Renegade was bored.
The experiment was lounging on the couch, using a remote to flip through the many television stations. Each one had its own show, movie, or news briefing on, and each one failed to bring the boy out of his boredom.
Wally and Kaldur were playing against each other in a friendly game of air hockey, with M'gann as an audience. The two other boys offered to let Renegade play as well, but he quickly refused. It wasn't that he didn't want to- he did. But, he didn't want to further embarrass himself in front of his teammates.
He didn't know how to play air hockey. In fact, he didn't know that it existed before today! Now that he thought about it, there were a lot of things that he didn't know about. Either he had forgotten about them, or he simply didn't have enough time when he was younger to experience these things. Wally took it upon himself to introduce Renegade to the many things that he missed out on during his time in Cadmus. Most of the things he was shown were interesting, but there were also some that he was not allowed to go anywhere near ever again. Caffeine was the number one, hair gel falling right behind it.
Renegade smirked as he remembered the incident that involved both. However, the smirk soon fell into a grimace as pure hunger itched at his insides. It wasn't a hunger for food, unfortunately; it was drugs that his body craved. The boy grit his teeth as he tried to unsuccessfully push away the want. Maybe he would have to sneak out again tonight...
"Ready for training everyone?" Renegade turned his head a little and spotted Black Canary and Martian Manhunter walking in from the zeta tubes. He grinned at the prospect of doing something other than watching tv or thinking about drugs, and scrambled up to his feet. In mere seconds, he joined everyone else by their training instructor.
"Uncle J'onn!" M'gann ran over to the League members and wrapped her arms around the older martian.
"M'gann, I was...in the neighborhood, so I thought I might stop by and see how you were adjusting." J'onn put a gentle hand on his niece's shoulder.
"Just a few bumps, but I'm learning." The girl sounded a bit hesitant, probably thinking back to the fight with Mr Twister again. Renegade frowned and projected a feeling of reassurance to his friend. While M'gann didn't physically acknowledge him, he felt a slight buzz of happiness in the back of his mind.
"That's all I can ask."
Renegade caught a glimpse of Superboy trudging out of the room. Canary apparently saw this too, as she called out to him, "Stick around. Class is in session."
Superboy scowled, but complied, remaining in the room. The rest of the team gathered around their teacher. Renegade found himself standing beside Kaldur, who gave him the tiniest of nods in greeting. The experiment repeated the gesture before training his eyes on Canary. If there was anything that he was sure of, it was that he loved training.
"I consider it an honor to be your teacher. I'll throw a lot at you, everything that I learned from my own mentors-" Black Canary cut herself off as she aggravated the injury on her arm. Worried, Renegade did a quick mental scan, happy to discover that she was not fatally injured. "And my own bruises."
"What happened?" M'gann asked. Apparently, Renegade wasn't the only one who was worried.
"The job." Canary stated simply. "Now, combat is about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting, never reacting. I'll need a sparring partner."
Wally's hand flew up. "Right here, yeah." A cocky smile fitted over the boy's face as he walked over to the woman. "After this, I'll show you my moves." Renegade could barely hide his disgust at his teammate's poor attempt at flirting. Black Canary simply smirked as she threw a punch at KF, who quickly blocked it. A split second later, Wally crumpled onto the floor as his feet were swept from under him. The speedster winced. "Oooh, hurts so good..."
"Good block, but did anyone see what he did wrong?" Canary asked as she assisted Wally with getting up to his feet.
Renegade smirked. "He hit on the teacher and got served?" He offered, enjoying the look of betrayal on his teammate's face. Well, his name did mean traitor!
"Dude!" KF have him a half-hearted glare.
Black Canary smiled in amusement. "He allowed me to dictate the terms of-"
"Oh please." Superboy interrupted. "With my powers, the battle is always on my terms. I'm a living weapon, and this is a waste of my time."
"Prove it." The woman said with a challenging tone, surprising the clone. His blue eyes took in her smirk and relaxed stance, making it look as though she had nothing to fear. Superboy scowled again and stomped into the ring just a few feet away from her. A brief stare down commenced, and Superboy was the one to throw the first punch. Black Canary calmly grabbed him and used his momentum to throw him onto the ground a little bit away from her.
Renegade couldn't help but laugh. Man, Superboy was getting his butt kicked! Aqualad elbowed him for his show of disrespect, but the younger one ignored it, snickering loudly. Oh, he couldn't wait until he was allowed to go against Canary. He wanted to see if he could do any better than his teammates.
"You're angry, good. But, don't react. Channel that anger into-" She wasn't able to finish because Superboy used that moment to disregard her advice and launch himself back at his opponent again. Canary dodged the poor attack by flipping over the clone. As soon as she was behind him, she dropped down and swept his feet from under him, much like she did with Wally.
Renegade didn't even bother to muffle his resulting laughter.
"That's it, I'm done." Superboy said hotly, ignoring the woman's offer to help him up.
Canary's friendly attitude didn't fade away, and she placed a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. "Training is mandatory." She argued, not even flinching as Superboy pushed her hand away. Renegade knew that the clone was just embarrassed and needed some time to cool off before he could think rationally.
A holographic screen suddenly appeared, the dark knight's face on it. Renegade subconsciously stood up straighter as the man spoke, "Batman to the cave. Five hours ago a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary. The attacker was capable of studying, then duplicating the powers and abilities of its opponents. Arrow called in reinforcements which nearly proved disastrous as our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant."
Disastrous, huh? Disaster would be the word of the day. He couldn't wait to annoy his teammates by completely butchering the word and using it in every day conversations. Yes, he was serious about being an annoying trouble maker.
"Woah. One guy with the powers of the entire League." Wally said in amazement. Renegade frowned in return. That didn't sound as great as KF was obviously thinking.
"In the end, it took eight Leaguers four hours to defeat and dismantle the android."
Android, huh? A quick look through Cadmus files gave him only one person who was associated with the Light, but he was dead. After another search, he came across another name. "Did Morrow make it?"
Batman stared at him for a long moment before answering. "Good guess Renegade, but Red Tornado doesn't think so."
But, that only left-
"The technology has the signature of Professor Ivo." J'onn explained.
"Ivo? But he is dead." Aqualad looked up at Batman hesitantly.
"He isn't. We all hoped that he was, but..." Canary sighed.
"Updating information..." Renegade's mental systems informed him, erasing the 'deceased' title on the Professor's file and adding the little known information on the newly developed android.
"To make certain that this threat is permanently neutralized, we're sending two trucks carrying the android to two separate Star Lab facilities in Boston and New York for immediate evaluation. Every precaution has been taken. We'll have four additional decoy trucks to create confusion in case Ivo, or anyone, tries to recover the remains. You will split into two undercover teams to safeguard the real trucks."
"Sweet, road trip!" KF chirped.
"So now we take out your trash?" Superboy asked in a low growl.
"You had something better to do?" Renegade countered, at the same time as Batman, coincidently. The boy grinned up at the dark knight and silently cheered as the man's lips twitched upwards in return. Success!
A device in Aqualad's possession suddenly let out a quiet beeping noise. The Atlantian produced a GPS and looked it over before nodding towards Batman. "Coordinates received. We are on our way."
Renegade cheerfully fell into step behind the team leader, subconsciously scratching his left arm as they left.
xXx (Later) xXx
Apparently, Aqualad had assumed that it would be a 'good' idea to partner the two Cadmus projects together.
Renegade didn't have a personal grudge against the clone, but their personalities always seemed to clash. Since they lived together in the Mountain, the two of them found themselves arguing over the smallest of things. Food, training, sleep habits, television channels (seriously, who watches static?), and just about anything else they managed to find, came up in one of their arguments.
However, they both had similar backgrounds. While it was true that Renegade was assumed to have had a life before Cadmus, Superboy did not. Besides this, both of them could relate to each other because of how they were still new to this world. The long amount of time they both spent in captivity left them with a bare understanding of the Earth. The only brotherly moments that they shared were when they helped each other through the uncertainty in their new lives.
That didn't mean they were close pals, though.
The team was stationed a few feet away from where the League was loading the trucks. Wally had parked his bike right next to Renegade's, ranting about how he was being forced to go camping with his dad. Renegade tried and failed to understand what the problem was with that. Camping was fun, wasn't it...
A child's laughter rang out through the trees, and a small boy darted out of the woods and into a clearing. A man with the same dark hair as the child ran out behind him, scooping up the child in his strong arms.
"I caught ya, little one!" The man said, poking the boy's side, who produced a timid giggle.
"Tati, put me down!"
"We're supposed to be camping, not waking up the entire forest." A woman with blonde hair and blue eyes soon joined the two, looking amused. The man grinned and used his free arm to pull her into a hug. The family smiled at each other contently...
VROOM.
Renegade was pulled out of his memories by the sound of a revving engine. Pain blossomed in the back of his head, but he ignored it as he took off behind the now moving truck. His teammates gave him strange looks for his slow reaction, but he ignored them in favor of forcing the water to stay in his eyes.
Seriously, this was not the time for thinking about that.
Pushing the thoughts about his parents to the back of his mind, Renegade sped up until he was driving next to Superboy. The clone's face was still pinched with anger and he only scowled when the other boy fell in line with him. From what he was told by M'gann, people generally wanted to talk when they were upset. Superboy, though, wasn't most people. The clone would probably reject any attempts of comforting. That meant that Renegade would have to be as nonchalant as possible.
Huh. Could something be chalant? Tsk. Unfortunately, nonchalant was not the word of the day. He would have to wait another time to butcher that one.
"So if dislike is the opposite of like, is disaster the opposite of aster? See, instead of things going wrong, they go right!"
Silence was met by his words, though a not-so-subtle glare was pointed in his direction. Renegade mentally shrugged. He didn't care if his use of the English language annoyed anyone. "I guess you're not feeling the aster. What's up?" There. That was nonchalant, right?
"Canary. I mean, what business does she have teaching combat skills to a guy with super strength?"
That was why he was in a bad mood? No, there was something else there. "Taking down stronger guys is part of the hero gig." And the assassin one too, he mentally added. "Canary probably learned that the hard way, Batman too. I know I certainly did."
This was of course not an acceptable answer in Superboy's mind. Renegade sighed as his teammate sped away from him with an angry snarl. The boy mentally added 'the importance of training' to the many things that both Cadmus projects have argued about. So far, he had a decent sized list.
They drove in silence for a moment before an obnoxious group of flying moneys swarmed overhead and attacked their truck. It was at that exact moment that Aqualad spoke over the comm. "Renegade, Superboy, our truck is under attack!"
"I kinda figured!"
"I hate monkeys." Superboy said lowly, as the truck in front of them swerved in the road. Renegade panicked a little. He was only thirteen- he barely knew how to drive this thing! His reflexes might not be fast enough to get him or civilians out of the way should the truck become a danger. Yeah, he was starting to dislike monkeys too.
"Robot monkeys." He chuckled weakly, trying to make himself seem calm. He looked through the Professor's files and glimpsed through the images of the man's past inventions. He sighed, "Yeah, this is definitely Ivo's style."
Focus. Renegade remembered the buttons on the motorcycle and eagerly pressed the one that enabled it to go into battle mode. A sigh of relief could be heard as the back part of the bike broke away and flew into the sky, leaving him on a one wheeled cycle.
"Hey, put your ride into battle mode!" Renegade called out to his comrade.
"No point." Superboy said hotly and threw himself off of his bike and onto the back of the moving truck. The driverless motorcycle skidded towards Renegade, who stared at it with wide eyes, unmoving. He was surely going to crash...
And suddenly, he was on the back of the truck too. Renegade blinked away his surprise and threw his hands up in defense against the attacking robots. Seconds later, he lashed out and smashed one of the attackers into pieces with his fist. He twisted around and kicked at yet another monkey, achieving the same result. He tried to connect to some of the robots to mentally shut them down but found that the technological part of his brain was rebooting. Odd.
A cry of pain was heard and the boy looked up to see his teammate being carried away by a group of monkeys. The robots seemed to giggle louder at the clone's displeasure as they unceremoniously tossed the boy into the street. Renegade frowned in worry as he continued to defend the truck from the onslaught of attacks. By himself.
Desperate times called for desperate measures. Renegade drew his escrima sticks and used them to put more force into his heated attacks. Robot parts sparked as several monkeys were torn apart by his precise attacks. He was about to kick another enemy when Superboy jumped back onto the truck, shaking the entire vehicle. Renegade was nearly thrown off of the side as he struggled to remain balanced. How reckless can you be?!
Superboy growled at the monkeys but the truck swerved again before either of the heroes could attack. Renegade caught a glimpse of a couple of moneys flying away with a tire and nearly groaned. He was not paid enough for this. Especially since he wasn't paid at all.
Wait, the driver! The man was probably terrified right about now! The masked boy ran to the front of the truck and threw the driver door open. "Get out!" He shrieked, but the man seemed too shocked to listen. Growling, Renegade grabbed him without further warning and threw the both of them into the corn field outside, just as the truck started to roll.
The two males skidded through the fields for a a moment before finally coming to a rest in the dirt. The driver moaned something about his leg, and Renegade could barely suppress a sigh. "Can you stand?" He asked hopefully, but received a shake of the head in reply. Frowning, Renegade helped the man up to his feet and assisted him in the journey to the main road. The monkeys suddenly burst into a new crescendo of laughter as they pulled the android parts into the skies. Renegade protested as Superboy started to follow but the clone seemed to have gone deaf at that precise moment.
If he was leader, he would be so embarrassed.
"Aqualad to Renegade. We've lost our cargo. Did you-"
"It's gone." Renegade grumbled. "And Superboy ditched me."
"Aqualad to Superboy. Radio in your position, and we'll help you."
"Dont need any help- don't want any!" Renegade could hear the clone's shout even with their distance.
"Updating information..." Renegade blinked as his technology finally seemed to be working. "Superboy weaknesses: impulsive, prideful, and quick to anger. Attacks: super strength, and impressive jumping ability. Suggestion: distract with insults and destroy with Kryptonite."
Renegade blinked.
And blinked again.
What. The. Hell. Was that?!
"-don't even know where to look!" He heard Wally say. Shaking his head to get rid of the unwanted information in his head, Renegade walked over to a fallen robot.
"Maybe we do." He said quietly as he hacked into its systems using a holo glove this time, as he didn't trust his own mind with the job. "We would have known if the decoy trucks were attacked, so how did these moneys know exactly where to look?" A holographic map appeared in front of him and he cracked a grin. "Ha, the parts have GPS! The monkeys can track the signal, which means I can track them with the one I captured. Looks like both parts are converging on...Gotham City."
Gotham? As in the city that was protected by Batman?! Renegade frowned a little. Did this mean that the dark knight would be taking over? Well...The man didn't need to know about this, after all. As he zoned back in, Renegade managed to catch Aqualad saying something about sending Kid Flash ahead. Works for him.
As the boy picked up his fallen motorcycle, he looked around at the damage that the monkeys caused. "Definitely a disaster." He muttered as he sped forward. "Heavy on the dis."
xXx (Batman) xXx
"I'll have the apple pie."
Bruce Wayne gave the waiter a winning smile as he handed them his menu. "The devil's food, please." He said charmingly. As soon as the waiter was out of sight Bruce dropped the cheerful act and gave Clark a sharp look.
"Something tells me this isn't about dessert." The other man said half jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. Of course, it didn't work.
"The boy needs you." It was obvious to whom Wayne was referring to. The man had obviously seen the exchange between the man of steel and the clone.
Clark barely managed to not scowl at his friend. "No, he needs you. I'm just a constant reminder of what he's not."
"Sorry Clark, but you're wrong." At his friend's angered look, Bruce softened his expression. Slightly. "I know he...troubles you, but he's here. You have to get over the how and why. Trust me on this, the boy needs his father."
It was understandable that Clark was hesitant around the boy, but the amount of time he spent avoiding the kid annoyed Bruce on a personal level. No child should have to deal with not having parents, whether them not being alive was the problem or not. Yes, Wayne could defiantly sympathize with the boy. He knew what it was like to yearn for a father figure. However, Bruce's parents had the excuse of being dead. Clark had none.
"I'm not his father. And maybe you should worry about your own child before worrying about my clone." The word child was spat with such venom that Bruce wanted to do nothing more than punch the other man's face in. Before he could so much as move, Clark stood. "I'll take that pie to go." He said evenly as he left. Bruce let him go, scowling.
As he sat there contemplating the situation, he glanced out the window and smiled sadly at the sight he was met with. A tall smiling man was walking down the road with a small boy perched on his shoulders. Bruce looked away and sighed. What Clark said about Renegade made him...uneasy. It wasn't as though he never paid attention to the child, unlike Clark. He was only hesitant about getting close to the boy in case there was any Cadmus programming in him. Was he evil for taking a precaution? No. Renegade would probably understand, seeing as though the boy was worried about the same thing.
The man sighed once again as the waiter brought him his food and mumbled his thanks. He found himself gazing outside to where several parents wandered around with their children, a feeling of longing in his chest. Ever since the Richard Grayson incident, he found that he had a fatherly instinct somewhere inside of him. Now that the boy was apparently back...
His appetite suddenly vanished.
xXx (Back with Renegade) xXx
Renegade drove towards the city, now wearing his familiar yet depressing uniform. Why depressing, you ask? Well, the design was created by Cadmus. Every time he wore his costume, he was reminded of the very people who forced him into this madness. Perhaps it was time to create his own look.
There was a sudden sound of loud wind and Renegade glanced over to look at KF, who was also in uniform. "So, you changed too." He said more to himself than the other.
"Are you kidding? I feel naked in civvies!" Wally tugged at the arms of his costume pointedly. "You still tracking the parts?"
The other boy nodded. "They were heading through Gotham, but they veered. They're at some place called...Gotham Academy."
Kid looked at the map that his companion produced and groaned. "That'll take more than five minutes to get to." He gave Renegade a bright grin. "So, where are you going to school?"
"Umm. School? I didn't think about that." He shrugged. "I dunno."
Wally nodded in understanding. "You're still pretty new to the world. I guess school isn't really what you would want on your mind. I sure don't want it on my mind!" He chuckled to himself. "Anyways, I'm going to Keystone High. I'll be a sophomore this year. Man, school starts really soon..."
"Updating information..." Renegade nearly swerved his bike. What the... "Kid Flash, aka Wally West. Sophomore at Keystone High. Kid Flash Weakness-"
"Shut up." Renegade hissed, trying to hide his panic.
KF heard him and misunderstood, deflating a little. "Sorry, dude. I know I'm probably not your favorite person...Uh, I'll leave you alone now. Sorry."
Renegade shook his head frantically. "It's not you! It's that stupid voice-" he stopped. Wrong choice of words.
"Voice?" Wally looked concerned.
The younger one took in a deep breath and told him about how his databases seemed to be randomly saving information on members of the Team. After that, he started to talk about the weird tidbits of info that he had concerning several members of the Justice League. He had no idea why he was telling Wally of all people but once he started talking, he found that he couldn't stop. Once he was finished he glanced at his holo computer. Surprisingly, his ranting only took two minutes to complete.
"Have...have you told anyone else about this?" The elder boy sounded unsure of himself.
"No." Renegade kept his eyes on the road, finding that he couldn't look at his teammate. "I...Nobody trusts me already. I just- I don't..." A deep breath broke as a sob worked its way past his throat. Pathetic.
"Hey, take it easy. I won't tell anyone..." Wally said softly. "But I want you to answer a question before I promise anything."
"Ask." He hurriedly brought a hand up and wiped away the traitorous tears. If Wally saw, he didn't comment.
"Do you want to, or have you already, betrayed the team?"
Renegade frowned. "I don't want to, but wouldn't spying on you count as betrayal?"
"Cadmus messed with your brain, right?" At the other's nod, Wally smiled. "Then it's probably just something they installed into the mechanical parts. Manhunter said that he'll look you over for any bad programming, right?"
"Batman said that I'll have to wait until I take my mask off."
"That's a weird thing to request. Why?"
"Because I'm afraid of seeing myself without my mask, and someone messing with my brain before while I'm like this isn't a good idea." Renegade sighed. "I don't know how they figured it out, but I don't want to...I'm afraid of what I'll see."
"What's the worst thing that you could find?"
He shook his head frantically. "I just...can't. Anytime I try I have a panic attack."
Wally frowned. "Maybe I can help?"
A blink. "You want to help?"
"Sure." The elder smiled in reassurance. "I've had panic attacks before. I know how to deal. Tell you what, next week, we're getting that mask off. Deal?"
"Deal." Renegade smiled a bit hesitantly. "Does this mean that we're...friends?"
Wally blinked. "Duh! We're all your friends, Ren."
"Oh."
Wally laughed good naturely and sped up until he was in front of the other. "Race you to the school!"
"No fair, West! You have powers!" Renegade argued, but complied with a childish laugh.
Friends was something that he has been yearning for for quite a while, yet he had them for nearly a month without realizing it. As Wally 'tripped' and let Renegade win the race, the boy decided that he would do anything to protect his friends. He would be the last person to ever turn traitor.
Which was ironic, considering that his name was Renegade.
xXx (After the battle) xXx
"The AMAZO android, safely being analyzed at the two separate Star Labs, but Ivo escaped. Since he originated the tech, he's arguably more dangerous than the android."
The Team had returned to the Mountain and gave their reports to Batman, who was accompanied by Black Canary, Red Tornado, Martian Manhunter, and Green Arrow. Renegade clutched the arrow that had saved KF during the battle, clenching his teeth in anger. Why did the League suddenly think they were incompetent?
"Capturing the Professor will be a League priority." Black Canary stated.
"But we understand that your mission encountered other...complications." Manhunter said, making Renegade wince. They should have been able to handle a couple of monkeys.
"Complications come with the job. Your ability to handle them has impressed the League." Batman said, almost kindly. Renegade perked up a little at the hidden complement.
"The whole League?" Superboy asked.
"Given time, yes. Kryptonians, as you know, have very hard heads." Renegade nodded at this statement, realizing now what threw the clone into a bad mood. He must of had another encounter with the man of steel, who still refused to acknowledge him. In face, he had refused to acknowledge either Cadmus projects. It didn't matter much to Renegade as he had his own possible mentor to impress. "Of course there's no shame in asking for help, that's why the League exists. There are some problems that we can't handle individually." Yeah, like Batman ever asked for help.
"Please. If we needed help, we'd never get the chance to ask. Look familiar?" He showed everyone the arrow. "Why would you follow us? Don't you trust us?"
Batman and Green Arrow shared a look. "We didn't follow you." The dark knight said evenly as the archer brought out one of his arrows.
"And that's not your arrow." Renegade flushed in embarrassment. He knew he should have scanned it! Even if he didn't trust his databases at the moment, he wasn't supposed to assume anything.
"Wait! That must mean it was Speedy!" Wally exclaimed.
Kaldur smiled. "He has our backs."
Ignoring his instinct to cower away from his databases, Renegade scanned the arrow. He was not going to assume anything else and embarrass himself further.
"Arrow not recognized in hero databases." Renegade frowned and looked through the files on the Light. "Arrow not recognized in Light databases." The boy growled lowly, making Wally give him a strange yet concerned look. Maybe...League of Shadows? "...Arrow recognized." Information on Sportsmaster and his two daughters came up behind his eyes.
Renegade was about to report his findings when he saw that Batman was staring at him. The boy frowned in confusion as the man gave him a small shake of the head. He wasn't allowed to share this information? Why? Renegade scrunched up his eyebrows to show his confusion. Batman tilted his head towards Green Arrow ever so slightly. So...The archer was going to investigate? Oh, whoever shot the arrow saved Wally! They could be an ally! Renegade nodded at his mentor and looked at the others, who seemed to be staring at the two of them.
"Woah. The kid knows bat-talk." Arrow whispered, though everyone in the room heard it. Renegade went red in the face again; how long were they watching the exchange?
And what the hell was bat-talk?
xXx
AN: Tada! Chapter four, at your service!
So on , I was asked to explore Renegade's emotions, add some Wally bro-ness, and to have Renegade go through withdrawal. The first two I believe I can happily check off, but I wish I received the last one earlier. I can have Renegade crave drugs but that's it for now. However, I believe you will be happy later on... (hint hint)
On Wattpad, I was asked to make Renegade have a mental breakdown and to make his programming make him attack the team. Both of these ideas will be presented in later chapters, I assure you.
Note: I'm still taking suggestions. Since there's a couple of days between each episode, i can add whatever I want. All you need to do is ask. :)
Note 2: Renegade is STILL not the mole. I know it may seem that way but trust me, he isn't.
Note 3: ...What pairings do you guys want? This story will not be centered around romance, I warn you, but I believe that I can put some mushy lovey dovey stuff in here. If no one cares, I'll just stick with canon. :)