Chapter 2: The Boy In the Bubble

"Urgh!"

With another loud grunt, Super boy managed to finally break through the final few feet of wall that had been baring their way forward. While the decision to break down the way seemed unnecessary at the time, their minds had changed after having to break through several feet of reinforced concrete, two feet of tempered steel, and a few other things that had been designed to keep any and everyone from breaking though the wall.

There was definitely something here that the master minds of this particular laboratory did not want being found at any cost, which made it all the more important that the team locate and retrieve what ever that item was. 

With practiced ease, Robin pulled out a tactical grade flash light from his tool belt, while Aqualad's tattoos came to life, glowing brightly enough for the team to make out the area that they had found themselves in.

"Looks like we entered through a back door, the actually entrance should have been through a different area of the lab. Who ever built this place definitely didn't think about security measure for just breaking through the wall." Said Robin, barely looking up from a data pad that he had nabbed 

"I'd say that the ridiculously sturdy wall in question, was more than adequate as a deterrent. That thing was solid and you should be grateful that you weren't the one forced to break it down." Grunted Superboy, who was covered in dust and debris from his recent demolition job.

"That why we have you here big boy, you're the muscle of the group." Kid flash playfully punched at Superboy, but the unimpressed look on his face was more than enough of a sign to not bother him further.

"Can you still feel what ever it was you were sensing before Miss Martian?" Aqualad turned towards Megan and asked, fully focused on completing the wayward mission as soon as possible.

The other boys all looked to Miss Martian who had placed her hands on either side of her head as she concentrated on doing what ever it was she did with her telepathic abilities. A few moments passed before she opened her eyes and pointed down one of the paths.

"What ever it is that I'm sensing is coming from that direction, as long as we follow that path we'll come across it."

With that the group of five made their way down the dark corridor the only sources of light being the flashlight from Robin and the glowing lights of Aqualad's tattoos. As they walked, it became apparent that this area of the lab was quite different from the rest of the facilities.

The over all design and layout of the space was different, almost as if this was an area that was always meant to be separate from the wider venom serum research and production area. 

The sudden flicker of the lights over head coming to light cause the group to immediately assume combat positions, but other than the lights coming on, nothing else seemed to happen. 

"Sorry about that, the lights were my doing. I finally managed to get into the system and gain access to some of the controls in the area." Robin chuckled uneasily as the team glared at him, but he quickly went back to typing away at his wrist screen.

"I was wondering why this place felt so odd, and I think I finally managed to figured it out. This place is its own separate little island, completely isolated from the other areas of the facility on several levels. The reason why I couldn't figure out where to go by following the energy consumption, was because this place is practically wired in parallel to the other research areas."

"And that means what exactly?"

"It means that while this area and the other labs are connected to a certain extent, they aren't dependent on the other for power, nor are their security systems or internal servers connected. In fact, the more I look through the data here, the more I think that this area was the original underground facility. It was only some time after this place was built, that the wider research area that we passed on the way down was built on top of this one."

The others looked at Robin quizzically until Kid Flash couldn't help but to say something.

"That doesn't make any sense, why would they need to do something like that?"

" I don't' know why they did it, but it would explain why the infrastructure is so different." Robin threw his hands up in frustration, before enlarging the projection on his wrist so that the others could see what he was looking at clearly.

"There were definitely two separate groups working around here, and they were working on two different research projects, that much is certain. That's why the two areas look so different, they served different purposes and had to be designed as such. Not to mention that the encryption of this area is several magnitudes higher than the previous one. What ever they were researching here was more important to the owner of this secret research lab than the cobra venom serum. I don't know whether that's a good thing or not. Given what we know about the Venom it's onl-"

"Were here."

Megans sudden interruption caused everyone to stop and look around them. They had arrived in front of a large fortified door that spanned a good few feet in diameter. Superboy approached the door and knocked on it with his knuckles, the crisp rink of the metal made him pause before he pulled back his arm in preparation for a punch.

"Get back, I'm gonna break this down."

Before he could unleash his wrath on the door though, Robin quickly got between him and the door shouting at him to stop.

"You can't just go smashing through every door you see! What do you think would happen if you damage what ever is behind the door when you smash through?!" 

Superboy looked uncomfortable at Robins rebuke for a moment, but his face return to a mask of indifferent just as quickly, and he simply grunted in assent and stood to the side. Robin, who had broken out in a sweat, quickly wiped his forehead before pulling out a few wires from his wrist band.

"It might take a minute but I'll hack into the door and open it. There is no telling whether there is a security protocol that might cause the place to go on lock down if we forcefully inter or damage the door, so please refrain from smashing anything! Megan while I'm sure you could phase through the wall, there is no telling what's on the other side, so just wait until I get the door open before-"

The hiss of steam associated with hydraulics being released sudden sounded and everyone turned towards Kid Flash, who was standing next to the console on the door and was currently pressing the large green button that was inconspicuously placed at the bottom of the console.

He looked back at the other members of the team and simply shrugged his shoulders at the looks of confusion, disbelief, and mild annoyance on their faces. 

"I figured we could just see if the dang thing was locked, and I guess it wasn't?" He said helplessly 

"And what if when you pressed that button the place ended up collapsing in on us?" Asked Robin, the one most confused and annoyed at Kid's recklessness.

"We don't have to worry about that since it didn't happen, lets just get in there and see what's going on." Aqualad patted Robin on the back in passing as he walked through the open door and into the room beyond.

The other team members all shrugged and followed behind him, with Robin bringing up the rear as he grumbled to himself in annoyance.

No sooner had everyone entered the room, did the doors slide shut behind them, the sound of the hydraulics becoming engaged once more alerting them to the fact that they were in a secure laboratory, filled with unknown advisories.

They didn't have long to think about that though as the lights which had been dim suddenly flared to life, exposing the contents of the room for all to see.

"Okay, now I'm definitely getting some Deja-vu vibes." Kid Flash muttered to himself, but none of the others refuted his claims, especially since both Robin and Aqualad were looking at each other in confusion while Superboy's face was marred by deep unsettling look of horror, and rage.

The lights had revealed several vats placed in the middle of the room. Surrounding those vats where several work stations, complete with various consoles and boards. It was a technical marvel as the consoles were displaying a lot of information abut the contents of the vats, though none of the current teens where able to make heads or tails of what was shown.

Not to mention that most of their attention was drawn to the largest vat situated in the middle of the room. It resembled a large fish bowl, as its circular nature reminded most of a bubble of sorts. Though the captured fish in the case who was floating aimlessly while suspending in some sort of green fluid was a boy. His dark skin and silver hair shared a uncanny resemblance to Aqualad's, though his lack of tattoos, missing gills, and the very different face that he sported assure everyone that he wasn't a clone, or at least wasn't an exact clone.

He was large, with broad shoulders and a sturdy frame, possibly about six foot seven, though he was currently in a fetal position while suspending in the fluid that surrounded him. While seeing a person in such a compromising position -given that he was currently naked in the container- would have been disturbing in and of it self, the thing that served to unnerve everyone present, were the several cables that where running from the top of the boys containment unit to the several containers that where filled with different colored fluids.

The cables where connected and fed directly into the boys spinal cord and neck, and even as they stood watching on in disbelief, the system wired to life and some of the boys spinal fluid was drawn away by the tubes and collected into the containers off to the side.

"This is…" Robin couldn't even find the words to describe what he was feeling, and he wasn't the only one.

"Its horrible, that's what it is. What the hell were they researching?!" Kid Flash immediately rushed to the containment unit, unsure of what to do.

"We need to save him." 

Everyone looked towards Superboy who was still staring at the containment unit with a burning hatred. His hands where clinched into fist and his muscles where tensed. It was a miracle that he hadn't already rushed to rip apart the containment unit, though it looked like he might do so if something wasn't done quickly.

"We will Superboy, we will. But we need to find a way to do so safely. I don't think ripping those cables out of his body would do him any good. Robin can you get him out?" Aqualad turned to the boy wonder who was already kneeling next to the largest console in the room, his wrist computer already connected to the console as he attempted to hack into the system.

"I'm way ahead of you." he replied, not looking up from his work for even a moment.

Content to let Robin do his stuff, Aqualad turned towards Megan who had been quiet this entire time. What he wasn't expecting to see what Megan kneeling on the ground, with tears streaming down her face as she looked upon the boy in the containment unit.

"Megan what's wrong?" He asked, concerned that the sight might have been to much for her to handle.

"I…He's…my God what did they do to him." She struggled to get her words out, but when she did they were barely louder than a whisper.

"I know this is bad, but we're going to get him out of here okay, things are going to be alright." Aqualad said, while gently rubbing her back in an attempt to calm her down. Though from how much her body trembled, it didn't seem to be doing much.

"No, you don't understand." Megan choked out, her sobs making it difficult for her to speak. "I told you guys that I was sensing something but I couldn't figure out what. I thought I was sensing an alien mind because I'd never felt a human mind that was so fractured. But he is what I was feeling and now that I'm closer I'm certain that he's human."

She turned to look Aqualad right in the eyes and for the first time Aqualad saw something behind the tears, and the sorrow, something he thought that he would never see from the bubbly happy go lucky person that was Miss Martian. A burning rage that seemed to dwarf everything else.

"What ever they did to him physically, is nothing compared to what they did to his mind. Something like this is only possible to persons who are extremely skilled with telepathy. If I ever come across who did to this, I swear I'll make sure they experience a world of pain ten times worse than what they inflicted on this boy."

As Aqualad listened to her, he was one hundred percent sure that she meant every word.