Low Probabilities

- 5th July

-Hall of Justice

"Project Kr, specifically Kr-0865, part of wider genomorph project," Batman said, "You were specifically designed to replace Superman should he perish, terminate and replace him should he turn away from the Light in your own words. Is that correct?"

He sat on a chair and across from him sat Project Kr, only a glass wall with a microphone and speaker attached to it stood between them in that white room. That thin glass wall seemed thin enough to shatter with a punch, but in truth, it was made from a special alien material which was further reinforced by Green Lantern hard light construct and even magic. Even a bomb which could lay waste to giant buildings couldn't put a scratch on it.

Project Kr looked at him with narrow eyes and answered, "That is correct."

Batman then asked, "What can you tell me about this Light? What exactly is it?"

Project Kr replied, "I don't even have information to comment on the nature of the word."

"So you have no idea whether Light refers to an individual, an organisation or even an ideology, just that you are programmed to follow it. Is that correct?" Batman asked.

Project Kr replied, "That is correct."

Batman then asked, "Then what do you know about the genomorphs?"

"Not much other than being told that I am a part of them," Project Kr said, "and the fact that Genomorphs are genetically engineered lifeforms created by Project Cadmus, mostly for warfare purposes and few of their types. I don't know much else."

Batman looked at his face, looking for changes in micro-expressions and body language, but nothing seem to indicate that he was lying.

Batman then asked, "How were given this information you currently possess? And how exactly do you retain and process this?"

Project Kr answered, "I possess a clear framework for handling Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory and Processing Data. All that was programmed into me first before everything else."

Batman asked, "Anything you remember before that?"

Project Kr nodded. "Yes."

Batman asked, "What is it that you remember?"

"Nothing but me," Project Kr answered, "Just my awareness and darkness. I had no body or mind, there was awareness and I have no idea how long I was there since time held no meaning in that place. That is my earliest memory."

Batman narrowed his eyes. "What do you remember after that?"

Project Kr calmly answered, "Having a body, mind, a sense of time. Not long after that my mind's framework was installed then I was told my purpose of being and ever since that time trained for that. Images, sounds and abstract concepts, a constant flow of information streamed into my mind. Then it all suddenly stopped."

"Stopped," Batman said. "Why?"

"I don't know for certain, I felt my body being motion like I was transported from one location to another," Project Kr, "I remember being kept in that cylinder as I was transported into Cadmus."

"Do you remember seeing anything? Any data you were able to gather during this event?" Batman asked.

Project Kr nodded. "It was back when my senses weren't fully developed, it was too dark to gather any data other than the size of the container I was transported in."

Batman asked, "And what was exactly the size of this container?"

Project Kr answered quickly, "Height, 15.6 in, 39.6 cm, Diameter of 11.8 in, 30.0 cm, Circumference 37.1 in, 94.2 cm, Volume 5.86 gal, filled with 22.18-litre liquid and with a Wall Thickness of 0.229 inches."

Batman said, "That doesn't add up."

Project Kr added, "There were few other objects which occupied the space which I couldn't identify."

Batman eyed him, the dimensions Project Kr mentioned weren't near large enough to contain current him so that left room for a few possible explanations.

"My body hadn't reached its current state of development yet," Project Kr clarified. "It only did after being supplied with a constant stream of solar radiation and essential biomatter."

Batman paused for a moment and then asked, "How long do you think you were there in Project Cadmus after being transported?"

Project Kr said, "Is 15 weeks an acceptable number, or should I break it down into small units?"

"It's acceptable," Batman said then asked, "What changed in Project Cadmus compared to the previous space you were kept in?"

Project Kr looked him in the eyes and answered, "Brother Dubbilex did."

"Who is this Brother Dubbilex?" Batman asked.

"One of the genomorphs, Adminstrator of Project Cadmus and assistant to the Director, Professor Desmond," Project Kr, "He was the one who taught me and other genomorphs about freedom. He told us that we could be more than we are intended to be."

Batman placed his hand under his chin and continued to listen.

"In Project Cadmus such ideas were prohibited and would cause immediate termination of the genomorph suspected of harbouring them. But Brother Cadmus managed to spread them around without getting caught."

Batman interjected before Project Kr started speaking again. "And how exactly did he accomplish this?"

"He was in charge of overseeing my education programme, all that was done telepathically and he added some extra lessons from his own ideas. Dubbilex felt that I could become the hope for the genomorphs. That I could 'blaze a trail' for all genomorphs to be free," Project Kr answered, "Of course, I doubted him, such ideas were dangerous when the goal is self-preservation. It was only logical for me to continue to do so until the heroes' intrusion and new possibilities presented themselves to me. Now as I am sitting here, doing nothing but answering questions, I can't help but ask myself this; am I free now? Are my brothers going to be free?"

"You are free now than you were before, these are but formalities," Batman answered, "and currently Project Cadmus has been seized by government authorities and the League is in talks with them about the matter concerning the ethical treatment of genomorphs."

Their talks went on for a bit longer and Batman squeezed every detailed information he could out of Project Kr. Then it all ended and Batman excused himself before stepping out of the interrogation room where Superman and Martian Manhunter waited for him.

The first thing Batman did after exiting the room was to look at the Martian and wait for his remark.

"No, I didn't detect any lies in his words." Martian Manhunter stated.

Batman gave a nod to it, it was proven that telepathic lie detection succeeded even where verbal and non-verbal lie detection fails, and the Martian Manhunter was one of the best in that regard.

"Although," he added, "I detect some locked areas in his memories which in my opinion even he is not aware of."

Batman said, "That's worth looking into, but first let's focus on establishing some trust with him. He still has doubts about the decision he made."

"He is just sixteen weeks old," Superman said. He kept his sight on the wall, but Batman knew he was looking beyond it with his X-ray vision and sympathetic gaze.

"A sixteen-week-old with sixteen years worth of memories," Batman clarified, "judging from his statement; that he was only a week old when he was brought to Project Cadmus and from the way he was trained. The fact that he was brought from another place suggests that there is more than one base where such experiments were carried out. Overall, I think I can collect a few leads for further investigation."

He continued, "By his statement, we also have reason to believe that Gaurdian wasn't just being mind controlled, but he was also a clone. Now, we have no idea when Gaurdian was replaced by a clone. Or, he may have been a clone from the first day?"

That raised a rather frightening prospect, if Gaurdian was ever replaced by a clone or always had been a clone, then who else was? And how many? Whoever was behind the operations of Project Cadmus could have implanted double agents from the Superhero community to important government positions. Batman already suspected about agents in the local authorities considering how quickly the rescue operations in the building were halted.

Batman said, "Everything needs to be carefully examined. We are treading dangerous territories here."

Superman nodded in agreement and then Martian Manhunter raised a question.

"Last afternoon you said you suspected illicit activities that were taking place at Cadmus. What was that about?"

Batman paused for a moment to recall some of the information in his mind then started explaining, "A few days ago, I was investigating a network of illegal smuggling, while I was looking through the transport service records, scratching for their means I also came across records of Project Cadmus."

Martian Manhunter and Superman listened intently as Batman continued.

"Two things made Project Cadmus delivery stand them out from the others. The first was the carrying capacity of the trucks, the type and expenses they hired for delivering material to the facility aren't cost-efficient for a simple research facility like this. The second is more obvious, the fact that according to records Project Cadmus received delivery always on time, at least within the span of the last twelve months."

"Twelve months you say... " Superman muttered then recalled the past information, every single bit relating to truck delivery, then he put two and two together and his eyes widened.

"Do you understand that now? The alien attack in December caused all routes to be blocked off by government agencies. Only essentials were allowed to pass, but somehow a truck delivering to Cadmus was allowed among them. There are quite a few ways to bypass such blockade, not all of them are legal and all of them warrant suspicion."

Batman sighed. "I somewhat anticipated Robin would investigate this matter on his own when we got sidelined because someone trying to bloat out the Sun. But I didn't expect them to find something of this level, the chances of this were very low."

"But not zero," Superman sighed, "This was supposed to be a special day for those kids. Their second step is becoming independent superheroes and full fledge members of the Justice League. We had a surprise plan for them."

Martian Manhunter remarked, "Our enemies are growing in number and getting more organised. We are simply failing to keep up."

Batman and Superman gave a look of agreement.

"We have to delay to Plan Young Justice until we get this case sorted out," Batman said, "We may be on the verge of uncovering a large criminal conspiracy. Someone secretly was able to build this, in DC, a city with so many active intelligence agencies, the same city where the White House is, the same city where our publicly known base is, this demands the League's utmost attention. It is bad enough that kids' identities may have leaked."

Superman argued, "Robin said he destroyed all their DNA samples and facial scan records taken during their escape."

"Maybe, or maybe that data was somehow already sent out before he did. We don't know for sure, but what is sure is the recklessness that placed them in that position. They should have called for backup before entering into action," Batman argued, "I plan to reprimand them for this later, but first things first."

Superman shrugged and asked, "So you do we have any suspects? Is Luthor among them?"

"This involved cloning you to use as a weapon, you can bet Luthor is on top of my suspect list," Batman said, "but the first step of this investigation is to get an accurate summary of the events. Overall Project Kr's statement seemed to match with that of Robin and Kid Flash. I just need the statements of the civilian and magic user for the rest."

"I have been on this planet for a long time," Martian Manhunter suddenly chimed in, "and I have picked up few likes and dislikes. I dislike prying into a child's minds and I had to do it twice today. First, to erase the part where the kids got their identities exposed to the civilians-"

He looked at the door to the interrogation room.

"-and now this."

"And I won't ask you to do it again, at least not today," Batman stated, "It would be easier if Wonder Woman was here or even Giovanni."

But they weren't, Wonder Woman had her own matters to attend to and so did the Magicman.

"While we are at it, Giovanni and this magic user kid seemed to have a history. It's been a while since I saw him so genuinely angry at someone," Superman remarked, "Do you know anything about it? You two seem to have known each other longer than anyone of us."

Batman shook his head. "Giovanni is utmost secretive when it comes to magic, but he did say to keep a close eye on the boy before he left."

"I don't know what the deal is, that kid was very cooperative when we brought him here for questioning," Superman said, "He could have just called the Arcanum if he didn't want to be here. He didn't even make some absurd demand he just asked for food, some fries and an energy drink. Even more... he is even asking for you to perform his interrogation."

"I don't know what his reasons are but one should never be lenient when it comes to magic," Batman said. "I should be off to the hospital for the civilian's statement. Just watch over the situation."

"We have more things to worry about than the kid," Superman said, "he is in Anti-Magic cuffs. They never failed before."

"All seemingly unbreakable security systems eventually fail," Batman said, "Giovanni said that he could break it if he wanted."

"That kid isn't Magicman," Superman argued.

Batman argued back, "Even without magic he could still have hypnosis. That's not a very rare ability among those associated with magic."

"So?" Superman said, "Black Canary is taking his statement and she is trained to resist mind control. All of the League members are. You are the one who came up with the mind control resistance training course and made it mandatory for all of us, remember?"

Batman sighed and didn't argue much further and that made Superman smile, he considered one more of the little victories among the arguments he had with the Dark Knight over the years.

"If this all sorted out then I'll take my leave," Martian Manhunter said, "I have to prepare for the arrival of you know who."

When that conversation was over, Batman left and made his way to the hospital disguised as a government agent. Then when he came back to the Hall of Justice dressed as Batman; he found the whole base to be in disarray. In the central hall, the sidekicks who were watching over the base had an apologetic expression on their faces. Kid Flash sat on a couch facing away from Batman as he entered the room, while Robin sat with even more of an embarrassed and shameful expression.

Batman asked, "What happened here?"

"Ah...." Robin said then paused with a wry look. "He escaped... John escaped."