( ii , 𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘶𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘴  )

　　　　"HELP! GET US DOWN!" was what Cadie heard the moment they got close to Cadmus labs. fire trucks with their alarms blaring were stationed next to the building while the scientists inside it called for help.

　Cadie hovered in the air for a couple of seconds, assessing the situation as the firefighters on the scene calmed down the victims. Her eyes widened as an explosion went off, and she impulsed herself to get there as fast as possible when she saw two persons being thrown out of windows.

　As soon as she got to one of the scientists using one of her platforms, Wally had already zoomed into the scene and had gotten the other one to the roof, getting himself stuck dangling from one of the windows.

　 Cadie stifled a laugh when the first-responders got his name wrong.

　"Kid Flash!" the speedster yelled, annoyed, and Cadie approached him, helping him enter the building with a small push. "Why is that so hard?"

　"You just don't have enough persistence, KF, " she mocked, and was met with a playful glare.

　Now inside the building, both teenagers looked around. The fire didn't look like it had started there, and Cadie used her rings to scan their surroundings. They soon were joined by Robin, who started hacking the nearest computer.

　"Appreciate the help," said suddenly Aqualad's voice, who had just jumped inside.

　"Sorry, " let out the Green Lantern, furrowing her brow at the energy that she was reading that came from— the ground?

　"You handled it, " Robin was saying, still looking rather smug. "Besides, we're here to investigate. Poetic justice, remember?"

　Cadie, with Aqualad flanking her, walked until they saw a long corridor with an elevator at the end. Staring down at her ring, she bit the inside of her cheek. Could it be that Cadmus labs had something going on down there?

　A clang brought her attention to the elevator, and she shared a look with Aqualad.

　"There was something in the-" he cut himself off, apparently still not entirely sure of what he had seen. 

　"Elevators should be locked down, " Kid Flash frowned, behind Cadie.

　"This is wrong, " Robin said, after looking for a few moments at the computer beside the elevator.

　"Yeah, my ring is reading all types of different energies coming from down there, " agreed Cadie, frowning at the younger teenager's back. "How many stories is this building supposed to have?"

　As Robin inspected the elevator, Kid Flash leaned over Cadie's shoulder to glance at the information her ring is extracting.

　"Definitely not that many," he concluded.

　"This is a high-speed express elevator. it doesn't belong in a two-story building, " said Robin, adding more doubts to the statement that it was indeed a normal building.

　 "Neither does what I saw," Aqualad added gravely, before forcing the doors open with his bare hands.

　Cadie and Robin ducked under his arms, looking down the empty conduct of the elevator, that looked like it went miles deep.

　"And that's why they need an express elevator."

　Robin shot his grappling hook into the top of the column, jumping and letting himself fall with it. The green lantern sighed and floated down the conduct, Aqualad and kid flash right behind her.

　Cadie stared shocked at the walls, plastered with big numbers stating the floor they are passing through. Robin stopped at the one that read «SL26».

　"I'm at the end of my rope," he announced, and Cadie smiled.

　"Don't worry, boys. I'll come to your rescue, " the girl said, and even though the distance left could be beaten with a jump, she created a platform for her friends.

　The three boys jumped into it as she levitated towards the closed elevator door that was near, and Robin soon balanced on the edge of the building's built-in platform.

　That boy was something else.

　The Gothamite vigilante pulled out the security system. "Bypassing security..." he stated, the four of them waiting for his algorithms to work. "There. Go."

　Once again Aqualad pried the doors open by force, and all of them walked out of the conduct and into officially, the inside of Cadmus labs.

　Letting her platform dissolve into thin air, Cadie stared at the big-ass corridor in front of them.

　"Welcome to project Cadmus," Robin announced.

　Out of the corner of her eye, the Green Lantern caught a smile appear on the speedster's face and she groaned. He was up to no good.

　As if on cue, Kid Flash started running to explore the hallway.

　"Kid, wait!" called out Aqualad, but the redheaded boy kept on running until he nearly reached a wall.

　Wait, is that...?

　Sounds of heavy footsteps began thundering as Cadie flew towards her friend, who by the time she got beside him was trying to stop running. She grabbed him by the arm, preventing him to fall into what looked to be... monsters?

　Stunned, Cadie gaped at the massive creatures that were passing through a hallway that cut across the one they were in. They had thorns coming out of their bodies, and even walking on all fours they stood almost as tall as the ceiling.

　As if Wally and Cadie were not there, the creatures kept walking, not paying them any mind. Behind her, Robin and Aqualad soon caught up with them.

　One of the creatures suddenly growled at them, and she noticed a smaller one on top of its massive head. It hissed at them, and its horns began glowing an angry red as they walked away.

　"No. Nothing odd going on here," Aqualad said, voice dripping in sarcasm.

　　　　THE DOOR THAT ROBIN had been trying to hack for a couple of seconds made a beeping sound, and Cadie heard the distinct sound of metal gliding open behind her.

　"Okay, I'm officially whelmed," Robin stated, catching Aqualad and Cadie's attention, who were both covering his six.

　Turning around, she found herself staring at a room filled with towering rows of bug-like creatures that looked to be feeding energy to a massive generator in the wall in front of them.

　"Holy shit," Cadie let out, approaching one of the creatures and examining the blue impulses of electricity they were emitting.

　So that was it, the real Cadmus wasn't sketchy to the public because they used all of those creatures to supply themselves with electricity!

　"This is how they hide this massive underground facility from the world," Kid Flasg said, also realizing it as they walked between the towering rows. "The real Cadmus isn't on the grid. It generates its own power with these... things. Must be what they're bred for." 

　"Even the name is a clue," Aqualad explained from the girl's left, and Cadie finally remembered the story she had forgotten about Cadmus.

　"Yeah, you're so right!" the Green Lantern agreed with the Atlantian, turning to the other two to explain. "the Cadmus of myth created a new race by sowing dragon's teeth into the earth."

　"And this Cadmus creates new life too. Let's find out why."

　Nothing good, of that Cadie was sure.

　Robun followed his statement by stepping up to a computer and connecting it with his gauntlet. A holoscreen appeared, full of information regarding the room.

　"They call them genomorphs."

　Cadie stepped up and glanced at the holoscreen above from Robin's shoulder.

　"Whoa! Look at the stats on these things- super-strength, telepathy, razor claws. These are living weapons."

　"They're engineering an army, " Cadie realized, sharing a look with Kid Flash.

　"Yeah, but for who?" he gravely asked.

　Cadmus labs engineering an army wasn't good, playing with genetics and life wasn't a nice business. whichever entity was the destination of that army, was up to no good.

　"Wait. There's something else," Robin warned, just as a new batch of information appeared on his screen. "Project Kr," he announced, and he dived into the process of decrypting it. "Ugh! The file's triple-encrypted. I- I can't-" 

　The Green Lantern paused for a moment, thinking about what the other teenager had just said. Project Kr...

　"Wait, Kr? Like the periodic-" started asking Cadie, but got interrupted by a voice to their left.

　"Don't move!"

　A man dressed in black and blue with a golden shield was running towards them surrounded by five creatures like the ones Robin had pulled out the stats earlier. The genomorphs were growling and their eyes were a shining red.

　They were kinda creepy, if you asked Cadie. To her surprise, the man stopped short before them, staring wide-eyed at them.

　"Wait," he called, clearly as surprised as they were. "Robin, Green Lantern, Aqualad, Kid Flash?"

  "At least he got your name right," Robin teased.

　Cadie put herself in front of him, covering him while he tried to decrypt the files, and willed her ring to search into its database for the person in front of them.

　She could swear she had seen him before, but she couldn't remember his name.

　"I know you," Aqualad spoke, just as her ring made a match. Guardian was the name. "Guardian, a hero." 

　Guardian squared up his shoulders and stood tall. "I do my best."

　Your best is my worse, apparently, thought Cadie. What was a hero doing in a place like that?

　 "Then what are you doing here?" KF asked, voicing cadie's exact question.

　"I'm chief of security," Guardian responded. "You're trespassing, but we can call the Justice League, figure this out." 

　They stood in silence for a moment, and Cadie took note of the genomorph stuck on his shoulder. A beep from Robin's gauntlet then let her know that the decryption process was done.

　"Sure, we can call them. Let's see if they like your extracurricular activities," Cadie said, arching an eyebrow.

  "You think the League's gonna approve of you breeding weapons?" Kid Flasg demanded angrily.

  "Weapons?" Guardian asked, with a confused undertone in his voice. "What are you-"

　His eyes went wide, and Cadie exchanged looks with Aqualad to check if she was the only one who had seen the horns of the genomorph that was on his shoulder glow red.

　"What have I-" he stared off into the distance for a moment, clearly confused, before bringing his hand to his temple as if it was hurting. "Ugh, my head."

　Was- was Guardian being brainwashed by that genomorph? Was that what was happening? And was that something they could all do?

　Guardian's eyes opened, and his expression changed into a hard one that made him look like another person.

　Oh, shit.

　"Take them down hard!" he instructed the genomorphs, pointing at the four of them. "No mercy." 

　At the order, the genomorphs jumped at them at the same time that Robin threw a smoke bomb, clouding their vision. Cadie saw him shoot his grappling hook and soon understood that he would let them fight while he hacked the nearest door for their exit.

　Classic Robin move, that sneaky bastard.

　Through the smoke, Cadie saw one of the genomorphs coming at her so she threw a punch at its head. Her eyes widened when she realized that two more of them were behind the first one.

　C'mon, there were five of them, why did she have to fight three on her own?

　She dodged one of their slashes and willed an anvil to fall on one of them. The green lantern flew over the first genomorph's head and threw him into the fog with her legs, in the opposite direction of where Aqualad and Kid were.

　She could hear the sounds of struggle as she restrained the last one against the floor, and it looked like her partners were almost done.

　Cadie elevated herself over the smoke, making eye contact with Kid Flash who then raised his arm for her to take.

　Seeing Aqualad was also running towards the exit, she grabbed both of them and exited flying through the corridor Robin had used to escape.

　"Oh, fuck," Cadie groaned when she looked back and realized that the genomorphs were right behind them.

　She let the teenagers down on the floor with help of one of her platforms as soon as they saw Robin hacking a security door that had an alarm blaring right on top of it.

　"Way to be a team player, Rob!"  Kid Flash scolded his best friend, after speeding towards him.

　"Weren't you right behind me?" Robin asked, feigning surprise, but not stalling in his hacking of the elevator.

　The doors opened before them, and Cadie glanced back at Aqualad, who was running towards them with the creatures at his heels.

　Kid Flash's hand wrapped around hers as he yanked her towards the elevator, in time for the doors to close right behind the Atlantian.

　"Thanks, " she muttered to her friend, looking up to him.

　Cadie frowned at the sight of the numbers of the sub-levels going up behind the speedster's head, which meant they were going even deeper underground.

　"We're headed down?" asked Aqualad, glaring at robin.

　"Dude, out is up," said Kid Flash, pointing towards the ceiling.

　The Green Lantern snapped her head towards her fellow Gothamite, waiting for him to explain himself.

　"Excuse me?" Robin asked, as if offended. "Project Kr, it's down on sub-level 52." 

　Damn it, Boy Wonder was right.

　"Oh dear God," mumbled Cadie. They were going to investigate, weren't they?

　"This is out of control," snapped Aqualad, rubbing his neck with one of his hands.  "Perhaps- perhaps we should contact the league." 

　The elevator suddenly slowed its pace and came to a stop with a ding. Cadue stared anxiously at the sign that read sub-level 52 and the four of them tensed up, preparing themselves for the upcoming battle that would start once the doors opened.

　Only there wasn't a fight, as the hallway was deserted.

　Cadie hadn't almost had time to think when Robin sprinted out of the elevator into the corridor, that looked almost- organic, as if they were tunnels of a living organism.

　She shrugged and followed him, hearing Kid Flasg say to Aqualad: "we are already here." 

　Feeling that Wally's hand was still holding hers, she gave him a tap and he quickly released it.

　"Which way?" inquired Aqualad, and Robin chuckled.

　"Yeah, bizarre-looking hallway one, or bizarre-hallway two?" 

　Cadie eyed both of them, and decided that one couldn't be worse than the other, they both looked pretty awful.

　"Halt!"

　Cadie's gaze snapped towards the one of the left, where an anthropoid-looking genomorph was standing. His horns glowed red just before he lifted two cans with his mind and he sent it towards them.

　The Green Lantern threw up a barrier in between, protecting them but still allowing space for Robin to throw his birdarang towards the creature.

　It looked like bizarre-looking hallway two was the correct way, so all of them started running ( or flying ) towards it.

　Damn it, they had hit a dead-end... except that the chamber's door at the end of the hallway said «Project Kr», and that was what they were looking for.

　Her eyes widened when they saw the doors sliding slowly, but she sighed in relief when Kid Flash thought fast and stopped the doors from closing by putting an obstacle to prevent it.

　"Hurry!"

　Cadie flew through the gap in no time, and watched as Robin and Aqualad joined them inside the chamber. With her energy ring, she pushed the prop out of the way of the doors, forcing them to slam close and leave the creatures behind.

　She turned around then, using her ring as a lantern ( ha, ironic ) to illuminate the room, and her eyebrows shot up her forehead. Over the shock, she almost hadn't heard Robin telling them that they were safe.

　"We're trapped," Aqualad corrected.

　"Dude, " let out Cadie, gaping at the giant pod standing in the center room. She hit KF's arm multiple times in complete shock.

　"Uh, guys," the redhead said once he saw what Cadie had wanted him to see. "You'll want to see this."

　Wally pressed a key that turned all the lights on, and the four of them stared in utter disbelief.

　"Whoa!"

　Inside the pod was a sleeping boy with pitch-black hair, pale skin, and a white suit... that had Superman's S on it. Oh, dear God. He looked like a carbon copy of the superhero, except so much younger. Cadie guessed that he looked exactly like a son of Clark Kent would.

　Kid Flasg got closer to the boy, still analyzing him. "Big "k", little "r", the atomic symbol for Krypton," he said, turning back to Cadie and the boys. "Clone?"

　All of them looked at Robin.

　"Robin, hack," Aqualad commanded then, and it took a second for Robin to respond.

　"Oh. Right, right." he plugged his connector into the console. "Weapon designation SUPERBOY, a clone force-grown in... sixteen weeks?! From DNA acquired from Superman."

　Cadie scoffed in disbelief. Weapon designation? That was a child!

　"Stolen from Supermqn," Aqualad gravely corrected

　"No way the big guy knows about this," Kid Flash agreed.

　Cadie kept her gaze on the clone as they kept talking. To think that he had been grown in only sixteen weeks... Did that make him sixteen years old? Did every single week count for a year in growth? If so, they would have only needed fifteen more to reach Superman's current age.

　"Solar suit allows him to absorb yellow-sun radiation 24/7," Robin continued to read off.

　"And these... creatures?" Aqualad asked, pointing at the ones sitting in small capsules inside the Superboy's own.

　"Genomorph gnomes, telepathic, force-feeding him an education."

　"And we can guess what else," Kid Flash bitterly added. "They're making a slave out of, well, Superman's son."

　"Now we contact the league," Aqualad said, and all of them nod in agreement.

　Then, Cadie was kind of regretting that they had done this without the Leaguers knowing because hal had never taught her how to contact another lantern with her ring. She had never gone on a mission alone, and it was supposed to be one of her next lessons.

　Big yikes.

　"No signal," Robin sighed, after trying to contact his mentor.

　"We're in too deep, literally," Wally said, and then turned back to look at the clone. "This is wrong."

　"Very," agreed Cadie, keeping her gaze on the superboy.

　None of them needed any convincing. "We can't leave him like this."

　Cadie glanced at Aqualad, waiting for his response. "Set him free," he decided, then he turned to Robin. "Do it."

　The Boy Wonder didn't need to hear more and ve started to work on it immediately. Cadie watched as the pod fell away from the boy, who remained calm through the process. 

　Just as Cadie started approaching him, his hand suddenly clenched, and his bright blue eyes snapped open. Cadie halted for a moment, hesitant in her steps.

　Should she keep going or stand back?

　The moment she decided stepping back was the logical solution, Superboy launched himself at her, tackling her to the ground.

　She groaned, surprised and pissed off after he managed to land two punches to her face.

　"Whoa! Hang on, supey." she heard Kid Flash say before she erected a force field around her, kicking the superboy out of her way.

　Wally held onto one of his arms and Robin held the other one, but soon the clone threw the redhead into a wall.

　If Cadie's face hadn't noticed that the superboy had superstrength typical of a Kryptonian, Kid Flash sure had, as he was now unconscious.

　"We're on your side!" Robin was attempting to talk to him, keeping ( somehow ) the clone in a chokehold. "I don't want to do this," he told him before placing a smoke blaster to his clavicle.

　After Superboy knocked Robin unconscious, the Green Lantern once again faced the Kryptonian, managing to land a punch towards his face ( but she guessed that her hand hurt her more than it did him ). Cadie ran towards him, keeping a hold of his upper body and jumping on top of him. She began squeezing her legs around his neck, trying to cut off his air.

　Then again, he was practically indestructible and she had never been taught to fight a Kryptonian.

　She willed a giant hand to punch him in the stomach and she then felt his hands reach for her. oh no. The Superboy grabbed her hard and Cadie felt herself flying, and not in the way she enjoyed.

　Her head hit one of the walls hard, and she was only capable of seeing Robin's body passed out beside her before her vision clouded and went pitch black.

author's note:
here's the second chapter!
i'll have you know that i love cadie very
much and that she's indeed my baby <3

english is not my first language,
so please don't hesitate to correct me
when needed! in fact i encourage
you to correct me <3

-ren <3