Washington D.C.
May 22, 22:52
"Security bypassed. Go," Robin's voice echoed in my ear.
Ready and waiting, I stuck my gloved fingers into the tiny gap between the tightly shut doors before me and yanked, pulling them apart and allowing us entry into… nowhere.
There was no express elevator as we'd seen on the building blueprints, just a deep well that would've looked very much like an abyss if not for the lights lining the metal beams all the way down to our destination.
Getting to D.C. had been a cakewalk due to the Zeta-Tubes and breaking into Lex Luthor's slave breeding ground was even easier, the bulk of that handled by Robin and Mike, the latter's support coming from all the way back in the cave.
Through the application of the Zeta-Tech I used in our new communicators, I'd created a means for my robot partner to help us in the field with his cheat-like hacking abilities.
By slipping a simple tiny device into one of the computers on the ground level of the facility, he had gained an untraceable connection hooked into their systems that allowed him to do as he pleased. And it was time to reap the fruits of that.
"Analyst, lay it on me," I said and joined the rest of the guys in peering down the hole impatiently.
"There are 52 sublevels. I have singled out two that may have what we want. Sending info packet to you now."
As team leader, I had not only vetoed some costume changes such as the protective helmet and improved armor, I'd also handed out the supercomputer watches crammed full of nearly every tech development I'd made to each member of the team.
All of us could view what Analyst sent, but since Robin already has his holoscreen up and running, we just stared at his own while he "unboxed" the data packet.
A representation of the true underground structure appeared above his gauntlet before two levels on the tall structure, 42 and 52 flashed red, the names of the projects they were assigned to appearing beside them.
"Project Sidekick?" Robin said, his disbelief palpable as the reality of things settled on him and the rest. Obviously, The Light didn't intend to stop with just Speedy.
Red Arrow, with his single minded focus fought through the shock. "That's where he is. He has to be," he said and looked at me, everyone else following suit. This was it. We were officially a go. Thankfully, I'd had a month to go over this plan.
"Aqualad. Red Arrow. Your target is sublevel 42. Get in there and find him. Robin, you and Analyst will guide them while you move through the facility alone. Your job is to secure any data you come across and to watch our backs. We need to know the second this place wakes up. Use the drones."
Finally, I turned to Kid Flash. "Kid, you're with me. We'll check out Project Kr and secure the Superboy."
He nodded just like the others and I raised my right hand way above my head, taking aim at the top of the elevator shaft. I tapped a small pad on my palm and black web line shot from the shooter on my wrist, attaching itself firmly to the metal plated ceiling.
My finger stayed in place and I took a step forward, dropping into the darkness as the web line extended and created a rope the others jumped on and rappelled down after me.
The wind whipped against us on our descent, the large floor numbers emblazoned on the column of elevator doors blurring past. As soon as we arrived and passed level 30, I contacted the team again, pointedly referring to Aqualad and Red Arrow.
"Remember, maintain contact. Provide regular updates. And don't forget to use the drones."
"Affirmative." "Noted."
The duo jumped off at their stop and we continued downward, KF and I.
We arrived at our stop a few moments later, about two meters from hitting the top of the elevator. "Kid, I'm cutting the line. Watch out," I prompted KF and did as I said, taking my middle finger off the pad near my wrist and grabbing the end of the line before it slipped my grasp
My sudden stop and grab stretched the string taut before causing it to rebound. I got yanked upward and I let it happen, letting go at the highest point.
Assured that a fall from my current height wouldn't turn the bones in my legs to splinters, I spread my legs slightly and let gravity do its work, landing atop the elevator in a near silent crouch spider people were famous for.
Kid joined me a split second later, his jump less theatrical and quiet than mine. "You've got moves, I'll give you that," he said and took his eyes off the giant 51 on the doors beside us. "What's next?" he said and crossed his arms.
Cracking a slight smile under my mask, I maintained the crouch and opened the emergency hatch, using a hand to direct KF in. He jumped down and I followed soon after, the tightly shut doors proving no match for my strength.
The scenery around us made a drastic shift, changing from drab, gray metal to a picture that wouldn't look out of place in a 40K novel. That is… if the red meaty carpets covering every inch of the walls as far as we could see was flesh.
I doubted it was that though.
Unconsciously moving in tandem with KF, I stepped out of the elevator and took in the sight, the candle flame in full effect as long forgotten memories sprang up and stray thoughts and fears got shunted away.
"You drones," I said to my red haired partner. "Deploy them."
He snapped out of it and looked at me before checking his belt. From one of the pouches affixed to it, he retrieved five tiny spheres the size of Kit Kat chocolate balls.
One by one, both of us pushed down on the ring spots on the spheres before opening our hands to let them fly. In no time, there were ten of the things floating about the large space, blue strobing lights shooting out of their tiny forms.
"KF," I called out while looking at the two bizarre looking hallways. "Scout ahead and see if you can find anything."
"Got it," he said, pulling down his thermal goggles before speeding off.
"Analyst," I looked away and made for my next target, thinking into my earpiece while activating my wrist computer. "I'm patching you into the computer on this sublevel. See what you can find," I said and moved toward the station uncovered by the red bio substance.
I fished a small USB-sized device from my belt and slotted it into a port before working with him to break past the security. Turns out this level was not connected to the main network of this facility.
"Receiving…" Analyst reported back, pausing for a few seconds before continuing. "....I'm in. The second hallway should lead you to him."
"Received. Thanks," I said before mentally switching the message channel to contact only Kid Flash. "KF. Return and join me in the second hallway."
"On my way," came his immediate response.
Aware that he would reappear in mere seconds, I didn't bother waiting and dismissed the holoscreen above my wrist before breaking into a moderate sprint. Moderate for me however, wasn't the normal human moderate.
I cleared the distance to the hallway in a second, the entire hallway itself in another second, and stopped right before a metal door reminiscent of a vault save for the leaf green sign that read "Project Kr."
A rush of wind hit me as Kid Flash skidded to a stop, kidding up a short lived cloud of red dust. Using the access I had into this floor's systems, I unlocked the door and it started to open, slowly and with a hum that was way too loud for my paranoia.
As soon as there was a gap large enough for us to step through, I waved at KF and ushered myself in, the speedster right on my heels. Once inside, I called the back the DWARFS, letting all ten of them into the room before canceling the unlock and reversing it.
While the door shut behind me, I decided to lead by example by informing the rest of the team of this development, and they thankfully responded in kind.
"Aqualad to team. We're halfway through this sublevel. Still no sign of Speedy."
"Robin here. I'm on sublevel 13. Analyst and I have discovered that the Cadmus systems make twice daily backups to somewhere. We're trying to find out where."
"Okay. KF and I are about to wake up Project Kr. There's a high chance it will set off alarms. Be careful."
"""Got it."" "Understood."
"You should see this," Kid Flash said, and I joined him at the computer station. He pushed a button and lights came on the room, revealing Superboy in his young glory.
More and more memories surged, one of them supporting my predictions about what would happen should we let him out and another at something else, hinting that there was more to this room than him.
My watch made a subtle vibration, a notification I knew came from the drones scanning the walls and floor of this room. They were only supposed to do that when they picked up certain parameters such as unnaturally low temperatures and false doors.
"What's the plan?" Kid Flash asked, looking away from the cracked pod to me.
Did I investigate the place the drones were all converging on or did I secure Superboy first. Both of them seemed viable to me, because I wasn't worried about failing any of them, especially with a speedster here.
"The drones are pointing to something there," I thrusted my gloved fingers in said drones' direction, causing Kid to turn around and look.
"I'm 50 percent sure that's where Speedy is. What I'm worried about is us checking it out and this guy," I moved my hand toward the pod, "waking up while we're doing that. What do you think?"
"This guy first," Kid said and retrieved something I'd asked Batman from his belt. "If that symbol on his chest means anything, we'll be in major trouble if he wakes up," he ended while looking at me pointedly. "But I bet you were already gonna do that anyway."
"Yep," I said, throwing my shoulders in preparation for the fight ahead. "Remember the plan. I'll distract him and you do the rest."
He nodded and zipped away, positioning himself behind the pod and out of sight. Taking a few steps back to put some distance between myself and the Kryptonian clone, I raised my hand, summoned the holoscreen and unlocked the pod.
The panels slid away into the ground and I assumed a loose stance, waiting for the giant ball of rage to come dashing out any second. I clenched my fists tighter when he opened his eyes and clenched his own fists.
In a display that threw my predictions into the trash, he simply stepped down and gazed at me, brows furrowed in anger and confusion.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
Surprised at the unexpected but welcomed turn of events, I sent a message to KF for him to stay out of sight and also to inform the others before straightening my posture and gesturing to myself.
"I am Specialist. The Justice League sent us to get you out of here."
"The Justice League? Superman?" Superboy said, sounding almost needy at the last word.
"Yes. I'll prove it to you," I said and took a step forward, making a video call with my watch. "Specialist to Cave. We have Superboy."
Batman's stony visage appeared on the holoscreen not a second later, making Superboy frown. He must've been expecting Superman. Better to move things along then.
"Batman, I need Superman to confirm what I just told our friend here. I believe he'll trust us if he sees him."
The dark knight stayed quiet for a bit before responding. "Permission granted," he said before his screen changed to an older carbon copy of the angsty clone beside me.
Superboy smiled and stepped forward, an act that made his genetic donor even more uncomfortable than he already was. However the Boy Scout powered through it and returned a smile of his own.
"Specialist is telling the truth. He'll get you out of there shortly. We'll talk when you arrive."
Superboy nodded and the screen cut off, prompting him to look at me. "What next? How do we get out of here? And who is us?"
While maintaining eye contact, I said out loud, "It's okay KF. You can come out now."
The person I called arrived with a gust of sterilized air and joined us.
"KF?" Superboy asked.
"Kid Flash," the teen explained for himself, and I moved toward where the DWARFS were waiting.
"This way," I said and waved for them to follow me. "I have a strong feeling the other person we're here for is somewhere behind here," I waved in front of the portion of the wall the drones formed a ring around.
"Who?"
"Speedy," Kid Flash answered Superboy. "A friend of ours. The people who cloned you, took him and did the same thing to him."
"Like me and Superman."
"Yeah."
Riippp!!
I tore away the biomass hiding what the drones had found, the sensors in my suit and lenses picked up the sharp drop in temperatures while my and everyone else's eyes took in the deactivated vault door.
Tossing the nasty carpet in my hands away, I stuck my now free hands into a small gap I found and pulled. These were much stronger than the elevator doors, so it took a few more moments to give.
Bang!
The doors slid open and slammed into the empty sections of the wall they were designed to slide into.
A puff of steam escaped my mask and I walked in, more memories rushing in as the multiple of cryo pods stacked atop one another and lined across the breadth of the room triggered them.
"Wow," Kid said and stepped forward with our potential team member in tow.
"All this time, I never knew this was here," said Superboy, exhaling a cloud of steam as well.
"Cadmus does a good job of hiding things," I said and sent forth the eager DWARFS, changing their search parameters to any human life forms while adding pictures of Speedy and Superboy.
I was sure of it now, he was in here somewhere. And so was Match.
"Guys," I contacted the rest of the team. "Any luck on your end?"
"Still nothing," Red Arrow responded. "This floor is empty. We're moving on to the next one."
"Same on my end. Analyst thinks he can track where the backups are going, but whoever's on the other end will definitely notice. Batman says we should hold off on that."
"I agree. We ca—"
My watch vibrated again and I brought up a screen to see what the drones had found.
"Speedy!" KF called out upon seeing his frozen, sleeping friend. Though I'm sure the lack of the latter's right arm is what caused his outburst.
"Where is this?" he asked, in a manner that suggested the opposite.
"This way," I said and jumped down the railing. All three of us broke into a sprint towards him and I informed the others. "You guys should get down here. We found him."
"""On our way."""
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