Chapter 35

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Jeremiah Danvers couldn't believe that it had been 15 years since Project Cadmus had abducted him and forced him to become their unwilling associate. But everything he did, he did for his girls. To try and keep them safe from Cadmus. Though now that Kara had revealed herself to the world as Supergirl, he was now thinking that maybe it was time to start thinking about escaping. Especially since the project Cadmus had him working on was his best chance at doing it.

"What's the status of Project Red Sun?" Cadmus founder and director Lillian Luthor asked him as she approached him, accompanied by her right hand and second in command, the real Hank Henshaw, who Cadmus had forced Jeremiah to turn into what they called Cyborg Superman for some reason, even though Henshaw didn't even look anything like Superman, it was kind of a dumb name in his opinion.

"The growth cycle is nearly complete. She'll be around teenage years in a few days, at which point we can remove her from the pod and begin indoctrinating her like you did Project Kr." Jeremiah said.

"And you're certain we can't accelerate it to adulthood?" Henshaw asked as Jeremiah rolled his eyes at that.

"Lillian, can you please explain to your thug why this is the first super clone that's pure Kryptonian DNA?" Jeremiah asked as Henshaw glared at him, but Lillian raised her hand.

"Jeremiah is right. Kryptonian DNA has proven itself to be very difficult to replicate. We are lucky that we found a workaround for Project Kr. It wasn't until we brought Jeremiah and his expertise with alien biology that we were able to successfully create a stable kryptonian clone using only pure kryptonian DNA." Lillian said and Jeremiah nodded.

"And since you insisted on accelerated growth, that made the process even riskier. It took me a long time to find a way to keep the donor's DNA stable long enough to age her forward to her teen years. Push it any further and we risk losing her all together. Besides, she's around the ideal age to have her powers start developing and be able to use them in the field. Though the modifications I had to make mean that she won't be an exact duplicate of the donor. Sorry about that." Jeremiah said.

"I'll take whatever kind of victory you can provide us with. What about programming?" Lillian asked.

"You know we can't start that process until after the growth cycle is complete, since her mind is still developing." Jeremiah said and Lillian nodded.

"But you are prepared to begin the process once the growth cycle is complete?" Lillian asked.

"Once I'm sure that there weren't any unexpected side effects, yes." Jeremiah said and Lillian nodded.

"Good. I'll leave you to it." Lillian said as she and Henshaw left Jeremiah alone as he looked over at the pod and turned on the light in it, revealing a fully grown teenage girl, who looked very similar to how Kara had looked at that age and wearing a pure white version of the Supergirl suit, with a bright red S on her chest and no cape.

"I can't put them off for much longer. It's only a matter of time until they realize that you've been ready for the mental programming procedure for weeks, but I've been stalling to protect you. I was hoping I'd have more time before doing this, but I think that time has officially run out and my other girls are all grown up and they can protect themselves now and I won't let Cadmus turn you into another one of their living weapons. I couldn't save Project Kr, but I can save you. Time to power up. Powergirl." Jeremiah said as he activated the yellow sun emitters built into her pod to start charging her up

"I feel different." were the first words Powergirl said as she felt power coursing through her.

"Your kryptonian cells are being charged with a concentrated form of Earth's yellow sun energy. Once you've powered up enough, we're getting out of here." Jeremiah said.

"Leaving?" Powergirl asked.

"It's not safe here anymore, though it really never was, but now you're ready." Jeremiah said, though he could tell that the clone was a little scared.

"Don't worry, I promise, everything will be okay. Once we get out of here, I'll help you find people like you who can help you learn to become the best you can be. A place where you'll have the one thing Cadmus can't give you. Family." Jeremiah promised.

"Family." Powergirl said, like it was a foreign concept, which to her, it was.

"Yes, family." Jeremiah said as he moved open her pod, only to hear the sounds of gun safeties being removed and he turned to see Lillian standing there with Cadmus security.

"I was wondering when you'd stop stringing us along and try to escape. But you've overplayed your hand and we don't really need you anymore." Lillian said.

"Go ahead, the world already thinks I'm dead, might as well make it official." Jeremiah said.

"Gladly." Lillian said.

"No." Powergirl shouted as she jumped out of her pod and stood in front of Jeremiah, who she'd already come to view as her father.

"You powered her up." Lillian said.

"She's not at full power yet, but I think she should have enough to get us out of here and deal with your thugs. Powergirl, time to go." Jeremiah said and the clone nodded as her eyes glowed red as she used her heat vision to blast the guns the guards were holding, forcing them to drop them before she used her super speed and super strength to punch a hole through a wall in the lab that led straight outside and she couldn't help but smile as she paused to take a breath and smell the fresh air for the first time in her life before Jeremiah rushed up to her and placed his arms around her neck.

"Freedom?" Powergirl asked.

"Yes, Freedom. Let's go." Jeremiah said and Powergirl nodded as she took flight for the first time in her life, acting on instinct, since Jeremiah had programmed the basics of her powers into her mind, so she at least knew how to fly, even if she wasn't very good at it yet.

"What should we do?" Henshaw asked Lillian.

"Jeremiah will no doubt return to his family, alerting both Superman and Supergirl to our operations. Our only option for now is to burn this site, relocate and start from scratch. We need to make sure project Kr is secure, though it is a good thing that we have it stored at a different location that Jeremiah did not know, since right now it's our only viable weapon with Red Sun now under the control of our enemies." Lillian said.

"I'll begin making preparations at once." Henshaw said.

"Good. Waste no time. Make sure that nothing of importance is left behind." Lillian said and Henshaw nodded.

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