Life in a lab part 3

**Hybrid's POV**

The alarm in the room stopped. All the falling snow stopped. Every motion, every sound stopped. The damaged lights still flickered, and I could still move. That was the only way I knew time hadn't stopped. At first, it was the eyes I noticed. Some of the lights were broken, and I didn't know who it was. But their eyes… it was their eyes that tipped me off. 

They were red and beaming, red like the heat vision that had burned from my eyes not long ago. A Kryptonian? No, the next feature revealed the truth quickly enough. His skin—it's green. A Martian, there's no doubt about it when he fully steps into the light. Only, he is not the Manhunter. Most certainly, this is not his niece either.

It took me a moment to place him, but I did. I recognized him from a movie. I only knew his name because of a Google search. He is a Martian filled with hate and coldness. He is the stoic and vengeful type. His name is Ma'alefa'ak J'onzz, aka Malefic Jones. 

More than anything, though, he is a problem. Martians are stupidly overpowered. Right now, there is no way I can beat him. My strength is too weak, plus I don't know who else is in the building.  

"Stand down, boy," he says, his voice cold. Perhaps even the coldest I've ever heard. I have a decision to make. More importantly, I need time to plan. I need to think and think hard. He hasn't yet tried to enter my mind. I would have felt it—or at least I think so? I don't really know, but considering he hasn't mind-raped me yet, I think I'm fine.

"Fine, I surrender… but I do have a condition," I say. I need to buy a little more time to think. First, I need to make a plan. He raises a brow and crosses his arms. He waves his hands to the sides, and all the debris flies to the edges of the room.

"Hmm… Very well, what is it?" he says, still staring at me. Honestly, I'm not even sure if he blinks at all. Anyway, let's see… what's the plan here? Umm… hmm… oh, I got it. 💡

"It's simple. I want you to train me."

He looks shocked at my words. I bet he wasn't expecting that at all. 

"Why?" he asks, his voice relatively monotone. Seems like that's more of a Martian thing than just J'onn being weird. I glance at the unconscious duo on the ground. Still out cold—good, very good. Now all I have to do is convince him. So, I'll do what I do best: bullshit until I win!

"Simple, really. You're like me. You're strong, and that's what I want to be. If you can help me with that, then I have no problem working with you." Which was relatively true. Even with my current power level, I still need to get stronger. I don't want Darkseid to just randomly pull up on me one day. Hell, any version of him would probably kick my ass right now. 

"Very well… I'll give you a chance to prove yourself. You will complete some missions. In exchange, I will train you instead of placing you back in your pod." He seemed less hostile now, although his tone of voice didn't change. 

"How do I know that you're not lying to me?" I needed to make sure. After all, he is a supervillain. Still, he does seem like one of the reasonable ones. Plus, he did agree to my request, which is really surprising. Still, I can't show my surprise just yet. I shift my weight and exit my battle stance. Hopefully, that's enough to show I no longer plan on attacking him.

"You don't." He crosses his arms and turns around. Ma'alefa'ak then floats slightly off the ground and begins to exit the destroyed room.

"Follow me, boy." His tone is slightly gruff in a Kratos sort of way. I start to go after him until I remember the other two in the room. I jog over to them, pick Galatea off of Superboy, and lay them next to each other. I decide to leave the two with a little gift.

"Hehehee, I'm so clever," I whisper to them. I hope they'll like their little gift. Not to spoil the surprise, but I'm sure they'll be SHOCKED next time we meet🤣. Walking away, I bound up the ledge. Or at least I try to—I may or may not have accidentally hit my head on the ceiling.

I most certainly did not get stuck and have to shove my way out, only to fall. Anyway, getting up, I see that Ma'alefa'ak is waiting for me at the end of the hall. He still has his back turned to me. As I approach him, he begins to float forward again.  

That's when I notice both Superboy 1 and Match passed out on the ground. To be honest, I had kind of forgotten they were here. Still, I bother to do a quick mental check on them both. They're fine, and luckily, Match's mind didn't break again, which is good. I follow after Ma'alefa'ak for a while until we reach the elevator. From there, it's a very long and awkward silence.

"Sooo… not to be weird, but umm… do you like… I don't know… umm… come here often?" I say, trying to fill the stiff air with conversation of some kind. He slowly turns his head, his blood-red eyes seemingly staring into my soul. I almost flinch and turn away to look at the wall. I scratch the back of my head and keep waiting.

"R-right! Sorry, I uhh… I'll shut up now. Ahem… yeah." I look down at the white tile floor, trying to act like I don't exist. Finally, when the door opens, Dr. Desmond is waiting with Guardian. Seeing us standing there, he marches over.

"Finally, you got the asset under control! I was wondering how long it would take for you t—" he was yelling at Ma'alefa'ak, which was quite a stupid decision if you ask me. He was pointing his finger in his face, spewing spit, and being super obnoxious. Ma'alefa'ak starts to frown and furrow his brow. So I make the smart choice and cut him off before he gets us all killed by an angry Martian.

"Hey! Do you ever stop talking, old man?" I stick my finger in his face and yell. I get closer and poke my finger into his chest, making him step back.

"I mean, jeez, all I've ever heard you do is yell and make demands of people stronger than you! I mean, do you even think that most of the people in this room could snap you in half with just a thought?" I continue, periodically poking him on the nose with just enough strength to make him back up a few feet. 

"We have business with Luthor. Your asset will be staying with me for now," Ma'alefa'ak speaks up from behind him, then floats past both of us to a nearby computer.

"Contact him," he says, gesturing to the massive screen on the wall. Desmond breathes out of his nose and walks over, grabbing a mouse and turning it on. In a few seconds, a blonde woman appears on the screen.

"Dr. Desmond, calling back so soon. I hope you've handled the situation," the woman says. She sounds rather cold, almost as monotone as Ma'alefa'ak. Desmond gulps, his voice shaking slightly while responding.

"M-Ms. Graves, the situation has become more complicated. Could you please patch me through to Mr. Luthor? Our green friend has requested to speak with him." He turns to look at Ma'alefa'ak, who is just off-screen.

"Hmm… Very well, he'll be with you in just a moment." She presses a button on her side. The screen goes blue with "hold" in big white letters. Then Ma'alefa'ak floats over into visible range of the screen. I also walk over into sight, crossing my arms and waiting.

Soon, Luthor shows up on screen. At first, he isn't looking at the screen, seemingly moving around some paperwork.

"This better be good news, Doctor, or I assure you the consequences will not be light," Luthor sounds mildly pissed and like he doesn't want anything to do with Desmond.

"W-well, y-you see, Mr. Luthor, our, uh, green companion wanted to have words with you." Desmond presses his hands together, struggling to hold even his gaze on the screen. It's like he can't hold Lex's gaze despite Luthor not even looking at him.  

"Indeed, I have handled the situation. However, as I mentioned earlier, this will come at a price to you," Ma'alefa'ak speaks to Lex with no hesitation at all. He folds his arms again as he looks up at Luthor.

"Very well, what might that be?" Lex finishes with the paperwork, gathering it up and tapping it on the table a few times to straighten it. Then he turns to look at the screen. He notices Ma'alefa'ak first and turns to him, folding his hands together.

"Ah, I see you have the asset with you. Can I assume he is under your control, then?" he asks.

"Yes, he is currently following my orders. My price is that he remains under my command from this moment forward," Ma'alefa'ak says, his expression remaining neutral.

"Well I wouldn't call it that exactly." I said stepping forward and unfolding my arms. My goal here was simple I needed to strike a deal with Luthor. Here at Cadmus I had everything I could need for now. Weird but true after all I would need a place to stay, train, sleep, and a way to eat. All of those things could be provided for me here. Plus I would even have some good sparring partners to train with. 

"Project Olympus I see your… conscious." He looked mildly surprised at me. Quickly Luthor recomposed himself and adjusted his tie. 

"Mr Luthor is it… yeah look I'm glad we're all not fighting anymore but it's clear we need to talk." I stepped forward a bit uncrossing my arms. 

"I'm sure that's true and what prey tell is it you would like to speak about?" He said. 

"Well from my general surroundings I can gather your a business man. So I would like to make a deal" I gestured to the lab and communication room around me. 

"A deal you say… and what might this deal entail." He tilted his head slightly while a slight smirk came across his face. 

"You see Mr Luthor I just so happen to have made a deal with our green friend here." I waved my arm at Ma'alefa'ak before returning it to my side.

"See it's quite simple. I need a home, food, training, that sort of thing. And in exchange for that I am very willing to do missions for your little friend group here." I did a spin on my heals and gestured to the room behind me. 

"I see thats well and good and all ,but tell me why shouldn't we just stick you back in a pod." He smiled at me but his tone slightly changed to be a bit more sinister. 

This man even though he was just a normal human was quite intimidating. Still this isn't my first time with someone like him.

"Well you could do that but then you'd be loosing yourself a valuable asset. As you can see I can't be mind controlled and I willing to cooperate with you. I assume your people here awakens me early in order to put me under your control. However they failed and now I'm stuck in the body of a teen and you're down a project. But if we can work together I can finish baking and you have someone who can grow strong enough to face the justice league." I said trying my best not to sound to needy or panicked. I had realized on my way up here just how small I was. I was shorter than even Dr Desmond. It seemed like I was around 14 or 15 years of age. Considering that it took a few weeks of gestation for Superboy in young justice to look 18 it made sense. I was woken up early so my body wasn't up to that age. Plus it was kind of uncomfortable being this age again. 

"Very well, that's acceptable, assuming he remains compliant. Now, what else do you need from me, Doctor?" Lex says, turning back to Desmond, his gaze very intense. Desmond gulps audibly and rubs his hands together.

"I, uh, well, you see, I'll, um, need some materials to repair the facility. It was, uh, fairly damaged in the fight," Desmond says. He nervously adjusts his collar and shrinks back from the camera, afraid of Luthor's response.

"Very well, I'll send someone to deliver the necessary materials. Just don't let this happen again." Luthor sighs and turns back to Ma'alefa'ak. "That will be all for now. Keep me posted on any further developments."

"Understood," Ma'alefa'ak replies, his tone as neutral as ever. The screen goes dark, and Ma'alefa'ak turns to me.

"Well… that went well… I think." I said turning my head to meet Ma'alefa'ak eye to eye. He simply turned around in mid air and began to leave. 

"Hey where are you going?" I questioned following him. I had to speed walk just to keep up. 

"I'm leaving. I will return. When I do your training begins." He paused briefly before turning his head to look at me. 

"I will keep my deal with you. You have my word."  He turned his head back around before flying right up phasing through the ceiling.  

"Whelp… I guess that's that. Anyway so do you guys have rooms here or?" I said spinning back around to look at Desmond and Guardian. Desmond glared at me while Guarding had a neutral expression on his face. 

"Sigh follow Dubbilex." Desmond pointed to a tall genomorph standing in the corner. I somehow missed him this whole time. That's surprising because his appearance is quite strange. Dubbilex has the appearance of a tall, slender man with grey blue skin. His head is radically different from that of a human, most notably in the presence of horns and absence of a nose. He also has pointed, fin-like ears, and two ribbons of flesh, originating on his cheeks. He wears plain white hospital-like pants and a matching shirt.

"Follow me I'll show you around." Dubbilex walked away passed me and went back to the elevator. I gave Desmond a two finger salute before running off to follow Dubbilex.