Renegade and Superboy soon reached the containment capsule in the center of the huge room where Project Match was enclosed. The glass was covered with dust, so Dick ran his hand through it. It quickly turned out to be a boy who looked completely like Superboy: same face, same hair and even the same white solar suit with the Superman symbol in the center that allows him to absorb solar radiation.
Dick sent a nod to the clone beside him and he nodded, pressing a button on the mother console. Soon the containment capsule from the first attempt to clone Superman disappeared.
The Talon noted with amusement how even the first thing this clone did was clench his right fist and his body stiffened, ready for combat. He arched an eyebrow in surprise when he saw the clone's eyes snap open and Dick immediately noticed the only differences with Superboy: the Project Match had black sclera, black pupils and light blue irises.
Superboy took an uncertain step forward, peacefully raising his hands in the air. "You're free now. It's okay."
Match's attention shifted from Renegade to Superboy, especially to the symbol on his shirt.
Dick already knew what was going to happen even before the two clones.
With an animalistic growl Match threw himself at Superboy and they rolled meters away. The first clone violently struck his opponent with hard punches before catching him and throwing him away as if he were a rag doll, smashing through many containment capsules. Match reached the second clone in the air and the two resumed combat.
Deja vu. Dick thought with amusement. Except that this time Match has all the powers of Superman and is more powerful than Superboy.
Renegade pulled a special gun from one of his holsters and pointed it in the direction of the two clones. "Superboy! Block Match! Even for a few seconds!" he shouted.
In the distance Superboy grunted as he pushed the other clone away from himself. "Don't tell me what to do!" he growled as he made a huge leap toward Match.
"If you don't want to die then you'll have to listen to me! He is stronger and faster than you and has all the powers of Superman!"
Superboy received a violent punch that hurled him painfully toward the wall, shaking the entire Cadmus and creating a hole. He groaned in pain and ducked just in time to avoid another punch that once again shook the entire building. He spun around Match and pinned him by the shoulders, grunting from the effort.
"Hurry up and do what you have to do! I don't know how long I can hold him!"
Renegade pointed the gun at Match, who was trying to free himself from the other clone's grip, but before he could pull the trigger with the intention of killing him his finger remained a few millimeters from it when he heard Superboy's shout.
"What are you doing? You can't kill him!" he growled, wincing at the enormous physical effort he was making.
The acrobat rolled his eyes but obeyed anyway and pulled the trigger. The kryptonite bullet swiftly went through the twenty or so meters and violently gashed Match's right shoulder.
Match emitted an agonizing scream of agony and his attempts to free himself from the other clone's grasp increased. He flew up and sent Superboy crashing violently into the ceiling. The second clone lost his grip and began to fall toward the ground but Match threw a brutal punch straight to his stomach, sending him plummeting against the floor and creating another hole.
He turned his full attention to Renegade and darted toward him. The mercenary rolled to the side just in time to dodge Match's steel-hard body and he felt his hair fly back because of the clone's great speed.
Without wasting any time he turned sharply and pulled the trigger once more. Match let out another scream of pure agony as the second kryptonite bullet ripped through the flesh and ligaments of his right leg and he fell to the ground inches from Renegade.
The mercenary released a sigh of relief -if he had delayed even a millisecond now he would be splattered against the wall across the room- and stepped back just in case.
"What did you do to him?" came the voice of the second clone behind him.
The Talon had already heard his footsteps so he did not startle. "They are kryptonite bullets." he said as Superboy flanked him. "Kryptonite is Superman's greatest weakness." he explained, not knowing if the clone already knew or not.
"That explains why I feel tired and disoriented." Superboy grunted.
"It makes sense that you are also affected since you are half-Kryptonian, although this vulnerability is not at the level of full Kryptonians precisely because of your half-human, half-Kryptonian DNA. So the effects you feel are weaker than what Superman, or like Match in this case, feels when they're exposed to kryptonite."
"I think I'm grateful in this case that I'm half-Kryptonian." Superboy grimaced. "The effects I'm feeling are already unbearable, let alone if I had been entirely Kryptonian."
"You would have felt worse." Renegade confirmed, holstering his gun. "Also consider that Match has not one but two kryptonite bullets in his body. I don't think I need to explain how much fucking pain he is in right now."
They both watched as Match emitted more screams of pain -and grimaced at the high volume of his screams- and as the blood quickly pooled underneath him, expanding more and more.
"We have to do something for him. We cannot leave him like this or else he will bleed to death." Superboy declared firmly.
"We can't help him."
The second clone's head snapped toward him, surprise and anger filling his face. "What? Why?"
"You know why too and you've seen it yourself. Match is too unstable and uncontrollable to let live."
"You want to kill him." Superboy realized bewildered. Soon anger completely overwhelmed him and he clenched his right fist, giving him a hard look. "I won't let you kill him!"
"Damn it, Superboy! You know Match is not like you either!" Renegade snapped losing his patience, surprising the other boy. "He has anger issues 100 times worse than you do!"
"I don't have anger issues!" he growled.
The acrobat ignored his interruption and continued. "Match cannot live in our society because it would be impossible for him to learn the necessary things! Instead you can because you are more reasonable and slowly you will learn how to blend in among humans, just like I did." the mercenary explained more kindly. "So Match must be killed because he poses a threat to society and the heroes. There is no hope of salvation for him, unlike your case. So it has to be done. And you won't be able to stop me even if you tried."
Superboy and Renegade stared at each other for a few seconds in a tense, heavy silence that was broken by the clone looking away with a grunt. "Do what you have to do."
It was obvious he didn't like it but at least he understood that it was necessary.
Renegade put his hand on his shoulder in comfort and squeezed it briefly. He then turned to Match and pulled a small lead box from his utility belt.
"Move at least ten meters away." Renegade ordered without turning around.
After a few seconds he heard a pair of footsteps moving noisily away. He opened the box, revealing a piece of kryptonite emitting its typical green light, and immediately Match emitted more heartrending cries. Renegade grimaced at the overly loud sound and knelt a foot away from the dying clone, lightly extending the kryptonite toward him.
"I'm sorry that your death will be long and painful." murmured the assassin. "You don't deserve it. It is not your fault that some heartless bastards created you as a weapon for them to use at their disposal and threw you away when you did not meet their standards."
Match's screams became increasingly high-pitched, heartbreaking, and savagely animalistic. He began coughing up blood and it was obvious that he was getting weaker by the second. He tried to move but it was impossible for him to move even an inch because of all the extreme pain he was experiencing.
Match continued to scream in pure agony and all the while Renegade remained impassive and still, staring with a cold and emotionless gaze at the slow and painful death of the clone.
This went on for just over a minute and a half when Match's body sagged to the floor, the life slowly fading from his eyes. Renegade stood still for a few more seconds and once he was sure that his heartbeat had ceased he closed the small box and placed it back in his utility belt. He shifted his gaze to the other side of the room and encountered a completely stiff and motionless Superboy, arms crossed with the fingers of his left hand sinking onto his right arm.
Superboy walked toward him, casting a glance at the other clone, his eyes unreadable, before staring directly at the mercenary. His gaze remained hard even as genuine concern flashed in his blue eyes. "Your ears are bleeding. If that is blood."
This actually surprised the Talon who brought his hand to one ear and immediately felt a thick substance coat it. He lowered his gaze to his hand and noticed the dark blood on it. He frowned behind the mask.
His hearing as well as his eyesight were particularly sensitive and although the Owls made sure that he was able to handle the pain resulting from these weaknesses, he nevertheless always felt some pain.
This time he did not.
Apparently Dick was so focused on Match and his slow and painful death -necessary since there was no other way to kill him given his steel skin and he did not want to waste another kryptonite bullet- that he did not even realize either the pain or that his ears were bleeding.
Match's death was one of the few that really affected him a bit. This was because seeing Superboy capable of understanding and wanting made him realize that the other clone might also have been similar to him if his wild, animalistic, unstable and uncontrollable behavior had not manifested.
Unfortunately this was not the case and Dick found himself forced to kill him to prevent Cadmus and Light from using Match against society and heroes.
He shook his head to dispel his thoughts and turned a reassuring smile to Superboy. "Don't worry. A few seconds and they will heal." he reassured him.
The clone stared at him for a few more seconds before nodding slowly. "What do we do now?"
"We get out of Cadmus. I plan to keep my promise and show you the sky, the moon and the sun. I will also introduce you to Superman." stated Renegade with a reassuring smile.
Superboy nodded and the two exited the room once the mercenary had wiped away all traces of his blood. Once they ascertained that there was no one outside the steel door Dick had previously closed, which was a true miracle given the screaming and shaking of the entire building, the assassin pulled out his holographic glove and within seconds reopened it. The two exited the room in which Superboy was contained, advanced to the elevator and entered it.
Dick pressed the button for the ground floor and they waited patiently. "It seems strange and suspicious to me that no one noticed all the noise. It was practically impossible not to hear it."
The clone nodded abruptly but otherwise remained silent.
The acrobat didn't push him any further and with a sigh leaned his back against the elevator wall. Eventually the doors opened and the two stepped out only to freeze when a man in his forties appeared from a hallway, long brown hair tied back in a ponytail, glasses and the classic white lab coat.
Dick immediately recognized him as Mark Desmond, the one who ran Cadmus and an ally of the Light.
The man's eyes widened when he saw the two boys and then narrowed. "Renegade. You were behind the whole mess!" he growled.
"Bingo." the mercenary smiled and rattled a few joints. "I'm afraid, however, that you won't live long enough to tell the tale to posterity. As you well know, Renegade does not let any witness live unless he wants to. And in this case I don't want to."
Desmond shifted his gaze to the clone. "What the hell are you waiting for? Take him down!"
Superboy narrowed his gaze dangerously and took a menacing step forward and in response Desmond took one step back. "Don't give me orders. Renegade helped open my eyes, both literally and metaphorically, and I want to be free, not a slave to your orders!" he snarled.
"I should have expected that." Desmond muttered. He shook his head. "Never mind. I'll kill Renegade and lock up Project Kr so I can fix it."
Superboy growled at being called "it." "Don't call me it!"
"Do you really think you can manage to kill the world's second most dangerous and deadliest mercenary and get Superman's clone back into his containment capsule?" the assassin pointed out amused. "You're dumber than I thought."
To their surprise the scientist chuckled. "You are the fool for underestimating me." he pulled out a vial containing a blue liquid. "Project Blockbuster will allow me to bring some order back to Cadmus."
Surprising the two boys he drank the liquid and threw the vial to the ground. Spasms of pain ran through his body and Desmond fell to his knees. Renegade and Superboy's eyes went wide as they saw the man's skin being disgustingly ripped off and Desmond transforming into a giant, grotesque, red-eyed monster.
Blockbuster emitted an animalistic roar, showing his huge, ugly teeth, and his roar briefly shook the entire building.
Renegade sighed.
"At least now he is more handsome than before."