Deep underground, in a facility underneath Gothom, a small girl was fighting for her life. She kicked, punched, dodged, rolled, tricked, cut, and jabbed her way through the fight, taking down robots left and right. A right hook took out one, and almost in the same motion she ducked, bending down at the waist, kicked her left leg up backwards, and sent another one who had been leaping at her into the cold metal wall.

Her long black hair whipped around her face as she turned, getting caught on her long dark eye lashes and her mouth. She front kicked another robot the the second she finished her turn, raising a forearm to block a strike coming from her left at her head. She jumped over one, landing in a roll and coming smoothly back to her feet. Kick. Jab. Dodge. Punch. Roll. Turn. Kick. Jump. Punch. Punch. Block. Sidestep. Kick, block, turn, punch, combo.

Sweat dripped down her face, her white gloves had ripped over her knuckles from the constant punching and blocking of cold hard metal. Her breath was coming in faint pants by now, her heart was beating so much faster than normal, and a dull ache was building up right behind her eyes. She blinked sudden smoke out of her eyes, extending her enhanced hearing and smell, searching for the sound of metal on metal, the clinks of hinges and footsteps that she knew would be there. She could tell the smoke was pouring out of the walls. Another test added to the mix, this one unexpected but not altogether surprising to the small girl.

She tilted her head to the left, catching just a faint little sound that shouldn't be there... A fist came flying out of the thick gray smoke, going right towards her head. She spun out of the way, her elbow flashing out as she did, catching the attacking robot square in the chest, making it stumble and fall to the ground with a clash of metal, letting all the other machines know where she was. She reached down in seconds and punched it's chest a second time, making sure it was out of the game.

She ducked down, moving quickly through the smoke, covering her mouth and nose with the neck of her white long sleeved shirt. Her soft soled boots barely made a sound on the cold metal floor, and as she saw a darker outline of a robot against the smoke, she took it by surprise, jumping on it's back and reaching up under the front of it's neck to flip the on/off switch. The steel monstrosity fell to the ground, and she leapt off it, running quietly away from the now deactivated robot. She knew she still had four more or so to kill/disable, and only fifteen minutes left. She could not fail this test. Not again. They wouldn't tolerate any more mistakes. If she didn't beat this with time to spare, she would be deleted or worse, reprogrammed, and that was all there was to it.

She heard the Clomp! Clomp! of yet another robot's footsteps, and distantly, like an echo but slightly off time, another's. Multiple robots. Coming from the... Left. She half turned her head to her left, and looked out of the corner of her eye, but kept half her attention on her surroundings, not going to make the mistake of thinking because she heard them over there that there weren't others coming from somewhere else to surround her.

It seemed they had caught-not exactly sight of her, since they didn't really have eyes-but caught on to where she was. As the two robots came through the smoke towards her, she could see them clearly. They were big, at least seven feet tall, painted a bright white, with dark accents, though she couldn't tell what color in the dim lighting. They were vaguely human shaped, with two arms, legs, and a head, with a big barrel chest and wide clunky features. Their eyes were glowing red, helping her to spot them sometimes in the near-darkness, but they helped the robots more with their above-human sight.

She tried to dart around them to her left, but the one nearest her shot out an arm as she past, catching her across the chest and knocking her down. For a moment she lay there, trying to get her breath back, but then she swept her legs out in a scissor, knocking it down as she then came up into a handstand facing the second robot upside down.

This one raised it's arm, turning it into a laser gun in seconds, aiming for her but she pushed herself out of the handstand, through the air, to land on it's outstretched arm. Her eyes glowed a fierce ruby red for a second, and then laser beams shot out of them, making the head explode. She flipped off the arm at the last second, landing on her feet as the rest of the metal monster exploded.

The girl gasped as suddenly she was pulled to the floor, landing flat on her stomach and bashing her face on the way down. She turned her head as the last of the smoke cleared, and she saw the first robot had come back, but, unable to get to it's feet, it had grabbed her leg and pulled her to the ground. Her ankle was still locked in it's iron grip, and, mentally berating herself for being so sloppy and forgetful as to not finish it off, she turned her once again glowing eyes to the white metal hand. She had to strain her neck to see it, but one careful blast and her ankle was free.

She scrambled quickly to her feet, then shot another laser into the middle of it's back. Electricity sparked from it, but it's eyes darkened and she knew she had finished it off. Turning once more, she ran off into the smoke, but it wasn't as good a cover as before. The room was big, but not that big, and there were few places the robots could hide. Unfortunately, that meant there weren't many hiding places for her either.

The smoke was clearing, and she almost immediately knew why. Within seconds she had spotted the vents in the walls, sucking out the now almost non-existent smoke to put her off her game. The girl smirked, and with a leap she flew into the air, coming to hover against ceiling as she watched for the remaining robots.

She caught sight of three converging on a fallen one, and she sent a few quick shots from her eyes to kill them. She managed to destroy one, but she missed fatal shots on the other two, and they quickly found where she was shooting from. The robots couldn't fly, but they could jump, and one leapt up, managing to grab her ankle and pull her down towards the floor. She stopped trying to fly, going with the momentum, and she landed with a bang on the robot's face, making it cave in and short circuit.

The other one grabbed her from behind, but she brought her knee up to her chest, then shot it back and down to kick the front of it's kneecap, making it's leg collapse. It loosened it's grip as it fell, letting her jump out and turn to face it. She ran in close, and delivered a powerful front kick to it's chest, making the lights in it's eyes stutter and die. The last of the smoke cleared, leaving her amid piles of broken, beaten, and exploded robots in a huge room. The fans were still on and her long, wavy black hair swept to the right in a small breeze. The lights came back on, shining down on her pure white leggings, shirt and boots, but most of all illuminating the bright red S shield on her chest.

"~Project Superclone. Test-success. Supergirl ready for combat. Time limit: 20 minutes. Robots: 30. Time left: 3 minutes 24 seconds. Robots remaining: None.~" A deep, metallic voice rang out from the speakers around the room. The girl's face remained carefully blank as the computer announced how she did, but her blue eyes were dark and dead looking, as if she wasn't all there inside, or just not in control of her actions. Supergirl turned almost robotically to the wide door in the right wall, and she walked through, knowing next time, the robots would be people. And she wouldn't be able to show any more mercy to them than to the metallic monsters who kept her in her hell. As she got through the door a G-gnome leapt onto her shoulder, and any will left in her failed again, pushing her back into the mindset and control of Project Superclone.

Deep in Mount Justice, Superboy bolted awake from haunting dreams of robots and a black haired girl with a G-gnome on her shoulder.