DC: Don't Utter A Word
Chapter 88:

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[David Lance POV]

Working as fast as I could, I downloaded and deleted all that I could from Desmond's computer and the server he was connected to, as Raven kept tabs on everyone around us in order to react accordingly.

'Genomorphs coming in ten,' Raven said.

'Let's go,' I nodded, as Raven moved us out of the room, just in time for the Genomorphs to kick the door open, only to find nothing.

'You got everything we needed?' Raven asked, moving our astral forms across the rooms.

'Yeah, and left them a little gift,' I nodded. Not only had I acquired all the data I could using Desmond's credentials, but I had left a little virus behind to eat their servers, at least until it was purged.

'Now what?' Raven asked. 'Do we help the others? They were captured.'

I shook my head. While I wasn't against helping them, even if I wasn't on my best terms with Robin, I would only do so when they proved to be in actual danger, or the canon train derailed, two requirements they hadn't met so far. 'They will escape on their own, first, we need to reach the lower levels of CADMUS.'

'I feel like we are going to get scolded for this,' Raven replied softly before starting to move us toward the lower levels.

'Possibly,' I admitted. But, the upsides of ignoring the captured trio, for now, were unimaginably better from a professional standpoint.

After all, the more information I gathered about CADMUS right now, the better our chances would look in the future fighting those behind the curtains. Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ NøᴠᴇlFire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

For the next following moments, we made our way down to the lowest level at CADMUS in silence, using Raven's magic to reach it.

After a minute or so, we reached our destination with little to no problem, the lowest level being nothing but a damp cave with thick air filled with human violations, with the only light around coming from the eerie glow of the technology that filled the place.

Most of that light… Coming from the hundreds of capsules/pods around, that, we quickly realized they were filled with different types of creatures, from Genemorphs to Humans.

'This is creepy,' Raven muttered, looking around the place.

I nodded, it was indeed very creepy.

Hundreds of cloned beings, maybe even more if we counted, all in their capsules floating in liquid, staring at us with blank dead expressions whenever we got too close.

Taking a deep breath, I started scanning my surroundings, before deciding to take any course of action.

Besides thick, the air felt musty, and there was a faint sound of water dripping somewhere in the distance, based on the ground, and the lack of marks, there were no signs of any recent activity anywhere, with the only footprints in sight being my own. Which reminds me, that I'll have to be careful not to leave any evidence of my presence here.

As far as the eye could see, there were clones trapped in capsules/pods, with more than an eighty percent of them being Genomorphs.

Those that were human, at least based on phenotypic value, I didn't recognize, meaning they either were test subjects they had used to see how stable the cloning process was, or were of people without any relevance to this time and period.

All and all, this left me without many options.

Releasing the clones was simply out of the question, as it was safe to assume all of them had been trained telepathically to attack intruders, or at the very least to obey Desmond.

'What do we do?' Raven asked as she floated to my side.

'We collect data,' I replied, my eyes catching sight of something at the distance, something with a big S.

If I'm correct, then that must be Superboy's brother. I can't recall his name, but I'm sure there was another clone of Superman walking around, or floating around in this case.

Taking a deep breath, I walked to the pod where I had seen the big S, finding a teenage version of Superman, floating inside his pod, his body completely relaxed.

Project Match.

'Is that… what I think it is?' Raven asked, a clear frown on her face.

I nodded. 'It is…' when all of the sudden, I saw Match begin to stir inside his stasis pod 'Move!' I mentally shouted, as in an instant, Match broke out of his pod, growling, as he came straight for me.

Bending my body backward I ducked out of the way, just in time to avoid Match's feral assault, as I got into position.

Someone had released Match to deal with us, who or why, right now didn't matter, those were questions for later.

'All… he feels is… anger, there's nothing more… no thoughts, nothing… just anger, that's all he is…' Raven muttered, stopping one of Match's attacks by opening a portal in front of him.

I nodded. 'Then it should be easy for us to deal with him…'

When seeing Match, it was easy to see he was nothing more than an enraged mindless beast hell-bent on destroying anything and everyone in its path, without a single thought crossing his mind, blind anger governing his every move.

He was powerful, very powerful, he was, after all, the closest thing to a perfect clone of superman CADMUS had ever gotten, when it came to power alone.

Fortunately for me, he was the living example of power without skill, after all, force was meaningless without skill.

'Keep opening portals to avoid him breaking anything, the last thing we want is some of his friends joining,' I said before darting toward Match, who, upon seeing me growl in a feral-like motion. 'Support me from the distance, don't try to block his attacks, instead, create a flow. Open portals for him to punch himself or the air, and if the opportunity arises, use magic to knock him out, even the original thing is not very strong against magic…'

Raven nodded, taking some distance, as I engaged Match in close quarters.

"Ahhhh!" Match growled, throwing a hard punch toward my face that I dodged by, stepping out of the way, planting a kick to his side.

Left and right, up and down, I continued to dodge and weave under the onslaught of attacks that Match was throwing my way with ease, planting my own attacks on him at every turn, with the feral clone only growing angrier as time went on.

After a few dodges, I realized something… this was easy…

In my life as a hero so far, I had fought many foes, but none were as predictable as Match, not by far. His every attack was telegraphed from a mile away, making them a child's play to avoid, even when taking into account the fact he was faster and stronger than me.

If he wasn't feral, I would have thought that he wanted me to win. But, well, his eloquent speech that consisted of growls, and more growls, confirmed he was indeed feral.

"AHHH!" Match growled, his eyes glowing red for a bit before a thin beam of red light shot forward toward me. However, before this attack could reach me or I had the need to dodge, Raven opened a portal, redirecting his attack back at him.

I sighed, already knowing what Match's next move was. 'Open a portal in front of me that connects to one a few meters above you…'

Without a word, Raven did as I asked, as Match turned to her, baring his teeth, before jumping towards her, however, before he could reach her, I landed on his back in a crouch, and in a blurring motion of hands, I dug both of my index fingers on his ears, puncturing his eardrums, before jumping back, letting the feral clone crash on the floor in pain.

'That was risky…' Raven said, looking at the screaming Match. 'How did you know Superman has weak eardrums?'

'I didn't… and I think he does,' I replied, showing her my broken fingers. 'I just took a bet based on the fact that he's weaker than superman. His speed and strength are above mine, but he's still leagues below Amazo and seeing how my hits were actually making him flinch, I wanted to test how squishy he was on the inside. Worst case scenario, I would've done nothing but break two fingers, and I can manage that.'

'Well, that didn't knock him out, it just pissed him off even more…' Raven replied as Match turned toward us, his ears bleeding, his eyes filled with pure rage.

'Knocking him out without my melodic voice will take hours, so… Voodoo our problem away?' I replied, smiling at her under my mask.

Raven snorted, probably at the Voodoo joke, before turning her undivided attention to Match, her eyes glowing white. "You know anger, now let me teach you fear beast… Azarath metrion zinthos!"

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