CHAPTER 83

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[David Lance POV]

As Raven channeled her magic in order to take the defective Kryptonian down, Match roared, lunging towards her with deadly intent. Seeing this, I darted forward, intercepting his attack, grabbing him by the wrist before throwing him to the ground. 

At this, his body bounced a few inches above the ground, leaving cracks in the earth beneath him, leaving the clone momentarily dazed by the impact. 

Without delay, I continued with my assault, taking advantage of the opening my first attack had given me, delivering a powerful downward kick that forced his body back into the ground. 

Growling, Match pushed his body upwards without any type of pivot, trying to get up, while in the process throwing a hard punch at my face.

Taking a step forward, I weaved under his attack, before slamming my fist back on his face, forcing him back to the ground.

'I'm ready.' Raven informed me through our telepathic link.

'Ok,' I replied, jumping a few dozen feet back, landing right in front of Raven. 

"AHHHHHHHH!" Match roared, slamming his fists into the ground in a Hulk-like manner before charging towards me with all his might. 

Smiling, I side-stepped out of the way moments before Match's charge came to a complete halt, as Raven's magic froze him in place.

Eyes glowing white, and her body covered in a dark aura, Raven loomed over Match, the ground trembling beneath her feet as she prepared to deliver the finishing blow. 

"Azarath metrion zinthos…." Raven muttered, her aura increasing in glow and power as she raised her hands, ready to unleash a devastating torrent of dark energy, then in an instant, she unleashed her spell, the Kryptonian being consumed by the torrent of darkness that poured out of her hands, silencing his roars, leaving nothing but the sound of her attack.

'Wow…' I said through our link as her attack came to an end, welcoming a brief moment of silence before the darkness of her spell dissipated, revealing a bleeding and out commission Kryptonian.

'Wow indeed,' Raven replied, her mouth twisting into a grin.

I inwardly chuckled at that, rolling my eyes at her playful cocky demeanor. 'Let's put him back in a pot. The last thing I want is to fight against him again right now.'

Raven nodded, levitating the Kryptonian off the ground. 'Do you know how to operate the pods?'

I shook my head. 'But I can figure it out. On that note, how long do we have before Growly wakes up?'

'Hmm, hard to say… but if I had to take an educated guess, I'd say we have between thirty minutes to an hour, maybe more.' Raven replied.

Good, that's plenty of time to learn on the go. 'Alright then, let me see how these things work.'

First, of course, I had to find an empty pod. So, it was time to explore.

Task at hand, I walked through the cave at a fast pace, with Raven following close by, looking at each pod in each line, trying to find one empty.

At line fifteen, as I rounded a corner, I saw something that caught my attention, taking my breath away for the briefest of moments, as I found myself staring into a pod with a human inside, this, however, wasn't the shocking part. No, what truly took my breath away was the fact that the human inside the pod, was one I knew.

Roy Harper.

'What…?' I thought, before clutching my head in pain, as memories came rushing back to me like a flood. Leaving a single thought in my head. 

How could I have forgotten about this?

'David, are you okay?' Raven said, rushing to my side, freezing at the sight of Roy just like I had done, but without the headache part.

I nodded as I stood in front of Roy's pod in silence, staring at him. My mind was racing, trying to piece together the fact that I had forgotten about one of the most important plot points of the series based on the universe I now inhabited.

How could I have forgotten about that? But remember Superboy and the fact that CADMUS had made him. The implication of this gnawed at me, especially because now the memories were clear as if they had always been there. 

Were perhaps my memories locked? Or fragmented? Only to be unlocked if certain conditions were met? 

I wasn't sure. All I knew was that I had a question now and that the answer to that question eluded me. 

'We should release him….' Raven said through our link, snapping me out of my long reverie.

I nodded, my hands moving toward the controls in the pod, before coming to a halt. 'Can you put him to sleep?' I asked before remembering someone had released Match at us, meaning there was no point in keeping a low profile besides avoiding the army of Genomorphs. 'Nevermind… seeing as Growly was released from his pod, there's no point in keeping a low profile beyond the very basics, which I'm sure Roy will keep if we explain things to him, besides chances are he won't wake up after we release him.'

Taking a deep breath, I opened the pod, catching Roy as his body collapsed toward me before gently putting him on the ground.

Then, I took a few moments to familiarize myself with the controls the pod had, quickly figuring out how to freeze someone up. 

I sighed, turning to Raven and giving her a nod in order to convey I was ready to freeze Growly.

Without a word, Raven put Match inside the pod, as I immediately proceeded to put the Kryptonian back into a deep slumber, closing his pod, hopefully, forever.

'Roy is out cold,' Raven stated, giving him a look of pity that was mixed with concern.

I nodded. 

'So the one… we know is a clone…' Raven said after a few moments, drawing her conclusions from the fact Roy was missing an arm, an arm she probably guessed in a correct manner, had been used as genetic material.

I nodded again.