Chapter Thirty-Three

For several moments longer, no one reacted to Terry's odd introduction. Then, Robin shouted, "Dude! Where the in the hell have you been?!"

Smirking slightly, Terry decidedly didn't answer what was probably a rhetorical question... at least, he was going to treat it as such. With a twitch of his hands, the electric-disrupters he carefully placed on the teen's bindings flared, and the equipment that was used for genetic gathering was dislodged from their collective chests and shorted out as it fell.

Instantly, Kara began to fall out of her pod but Terry was close enough to catch her before she hit the floor. The sight of Kara having additional wounds since their unconventional arrival brought a wave of hot anger Terry had rarely ever felt. But before he could react, Desmond's words cut through the silence.

"BATMAN! You… you'll never be able to get out of here!" Desmond yelled, "I'll have you back in pods before morning."

Everything inside of Terry was telling him to shut the Doctor up with maximum force, but with Kara still unconscious in his arms, he decided against it for the moment. Soon Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqua-lad were leaving the doorway and Terry quickly followed behind them.

Ahead of him, he heard Robin bantering with the red-headed boy, "That guy is not whelmed…" Suddenly three round disks whip past Terry into the room they had just left behind and as a faint beeping sound began, Robin speaks again, "Not whelmed at all."

"What is with you and this 'whelmed' thing?" Kid Flash asked the question that Terry had just been wondering.

Suddenly an explosion rocked the floor beneath their feet. Terry knew the genetic material was now absolutely toasted, which was a good thing in his opinion. As soon as the teens were far enough away, they slowed down to attempt to plan their escape more thoroughly.

"We are still 42 levels below ground." Aqualad stated, barely winded from a full-tilt sprint. "but if we can take the elevator…" he trailed off when a few G-trolls blocked their way going forward. Soon two more appeared behind the first further away, then steadily the number began to grow as the creatures got closer to them. As they looked back the way they came it began to dawn on them that they were now trapped between the two groups.

Making a decision, Terry handed Kara's limp form over to Aqualad. Looking into Kaldur'ahm's pale green orbs he was reminded of the fact that this young man wasn't quite human. But Terry knew that Kaldur'ahm's personality was a naturally calm one and was level-headed. From what the Bat computer had on his personality, Aqualad was always thinking things through in a clear consistent manner and put others first even before his own life. A natural leader and would soon become a big brother figure to most of the Young Justice team. Therefore, out of all of the teens, he had met thus far, trusting Aqualad was a safe bet.

He would have trusted Robin in a normal situation, but this version of Robin wasn't as well rounded as his future counterpart.

"Take care of her… I'll buy you guys some time." Terry stated with determination in his voice and ferociousness in his stance.

With a nod, Kaldur'ahm carefully shifted Kara over his shoulder and began to step away from him. Terry could tell that the Atlantean didn't quite trust him, yet, he couldn't blame him for his lack of confidence. They hadn't known each other for more than a few minutes when Terry was conveniently missing. He was sure he lost points when that happened, but the fact that he took Kara with no questions asked was a boon to Terry.

Superboy's gaze locked on Terry levelly and stated, "I'll back you up…" But before he could finish his sentence, Terry interrupted him.

"No, I am enough of a distraction here. They will need your strength to make a path in the front. Now go!" Terry met their eyes confidently enough for them to understand he wasn't bluffing or being self-sacrificing.

But if anyone had any doubts they weren't expressed before a massive G-troll lashed at them from behind. As if it was previously agreed upon, all four jumped away to avoid the crushing blow. Aqualad quickly moved to the right bypassing the strike, while Kid Flash and Robin went to the left. Superboy simply glared at the tusked creature and jumped towards the G-troll, landing a cross jab on the thing's jaw. Managing to knock it down, Superboy roared at the surrounding enemies in defiance, but he was soon surrounded by three more giant creatures and was pinned to the ground with a grotesque paw.

Acting quickly, Terry shot out a couple of bolas entangling two of the massive creatures' feet, leaving Superboy free enough to send the last G-troll spiraling down the corridor into another group of marching Genomorphs in front of them.

Impressed by the display of strength, Terry gave a nod to the young man. Understanding each other, Superboy joined the young heroes and batted away a few G-Trolls that hadn't been brought down by his earlier actions.

Soon the four had turned a corner and disappeared from Terry's sight. In Terry's mind, he had just been a part of a battle that seemed impossible, yet he had come through somehow mostly unscathed. Now, he was facing down an army of creatures that seemed very daunting… but somehow, he felt more alive than he had ever felt in his life.

Something had definitely changed within him since he last remembered. Maybe it was his lack of exhaustion from a prolonged battle with people more skilled than he was or maybe it was something else entirely. But he felt confident that this wasn't his last fight on this earth. Soon any thought other than how to avoid the next strike or how to incapacitate his next opponent flew away.

Terry realized something as he continued to battle, his new strength wasn't the only thing that had improved, his skill level had climbed to a new level as well. He still hadn't gotten to a level where he could easily take on Diana but he could, at the very least, hold her back a lot longer than he would have previously.

After fifteen minutes the Genomorph hoard had thinned, Terry wasn't sure if it was because this amount was all they had available. (In which case, escaping would be easy.) But if the telepathic link advised the others to bypass this area altogether it meant the four teens we're now in trouble.

Either way, Terry needed to meet the others quickly. He trusted them out of necessity, but he wasn't willing to leave an unconscious girl with total strangers too much longer either. Besides the fact he was sure there was something between them, she also held knowledge of what brought them here and maybe a way to get back.

Quickly making his way to the elevator, Terry pried the doors open relatively easily and engaged his rocket boots as he stepped out into the vacant shaft. As he shot up several floors attempting to lessen the gap between the team of young heroes, he began to have flashes of memories about… Learning to fly?!

There wasn't anything tangible that Terry could latch onto, but the knowledge seemed to appear as it had always been available. Giving the mental command to disengage the rockets in his shoes he flawlessly commanded the air around him to shoot him further through the shaft at a much faster pace than he had been going before.

Smiling for the first time since he arrived, he reveled in the fact he seemed to have control of his ability. (Which he had lacked for the last few months in his memory.) That is until he slammed headfirst into a stalled elevator cart. Denting the metal and causing the locks to engage and causing sending sparks through the dim shaft.

"That… was… embarrassing," Terry grunted out as he rubbed his newest injury on his head. The world only spun for a few seconds before he was able to regain his barring's once again. Evidently, his new abilities came with a good amount of durability. Which was very shway, but he just wished that he hadn't had to find it out the hard way.

'Although it beats finding out by having a truck dropped on you.' Terry thought bitterly.

He had begun to question where that random thought had come from until he suddenly had another flash of memory. This one was of a actual truck being dropped on top of him in what appeared to be a large wrecking yard. But as soon as the memory came into focus it seemed to be ripped away as if it had never been there in the first place.

'Great,' He thought again, "Now I get to experience all my firsts' over again.'

Shaking his head to regain his focus, Terry hovered towards the elevator doors once again and began to pry them apart. Managing to step through to the solid ground on the other side. Looking around he noticed a sign showing 'level twenty'. He seemed to have gone several floors up, but there didn't seem to be any sign of the other teens here.

Then something occurred to him that puts a smile on his face, "This place must have a security system, if Cadmus is tracking them, maybe I can do the same."

Focusing on what he needed to do he began looking for a way to patch into their system, but before he could make a move a display window popped up in his field of vision displaying motion sensors and a video feed of the four people he had been looking for. The display showed the floor they were currently on was fifteen and as he suspected they were running from a large crowd of the same creatures he had fought earlier.

His suit had obviously gotten a large upgrade since he last remembered but this seemed to be on a level, he wasn't aware even the most cutting-edge tech had achieved yet. Terry wished he had the time to investigate further what he was capable of, but by the looks of things with the soon-to-be 'Young Justice', he needed to figure out how to get five floors above him and quickly.

Terry was sure there were stairs somewhere close by, but he really didn't think they had much time to wait for him.

Pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration, Terry looked up at the ceiling in consternation and let out a breath. Suddenly the dull ache on his head reminded him of the large dent he had just put in steel moments before. Deciding it wouldn't hurt too much to crash through a few floors since it was an emergency situation.

Terry squatted down attempting to put as much strength in his legs as possible and jumped. It was easier than he originally expected. Apparently, the building material for some of these floors was a bit shabbier than the surroundings would suggest.

Arriving on level ninteen, Terry didn't bother looking around too much, Terry bent down once again and shot through the next floor followed by the next two. On the final floor, he planned to jump through he paused for a second to scan the feed on the teen heroes and discovered they had already gone from level fifteen to fourteen. Terry wanted to curse at this but put his head down and made another jump quickly covering the gap between them.

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Meanwhile on level 14 with the Soon-to-be 'Young Justince'

"What is your choice, brother?" Dubbilex asked Superboy as he stood tall, his large grey arms coming together as if he himself was trying to make a decision.

"I... choose... freedom," Superboy stated with conviction aloud so everyone can hear him.

"Feels... like fog... lifting," Guardian whispers as the other three teen boys get back to their own two feet as well, Although, no one seemed to notice at that moment, Kara too began to stir.

"Guardian?" Aqualad asked finding the hero not attacking them weird since that was all he had done all night.

"Go," he stated with conviction in his voice. "I'll deal with Desmond."

"I think not," Desmond growled, all Genomorphs behind Guardian part allowing a stern-faced Doctor Desmond to become visible. "Project Blockbuster will give me the power to restore order to Cadmus," he said then he pulled a glass container out of his pocket. The vial contained a light purple liquid that seemed to bubble when shook by the overzealous middle-aged man. In one swift motion Desmond downed its contents, then once finished threw the glass to the floor making it shatter on impact.

For several seconds nothing seemed to happen, then suddenly the doctor threw his head back and began to laugh loudly. It was type of laugh no sane person ever seemed to have a laugh that often-left goosebumps on your skin.

Everyone stared at Desmond in bewilderment until his body began to transform slowly at first then quickly as his arms began to grow and his muscles begin to bulge. Soon, just his veins began popping under his skin. Falling to his knees his body begins to swiftly rip through his lab coat and shirt.

Desmond's head lifts from his arm as he began to growl, some of his skin tearing off as his sclera turns black and his irises go bright red.

It was now apparent that leaving this building was going to be a lot harder than what they originally believed.