Chapter 1: The First Step
"Well, this sucks!" Kid Flash announced as he walked into the monitor room. His friend and fellow sidekick Aqualad hadn't moved from his seat in front of one of the many screens that crowded that side of the room.
Wally threw himself down into the seat beside him. "There are bedrooms, a kitchen, showers, a TV room, a gym and this." He gestured to the large cavern they were currently sitting in.
Kaldur'ahm sighed and looked around. The Cave was impressive in its own right. Carved out of the mountain by Superman and Green Lantern when the Justice League had been first founded, it had served as their headquarters but given the teens high expectations it was hard not to feel disappointed. The dim hallways and rooms had all felt a little bare and the tech, from the large nest of monitor screens they were currently sitting in front of, to the flood lights attached to the bare rock above them, felt ordinary. Even a little outdated. At least for what was expected from the main seat of the Justice League.
And then Speedy had revealed the truth.
The Leagues real headquarters was a satellite orbiting the Earth, the Watchtower. After that, everything fell apart. Speedy stormed off, their mentors left to stop Wotan from blocking out the sun and they had been told to stay behind.
That had been a little over an hour ago.
"Is this what it's going to be like now?" Wally slowly spun his chair to face Kaldur. "Whenever something happens, they drop us off at their old club house?" He sighed. "I thought today was the day. Are first step to joining the League and they treat us like kids!"
Kaldur didn't know what to say. He wanted to reassure his friend, but he found himself just as uncertain. His mentor, his King. He thought that he had trusted him. "I don't know." He said sadly.
So, with their mentor gone and the cave already thoroughly explored the two boys sat together in shared disappointment.
It was a while later, Kaldur was in the kitchen pouring himself a drink, when Wally began to shout. "Kaldur, get in here!" Hurrying back to into the main hall, Aqualad saw the dark monitors now busy with activity. The central screen was displaying a news report, live footage of a huge cannon attached to the back of a truck that was now firing at a large, glass building, freezing whatever it hit.
"It's another ice villain." Kid flash explained without looking back.
Three ice-based villains attacking on the same day was already strange, a fourth was downright suspicious.
"Where?" He asked.
"Gotham."
Even stranger. While Gotham was famous, or rather infamous, as the most crime ridden city in the country, it had remained relatively ordinary. Organized crime, gangs and corrupt police held the city in a strangle hold, but it had avoided super criminals.
Until now.
Wally stood up from his chair. "What are we waiting for? Let's go."
Kaldur turned to Wally and frowned. "But we were told to stay put."
"For their blotting out the sun mission, not this." Wally argued. "Look, this is the fourth ice villain today. Something's clearly going on! Besides it not like there is anyone in Gotham that can stop this guy."
Kaldur looked back to the screen, the few police on the scene where plainly out matched. He looked back to Wally, filled with determination. "Just like that, where on a mission."
"We'll have a full investigation underway in a few hours." Guardian explained to Dr Desmond, a squad of short, clawed Genomorphs standing behind him. "Once the last of the emergency crews clear out. I assure you, Doctor, we will get to the bottom of this."
Dr Desmond paid the armored hero no mind, instead focusing on whatever was under his microscope. "Guardian, whatever happens at the faux lab above is of little concern. The fire was contained to the top floor. Cadmus, the true Cadmus, remains the most secure facilities in DC." The Doctor explained without so much as turning to face the other man.
Guardian frowned. "But, Doctor, two of our office workers died in the fire. We need to figure out what happened."
With a sigh, the doctor finally turned to look at the Head of Security. "I will not let the incompetence of those low-level fools disturb the workings of Cadmus any more than they already have." Desmond barked. "We don't need to worry are benefactors over the mistakes of dead idiots. Security was not breached, no alarms on the lower levels where tripped, it was not an attack against us and that's all that matters. Now get back to your duties and get a team ready to repair the top floor as soon as possible." And with that the ponytailed man turned back to his microscope.
Guardian stayed where he was, staring at Desmond in disbelief. He stepped forward, ready to argue further but the G-gnome on the doctor's shoulder suddenly stirred. It's small red horns glowing. The G-gnome on Guardians shoulder did the same and in an instant all the fight left him.
"Understood, Doctor." He turned to the genomorphs behind him. "Dismissed."
Dubbilex watched it all play out, silently observing. As Guardian and his fellow genomorphs filed out of the room he followed, thinking of what to do next.
The fire had been his, an act of desperation. The deaths where tragic and seemed to be all for nothing. He had hoped to attract the attention of one of the many superheroes that existed in the world above, yet none had come.
He walked the halls of Cadmus passing by his brethren. They had been bred as living weapons, seen as only simple tools by their creators. He wished only for freedom for his kind, but he could not achieve it alone.
He rode the elevator down to the lowest levels of his home, the sleek white walls replaced by growths of bubbling red biomass. He had planned to lead whoever had arrived down here, to set them on the course that would lead to freedom for all genomorphs. Walking down the corridors he arrived at chamber where the hope of all geneomorphs was held. Entering the room he saw his brother, still sleeping in his pod. Still trapped just as they all were.
What could they do now?
The sun was just beginning to set behind the Gotham skyline as Kid Flash skidded to a halt outside the GothCorp building and looked around at the chaos. Police and Fire crews where swarming around the front of the building unable to get through the huge wall of ice that encased the entire entrance, while higher up the building slabs of ice clung to the outside while cold spires erupted through the walls of the tower. More blasts of ice were scattered across the courtyard but looked like they had been made by something smaller. The massive ice cannon itself was no longer firing. Instead, it was half tipped over, trapped in its own ice block, and being poked at by the police.
Leaping down from the roof above him Aqualad landed next to him. "It would seem that the police have regained control of the situation." By the tone of his voice Wally could tell that he thought it was weird. So did he. From what they had seen on the news the cops had been getting creamed.
"Let us find out what is going on." Kaldur said as he strode into the cordoned off area, Wally following behind him.
The two of them barely made it past the yellow tape before a uniformed cop shouted them down.
"Hey, hey, hey! What the hell do you think your doin'?" The man called as he stormed over too, what Wally guessed, he thought was just a pair of weirdly dressed teenagers. As he got closer recognition flashed across his face as he got a better look at the two of them. "You're those two sidekicks! Aqualad and Flashboy."
"It's Kid Flash!" He corrected. "Why is that so hard."
"Whatever." The cop sneered.
Kaldur stepped forward. "Please, we're only here to help. We believe that this attach maybe related to other similar incidents from earlier today. If we can just ask some questions."
The cop glared at Kaldur. "This is police business, kid; we don't need a bunch of freaks in costumes helping us do our jobs. City's gotten by just fine without them."
Yeah, right. Wally thought.
"So go tell whoever's sides you kick that we got everything under control." The officer stopped for a moment and started looking around, searching for something or someone. He turned back to them with a smirk. "Or are you to on your own?"
"We're on a mission." Wally tried to sound as forceful as he could, but the cop only laughed.
"Go run back to your parents, kids. Probably looking for you."
Before he could say another word Wally heard shouting coming from high above them. Looking up Wally saw about twelve floors up, a group of people shouting and waving out of a large broken window, calling out for help.
"They're people still up there." Wally asked confused. "Why aren't you doing anything?" The fight was over, right? The weapon was taken down and Wally could see them leading away some of the goons.
"The situation is ongoing." The cop glared at them again. "We got information that the ringleader is in the building, with more weapons like that one." He pointed at the cannon. "Plus, we got no way in." He hesitated for a moment. "And, uh, something else might be up there."
Wally looked to Kaldur, the older boy nodding in agreement, before they both took off. Wally barely had time to hear the officer shouting for them to stop as he charged towards the building as fast as he could. Just before he crashed into the wall, he stepped up onto it, momentum carrying him upwards.
He raced up the side of the building trying to find another way in.
His climb only lasted a few seconds before gravity began to drag him back down. Just as he began to fall Wally threw himself onto an ice shelf, barely managing to hold on. He'd only managed to get about three stories up, nowhere near the trapped people, but the ice had torn enough paths through the building for him to get inside, though only if you crouched.
Looking back down Wally saw Aqualad siphoning water from the fire trucks with his water bearers, forming a platform underneath him. The older teen rose up off the ground, past Wally, until he reached the trapped civilians.
"Fine." Wally grumbled as he clambered onto the ledge and began crawling into the building. He tapped his communicator as he went. "You start getting the civilians down, I'll start rounding up anyone else still in the building and send them to you." Wally shuffled further into the icy tunnel.
"I can only carry a few people at a time. You'll be on your own for a while."
Finally reaching the end of the tunnel, arriving in a frost covered office cubical, Wally stood up. "It'll be fine. I'll find whoever's left and get them out. I can handle whoever I run into." And with that he turned off his communicator and took off running.
Speeding down the corridors Wally passed empty room after empty room. It looked like most of the office workers were gone. All the notices and fliers for a fourth of July party told him why. Everyone had gone home early and those that were left should be up on the top floor. Still better to be safe than sorry. Bursting through the door to the stairwell Wally raced up the stairs, checking floor after floor, finding no one.
Finally arriving at the fiftieth floor, Wally skidded to a halt, this was definitely not office space. There were no rows of dull grey office cubicles or cheap tiled floors, instead he was standing in a short hallway with deep red carpet. At one end where a pair of heavy wooden doors, both having been smashed off their hinges, at the other end was a corner leading deeper into the building.
Looking past the broken doors Wally could see what must have been an executive's offices. Looking closer he noticed that there was broken glass scattered across the office and a heavy wooden desk tossed across the room.
He radioed Kaldur. "I'm up on the top floor. Looks like something big came through."
"I am on my way." Kaldur spoke hurriedly. "The guests told me that they heard the attack from outside. Not long after a group of armed men lead by a man in large robotic suit stormed the top floor and took them all hostage. The leader was looking for Ferris Boyle."
"The humanitarian?" Ferris Boyle was the CEO and Founder of Gothcorp. The man may not have operated much outside of Gotham, but Wally still knew who he was. Anyone trying to do as much good as him in this city was worthy of some admiration. "Did they find him? Wait, if they were all taken hostage how did they escape?"
"They didn't know what happened to Boyle, he disappeared in the confusion. As for their escape they claimed that a creature appeared and defeated the attackers. None of them could give a clear description of what it was but there are more people still up there."
This just kept getting stranger. "Okay, I'm going to head in check on the hostages and try to find Boyle."
"Kid, no! Wait for back up. We don't know what we are dealing with."
"Boyle might not have that time." And with that he sped off down the corridor, quickly arriving at a large hall, the only light coming from the quickly fading daylight coming in through the massive skylight. The scene matched what Kaldur had described. Strewn around the room, amongst torn decoration, knocked over tables and a few blasts of ice, where piles of formerly, heavily armed men, tied up and knocked out. The hostages, wealth socialites in suits and evening dresses, where mostly cowering in one corner as a large group, but somewhere walking out amongst the chaos.
One was a pretty, young blonde woman in blue dress searching through the pockets of one of the goons. She was so focused on frantically going through his pockets that she did notice him at all.
"Hey, I…"
The woman shrieked in terror, setting off a chain reaction of screams across the hall.
"Woah, woah, woah! It's okay! I'm here to help." He assured her, while speaking loud enough for the rest of the room to here.
She took deep, shaky breaths. The rest of the room quieted down but no one else came over. Suddenly the woman seemed to realise what she had been caught doing.
"I'm not stealing!" She said franticly. "H- he took my necklace. I'm just trying to get it back."
"It's okay. I believe you. Is anyone hurt?" She shook her head. Nodding Wally turned and spoke to the whole room. "More help is coming. The police are still trying to get through the ice downstairs, so you all need to stay here and wait for them. Did anyone see what happened to Ferris Boyle?"
An older looking man in a dark suit spoke up. "No one saw him after we saw what was going on outside. But there was this man, their leader," He gestured to the men sprawled out across the floor. "He was looking for Boyle, too. He went that way, through those doors." He pointed to the far side of the room. "He was huge, in this massive mechanical suit. He had a gun! It did this." He swung his arm at the jagged ice block that was encasing one of the rooms pillars.
"There was a monster too!" The blonde screamed. "It was like this goblin-shadow-thing. It attacked the gunmen! They were screaming and yelling! Then it disappeared."
Giant with an ice gun and a goblin. He could do this. "I'm going to go and look for Boyle. You make sure that everybody stays here and waits for the police." He told them both before he was off running again. The other door led him to more corridors, this time with what looked to have been more heavy security. It was a little hard to tell since they had all shattered and covered in ice.
"Kid Flash." Aqualad spoke over the comms. "I'm in the ballroom with the hostages, where are you?"
"I'm on Ferris Boyle's trail. Just head out the far doors and follow the trail of destruction." Suddenly up ahead, just beyond a pair of obliterated doors was the sound of shouting, fighting and heavy metal crashing to the ground. "Gotta go." He quickly ended the conversation by switching of his comm.
Dashing in, Wally was hit by a sudden wall of cold air that bit at the exposed skin of his face. The room was huge and round. It was hard to see, the last of the lights flickering out and a thick fog of freezing cold mist was being pumped out by vents across the ceiling.
"W-wait, p-p-please." A voice drifted out of the fog. There, cowering on the ground, was Ferris Boyle.
Not far from him, slumped against some of the lab equipment was a man in huge blue and white mechanical suit. Wally would have mistaken it for some kind of robot if it wasn't for the shattered glass dome revealing the head of a man. Bald, blue skinned and wearing red goggles he didn't seem to be paying attention to anything going on around him, just starring up at the equipment he was laying against as his armour leaked a steady stream of pale, blue liquid. Inside the tube, behind the frost covered glass was the silhouette of a woman.
Next to him, looming over Boyle was a third figure. Half hidden in the darkness and the fog. It stood silently over the terrified man. It was tall and featureless. The only details Wally could pick out of the inky blackness of its body was the pale white of its empty eyes and a pair of sharp, pointed horns rising from its head.
Without hesitation, Wally charged at the shadow. The mystery figure looked up just in time to see Kid Flash barrelling towards him, crashing into him shoulder first. The force knocked the figure off his feet, sending them flying back into the darkness.
Kid Flash quickly steadied himself, trying to keep his balance on the icy floor. Ready for a fight but when he looked up there was no one there.
Suddenly, something grabbed at his leg. "Please!" Boyle cried out, clutching at him. "Y-you h-have to s-save me! You h-have to get me out of here!" The man looked half frozen, shivering and almost blue from the cold.
"It's okay." Wally assured him, helping him up.
"You don't know what you're doing." It was a harsh, growling voice that came from everywhere at once. It's words sounding a little distorted.
Boyle cowered as Wally looked around for creature. "Oh, yeah? Trust me I know what I'm doing. Saving the innocent, beating the bad guys." Wally flipped his goggles down, switching them to infrared. "I'll show you just as soon as I find…" There was the sound of something cutting through the air. Something hard hit him in the face. He reeled back as his goggles were knocked from his head and clattered to the ground.
"Ow, what the…" Wally turned to face where he thought the attack had come from only for something heavy to slam into his back. He tumbled forward, flipping over and sliding across the icy floor. Stunned, he was only barely aware of a shadowy mass landing at his feet. He kicked at it blindly, only for it to leap up out of the way. Only then did he feel something tighten around his ankle. With a yelp he was dragged up into the air feet first. He came to a sudden stop, left dangling upside down.
"Stop!" Aqualad had finally arrived. He stood near the doors, his waterbeares drawn forming to swords and ready to attack. His eyes focused on the darkness above his friend.
Wally tried to angle himself to see what Kaldur was looking at. There, just above where Kid Flash was hanging, was the mystery figure. A featureless gargoyle perched atop one of the many large pieces of equipment that filled the room, hidden in the darkness.
Aqualad took a step closer. "You stopped the attack, saved the hostages. Why go after Boyle?"
Terrified, the older man scrambled over to Kaldur on his hands and knees. "What are you doing? Get me out of here!"
"Boyle isn't the good Samaritan that he pretends to be." The shadow replied. "Industrial espionage, ties to organised crime, illegal experiments, blackmail, murder. All hidden behind a public façade."
"And the attacker?" The atlantean looked down at the defeated man, who seemed oblivious to everything around him.
"Dr Victor Fries. PhDs in molecular biology and cryogenics." The shadow explained. "His wife, Nora Fries, was diagnosed with stage four MacGregor's syndrome. Boyle offered him the money and resources necessary to develop a cure. So long as Gothcorp could patent every stage of development and any of the technology that Fries developed. But Boyle got greedy. He tried to force Fries into working on more illegal operations with Nora as a hostage. The doctor resisted. Boyle didn't like that."
"He's lying!" Boyle had managed pull himself up on a handrail. "I'm the victim here."
"So, where just supposed to believe that you're the good guy?" Kid Flash asked skeptically, starting to feel the strain in his ankle. "Even with all the hiding in the dark and hanging me from the ceiling?"
A pair of empty white eyes scowled down at him. Suddenly, the snare went slack, and Kid Flash landed on his back with a thump. The shadow tossed something to Aqualad. The Atlantean caught it in one hand. A flash drive.
"Evidence of just some of Boyle's crimes." The shadow explained, it's eyes never leaving Boyle, who under the withering gaze and crushing weight of the reality of the situation, had sunk back down to the floor. "Police can't be trusted. You'll have to go over their heads."
"The League will make sure it gets into the right hands." He looked over to Kid Flash to make sure he was alright. The speedster was back on his feet, dusting himself off, with no worse injury than wounded pride. "It would still be best for you to explain to them…" Kaldur stopped suddenly.
The shadow was gone.
The two teens looked around. Nothing above them. No one in the shadows. The doorway was empty.
It had just disappeared.
It was a while later, night had officially set in and fireworks where lighting up the sky, that the League finally arrived.
Well, three members of the League at least. John Stewart, Aquaman and Flash. It was immediately obvious that the latter two were not happy.
The trio of heroes offered their help but found that most of it had already been taken care. The hostages where safe, Fries and his goons where on their way to lock up. Even Ferris Boyle, after a brief explanation by the two teenage heroes and some encouragement from the present Justice Leaguers, had been taken away in a squad car. That just left the clean-up. A job that John Stewart had taken up, removing the walls of ice from the building before they fell and hurt someone, leaving Aquaman and Flash to talk to their apprentices.
"What where you two thinking?" The Flash asked. Heroes and sidekicks stood on the roof of the Gothcorp building away from prying ears. "I understand you were disappointed about the Mountain, but you shouldn't have run off like this."
"You disobeyed are direct instructions." Aquaman spoke up.
"With respect, my King, we could not simply stand by and ignore the situation." Aqualad faced his mentor with a look of pure determination. "The police were out matched. We had to act."
"And yet, it proved unnecessary." The King raised his voice, sounding harsher than he had meant. He regretted it in an instant as he watched his students and the young speedster's expressions harden against. "We do not doubt your intentions." Aquaman spoke more gently, choosing his words carefully. "We simply worry for your lack of… experience."
"Lacking experience? Since when?" Kid Flash demanded. "And so, what if we got here late? We could have handled Fries even if we hadn't been."
"You left Aqualad behind." Flash interrupted, speaking gently to his nephew. "And you ended up hanging upside-down from the ceiling."
Kid Flash struggled for something to say but in the end could do nothing but huff in annoyance.
Flash glanced over the edge of the building; John Stewart had finished clearing away the last of the debris. "We talk more about this tomorrow." Flash turned back to the pair of teens. "And we'll decided what your punishments will be." Aquaman nodded in agreement.
"What?" Kid Flash scoffed.
Aqualad's just as unhappy but kept himself under control. "What about Fries's connection to the other ice villains?"
"The League will investigate him as well as the others, as we had already been planning too." Aquaman explained. "He and Ferris Boyle are no longer your concern."
The quartet of heroes were carried across the city, back towards the nearest Zeta-Tube, on a green platform by John Stewart. With no teleporters within the city itself, so the journey would be longer than usual. It was made to feel even longer as the silence between the heroes and their sidekicks stretched out each second.
The two teens stood as close to the edge as they could. As far from their mentors as the platform would allow.
Looking back across the skyline, Kaldur watched as the Gothcorp building grew smaller behind them. It's bruised and battered exterior clear even from this distance. He sighed. "So much for are first mission." He said quietly.
Far away and far below, atop one of the many gargoyles that inhabited Gotham City, perched a shadowy figure. He wore grey armour over his entire body, only broken by a slightly darker, metallic belt around his waist. Heavy gauntlets cover his hands and forearms with three short blades ran along the outer edge on either arm. Over his head he wore a black cowl, with only his jaw left uncovered. His mouth set into a hard line. Two points, styled to look like pointed ears, rose from the top of the cowl. A long black, cape flowed down of his shoulders., wrapping around him to hide him in the darkness. Finally, emblazoned across his chest was a symbol of a bat.
"I don't suppose that now Dr Fries and Mr Boyle have both been apprehended so early in the evening, I could persuade you to come home early and enjoy the festivities, Sir?" A reserved British voice spoke into Batman's ear.
The vigilante pressed his thumb and forefinger to his throat, deactivating his voice modulator.
"You already know the answer to that, Alfred." His voice was nowhere near as deep as it had been. While still sounding stern, it lacked the harshness it had before. Partly due to the person he was now speaking to but without the modulator his voice was clearer and softer. His voice clearly having not yet matured. He sounded young.
A half-hearted sigh came from the other side of the comm. "Very well. At the very least I can take solace in the fact you are finally interacting people your own age, and it only briefly involved any fighting."
Batman's scowl hardened. "It was easier to pass the evidence onto them then trying to find a way to get the police force to make a move on their own. Other wise they just got in the way."
"As you say, Sir, but I can still hope." Batman gave no reply. After a brief pause, Alfred spoke. "Another long night it is then."
Batman reached down to his utility belt, pulling out his grapple gun. He fired it up at the buildings above him, latching on to one of the higher rooftops, pulling him up and disappearing into the darkness.
Hope you all like the story. I'm trying to get back into my writing. Let me know what you think, if anything needs improving and if everybody seems in character. Leave a review or use private messaging.
Thanks for reading.