Chapter Title: Cadmus 1
Washington, D.C.
July 4, 18:00 EDT
Cadmus, a genetics research facility, was experiencing a small fire that was being responded to by a firetruck and three ambulances. The firefighters were trying to douse the flame to help the two men who were stuck.
"Help! Get us down!" yelled one of the men to the firefighters.
"Stay put. We will get you out." said one of the firefighters with a megaphone.
BOOM
An explosion launched the two men out of the windows, but before they could hit the ground, a yellow blur raced up the side of the building, catching and safely depositing them on the roof.
Unfortunately, the blur didn't have enough speed to deposit them and get itself on the roof so it slipped back down the wall before grabbing onto the open window.
"It's what's his name. Flash Boy." said the firefighter.
"Kid Flash. Why is that so hard?" said Wally as he hung there.
Meanwhile, the three who didn't have super speed were slower to approach the building.
"Smooth." said Robin, seeing Wally mess up the run.
"Does he always have to run ahead? We need a plan. We..." said Kaldur, turning to Robin before noticing that he was gone.
"You get used to it." said Max patting him on the shoulder, the two making their way to the building.
Robin on the other hand had already made his way to the window using the grapple gun. Once he was at the window, he helped Wally up before entering the building.
"I need to borrow that." said Kaldur as he removed the twin hilts he carried on his back.
He pointed the twin hilts at the water coming out of the hose the firefighters were using while the tattoos he had lit up. The water then moved away from the hose before he made a platform of swirling water to stand on.
"Get on." he said to Max who quickly hopped on.
Kaldur made the platform rise, becoming a large column of water that moved up to the roof.
"Step aboard. Now." he said to the two men who shakily got on.
Once they were on, he lowered the platform until it was at the window where he and Max got off before he continued to lower the platform until the two men were safely on the ground.
The two then entered the building where Robin was messing around with a computer while Wally was rifling through some cabinets full of documents.
"Appreciate the help." said Kaldur.
"You handled it. Besides, we're here to investigate. And Arsenal could've helped." said Robin looking over his shoulder at him before putting his focus back on the computer.
"Now that you mention it, what can you do?" asked Wally.
Max had decided to move to the hallway to check for any signs of trouble and was about to answer his question when he saw some elevator doors closing on an odd-looking silhouette.
"There was something in the elevators." said Max, causing the other three to move to him.
"Elevators should be locked down." said Wally as they all made their way to the elevator doors.
"This is wrong." said Robin, putting his arm up in front of him as a holographic screen appeared where he started typing before some information about the elevator came up, "Thought so. This is a high-speed express elevator. It doesn't belong in a two-story building."
"The silhouette didn't look human." said Max before Kaldur walked up to the doors and forced them open revealing an elevator shaft that seemingly went on forever.
"That's why they need an express elevator." said Robin as he shot the grapple gun at the ceiling and jumped into the shaft.
Max then jumped and grabbed the line before taking it down with Kaldur and Wally following after him. Floor after floor they continued to go down until Robin ran out of line at the 26th floor.
"I'm at the end of my rope." said Robin as he swung and jumped onto the ledge.
"Not enough space for all of us. Open the door." said Max not confident in his balance to land on the ledge and stay there, even after the training he had done over the past two months.
"I can bypass security, but you'll have to open the door." said Robin as he hacked the door on the holographic screen.
"Back to my question from earlier, what can you do?" asked Wally.
"Does it have something to do with your name, Arsenal?" asked Kaldur, who was equally curious.
In the past month, they had heard from Robin and their respective mentors about Batman's new protege, but they knew the bare minimum. They had no clue as to his abilities.
"It's so cool. Show them." said Robin, briefly looking up from his hacking before focusing back up.
Max spun his ring, with the number 25 appearing on it shortly after. The ring then disappeared and a cute, small, white dog with black eyes, ears, and nose that stood on its hind legs appeared on the ledge.
'Magical Beast Transformation: Hekatonkheires'
"What the heck is that?" asked Wally, flabbergasted at the little dog.
"Oh no." said Robin, his face paling at seeing the dog.
"What, don't tell me you're scared of that dog?" said Wally, giggling at Robin's reaction.
"You don't know what that thing is capable of." he said, "There. Security's gone. Open it."
"Cottus, open the door." said Max.
"Haha, what are you ta-" said Wally, his words stuck in his throat after seeing the small and cartoonish dog transform into a large hulking version with big arms that easily pried open the doors.
"Told you." said Robin as he entered before Max and Kaldur followed while Wally was still lost at what he had seen.
"What manner of creature is that?" asked Kaldur, surprised at the bizarre transformation though not as much as Wally since he had seen all sorts of odd creatures living under the sea.
"I'll explain later." he said as he picked up the back-to-normal Cottus and praised him while Wally finally snapped out of it and entered.
"What is that thing?" asked Wally, looking at the dog warily.
"Not now KF." said Robin causing everyone to forget the dog and focus back on the task at hand, "Welcome to Project Cadmus."
The floor they had entered was full of futuristic-looking equipment and had odd-looking metal panels covering pipes running all along the wall. It was something that would be out of place anywhere, much less a research facility in D.C.
"Kid, wait." said Kaldur as Wally ran off down the hall while the three ran after him.
As he neared a junction, he started to slow down but when he saw two giant hulking beasts unlike anything he had ever seen, he slipped and ended up in their path, ready to be trampled.
Before he could be trampled by the beasts, he recovered and rolled away, letting the whole pack of the beasts, which were as big as elephants but had the stature of gorillas while also having the aesthetic of alien creatures, pass them by.
While Max was curious about the hulking beasts, he wasn't taken aback by them like the others so he managed to notice that riding atop the beasts were tiny creatures with similar features.
"No, nothing odd going on here." said Kaldur, sarcastically.
"Smaller creatures were riding them." said Max.
"Didn't notice." said Wally.
"Neither did I." said Kaldur.
"What next? Go back and call in the Justice League or keep going?" asked Max.
"We keep going. We're already here so we might as well." said Robin while Wally nodded.
"I agree. The more we find out, the better." said Kaldur.
"Okay, let's go." said Max.
The four of them decided to go in the direction the beasts were coming from. After walking for a few minutes while avoiding more beasts, they came upon a door that Robin quickly hacked open.
Behind the door was a large room with creatures vaguely similar to the ones they had seen before, except they were in tanks and producing electricity.
"Okay, I'm officially whelmed." said Robin.
"This is how they hide this massive underground facility from the world. The real Cadmus isn't on the grid. It generates its power with these things. Must be what they're bred for." said Wally as they entered the room to get a closer look at the creatures.
"Even the name is a clue. In the myth, Cadmus created a new race by sowing dragon teeth." said Max.
"And this Cadmus creates new life too. Let's find out why." said Robin, walking up to a control panel and plugging in.
"They call them Genomorphs." he said as he went through different pictures of different Genomorphs, "Look at the stats on these things. Super-strength, telepathy, razor claws. These are living weapons."
"They're engineering an army. But for who?" said Wally.
"Wait, there's-" said Robin, cut off by Cottus growling in the direction they entered.
"Company." said Max, dropping Cottus and backing up while Wally and Kaldur similarly got ready for a fight, "I don't have much time."
"I know." said Robin who was still plugged into the computer and understood what he meant while the other two were confused.
"Don't move!" said a muscular man wearing a golden helmet with a small Genomorph on his shoulder while more lithe Genomorphs with razor claws fanned out in front of the exit.
"Wait. Robin? Aqualad? Kid Flash?" said the man.
"At least he got your name right." said Robin as he continued to type away.
"I know you. Guardian. A hero." said Kaldur.
"I do my best." he responded.
"Then what are you doing here?" asked Wally.
"I'm chief of security. You're trespassing. But we can call the Justice League. Figure this out." he said while a beeping noise came from Robin's direction.
"You think the League's gonna approve of you breeding weapons?" asked Wally.
"Weapons? What do you...? What have I...? Ugh. My head." he said before he held his head for a moment before his attitude shifted, "Take them down hard. No mercy."
SNARL
With his command, the more lithe Genomorphs rushed forward.
"Cottus, stop them." said Max.
In an instant, the cute Cottus turned into the hulking giant with massive arms. He swept his right arm, hitting back all the Genomorphs and making them collide with their surroundings, out for the count.
Robin took this opportunity to throw down a smoke bomb and use his grapple to go over the fight and out the door. Wally also took the opportunity that Cottus created to run through the smoke and toward the door but before he could escape he was tripped by Guardian. Thankfully his momentum was enough to let him go out into the hall where he quickly recovered and ran to Robin.
"Cottus, hold him." said Max, following behind Cottus.
Hearing him, Cottus turned his attention to Guardian before lunging at him, ready to grab him, only for him to disappear and leave everyone but Max confused.
"Go!" said Max to Kaldur, trying to take advantage of the momentary confusion from Cottus' disappearance by rushing Guardian.
By the time Guardian focused, Max's fist was already making contact with his helmet, knocking him down to the ground. Unfortunately, Max was not strong enough to knock him out.
Guardian was about to stand back up but the follow-up hit and electricity that Kaldur provided was enough to incapacitate him.
Seeing him and the Genomorphs down, the two ran out of the room and made their way to Wally and Robin, who was hacking the elevator.
Even though they had managed to take down the Genomorphs and Guardian quickly, the blaring siren was an obvious indication that their infiltration had been discovered.
"Way to be a team player." said Max to Robin.
"Weren't you right behind me?" he said with a smirk as the elevator doors opened and the four of them entered.
With the elevator moving, they relaxed a little before noticing that the number was not decreasing but increasing, meaning they were going in deeper.
"We're headed down?" asked Max.
"Dude, out is up." said Wally, pointing his finger up.
"Excuse me? Project KR? It's down on Sub-Level 52." said Robin.
"Is that what you were going to say before we were interrupted?" asked Max.
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"I don't know. But it had more encryption on it than anything else in this place which means it's their crown jewel." said Robin.
"This is out of control. Perhaps Arsenal was right. We should've called the League." said Aqualad.
DING
As the doors opened, the four of them got ready for anything that may appear but all they saw was a hallway unlike anything they had seen before. The material looked like flesh but seemed like stone.
Before they could talk about Kaldur's suggestion, Robin bolted out.
"We are already here." said Wally, following Robin.
"Let's go. We can't leave them alone." said Max as he and Kaldur ran to catch up with the other two.
After a short run, they came upon a fork.
"Which way?" asked Kaldur.
"Bizarre-Iooking hallway one or bizarre-Iooking hallway two?" said Robin, but before anyone could say anything a figure appeared from the left hallway.
"Hold." said the humanoid-looking Genomorph, who also happened to be the only Genomoprh they had seen wearing clothes.
"That's the figure I saw." said Max before noticing that the Genomorph had his hand out and was levitating two barrels.
"Move." he said as the two barrels were launched above their heads, exploding behind them.
Robin took the opening and threw a birdarang at the figure, but he stopped it before levitating two more barrels.
With the Genomorph blocking the left hallway, the group had no choice but to go down the right hallway.
"They are headed for Project KR." they heard the Genomorph say causing them to speed up.
Down the hallway they went before eventually coming upon a more secure entrance that read "Project Kr" and had a female scientist exiting it.
"Stop the door, Kid." said Max.
Wally then sped up ahead of them and picked up a metal canister before placing it between the shutting doors, stalling it long enough for the group to enter. Once inside, Kaldur kicked the canister away, causing the doors to shut on their pursuers. Robin then plugged into the control panel and disabled the door.
"I disabled the door. We're safe." he said.
"We're trapped." said Max.
"Uh, guys? You'll wanna see this." said Wally, causing the three to walk up to him while he pushed a button on the control panel in front of him.
WHIR
The lights in the room shifted to light up a large pod.
"Whoa." said Robin from seeing what was inside the pod.
Inside the pod was a teenager wearing a white bodysuit with the symbol of Superman on the front with three small genomorphs in glass containers above the boy. The pod that he was in also had the atomic symbol of krypton on it, Kr.
"Big K, little r. The atomic symbol for krypton." said Max.
"Whoa, clone?" asked Wally as he walked up to the pod.
"Robin. Hack." said Kaldur.
"Right, right." said Robin, plugging into the control panel and bypassing the security.
"Weapon designation Superboy. A clone force-grown in 16 weeks from DNA acquired from Superman." said Robin, reading what he found.
"Stolen from Superman." said Max.
"No way the big guy knows about this." chimed in Wally.
"Solar suit allows him to absorb yellow sun radiation 24/7."
"And these creatures?" asked Kaldur, pointing at the little Genomorphs.
"Genomorph-Gnomes. Telepathic. Force-feeding him an education."
"And we can guess what else." said Wally.
"They're growing their own Superman. One they can make into a slave." said Max as he looked at the boy.
"Now we contact the League." said Kaldur as he pressed the symbol on his belt.
"No signal." said Robin as he tried to contact Batman.
"We're too deep." said Max.
"What do we do?" asked Wally.
"We set him free." said Max, turning to look at the three, "But not yet."
"Why?" asked Kaldur.
"Those Genomorph-Gnomes are telepathically feeding him an education. Those giant beasts all had one and Guardian had one. They probably use them to communicate with each other." explained Max.
"Which means they'll probably use them to have him attack us. Freeing him would only help them." said Kaldur, understanding what Max was getting at.
"Exactly. We need to come up with a plan before we do that." he said.
"Unless you haven't noticed, we're trapped. The only plan is to get out the same way we got in, but we can't. The hallway outside this door is probably full of those things by now." said Wally.
"The plan of action changes depending on what you have so spin it and let's see what our options are." said Robin.
"Wait, you spun that ring before that little dog thing appeared earlier. Is that your power? The ring?" asked Wally.
"We're in enemy territory, not now." said Max before spinning the ring with it landing on 11.
'Demon Sword: Lostvayne'
The ring disappeared and in Max's hand appeared a curved shortsword with a dragon emblem on its hilt, five holes along the middle of the sharp blade, and 5 half-moon holes along the other side of the blade. The blade was split into two different colors, the sharp part silver and the opposite a dark green moss.
"Cool sword." said Wally.
"Not a good one for the situation. The only plan I see is to release him, try to reason with him, and escape with him." said Max, "But if he's as strong as Superman is, then we have no chance if reasoning doesn't work."
"Is it really our only option?" asked Robin.
"Unless you want to wait, but there's no guarantee they won't bring down those giant beasts to help them open the door by then." said Max.
"Fine. We'll let him go and try to reason with him. If we can't we'll try to subdue him. If we can't ... then I don't know." said Robin.
"If that is the only way." said Kaldur, readying his twin hilts.
"Okay. Get ready." said Robin as he fiddled around before the pod opened.
The four of them were ready for the boy to move and seeing his hand clench, the four knew reasoning with him was out the window.
The clone's eyes shot open before he launched himself at Kaldur, colliding with him and pinning him down before starting to wail on him.
Seeing this, Max activated Lostvayne's ability, creating two copies of himself that ran at the clone and tried to restrain him.
Unfortunately, the copies created by Lostvayne were maxed out at half of Max's strength and that was nowhere near enough to restrain the clone. He swatted the clones away, making them collide with the walls, and getting rid of them.
Seeing it had not worked, Robin threw a gas bomb at the clone which only served to bother and enrage him. Kaldur took this opportunity to kick the clone in the chest and push him away.
Robin then took out a stun gun and shot the clone with it but he tanked it and yanked on the wires, pulling Robin to him. Before he could do anything to Robin, however, Max cut the wires with Lostvayne before activating it again, creating two new copies.
The three Max then rushed the clone and using their amateur swordsmanship, they attacked him. Max thought that since the clone was made using Superman's DNA, Lostvayne would be unable to leave even a scratch, but it seemed either the sword was a lot sharper than Max realized or the clone was imperfect.
Unfortunately, the cuts the clone received only served to enrage him further, and with a shout of rage, he punched the two copies, making them disappear before tackling Max who was unable to react in time and who collided with the wall and fell unconscious.
The clone then made quick work of Robin and Wally while Kaldur put up the longest fight. But at the end of it, the clone was the only one who was still standing.
The clone then walked up to the doors and forced them open with a quick yank, revealing a small army of Genomorphs standing outside the door, along with Guardian, the humanoid Genomorph, the female scientist, and a male scientist.
Seeing the clone, the male scientist smiled and walked past the clone to see inside the room. The four heroes unconscious made the man smile even more.
"Attaboy." he said, patting the clone on the shoulder.