Many thanks to my beta-reader :)

DISCLAIMER: I obviously do not own Young Justice :P

This has always been a project I wanted to engage in, but I never really found the time. By the way, I fixed the summary now and I hope it made more sense. Sigh.

Enjoy!

GOTHAM CITY
JULY 4, 2010

11:32 EDT

The light from the Bat-Computer illuminated our faces as Batman quickly debriefed us of our current situation. "The ice villain Mister Freeze has been spotted heading towards Gotham City Park."

Security camera footage revealed the criminal freezing everything in sight; vehicles, plants, buildings and people. You name it, he froze it.

"I need you to stop him before he reaches the park, while I-"

"Both of us?" I cut in dangerously, looking over at Robin. No way I would let him get the best part of the mission all to himself-not today. Narrowing his eyes towards me, Batman continued. "Yes, both of you."

Ah, the magic words, I thought.

Batman drove ahead in the Bat-Mobile to help GCPD ease the traffic congestion, while we Wonders were left to grapple towards the park.

"Someone was a little jelly." Robin jeered at me.

Ignoring him, I pressed my lips together in an attempt to contain my annoyance as we continued to swing over the busy roads. Cars frozen still in ice were piled high into the sky. Good luck, Bruce.

"Were you worried I was gonna kick Freeze's butt all by myself?" Robin smirked. I'm the real butt-kicker around here, mate.

"Correction," I began, hauling myself up a lamppost to glare at him properly. "I was only confirming the plan. Of course it would be unclear if all he said was, 'You' " I quoted with my gloved fingers.

"Haha, confirming. Right," he chuckled, turning away from me to face the park.

"Sarcasm, really?"

Screaming civilians interrupted any further conversation as we spotted Mister Freeze sliding down a trail of ice. We followed immediately, Robin throwing a batarang at Freeze's ice-gun, causing him to miss the last of the fleeing civilians.

"Batman." Freeze spun around to our direction. Batman? He had better consider himself lucky it isn't Batman. "I was wondering when-"

Cut off by Robin's creepy cackle, Freeze was in for a surprise when he found us kicking his butt. Just what I wanted. Rob leaped off the villain's dome, distracting him as I swung from the grapple, my legs aiming for his villainous buttocks. Once on the ground, he looked-glared-at us from inside his cracked helmet. "Oh, Boy and Girl Wonder." He stood up slowly before continuing. I was pretty sure he rubbed his sore backside too.

"The Bat sent you two to drag me off to prison? Frankly, I'm underwhelmed."

"Nice guess," I replied, a smirk spreading across my face. "But dragging wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

"Great, but we're kinda in a hurry here," Robin sighed, throwing his hands in the air.

"Kids; always in such a rush. . ." Freeze shook his head, aiming his blaster at us.

"We weren't talking to you." Robin sang as a familiar dark shadow appeared in the air, Mr. Freeze oblivious. He turned around just in time to receive a right hook from Batman, shattering his glass helmet.

GOTHAM CITY

JULY 4, 2010

11: 54 EDT

"You snooze, ya lose!" I spat in Robin's face as we continued to bicker over the door handle to the front seat. "That's what you get for chatting it up with some chick!"

"You're just jealous because the only thing attracted to you is gravity," he retorted, shoving me with his shoulder. Ouch. Batman placed both his hands on our shoulders, pushing us apart. One look was all that was needed to know both of us would be sitting in the back this time.

WASHINGTON D.C.

JULY 4, 2010

14:00 EDT

Batman placed both his hands on our shoulders, looking down proudly at us this time. This is it. Just staring at those fangirls made me want to scream along with them.

"Today's the day." Robin murmured beside me, turning his head to me. We grinned, knocking our fists together.

"Welcome to the Hall of Justice" Green Arrow said.

"Headquarters of the Justice League" Aquaman added soon after.

"Aw man!"

Ah, that all too familiar voice of a certain speedster.

"I knew we'd be the last ones here!" Kid Flash complained, crossing his arms.

"Quite ironic, isn't it?" I teased.

He gave one of those 'are-you-serious?' looks before grabbing me into a tight squeeze, lifting me up with one of those cheesy big grins of his face. "Today's the day!"

Walking towards the hall, I was still running the whole idea of visiting the League's headquarters through my mind. This, where my role-models, my heroes, make decisions that pretty much solve the Earth's problems, and more. Oh, much more.

Note to self, contain the fangirl feels. Contain them! We were surrounded by extremely excited spectators, taking picture after picture.

"Is that Batman?!"

"Flash! And Flash Jr.!"

"His name's Speedy, duh."

"No, Speedy's Green Arrow's sidekick!"

"Well that makes no sense." I heard in a melee of voices.

"I'm glad we're all here" Aqualad said.

"I'm glad, you're glad, we're all glad!" I replied a bit quickly, slightly hyper and bouncy. It received a chuckle from the Atlantean.

"Have all five sidekicks ever been in the same place at the same time?" Kid Flash eagerly asked.

"Don't call us sidekicks" Speedy answered the young speedster harshly. "Not after today."

"Sorry," Kid Flash apologized. "First time at the Hall. I'm a little overwhelmed."

"You're overwhelmed, Freeze was underwhelmed, why isn't anyone ever just whelmed?" Robin questioned.

We walked through the doors of the Hall and I gawked at the massive, seven large bronze statues of the founding members of the Justice League. Holy cow.

"I suppose that's why…" Robin murmured under his breath.

The doors reading "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY" opened to reveal Red Tornado and Martian Manhunter.

"Robin, Phoenix, Speedy, Aqualad, Kid Flash" the Martian spoke. "Welcome."

Robin and Kid Flash fist bumped as we followed him inside the room, beginning the tour of the Hall.

"You now have unlimited access to the gym, our fully stocked galley, and of course, our library." Martian Manhunter told us patiently.Library? Did he say library?

Flash opened his arms, giving us a grin. "Make yourselves at home."

Returning the grin, I skipped over to the bookshelves, scanning every title until finding one that caught my attention. Unfortunately, it happened to sit atop the highest shelf. I attempted to jump up and grab the book, only to miss by a few centimetres. Letting out a scowl as Robin had trouble containing his laughter, I awkwardly leaped once more, only to find myself being lifted by a pair of webbed hands. Once Aqualad set me down, I thanked the Atlantean, hugging the book close to my chest and walking over to the others. I made sure to stick out my tongue at the Boy Wonder.

God I hate him. Sitting comfortably in an armchair, Batman announced that he and the other heroes were going to have a quick debrief to discuss the coincidence of 4 ice-villains attacking on the same day. "We shouldn't be long."

A scanner appeared in front of a pair of steel doors. "Recognized: Batman: 0-2, Aquaman: 0-6, Flash: 0-4, Green Arrow: 0-8, Martian Manhunter: 0-7, Red Tornado: 1-6."

Opening the biography on Wonder Woman, I began to read. Indistinct chatter started up as I flipped to page three, and so I placed a finger on the paragraph I was up to. Yet as I listened to the conversation between the heroes and their sidekicks, I found myself unable to fully comprehend what was going on.

"Except the Hall isn't the League's real HQ!" Speedy said suddenly, making my eyes widen in shock. "I bet they never told you that it was just a false front for tourists and a pit-stop to catching Zeta-beam teleporter tubes to the real thing! An orbiting satellite called the Watchtower!"

Watchtower? Wait, the Hall wasn't even the real thing?! Oh my gosh, what in the world did I miss?

Closing the book, I heard Aquaman speaking next. "You're not helping your cause here, son. Stand down, or-"

"Or what?! You'll send me to my room? And I'm not your son," Speedy replied. "I'm not even his!" He directed his last sentence to Green Arrow with venom in his tone. "I thought I was his partner, but. . ." He hesitated briefly before continuing with full fury. " Not anymore." He threw his cap to the ground and stalked off, the steel doors slamming behind him.

A beeping noise sounded from the large screen at the back of the room before it displayed an image of Superman. "Superman to Justice League. There's been an explosion at Project Cadmus, it's on fire."

"I've had my suspicions about Cadmus," Batman said. "This may present the perfect opportunity to-"

He was cut off by another incoming transmission from Zatara.

"Zatara to Justice League. The sorcerer Wotan is using the Amulet of Aten to blot out the Sun. Requesting full League response."

Batman turned back to the Kryptonian. "Superman?"

"It's a small fire. Local authorities have it under control."

"Then Cadmus can wait." Batman decided and pressed a button on the keyboard. "All Leaguers rendezvous at Zatara's coordinates. Batman out."

The four of us sidekicks made our way over to him, only to be told to stay put.

"What?!" Robin exclaimed. "Why?"

"This is a league mission," Aquaman explained.

"You're not trained-" Flash added, only to be cut off by Kid Flash.

"Since when?!"

"I meant you're not trained to work as part of this team," Flash continued.

"There will be other missions, when you're ready." Aquaman spoke.

"But for now, stay put." Batman said those last words in a stern tone, and left.

We just all stood there in silence, looking at each other.

"Ugh! When we're ready?!" the speedster said suddenly, outraged. "How are we ever supposed to be ready when they treat us like. . .like. . ." He struggled to find the word he was looking for.

"Sidekicks?" I suggested, folding my arms across my chest. This sucked. Big time.

And, this Cadmus thing, I frowned, What had happened? Maybe it's not so important. But. . . it would be fun to find out. Fun was what I needed at this point in time. I grinned at the thought.

Walking over to the large computer screen, I attempted to access the League's database. The three talked among themselves indistinctly, and I only managed to catch a few words. My fingers ran over the keyboard at a rapid pace, typing in different codes to override the system.

"ACCESS DENIED."

"Right, right," I muttered to myself. "Maybe it's. . ."

"The same system as the Batcave," Robin finished and tried to shove me out of the way, wanting a go at hacking the computer.

"Hey! Rude!" I rammed my shoulder into his chest and continued to hack like nothing happened, leaving him on the ground.

"Woah, how are you doing that?" Kid Flash asked as he pulled his best mate up off the ground. His eyes were wide behind his cowl. I turned my head to give him a slight smirk.

"Easy."

"ACCESS GRANTED, FILE OPENING." The computer hummed.

Robin stood next to me, recovered from my shove and read the file data out loud. "Alright, Project Cadmus. A genetics lab here in D.C. . . That's all there is."

I could see him narrow his eyes from the corner of my vision. I took out a cable from my glove and plugged it into the computer, downloading the coordinates.

"But if Batman's suspicious. . ." I started slowly. "We should investigate." I exchanged looks with the young heroes, waiting for their reactions.

"Solve the case before they do," Aqualad added. His lips turned into a soft smile. "It would be poetic justice."

"Hey," Robin chuckled. "They're all about justice!"

Aqualad let out a sigh before speaking. "But they said to stay put."

"For the blotting out the sun mission, not this." the Boy Wonder explained.

"Wait, are you going to Cadmus?" Kid Flash turned his best friend around. "Because if you're going, I'm going." He jerked his thumb to his chest with a smile.

They both turned back to Aqualad and I, grinning like five year olds.

"So what do you think, Kaldur? You in?" I asked the young Atlantean with a slight smile on my lips.

"Just like that?" Aqualad looked at us all. "We're a team on a mission?"

Smirks were all plastered on our faces. "We didn't come for a play date." Robin intoned.

I told the others the coordinates, Kid Flash running ahead. Fortunately, the laboratory was not too far away and we arrived in time to see him catch two falling scientists, tossing them back on the roof. He attempted to scale the wall, his legs a blur. I watched the power of gravity pull him to a sudden stop and he slid down the wall, but managed to haul himself onto an open window.

A firefighter pointed. "It's what's-his-name, Flash Boy!"

"Kid Flash!" he yelled back.

Stifling a chuckle, I let out one of my sarcastic comments. "That was so smooth."

"Like a butter ninja," Robin added, cackling at his best friend.

"We need a plan, we-" Aqualad began, only to notice the sudden disappearance of Robin.

"Don't worry, he does that," I shrugged, explaining to him. "You get used to it." I followed after Robin without hearing Aqualad's last words. I swung into the window where Robin was pulling Kid Flash up, and landed with a roll. Noticing a computer to my right, I pulled out a cable from my glove and plugged it into the socket.

"I'll search the cabinets!" Kid Flash said enthusiastically.

"You're really getting into it,'' I commented, watching the papers fly around the room. Everything on the computer began to download into my glove, but at an agonizingly slow pace. My foot started tapping the ground as I grew increasingly impatient. "Can this thing go any slower?!"

"You forgot to do this" Robin explained as he typed into the computer keyboard. Instantly, the data downloaded faster, the blue bar almost reaching the end. "Stupid." He sang, stepping back with his signature smirk. Oh, how I would like to wipe it off.

"Shut up!" I snapped back as the computer finished downloading. "I could have done that."

"I appreciate the help." I heard Aqualad say sarcastically as he crawled through the window.

"You handled it," Robin commented. "Besides, we're here to investigate. Poetic justice, remember?"

Aqualad stepped out into the hallway, stopping abruptly. Curious, I followed his gaze to a pair of elevator doors that closed as soon as I stepped out. "Strange, elevators should be locked down during an event with a fire," I said, walking towards the steel doors.

"This is wrong." Robin opened up his holographic computer, showing us the layout. "Thought so. This is a high-speed express elevator," he explained.

"Pfft, that doesn't belong in a two-story building," I commented, crossing my arms.

"Neither does what I saw," Aqualad added, walking towards the elevator doors. He pried them apart with his bare hands and looked down the shaft. Following his gaze, all I saw was an endless pit of nothingness, like a path straight down to hell.

"And that's why they need an express elevator." Robin took out his grapple and shot it to the top of the roof. We all slid down his line, one by one. "I'm at the end of my rope," he informed us. Just great.

I jumped over to ledge like the others, but stumbled at my landing and felt myself slowly falling backwards. "W-woah!" I flailed my arms, grabbing onto nothing but air. But before I could topple over, someone managed to grab my hand and pull me back. "I would say thanks, but since it's you, I'll pass." I exasperated, turning away from my saviour.

Robin scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Knew I should've dropped you."

"Knew I should've dropped you," I mimicked, raising my tone an octave higher. Once again, I had almost fallen because of that stunt. Rob was definitely my bad-luck charm.

"Be careful, Phoenix." Aqualad warned as he held onto my wrist, making sure I was stable as I sat down on the ledge. Now that's what society calls a gentleman.

"Will do." I looked over at Robin's holographic computer to see him bypassing security. We walked through the doors as Aqualad opened them with a creaky after-sound, doors to a whole different world.

"Welcome to Project Cadmus."

"More like Project Badass," I commented, scanning my eyes around the area. The place had a mystic-like red glow from the lights above, giving it a slightly creepy-cool effect.

"I'll go look around!" Kid Flash piped.

"Kid, wait!"

Kid Flash ran on ahead, ignoring my cries, and disappeared around the corner. Hearing a cry accompanied by multiple stomping noises, my head turned."KF, move!" I yelled across at him. He rolled over to side, letting the gigantic-whatever they were-pass by. I could feel my jaw drop slightly as I gawked at each and every one of the gorilla. . .things.

"No, nothing odd going on here. . ." Aqualad drawled sarcastically.

"Let's keep moving," I suggested, shaking my head out of a daze.

We began to make our way down the long, empty hallway. We reached the end, another pair of shiny metal doors waiting for us.

"Dibs bypassing!" I exclaimed, pushing Robin back softly before he could beat me to the keypad.

"Hey!" He threw his hands up in the air as he followed after me.

"You get downloading duty."

He rolled his eyes before obliging.

The doors opened, and we all saw things that were out of this world.

"Okay, I'm officially whelmed," Robin announced.

Blue tubes were set up in rows. They were massive and holding strange, disturbing creatures. I narrowed my eyes at them, accessing them from the outside. Bolts of electricity flowed off those. . . creatures.

"I think they're. . . they're generating power." I murmured.

"This is how they hide their massive underground facility from the world." Kid Flash said as we walked past them, repeating exactly what I had said. "The real Cadmus isn't on the grid! It generates its own power-"

I rolled my eyes, letting out a melodramatic sigh.

"With these. . .things," Kid Flash finished slowly. "It must be what they're bred for!"

"Even the name is a clue," Aqualad added. "The Cadmus of myth created a new race by sowing dragons' teeth into the earth."

"And this Cadmus creates new life too," Robin commented.

"Okay guys, this is getting real creepy," I clutched my arm tightly with the other as I looked around the room. These. . . things . . . Do they even have a mind? Do they think for themselves or are they controlled? And if so. . . By who?

"You're not a chicken are you, P.?" Robin teased, doing the chicken dance accompanied by chicken noises, interrupting my thoughts.

"Quit it, loser!" I punched him on the shoulder and he let out a yelp. "Isn't your alias meant to give you a hint in which bird you're meant to be?" I asked sarcastically, rolling my eyes. Walking over to one of the computers, I began hacking once again, hearing Robin muttering to Kid Flash about how I'm more like a male than a female.

What a sissy, I snorted, couldn't handle a girl punching him. Slowly, my eyes widened as I read the data that on the screen. "Guys. . . ?"

They all walked over as I explained to them the information I had collected from the computer. "They call them. . . Genomorphs."

"Woah! Look at the stats on these things!" Robin pointed over my shoulder. "Super-strength, telepathy, razor claws!" He listed. "These are living weapons!"

"They're engineering an army," Kid Flash muttered. "But for who. . .?"

"Wait!" I exclaimed. "There's something else." I slid the file over to another. "Project. . . Kr." I let out a groan of frustration. "The file's triple-encrypted, I can't-"

"Don't move!" A loud commanding voice sounded from the entrance. A familiar man was headed in our direction. Wait, Guardian. . .? With a bunch of creepy-looking monkeys! I jumped back into Robin at the sight of them.

"Wait. . . Robin, Phoenix, Aqualad, Kid Flash?" Guardian's voice was surprised and he came to a sudden stop.

"At least he got the name right." Robin joked.

Turning back around to the computer, I could vaguely hear the conversation as I downloaded the last of the files. Something about chief of security and trespassing.

"Take them down hard!"

I was slightly confused for a second before moving out of the way as a rabid genomorph lunged at me.

Taking out a bow staff from the holster on my thigh, I held a couple of smoke pellets before throwing them at the concrete ground. The others and I moved out of the way and the genomorphs attacked nothing but smoke. I vaguely saw Robin grapple away from us, ditching the fight.

Oh, he is so going down, if I wasn't so busy.

I spun my staff at a fast rate, creating a shield. Switching it over to my left hand, I took out my grappling gun and shot it at a supporting beam. It whirred, yanking me from my feet towards the cealing. I perched there as an advantage, trying to look for the other two young heroes, and saw Guardian attacking Aqualad. Taking out a couple of batarangs, I threw them at the surrounding genomorphs. Grappling once again, I swung down and aimed my foot at Guardian. Letting go of my grapple at the last second, the kick sent the apparent 'hero' flying across the room.

"Let's move!" I yelled, running out of the room. Kid Flash and Aqualad followed. We reached the end of the hallway and found Robin at the elevator, bypassing security.

"Rob, you little dimwit! How could you ditch us like that?!" I scowled as we approached him. Containing my anger towards the Boy Wonder was extremely difficult. I stood there, clenching and unclenching my fists.

"Way to be a team player, Rob!" Kid Flash exclaimed, glaring at him.

"Weren't you right behind me?" Robin asked, still typing into his holographic computer.

"Oh yeah, we were totally right behind you!" I yelled sarcastically and pointed to the approaching genomorphs.

The elevator doors opened and we ran inside, waiting for Aqualad. Once he was in, we closed the doors, trapping the genomorphs outside. Still annoyed by the fact that Robin had ditched us, I pushed him against one the elevator walls, holding him by his cape.

"Do not, do that again," I growled through gritted teeth, speaking in a tone I rarely used. I was not usually the threatening type. Glaring at him through my mask, I continued. "We do not ditch others in a group fight."

"Got it," Robin held up his hands defensively with a little smirk on his face.

I let out a sigh of exhaustion, releasing him from my grasp. Taking out my hair tie, I ran my fingers through my long, tangled black hair, hearing Aqualad speak in a distressed tone. "We're going down?"

"Dude! Out is up" Kid Flash pointed upwards for emphasis.

Taking the hair tie from my mouth, I redid my ponytail. "He wants to check out Project Kr," I explained, trying to keep the calmness in my tone before Robin could reply.

"Level 52." Robin added.

Aqualad let out a sigh whilst running a hand over his hair. "This is out of control. Perhaps. . ."

"Perhaps?" I waited for him to continue.

"Perhaps, we should contact the League," he finished. We all stood in silence, until a ding from the elevator indicated we have arrived at our destination.

I raised an eyebrow at the sight of the place, then scrunched my nose at how. . . how horrific it looked, like we were in someone's intestines. The pinkish-red of the slimy walls almost caused me to throw up right there and then.

"We are already here." Kid Flash said.

Aqualad sighed once again before he followed us.

"Which way?" He asked once we had stopped.

"Yeah, bizarre looking hallway one or bizarre looking hallway two?" Robin gestured.

"Halt!" Someone-something-called. I turned and looked at the figure. A definitely-not-human figure. Just great, another genomorph.

Multiple barrels were flung at us as we each dodged them. Robin and I threw a bunch of batarangs at the creature, only for them to be stopped before they could touch him. Could be a 'she' actually. The barrels kept on coming as we ran. The explosions from some of them almost sizzled the ends of my hair. Not a good look.

Finally catching up with Kid Flash, we found a female scientist on the ground, and the speedster stopping the metal doors from closing. He gestured for us to run inside. Once we were all in, Aqualad kicked the stopper away, and the door slammed shut.

"I disabled the door." Robin announced, turning away from his holographic computer. "We're safe."

"We're trapped," Aqualad corrected him.

"Uh. . . guys?" Kid Flash began slowly. "You'll want to see this." He pressed a button and the tube in front of us lit up, to what seemed to be. . .a younger version of Superman.

The Superman! Only he was a teenaged version and undeniably hot, though not exactly my type.

"Big 'K', little 'r'!" Kid Flash said while walking up to the pod-like thing that contained the young Superman. "The atomic symbol for Krypton."

Following Kid Flash, I brushed my hands past the glass surface of the tube, getting a better view of his face.

"Another. . .Kyrptonian?" I suggested, turning back around to Robin and Aqualad.

"Can't be," Robin stated. "Didn't Krypton get destroyed or something?"

"With Superman being the only survivor. . ." I finished. "Then what else can this. . . thing be?" I gestured towards the pod. "Alien? Human? Both?"

"Robin, hack," Aqualad instructed.

"R-right, right." Hacking into the computer, Robin read out the file. "Weapon designation Superboy. A clone force grown in. . ."

"Sixteen weeks?!" I exclaimed, having to step onto the tip of my toes to read over his shoulder "From DNA acquired from Superman."

"Stolen from Superman" Aqualad corrected once again.

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

"His solar suit allows him to absorb yellow sun radiation twenty-four seven."

"And these. . . creatures?" Aqualad pointed to the creatures, sitting above Superboy's head.

"Genomorph gnomes," I answered, remembering from one of my own files. "Telepathic. They're force-feeding him an education," I shuddered slightly. At least he didn't get homework.

"They're making a slave out of, well, Superman's. . .son." The speedster said.

"Now we contact the League," Aqualad implied, pressing onto the A of his belt. We all attempted to contact the League, but received nothing apart from static.

"No signal."

"We're in too deep," Kid Flash sighed. "Literally."

Looking over at Superboy, I realized how. . . how human he looked. Peaceful at rest. He didn't belong there, in a pod.

"Guys. . ." I said to the boys. "We can't leave him like this. . ." I clutched onto my arm, a habit of mine. Twisting the skin on my arm back and forth, almost like an Indian burn, I looked back at the clone, frowning slightly.

"This is wrong," Kid Flash added.

We all looked at Aqualad, awaiting his decision. "Set him free," he looked over at Robin. "Do it."

The pod opened, and a Superboy awoke. We waited anxiously for him to move. His eyes suddenly flew open, revealing blue irises. And those, were not the only things that flew. The next thing I knew, he came charging for Aqualad, wrestling him onto the ground and giving him multiple punches to the face.

"Don't!" I cried as the three of us ran over to try and stop him.

"Hang on Supey!"

"We're o-on your side!"

A solid fist collided with my face, sending me flying. Pain shot up my spine as my back slammed against a rock hard wall. Black spots shrouded my vision, before completely seizing it in darkness.

Sorry, it's another one of those OC Fanfics. Typical, typical :P

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