Independence Day

(In Washington DC)

By the time the group of errant sidekicks, angry at what they deemed the disrespect of their mentors, arrived at the Cadmus Labs building, it was to find that the fire that had been started there was still raging. This being despite the fire fighters having already arrived upon the scene by this point, their fire engine already connected up to a nearby fire hydrant, even as they used their high-powered hoses to try to quench the billowing flames.

In fact it was lucky that the group of teen heroes, Kid Flash, Aqualad and Robin, the sidekicks for the well-known superheroes, the Flash, Aquaman and Batman, had arrived when they did, as were just in time to see the upper floor of the building explode, the explosive force from which propelled two scared and panicking researchers who had been calling for help out of the windows and into the air. Both of them shouting and screaming as they fell from the two storey building and down towards the hard, concrete ground below.

Fortunately Kid Flash chose that moment to run ahead of the other two, and thus upon noticing what had happened, and after a few moments of thought had run up the building, grabbing the two researchers under each arm as he did so, before he then deposited them on the roof of the blazing building Using the momentum of his high-speed run, one which made him little more than a blur to the naked eye, to accomplish the task.

Embarrassingly though this also caused him to lose his footing when he stopped running, as he slipped on the edge of the building, luckily grabbing onto the ledge of the window as he did so, before he too nearly fell to the ground.

"Ohh, it's what his name, Flash Boy!" One of the fireman said to his fellow, pausing in the midst of using his hose, to look to his fellow firefighter.

"It's Kid Flash! Why is that so hard?" Kid Flash asked grumpily as he clung on to the edge of the window, standing out somewhat due to his yellow fully body suit, with a lightning bolt symbol in the centre of the chest, and his ginger hair and red goggles.

As Kid Flash was saying this, his fellow sidekicks, Robin and Aqualad, arrived at the labs, both of them arriving in time to see Kid Flash save the scientists, before he then lost his footing, somewhat ruining the 'coolness' of his previous action.

"So smooth." Robin said sarcastically as he came to a stop next to the still working firefighters. The boy in question wearing a red, green and yellow outfit, with a yellow utility belt around his waist, and a black cloak hanging from his shoulders.

"Does he always run ahead? Because we need a plan." Aqualad, a dark skinned Atlantean, with short white hair and piercing blue eyes, said to Robin, only to notice that the caped and masked boy was already gone, disappearing with a laugh as he shot off towards the burning building without a word.

"Robin?" Aqualad called out again as he looked around, before he then spotted Robin run towards the building, after which he jumped off the fire engine, shot a grapple line at the roof and then entered the building, giving Kid Flash a helping hand as he did so.

"I need to borrow that." Aqualad said after he rolled his eyes at Robin's action, using his water bearers as he did so to borrow the water issuing forth from the firefighter's hoses to instead create a water platform under his feet by using his Atlantean magic/ science, which allowed him to ascend to the roof of the laboratory, where the two scientists were still waiting to be properly rescued.

Both of whom he soon lowered to the ground, and to safety, cleaning up at Kid Flash's half completed attempt at saving them, after which he then used the water he had under his control to put out the flames that were still pouring out of the building, doing the firefighters jobs for them.

"I appreciate the help." Aqualad said a few moments later as he entered the building, the last of the trio to do so, only to see that both Kid Flash and Robin were already snooping around the now all but burnt out and ruined second floor.

"You handled it. Besides, we're here to investigate. Poetic justice, remember?" Robin replied easily, clearly unperturbed by the irritation in Aqualad's tone, or just oblivious to it as he instead focused on the matter at hand.

Aqualad once again rolled his eyes at that, but shrugged it off, more than used to his fellow sidekick's quirks by now. Shaking his head, Aqualad began to look around, keeping a hold of his water bearers, two intricately carved, metal handle like implements, imbued with Atlantean magic based technology, which allowed him to manipulate water like he did, as he did so.

With his primary weapons in hand, Aqualad wandered through the burnt out lab, passing by Kid Flash and Robin as he did so, before he then walked out into the hall. After which his attention was attracted to a sudden dinging sound not that far away. His cold blue eyes flickering up at the sound, only for him to see the silhouette of some inhuman looking, horned creature inside the lift before the doors closed and it started moving down.

"There was something in the-" Aqualad began to say, attracting the other sidekicks attention as he headed for the lift.

"The lifts should be locked down." Kid Flash spoke up quickly moments later, interrupting Aqualad as he and Robin jogged over to where Aquaman's sidekick was standing.

"This is wrong." Robin said immediately as he eyed the lift, using the hologram computer on his wrist to analyse the lift as he did so before he nodded to himself. "I thought so. This is a high-speed express elevator. It doesn't belong in a two-story building."

"Neither does what I saw." Aqualad added in, even as he headed for the sealed doors, slamming his hands into the seam, before with a slight bit of exertion and Kid Flash's help he pried them open, revealing as he did so a large elevator shaft, one that descended far lower than the two storey building would suggest. "Huh, maybe that's why?"

"Whoa, I would not want to fall down that?" Kid Flash stated bluntly as he looked over the side, not even able to make out the bottom of the shaft as he did so.

Robin though didn't react as he instead fired a grapple line at the top of the shaft, before he then used it descend down the elevator shaft, even as Aqualad and Kid Flash grabbed the line and followed after him. The three of them sliding down the grapple line, and passing dozens of floors as they descended far below street level and into the depths of the earth, until a few minutes later Robin's grapple line ended, leaving him swinging fruitlessly in the centre of the shaft.

"I'm at the end of my rope." Robin said simply, before he swung his legs back and forth, building the momentum he needed to swing out and grab the ledge of the elevator entrance to sublevel 26, both Kid Flash and Aqualad following after him as the three of them pulled themselves up and precariously balanced on the ledge.

"Bypassing security. There we go!" Robin said as he knelt down and hacked the lift doors, after which Aqualad once again pried open the door. His blue eyes narrowed as he immediately scanned the hall it opened into.

Looking around, the three sidekicks soon found that they were saw looking at a long corridor with metallic walls, and what looked like high-tech security. Suffice to say, it was much different than the building they were in a few minutes ago.

"Welcome to the real Project Cadmus." Robin said quietly as he looked around, the other two following his lead.

Moments later, Kid Flash, upon seeing that he had enough room to run again, took off in a blur, using his super speed to his advantage as he dashed off far quicker than a human had any right to be.

"Kid, wait!" Aqualad yelled only to be ignored as Kid Flash continued running, disappearing from view a few moments later.

He only managed to run so far though, before he came to the end of the corridor and found himself running into an even larger hallway, one which currently had a herd of five metre tall, heavily muscled, gorilla like creatures, with mottled grey skin, red eyes, horns, spikes and tusk like teeth, thundering past.

The mere sight of them causing the sidekick to skid to a halt in the middle of the corridor, before he was forced to roll out of the way as the creatures kept moving, seemingly not even bothering to look at him as they continued their march. Though a much smaller, monkey like grey creature that was riding on top of one of the titanic beasts back seemingly did, not that it did anything more than give them a passing glance.

A few moments later Robin and Aqualad slowly walked up to where Kid was standing, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape, all of them coming to a stop as they watched the mob of terrifying creatures walking by.

"No. Nothing odd going on here." Aqualad said sarcastically into the silence that had overcome the trio.

( - )

(Many levels further down)

Even further beneath Cadmus Labs than sublevel 26, a middle aged, bespectacled, partially grey haired scientist was hard at work, moving with practiced ease around his lab as he mixed chemicals, and looked at genetic sequences on his computers. His shrewd gaze passing over a row of large glass tubes within which more, grey, red eyed horned creatures were being grown, his genomorphs, before he went back to what he was doing.

At present the scientist was mixing some liquids into a vial that had a blue crystal inside, a crystal which dissolved when he poured the concoction of different liquids into it, breaking down the crystal before it settled into a faintly glowing blue solution.

Giving the vial a little shake, the scientist smiled to himself a few moments later when he didn't see any particulates floating around in it.

Before he could do anything else though, he was interrupted when he heard a beep and the door to his laboratory opened to reveal Guardian, a somewhat well-known hero and a member of the Justice League standing in the doorway, clad in a blue coloured combat suit, with a golden helmet on his head and a similarly coloured shield on his arm. Though most noticeable was the small, monkey like genomorph he had perched on his shoulder, its eyes and horns glowing a faint red for a moment, before returning to normal.

"Dr. Desmond." Guardian said upon entering the lab.

"Tell me, Guardian. What part of no interruptions did you not understand?" The now named Desmond replied acerbically, even as he put the vial away in an electronic cabinet marked 'Blockbuster', where nearly a dozen other vials filled with identical liquid were already being refrigerated.

"A G-gnome on sub-level 26 reported four intruders." Guardian replied blandly, his gaze stoic and disinterested.

"Oh, did I miss a perimeter breach alert?" Desmond asked, turning away from the cabinet now so that he could fully face Guardian.

"No." Guardian replied.

"Then the G-gnome's confused. Whatever might occur in our faux lab above ground, the real Cadmus is the most secure facility in D.C." Desmond replied decisively, already dismissing Guardian's concerns as frivolous and a distraction to his important work.

"And my job is to keep it that way." Guardian replied, his tone of voice gaining a bit more emotion now.

"Fine. Take a squad." Desmond said as another figure entered the room. Only this one was clearly not human.

The new entrant was instead a skinny, grey skinned creature that wore a set of white surgeon's scrubs and white trousers. It also had burning red eyes, pointed ears, and a pair of large horns that protruded from the side of its head. This was Dubbilex, the highest ranking genomorph of Cadmus, and one of Desmond's most loyal and dangerous subordinates.

"Might I recommend that Guardian leave his G-gnome behind?" Dubbilex asked as he entered, not bothering to hide the fact that he had been listening in on the conversation. "If violence should occur…"

"The little guy would be in my way." Guardian said with a nod before he looked to Desmond.

"No. The advantage of instant telepathic communication outweighs other concerns." Desmond said sharply, turning as he did to a similar looking genomorph that was perched on his desk, scratching it almost tenderly under the chin as he did so.

As Desmond did this though, the genomorph gnome's horns glowed red, with the G-gnome on Guardian's shoulder receiving the telepathic message moments later, its own horns glowing then red as well.

In response to his genomroph's actions Guardian stiffened for a moment, before his eyes gained a slightly empty look as he then proceeded to speak in a bland, emotionless voice.

"I need my G-gnome with me at all times." Guardian then said, before he turned and left without another word, heading off to fulfil Desmond's orders.

( - )

(On sublevel 26)

As this was going on, Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad that continued exploration of the floor they were on, with Robin currently using the device on his wrist to hack into yet another door, one which opened moments later.

Only for the contents to take all three of them by surprise.

"Ok, I'm officially whelmed." Robin said as they saw a room filled with glass cases, each of which held a different type of genomorph that was seemingly producing electricity. With the electricity all then being channelled and redirected into to a power station overhead, which then itself distributed it across the entire facility.

"I've seen some weird things… but, well nothing like this." Aqualad muttered as he walked into the room, and up to one of the glass cases, before he then placed a hand on the case and looked curiously at the creature within. "These things are putting out some impressive energy."

"So this is how they hid this massive underground facility from the world. The real Cadmus isn't on the grid. It generates its own power with these things. It must be what they're bred for." Kid Flash tagged on as he too looked around the room.

"Even the name is a clue. In Greek Mythology the Cadmus of myth created a new race by sowing Dragons' teeth into the Earth." Aqualad said quietly, his expression intense as he looked over at the other two.

"And this new Cadmus is creating new life too. So let's find out why." Robin said as he went to a nearby computer and once again used his wrist device to hack in. "They call them genomorphs and, whoa! Look at the stats on these things… super strength, telepathy, razor claws. These things are living weapons!"

"They're engineering an army, but for who?" Kid Flash asked to no one in particular, instantly coming to the same conclusion that the others had.

"Wait. There's something else. Project Kr. Ugh! The file's triple-encrypted. I can't…" Robin began as he tried to dig deeper into Project Cadmus's files.

Only to be interrupted by a loud voice from behind them.

"Don't move!" The voice interrupted, making them turn, only to see Guardian walk into the room with a group of genomorphs following after him.

"Wait. Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash?" Guardian asked, coming to a halt some dozen or so feet away.

"At least he got your name right." Robin tried to joke as he looked over at Kid.

"I know you. You are Guardian, you're a hero with the Justice League." Aqualad cut in, ignoring Robin's comment as he instead focused on the golden helmed Guardian.

"I do my best." Guardian commented with a slight smile and a shrug.

"Then what are you doing here?" Kid Flash pressed, a frown on his face.

"I'm chief of security here. And, well, you three are trespassing, but don't worry, we can call the Justice League and figure this out." Guardian replied, his expression turning sterner as he said this.

"Wait you're involved in this, and you think it's alright!" Kid Flash asked incredulously. "You think the League's going to approve of you breeding weapons?"

"Weapons? What are you… what have I… ugh…" Guardian muttered gripping his head in confusion, before his genomorph's horns glowed red and he regained his composure. Only now his entire demeanour had changed. "Take them down hard! No mercy!"

In response to that the genomorphs behind him charged forward on mass.

Seeing this Robin reacted immediately as he threw a smoke pellet onto the ground, creating a massive explosion of smoke, even as he then shot a grapple line out and swung to the door.

Kid Flash however dashed forwards, breaking off from the others as he dodged and ducked several claw swipes, before he then jumped off the wall and punched a genomorph sending it flying to the floor. After which he then ran, dodging this way and that as he legged it out of the tightly confined room and the living weapons that were in their trying to kill him.

Following Kid Flash's lead, Aqualad did the same, his water bearers in hand as he used them to create a pair of hammers out of water, which he then used to smash the genomorphs closest to him, sending two of them stumbling backwards into a larger group, before he too turned and ran, following after the other two.

A few minutes later found the three meeting up at the elevator door, with Robin having got there before the other two, with him already being in the process of trying to get it open. Ignoring how the alarms were going off even as he tried to hack in.

"Way to be a team player, Rob!" Kid Flash said as he met up with Robin, the sound of the pursing genomorphs sounding out loudly as they charged after the retreating sidekicks.

"Weren't you right behind me?" Robin said dismissively, even as he got the elevator open and then ran in with the other two following after him, neither one of them wanting to stay behind and confront the horde of creatures pursuing them.

"We're heading down?" Aqualad asked as he noted the direction the lift was now travelling.

"Dude! Out is up." Kid Flash added on helpfully.

"Excuse me? Project Kr, it's down on sublevel 52." Robin replied, as if he were surprised by their questions.

"This is out of control. Perhaps… perhaps we should contact the League." Aqualad said as the door pinged open and they arrived at sublevel 52, which was distinctly more alien and fleshy looking than the sterile, metallic sublevel 26.

Ignoring Aqualad, Robin ran ahead, with Kid Flash following closely behind. "Come on, Aqualad I'm not leaving until I get answers."

"Which way?" Kid Flash asked as the three of them made it two a fork in the corridor.

"Yeah, bizarre looking hallway one, or bizarre looking hallway two?" Robin asked cheerfully as he looked between the two.

"Halt!" A voice called out from behind them, even as Dubbilex walked out of one of the corridors and saw the heroes, his horns already glowing red as he raised a clawed hand and sent a half dozen nearby barrels flying through the air towards the sidekicks, driving them away with his telekinetic projectiles.

"The first one, now let's go!" Aqualad said, taking command as they dodged the barrels and Robin threw three 'birdarangs' at Dubbilex, only for them to be telekinetically stopped in mid-air as the creatures horns glowed red again.

Seeing this the heroes ran down the hall, with Robin throwing another smoke pellet behind them to confuse their opponents and cover their retreat.

As this was happening Guardian and the genomorphs arrived on the floor, all of them rushing out of the elevator only to see the stoic looking Dubbilex looking over at them.

"They are heading for Project Kr!" Dubbilex said pointing down the corridor they took, with Guardian nodding in reply, before he ran after them, his squad of genomorphs following after him.

A few minutes later found a female scientist walking out of Project Kr's laboratory, a clipboard in hand as the large electronic doors to the lab began to slide shut behind her. As she exited though, she was taken completely by surprise when Kid Flash ran past her in a yellow and red blur, sending her stumbling to the side in shock.

Not that Kid Flash seemed to notice as he instead saw the door to the lab closing, which prompted him to throw a barrel into the path of the closing doors to slow them down. With him then darting through the gap the barrel made as it kept the doors from closing, with Robin and Aqualad darting through after him, both of them ignoring the scientist's shouts for them to stop, as Aqualad instead kicked the barrel out of the doorway, purposefully causing the doors to close fully.

Noticing as the massive metal door locked behind them Robin once again used his wrist mounted device to hack into the building's systems, only this time he hacked into the door's controls.

"I disabled the door. We're safe." Robin said after a few moments, even as they heard the creatures banging on the doors from the other side.

"Which means we're trapped." Aqualad replied as he looked around at the room they were in.

"Uh, guys. You'll want to see this." Kid Flash spoke up in reply, gaining Robin and Aqualad's attention as they turned to see Kid turn on the main light in the room, which revealed just what Project Kr was.

It was a teenage looking version of Superman. A dark haired boy, with a large, broad-shouldered build, one who was wearing a white fully body suit with Superman's shield on it.

"Big K, little R. The atomic symbol for Krypton. A clone perhaps?" Kid Flash asked immediately as he looked over at the other two.

"Robin, see what you can find." Aqualad said as he looked to Robin, who in response nodded before he then hacked into the computer and pulled up the file on Project Kr.

"Weapon designation Superboy, a clone force grown in… sixteen weeks! From DNA acquired from Superman." Robin read out loud, before he looked over at the other two.

"Stolen from Superman." Aqualad corrected, his blue eyes narrowing in concern.

"No way the big guy knows about this." Kid Flash said quietly, as he mulled over just what this meant.

"Apparently the solar suit he is wearing allows him to absorb yellow sun radiation 24/7." Robin said, nodding at the white fully body suit the clone was wearing, answering the question none of them asked.

"And the creatures?" Aqualad asked as he eyed the three monkey like grey creatures that were perched above the unconscious Superboy as he was held motionless in a large glass tube.

"Genomorph gnomes, they're the telepathic ones, and are currently force-feeding him an education." Robin replied quickly.

"Not feeding him but controlling him. I saw the same thing on Guardians shoulder right before he attacked us, I saw the horns on it glow red. It was like he was being controlled. They're trying to make an army and they won't let anyone stop them. It looks like this is their trump card." Aqualad said grimly.

"They're making a slave out of… Superman's son." Kid Flash added in incredulously, looking around at the others.

"Now we contact the League." Aqualad said with finality, even as they all tried to send a message, only to find that they couldn't get a signal.

"No signal. We're in too deep, literally." Kid said. "What do we do?"

"We can't leave him like this." Robin replied, once again looking over at Superboy.

"Set him free. Then we'll get rid of the genomorphs and free him. Do it." Aqualad said to Robin, who after a momentary pause did just that.

Moments later the pod opened, even as the three sidekicks gathering around in front of it as they did so, not noticing as they did how Superboy's hands clenched into fists, even as the horns of the G-gnome's perched above him began to glow.

Then suddenly without warning the teen's blue eyes snapped open and his face twisted into an expression of anger, before without a word he lunged forward, lashing out and attacking his would be rescuers, not saying a word as he instead reacted on sheer animal instinct.

( - )

(Outside of Cadmus Labs)

Oblivious to the on goings below Cadmus Labs, a dark haired, golden eyed man of, bypassing the firefighters and some recently arrived policemen and medics as they set up a cordon around the building, securing the site and keeping the growing crowd of nosey neighbours away, even as a small group of people in white lab coats or janitors uniforms were being treated by medics for burns and smoke inhalation.

"Hey you can't go in there!" One of the uniformed police officers called as he saw the dark haired young man approach.

The man in question standing at six feet tall, with tanned olive coloured skin, broad shoulders and a heavily muscled figure. His mystic golden eyes glowing and visibly standing out in the growing gloom as the skies above began to darken, as the sunset and night closed in, and messy black hair that was so black that it almost appeared a shade of blue, save of course for a single strip of grey he had running through it.

The most noticeable thing about him though was that he was wearing a blue v neck shirt he was wearing underneath, over the top of which he then had on a black leather jacket just like a biker. Other than that the man in question just had on a pair of ripped black jeans, and a pair of black, steel toe capped, boots.

Ignoring the officer's statement, the man instead forged on, bypassing the police cordon as he did so, his right hand absentmindedly settling on an odd sword that he had sheathed at his hip, one that looked to have a bone handle with a crossguard formed from sharp bony spines, and a pommel that consisted of a spike.

Of course this action alerted the police to the fact that this man was armed, even if it was just with a sword that was made out of bone...

"Right stop right there, I want you on your knees with your hands behind your head!" The police officer said loudly, the moment he saw the weapon, his gun already in hand as he pointed it at the dark haired youth. His actions gaining the attention of the other officers, even as they headed over drawing their own guns as they prepared to back up their comrades.

All around the area the watching citizens instantly started to panic, the sight of drawn guns getting them to back off, even as the others turned to flee. It didn't matter that the ones holding them were police officers, no, not when there were Meta-humans around, those being humans who were born or who had developed superhuman abilities, it really didn't matter, as fights involving those people tended to cause collateral damage.

And currently more than a few people were getting a very dangerous vibe from this dark haired man, whether that was due to the wolf like stare he had, or the sheer presence he seemed to be give off was unknown. What was however, was that he could be trouble, especially if a police officer with a twitchy trigger finger lost his or her nerve.

"Sleep." The dark haired man, finally replied as he glanced over at them, he flicked his left hand.

Almost instantly the six police officers collapsed to the floor, their eyes rolling up into their heads as they slumped over, their guns dropping harmless to the ground as they themselves did.

This just caused the surrounding crowd to panic even more, or at least it did until the dark haired man walked past the downed officers, saying loudly and clearly as he did to a scared looking medic. "They're just unconscious nothing more than that, give them a few minutes and they will be up and about, fully recovered. When they do though, tell them not to be so quick to pull a gun, especially on someone who means no harm."

With that said the man then walked past the rest of the servicemen and women, barely even looking at them as he instead stamped his foot on the floor which instantly teleported onto the second floor into which he disappeared moments later.

"Ermm what do we do?" One of the medics asked a nearby fireman.

"Well he said he meant no harm, so I guess check on the officers and then get back to work." The fireman shrugged, even as some of his fellows sought to calm the crowd, some of whom were now muttering about whether the dark haired man was a new hero, or a vigilante, 10 minutes later, like the man said, the downed police officers started stirring.

Entering the Cadmus second floor, the dark haired teen walked through the burnt out wreckage, looking this way and that as he did so, before his sea green eyes flicked up and locked on a set of elevator door. His lips curving upwards into a smile as he saw they had been pried open by brute force.

Walking over to the elevator doors, the teen looked down into the gloom below, his expression still amused, before without a word of warning he leapt down, rapidly disappearing into the gloom below.

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If some don't how he knocked out the police officers, he stole their oxygen and their strength