Hatred Never Looked This Good (Young Justice) [1/3]

12 | Strategem

A detour to your new life.
Tell all of your friends goodbye.
It's too late to change your mind,
You let loss be your guide.

Cadmus
Jul 24, 13:47

Hidden. Training. Biding. Festering.

Cadmus was my new home. My prison. Complete with a strict regimen of early wake ups, nutritionist approved meals, strength and power training, psych evaluations and the poking and the prodding of nurses and doctors. All were implemented the day I woke up to Lex Luthor's face and was informed of the betrayal of my hero family.

The only contact I had with anyone were the medical team and Luthor. I understood my purpose to these people and to him. I was a weapon.

"That's enough for today." The voice over the battle room's intercom crackled as I flew down to the starting point of my personal obstacle course. "Our equipment measured your output as lethal."

"Good," I said panting and reaching for a water bottle. The water sizzled on my tongue making steam come out of my nose. I chuckled at the little amount of entertainment I could get in this boring dump. While having new powers was amazing, Cadmus grew boring--and lonely--quick.

A door opened and a team of nurses and a doctor came in to check my levels. Luthor followed and watched as they poked and prodded. I sighed to myself. I still didn't trust him as far as I could throw him. Well, I guess that wasn't true anymore as I could throw him a pretty good distance now but the thought still counted. Despite my frightening appearance, I was still Jet Starling in my mind and Regina Hayden in my heart. And he was still Lex Luthor.

"You are quite extraordinary, Darling," he said as he touched a torched dummy.

"Don't call me 'Darling', Luthor." I opened my mouth for the nurse to check inside as I rolled my eyes.

"Lex." His smile was infuriating. I swatted the nurses apparatus out of my mouth.

"No." I glared at Luthor but he only nodded, dismissing the team from the room.

"I believe you are almost ready."

"Almost?" The veins under my translucent skin glowed a bright red. My arms raised to show off the fresh damage on the course. "I am strong enough to be hit by a train, I can willingly raise my temperature high enough to melt tungsten, and I can accurately shoot a fireball within a hundred yards. I am capable of anything."

"Are you?" His face was serious, daring me to prove him wrong. My skin began to get hotter as my anger got the better of me. It seemed to be a reoccurring side effect of the powers. "Come with me."

Luthor briskly walked out of the room and I flew to catch up with him. We made our way down the corridors of the secretly-still-running Cadmus. Genomorphs walked by and I waved lightly at a few of the small ones as they guided their workers to their destination. They pulsated their red lights to mimic my red glow as our way of saying hello.

"Darling," Luthor called out to me as I handed a snack to one of the morphs. He had stopped and was waiting at a large door. There were so many rooms in Cadmus--I had only snuck into a handful of unsatisfyingly empty ones--that I was curious to finally go into one that was more than a supply closet.

The door opened and a rush of cold air flooded out. Curiousity got the better of me and I walked in before Luthor. The motion lights kicked on, revealing a lone tube. My face fell and my breath caught in my chest. In a tube stood Connor.

"It's a clone," I said out loud, trying to calm myself.

"Yes." Luthor walked up to the tube and looked up at the boy proudly. "A miracle of science." He placed his hand on the glass. I gritted my teeth reactively as I had trouble seeing this clone any different from Connor.