chapter two - fireworks

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CADMUS LABORATORY
JULY 5th — 00:01 EDT

you must awaken

well, that did the trick. though dick was groggy and his chest hurt and the fact that he was hanging inside a pod by solely hid wrists was already bad enough, but the fact that hanging there was ripping open old and new wounds just made the experience so much worse.

"what do you want?" wally yelled. his voice was muffled and a bit raspy, but it was definitely wally. "quit staring."

dick looked down at where wally was directing his anger. superboy just stood there, watching. not creepy at all. "kf? don't tick off the guy that can fry us with a glare."

"we only sought to help you," kaldur pleaded.

"we freed you and you turned on us. how's that for gratitude?" wally yelled.

"kid, be quiet. i doubt our new... friend was in full control of his actions."

this was uncomfortable.

dick flicked his wrist, letting the small lockpick he kept in his glove come into reach of his fingers. now, how was he to break out without superboy seeing him? that was certainly the question.

"what if i wasn't?" superboy asked, in perfect english. dick was almost jealous that he had learned it in only sixteen weeks. it had taken dick a year to become fluent and he was fully immersed in it for all 52 weeks.

"he can talk?" wally blurted out. bad move on his part, but this was new territory for everyone.

"yes. he can."

"it's... it's not like i said it." wally must've shrugged, but with his hands still tied up it looked more like a mini-seizure.

"the g-gnomes taught you?" kaldur asked, sounding intrigued.

"they taught me a lot. i can read, write, solve algebra, recite poems."

"but have you ever even seen the contents of those poems?" dick asked. "have you ever seen the sky? the sun?"

"images are implanted in my mind but... no, i've never actually seen them."

kaldur frowned. "do you know what you are? rather, who you are?"

"i am the superboy: a genomorph, a clone created from the dna of the superman. i am here to take his place, should he perish, and to destroy him, should he turn from the light," superboy recited. how many times had they put those same sentences into his head? over and over and over.

wally met dick's eye, blinking in morse code. wtf.

ally? dick cocked his head.

as if.

turns out that learning morse code as kids came in handy. who would've thought?

"that is a worthy aspiration." kaldur paused. "but you deserve a life of your own, beyond cadmus."

"this is my HOME."

"your home is a test-tube," dick countered. "we can show you the sun."

"we can introduce you to superman," kaldur said, really hitting a home-run there. superboy actually might help them.

"no, they can't."

ah, fuck.

the idiot gang of scientists (and also the traitor known as guardian) made their way in, ruining dick's chances of getting out of this whole shebang and  taking wally out on a date. they all had their ugly little g-gnomes perched on their shoulders too, who were they? pirates?

"activate the cloning process," the head scientist commanded. the name on his labcoat read dr desmond. "and get the weapon back in its pod!"

"i'll pass," dick shouted. "one robin is already one too many."

"help us," kaldur pleaded.

guardian walked over to superboy, placing a hand on his shoulder, which was promptly shrugged off. dick could almost uncuff himself from cheer, but patience was key.

"don't start thinking now," dr desmond said, which was a hilarious thing to come out of a scientist's mouth. a g-gnome landed on superboy's shoulder, its horns glowing red. "you're a weapon and you belong to cadmus. get back in your pod."

once superboy left the room, the "cloning" process began. it was torture. needles pricked their skin, drawing blood into a container at the foot of each pod. then they were tased. tased with high, high electricity until dick couldn't feel anything except pure pain.

after what felt like hours of tasing, they turned off. tears prickled at the back of dick's eyes and he struggled to correct his breathing. in walked superboy, pushing the scientists to the floor.

"are you... are you here to help us or fry us?" wally asked. he was looking better already, speed-healing was truly a gift from god.

superboy glared at him for a couple seconds, before what almost seemed like... a smile crawled across his face. "well, i don't seem to have heat vision; helping is my only option."

dick quickly picked the lock on his cuffs, jumping down and just... laying on the floor for a minute. "holy shit, i hate torture."

when he was feeling a bit better, dick clambered up and over to the control table. he clicked the button to open the pods, but the cuffs still had to be done manually. "free aqualad, i'll get gingersnap."

"i don't take orders from you," superboy said, taking orders from dick.

dick climbed up to wally's pod, trying to uncuff him as fast as possible before wally started on his torture pick up lines. coming from experience, they were the worst.

"you'll never get out of here!" dr desmond yelled at the four of them as they ran away. "i'll have you back in pods before you know what hit you!"

dick stopped at the door, pulling out three of his explosive bird-a-rangs and arming them. "that guy is not whelmed, not whelmed at all," he said, throwing them at the three containers of blood at the end of each pod.

"what is with you and this whelmed thing?" wally asked as they ran to catch up with superboy and kaldur.

"i'm appreciating the english language."

"last time you 'appreciated the english language' you claimed that the word fuck was fine for you to say in class because it's not a cuss in romania."

"it isn't! i stand by my past decisions!"

their stellar conversation came to a close when the four heroes realized that they were entrapped. g-trolls came from one direction and an army of genomorphs the other.

superboy took this into his own hands, attacking the trolls with those same hands. it was actually kind of gross. and bloody. he was really violent. it was also concerning how, with every hit he scored on the creatures, the cave's ceiling fell down just a bit more.

"you still owe me ten bucks!" dick said, snapping finger guns at wally. "you never paid me from our ol' buried alive bet."

"from seventh grade?"

"that's the one." dick smiled, dusting cave bits out of his hair. "just reminding you in case we're crushed under 52 floors of rock."

"42," superboy corrected, punching a g-troll and shaking the entire hallway. "you were moved while you were unconscious."

"superboy!" kaldur called out. "our goal is to escape, not to bring this whole place down!"

"YOU WANT AN ESCAPE?" superboy yelled, picking up one of the giant g-trolls and throwing it at two of its brethren. he had pretty much taken out the entire army on his own.

the four of them ran past the g-bodies, most dead, some alive, as fast as they could. kaldur ripped open the door at the end of the hallway, revealing the elevator shaft they had known and loved.

dick took out his grappling hook, aiming it at the top of the shaft. "are you coming, gingersnap?"

"every-time you say that i hate you more."

"says the guy about to ride a grappling hook with me," dick rolled his eyes, shooting it and laughing as he and wally shot through the shaft together.

down below them, dick watched as superboy held onto aqualad, flying the two of them up to meet the couple. as they got a floor higher, though, they stopped ascending.

"i- i'm falling," superboy whispered, looking shocked.

with faster reflexes than a speedster, dick pulled out a bird-a-rang, throwing it just below kaldur. luckily enough he seemed to understand the gesture and grabbed hold of it, stopping their fall.

"why can't i fly?"

"dunno," wally shrugged. "looks like you can jump super high though. still cool."

superboy looked less than assured as the four of them hopped onto the two-inch ledge, holding hazardously onto the wall.

"i don't mean to pressure anyone, but there is a high-speed elevator coming down really fast," dick said, pointing above them.

superboy kicked open the door of whatever floor it was—sub-level 15–just in time for the elevator to whizz by. dick just wanted to go home but noooo a group of genomorphs just had to chase them the minute they stood on the floor.

superboy led the way, all the way to a dead end. "great directions, supey," wally fumed.

"no, no!" dick smirked, looking at the air vent on the top of the wall. it was cliché for a reason. "this is brilliant!"

dick led his friends through the air vent, crawling on his hands and knees. every couple of metres he would check his hologlove (he had downloaded the schematics earlier) to make sure that they were going the right direction.

"shhhhh," superboy said, stopping. "listen."

faintly, dick could hear that a group of genomorphs had crawled into the vent with them. "oh ho ho!" dick laughed. "i have an idea!"

"...are you gonna tell us what that is or just start typing on your hologlove?" wally asked, amused.

"oh, i forgot you guys were here," dick said, not breaking his eye contact with his computer screen. "i'm re-enabling the motion sensors—i turned them off when i hacked the security—so that desmond will find them and think i made a mistake."

"how is that helpful?" superboy asked.

"genomorphs," dick stated, closing his hologlove. "they're tracking the air vent genomorphs instead of us, we're invisible to desmond."

"you're a genius," wally said, placing his hand on top of dick's. "now, let's get out of this."

the group hopped out of their destination escape hatch, emitting them right by the stairs. "let's blow the top off this motherfucker," wally said, pulling his goggles down.

"there's still a fuckton of them between us and the moon." dick stifled a yawn.

"don't worry, babycakes, i'll go clear us a path," wally smirked, running through the nearest door.

"babycakes?" superboy asked.

dick could feel his face turning red. he ran in front of kaldur and superboy, opening the door to a huge staircase. "let's, uhm, let's go help kf."

wally had already run up a few floors, knocking out genomorphs as he ascended. this didn't at all help the fact that there were over 50 floors worth of genomorphs running after dick. it actually helped less, believe it or not.

"we need to cut them off!" dick yelled, watching out of his peripheral vision as superboy kicked the stairs behind them, stranding the rest of the genomorphs. well, that was one way to do it.

when they finally reached the top of the staircase, sub-level 1, wally was sitting on the floor, holding his head just a metre away from a closed door. the flashing red lights and blaring sirens rivalled even the wayne tech security.

"you good?" dick asked, helping wally up while kaldur and superboy immediately began trying to pry open the door.

"stellar." he grinned. "the door has to weigh four tons, i don't think you'll get it open."

dick pulled out his hologlove, his eyes speed-reading code as he unencrypted the door's security. the loud sound of a trillion (not a hyperbole) g-trolls walking toward him rudely interrupted that.

"i can't hack this fast enough," he said, scanning the hallway. dick ran a bit toward the g-cunts, kicking open a small door."this way!"

it was days like these when dick missed his simple life as an acrobat.

inside the door stood guardian and his entire army of g-dawgs. dick swivelled his head around, but they were blocked on every direction. there were a few g-gnomes around them, and their small horns began to glow a dull red. almost at that exact moment, dick felt his eyelids start to droop, his knees start to buckle, and his mind start to slip into unconsciousness.

~

and just like that, he was awoken again. dick blinked slowly, noticing that they hadn't been strung up in pods this time, in fact, he was still in the very same spot that he feel asleep in.

"guardian?" kaldur asked.

dick looked up at where superboy and kaldur were both already standing. dick yawned, standing up at the same time as wally. apparently the genomorphs were on their side now, that was new.

"go," guardian commanded. "i'll deal with desmond."

"i think not!" a voice, clearly desmond's, yelled from behind guardian. the genomorphs cleared a path, revealing dr desmond, angry as ever. "project blockbuster, remember?"

he pulled a test-tube from out of his lab coat pocket, flinging off the cork and downing the entirety of the blue liquid. the effects began immediately: his shirt broke and he fell to the floor, gasping in pain as his body changed, growing stronger and more animal-like.

"what the fuck?" wally said at the same time that guardian yelled, "everybody, get back!"

guardian ran at desmond, but the man-monster hit him with one hand, sending the hero flying across the room and into a wall. superboy charged at him next, getting a good couple punches in before desmond hurled him to the opposite wall. superboy, resilient as ever, just pulled himself back up, running right back at him.

this, however, was met with desmond charging at superboy and jumping with utmost strength. the two of them busted through the ceiling.

"okay, that's one way to get upstairs," dick said, running over to the giant hole.

"all it needs is a fire pole and kachow! interior design." wally grinned, wrapping his arm around dick's waist as he shot his grappling hook onto the ground level of cadmus.

superboy and desmond were still fighting pretty violently, but it was obvious that superboy was taking more hits than he was giving. desmond picked him up, throwing him toward wally and dick. he didn't even have a scratch.

wally ran at desmond, knocking him onto his knees while kaldur and superboy both punched him right in the face. desmond fell to the ground, barely even looking harmed. what was with everyone feeling no pain? dick's whole body still hurt from the tasing-and-stealing-their-blood incident.

dick jumped over wally, throwing a couple bird-a-rangs at desmond. he, being an asshole, blocked them with his arm and just stood back up again.

superboy ran toward him but desmond caught him in one hand, smashing him into one of the pillars holding the room up a few times. that was very concerning, they were going to get buried alive at this rate.

wait a minute.

dick pulled up the building schematics again, making notes of the architecture. he could hear the violent sounds of his boyfriend and co. being beaten by a monster, but it was fine. it was fine because dick had a plan.

"kf?" dick yelled, watching as wally pulled himself off of the ground. "come over here."

wally ran over, appearing at his side. he was covered in cuts and the beginning of bruises, but nothing too severe. "see these structural points on the pillars?"

"you want to bury us alive?" wally shook his head, already knowing exactly what his boyfriend was planning. "dickie, we will die."

"you've gotta trust me," dick gestured to the schematic. "distract desmond and try to knock out this pillar, about a metre off of the ground."

wally looked hesitant. "okay, i trust you. last time we had a bet about this, you did win."

"thank you, wally, you're the best," dick said, tapping his palm on wally's cheek.

"no kiss?" wally stuck out his bottom lip.

"we are in the middle of fighting a giant, two-ton monster bent on murdering us."

"all the more reason."

dick rolled his eyes, standing on his tip-toes to press a kiss to wally's cheek. "now go."

~

after calling kaldur and superboy over and explaining the plan to them too, everything was set. with each punch desmond pulled, he secured his own doom.

it was just natural, really: use your opponents strength against them.

wally made a good distraction of desmond. since he was so fast, he could move out of the way of hits at the last moment, keeping desmond preoccupied.

superboy and kaldur made quick work of the two pillar's that dick had assigned them to whilst the acrobat pulled out a stick of chalk (the utility belt was a wonderful invention) drawing an x on the floor. after timing a few bird-a-rangs and throwing them at the remaining pillar's, dick's part of the plan was pretty much complete.

he couldn't possibly make it clearer than that.

wally drew desmond toward the x while kaldur soaked it with water. once the monster was standing in the very middle, superboy hit him to the ground, and kaldur pressed both hands to the water, electrifying it.

the sizzle coming from desmond's body was almost sickening.

"move!" dick yelled, running toward his friends as he could hear his explosives beep loudly, the sign that they were about to detonate.

boom.

they all blew at once, crumbling the pillars and letting the roof fall with them. dick felt a body jump on top of his, smashing him to the ground, as the entire laboratory crumbled around them. the entire ground seemed to shake as dick lay there, struggling to breathe.

whoever was on top of dick started squirming underneath the weight of an entire facility. they pushed whatever was on top of them off, offering dick a hand up.

"thanks, aqualad." dick coughed up the dust embedded in his throat.

"kachow!" wally yelled from a few feet away. it seemed as though superboy had jumped on top of him to save his puny mortal organs too.

"we did it?" kaldur smiled, leaning against the fallen roof.

they certainly had. dick's plan had two steps (1, save his handsome boyfriend before he lost his grip and 2, dashingly blow up cadmus just to spite bruce) and he had completed both of them.

"was there ever any doubt?" dick smirked, checking himself for any lacerations. there were a lot, but nothing that needed stitches.

wally climbed over a fraction of the roof, sitting down beside dick. "roy's gonna be so pissed off when he hears about this."

"that's how you know it's a job well done."

wally laughed loudly, letting his head rest back to look up at the sky. "hey, supey! look, the moon!"

superboy stared up at it, wonder dancing across his eyes. whatever images had been implanted into his brain, they were nothing like the real thing. dick joined in the star-gazing fun, squinting his eyes as a figure seemed to descend toward them.

"there's superman too," wally stood up, crossing his arms. "just like we promised."

superman and the entirety of the justice league. seriously, did batman really have to bring every single leaguer to praise and/or reprimand them? it just seemed excessive.

"is that... what i think it is?" bruce walked toward superboy, looking astonished.

"he doesn't like being called an it," wally whispered, though he was awful at whispering. seriously. also didn't superboy have super-hearing?

"i am superman's clone," superboy recited. "but... but i am my own person too."

dick smiled, feeling wally squeeze his hand a couple times. they were just so happy for superboy. dick honestly couldn't understand why superman looked so... disgusted.

~

after the leaguers had taken desmond away, only a few members remained. the four teens had awkwardly been waiting for a formal reprimanding. but that had also given them time to plan their next move.

and that was to demand what they had earned: respect.

"cadmus will be investigated," bruce said, walking over with his possy (flash and aquaman) in tow. "but let's make one thing clear-"

"you should have called," barry cut in, sounding heartbroken. unlike batman, he had actual emotions. and, right now, those emotions were driven by the fact that his favourite nephew had been missing for almost 12 hours.

"we are not happy," bruce continued, staring directly at dick. "you hacked justice league systems, disobeyed direct orders, endangered both your own lives and the lives of others. you will not be doing anything of the likes of this ever again."

"i am sorry, but we will," kaldur said, straightening his posture.

"what is the meaning of this?" aquaman (the idiot) yelled. god, dick hated him. so FUCKING much. how does this man have a wife? let alone an entire country?

"apologies, my king," kaldur continued. "we did good work here tonight, the work you trained us to do. together, on our own, we brought down an entire corrupted facility."

"if you never intend to let us use the skills you taught us, why teach them at all?" dick added, running a hand through his hair.

"it's simple." superboy crossed his arms, stepping toward batman. "get on board or get out of our way."

WAYNE MANOR
JULY 8th — 7:47 EDT

"are you excited? i'm excited!" wally grinned, running around dick's room a couple times.

"you're excited about everything, walls," dick said. "i just can't believe bruce actually went through with this."

"what else could he have done?" wally shrugged, stopping in front of dick's mirror to check himself out. "we would've just done it anyway."

"i guess, but he's going like... all out." dick said. "we're getting our own hq, our own residence."

"speaking of residences, what are we gonna tell the team?" wally spun around, sitting down beside dick. "about like, us?"

"that has nothing to do with residences."

"answer the question, richard."

dick thought for a moment, falling back onto his bed. "just... it's like this, wally: you're the most important thing to me, you're my achilles' heel, right?"

wally fell back too, throwing his arm's around dick. "go on."

"i trust you, obviously, but... i can't just..." dick turned to wally, looking at how his green eyes seemed to be speckled with gold flakes. "telling the team that we're dating would be telling them where my achilles' heel is. right?"

wally hummed.

"everyone—or at least gotham—knows that you're dating dick grayson, yeah?" dick continued. "telling the others would out my identity too."

"i see where you're coming from, dickie," wally said. "but isn't trust the literal thing that a team is built on?"

"we don't even know if we're a team yet. bruce just said that we're getting the respect that we've earned. besides, bruce has kept his identity from all but six of the leaguers for years and they've prospered."

"okay," wally said, sitting up. "we won't say anything. but i wanna resume this conversation later."

dick sighed, getting up and holding up a pair of sunglasses in one hand and his domino mask in the other. "what do you think? bruce said to dress casual. is it weird to wear a mask?"

"i think you should wear neither," wally said, being of no help whatsoever. "your eyes are so pretty."

"and so is my privacy."

wally rolled his eyes, taking the sunglasses from dick's hand and sliding them onto his eyes. "go with the sunnies then, you look badass."

dick grabbed his jacket and pulled it on, frowning at his watch. "we're already late."

"b told us to meet at eight in the morning, what did he expect?"

"probably for us to be on time."

~

the place was already overrun with people by the time that dick and wally ran out of the zeta tube. "nice of you two to finally join us," barry said, smirking.

"this cave was the original headquarters of the justice league." bruce walked over to the four teens. "we've called it into service again to work as your base of operations, since you four are so keen to work together."

dick glanced around them, the place was huge. the leaguers were all around, carrying boxes, fixing machinery, even uncovering old furniture. it was pretty whelming.

"your... team will be on league terms," bruce continued. "red tornado volunteered to live here and be your supervisor and black canary is in charge of team training. i will deploy you on missions."

"real missions?" wally asked.

"yes, covert."

"we'll still handle the big stuff," flash said, smiling. "we're practically walking targets, but the bad guys are getting smarter, cadmus just proves that."

"we needed a team that could operate on the sly," bruce said. "you five are perfect for the job."

"five?" dick asked, and bruce just nodded to behind them.

in walked martian manhunter and, beside him, a martian girl with red hair. she looked a bit shy, but dick was excited to meet her. it was about time that they got a girl on the team.

"this is martian manhunter's niece, miss martian."

"hi." she waved. "it's nice to meet all of you."

"welcome aboard!" wally threw his arms out. "i'm kidflash, this is robin, aqualad, and superboy." he gestured to each person as he announced their name.

"i'll try to remember those."

"no sweat." dick smiled. "welcome to the team."