LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 10.2
When night fell, Kara stopped far above the clouds and over the damaged CADMUS building. There wasn’t anyone fixing the entrance, but the heavy machinery lay all around the place.
She tried peering inside the building, but Luthor was one of the owners of the place, of course it was filled with lead.
She considered her options. At first, she had thought about just mining enough gold to buy the entire thing but, not only would that reveal her existence to the world, it would probably not work. The Light, or even just Luthor himself, had enough political power to block any such move.
She also couldn’t risk The Light moving the things inside when they learned of her attempt.
She’d bet Luthor had filled the place with all sorts of contingencies in case her cousin snapped and actually attacked it. The man was far too used to dealing with an angry Kryptonian… too bad for him he wasn’t used to dealing with an angry Kryptonian’s tech.
Lifting a small pouch from her waist, Kara opened it and turned it upside down, releasing a deluge of metal balls half the size of her fingernail. They fell through the air, but stopped right before hitting CADMUS’ surface, floating a couple of centimeters above the ground. A second later, they activated their non disturbance mode and disappeared from view.
Kara may not have access to Kryptonian military drones, but high grade civilian gear could work just as well when dealing with Earth’s technology.
Every little drone she released was equipped with a camera capable of mapping terrain and keeping track of living beings, a wireless transmitter untraceable by Earth’s current technology and a cloaking device.
On Krypton, they were used to float above a Kryptonian and help them navigate without being lost, take pictures or recordings of important moments and information for later use, keep track of children and remain inconspicuous during everyday life.
Here on Earth, they were nearly undetectable stealth devices.
Opening a tablet in front of her, she ordered the devices to start infiltrating the facility and map out all its rooms. It wasn’t instantaneous but, after only a couple of hours, she had a complete map of CADMUS underground and the drones were keeping track of all organic movement.
Thousands of Genomorphs of all shapes and sizes, dozens of scientists all currently working and even Guardian himself taking a nap in a resting room, all unaware of the machines watching them.
Ordering one of the drones to connect to an empty and unobserved computer wouldn’t usually be possible, but Kara had made a few modifications so the drones were compatible with Earth's tech.
Soon, she had access to CADMUS systems through her tablet and released a wave of malware. Small, inconsequential programs that were so alien to CADMUS computers they wouldn’t be detected as viruses and slowly took over every aspect on their systems, using The Light’s own hidden programs to do so.
That’s the problem with leaving backdoors in a computer system so you could interact with them without detection, someone else could make use of them if they had the right knowledge and equipment.
Kara had no doubt someone like Oracle, The Brain, Dr. Ivo or Dr. Morrow could quickly adapt against her programming, they were just that good, but CADMUS computers weren’t really their focus, and Kryptonian tech was an out of contest problem the system just wasn’t capable of fighting against without supervision.
With control over the building’s computer system, Kara started downloading a copy of all the information they had, even the ones kept hidden on Luthor’s secret little server. She also took the chance to install a program that would erase both her image and voice from any recording device in the building.
Alright, now what?
Despite her efforts, Kara's skills at stealth were about the same as her skills at fighting before meeting Kori, that is to say, she didn’t have them.
Yes, she could avoid meeting anyone on the mostly empty upper floors, but the lower floors were a hive of activity and she still didn’t have the time to adapt the drone’s stealth tech to work with her clothes.
Worse, some of the Genomorphs were telepaths and she had no way to hide from them. “Alright, mental note, find a way to hide from telepaths, or at least block their powers.”
Well, if she couldn’t hide from the Genomorphs, she’d just have to get their help instead.
She quickly lifted her tablet to her face and changed the view to watch Dubbilex; since she already controlled their computer, it was easy to generate a message requiring his presence on one of the upper floors.
Then she dropped down. Using her speed and the darkness of the night, she managed to remain undetected by anything outside the building.
The ground floor was still filled with rubble, but she found an easy path down into the first underground floor which only had a couple of human workers, Kara avoided them and found an empty room.
Before long, she felt a weight settle on her mind, she knew she still didn’t have the mental fortitude or training to resist his intrusion but, luckily, she didn’t have to.
Instead, she tried to think about Superboy, their family connection and her intent to free the Genomorphs from their imposed slavery and hoped he wouldn’t delve deeper.
She had to admit, it was somewhat of a gamble to let someone have access to her mind but, the second she felt him trying to delve where he wasn’t invited, she’d use her speed to burst out of the building, even if she had to go through him.
She was pretty sure he wasn’t a powerful enough telepath to incapacitate her before she was out of his range… or plastered him all over the hallway. She even made sure she was actively thinking about that too.
The automatic door to the room opened with only a small noise and the tall Genomorph stepped inside, his arms crossed behind his back.
“Greetings, Kara Zor-El. I apologize for the intrusion into your mind,” he told her in an emotionless voice. “I can only say it seemed necessary from my point of view.”
“I can see that, yes,” she nodded to him in greeting and massaged her temples. “You didn’t try to peek for too long, so I forgive you.”
“Well, the image of my insides spread on the hallway in case I tried was most illuminating,” he told her as he awkwardly extended a hand, then he continued. “It also seemed disturbingly likely, with the way you were thinking.”
“Ah, I’d really like to avoid killing again, but mind control just leaves me on edge. Were you able to see why I came while you searched my mind?”
“I could see you’re attempting to help my kind, but I have to confess, I retreated somewhat hastily after that vivid image.”
Yep, Kryptonians were scary. No doubt about that.
“Well, I have three options for you,” Kara told him while keeping an eye on the surveillance system. “First, I can just call the League again, I’m pretty sure the damn idiots were too tired from fighting Wotan, or too busy gapping at my cousin’s clone to think about things but, after a round of yelling at everybody, I can get them to help free you guys from slavery… still don’t know how they let that one pass.
“The second option is probably the safest, I’m pretty sure you guys qualify as a race of your own so, if I call The Green Lanterns and ask for asylum, they’d come over in a heartbeat to help you guys settle somewhere else. Heck, maybe Mars would take you guys; they’re all telepathic shape shifters, so it could be easier for you guys to settle there.
“The third option would be a little riskier, I can help you guys take over,” and here Kara leaned towards Dubbilex with a predatory smile. “I already have control of the building’s surveillance systems and, with your telepathy, you can turn the tables on your so-called ‘owners’ without anyone even finding out.”
“That is… three more options than I was expecting,” Dubbilex said with a sigh. “I always believed Superboy would be the one to help us, and meeting the Justice League only enforced that feeling, even your heroes didn’t really see us as anything but tools.”
Kara’s hands tightened into fists at his words, she really would like to argue with that, but she couldn’t, not when what he said was right.
“I can only apologize for how the League dismissed you guys, I could say they’re too overworked to pay attention to the little details. but it is no excuse, and slavery is never just a little detail.”
“Why are YOU so willing to help us?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at Kara in suspicion.
“Many reasons, I’m pretty sure you were the one who organized things so Kon-El would be freed, so I feel indebted to you. Plus, as I said, I don’t consider slavery to be a small thing and I have the power to do something about it,” Kara said and scratched the back of her head, somewhat embarrassed by her next reason, “But I’m also doing this to stop whatever plans you creator’s have for you, that’s why I’m a little partial to the third option, I do need a base of my own, and a little help dealing with the bastards that created you. Having that help come from you guys and the base being one of theirs would feel somewhat… poetic.”
“I see… and if I don’t trust you, will you leave us alone?”
“I’m sorry, but no. I’m willing to let you choose how to do this, but I can’t leave you guys as slaves no matter what you say,” she considered things a little bit and completed. “Besides, I know for a fact there’s another Kryptonian and a little boy hidden somewhere down here, so I’m raiding this place anyway.”
“Impossible, I’m aware of every one of CADMUS projects, there are no records of another successful clone, Superboy is the only one.”
“Wrong,” she quickly browsed through the data she stole and turned her tablet towards the male. “They called him Project Match, he is in dire need of help and I WILL provide it.”
Dubbilex didn’t release his arms from his back but, with a light tug, the tablet slowly floated away from Kara’s hands and towards his face, he quickly read the information about Match but, instead of giving it back, he started searching for information about Genomorphs themselves.
Kara let him. Dubbilex's face became angrier and angrier as he read on, finally he reached his own information and Kara swore, if she had been using a normal tablet instead of a Kryptonian one, it would have cracked in half as it was flung across the room.
“We accept,” Dubbilex said without any hesitation in his voice. “They need to be stopped.”
Kara grabbed the tablet back and couldn’t help herself, she read what had bothered him so much. “Well... damn.”
