I actually wrote this chapter in just three days, which is the fastest I've written anything in months. Because of that, though, I decided to delay publishing it so I could get a full chapter ahead. Sadly, chapter 18, which you will be getting later, proved a lot harder to write than this one. I finally got it figured out this week, though, so I can get this chapter in front of your eyes. Your greedy, judgemental eyes.

Don't forget, my latest poll is still active on my profile page. If you haven't answered it yet, please take a moment to do so. I appreciate it.

A lot's been going on in the world, most of it horrible, and the news hasn't really been able to keep up. That said, please don't forget that the people of Ukraine are still facing a Russian invasion. If you have any help left to give, please give it to them. Thank you.

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Chapter 17

Project Cadmus, Washington D.C.

July 4, 15:23

From what Harry could tell, the situation at Cadmus was grim. It looked as if the fire crews had the blaze mostly under control, but he could see two scientists trapped in an upper floor window, and the fire was rapidly closing in on them. There was no way the fire crew would reach them before the flames did. Luckily, the fire brigade weren't the only ones on the scene anymore.

"If I get the fire, can you get the…" He trailed off. Artemis wasn't there anymore. She must have spotted the same thing he had, because she'd already launched a zip line to the Cadmus building and, with her bow as a handle, was crossing the gap.

"Or we can just get to it," he muttered and jumped off the roof after her. Halfway down, he transformed into Gwaihir. It was a little far to fly with just magic, and he didn't want to risk the lives of the scientists by plowing face first into the pavement because he lost hold of the spell. He also didn't want to risk the lifelong ribbing Robin and Artemis would give him.

They were barely halfway to the window when something exploded and threw the two scientists out of the building. Because of course something had to explode. It was a fire in a lab that Batman thought was dirty. It was probably a minor miracle the whole city wasn't a smoking crater, if he was being honest.

Fortunately, a Seeker's reactions were useful for more than just sport. Almost before the explosion had died out, he was back in his human form. The transition between flying as a bird and flying as a human was tricky, and he lost most of his altitude, but he kept himself from crashing. At the same time, he pointed at the falling scientists.

"Arresto Momentum!"

The same spell Dumbledore had once used to save his life from a fall during a Quidditch match, he now used to save the Cadmus workers from a messy end on the pavement. Their fall slowed to a crawl as they approached ground level, and their terrified screams took on a distinctly confused note. Harry sighed in relief and let himself touch down. Hovering wasn't as taxing as flying, but it wasn't easy, either.

The moment his feet touched the ground, though, a yellow and red blur rushed past him and nearly put him on his arse. Before he could react, the blur seized the scientists and raced up the side of the building to deposit them safely, if somewhat uselessly, on the roof. The maneuver cost him, though, and the blur slowed until it was visible as Kid Flash, scrambling for traction on a vertical wall. Predictably, he didn't find any, and he wound up clinging to the same window the scientists had so recently exited. Harry prepared a spell to help him up before he fell, but someone reached out of the smoke and yanked him inside.

By then, Robin and Kaldur were already on the scene, and he left the scientists to them. He brushed past the firefighters and flew himself up into the same window Kid Flash had just vanished into. Instantly, something itched at the back of his thoughts, but there were more immediate concerns, such as Artemis and Kid Flash. To his complete lack of surprise, he found them having an argument.

"-to cut it. Who are you?" Wally was glaring at the blonde archer, arms crossed, and suspicion across his whole body.

Artemis growled, and her temper visibly frayed. "I'm the girl who just saved your life, you ungrateful punk. So back off, or I'm going to stick this arrow somewhere you really don't want an arrow stuck."

Harry hastily cast a Flame Freezing charm before something else could explode and a Bubblehead charm on all three of them to keep the smoke out of their lungs. Neither of them seemed to notice the sudden bubble of clean air around their head, and he stepped in between the two before Artemis made good on her threat.

"Hey, calm down," he told KId Flash. "She's the one I was telling you about."

Kaldur and Robin were in the room as well now, and he motioned for the Atlantean boy to help him with the fire. Robin, naturally, went straight for the nearest computer.

"This is Artemis," he explained as he and Kaldur doused the encroaching flames. They wouldn't actually burn them with his charm in effect, but they would eventually collapse the floor under them, and that would be inconvenient. "I trust her. She and I had our first night together."

The words were already out of his mouth before he realized what he'd said, and he instantly wished he knew some spell to go back in time five seconds and kick himself in the shins. He didn't, though, and as his face burned hot enough to fry eggs, he looked at Artemis with dread.

Far from the expression of murderous rage he'd expected, she looked positively delighted. He had only a second to process that that wasn't actually better before she put in a sultry smile, sidled over to him, and snaked an arm around his waist. Wally just stared dumbly at the both of them, mouth open, eyes wide.

"And what a wild night it was, too," Artemis purred. He tried to pull away, but her arm was a bar of steel. "There were chains and cattle prods and drugs, and I got absolutely soaking wet. And then later, he came to my room and-"

"Okay!" Wally shouted, looking panicked. "I don't need to hear that. What is wrong with you?"

Harry groaned and shoved Artemis away. "It was nothing like that and you know it, crazy girl."

"Hey," Artemis griped. "Do I shit on your parade, princess?"

Before he could respond that yes, she did, and regularly, Wally recovered his voice.

"Okay, seriously! Who is she?" He glared daggers at her. "What's going on-"

"Oh, will you shut the hell up already?" She snapped. Harry cleared his throat and gave her a significant look, and she sighed and shrugged. "Fine. I'm Green Arrow's niece. I learned about him a while ago and started training. Marauder and I met on our first night in the field. After that, Green Arrow decided to teach me himself. I've been working with him for a while. Happy now?"

Harry drew on Batman's training to keep his face perfectly blank, but inside he was frowning. Green Arrow's niece? Where had that come from? Of course, he hadn't expected her to just reveal her secret identity to a stranger, but still. The look she'd given him had all but begged him to go with it, though, and if that was how she wanted to play this, he didn't think he had a right to contradict her.

Wally's glare didn't lessen. If anything, it burned hotter. "Am I supposed to just believe that? How come Speedy never mentioned you?" His eyes narrowed. "And don't even think about trying to replace him. Speedy's our friend. We trust him. You're-"

"Jeez, enough!" Robin interrupted them. "Kid, she's cool, so lay off. In case you all forgot, we're supposed to be investigating this place." He leveled a supremely unimpressed look their way. "So maybe you should stay whelmed and, I don't know, investigate?"

Harry groaned at the linguistic heresy, but he had a point. He glanced at Kaldur and the other boy nodded.

"Go. I will keep watch over here."

He nodded back, grateful. Something had been bothering him since he'd first entered the building. Between making sure the fire didn't kill them all and making sure Artemis didn't kill Wally, he hadn't been able to give any attention, but now he reached out with his magic. It wasn't a skill he'd ever heard of back in Hogwarts, though he suspected Dumbledore, at least, had some talent for sensing magic. Here, however, Sirius had insisted it was one of the most useful branches of the arcane arts, and he'd spent months just teaching him the basics.

If he had to describe it, it was like he'd tuned his ears to a whole new range of frequencies, but entirely in his head. Magic left traces in the world, and the stronger and more recent the spell, the 'louder' the traces were. The moment he expanded his magical senses, the itch in his head he'd noticed when he'd first entered grew into a full orchestra symphony of magic.

"Merlin's balls," he cursed through clenched teeth as he forced his senses back to normal. The sudden cacophony of overlapping magic turned the inside of his head into a bell and rang it with vicious enthusiasm. Even that moment of exposure was enough to send him to his knees as the room spun like a top. He squeezed his eyes shut, clapped his hands over his ears, and tried to focus on taking deep, slow breaths. It wasn't easy with his head still pounding in protest, but slowly the pain subsided and the rest of the world tiptoed back in. When he risked opening his eyes, the others were all standing over him and looking down with various expressions of surprise and concern. Artemis was at his side and helped him stagger to his feet.

"This feels familiar," she muttered. "Am I ever not going to have to haul your ass off the floor?"

He gave her a grateful smile. "So long as today doesn't go as bad as our first time did, I'll call it a win."

She grunted something unintelligible that he chose to believe was agreement. The evidence of her expression suggested it might have been rather less polite than that, but he chose to believe anyway. His legs still felt a little wobbly as she stepped away, and his head still throbbed murderously, but even that was rapidly receding.

"I'm fine," he said before anyone could ask. They all just stared at him as if he were an inch from death. "Stop looking at me like that. Really, I'm fine."

"Dude, you just yelled and keeled over," Wally said. "That doesn't scream 'fine' in my book. What happened?"

Harry frowned as he tried to piece together what, exactly, he'd sensed amidst the mind-shattering clamor. It had mostly just been pain, but there'd been a few useful impressions mixed in. "There's… something beneath us. Magic. Powerful magic."

Wally rolled his eyes, but Robin elbowed him in the side before he could go on a rant. "If it's magic, why didn't you sense it earlier?"

"There must be some sort of dampening spell over the building, or else Sirius and Zatara would have sensed something like this ages ago." Much more carefully this time, he extended his senses again; just enough to get a quick impression of the magic again. Even that made him wince, but now that he knew what to expect, it wasn't so overwhelming. "It's far down, too. Underground. A few hundred yards at least."

Artemis whistled softly. "It looks like Batman was right. This place is shady."

"Indeed," Kaldur said. "And if this magic is so far below us, then perhaps…"

He walked over to the elevator and, with a grunt of effort, wrenched the doors open and peered into the shaft.

"Ahh. As I thought."

Harry moved to look at whatever he was seeing and gasped. Far from the short elevator shaft of a two story building, he found himself looking down into a hole so deep the bottom vanished into darkness. More elevator doors dotted the shaft, each with a floor number painted next to it. Even with his enhanced vision, the furthest he could make out said sub-level 33, and there was nothing to indicate the shaft didn't extend much further. And somewhere, deep in that darkness, lay the source of the magic he'd sensed.

"Yeah," Robin murmured. "That's a little more than just 'shady'. Definitely not whelming." He nudged Harry in the side. "Come on, do the thing."

Harry bowed slightly. "Of course, young sir. One thing, coming right up."

He pulled out his wand, waved it in a small circle at the elevator shaft, and fixed an image of what he wanted in his head. Threads of magic wove together with the air and his own will to form a platform of shimmering, solidified air in the shaft. With his best imitation of a Victorian train conductor, he waved his hand at the improvised elevator and bowed.

"All aboard."

One by one, they all shuffled onto the platform. Robin, who'd seen this plenty of times before, and Kaldur, who he knew had studied magic in Atlantis, did so without hesitation. Artemis and Wally eyed the translucent disc warily and Wally even tested it with his foot before climbing aboard. Harry rolled his eyes, but kept his mouth shut. Now wasn't the time to get Wally over his denial of magic. Instead, he concentrated on lowering the platform down the shaft without scraping the sides. Even at a glance, he could see security measures around every door. No doubt for every one he could see there were another two he couldn't.

Mundane security wasn't the only thing they had to contend with. Alongside the constant thrum of whatever powerful magic was working below them, he felt another, lighter, more refined touch on his magical senses. A touch he recognized instantly. He confirmed it with a simple spell Sirius had taught him months ago. It acted like an arcane form of echolocation; sending out faint pulses of different types of magic so he could sense how they interacted with an existing spell. Kaldur noticed him casting and gave him a quizzical look.

"What is it?"

"A ward," Harry answered with a grimace. He should have seen this coming. The threads of the spell wrapped around walls like an intricate spiderweb. "Anti-teleportation. That means no portals and no Apparition. If we need a quick escape, I can't help."

Now everyone was paying attention. He tried not to shuffle at the intense gazes, but it was uncomfortable to suddenly become the center of attention. Desperate to fill the silence, he kept talking. "I can't break it. Even if I could, it would be like setting off the fire alarm and turning on all the lights all at once. Whoever cast the ward would notice."

After a few seconds, Kaldur broke the silence. "Is it wise to continue?" He gestured at the secret elevator shaft and their floating platform. "We have already proven Cadmus is hiding something. Going further into the unknown, especially with magic involved and no easy means of retreat, is risky. Perhaps we should contact the League and request assistance."

Wally snorted. "Hell no! The whole point of this is to show them we don't need their help. Besides, it's not like they could send us anyone. Remember the whole thing with Wotan trying to eat the sun or whatever?"

"I'm sorry, what?!" Artemis snapped. Wally looked at her as if he'd just remembered she was there.

"Oh, right. You wouldn't know, 'cause you weren't at the Hall with the rest of us."

Harry sighed and did his best to tune them out as they immediately started needling each other back and forth. 'This is fine,' he told himself as Robin tried to keep Artemis from strangling his best friend. 'Everything's going to be just fine.'

Neither he nor any of the others noticed a small fly clinging to the wall of the shaft. As they passed, it glowed briefly and flew off. If any of them had noticed it, they would have noted it followed an extremely direct route for an ordinary insect.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Dr. Desmond was not accustomed to interruptions while he was working. It was one of the best things about being head of Project Cadmus, after the unlimited funding, lack of government oversight, and unbelievably advanced technology. That last one in particular had been a godsend for his research. He'd never even dreamed of some of the stuff the Cadmus board had provided him with. It was practically miraculous. It bothered him, sometimes, that he didn't know how it worked, though. Almost…as if… it… was…

He shook his head, careful not to dislodge the G-Gnome perched on his shoulder. There was no time for frivolous thought. Not now. He'd been summoned, and by the sole exception to his rule against interruptions. The Cadmus board of directors. He didn't quite sprint to the conference room, but he certainly wasn't walking. It wouldn't do to keep the board waiting. Particularly not her. She… was…

Again he shook his head, as if shooing away a fly. There had been something… but no. It was nothing. He skidded to a halt in front of the conference room doors and took a moment to catch his breath, smooth his coat, and give his G-Gnome a scratch under its chin. It closed its eyes and purred in bliss. Then he took one last breath and walked into the room.

As always, all he could see of the board were their blurry outlines in the screens that lined the wall. He'd only ever met one of them in person before. She.. dropped by… to…

The G-Gnome purred in his ear and he cleared his throat. Right. It wouldn't do to keep the board waiting. He stepped forward to where they could see him.

"Dr. Desmond. You have a situation." It was a man's voice. Deep, raspy, and commanding. There was nothing to give away which board member had spoken, however.

"A situation? If you're referring to the fire in our surface building, I can assure you-"

"We do not refer to the fire." A woman's voice this time. Her voice. "Trespassers have made it into the sub-levels. A group of five sidekicks from the Justice League."

He sneered. "That's impossible. Cadmus' security is absolute. The Justice League has no idea we're even here. Even if they did, our alarm system would have alerted me to any intrusion."

"Are you suggesting I am mistaken, doctor?" Her tone was one of lazy dismissal, as if the idea was too ludicrous to even get upset about.

Desmond flushed. Of course he was suggesting she was wrong. What sort of fool did they take him for? He'd personally overseen the security designs for Cadmus, and they were unbreakable. He opened his mouth to let the board know as much. Let them try to get rid of him. He… would…

"Of course not, mistress." He bowed his head, cursing himself for his hasty words. "You just took me off guard. If you say we have intruders, I will see to it they are apprehended. Guardian and Dubbilex will not fail me."

"See it done, Dr. Desmond." Another man, different from the first. His voice was clinical and detached, with an indistinct American accent. "And activate Project Kr, as well. This will be a useful test of its current progress."

Desmond swallowed a lump in his throat. "With respect, Project Kr is not ready for deployment. The latest maturation cycle is far from complete, and I cannot make any guarantees as to its abilities. The new methods you provided me with are… I cannot make guarantees."

"Perhaps," the first man said. "But if there are any flaws in the current process, better to reveal them now, for the sake of future iterations. Besides, as you said, Guardian and Dubbilex will be more than capable of capturing the sidekicks if Project Kr fails. Take them alive, then contact us for further instructions. Do not allow them to compromise Cadmus' secrecy."

With that, the screens shut off. For a few seconds, Desmond just stood where he was, mopping sweat from his brow and patting his G-Gnome. Meetings with the board were always stressful, and this one had been worse than most. Only once his hands had stopped shaking did he lift the G-Gnome from his shoulder and hold it facing him. Its horns glowed a dull red, and he felt the tickle of its mind touching his. He pictured Guardian and Dubbilex, and felt the telepathic connection snap into place.

"We have intruders in the sub-levels." He spoke aloud, but the G-Gnome would transmit his words as a psychic message. "Five, dressed as Justice League sidekicks. Neutralize and apprehend, but do not kill them. The board wants them alive, for now. Be aware, the clone will also be searching. Do not get in its way unless there is a risk of escape."

He felt two wordless pulses of acknowledgement, and then the connection faded. Reluctantly, he formed another mental picture. This time, he felt a psychic probe, a mental challenge and pass, in response. He focused on controlling his brainwaves and formed the correct patterns. It was a safety measure he'd insisted on, to ensure no one could activate Project Kr by accident or coercion. The G-Gnome probed his mind for another few seconds before it relented and formed the connection. With a sigh, he sent the first command.

"Awaken."

In a hibernation pod dozens of floors below, a pair of icy blue eyes flicked open.

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Harry wasn't sure what he'd expected to find in a genetics lab Batman thought had ties to Lex Luthor. Evidence of criminal dealings? Bioweapons, maybe, or some illegal super-soldier program? Luthor didn't make a habit of limiting his criminal dealings to just one sphere. However, he could safely say he'd hadn't expected a literal army of genetically engineered, magically enhanced living weapons. That was what they'd found, though. On the computer terminal Robin had just hacked, picture after picture of twisted monstrosities flicked by, each with an accompanying description and list of capabilities. Everything from superstrength to telekinesis to poisonous claws. And that wasn't even close to the worst of it.

He'd found the source of the magical resonance he'd sensed up above, or at least part of it. They'd stumbled across hall after hall of sealed pods, each with one of the creatures, a genomorph, developing inside. Along with the advanced technology of each growth chamber, there was a network of spells connecting them all. It was, by far, the most complex bit of magic he'd ever seen outside of the Tower, and he didn't know what it was doing aside from influencing the genomorphs as they grew. He would have bet every Knut he used to own it was giving them their more esoteric powers, but he couldn't guess how. Each strand of magic was actually a finely woven web of smaller spells, each one supporting and feeding off the others in ways he couldn't comprehend. Flesh-shaping on this level was beyond anything he'd ever heard of. The only thing he knew for sure was that he didn't want to tangle with whoever had cast this web anytime soon.

To make things even worse, the pods were only an ancillary fringe piece of what he'd sensed; like the hairs that came off a taproot. Somewhere still deeper in the seemingly endless underground maze was a core of active magic that dwarfed what they'd found so far.

"Anything?" Kaldur asked Robin. Robin huffed and waved a hand at the screen.

"Plenty, but nothing on what they're actually doing with these things. No mention of prospective buyers, no shipping manifests, no financial records. Nothing."

"Then perhaps Cadmus intends to keep the creatures for themselves. They could breed their own private army."

"Or they're not ready for sale yet," Artemis chimed in. "These could just be the prototypes."

"Wow. I'm not sure which of those ideas sucks more," Wally said. Harry had to agree with him. Cadmus had the makings of a superpowered army of monsters on its hands, but if these were just prototypes, then he didn't want to think what the final products would look like. And if they started selling those to anyone with cash-

"Hey, I think I've got something!" Robin's voice broke him out of his dark thoughts. "Something called Project Kr."

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"No idea. Most of the file's still encrypted. I can't access it from this terminal. But it's all the way at the bottom of this place. Sub-level 52. Could that be the magic thingy you're sensing?"

Wally rolled his eyes. "Who cares? If it's encrypted, it's definitely important. I'll tell you all about it when you catch up."

"Kid, wait for-" Kaldur tried to stop him, but it was too late. In the space of a heartbeat, he'd raced around the corner and out of sight.

"We shouldn't separate down here," Kaldur muttered. "Let's go, before he gets-"

Crash!

The sound of breaking glass and concrete came from the same hallway Wally had just vanished down. Half a second later, Wally himself went flying backwards through the air and crashed into the wall with a painful sounding thud.

"-hurt."

"KF!" Robin sprinted to where Wally lay groaning on the ground. "What happened?"

Wally just pointed down the hall where he'd come flying from. Harry moved to look where he was pointing. When he saw what it was, his breath caught in his throat. Next to him, Kaldur and Artemis both froze.

"Tell me I'm not seeing this," she whispered. Harry wished he could, but he couldn't deny the evidence of his own eyes.

A hundred feet down the hallway, there was a boy. Harry would guess he was roughly his own age. He wore a white bodysuit, and on the chest was a symbol every person on earth knew on sight. A red S inside a diamond. The symbol of Superman.

"He even looks like him," he said. It was true. He'd met Superman more than once, and he could easily imagine him looking just like this stranger in his youth. "Superman doesn't have a son, does he?"

Kaldur was the first of them to overcome their shock. He took a cautious step forward and raised his hands, palms open and empty. "We do not mean you any harm. I am Aqualad. This is Marauder and Artemis. We are with the Justice League. Who are you? How did you come to be here?"

"I am the Superboy," the stranger said in a monotone. "And you're trespassing."

"Superboy, we are- move!"

The Superboy apparently wasn't interested in their reasons for being there. Kaldur hadn't gotten three words out before he ripped a pod off the wall and threw it at them. Kaldur pushed him and Artemis out of the way and threw himself at the floor. The pod, a chunk of steel and glass the size of a large fridge, sailed over them and smashed against the wall. Harry tucked his head and rolled to his feet, wand already in his hand.

"Raaagh!" The mysterious Superboy roared and charged at them. He wasn't as fast as the real Superman, or even Wally, but he was a hell of a lot faster than any normal human. In less than a second, he'd covered half the distance to them. Panicked, Harry aimed and fired off the first spell that came to mind.

"Stupefy!"

A bolt of red light the size of his arm shot from the end of his wand and slammed right into the charging maniac's stomach. A stunner like that should have laid out anything smaller than a buffalo. It didn't have quite that effect on this Superboy. He doubled and staggered for a few steps, but he didn't fall. When he straightened, he looked a little dazed, but the rage burning in his eyes said he was far from beaten.

"I thought Superman was supposed to be vulnerable to magic!" Artemis yelled.

Harry had to swallow twice before he could answer. His mouth had gone bone dry. "I don't think that's Superman."

With another scream of fury, Superboy launched himself at Harry like a cannonball. Harry tried to raise a shield, but there wasn't enough time. His eyes went wide as the white-clad boy rocketed towards him with enough power to smear him all over the floor.

The instant before the punch turned his head to pulp, Kaldur came to his rescue. With a perfectly timed tackle, he knocked Superboy off course and pinned him against the wall.

"We don't want to fight you!" He shouted as he tried to hold the flailing boy still. "Calm down."

Superboy responded with a headbutt to Kaldur's face. Kaldur screamed and tumbled backwards, but Superboy grabbed him by the neck and threw him at Harry and Artemis. They both dodged, and Artemis came up from her roll with an arrow nocked. Before she could fire, though, a round canister smashed on the ground between them and Superboy. Thick white smoke billowed out, obscuring half the hall.

"Dammit, you ruined my shot!"

"Are you stupid? Don't just stand there." Robin's voice called from above them. "Move!"

Suddenly Wally was there, hoisting Kaldur to his feet and dragging him off down the hall. Harry followed automatically. Moving away from the crazy Kryptonian boy seemed like a good idea.

"Let's go!"

Artemis followed him, and he glimpsed Robin racing along the tops of the row of pods above them. Behind them, he heard Superboy snarl, and then footsteps started pounding closer. With his speed, Harry doubted they had more than three seconds before he closed the gap. Without breaking stride, he pointed his wand behind him. He didn't even look to aim. He just summoned up as much power as he could without focusing.

"Expulso!"

A pale blue light lit the hall like a camera flash, and then a thunderclap slapped him on the back of the head. The sound was beyond sound. It was a physical force. He felt a dozen stinging impacts against his back and legs. It took a moment to realize they were bits of shrapnel from the crater he'd no doubt just blown in the floor behind them. Without his armor and enchanted jacket, he'd probably have gotten off with a lot worse than just bruises.

The sound of someone swearing slowly made its way through the ringing in his ears. It was Wally. There was a bloody gash across his shoulder that hadn't been there before. Harry's stomach lurched. He had done that. Accidentally, sure, but it was still his fault. He and Wally weren't especially close, but he hadn't wanted to throw chunks of concrete at him. He just hoped he had done as much damage to Superboy.

"Sorry!" He shouted over the din. Wally didn't give any sign he'd heard, but with how badly his own ears were ringing, he wasn't surprised.

"Maybe don't kill us all before evil baby Superman has the chance," Artemis snapped. He winced, but he didn't have the breath to respond. Months of training under Batman had left him in great shape, but it was nothing compared to the years of conditioning she and Robin had. Case in point, neither of them were anywhere close to his height, but they were both easily keeping pace with his dead sprint. Meanwhile, he didn't have a spare bit of oxygen to waste on words. Instead, he once again drew deeply on his magic, as deep as he dared for something like this, and threw an overpowered barrier charm behind them. It was the simplest sort of barrier; just air compressed and hardened until it could rival any steel, but with the power he poured into it, even Superboy would have a job battering it down. From behind came a sound like an enormous gong. Then another, and another. Hastily, he threw up two more barriers, just for good measure.

"We have to get to the elevator," Robin said. "It's our only way out of here."

"Are you kidding?" Artemis shouted. "There's one of him and five of us. We can take him."

"And draw the rest of Cadmus down on top of us?" Robin shot back. "We came here to investigate, not fight. We have to get this intel to the League."

Privately, Harry agreed with Artemis. Together, they could probably beat Superboy and keep looking around. He could hide them if he had to, and he really wanted to get a look at this Project Kr, if it really was the source of the magic he'd sensed. There was a short list of magicals that could pull off something on that scale, and aside from Sirius and Zatara, most were bad news. As they rounded the next corner, though, the discussion became irrelevant. Blocking their path was a group of dozens of genomorphs, including three of the massive G-Trolls. Grey-skinned clawed monsters milled at their feet, tails thrashing and little jets of flame shooting from their nostrils.

At the head of the pack stood a rail-thin genomorph dressed in human clothes. Two angular horns rose from its head, and its dark eyes peered at them with intelligence. Next to it, improbably, was a human man. At least Harry assumed he was human. It was a little hard to tell between the golden helmet and blue and black armor he wore. He had a small gold shield strapped to one arm, and his stance and build said he was no one to take lightly.

"Halt!" The armored man shouted. Not that he needed to. They'd already skidded to a stop. Artemis had an arrow ready, and Harry raised his wand, but Robin and Kaldur didn't ready their own weapons. Instead, they stood still and obviously confused.

"You're Guardian, right?" Robin asked. "You're supposed to be a hero. What are you doing working for Cadmus?"

Guardian gave no indication he'd heard the question. "I don't know where you got those costumes, but we don't take kindly to impersonators here at Cadmus. Or trespassers. Surrender, and we will take you into custody without hurting you. Much."

"Some hero," Artemis whispered. He nodded, but something seemed off. Some itch in his brain he couldn't scratch. The tone of voice, the strangely blank expression, the odd behavior for a supposed hero… Something was very wrong. Silently, he started crafting a spell. The energies built up within him, eager to spring into shape.

"I don't think he's all there," he whispered back.

"Guardian, it's us," Robin protested. "What the hell is going on here?"

Again, Guardian didn't respond to what he'd actually said. Instead, he raised a clenched fist and gestured forward. "Attack! Take them down!"

Harry didn't wait to see what sort of attack the genomorphs had in mind before he released his spell with a shout of effort. A spark of golden-white fire leapt from the end of his wand and zipped towards the group of genomorphs. Just before it reached them, it burst into two fiery streamers. One struck the ground just in front of Guardian and flared star-bright. A sheet of solid fire sprang up from the ground and expanded to fill the entire hallway, wall to wall and ceiling to floor, with a searing inferno. Even from thirty feet away, he could feel his eyes go dry and his skin sting as a wave of scorched air washed over him. Though he couldn't see it, he could feel a twin barrier snap into place on the other side of the genomorphs, leaving them nowhere to go.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one with quickreflexes. Just as he let loose with his spell, Wally rushed forward at Guardian. The wall of flames bloomed just in front of him, and he scooted to a stop with a high-pitched yelp, just inches from the searing barrier. He backpedaled almost as fast as he'd run forward, and when he turned to glare at Harry, his hair was smoldering gently.

"Seriously?" He shouted. "Again?"

"Maybe don't run in like you're on your own," Harry snapped back. "They're trapped on both sides. Let's go, before that crazy arsehole who thinks he's Superman catches us up."

They took off down another hall. It wasn't towards the elevator, but it was away from the small army of monsters that wanted their blood. As they ran, he felt a stinging blow land on the back of his head. He swore and looked around to where Artemis was glaring daggers at him.

"The hell was that for?" He demanded. Running about again was bad enough. He didn't need Artemis trying to incinerate him with her eyes on top of everything else.

"You lit the building on fire," she snarled. "The building we're still in. Again!"

"What do you mean 'again'?" Wally asked, and Harry couldn't tell what was more troubling, the two of them at each other's throats or them united against him.

"He did this when we first met. We were trapped on a boat in the middle of the ocean, and this genius decided to light. The boat. On fire!" She bit out the last part like the words had personally done her wrong.

"Hey, Joker was on the boat too," Harry protested in between pants. "I was just trying to help."

Artemis glared harder. "But you didn't light the Joker on fire. That would have been helpful, but no. Nonono. You lit the boat on fire. While we were still aboard. Like a crazy person. Which you are."

"Dude… that's just- wow. I have no words." Wally eyed him with a new level of… respect? Fear? Concern for the rapidly dropping sanity levels of his friends and teammates? Harry wasn't sure he wanted to know which it was, so he gathered the increasingly tattered scraps of his dignity and pretended he couldn't hear Artemis still grumbling under her breath. The two of them on the same side, he decided, were definitely more trouble.

He wasn't sure how long they followed the twisting maze of halls before the inevitable happened, but it wasn't long. A couple minutes, at most. They rounded another corner; he'd lost track of how many, and rather than more hallway, faced a dead end. The wall mocked them with its blank, grey solidity.

"Oh, great," Wally groused. "So much for our way out."

"Complaining isn't helpful, Kid," Kaldur admonished. "Marauder, how long will your barrier keep Guardian trapped?"

"At least an hour," Harry said. He could feel the spell behind them, still strong and almost alive as only fire magic could be. "Probably two. But I'm more worried about Superboy. He's a problem I'd rather not tangle with again anytime soon."

"Too late. Incoming!" Robin shouted. Harry spun around just in time to spot a chunk of concrete flying at his head. Silently, and without his wand, he raised a shield a meter in front of him. The concrete struck the shield, flashed bright white, and burst into a cloud of dust.

A few hundred feet in front of them, with another quaffle sized piece of masonry ready to throw, was Superboy. His white suit was torn in a few places and streaked with dirt, but aside from that, he looked no worse for wear. Harry grimaced. The curse he'd thrown earlier hadn't been his strongest attack, not by far, but he'd still thought it would do more than that. This thing, whatever it was, might not have been Superman, but he certainly was no pushover. And now he was standing between them and their only remaining escape route, with murder in his eyes.

"Anyone have any suggestions?" He asked.

"Yeah, kick his ass and get the hell out of here," Artemis said. Harry nodded, and the others readied themselves.

"Sounds good to me," Robin said. "Let's do this."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

As I mentioned last chapter, this will be one of the hardest arcs for me to make distinctive from the show. There are too many things that have to happen more or less as they did in canon for it to be truly original. That said, I did my best to at least put a different spin on events and mix things up as much as I could. I also don't have to compress story beats to fit a 28-minute episode format, so that helps a little.

Please let me know what you think of my take on Cadmus. There are obviously a few changes with Circe having joined the Light, and I'm curious as to how they come across to people who don't know where I'm taking this story, yet. Thanks, and I'll see you next time.