In a glass chamber, we can see a teenage boy who looks to be about 18 years old. He had a handsome face with a strong jaw. Standing at 6'1, he had a lean, but powerful physique for one his age. He looked to be wearing a white jumpsuit, and on his chest was a big red "S". The boy's eyes suddenly snapped open, his eyes scanning the area in confusion.
'Where the hell am I?' He looked around, trying to make sense of his location. 'What happened to me, and why am I in this pod?' He tried to remember what had happened, but all that came to him was blank. All that he remembered before that was walking home to, but that's it; he suddenly blacked out.
'Did I get kidnapped and sleep through the hole thing?' His heart spiked at the thought. 'That can be the only explanation.' He wanted to panic and scream, but he was worried that it would alert whoever was outside that door.
"I need to calm down and focus." He muttered. 'Okay, so I'm chained in some hellhole, and the only way out is through that big door. And I know I won't be knocking that down anytime soon. The only way I can escape is if I trick whoever comes in, lower their guard.' As he thought that, a memory came to him.
He was chained to a table, and on his right was a man in a lab coat with an ugly ponytail. A name came to him, Desmond. He felt his emotions, and the main one was anger. Anger at the man for forcing him into his experiments? All he wanted was to rip his head off, but he was calmed down somehow. As though he were forced to.
"The fuck was that?" He breathed out in shock. That wasn't him, was it? No. He looked at the glass closely and felt his heart drop. The person in the reflection wasn't him. His entire face was different. Come to think of it, he felt entirely different now. His body felt stronger than ever, as if he held the strength of Hercules.
"What the hell happened to me?" He whispered in horror. He looked at his body and realised his entire body was different; he wasn't ever this muscular. "Oh God, what the hell is going on?" He felt sick and terrified. He tried to calm himself, but it wasn't going to work; he was too scared and horrified at what had happened to him.
Wait a minute, was that Superman's logo on his chest? 'What kind of sick fucks are these people?' He thought. The door opens up, and a woman enters holding a clipboard. He forced himself to calm down despite the situation. The woman was either a Doctor or a scientist.
She ignored him and started taking down notes. He focused intently on her and was about to shout in confusion when his vision literally zoomed in!
He heard something, a beep? Looking around, he tried to pinpoint the area where the sound was coming from, and it came from the tablet. How was he able to hear that? Suddenly, the lady turned around and started to leave. But as the door opened up, something slid past her. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and he looked in awe at the sight of a man in a yellow costume.
Time seemed to resume, and the guy stopped.
Seconds later, two other guys ran in. He would've laughed at the situation and the costumes, but he couldn't even muster a chuckle. They were wearing costumes that looked exactly like the ones from Young Justice.
"I disabled the door. We're safe for now." The one in the Robin outfit said. "Were trapped." The Aqualad wannabe said. The one in the Kid Flash getup turned around and locked eyes with him.
"Uh, guys, somebody's watching." Kid Flash said.
The three of them continued to stare at him in wonder. Deciding to take charge Aqualad ordered Robin.
"Robin, hack in and see what you can find." Aqualad muttered to Robin, the guy's eyes never left his. The boy quickly connected to the computer.
"He's a clone called Superboy, a half-Kryptonian that was grown in just 16 weeks!?!" He exclaimed in shock and disbelief."This place was able to get DNA from Superman."
"Stolen from Superman." Corrects Aqualad.
"No way the big guy knows about this." Kid Flash says in disbelief. As they sit in silence at what was a shocking revelation that Cadmus was somehow able to make a clone of Superman.
"Are you guys going to let me out? Or are you just gonna continue standing there?" He finally spoke, breaking the trio from their stupor.
"Whoa, you can talk?!" The ginger-haired kid said.
"Of course I can talk, dimwit! Why did you think I wouldn't?" He spoke in exasperation. "Plus, why are you guys pretending to be heroes? Is this some prank?" He asked them.
"What? We are real heroes!" The kid sounded so offended that he almost believed him. "Sure, buddy. And I'm Superman." He said exaggeratedly.
"I'll prove it!" Before his very eyes, the kid started running around fast, and he felt shocked the hundredth time today. "Whoa." He uttered in awe. That was real. Real-life super-speed. If that was real, then that meant everything else was real. The kids in the costumes were actually heroes. 'Did I isekai?! I thought that was only in fan-fiction?!' Surprisingly, this seemed to only calm him down and make him think clearly.
He connected the pieces, and what he knew for sure was that he was in the DC universe, most likely the one from Young Justice, since this seemed to follow the plot. He was Superboy, that was for sure. Thankfully, he was able to remember the plot more clearly than ever before, but some things still eluded him. Probably a perk of having the brain of a Kryptonian and a Luthor.
A scene came to him, and he remembered something. Desmond will order the G-gnomes inside the pod to enter his brain, forcing him to fight, and he wasn't immune to telepathy. Without wasting any time he started pounding the glass with all his might.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" He ignored Robin's voice, and with only a few punches, the glass shattered completely. Now all that was left were the G-gnomes. This was the first time he would kill another living being, but he steeled himself.
He looked up and dug his fingers into the metal above him. The G-gnomes fell down, and he saw their horns turn red. Time once again slowed to a crawl, and he grabbed hold of the creatures, squeezing them. Their bodies turned mush, and their blood coated his hand.
Unease filled him, but he banished the feeling away. Now was not the time to feel sentimental. "Why'd you do that?" He heard Robin ask calmly, although he could detect the turned, the trio looking as though they would fight him at the slightest twitch.
"The creatures were able to mind control me or even any of you. It could have told me to kill you, and I wouldn't have been able to do anything. I won't give them the chance, especially since you guys are my way out." He explained calmly, although he was still in awe that he was talking to one of his favourite DC characters. If this were a dream, then it was one of the best in existence.
"So, just to be clear, you won't try to kill us...right?" Asks Kid Flash nervously.
"No, I won't try to kill you. As I said, you're my only way out of here. " This visibly calmed down the speedster. Though he could tell the kid had his guard up.
"And why do you want to leave. I mean, I wouldn't want to stay here, but why would you leave the only place you know?" It was obvious Robin wanted to know his intentions. He answered honestly.
"This place is a shit hole. I want to leave and be able to live my life, not contained in a tube like some lab rat for the rest of my life." It was true, memories of Superboy's time in Cadmus were starting to come back, and he remembered the experiments he endured and the knowledge the G-gnomes gave him.
"Then you can count on us." Robin said, his voice determined. "Okay, we need to find a way out. The problem is that the only way out is the elevator we came in, and the facility no doubt knows about our presence by now."Robin explained. An idea struck him, one that he had no doubt they could pull off.
"I have an idea." They turned to look at him, scepticism written all over their face. "Hear me out, I can hear them outside the door right now. They don't know I'm not on their side, and we can trick them to make it seem that I knocked you out." They looked at each other, and his idea seemed to appeal to them.
"Why should we trust you? How do we know this isn't just a trick to hand us over to the baddies?" Kid Flash asked in suspicion. He sighed, understanding the suspicion, but they were on the clock.
"I could have knocked you out already, but I didn't. I know it's hard to trust me, but I'm your only chance of getting out of here." He said.
"I may not know you, my friend, but I can tell your intentions are honorable." Aqualad spoke, nodding at his friends. He nodded at the Atlantian in thanks.