The Awakening of Project H2O

PROJECT CADMUS

July 4, 15:01 EDT

Advanced martial art techniques were being sent in images that flickered through a girl's mind. Her eyes closed and her body chilled into a comatose state. She didn't object to such things, she didn't speak...she knew how, she just couldn't. There was no need to.

Suddenly it felt warm - where was the constant flow of chilled air she'd grown accustomed to? There was something else too. Her ears...they were ringing slightly and there were noises, but they were muffled. Others? She squeezed her eyes together trying to see who the noises belonged to and the voices began to grow clearer.

"Maybe it wasn't wise to release her." One said, it was slightly nervous with anxiety; distrust as far as she could tell from his tone.

Another came, this time sounding younger with a bit of a raspy – no, a husky-like tinged - voice. "H2O, KF, think that means water. And Project? That doesn't sound like anything that should describe someone, not unless it means experiments. We can't just leave her here."

Her eyes began to flutter open slightly squinting at the light, even though it was dim. The voices that sounded distinctly male were still arguing and she made out three dim shapes in front of her.

"Silence, both of you. I believe she is waking up." This new voice was deeper, but calm, so that reassured her slightly.

Her eyes opened entirely and she took in the shapes in front of her before her gaze roamed around her environment. She stood up and wobbled a little but jerked up straight when a dark skinned boy tried to help her. Her eyes were narrowed and suspicious of them. Though curiosity overtook her at the site of the dark-skinned one having gills and...webbed hands? He was attired in spandex like uniform like his two companions, who looked younger. A red shirt with black designs, navy-blue pants, a black belt with the Atlantean symbol in gold - wait a minute. She paused in her thoughts, how did she recognize the Atlantean symbol? Her mind soon wandered again and she noticed he wasn't wearing shoes, like her. He had pale blonde hair shaved down to the scalp and silvery eyes. The boy next to him was wearing a bright yellow and red suit with a red lightning bolt on his chest, with red goggles on his head. A patch of red hair exposed at the top which brought out his green eyes. The shortest and most likely the youngest of the trio, was a boy with a domino mask covering his eyes, complete with raven hair almost coming down to his eyebrows. His attire was dark spandex with dark red and some yellow; he had a cape flowing behind him that was black on the outside and yellow on the inside. An 'R' was on the right side of his chest.

"Hey, lady are you alright?"

She blinked a few times as she was brought out of her evaluation of their appearance. "W-What?"

"Are you okay?" The boy in yellow and red repeated. "You kind of just black out on us."

"I am fine. Who're you?" She asks. She pauses and speaks again not surprised by the sudden confidence and demanding tone that escapes her. "Scratch that, better question. Who am I?"

The boys looked slightly surprised and the boy with gills spoke, "We were hoping you would be able to tell us."

"The only thing we know about you is that you're referred to as Project H2O." Says the shorter boy. "It mentioned Atlantean but I won't know for sure until I have more time to hack past the triple encryption." She blinked again a bit appalled as to what he was talking about. The words she understood perfectly fine, but she just didn't understand what complexities he was referring to. He began typing away on the holographic wrist computer that had appeared from his glove. He pulled up another screen and numbers just went all over the screen and moved vertically as he seemed to type quickly. "Wait, there's something else." He types a little more before studying the numbers. "Project Kr..." He pauses waiting for more before letting out a frustrated sound, "Files triple encrypted. I can't-"

The door opened from the other side of the room and animalistic snarls and growls arrived with it. "Don't move!" shouted a voice. Gray creatures with slim and strong figures - like the ones in pods she had just noticed - had red markings and red eyes, with tails. They halted a few feet from them and a man in dark blue and golden attire arrived with a smaller creature hunched over on his shoulder. He looked a bit surprised, "Wait...Robin? Aqualad? Kid Flash?"

Robin glanced over his shoulder and shared a glance with Kid Flash smirking a little, "'Least he got your name right."

The girl studies the boys out of the corner of her eye. If he's Robin and he's Kid Flash, then that must mean, the other one is Aqualad. She thinks to herself before Aqualad' words draw her out of her thoughts.

"I know you. Guardian. A hero."

The man that Aqualad referred to as Guardian straightened up a little, "I do my best." He says in a modest tone, no longer hostile.

"Then what are you doing here?" demanded Kid Flash.

"I'm chief of security." He places his hands on his hips, "You're trespassing. But we can call the Justice League; 'figure this out." He says calmly.

Kid Flash replied in disbelief, "You think the League is going to approve of you breeding weapons?"

"Weapons?" Guardian sounded confused, "What are you-" He doesn't finish his question. She notices the creature on his shoulder looks at him and its horns grow red. "What have I-" He groans softly and puts a hand to his helmet, "My head..." His eyes close before opening again and he seems hostile again. He points a finger in their direction, "Take 'em down hard!" He commands the creatures. They rush forward charging them, "No mercy!"

Robin jumps in front of them and throws down a ball which immediately emits a cloud of thick smoke. A line shot from it as he grabbed the girl's wrist and she gasped as they flew up to the pillar his grappling gun had caught. She followed the boy hopping over the pillars as he did with much agility and speed. She had glanced over her shoulder and caught a glimpse of Kid Flash summersaulting into several of the creatures and noticed Aqualad fighting the creatures and then Guardian. She followed Robin down the hall until he stopped at a door. An alarm was going off and she looked up seeing a red light flashing. She turned to see Kid Flash and Aqualad running over. Kid Flash reached them first, "Way to be a team player Rob!" he says with sarcasm. "She's a newbie so she has an excuse for not fighting." She narrowed her eyes at that before they widened at the sight of the creatures running behind Aqualad.

"Weren't you right behind me?" Robin asked as he looked up while continuing to type away on his holo-computer, to hack the door open. It turned green and the elevator opened. They rushed in and turned to see Aqualad sprinting over before doing a summersault and spinning around just in time to see the door close to stop the creatures. He watched the numbers on the elevator but like her, he felt confusion as they decreased.

"We're headed down?"

"Dude! Out is up," Kid Flash adds pointing up with his finger.

"Excuse me, Project Kr," He says raising an eyebrow while he used a slight tone to help KF remember, "It's down, on sub-level 52."

The girl observes the teammates conversation before Aqualad brushes pass them both with a hand on his neck looking overwhelmed. "This is out of control." He stops in the corner of the elevator near her and sighs glancing at her and then back at the wall, "Perhaps..." He pauses before turning to face his teammates again, "Perhaps we should contact the League."

The elevator reached level 52 and opened and the trio immediately stood in defensive stances. "Are you guys going up or will you keep going?" She asks a challenge in her tone.

Robin ran out after that and Kid Flash looked at Aqualad. "We are already here." He says before running after Robin. The girl glances at him, "Come on Mr. Fearless let's go." She turns and sprints after them, leaving Aqualad to heave and exasperated sigh, before he follows in suit.

It takes a couple of minutes before they stop crouching down for cover after noticing two different paths. When Aqualad reached them he sounded annoyed with having to continue, "Which way?"

"Yeah," Robin says in agreement, "Bizarre-looking hallway 1 or bizarre-looking hallway 2?"

A voice sounded from one of the paths. "Halt!" He looked human except for the same gray complexion as the creature, red eyes, and larger horns. He raised a hand and levitated two cans towards them and they hit the wall causing an explosion. Robin retaliated and threw a bird-a-rang which the creature stopped with his mind, before raising two other explosive cans. The girl was already sprinting down the opposite pathway and the others soon followed. Another explosion behind them sounded, "Bizarre-looking hallway 2 it is!" She calls over her shoulder.

They run down the corridor until they approach a door which opened and a doctor emerged writing something down before looking up at the sight of Kid Flash speeding her way. He tried to skid to a stop but slid instead and knocked her off her feet. He rolled over and saw his teammates and the girl running to reach him; guardian and the creatures not far behind. He glanced behind him to see the door closing and thought quickly grabbing a canister and placing in between the doors to slow the closing. "Hurry!" He calls waving a hand. They all jump through the hole and Aqualad soon follows quickly after the girl is in and kicks the canister, causing the door to close. Robin hacked it closed and glanced up from his holo-computer.

"I disabled the door, we're safe." He informed Aqualad.

"We're trapped." Was his reply.

"Uhh guys?" Kid Flash was standing in front of a panel, which was a couple of feet in front of a tube that held a boy. Three of the smaller creatures - like the one that had been on Guardian's shoulder - were inside in little glass domes above the boy's head. "You'll wanna see this." He presses a button and they walk over to get a closer look. When the lights come on their eyes widen.

"Woah." Is all that escapes from Robin's mouth.

The boy inside was wearing the same white one piece that she was, except hers had the Atlantis symbol mixed with a Greek symbol while he had Superman's S shield. And she was barefoot where as it looked like his ran all the way down and molded to his feet in a shoe like resemblance.

Kid Flash walked around the panel to get a closer look and looked at the atomic symbol. "Big 'K', little 'r'. The atomic symbol for Krypton!" He says in shocked realization. He turns and faces them, "Clone?"

Aqualad looks to Robin, "Robin. Hack."

The boy snaps out of his trance of shock and nods, "Right, right." He pulls up his holo computer, after putting a usb from his glove into the computer on the panel. He read what he found, "Weapon designation: Superboy. A clone forced-grown in...16 weeks?!" He exclaims in disbelief. "From DNA acquired from Superman!"

"Stolen from Superman." Corrected Aqualad.

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

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

Aqualad looks to the screen, "And these...creatures?" He asks pointing to the ones above his head.

"Genomorph gnomes. Telepathic. Force feeding him an education."

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

The girl was looking at Superboy from across the room, but turned at Kid Flash's words.

Aqualad looked like he had made up his mind, "Now we contact the league." He presses the Atlantis symbol on his belt. It glows a light pale white-blue. She watches as Robin examines another file, while Kid Flash tries his comm.

He looks at her, "You're here to too." She blinks and walks over a little as he continues. "Says here you are known as Project H2O: Ephyra. You were force-grown as well, in 15 weeks." He reads, the others partly listening, "You're a clone too. With DNA acquired from Aquaman." He says looking up. "You're Atlantian which would explain the symbol. Thought the Greek one doesn't make sense…and you don't look like Aquaman." She looked a little a shocked before shaking her head.

"That's impossible! How am I Atlantean when I don't have gills or webbed hands or feet?!" She objects.

"I don't know, but this doesn't lie. And there's something-" Robin doesn't finish as he notices his friends had stopped trying their devices. He sighed and checked his computer, "No signal."

"We're in too deep." Kid Flash said worriedly before glancing up at the rocky ceiling and then back at them, "Literally."

Ephyra noticed that they were silent and thinking, but she seemed to be the only one to notice the horns glow red. "Um guys?"

Kid Flash turned to look at the pod, "This is wrong."

"We can't leave him like this." Robin agrees.

Aqualad had a hand to his chin in though, no one having noticed what she had. "Set him free." He looked at Robin, "Do it."

Robin pulled up his holo computer and type down a few things and then the pod opens. Steam coming off of it as it rose above and Superboy lie still against the metal upright table.

"You shouldn't have done-" She stops as she notices Superboy's hand stretch before clenching to a fist with a crack. Aqualad narrowed his eyes. His eyes suddenly opened and Ephyra resisted the urge to jump. Without warning, Superboy leapt from his pod and rammed into Aqualad. They were on the ground a few feet away and he started punching Aqualad. Kid Flash and Robin ran over to help. Kid Flash grabbed an arm.

"Woah! Hang on Supey!" He yells.

"We're just trying to help!" Robin adds. "We're on...you're side!" He says grunting with the effort to keep his hands over his eyes and a grip on his head.

Right as he finishes Superboy had yanked his arm free and gripped the front of Kid Flash's shirt before tossing him over into a glass tube, which shattered, and left him on the ground unconscious.

"I don't want to do this!" Robin yelled, arming a ring and shoving it near his mouth. It went off and gas emitted causing Superboy to grip his throat and breathe a little raggedly for a moment, leaving him off balance. Aqualad strikes out with his foot knocking Superboy back into the panel, breaking it. Superboy coughed, and Robin shot his taser as he got up. Electricity just bounced right off the boy of steel's skin and he gripped the lines before yanking Robin to him. He caught Robin by the throat as he came sailing through the air towards him, and then threw him to the ground. His foot landed hard on Robin's chest and Robin grunted his hands trying to relieve his chest of the bone crushing pressure.

Aqualad got to his feet noticing this and leapt forward swinging his hammer he'd formed with his water bearers and taking a huge swing, "ENOUGH!" He bellowed. It met Superboy's chest and sent him flying into the table he had been propped up on, leaving a dent. Ephyra watched as Aqualad tried helping Robin up, who groaned before falling over onto his back and blacking out. Aqualad took a step back as Superboy walked forward.

"We're trying to help you." He tries reasoning, but Superboy shoots forward and slams his fist down on concrete, since Aqualad had moved aside. He then rammed into Superboy taking him into the rock wall. They threw a few punches but Superboy overpowered him. He tried shocking the boy of steel and it worked, but not until Superboy super-jumped and rammed his back into the ceiling, crushing Aqualad. He jumped a second time and Aqualad lost his grip before falling flat on the ground unconscious.

Superboy yanked open the door after he was sure they were down completely ignoring Ephyra, while she ran over and crouched beside Aqualad. "Come on! You have to get up!" She looked up to see Dr. Desmond walk in and smile satisfied at his work.

"Atta boy." He says before his eyes rest on Ephyra. "Subdue her. She will be put back in the pod as soon as we get them ready for podding." Superboy turns and walks to her and she stays still before darting towards him. She fakes to the right, before back tracking and goes to the left swiping his feet out from under him. She yells out in a battle cry as she pounces on him and punches his face with inhumane strength, which she didn't know she possessed. It didn't do much good because he knocked her off and then tackled her before ramming her into a wall hard. He pulls away and she lies unconscious in a pile of rubble.

"Well done." said Desmond. "Take her to the podding room with her friends." He turns and leaves.