as it slams its hands down to the ground, creating a crate onto it. The heroes tense up as they watch this monster
"Gross…" Maelstrom shivers at the disgusting sight of what was formally Desmond, seeing his old skin dangling off various parts of his deformed body
"Ditto…" Kid Flash says, grossed out by the sight
"Everyone, stay back!" Guardian yells before he charges at this monster and leaps in the air for an attack with his shield but Desmond or as he is now this Blockbuster monster just swats him away, sending the older Hero to a wall as he crashes into it and is rendered unconscious
Superboy charges toward Blockbuster and jumps in front of him and lands a punch to the face but that did little to the monster who punches the clone but that did little to Superboy who returns the attack with three of his own. Blockbuster shakes its head before throwing a big strike to Superboy's face, sending the clone sliding across the floor before regaining his composer as he leaps up in the air for a slam but Blockbuster intercepts the clone mid-air by jumping toward him, tackling him and going through the ceiling above them and entering the first floor, leaving a massive hole. The four look up to the hole as Dubbilex and the Gynomoprhs start fleeing the hallway with Guardian in toll.
"Okay, that's one way to bust through the ceiling." Robin says, staring at the hole as he pulls out his grappling gun and fires a line through the hole. Kid Flash grabs his shoulder
"You think lab coat planned that?" Kid Flash asks before he and Robin go to the ceiling. Aqualad grabs Maelstrom and holds him
"I doubt he is planning anything anymore." Aqualad says as he leaps through the hole with the blonde boy and makes it to the first floor. Upon landing, he releases Maelstrom and glances at the battle.
The two look back to the battle and in time see Blockbuster holding Superboy by his leg and tossing the clone at the teens, Aqualad quickly catches him as they are sent flying back. Robin, Kid Flash, and Maelstrom run to their side to help them up as Blockbuster gives out a roar before charging at the incoming sidekicks.
Blockbuster attempts to dive its fist at the speeding hero but Kid Flash slides under its legs and the creature turns around slightly to him before Superboy and Aqualad deliver a double team punch onto it, sending it staggering back as Kid Flash was behind it, crouched down and causes Blockbuster to trip over him and fall to its back
"Learned that in kindergarten." Kid Flash says smirking as Robin jumps over him and throws two birdarangs at the downed creature but the creature bats them away with its forearm with one of the birdrangs soars past Maelstrom's face and cuts his cheek, leaving a deep cut as the blonde covers his cheek with a cry. Seeing that, Superboy gets angry and he attempts to make Blockbuster pay for that with a barrage of punches, only for him to get plowed into a pillar by Blockbuster, causing the pillar to crack from the impact. Superboy throws a couple of hits onto the creature before Blockbuster sends one onto him, causing him to go through it and make the pillar crumble. It was about to send another punch to Superboy but it's stopped by a water whip, made by Aqualad. Blockbuster reels his arm in and pulls the Atlantian along as it was about to attack him when Aqualad flies to its face, striking it with his knee as he shifts his water weapon from a whip to a mace and sends it down to the creature, which sees the attack coming and catches the water mace and throws Aqualad to the floor before throwing Superboy to another pillar.
Kid Flash rushes toward the creature and narrows his eyes as he sees Blockbuster trying to hit Aqualad with its foot as the Atlantian moves away from the hit. Kid Flash charges in and tries to take Blockbuster down with his super speed but the creature catches his arm and sends him into the incoming black teen, sending them flying back. Maelstrom sees this and gets angry, his eyes dilate and glow once more but instead of them being sky-blue, they were turning and glowing blueish-white as a white aura-like energy begins to form around his body. He cries out and charges towards Blockbuster. Robin sees this and gets frightened
"Maelstrom! Wait, stop! What are you-!" Robin was saying before he gets cut off when he sees Blockbuster turn to Maelstrom and sends a punch to the blonde boy but Maelstrom leaps over the punch, avoiding it as he soars right into the creature's face and sends a heavy punch onto it before grabbing its head and sending his knee onto it, causing it to stumble back a bit as he lands on the ground with his hands, before jumping off the ground using his hand, processes to spin in the air before sending a kick onto the side of Blockbuster's head which sends it flying into a pillar. Robin was in shock at seeing this display of fighting, especially coming from a boy like Maelstrom. He then looks at Blockbuster who got up and roars as he charges back to Maelstrom who looks at him and swats his hand. Blockbuster is suddenly sent flying back and crashing into another pillar before Maelstrom appears in front of it and starts delivering a barrage of fast punches onto it, each one pushing it back into the pillar which cracks at the pressure of the attacks while the ceiling and the whole building shakes at this. The Boy Wonder then realizes something
"Of course!" Robin says, as he opens up his gantlet and looks at a hologram of the first floor and sees the support pillars that were located and spots something on the hologram. He turns to Kid Flash who was getting up. "KF, get over here!" He calls to the speedster who rushes over to him. Maelstrom continues his attack onto Blockbuster who grabs his wrist and slams him down to the floor, leaving him in a crater as he groans from the pain. Blockbuster lifts his leg up above the blonde and wasn't for Superboy tacking it through the pillar behind it and sending it to the floor. Blockbuster rolls and gets the clone off him with its feet and was about to charge to the black-haired teen when Aqualad appears next to it with his water mace and attacks it with his mace, sending him into a wall. Maelstrom gets up from the crater and shakes his head and sees Blockbuster down as he charges at him
Meanwhile, Robin, he explains a plan to Kid Flash who listens to it while the other three fought the creature. "Got it?" Robin asks Kid Flash who nods and puts on his googols
"Got it!" Kid Flash says as he takes off to Blockbuster who throws Aqualad to the side while Maelstrom was on top of its head and Superboy hits its abdomen with strikes
"Go!" Robin yells. Kid Flash runs to the creature and sees it grabbing Maelstrom off from its head and throwing him into a pile of debris before grabbing Superboy up by his neck and starts strangling him. Kid Flash speeds up and runs to its side before jumping up and punching Blockbuster in the face, which makes it release Superboy as KF jumps past it and lands to the side. The speedster looks down at his hand and sees a piece of Desmond's old nose hanging off from it
"Got your nose!" Kid Flash yells. Blockbuster roars and starts chasing Kid Flash around the lobby. Superboy and Aqualad got up on their feet, both holding their shoulders while Maelstrom got up from the pile of debris as he was holding his head.
"Superboy! Aqaulad! Maelstrom! Over here!" The three turn to Robin who came to them with his hologram display of the lobby. Kid Flash continues to dupe Blackbuster in a goose chase as the creature attempt to hit the speedster with a punch but Kid Flash ducks under it as it instead hits the pillar before him, destroying it.
"Hey, and hey." Robin says, pointing to three pillars on the hologram image. The three nod and rush to the three pillars with Superboy smashing it, Aqualad smashing his with his mace and Maelstrom destroying his by lifting his hand up to some debris, and sending them into his pillar. Robin throws his birdrangs around before pulling out a piece of chalk and starts marking it on the floor.
Kid Flash ducks from a hit from Blockbuster and another pillar gets destroyed as the lobby shakes more as it became more and more unstable. Robin finishes marking the floor with his chalk as he made a big X mark at the center of the floor before running off. Aqualad splashes some of his water onto the floor, Kid Flash runs toward the water and slides to a stop on it as he turns and sees Blockbuster running toward him but Superboy and Maelstrom stop him by punching him into the floor and into the water. They leap off him as the creature tries to stand back but doesn't see Aqualad standing next to the paddle of water with his tattoos glowing as he places his hands onto the water and Blockbuster gets electrocuted from this as it screams from the pain, shunning him for enough time for Maelstrom to bury it with various debris he had in the air. Once this was done, Robin begin the final stage of his plan
"Move!" Robin yells to them all before he grabs Maelstrom and runs to the safe spot as the birdarangs he threw early into his plan set off, and causes the entire building to collapse onto them
Moments pass after the collapse and a fist bursts through the rumble as Superboy climbs out of it before tossing of one large piece as the other climb out of the rumble, all outfits torn in some areas and were injured but they were alive.
"We…did…it…" Aqualad pants as he sees Blockbuster not that far from them but wasn't moving, they had won. Robin and Kid Flash were panting as well, both smirking at the mention of their victory as they five-high one another but regret it as they felt their ribs painfully crack. Maelstorm sits up with a grunt and opens his eyes to see them having returned back to their original state as Robin walks up to him and holds his hand up to the blonde
"You okay?" Robin asks. Maelstrom looks at him and then his hand before taking it as he is helped up to his feet
"Yeah…" Maelstrom mutter
"MS, I got to know. How did you do that back there? That fighting and lifting up those pieces of debris?" Robin asks. This catches Maelstrom
"I…I don't kno-MMM!" Maelstrom was saying but he suddenly felt sick and falls onto his knees before he threw up onto the ground as blood began to leak from his nose. He throws up some more before stopping as he felt dizzy and a bit tired.
"You okay dude?" Kid Flash asks, Maelstrom just waves his hand at him and nods
"Y-Yeah…I'm fine…" Maelstrom says as he wipes his puke from his mouth. As he wipes off the blood from his cheek, the sidekicks and clone notice something
"Hey, it looks like your cut is all healed up." Kid Flash says. This makes Maelstrom blink as he rubs his cheek and didn't feel the cut he got during the fight. But he frowns as he feels a bump on his cheek, that was long as the cut was
"But it looks like it left a scar tho." Robin says, seeing the liner scar on the blonde's left cheek
"Great…" Maelstrom mutters, while feeling great that he had a healing factor, it sucked that he'd get scars from the wounds
Superboy walks over to the downed creature that was formerly Dr. Desmond as he felt pity nothing to it, knowing that the doctor was deranged for whatever his goals were and he was a part of it. Both him and Maelstrom and he didn't like that.
"See." His attention was brought by Kid Flash as he turns and sees him point up to the sky and Superboy looks up to see something amazing. It was the full moon. "The moon." He says
Superboy and Maelstrom were in awe at the sight of the moon in all its beauty. The two look as they notice something coming into their view. A figure flew toward them. It was Superman. "Oh, and there's Superman. Man, do we keep our promises or what?" Kid flash asks
"That's…Superman…" Maelstorm utters as Superman lands in front of the five
Soon more people began to arrive at the scene, all of various sizes, forms, and sex as they look down at the five. As Superman looks at them, Superboy steps forward and pulls up his torn solar suit to reveal the red S symbol to them all, widening Superman's eyes along with the rest of the Heroes. Superboy looks at Superman with hope in his eyes, wanting to be accepted by him, only to see the man narrow his eyes at him, shocking the clone
"Is that what I think it is?" Batman asks while taking a glance at Maelstrom who saw him and hid behind Robin. He wonders who was this kid
"He doesn't like being called an It." Kid Flash whispers to the Heroes as Superboy clenches his fists and glares at the Heroes
"I'm Superman's clone!" Superboy loudly declares as the Heroes look at one another in shock
"Start talking." Batman says, narrowing his eyes
After a lengthy explanation of the Project Cadmus really was, The Justice League huddled together in taking Blockbuster into custody as the teens and child were standing together, glancing over to the Heroes and watching them discuss. Superboy glances over to Superman who was talking to Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman as the Martian sees him and pats the Kryptonian's shoulder, Superman turns to him and sees Superboy looking at him. Superboy turns away but discreetly looks back and sees Superman walking up to him.
"We'll…" Superman sighs as he tries to find the right words. "Uh, we'll figure out for you two. The League I mean, for now…I better make sure that they get that Blockbuster creature squared away." He says. As soon as he finishes what he had to say, he turns around and takes off into the air as fast as he could. Back on the ground, Superboy glares at him with a frown right before he feels a pat on his arm, he looks down and sees Maelstrom looking at him with concern.
"Are you okay?" Maelstrom asks, Superboy looks at the blonde for a little bit before he snorts and pats the blonde on his head
"Yeah. I am fine…little brother." Superboy says. For some reason, he felt it was right to call this young blonde brother, which made sense as they were both held by Cadmus.
"Cadmus will be investigated." The two and the other sidekicks turn and see Batman, The Flash, and Aquaman walking up to them "All 52 levels. But let's make one thing clear -"
"You should have called." The Flash cuts Batman off who turns to and glares at the Scarlet speedster who turns away from the glare
"End results aside, we are not happy." Batman says. "You hack Justice League systems, disobey direct orders, and endanger lives. You will not be doing this again." He says with a stern tone and expression. Aqualad steps up to them
"I am sorry. But we will." Aqualad says
"Aqualad, stand down." Aquaman orders
"Apologizes my King, but no." Aqualad says as he places his hand on his chest while his mentor raises his eyebrow. "We did good work here tonight, the work you trained us to do. Together, on our own, we forged something powerful, important." He says.
"Is this about your treatment back at the Hall, the three of you -" The Flash cut gets cut off
"The four…" Kid Flash was saying before taking a glance at the blonde next to them. "Five, I think…of us, and it's not." He says, looking at his mentor. Robin then steps forward and looks at his mentor
"Batman, we're ready to use what you taught us. Or…why teach us at all?" Robin asks, making Batman look at him. Superboy crosses his arm and scoffs
"Why let them tell us what to do? It's simple." Superboy says as he walks up to the three Heroes and glares at them "Get on board, or get out of our way." He says, letting the threat hang. The three heroes glance at Maelstrom and saw he was glaring at them as well, eyes glowing as rocks began to float off from the ground, as they see that he was with the others about this choice. Batman narrows his eyes at the five for a bit before finally making his decision
"Fine." Batman says as he turns around and walks over to Martian Manhunter to discuss something
"Alright, so what are we going to do with Superboy and-" Kid Flash was saying but gets cut off by someone unexpectedly
"Naruto…" The Heroes, sidekicks, and clone turn to Maelstrom who looks at them all. "My name is Naruto…" Maelstrom or Naruto, as he says, says with confidence. Feeling that name was right for him.
[Location: Mount. Justice, Happy Harbour, Rhode Island]
[Date: July 8. 08:04 EDT]
A few days have passed after that night in D.C and we see Naruto and the other sidekicks and Superboy stand in the middle of a large chamber that was inside of a mountain. He glances around the room, seeing one of the Green Lanterns and Captain Marvel moving large equipment around. He wore a large t-shirt under a black hoodie with blue jeans and had on a pair of orange and black high-top sneakers. He stood next to Superboy who wore a black T-shirt with that S-shield in red, blue jeans and black combat boots. The other sidekicks were also in their civilian outfits.
"This cave was the original secret sanctuary of the Justice League" Batman says as he paces up and down. "We're calling it back to service again since you five are determined to stay together and fight the good fight. You'll do it on League terms." He says, turning to them before turning to two people that were there.
"Red Tornado volunteered to live here and be your supervisor." Batman says, looking at a tall red robot with no ears or nose. His mouth and eye sockets were black giving him the appearance of an emotionless robot. He had a yellow T symbol on his chest and a yellow arrow on his forehead. He also wore a blue cape. The robot looks at the teens and gives a nod of affirmation. "Black Canary's in charge in training." He says as an attractive young woman, with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a slender yet toned build nods to the five. She wore a costume that consisted of a black, one-piece bustier-leotard combination under a blue lapelled jacket, with gray stockings with seams up the front and back. She also wore black, heavy, calf-length boots, black fingerless gloves that go past the elbow to the biceps, and a black choker. "I will deploy you on missions." He says
"Real missions?" Robin asks as the Dark Knight nods
"Yes, but covert." Batman says. "Naruto will not join you on these missions until he completes his training and we get a more accurate overview of his abilities and see what else Camdus inserted into his DNA." He says, taking a glance at the blonde who was looking around the room with a curious expression. He suspects something with Naruto, from the files he got from Robin that had the information on Naruto's origins and abilities, all they knew was that he had a Meta-gene that gave him an energy source within his body which fuelled his ability to control things with his mind and that he had a low healing factor. The other files were taking time to decrypt and it'd be some time before they learn any more of this blonde. The best thing they could do, for now, is learn from the blonde.
"The League will still handle the obvious stuff. There's a reason why we have these big targets on our chests." Flash says, pointing to the emblem on his chest
"But Cadmus proves the bad guys are getting smarter." Aquaman says "Batman needs a team that can operate on the sly." He says turning to the Dark Knight who nods
"Is she going to join us?" Robin asks, Batman looks at him, knowing exactly who was he referring to
"I'll brief her on this and let her choice if she wants to join this team." "But for now, the six of you will be that team." He says with the Boy Wonder smirking
"Cool." Robin says before realizing what his mentor said. "Wait, six?" He asks, confused. The Dark Knight looks past them, causing them to look behind and see Martain Manhunter walking up to them with someone next to him. It was a young green-skinned female humanoid who looked to be a teenager, with amber eyes and shoulder-length red hair. She also has freckles on her cheeks.
Her outfit consisted of a short-sleeved white top with a red X on it, along with a blue skirt, cape, gloves, and ankle-high boots.
"This is the Martian Manhunter's niece." Aquaman says, chuckling at the looks of the shocked boys had. "Her name is Miss Martian." He says
"H-Hi." Miss Martain greets them with a wave
"Liking this gig more every minute." Kid Flash whispers to Robin before walking up to the new arrival. "Welcome aboard. I'm Kid Flash, that's Robin, Aqualad. It's cool if you forget their names." He says as Miss Maritain claps her hands together and smiles
"I'm honored to be included." Miss Maritain says and the boys walk over to her to do proper introductions. Superboy and Naruto remained behind as the Super clone just frowns and turns his head while the blonde looked nervous as he was shy. Robin looks back at them and waves his hand
"Hey Superboy, Naruto! Come meet Miss M." He says. The two boys look at one another before they join the others. Miss Maritain looks at Superboy and sees his shirt and her shirt changes into black while her cape fades away
"I like your T-shirt." Miss Maritain says with a small blush. Superboy notices this and gives her a smile right as Robin nudges him with his shoulder while wrapping his arm around Naruto who smiles while Kid Flash zooms toward Superboy and does the same as they turn to Aquadlad who smiles
"Today is the day." Aqualad says, knowing that this, was their time.
To Be Continued…
Hello ladies and Chads, it's a-me, Pixel's Fanbook/PIxelFanfic99 or simply, Pixel, here to bring to you all a new story that is part of an experiment I'm conducting at the moment, This is a story that was previously teased in one of the other stories and has been in the back burner for the better part of a year and heavily worked on with a few buddies for mine.
Now, it has been known that I'm an otaku toward Naruto but I also love comics culture, Marvel, DC, and other works like Invincible, Scott Pilgrim, and others and I grew up watching Young Justice. When Phantoms came out, I felt the urge to do one of my own and do it as a crossover since I'm mostly experienced in that
Now, this is just the prologue and I'm not sure how this story will go, I'll do my usual rule. If you guys like the story and want to see it continue. Then it's up to y'all to make it happen., If this story gets at 250 followers before the 15th of June, then it will continue, but if it doesn't, it ends there and is never to be made again.
Well, that's all I have to say.
Please leave a review, follow me if you enjoy it and want more, and please go check out my other stories if you wanna see more stuff like this. Stay safe and healthy and I'll check on you all in the next chapter and story
I'm Pixel, logging off and I'll see you on the next upload over at: Total Drama Maelstrom: Island & Fox Among Fairies.
Have a great day/night, and I'll see y'all soon!