2 Moving Forward

After my failed attempt at testing my immortality, I decided it was time to attempt to find somewhere to live. Looking at the the date, I realized it was July 2, 2010.

'This means I'm only 2 days off from when Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad go investigate Cadmus. I need to secure a place to live quickly, and be there when they go to investigate.'

I couldn't think of an effective way to get housing as someone who looked 16 with no money, so I resorted to abusing my powers. Using the Kaleidoscope, I quickly jumped over to the Dragon Ball universe and stole capsules with food, water, and a house from the Z-fighters, returning to Earth-16 and placing the house in the forest away from civilization.

'This should last me for a little while, and I don't mind living in the wilderness.'

I spent the next 2 days just getting used to actually using my vector manipulation, trying to affect my speed by manipulating the vectors when I ran, and throwing rocks while manipulating their vectors to practice. Code: Unknown was something that was at base easy to use, but to actually extract the potential from it, it would take me a long time. I had the baseline physical enhancements it provided me, and the gift destruction was innate, but I could not even begin to be able to draw out the energy from within me to utilize Aurora Pillar.

'I'll just have to keep working on it, I can't expect to be able to do everything right away, even Izayoi who had his powers since birth had to fight a God to draw it out of himself.'

That was how those 2 days passed and before I knew it, it was July 4th. The news already showed the different ice villain defeats, so I made my way to the Cadmus building that was on fire and manipulated the light vectors around myself to make myself invisible. The "partners" weren't here yet so I snuck my way into the building and made my way down the elevator.

'I might as well have a look around until they get here. Maybe have some fun killing genomorphs.'

Allowing the light vectors to hit me normally, I walked through the halls of lower Cadmus while humming XO by Eden under my breath. After turning a corner, several behemoth genomorphs were in front of me. They were looing directly at me, and I watched as 2 of them charged at me.

As soon as they tried to touch me, all of the momentum that they charged me with was reversed and they were thrown across the room, with a loud bang echoing through the hall as the wall was indented.

'Well that was boring I hope the sidekicks get here soon.'

I decided to just wander around invisible until they got here, but my prayers were answered early as before I had to do anything I heard the door behind me open, and the voices of the sidekicks coming towards me.

"Okay, I'm officially whelmed." Robin said.

"Hey anyone know who the redhead is." Kid Mouth said.

After he said that, the other two took notice of me standing in the middle of the room, and the two behemoths embedded in the wall behind me.

"He appears to have defeated those creatures behind him. Perhaps he is not an ally of Cadmus." Aqualad stated.

I was starting to get annoyed with them talking about me like I wasn't even in the room, so I yelled

"Hey, maybe ask the guy you're talking about who he is instead of acting like he can't hear you."

"My apologies, but who are you and what are you doing here." -Aqualad asked.

"The fire looked suspect, so I decided to have some fun and look around. The creatures weren't very entertaining though. The name's Sakamaki Izayoi, call me Izayoi."

The heroes looked surprised when I said that the creatures were not a challenge, but brushed it off as just bravado and moved on.

"Well if you are already here, would you like to come with us to investigate this place." Aqualad questioned.

"What so we're just inviting anyone we happen to see to work with us. He could be working for them, or he could be a villian." Kid Flash exclaimed.

"He destroyed the creatures" Aqualad started.

"They're called Genomorphs heard one of the scientists around here say it" I interrupted.

"Very well, 'Genomorphs' so I do not believe he is working with Cadmus, and extra help would be appreciated." Aqualad finished.

"Yeah sure I'll go with you guys, it's not like it makes a difference if I explore this place alone or with you, maybe it'll be more fun this way and I won't get bored."

After I said that, Aqualad nodded and the sidekicked proceeded to look around the room we found ourselves in.

"This is how they hide this massive underground facility from the world." Kid Flash realizes as they walk between the towering rows. "The real Cadmus isn't on the grid. It generates it's own power with these… things." any excitement has left his tone. "Must be what they're bred for."

"Even the name is a clue." Aqualad agrees. "The Cadmus of myth created a new race by sowing dragon's teeth into the Earth."

"And this Cadmus creates new life too." Robin agrees stepping up to the computer nearest one of the rows of creatures. "Let's find out why." then pulls out a connector from his gauntlet to connect him to the computer. A holoscreen appears and he begins funneling the information. "They call them Genomorphs, so it looks like Izayoi was right."

Now he has Kid Flash and Aqualad's full attentions. As one appears on the entirety of the hologlove his eyes widen. "Whoa! Look at the stats on these things- super-strength, telepathy, razor claws. These are living weapons." Robin literally reels back in shock.

"They're engineering an army, but for who?" Kid Flash questions.

"Probably for whatever super villain group you and your mentors have been targeted by this week." I said sarcastically.

"Oh yeah very helpful" Kid flash replied, annoyed.

"Hey I'm just saying, it seems like you guys have a new villain to face every other day. Wouldn't surprise me if they finally wised up and got together instead of fighting alone."

"Whatever lets just keep looking." Robin said, although he was giving me a strange look as though he was trying to figure me out, with Aqualad giving me a similar one.

"Wait. There's something else." Robin says, as another batch of information comes through to his gauntlet. Aqualad now steps up behind Robin, looking over his shoulder. "Project Kr." he tries to start decrypting it. "Ugh! The files triple-encrypted. I-I can't-"

"Don't move!" Guardian calls now having a golden shield on his left forearm a squad of smaller, Genomorphs growling around him. These are longer, skinnier, tailed and their four digits on their front paws and the three on their back are finished off with razor sharp claws. The Genomorph 077s that Robin pulls stats on. Guardian stops short. "Wait, Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash?"

"Yo I'm here too, you known." I waved, unconcerned with the squad of genomorphs surrounding us.

"Hey Kid, looks like he got your name right." Robin teases, still trying to decrypt the Kr File.

"I know you." Aqualad speaks, momentarily catching Robin's attention. "Guardian, a hero."

The hero stands tall. "I do my best."

"Then what are you doing here?" Kid Flash questions, confused.

"I'm Chief of Security." Guardian responds. "You're trespassing, but we can call the Justice League, figure this out."

As everyone hesitates on what to do next, Robin's wrist computer beeps indicating the decryption has finished.

"You think the League's gonna approve of you breeding weapons?" Kid Flash demands.

"Weapons?" Guardian questions, confused. "What are you-" Guardian's eyes go wide just before his G-gnome's horns begin to glow. "What have I-" he brings his head to his temple as it falls to his chest. "Ugh my head." Finally he brings his hand away, but he glares hard at the protogés. "Take them down hard!" he tells the Genomorphs. Then points directly at the four teenagers. "No mercy."

With a growl the Genomorphs jump into action. Robin does so at the same time, getting in front of Kid Flash and Aqualad and dropping a smoke bomb. He shoots a grappling hook to the bottom of one of the support beams.

Meanwhile, I just stand there and wait for the genomorphs to make it to me. One slashes at my face, but instead its claw breaks off and it is sent flying back. More try to jump at me, but the same thing keeps happening. I continue to just stand still with a bored look on my face as the genomorphs continue jumping to their own doom.

Robin looks on in shock at the genomorphs inability to damage me, before continuing to hack into the Cadmus systems.

Kid Flash had dashed out of Robin's smoke bomb and jumped at a genomorph, dodging its attempt at slicing him, before giving several rapid punches and using it as a springboard to gain some distance.

Aqualad is distracted while fighting off the genomorph that had jumped on him and does not see Guardian coming. Guardian drops his shoulder and rams into Aqualad while he is distracted, knocking him off balance as the opportunity is capitalized by the genomorph. Aqualad, however, recovers and proceeds to dodge Guardian's follow up, delivering a quick sequence of punches to the genomorph from before, and charging Guardian. Guardian puts up his shield, but Aqualad channels electricity from his tattoos into the shield, stunning Guardian.

Kid Flash runs up next to Aqualad and both take the opportunity to make an escape, while looking over at me, with a group of genomorph bodies surrounding me. Looking over at the two, I say,

"Oh, we're leaving now, this fight wasn't even any fun. They couldn't even move me from my spot."

While Kid Flash and Aqualad are getting over their shock, I run up to them and they recover from their daze as we run to where Robin is.

"Way to be a team player Rob!" Kid Flash exclaims.

Robin doesn't look up from his attempt at hacking the elevator door as he replies "you guys weren't following right behind me?"

Robin succeeds in getting the elevator doors open and we all go inside as the doors slam shut. The numbers on the elevator display show we are going down and not out.

"Cool we're going deeper, maybe there will be something a lot more interesting to fight instead of an army of useless monsters." I say, excited to see how the fight with Superboy goes with me being there.

"Rob, why are we going deeper, we should be going up and out." Kid Flash says.

"Project Kr is on Sub level-52." Robin Replies.

"Perhaps it is time for us to contact the league" Aqualad suggests, but before anyone can reply, the doors open and we are let out into a tunnel with some type of organic walls.

"Nope, forget the league let's take a look around. We're already here, you guys might as well check out Project Kr, and I wasn't leaving anyway." I say.

Aqualad sighs "You are correct, we are already here and we can't leave you down here by yourself."

I scoff at the fact that he thinks I need them here to watch out for me, but don't say anything else.

We all run down the hall until we get to an intersection that splits off two ways.

"Which way do we go?" Aqualad questions.

"Yeah, Bizarre looking Hallway 1 or 2?" Robin jokes.

The genomorph the sidekicks had seen when entering this building yells "Halt" before it throws cans with telekinesis at us. I step forward and let the cans hit me redirecting them back at the creature. He dives out of the way in to avoid them, and the sidekicks take the opportunity to begin running down one of the halls. I sigh, but follow them instead of continuing the fight.

Kid Flash speeds ahead and turns a corner, but when he attempts to stop he skids to a stop, but not before knocking down a scientist who had been coming out of the doors marked Kr.

"Hurry up through this door" Kid Flash exclaims as well all follow him in.

Aqualad kicks what was propping the door open, closing it and locking us in, with the genomorphs locked outside.

"Uh guys, you're going to want to see this!" Kid Flash yells from in front of the glass container.

We walk up, and I'm excited for my fight with Superboy.

"Big "K", little "r", the atomic symbol for Krypton." he turns back towards the other three. "Clone?"

"Robin, hack." Aqualad commands.

Robin hesitates for a second before proceeding to do what he does best and hack it.

"Weapon Designation Superboy, a clone force-grown in… sixteen week?! From DNA acquired from Superman."

"Stolen from Superman." Aqualad accuses.

"No way the big guy knows about this." Kid Flash agrees.

"Solar Suit allows him to absorb yellow-sun radiation 24/7." Robin continues to read off.

"And these creatures?" Aqualad questions indicating to the ones on the projection off Robin's gauntlet.

"Genomorph Gnomes, telepathic, force-feeding him an education." Robin relays sourly.

"And we can guess what else." Kid Flash says, capturing the attention of the other two. "They're making slave out of, well, Superman's son."

"Now we contact the League." Aqualad declares.

"I've got no signal" Robin says.

"Set him free" Aqualad says.

As Robin is hacking it, I watch closely as the genomes on Superboy begin to glow and his eyes snap open.

Superboy jumps out a delivers a bunch straight to Aqualads face. Robin and Kid Flash rush up to try to restrain him, but both get knocked over by his superior strength.

"We're on your side" Robin tries to convince the clone.

Kid Flash charges Superboy but gets backhanded and falls unconscious after slamming into the wall.

Robin jumps on his back and tries to spray a canister in his face, which disorients him for a second, but Superboy throws Robin off his back throws him to the ground, knocking him unconscious from the force.

Aqualad tries to continue the fight but fails and is similarly knocked unconscious.

I had stood by on the sidelines waiting for the rest of the teens to be knocked out so I can have a one on one fight with Superboy.

'I feel kind of bad, I could've helped them, but its more fun this way with them not interfering.' I thought.

Superboy looks over at me and charges, but I rear my fist back and meet his, with my reflection turned off for now so I can try to get more used to Code: Unknown. Our fists meet and Superboy is sent flying back into a wall. He's not down for long as he gets back up and charges me again. We exchange punches back and forth as Superboy continues to lose our exchanges.

"Alright this is not nearly as much fun as I thought it would be, but at least you're putting up a fight and can take a hit. Now let's take you down a peg or two." I say as I change up our fight pattern by jumping into the air and dropping down on Superboy with my feet, driving him into the ground. He slowly stands up, but his body is covered in damage, and he's bleeding. He looks around disoriented as I say "Alright now are you calm enough to talk about this."

He looks like he is about to charge me again before he hesitates and nods.

"Alright then listen, those teens you knocked out, they're the proteges of the Justice League. They can let you meet the league, you want to meet Superman right. Then help us escape, and we'll show you the sun and the league. Well, actually the moon, it should be nighttime by now."

Superboy has a look of contemplation on his face before finally deciding and nodding his head.

"Alright help me try to get them up and we can start escaping."

We walk over to the downed teens and proceed to get to work waking them up.

"Ugh, what hit me." Kid Flash says drowsily as Robin and Aqualad also wake up.

"What happened" Aqualad questions looking at Superboy who is now standing to the side watching them.

"I convinced him we were on his side and we'd show him the league and the moon" I say.

Robin and Aqualad look at me for a second as though they are going to ask me something before nodding.

"Well let's get out of here then, I'm way beyond whelmed" Robin says.

"What is with you and this whelmed thing" Kid Flash exclaims.

"Alright me and Superboy will charge out the door you guys follow after we clear a path." I say.

I run and punch the door out before proceeding to charge through the genomorphs barricaded outside the door, with Superboy doing the same. The other three follow us as we dash to the elevator.

"You'll never get out of here, I'll had you all cloned and replaced within minutes." Desmond calls out after us.

After we reach the elevator shaft, Kid flash jumps across, Robin shoots a grappling hook up, and I jump onto the wall and walk up changing the vectors. Everyone looks at me strangely for a second, before Superboy grabs Aqualad and attempts to fly up the shaft. He gets 30 levels up before he begins falling.

"Superman can fly, why can't I fly?" he say in confusion as Robin throws his birdarang into the wall, giving Aqualad something to grab onto and hold them up.

"You can still leap tall buildings, that pretty cool." Kid Flash says attempting to cheer him up.

"Ah thanks" Superboy replies.

The elevator begins rising towards us. Robin says "This will have to be our exit" as well all get out.

Superboy grabs his head for a second before telling us to follow him into the vent. We continue up until we reach Sub level 1, but Kid Flash tries to knock down the giant doors and fails. I walk up and punch them, shooting them out of the way.

"Well damn" Robin says.

"I could've vibrated through them" Kid Flash says as Robin laughs and replies "Sure and then failed and got a nosebleed." Kid Flash looks out by that response, but before the banter can continue, the genomorph from before appears in front of us along with Guardian.

"Brother Superboy have you decided what it is that you want." He questions as Superboy's eyes widen and he says "It was you."

"Yes, brother. I am Dubbilex, I set the fire and lured your new friends into Cadmus, woke them when they were in danger-" Dubbilex lists.

"Why did you guide me?" Superboy asks.

"Because you are our hope for a genomorph hero." Dubbilex replies.

Guardian begins to grab his head as Superboy says "I choose to be free."

Guardian opens his eyes and they look more clear as he says "Go, I'll deal with Desmond."

"I think not" Desmond says from behind us.

He proceeds to drink a beaker of some blue liquid, and turns into a giant purple monster, before charging us.

"You know I'm tired of how long all of this is taking, so I'm gonna just end this little adventure here." I say as I charge the Blockbuster monster, before punching it with most of my strenght, punching its head clean off. The force doesn't stop there though, and destroys the pillars keeping the building up as the building begins to fall on top of us.

Superboy covers Robin and Kid Flash, and Aqualad covers Guardian as the building falls on top of us.

I displace the rubble from me as everyone else gets out too.

Robin gets up looking disoriented before looking towards me angrily.

"Why did you kill Desmond. Heroes don't kill, you never cross that line." He screams at me angrily as Kid Flash similarly looks angry but is not saying anything.

"He was a monster and I put him down. I'm not a hero, I don't follow your little code of conduct, don't try to force me to follow your rules. I do things my way." I respond calmly. Before Robin can retort, we see the justice league descending towards us as Kid Flash tries to lighten the mood by saying, "Look the justice league and the moon, do we deliver or what."

Batman is the first to walk towards us as he takes one look at Superboy and says "Is that what I think it is."

"He doesn't like being called an it" Kid flash responds as Superboy steps up.

"I am Superman's clone" He declares.

Batman looks serious before saying "Start Talking."

The sidekicks explain what happened while I stand off to the side watching and waiting for something.

Superman looks at Superboy before saying nervously "We'll uh figure something out for you." Before flying away.

"Cadmus will be investigated, but lets make one thing clear-" Batman begins

"You should of called." Flash finishes.

"End results aside, we're not happy." the Dark Knight growls. "You hacked Justice League systems, disobeyed direct orders, and endangered lives. You will not be doing this again."

"I am sorry, but we will." Aqualad states strongly, even Robin steps up slightly.

"Aqualad stand down" Aquaman tries.

"Apologies my king, but no."

"We did good work here tonight, the work you trained us to do. Together on our own we forged something powerful, important."

"If this is about your treatment at the Hall, the three of you-" Flash tries to get why they are doing this.

Kid Flash interupts him "The five of us, and it's not."

I look somewhat suprised he included me in that number despite the fact that we just had an argument about my killing the blockbuster.

"Batman, we're ready to do what you taught us, or why teach us at all?" Robin says quietly.

"Why let them tell us what to do. Either get on board or get out of the way." Superboy says.

"Yeah, I don't know why you are even listening to them, we don't actually need you all to do this." I pipe in.

This draws Batman attention to me and he squints his eyes before saying "And who exactly are you."

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