Ch 5- Independence Day
Location: Washington, D.C.
Date: July 4, 2010
Time: 14:37
Twenty days and 42 minutes. She had been on Earth again for twenty days and 42 minutes. That was 480.7 hours. 28,842 minutes. 1,730,520 seconds. It had taken her 1,730,520 seconds to track down her sibling's location. No matter how many songs she played as a distraction from her cracked iPod shuffle, she could not stop herself from noticing that staggering passage of time.
It took her two days to get to John Shader. He told her everything he knew after the fourth broken finger. A small group of kids from Bludhaven and Gotham were sold to a guy working for the Joker called Lazy Eye Pete. They were being cryogenically frozen until July 5th when something would be done to them. Shader didn't know what, he had just overheard the date mentioned. That was everything. He told her all her knew. Emmy broke the rest of his fingers anyway.
It took her another eleven days to find the right Lazy Eye Pete. There was an unsettling number of lackeys with the moniker. She interrogated eight of them before one realized that the man she was looking for was actually named Lazy Eye Steve and was doing an assignment for the Joker in Hartford, CT.
It took her three days to find Steve in Hartford. He had been drinking in a bar. The unconvincing glass eye gave him away. She tricked him into kidnapping her and taking her back to his base. She needed somewhere to interrogate him without being seen and had not had time to find an acceptable place on her own. Emmy was out of her bonds and strapping Steve to the chair he taped her to before his second punch.
Steve had been a loud crier but was also difficult to break. She dislocated and reset each of his shoulders twice before he gave in and told her what she needed to know. The Joker had his lackeys find children between the ages of 6 and 12 that tested positive for a gene which made their stem cells extra effective in producing high quality Venom for the Cult of Kobra. Of the 200 that were sold to him, only ten tested positive for the gene, the rest were thrown back onto the street. Those positive ten were frozen and sent to a lab in Washington, D.C. The name of the lab was above Steve's paygrade. They had to be frozen for at least three weeks before their stem cells could be viably harvested. He didn't know why or how but knew that the extraction was typically lethal. He had the list of the ten children who were chosen on a thumb drive. Hunter and Sage were both on the list. They were the last to be confirmed and they were frozen on June 12th. They, along with the rest of the children, would be harvested on July 5th at 3:00AM.
She was on the 17th day by the time her bus got to D.C. When her search for her family had taken longer than expected she almost gave up and started using her ring to fly. But that would have been a dangerous risk since it would attract attention from civilians, villains, and heroes alike. Unfortunately, the less she used the ring the more it called to her. It was like it could feel the stress she was under and wanted nothing more than to blast through it for her. Emmy ignored the calls as much as she could. She had left her family to galivant around a different planet. She was too guilty to put on the ring and seeing it made her feel sick.
If she had access to even basic internet, she could have narrowed down which D.C. labs had the highest intake of energy from the power companies and checked for her kids there first. Her shitty motel only had a tv though, so she was left to paper research and guessing. Her desperation was a fraction away from its summit when she turned on the news this afternoon and saw the Cadmus Lab fire. She hadn't checked there yet, and her gut was telling her that was where she needed to be.
That was why, on the twentieth day of her return to earth, she was wearing a long black sleeve top, black leggings, gloves, and a black balaclava as she sneaked into the slightly charred remains of the Cadmus laboratory. She had just seen three obnoxiously colored sidekicks enter the building on the news but didn't see them leave. She would need to be careful to avoid them until the right moment.
Emmy heard a crunching noise in front of her. She rounded the corner and frowned. The elevator doors had been pried open. She walked over and looked down the interminable express shaft. The building looked to be about two stories from the outside, s why were there so many floors? She smirked. This was the right building. Finally. There was a grappling hook lodged into the ceiling. The sidekicks. It didn't appear to be taught and she didn't hear anyone, so she jumped on and started sliding down. Emmy waited for the rope to stop at her destination with buzzing anticipation. She was beyond ready to break some jaws and hug her kids. Today is the day.
Her ring was back at her motel. She was too angry at it and herself and the world to bring it with her. She passed the myriad of floors quickly. 8. 16. 21. She wasn't sure what level to stop at. How was she supposed to know which one held her siblings? And why had the sidekicks jumped down here after stopping the fire? Were their mentors with them, she hadn't seen any of them on the news? Were they coming to save the kids too? If so, she would have to get there first, take Hunter and Sage, and run. She had spent the last five years keeping them off the map and she did not need the Justice League knowing their names and asking questions. The rope ended at level 26. Emmy swung to the ledge and bit her lip. This door had also been pried open. And I say that heroes have never done anything for me. She chuckled to herself.
She peaked out and somersaulted to a different vantage point, looking for vents or places of entry. She didn't see anything except three expansive, empty hallways. Had no one noticed the massive energy consumption of this "two story" building? There were slight skid marks on the ground going forward. Kid flash, most likely. She would track the heroes down to see what they knew. Worse case she finds the kids on the way there. Right now, that was her only plan. Emmy started jogging in the direction of the footprints while doing her best to stay pressed against the wall.
It was getting late. She had less than 24 hours to save the kids. She needed to move quickly. The skid marks brought her to yet another open door. They were really making following them easy for her. She slid quietly into the wall as soon as she saw the three figures through the doorway. The blue lightning flashing around the floor-to-ceiling pods of blue winged creatures partially obscured her view, but the obnoxious colors let her know that they were the sidekicks. She hadn't realized she was so close behind them and swore to herself. Emmy did not want them to see her prematurely. The walls looked slick from a distance but actually had a lot of decent holds in them. She quickly scaled up to the ceiling, made her way to the door, and swung until she was delicately perched behind the glowing bug pods closest to the doorway and staring directly at the three "heroes". They were too mesmerized with the contents of the room to notice her entry.
"This is how they hide this massive underground facility from the world." Kid Flash commented as they walked between the rows of towers. "The real Cadmus isn't on the grid. It generates its own power with these… things." The excitement left his tone. "Must be what they're bred for."
Ah, yeah that would make more sense than the Justice League not noticing the huge energy expenditures. Alright, I'll give them that one. They're not quite as useless as I thought. The overgrown lightning bug in the tube hiding her turned around and made eye contact. She leaned away and grimaced slightly.
She listened to the rest of the conversation and watched Robin plug his holographic wrist computer into a server. He rambled about the Genomorphs and Project Kr as something about level 52 flashed on his holo-screen. She needed that computer. He could tell her which level the stem cell kids were being kept in. Emmy was about to introduce herself when a new group entered the room. She sunk into the shadows behind the bugs.
The trio argued with some guy named Guardian who looked to be controlled by the rat-monkey on his shoulder. The Genomorphs started to attack. Robin threw down a smoke bomb. He had level 52 flashing on his wrist computer for a few seconds. A fight erupted and Emmy cursed the stupid sidekicks. They should have shut the door behind them. Two Genomorphs were running toward Robin's back so she grabbed their necks, cracked their skulls together, and pulled them into her hiding spot. The trio ran for the exit and Emmy crouched to her feet and chased after them behind the row of bugs. There wasn't much room, and her thighs were burning from running at such a hunched over angle, but she had to follow them.
She used the dissipating smoke to jump out into the open hallway and sprinted after the heroes. The elevator door shut before she could alert them to her presence, and she jumped onto a ceiling beam before the Guardian and his morphs saw her. She glared at the man; he looked a lot like her father with his blonde hair and commanding form. The elevator numbers were getting larger. They were going down. Emmy cursed the ground the sidekicks were running on. She just needed ten seconds of Robin's hacking to tell her where to find Hunter and Sage. Why were they making this so difficult for her to talk to them?!
Guardian hopped into the next elevator. Emmy thought to the floorplan she had briefly seen on Robin's wrist. They were going to level 52. She searched her memory for an access point. There was a vent that led to the sealed off room. Bingo. She crawled across three beams to the nearest vent. It opened easily and she looked in. She would need to take a left, then a right, and then go straight down.
Emmy grunted with effort as she crawled. The vent was about three inches too small for comfort. An angry pulse hit her left ring finger and she sighed. I know, she thought to her ring. I should've brought you, she lamented. She could just blast through the ground until she got to level 52. Sharp left. More tight crawling. She took a hard right and was grateful to see the steep drop-off in the metal tube. She had been right. She didn't have space to move her feet in front of her, so she had to slide down the decline headfirst.
There were multiple jagged angles on her descent and Emmy hoped no one could hear her startled yelps of pain each time her shoulders or elbows rammed into an unexpected ridge. The air was getting warmer and more humid and dark red light shone from of the rapidly approaching vent cover. Uh oh. She tried to push against the vent walls with her arms and legs, but they did nothing to slow her descent. This is gunna hurt.
She hit the vent with a force that sent its screws catapulting to the ground and the groaning teen girl flying through the air with them. Emmy did a slow flip and landed in a crouch before somersaulting forward on the ground to dispel some momentum. She stopped her roll fifteen feet from the sidekick trio. They were standing in a red room made entirely from some organic looking material, and they were facing a control panel connected to a big tube with a mini superman in it. So much for a gradual greeting. She stood up with her hands up in a gesture of peace. "Hey, so-"
Before she could blink, Kid Flash had her pinned to the nearest wall with his right forearm in her throat.
"Who the hell are you?" He demanded.
Emmy glared at him, dug her right shoulder into his left to get him off balance, and swung his arm into a behind-the-back armlock. She dropped him to the ground with her knee on his back and pinned his right arm so that if he tried to move at all she would dislocate it. She looked up at the other two getting into defensive positions.
"Would you three calm down! If I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn't have taken out two of those Genomorphs going after Robin when Guardian attacked you." She snapped at them.
"That was you?" Robin's voice tilted up incredulously. "I thought that was KF." He said more to himself.
"How have you tracked us?" Aqualad's deep baritone demanded.
"You're kidding right?" Emmy scoffed at them. "You geniuses didn't close any of the doors after you opened them except that one." She pointed to the door that was currently being knocked on from the other side.
Robin rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Well, I love getting critiqued by randoms as much as the next guy," quipped Kid Flash with the left side of his face squished into the floor. "But how 'bout you get off me if you're not one of them."
Emmy backed off him with her hands up and he zipped back to his friends to glare at her with crossed arms.
"Look, I don't know what you three are doing here, and I don't care. I just need Robin to look something up for me and then you'll never see me again."
They all looked varying levels of suspicious. A beep on the panel momentarily caught their attention.
"Weapon Designation Superboy, a clone force-grown in… sixteen weeks?" Robin's eyes popped in shock. "From DNA acquired from Superman."
"Stolen from Superman." Aqualad accused.
"Yeah, no way the big guy knows about this." Kid Flash agreed.
"Cool," Emmy monotoned. "Again, I just need-."
"Robin," Aqualad interjected.
"Got it," said the younger boy before firing something in Emmy's direction. Next thing she knew a strip of tape was shot across her mouth over the balaclava and two weighted ropes were around her arms and legs. She fell on her butt and scowled. She was back to hating heroes.
"Solar Suit allows him to absorb yellow-sun radiation 24/7." Robin continued to read.
"And these creatures?" Aqualad nodded to the ones on the projection from Robin's gauntlet.
"Genomorph Gnomes. Telepathic. force-feeding him an education." Robin relayed bitterly.
"And we can guess what else." Kid Flash said sourly. "They're making a slave out of, well, Superman's son."
"Now we contact the League." Aqualad said to no objection. Emmy's eyes went wide at mention of the League and she wiggled the tape off her mouth while working on untwisting the weights behind her back. "Then we find out what she wants." His head tilting in her direction.
They simultaneously reached for their communication devices and all three of them found them null.
"No signal." Robin said.
"We're in too deep, literally." Kid Flash verified.
"Yeah, no shit," Emmy got the last rope off her arms. "We're in Sublevel 52."
"Listen once we fix this slavery situation," Kid Flash waved at the tube. "We'll deal with whatever problem you're having."
Emmy rolled her eyes and started to unravel the ties around her legs. She could hear banging through the door. It wouldn't be long before whoever was on the other side got in and she didn't have time to deal with that. The other three were talking about setting the clone loose.
"This is wrong." Kid Flash finally blurted.
Robin nodded, "We can't leave him like this."
They turned to a concentrating Aqualad. "Set him free," he looked to Robin. "Do it."
The Boy Wonder started typing away at his computer and Emmy hopped to her still-bound feet.
"Are you three crazy?" Snapped Emmy. "That's a horrible idea. Those geno-whatevers are controlling him!" She leaned down to untie the last rope around her feet. "Listen, there is a group of kids here, and they're going to be murdered soon, and I just need to know which fucking floor they're on."
The three boys were annoyed with her casual escape from her bonds.
"Not now," Robin started before leaning up away from the control panel. "Wait, what kids?"
The pod hissed open and all four teens stared at the clone with bated breath.
Emmy sighed defeated. On second thought, having her identity discovered and spending the rest of her life in jail would have been preferable to dealing with these sidekicks. "I couldn't have gotten the fucking Justice League."
"Hey," snapped Kid Flash, "We are-"
Aqualad shushed the younger boy, his eyes remaining glued to the clone.
Pod boy's hand clenched. Worry crinkled Aqualad's brow.
The G-gnomes hissed, and bright blue eyes snapped open. Well, this isn't gunna to be good, Emmy thought. Aqualad raised his eyebrows in a silent question, but no one dared to speak yet. Emmy saw the clone's eye twitch. She dove out of the way as Superboy launched himself at Aqualad. The Atlantean hit the ground, leaving the other two boys to watch the movement in shock.
Emmy climbed on top of a large, disturbingly squishy projection in the red wall.
"Twenty days ago, ten children were cryogenically frozen," she shouted over the clone's roaring. "They were taken to this lab. They're going to be killed and harvested for stem cells on July 5th at zero three hundred hours."
"What?" Cried Kid Flash as he and Robin darted to grab the clone's arms away from Aqualad. "That's horrible."
"Whoa! Hang on, Supey." Kid Flash grasped the Kryptonian's forearm with all his strength.
"We're on your side!" Robin attempted to placate the raging maniac. Kid Flash couldn't keep the clone's arm held back for long and an uppercut to the jaw sent the redhead flying backwards through a glass cylinder.
"Shit!" Emmy flipped over the clone when it swung a fist at her perch. "Robin. Hack the level. Aqualad and I will handle Pod Brain!"
Robin hesitated at her command and looked at Aqualad struggling in the clone's grasp.
"Do as she says," the older boy hissed out through the clone's chokehold. Robin threw a high voltage taser and an unrecognizable black tube to Emmy. "Press the bottom buttons," he instructed while flipping to the panel again.
Emmy jumped on the clone's back, tried to strangle him with her inner elbow, and pressed the button on the small black tube. Gas shot into his face, making the clone stumble, and let go of Aqualad. Emmy flipped off his back and shot the taser at Pod Boy's chest. Kid Flash popped out of nowhere and plowed into the clone, sending him flying toward the control panel in front of his gestation tube. Robin hopped away from the panel where he had been hacking right before it got crushed by the clone.
Kid flash laughed cockily and punched the air above his head. Emmy's heart lurched in her chest at the decimated console and she turned on the speedster.
"You idiot!"
Robin and Aqualad were fighting the clone with more tasers and water.
"Excuse you?" Kid Flash got in her face. "You aren't even one of us who are you? And how did you know about the kidnapped children?"
Emmy shoved his chest roughly. "Robin was hacking into the system to see where the kids are being held you absolute jack-"
"We need help over here!" Snapped Robin getting his solar plexus crushed by the clone.
"Enough!" Cried Aqualad using his water-bearers to swing an oversized hammer at the unsuspecting clone. The hammer sent Clone Boy crashing through the glass of his pod.
Aqualad helped Robin to his knees but the younger hero groaned, clutched his chest in pain, and fell onto the ground unconscious. Kid Flash ran over to see if his friend was okay, but the clone was on his feet again. Pod Boy grabbed the redhead by his shoulder, slung him around twice and sent him careening into the masked girl. Emmy shrieked as the speedster smashed into her at a dangerous velocity. They fell to the ground with a miserable groan. Emmy was distantly aware of the unconscious teen on her stomach. Her head hit the ground and her vision blurred at an alarming rate. Aqualad's voice yelling, "We are trying to help you!" was the last thing she heard before she passed out.
Our girl finally met our boys! Thus, the real story begins.
-TheDarkAbyss
