Chapter 5: Cadmus Labs.

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Cadmus Labs - Underground Hidden Facility

Anakin Skywalker

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Confirming I was indeed capable of dealing with Kid Flash was comforting, especially considering the universe I now called home.

I may not be faster than he is while running, at least based on what my instincts are telling me, but that was assuming my instincts were from Anakin’s time as Vader, when he was nerfed by the suit. Kid Flash was fast, at least supersonic, but my instincts told me I could easily lay him out as I watched him run fast enough to scale a vertical wall dozens of feet in the air like he was running track. It must have been the constant need to deflect blaster bolts that had me coming to that conclusion.

My mind informed me I could contend with things at light speed, and Kid Flash wasn’t that, nor would he ever be. The Flash, on the other hand, might be a problem, but if he ever really wanted to deal with me, he could honestly just reverse time and kill me as a kid. In regard to Superboy, well, I wouldn’t need to wait any longer to find out where I stood with him in a fight.

I was looking right at him. 

Rows of what I was assuming were cloning pods lined the walls, most empty, except for three in the centre. Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash were confined inside, conscious but bruised up. And standing before them was a young Kryptonian in a pristine white bodysuit, with the unmistakable red crest of the House of El emblazoned on his chest. Unfortunately, while I was calm and collected, he was staring at me menacingly, fist clenched and ready for the impending fight. 

Tilting my helmet slightly as I studied the boy in front of me, I decided to break the staring contest in the most Anakin Skywalker way I could think of. “Let me guess… they opened a stasis chamber, found a clone of Superman inside, tried to make friends, then lost the fight with said clone of Superman and got stuck in cloning pods?”

Miss Martian, hovering beside me, seemed to stifle a wince as she looked at the bruises on the bound sidekicks while, behind the glass, Kid Flash groaned. “Seriously? We were ambushed.”

I was pretty sure that if you open a pod of a cloned Kryptonian and get your ass beat, then it isn’t technically an ambush, but that’s just me.

Robin, while stealthily picking as his binds in a way the boy of steel couldn’t see, quickly cut in, ignoring the jab. “He was called Project Kr in the files I was able to hack. He's a clone of Superman, as you could probably already tell, confirmed by Cadmus' secret logs. So far, significantly enhanced strength, speed, and durability are confirmed, and I’m pretty sure he was holding back to keep us alive for cloning.”

I already knew that, but the fact that Superboy and the dear Doctor standing next to him were kind enough to allow Robin to report was rather kind of them. 

I gave the boy-wonder a single nod, helmet shifting only slightly while maintaining eye contact with Superboy. “Understood.”

I didn’t move from where I stood, hands resting calmly at my sides under my ooded cloak as I continued the staring contest. I could sense the threat radiating off the boy, but more telling was the confusion behind his rage. He was wondering why he would need to attack the protégés of the good guys if they didn’t deserve it, as his prime objective was to destroy Superman if he ever turned evil. 

Without turning my head, I addressed the Martian next to me. “Miss Martian. Free our companions from their bindings.”

She nodded quickly, flying up toward the terminal to begin overriding the locks on the containment pods. A grim-faced Dr. Desmond, at least that’s what the nametag on his lab coat said, started tapping furiously at a control tablet. His eyes locked on me with contempt a moment later, and he sneered. “I don’t know who you are, but I want them both in stasis.” He turned to Superboy and barked, “Capture them. Now.”

The clone hesitated, body tensing as his eyes flicked from the trapped protégés, then back to me, before slowly stepping forward.

My voice cut through the air as I slowly shook my head from side to side. “You don’t want to do that.” I tried, even though he was doing exactly what I wanted him to do. But just to add insult to injury, I added, “Because if you try, I’ll show you why Superman is known as the hero that wears that symbol… and not you.”

Superboy's eyes narrowed, and with a blur of motion to the normal human eye, he launched forward, utilising the entirety of his enhanced physical speed. Unfortunately for him, the punch he sent my way, which he seemed to have reduced significantly in power to make sure I was only knocked out, missed.

I tilted my head just out of range, letting my black cloak flow as I all but glided backwards with the effortless precision of one who had fought in literal warzones for years. Superboy didn’t pause though. He adjusted, pivoted, and struck again, but much faster now that he had seen I was quick enough to evade his slowed attack speed.

Then he attacked again. And again. Each blow came with greater speed and force, but the Force and my experience ensured none found their target. I bent, weaved, and sidestepped seamlessly, and while I was calm the entire time, a small smirk had worked its way to my brows.

Here I was, bobbing and weaving attacks from a half-kryptonian, rather easily, but then regular humans were hailed as the best Jedi killers in the Star Wars galaxy. Those being Mandalorian. I was confused how non-superpowered humans even got such an honour. They must have been more formidable than even the fandom knew, or the midichlorians in their system were still at work, even while they weren't considered force-sensitive, enhancing their physical capabilities.

While guiding another punch aside and into a spare clone chamber, I could feel Miss Martian hovering nearby, watching in awe. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if she was like that because she hadn’t seen what I was truly capable of and was surprised, or if she was like that because she had a crush on Superboy in the show.

I could both see and feel the frustration boil behind Superboy’s eyes as his blows got wilder and heavier with his patience unravelling by the second. His fighting style had initially been textbook, likely courtesy of the implanted memories of fighting styles, but the more frustrated he got, the more he lost his form. 

From behind the mask, my modulated voice rumbled. “I appreciate you’re holding back. You’re trying not to hurt me too badly. I respect that.” Superboy growled through gritted teeth as another punch hit nothing but air. By now, he wasn’t actually holding back at all, so my words only further irritated him. “But our sparring session ends now.”

I stepped back into a ready stance, feet squared and posture grounded to the point there would be no mistaking I would be going on the offensive. I pointed briefly toward the rest of the team, where Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad now stood free, with Doctor Desmond bound in what looked like Robin-cuffs and a makeshift gag made of cloth ripped from his lab coat.

“We need to inform the League. Preferably with this one alive.” I turned my masked gaze to the clone. “Will taking the doctor for questioning be a problem?”

The clone’s eyes flicked to Desmond, but the rage overtook his reason. With a roar, the literal man-child spun and got ready to charge toward Aqualad, who stepped forward with a hand outstretched. “Wait! We can help you like we promised—take you to Superman—”

Unfortunately, the talk-no-jutsu didn’t work. Superboy didn’t listen. He charged with his fist drawn back, fully primed to strike. And that’s when I decided to strike. I had measured a relative durability based on how easily he destroyed the lab equipment when I redirected some of his punches, along with his full speed when he was attacking me.

So, while utilising the [Force Augmentation] and [Force Speed] to significantly strengthen my body and increase speed, I appeared beside him in the blink of an eye, crashing a Force-enhanced punch into Superboy’s jaw. The impact sent a concussive shockwave through the chamber, launching Superboy's body off to the side, slamming into a reinforced wall with enough force to leave a dent in the metal plating.

Vader may have been nerfed with his armour, but I wasn’t, and the power I felt bubbling in me was ridiculous. I could have hit him harder, but the punch was a mild test of my strength. We would have more than enough time to spar later anyway.

The clone hit the ground hard, skidding a few feet before pushing himself up on one elbow, blinking in disoriented pain. A part of me even felt bad, considering he was technically only born today, having only been given consciousness a few minutes ago. He touched his face in a way that indicated he had never been hit that hard before. Never felt pain like that before, not even from Aqualad, who no doubt tried when they were getting their arses handed to them on a half-kryptonian platter.

Superboy’s vision refocused, rage back to simmering behind his stunned expression. His fists clenched again as he slowly climbed to his feet, shrugging debris from his shoulder, jaw tight with fury as he squared his gaze on my unbothered form once again.

Being the absolute dick that I was, I casually raised the hand I hit him with and gave it a mock wiggle, like a man waving off a sore knuckle after a tap. “Durability’s definitely up there,” I muttered, loud enough for the others to hear, knowing full well the clone I was talking about would be using his enhanced hearing to do the same. “But nowhere near what I would clock Superman at. They either mixed the DNA with another, didn’t do it right, or he just isn’t fully grown yet.”

Robin let out a sharp snort from his position beside the restrained Doctor Desmond. “Didn’t know wizards could even hit that hard.”

Still keeping my eyes on Superboy, I replied with a small shake of my helmeted head. “Typically, they don’t. We tend to be nerds, spending most of our time studying and practising spells.” I turned my head slightly toward Miss Martian like I no longer cared about the fight anymore, having sensed something in the Force. “Check Desmond’s pockets. Anything he could use to escape?”

Her amber eyes widened. “Oh! I—forgot.” She immediately started patting down the bound scientist until her fingers pulled free a syringe in one lab coat pocket. “Just this. Some kind of syringe,” she said, holding it up. “Nothing else.”

“Er, guys,” Kid Flash muttered, looking between myself and the still furious clone.

I gave Miss Martian a short nod, ignoring the speedster as I made it seem like I wasn’t aware Superboy was walking toward us, trying his best to be menacing, no doubt. “Good. Make it a habit. You’ll learn fast. While I would have asked if you could get some information on more clones from his head, with him now being a confirmed criminal, I wouldn’t want to get you in trouble with the League.”

“Er, super-dude is coming for round two,” Kid Flash, staring at the now visibly angrier clone advancing on us, picking up speed into a run. 

While Robin shouldered the scientist and started moving aside, Kid Flash got into a ready stance to run, and Aqualad tried talking him down again. “You have to listen. We are trying to get you out of here to see the sun, to feel freedom—” 

With a roar, the clone leapt, arm coiled for another superman-punch. Setting aside his attempt to talk him down, Aqualad made two swords of water magic, fully intending to use them, if the determined look in his eyes was anything to go by. The guy was a literal soldier of Atlantis, so I wasn’t surprised at the intensity behind his look despite his young age.

As much as I wouldn’t have minded continuing our dance, we didn't have time for this. One moment, I was raising a gloved hand, and the next, Superboy was frozen mid-air, suspended a foot off the ground within my telekinetic grip. He thrashed for a moment, confused, arms straining as he pushed against the unseen restaurants. But it was all for nought. I was in the body of a man who casually destroyed large freighters with telekinesis alone, after all.

With the boy restrained, I turned my head back to a staring Miss Martian with her hands up in his direction, probably ready to try the same. “We should go now to inform the League.”

Off to the side, Robin and Kid Flash exchanged glances, equal parts impressed and alarmed, with Kid Flash asking, “Couldn’t you have done that earlier?”

I turned to the speedster. “Why would I use most of my energy holding a Kryptonian at the start of the fight if I’m not sure how many others there are in the woodwork?” I looked around at the other cloning pod. “There was no guarantee they only succeeded once, and being tired after using everything you have against the first should typically be a last resort.”

Aqualad stepped forward, putting a stop to whatever Kid Flash was going to fire back with. “Will you be able to maintain your hold of him until the League arrives?”

Tilting my helmet slightly, levitated the angry clone over until he hovered directly in front of me, ensuring our eyes were level. “I don’t think I’ll have to.” I let the words hang in the air for a moment. “I’m going to release you now.” My words almost immediately ebbed away most of his anger, replacing it with confusion. “If you misbehave again, you’ll be back in the air just like this, until the Justice League gets here. Which would be rather embarrassing for, I’m sure.”

Superboy didn’t verbally reply, but the tension I was having to put up with against my telekinesis dropped to almost nothing as the rest of the anger left. Taking that as all the confirmation of future good-boy behaviour, I gently lowered him to the ground and released my hold.

The clone dropped to his feet but stood still, crossing his arms the same way a petulant child would, which was why I treated him like one. Seeing that he was no longer a threat, the others relaxed a little, but not entirely. And for good reason, not that they knew it. We would still need to remove the mental commands from the technically newborn's head that would put him under enemy control first. 

[Defeat Project Kr: +10,000 SP]

Wait… what? I get that he wasn’t really trying to kill me, but seriously… what? The amount I was given for defeating a half-kryptonian was wild. I could earn that by defeating 100 regular people, and those very people wouldn’t be able to do jack or shit against Superboy, he’d go through them like a knife through wet paper. The math just wasn’t mathing.

Kid Flash smiled. “You’re gonna love the sun, buddy,” he paused before rephrasing. “Well, moon, considering the time. But the sun will be up in a few hours.”

Superboy’s expression didn’t change, but I could feel he was excited to be out of there.

With that, I nodded and started making my way out, with the others catching up once they got out of their stupor. When they did, I levitated the syringe that Miss Martian had pulled from the good doctor’s lab coat, hovering it over my palm. “Hm… this is most likely a concoction tailored enhancement with a side of unwanted consequences. Likely meant to push Desmond to physical parity with Project Kr, if not to match him, then at least survive him.”

Kid Flash rolled his eyes. “Did your magical powers tell you that?”

I telekinetically guided the syringe to Robin, who had allowed Miss Martian to levitate the Doctor, knowing his paranoia would assume I was going to do something evil with it. “Hold onto that.”

He did so, putting it in his utility belt as I turned to address Kid Flash’s sarcasm. “They were cloning Kryptonian DNA, but cloning tends to be the step people take when they have been unable to replicate the results in themselves first,” I explained patiently. “That most likely means the syringe is the closest they could get to replicating Kryptonian feats in the human body, which is why he brought it with him to meet super-powered intruders, in case he needed it.”

The look on the doctor’s face and what I could feel in the Force told us I was telling the truth, which seemed to send Robin into his thoughts. Something tells me Batman will be getting his own version of the 5-U-93-R, which was used in the Injustice universe to give ordinary people Kryptonian enhancements.

“You don’t need magic to investigate a non-magical crime. Just good reasoning skills,” I continued, eliciting some grumbling under the speedster’s breath. Then, almost as an afterthought, I added, “And by the way, ‘Project Kr’ won’t cut it. You should consider picking an actual name.”

Superboy somehow scowled harder without actually changing a muscle on his face, but said nothing, arms folded tightly across his chest. Before the silence could stretch too far, I stopped walking as I felt a disturbance in the Force. Miss Martian was the only one to halt at the exact moment I did, having felt the same thing with her telepathy.

“You felt that too?” she asked, earning herself a nod of my helmet. Her frown deepened as she addressed the rest. “Desmond must’ve had a passive link set up with a telepath. Some of them are telepathic, which was how… Project-Kr was able to learn a great deal in just 6 weeks. He just sent an alert through the building and it was loud enough that even we who weren’t part of the link felt it.”

“Great,” Kid Flash groaned loudly, lifting his arm in frustration. “So now we’ve gotta deal with more clones?!” When Superboy turned his scowl to him, he backtracked immediately with a forced smile. “I mean, ‘great, we might need to deal with bad clones that might not want to be, you know, good guys like you’.”

Robin cut in sharply, already adjusting his gauntlet display, showing dozens of humanoid creatures running around. “We need to reach the surface. Fast. If they have a fraction of—” he glanced at Superboy, who panned his scowl from Kid Flash to look his way, before looking back at the display. “The success and surround us down here, it’s game over.”

The clone smirked, sending a look at the speedster, who just let out a resigned sigh.

As for myself, I was thinking it was more like game over for them. I was the one and only Darth Vader… technically. I already had a hallway massacre to my name. Again, technically. So, worst case scenario, I would be hunted down for breaking into a secret facility and laying waste to their experiments.

“I hope,” Aqualad said evenly, glancing toward Superboy, who remained silent, “that if we run into more like him… they’re not telepathically forced to fight, and more open to reason.”

While the group glanced sideways at Superboy, who didn’t acknowledge the remark, I could sense the creatures gathering up. Then we were off jogging. It didn’t take long for us to reach the door behind which I could feel the highest concentration of life.

Holding out a hand, I stopped, with the others following suit. “There will be a lot of enemy lifeforms behind this door.”

“How many?” Robin asked, already looking at his wrist computer for alternative routes for us to use.

“Dozens, from what I can tell,” I replied, a little irritated I had to play the goody two-shoes hero and set aside the idea of just having Miss Martian control them.

Robin’s jaw clenched as he looked up from his wrist. “It's the quickest way out. All the others are being used as assembly points to stop us.”

We all shared a look and nodded between us, turning to the door as Superboy cracked his knuckles with a smirk, probably wanting an outlet for the anger he was unable to release in our fight. Aqualad armed his swords, Kid Flash got in a runner's stance, and Miss Martian… didn’t really need to do anything.

With that, Robin got to hacking the door, and it slid open not a moment later to reveal dozens of genomorphs, the bio-engineered humanoid creatures with a range of blue, grey and green skin. They looked just as alien as I remembered, having elongated limbs and large, either pupilless or multi-pupilled eyes. 

Fortunately for them, they were packed into an entrance hall of sorts, not a corridor. They seemed to freeze upon seeing us, almost like they were posing for a picture, before low growls and screeches started echoing through the metallic corridor, starting from one coming to its senses and prompting the others.

In the back of the formation stood another doctor, one I don’t remember being part of the events that were supposed to happen, but dressed just like Desmond. Tilting my head slightly in confusion, I could see his hand lowered from his neck where he had just finished injecting himself with a syringe identical to our captor, a clear sign he would be this timeline’s version of Blockbuster.

The doctor’s pupils dilated, muscles flexing and spasming as the formula surged through his bloodstream. My instinct told me to [Force Push] the hell out of him and leave the brain matter there for others to clean before he finished his transformation. But, in the words of Allen Iverson, it's about practice.

Desmond, still gagged and telekinetically restrained but being the utter dick that he is, let out a muffled laugh at the entire situation. But regardless, we ignored the hysterical doctor and took a few steps into the hall. 

“Well… I believe this would be where the fun begins,” I snarked, materialising the metal escrima sticks from the [Inventory] into my waiting palms.

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Robin

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The air was tense but Robin was used to such tensions. Though he would have preferred time to plan, or to approach from the shadow, he would have to make do, like he did many times before. Like he was trained.

Behind the congregation of experiments hissing and snarling at them, Robin spotted the other Cadmus doctor, already trembling through his transformation. His muscles tore through his lab coat, bones popping and reshaping grotesquely as his body began to balloon in mass. Veins bulged across his pale, thickening skin as his face deformed into a monstrous visage.

The transformation reminded Robin of a mixture of Bane’s venom and Killer Crock, possibly a mixture of the two when they couldn’t achieve the same results as Superman’s clone. The transformed brute let out a ground-shaking roar that echoed down the hall as he stepped forward with a cruel smile, towering over the already monstrous genomorphs.

“Scatter!” Robin barked, already forming a plan to take down the monstrosity. The team split into action, like they were ordered to. The thoughts of considering leadership easier than he assumed had to be put aside for now. 

Like he always did, Kid Flash became a blur of red and yellow lightning, zig-zagging through the horde, ricocheting off walls and throwing punch after punch to disorient and knock down the smaller genomorphs before they could become a problem.

Aqualad used his twin water blades, dancing between the hulking genomorphs with the discipline of a soldier, redirecting brute strength with precise counterattacks and sending them crashing into walls. Miss Martian phased through a charging genomorph and lifted it with her telekinesis, slamming it into a pair of its allies. A sound strategy considering her Martian abilities, Robin thought.

But they weren’t the ones Robin was focusing on as he tossed precise Explosive Discs, flashbangs, and smoke pellets—disorienting the enemy and leaping off walls to strike exposed weak points with his bow staff.

No, Robin was focused on Vader. The magic user who not even Batman had a file on in the bat-computer. Something that confused Robin, as there was even a file on Miss Martian. He would have to check and ensure Batman’s mind wasn’t altered in any way with the help of Zatara, because that was probably the most out-of-character thing Batman could ever do, or rather not do.

Amid the chaos, Robin saw that Vader stood like an immovable sentinel. Every time a genomorph attempted to flank or ambush one of the team, Vader raised a gloved hand, and it would slam into the ceiling and drop unconscious. Even without elemental spells like one would expect from a magic user, such as lightning or fire, especially in moments like this, he seemed to prefer telekinesis. Robin chalked it up to the magic power cost of the spells or his talent for it over the other avenues of combat.

The fact that he used a spell to increase his physical capabilities earlier for a relatively long period of time, instead of telekinesis, indicated he was better with that. Something Robin would remember in case of a worst-case scenario. 

Another experiment hurled across the room into a pack of its allies, scattering them like bowling pins as Vader somehow dodged an attack from his blind spot while he was still using his telekinesis across the room. The way he used his escrima sticks to render his ambusher unconscious instantly indicated training in swordsmanship, and the form he used to attack the Kryptonian clone indicated boxing.

Maybe he could find out who he is if he looked at the boxing and kendo clubs to find his identity that way, Robin thought as he redirected an attack from a larger experiment aside, leaving a small explosive charge on its back as he flipped off and out of the blast radius. An explosion later blew the creature back into the wall, also sending its friends flying in different directions.

A roar from the now fully transformed doctor as he charged at the team drew Robin's attention from the mage, only to see the enraged, grotesque monster barrelling its way to them with no regard for his allies. Robin turned mid-step, kicking away another smaller experiment as he pulled up his wrist computer, formulating a plan to collapse the pillars in the room and drop the roof on them. “Guys, we’ve got a problem! Just keep him occupied, I think I have a plan!”

Before Robin could even get further away from the fight to hide in the shadows and complete his plan, Vader’s hand went up toward the large creature. The giant froze mid-charge. Then his feet left the ground as he clawed at his throat, gagging. His eyes bulged, body convulsing as he twisted and strained against the invisible grip around his neck.

Vader didn't even turn his head as he pressed his heel on the throat of another experiment under his boot, suffocating it. Dozens of unconscious genomorphs lay strewn around him, which must have been incapacitated in the time it took Robing to plant the bomb on the bigger experiment, jump away, and glance toward the transformed doctor.

The others didn’t stop though, they continued taking down the remaining experiments while the wizard did his work, Robin included. They were done with the stragglers by the time the grotesque doctor let out one final choking growl before his eyes rolled back and he went limp.

Vader unclenched his hand, and the giant collapsed with a thud. From what Robin could see, he was still breathing, but unconscious. Even a disgruntled kryptonian clone shoving him to make sure, didn’t wake him. Whether his dissatisfaction was because he had to fight his fellow experiments or at not being able to fight the doctor himself, Robin didn’t know.

The hall fell silent as the boy-wonder solidified his plans to find Vader’s true identity… and to get Bruce’s head checked.

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“I need to get something from Project Blockbuster just in case. I'll meet you at sub-level one.”

— Mark Desmond.

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Hello There

Robin is out here thinking he’s in charge while also gathering intel on our boy. Superboy is a big baby who's really angry and wants to secretly meet his dad. And Kid Flash gains more xp toward the art of putting his foot in his mouth.

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Disclaimer: I own nothing except my original ideas. All credit goes to their respective owners.

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Thank you for reading.

As always, stay awesome.

Until next time, Light's out.