Chapter 26 - Interlude 4

Dubbilex stared at the grave with an impassive face. He was currently wearing the guise of a young woman, unwilling to connect his Donavan disguise with this particular trip.

He really didn't know how he should be feeling right now.

In front of him rested his… mother? Sister? DNA donor? He supposes the third option was probably the most accurate. The others implied an emotional or familial connection that just wasn't there. They had never even met after all.

Ace had been a little over twice his age when she died and, according to the documents he read, her powers had been what caused her death. Dubbilex had since gotten all the genomorphs a new medical check. The results weren't good.

It seemed like his entire race had an expiration date, a little over twenty years with the proper care. He really didn't know what to think about that.

Most humans lived about seventy to eighty years these days, but there were alien races that lived much longer… and much shorter lives.

Shaking his head, Dubbilex kneeled in front of the grave and deposited the flowers he had been holding. It had been… interesting to meet Ace, in a manner of speaking, but it didn't really change his life.

No, it was important to remember her, but his focus should be on his still living brothers and sisters. Discovering just how short their lives would be gave him a new drive. He couldn't keep wasting time anymore.

"Thank you brother." He nodded towards Kon-El, the young man who had volunteered to accompany him, and he appreciated the gesture. "Let us return, I still have much to do."

"Kara's keeping you busy?" Kon-El asked with some interest.

"Indeed, managing both CADMUS and her company is difficult, I do hope she will find a new CEO soon." Dubbilex said as they left the cemetery.

"Starfire is starting to talk about organizing an intervention." Kon-El grimaced. "I don't think Kara's gonna react well to that."

"No, I suppose not." Dubbilex smiled thinking about his employer's continued efforts to escape her therapist. "I'll warn her that her time is running out."

"How's Kraig doing?"

"He still misses you, but he's adjusting well to the outside world." Dubbilex told him. The little G-gnome had been one of the first to volunteer at Kara's new factory. "I dream of the day we can walk freely but, clearly, that is still a work in progress."

"Is there anything I can do?" Kon-El asked, feeling Dubbilex's frustration.

"For the moment? No." Dubbilex shook his head and turned towards his brother. "However, when the time comes, I hope you can stand with us as we reveal ourselves."

"I… of course." Kon-El said with some hesitation.

Dubbilex could see his brother wanted to fit in, that he was willing to give it up for the sake of their race spoke well of his character. Laying a hand on his shoulder, Dubbilex smiled. "Don't worry brother, I have spoken with Kara and Batman, there is still much to be done before we're ready to move. When the time comes, I know you will be ready."

Kon-El nodded. His shoulders relaxed as they got into the car.

Dubbilex kept the image of the woman until he stepped into the Zeta-Tube that delivered him to CADMUS's door. Finally, he dispersed it and simply made himself invisible to anyone looking his way, trusting Kara's tech to keep his image from any cameras.

Once inside, he relaxed his control and felt at home, surrounded by his family. He nodded towards Beth as she stepped out of her power generator and stretched her limbs, electricity leaving her body until she was no longer shining with power.

"Going to the Cafeteria?" He connected to her mind and asked.

"Yes, just finished a shift." Beth flicked all her limbs, getting rid of the last sparks of electricity. "Want to come? Benny and Karen will be joining me there."

"Yes, I haven't eaten anything yet." He decided to take some time before starting to organize CADMUS's latest reports. He was eternally thankful for Kara's help but, since a little over a week now, it had been nearly impossible to get her away from her workshop.

"You work too much, should I have a talk with the boss lady? Kryptonians aren't immune to lightning, I could give her a lesson." Dubbilex snorted, no genomorph would hurt Kara Zor-El, of that he was certain, but Beth liked to joke about it.

"No need, it shouldn't be much longer before we have things in order." He dismissed her concern. It wasn't the time to be slowing down.

Eating a nice meal at the cafeteria, Dubbilex smiled as he saw the genomorphs and human researchers interacting as if it was normal. The human's G-gnome handlers didn't even have to do anything.

At the beginning, the human workers had found it strange to see the genomorphs free, walking around, having breaks and eating amongst them but ultimately, the G-gnomes only had to interfere a few times, and that interference was minimal.

Instead of mind controlling the humans, which many of them, including Dubbilex himself, were loathe to do, they just used their telepathy to inform Dubbilex, and he pretended to be their superior, berating them for releasing company secrets and reminding them of their work contracts.

Kara's tech intercepted any electronic report, and, since they still believed the genomorphs were under their control, the humans adapted quickly. Not to say there weren't some unpleasant individuals, but they were few and far between.

Sitting down at his desk, Dubbilex relaxed his body on the comfortable chair and used his telekinesis to lift the physical reports he had to sign. He read them one after another, and signed them with only a minor effort of will, his pen moving in the air with incredible skill.

Since finding out his own… origin, Dubbilex had been using his powers more and more. Ace had been able to grow from only being able to alter the perception of those who met her eyes, to warping reality in an area around herself.

Dubbilex doubted he could reach that level of power, and he certainly didn't want to share her fate, but he was being careful and already noticed a large growth of his abilities, telekinesis came easier and with more skill. His telepathy was already effortless and now it grew in range and finesse every day.

He felt nearly twice as strong as he was before Kara had freed him, and that was far from his limit. Never again would he be unable to help his people. He refused to stand by once more.

Dubbilex was a natural pacifist, he did not wish for conflict and, more importantly, he would not start conflict. But, he wouldn't stay quiet if his family was attacked or enslaved, not again.

Leaning forward, Dubbilex opened his own laptop, one given to him by Kara so nobody could hack it, typing his password, he waited until the computer finished scanning him, reading his fingerprints, retina, body shape and even his temperature, then started working on his CEO responsibilities, making sure the factory would be able to produce their first prototype on time.

Suddenly, his screen flashes red and the notebook starts releasing an incredibly annoying noise, a single click later and Dubbilex was redirected to the cameras outside CADMUS. For a moment, he couldn't see anything, then Kara's tech changed to heat signals revealing several assailants.

Reacting immediately, Dubbilex stretched his power, connecting to several people inside the facility. "Guardian, this is an emergency, start the evacuation procedures, abandon the upper floors and focus on the remaining genomorphs. Erin, make sure to retrieve everything and destroy any information on our creation or other sensitive projects. All others, start making your way to the genomorph cave."

He didn't wait for their answer and cut the connection, focusing back on the cameras. He recognized a few of their hidden enemies from Kara's documentation, while most of them were too well hidden, Hook and Black Spider weren't as skilled as the others.

The League of Shadows was here.

From the main road, a black car arrived and parked right in front of CADMUS, Lex Luthor himself stepped out of the vehicle, pulling something from inside his suit, he pressed a button and Dubbilex saw CADMUS' own security be completely disabled, every camera stopped working at the same time.

Thankfully, Kara had long since provided an alternative surveillance system in the form of her drones. Some of the genomorphs had also disconnected a few of the security features from the central CADMUS' system, making them work independently. Then a small, cylindrical robot with a brain appeared from the other side of the car, a large gorilla with a red beret following closely behind.

The gorilla was carrying a large metal pole on his shoulder, with a grunt, he drove it into the ground and the entire thing unfolded, revealing some kind of antenna. Dubbilex ordered a few of the drones to come closer for a better look.

The drones registered a pulse as it was released from the device, several warnings started activating on his screen and, before he could react, a bullet hit the closest drone. In quick succession, all the drones on the outside of the building were disabled.

Pressing a button, Dubbilex ordered them to self-destruct. Unfortunately, at least a dozen of the devices had completely stopped responding before he did. Kara still had incorporated defenses against tampering on every device but, with so many spares, they would have far too many tries to break through her defenses.

The drones weren't actually that important, but Kara absolutely hated losing any advantage she had, and Dubbilex could already see the young Kryptonian becoming paranoid of her own tech being used against her allies.

A few seconds later, he found out what went wrong. While Brain's device couldn't destroy Kara's drones, or even disable them. It could disrupt their stealth, making them easy pickings for the trained assassins.

Ordering the remaining devices to hide themselves in the ventilation or any other tight space, Dubbilex reprogrammed them so that any movement less than a meter from them would trigger their self-destruct. This way he'd be able to keep an eye on the Light's progress while minimizing the chances that they could capture more of the devices.

Grabbing a tablet, Dubbilex got up from his chair and almost ran from the room. Hopefully, they could all be out of this place soon, leaving the Light empty handed.

The first five floors were completely evacuated before the Light even entered the building. Some data and experiments were left behind, but really, the upper floors were left for anything they did not mind leaving behind anyway.

All their personnel started gathering beneath the last floor of the facility, where the genomorphs had opened a large cavern they could use to escape.

Around him, Genomorphs lead humans towards the evacuation area, taking the humans away was a risk, but there was no way to know if the Light wouldn't kill them and blame his family as a power play.

Checking his tablet, Dubbilex finally had the names of the entire raid team.

Leading from the front was Lady Shiva. He had disabled the elevator so the assassin and martial artist was running down the stairs with astonishing speed, followed closely behind by Cheshire.

Behind them, and running much slower, were Ubu, Hook and Black Spider. They tried to keep up, but the two females were just too fast.

Lex Luthor seemed to have decided to wait outside, Dubbilex managed to send one of the surviving drones outside to watch him, but the man rested calmly against the car, messing with his own cell phone.

Brain, Ra's al Ghul and Ocean-Master walked calmly around the facility, as if they didn't have a worry in the world. Dubbilex made sure to save the footage of it. At least he could prove they were working together.

Dubbilex tried to send a copy to Kara's computer, but something was interfering with communications to and from the facility. He almost wanted to smirk. So they thought themselves safe.

Reaching the last floor, Dubbilex grabbed one of Kara's portal communicators and activated it. He sent all the information towards her computer, while also sending a copy to his own device at the company. He also sent out a call for help, but the device only connected to a single place, and there was a chance Kara would notice the warning too late.

They hadn't thought they'd be found out so soon, but there had been too many things to do. Kara had given him the first device she produced, but they had forgotten to get more.

At least he had gotten the footage out. It was not definite proof, but Dubbilex was happy to take any chance of causing Luthor problems.

Guardian arrived at his side. The clone had been keeping watch on his own device, and his face didn't seem as satisfied as the situation demanded.

"Is there a problem?"

"There's too many, it's taking too long to get everyone safely to the other side, and they're advancing too fast." He frowned as he watched Lady Shiva punch through a door and throw daggers at the few defenses his family had managed to restart. "We'll have to delay them."

"There are still some working defenses on the lower floors. Are you sure they won't be enough?" Dubbilex asked.

Karen stepped at their side and grunted causing the both of them to turn towards her. She used a large claw to point at her own device. Dubbilex's eyes widened.

It seems like, while they had been paying attention to the vanguard, Brain was working on opening the elevator doors. "The elevators are still disabled, even if he reactivates them; we made sure they were too damaged to move."

"Brain is too good a scientist, and Ocean Master is a mage. They will find a way." Guardian said while Karen just shook her head.

"Very well, Guardian, focus on giving me cover, I'll delay them for as long as I can." Dubbilex said.

Karen grunted. Her voice was much harsher than before. Dubbilex knew the G-Trolls had impressive size and strength, but they had no training and, as the Titans had proved, that made all the difference.

Most G-Trolls were gentle beings, even more gentle than other Genomorphs, only Karen had been willing to train and defend her family.

"Are you sure, sister?" He asked. The G-Troll didn't even stop to think about it, she nodded and grunted her confidence. "Very well, try to stay out of sight. A surprise attack can give us a large advantage."

The elevator shaft only went down to the 48th floor. Dubbilex chose a large room on the 50th floor for their confrontation. There were large support pillars and a giant open space. The room used to house thousands of cages that perpetually drained his family of their electricity. Nobody would come to check on them for weeks.

Once the Genomorphs were free, most G-Sprites decided to destroy the cages and never again step into this place. Dubbilex had left it empty since then, it was a low enough floor to be blocked from most employees, and he didn't need the space.

Dubbilex closed his eyes and breathed deeply, concentrating fully on the moment. There was a chance that Kara or someone else would get here in time, but, if he was truthful, he welcomed the chance of fighting them, the chance to defend his people himself instead of cowering and putting all his hopes in others.

He also sent an order to Kara's devices, since he no longer needed to watch the upper floors, it was best that they be destroyed before The Light had the time to search for them.

Lady Shiva and Cheshire were the first to arrive, followed closely behind by Hook, Ubu and Black Spider. Instead of attacking, Dubbilex used his telepathic illusions to trick them. While he wanted to fight them, his family was more important, delaying them was the true goal.

The assassins wandered the floor in circular patterns, running as fast as they could, only to end up at exactly the same place.

Lady Shiva was the first to notice, stopping in place and closing her eyes, the assassin tried to use her other senses to find out his location. Dubbilex didn't let her. The very moment she stopped moving he attacked, putting pressure on her mind without revealing his location.

Lady Shiva frowned, but her mind was too strong and Dubbilex couldn't overcome her defenses while also keeping his location hidden. Unfortunately, Cheshire too noticed them, throwing several needles towards Guardian.

The man managed to block the attack, but that was enough to break Dubbilex's illusions and reveal the both of them. Guardian attacked. Trading blows with Cheshire and actually driving her back for a few seconds.

Dubbilex kept his focus on Lady Shiva, bombarding her mind with his power since he no longer had to affect the others or hide his position, causing her to stumble back.

Hook shot his weapon at him. The large metal hook connected to a chain flew straight towards his face and finally forced him to stop his attack, with a telekinetic blow Dubbilex smashed the hook to the floor with so much force it broke the chain and caused the ground to explode in shards of concrete and ceramic.

From one of the pillars, Black Spider shoots webs at his body. Dubbilex motioned with his hand and a piece of the damaged floor rose in the air, the sticky red substance struck the physical barrier and stopped.

The boulder was too heavy for him to throw with any speed, but it was already damaged and he had been working on finesse. A simple application of his power broke it apart, creating hundreds of smaller projectiles. Another wave of his hand sharpened their tips before he sent them flying as fast as possible towards all five enemies.

The attack forced Ubu to stop his charge and dodge aside, Lady Shiva recovered fast enough to jump back, Black Spider was pierced in the leg by a projectile and fell down, and Hook turned his back, tanking the attack with his armor but leaving himself open.

Another wave of his hand, Dubbilex telekinetically grabbed the discarded hook and used it to pierce through its owner's ankle then dragged him through the air and threw him against Cheshire.

The ninja jumped away and regrouped with Lady Shiva while Ubu and Black Spider hid behind a pillar.

Guardian had held his own, but there were several needles sticking from his shield and helmet. They nodded to each other.

Lady Shiva and Cheshire attacked, throwing a wave of knives and needles which Dubbilex blocked with ease. The needles stopped dead in the air, while the daggers were parried aside. Wiping his hand to the side, Dubbilex actually hit Black Spider with one of the needles causing the Assassin to stumble and letting Guardian smash his shield on the man's face, knocking him out.

Ubu engaged with Guardian, while Dubbilex desperately tried to keep both female assassins away, using the discarded daggers and rubble as projectiles, then a flash of light caught his attention and he had to step back, letting a magical projectile pass him by and explode against a pillar.

"Well, well, well, it seems like you're having trouble here, how peculiar." Brain said in an electronic voice. The large gorilla walking by his side just grunted.

"Lady Shiva, why haven't you eliminated him?" Asked Ra's al Ghul, his hands hidden behind his back.

"He's a powerful telepath and telekinetic, I would overcome him, but he managed to delay me until now." The lady assassin said in a calm and even voice, as if their fight had never happened.

Guardian actually subdued Ubu and stepped back, his face was filled with sweat and he was desperately trying to catch his breath. Seeing his situation, Dubbilex nodded and opened their mental connection.

"Thank you for the support Guardian, retreat before it's too late."

"What about you?"

"I can delay them for a few moments more," Dubbilex looked at his eyes with confidence then focused back on their enemies. "Karen, it seems like we can't avoid it."

Looking at the three new enemies that had arrived, Dubbilex was happy to see they weren't in a hurry to finish this. All three of them just observed the situation, and didn't show any signs of wanting to act themselves.

With a wave of his hand, Dubbilex sent Ubu flying back towards Shiva and Cheshire, forcing them to dodge while getting pelted with anything he could get his telekinetic grasp on.

They had learned not to use projectiles, and Dubbilex was exhausting himself to keep them away. He couldn't keep it up for long, but even they couldn't advance under his attack and he managed to block them for nearly a full minute.

"Enough, I'll deal with him." Ocean-Master shouted and pointed at him with his spear, releasing another blast of magic.

Dubbilex was already moving, stepping aside without a lot of movement while sending a stone towards the villain.

Ocean-Master destroyed the stone with a wave of his spears and charged, moving with incredible speed towards him. Dubbilex started walking backwards and, when Ocean-Master was nearly upon him, Karen attacked.

From the start of the fight Karen had been waiting behind one of the pillars, feeling anxious, now she used all her nervous energy on a single, devastating punch.

Dubbilex swore he could see the villain's eyes widening as the punch approached. Lifting his spear, he had enough time to form a magical shield, but the blow was so strong the shield exploded into shards of light and Ocean-Master's body was sent flying.

The G-Trolls were big. Dubbilex would go so far as to say they were giants. Taller, larger and heavier than elephants, their every movement had enough strength to match most supers. And in case that wasn't enough, Karen wasn't a normal G-Troll.

Once it was clear Dubbilex couldn't deal with them by himself, Karen had consumed a G-Troll sized dose of the last Blockbuster serum they had. Her muscles were twice as big, her tusks sharper than ever and her very skin could barely contain her power.

Blockbuster could make a normal human match a G-Troll, used by a G-Troll. Dubbilex believed she could match Superman, at least in strength alone.

Stepping out from behind the pillar, Karen's feet shook the ground. With some concentration, Dubbilex used his telekinesis to raise his body until he was standing on her shoulder.

Karen roared, her voice driving them all back with the sheer power.

"Fascinating." Brain said, still with his confident voice.

At his side, Ocean-Master picked himself up, he spit some blood on the ground and cracked his neck. Suddenly, he shot a new blast from his spear and Karen wasn't fast enough to dodge.

The magical attack hit her in the arm and blasted all the way through, Dubbilex could see the exposed bone from the wound and Karen roared again, this time from pain.

Telekinetically keeping himself above her. Dubbilex had to focus his entire power on blocking Ocean-Master, keeping the tip of his spear pointed away from Karen's body with any means he could as the G-Troll fought the others by herself.

Her power meant that all but Ocean-Master couldn't survive a single hit, unfortunately they all knew how to fight a super strong opponent, and they were all too fast for her. Even with Ra's and Brain staying back, her wounds started accumulating.

Lady Shiva herself was cutting through Karen's body like a madwoman, weaving between Karen's attacks without even stepping back. Several times, the assassin managed to climb Karen's body and attack Dubbilex himself.

His chest was hurting from a deep cut, and his left arm had stopped working when it was pierced by Shiva's sword. Dubbilex also felt himself weakening, finding a needle piercing the back of his knee.

Karen was a mess. She must have been cut almost a thousand times, and there was blood all around her on the floor. She was breathing hard, one of her tusks missing from when Dubbilex almost couldn't completely redirect one of Ocean-Master's attacks.

Finally, he knew they couldn't hold on any more. In a desperate move, he stopped disrupting Ocean-master and blasted everyone around them with a wave of telekinesis, Lady Shiva, Cheshire and the Gorilla flew back, but one of Ocean-Master's magical blasts hit him in the side, blowing a hole through his body and destroying at least some of his organs.

Dubbilex feet slipped from Karen's shoulders, his telekinesis no longer able to keep him in place. Karen caught him in a large hand just before he hit the floor, unable to even speak, he ordered in her mind. "RUN!"

She ran, the enemies were about to follow them, but Guardian must have been watching the fight, because he activated the last defense, using the explosive charges to collapse the ceiling just as they stepped into the stairs towards the lower floors.

Karen didn't stop, her blood flying all over the place as she carried him down, down into the secret cave. Dubbilex was barely conscious, but he used the very last of his powers to telekinetically pinch his wounds close. He was sure it was doing even more damage, but the effort kept him from bleeding out.

Karen finally reached the last cave and collapsed to her knees, Guardian managed to catch his body as it dropped from the G-Troll's hand "Dubbilex!"

"Le-let's… coff… go." Behind him, the ceiling collapsed, Ocean-Master dropped from the hole and fell, making a superhero landing.

Lady Shiva soon dropped lightly by his side, the same calm expression on her face. Ocean-Master lifted his trident and the entire world flashed as Guardian smashed the button for Kara's Kryptonian teleportation device.

It was built to let Genomorphs go from CADMUS to Kara's factory. Fully made with Kryptonian technology and materials, not only was it powerful enough to take them all away, but it would also act as a transportation vehicle, not a platform, teleporting with them and leaving nothing behind for The Light to study.

It had taken several trips, and even longer for the people to move, but they had bought enough time for all CADMUS personnel to teleport away.

It was with a sense of relief that Dubbilex passed out.

.

.

_______________________________________________

if you like this story, think about reading one of my other works. Also, think about giving me a tip if you have some spare change by supporting me on patr eon.com/CapCaverna