Meanwhile, Wally and Robin, who had disappeared from the Hall of Justice, arrived at the Cadmus laboratory. From the outside, it was just a three-story low-rise building where a fire had broken out, but the situation was not very serious, and firefighters had already brought the blaze under control.
“It seems all of Cadmus’s secrets are inside. I can’t wait, I’m going ahead.” Kid Flash was very excited at this moment. Wally then pulled down his goggles, and red and yellow lightning flickered around him. In an instant, he disappeared from his spot. Kaldur’ahm hadn’t had time to say anything before Wally was gone. He frowned and said, “We need a plan, Robin, Robin?” He turned his head, but Robin’s shadow was nowhere to be seen. He had vanished without a trace. Kaldur’ahm rubbed his temples, sighed, and had no choice but to follow.
Inside the Cadmus laboratory building, Robin was trying to hack into the network to find anything useful. “Hey, Robin, I’ve searched this building from top to bottom, and there’s nothing suspicious. I think it might just be a very normal laboratory.” Wally was also poking around at a computer like Robin, extremely bored. For a speedster, everything seemed incredibly slow in their eyes.
“Hey, you guys, come here quickly, look what I found.” In front of Robin was information related to the Cadmus building’s elevator.
“Why would a three-story building have a high-speed elevator? That in itself is illogical. It’s highly likely there’s something unknown hidden underground.” Kaldur’ahm analyzed the data. Suddenly, he seemed to hear something and rushed straight to the elevator shaft. He saw a gray-skinned wack wearing a white, single-sided lab coat with two long horns on its head appear in the elevator. The elevator doors quickly closed, preventing Kaldur’ahm from stopping it. Kid Flash and Robin quickly followed and asked, “What happened?”
“If I’m not mistaken, a gray-skinned, long-horned wack just took the elevator and ran off. It should be as we expected; there must be a biological laboratory or something similar underground, or perhaps an alien-built underground base.” Kaldur’ahm said as he walked to the elevator shaft and forcefully opened the elevator doors with both hands. Inside was a bottomless elevator shaft. Clearly, Cadmus’s true laboratory was still below.
“Alright, let me see how deep this place is,” Robin said, pulling out his grappling gun and securing it to the top of the elevator shaft, then leaping down. The other two followed, sliding down on their grappling hooks. As the grappling gun’s rope continued to unspool, Robin and the others kept descending. Finally, the grappling gun reached its limit. At the thirty-second floor, with a bang, the elevator door was kicked open by Kaldur’ahm, and the three of them entered Cadmus’s true underground laboratory from the elevator shaft.
Meanwhile, in a laboratory filled with numerous test tubes and reagents, Dr. Desmond, the head of the Cadmus underground laboratory, was making the final adjustments for Project Titan. Suddenly, Guardian walked in: “Doctor, Project Kr’s weapon has broken out of its containment pod, and three intruders have entered the thirty-second underground floor.”
“What? How could Project Kr’s weapon malfunction? Aren’t our Gene Golems mentally controlling him?” Desmond was very agitated upon hearing that Project Kr had issues. “Project Kr cannot fail. You take the mutated goblins and bring that weapon back to its cradle. I’ll go give a proper welcome to the three intruders. It’s a good opportunity to test my Project Titan. Alright, go quickly, and remember to bring your communication goblin.”
A small, rat-like goblin jumped onto Guardian’s shoulder, with two scarlet little horns on its head. The two small horns flickered continuously, and Guardian’s eyes gradually became more hollow and mechanical. He then replied, “Yes, Doctor,” and walked away without looking back.
Robin’s side, thirty-second underground floor.
With a click, a large door opened, revealing a massive laboratory filled with various experimental subjects. “Oh my goodness, they’re actually creating biological weapons.” Kid Flash was very curious, touching and looking around. “Be careful, Wally, these things look very much like the Trench creatures of Atlantis. The current situation should be reported to the Justice League.” Kaldur’ahm picked up his communicator. “Aqualad calling Justice League, Aqualad calling Justice League,” but there was no response from the other end of the communicator.
“Forget it, Kaldur’ahm, it’s too deep here; we can’t make contact.” As he spoke, he had already connected his personal terminal to the laboratory’s central control. “Wow, wow, wow, look at this data! These things in the large test tubes are called Gene Golems. They possess Super Strength, Telepathy, and Razor Talons. They are all living weapons!”
At this moment, Kid Flash also looked serious. “They’re building an army, but for whom?”
“Project Kr? What is that?” Kaldur’ahm asked.
“I’m working on it; they triple-encrypted this file… uh… okay.” After some effort, Robin decrypted the encrypted file. “Weapon name: Superboy, a Clone. Genetic samples taken from Superman. A white solar suit allows him to absorb yellow sun radiation energy at all times and uses Gene Golems to instill knowledge and control him. Primary objective: Kill and replace Superman.”
“Oh my god, I bet Superman doesn’t know about this. They’re stealing Superman’s genes to create… uh… Superman’s son?” Wally said in astonishment.
Kaldur’ahm gravely told his two companions, “We must report this matter to the Justice League. Additionally, we must rescue Superboy. We cannot allow Cadmus to use him as a weapon.”
“Heh heh heh, Kaldur'ahm, he’s a weapon created by Cadmus. Who knows if he still retains his self-awareness.” Robin frowned and retorted, “His abilities are from Superman. This isn’t something we can handle. We should find an opportunity to report to the Justice League now.”
“Everyone, I think we can discuss this later, because we’re about to have trouble,” Kid Flash reminded his two companions.
On the other side of the laboratory, the door opened, and two Gene Golems and Desmond walked in.
“Three rats broke into my lab. Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash? Why are you here? Did the Justice League send you to investigate? This is illegal intrusion! Perhaps we should talk to the Justice League about your illegal intrusion.” Desmond stared at the three with sinister eyes.
“Do you think the Justice League would approve of you cultivating weapons?” Kid Flash said as he crouched down, then surged with lightning and shot out like a bullet.
“Don’t be impulsive, Wally, damn it! Is he always this reckless?” Kaldur'ahm was helpless about this and immediately drew his weapon and charged out. Robin instantly took a smoke bomb from his utility belt and threw it on the ground, and thick smoke spread throughout the laboratory.
Kid Flash, with his super speed, constantly harassed the two Gene Golems, who were helpless against him. As the smoke filled the entire laboratory, the Gene Golems' vision was completely obscured, and they could only roar continuously. Suddenly, Kaldur'ahm leaped out of the smoke, holding a huge flowing water hammer in both hands. The hammer drew a beautiful semicircle in the air and heavily struck one of the Gene Golems. That Golem was smashed into the air and then fell heavily, instantly losing its life.
The other Golem just reacted and was about to attack Kaldur'ahm when a voice suddenly came from behind: “Hey, big guy, look over there?” Robin’s agile figure made him difficult for the Golem to catch. Robin continuously attached explosives to the Golem. He then quickly flew away using a grappling gun. Then he pressed the button, and the explosives caused a violent explosion, making the Golem let out a wail. Immediately after, Kid Flash accelerated and slammed the Golem into the wall. The three cooperated and quickly dealt with the two Gene Golems.
“I admit, as the heroes’ sidekicks, you guys do have some skill, but Project Titan will give me the power to rebuild Cadmus’s order, no longer suppressed by those bastards in the Illuminati. Let’s start with you guys.” With that, he took out a bottle of blue potion and poured it into his mouth.
“Wally, stop him from drinking that potion!” Kaldur'ahm shouted, but before he could finish, Wally had already rushed out like the wind, but he was still a step too late. Desmond had already drunk all the potion. Wally punched Desmond to the ground, and he stopped moving. “See? His plan didn’t succeed.” Wally turned to his companions, showing off.
“Run, Wally!” Robin suddenly shouted. Desmond’s body twisted and gradually swelled, his shirt tearing as his body expanded. His skin became larger and rougher, gradually turning blue with red cracks, and his eyes turned red, emitting a chilling aura. He then let out a beast-like roar, directly sending the unsuspecting Kid Flash flying.
Kaldur'ahm helped up the flung Wally: “I feel like I got hit by a car. His strength is astonishing, you guys need to be careful.”
A tense atmosphere gradually spread. The mutated Desmond seemed to have lost his sanity; he was extremely agitated. Suddenly, with a loud bang, the nearby door was punched open, and a teenager who looked very similar to Superman, wearing a white uniform with a large ‘S’ on his chest, appeared before everyone. He gave a wry smile: “(⊙﹏⊙) Do you believe me if I say I didn’t mean to break in?”
Li Ang met the three young Super Heroes. Looking at the three very familiar figures—Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad—Li Ang also had a rough guess.
They were the sidekicks of Justice League members, here to investigate this hellhole, but this place was too deep and had trapped them. Perhaps this was a good opportunity to get in touch with the Justice League. As a Superman Clone himself, if he wasn’t protected by the Justice League, wouldn’t he be in big trouble if too many people coveted his power?
Besides, from the looks of it, he had most likely transmigrated. It was a rare chance to become a Super Hero, and he was quite tempted. However, becoming a villain or opposing the Justice League was an option he never even considered. In his previous life, he had heard that in the DC Universe, without the gods, Superman’s combat power was still very impressive, and a large part of the reason why villains were so rampant was because Superman was too kind. And there was also Batman, the ultimate super-brain and peak human combatant, so it was better not to be an enemy of the Justice League.
At this moment, Kaldur'ahm reacted. The person in front of him was likely Superboy, mentioned in Project Kr. But why was he here? Shouldn’t he be in a cultivation pod in the laboratory right now? After exchanging glances with his two companions, Kaldur'ahm was the first to greet him: “Hello, Superboy, I’m Aqualad, he’s Robin, and that one is Kid Flash. We’re here to rescue you. We were planning to go to the 52nd floor to release you. I believe your goal is to escape, and we can help you leave together.”
“Alright, it seems you guys are in trouble. Let’s deal with the trouble first, then we can talk.” Li Ang’s gaze on Desmond gradually sharpened.