Dubbilex stared at the grave with an impassive face. He was currently wearing the guise of a young woman, unwilling to connect his Donavan disguise with this particular trip.
He really didn’t know how he should be feeling right now.
In front of him rested his… mother? Sister? DNA donor? He supposes the third option was probably the most accurate. The others implied an emotional or familial connection that just wasn’t there. They had never even met after all.
Ace had been a little over twice his age when she died and, according to the documents he read, her powers had been what caused her death. Dubbilex had since gotten all the genomorphs a new medical check. The results weren’t good.
It seemed like his entire race had an expiration date, a little over twenty years with the proper care. He really didn’t know what to think about that.
Most humans lived about seventy to eighty years these days, but there were alien races that lived much longer… and much shorter lives.
Shaking his head, Dubbilex kneeled in front of the grave and deposited the flowers he had been holding. It had been… interesting to meet Ace, in a manner of speaking, but it didn’t really change his life.
No, it was important to remember her, but his focus should be on his still living brothers and sisters. Discovering just how short their lives would be gave him a new drive. He couldn’t keep wasting time anymore.
“Thank you brother.” He nodded towards Kon-El, the young man who had volunteered to accompany him, and he appreciated the gesture. “Let us return, I still have much to do.”
“Kara’s keeping you busy?” Kon-El asked with some interest.
“Indeed, managing both CADMUS and her company is difficult, I do hope she will find a new CEO soon.” Dubbilex said as they left the cemetery.
“Starfire is starting to talk about organizing an intervention.” Kon-El grimaced. “I don’t think Kara’s gonna react well to that.”
“No, I suppose not.” Dubbilex smiled thinking about his employer’s continued efforts to escape her therapist. “I’ll warn her that her time is running out.”
“How’s Kraig doing?”
“He still misses you, but he’s adjusting well to the outside world.” Dubbilex told him. The little G-gnome had been one of the first to volunteer at Kara’s new factory. “I dream of the day we can walk freely but, clearly, that is still a work in progress.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Kon-El asked, feeling Dubbilex’s frustration.
“For the moment? No.” Dubbilex shook his head and turned towards his brother. “However, when the time comes, I hope you can stand with us as we reveal ourselves.”
“I… of course.” Kon-El said with some hesitation.
Dubbilex could see his brother wanted to fit in, that he was willing to give it up for the sake of their race spoke well of his character. Laying a hand on his shoulder, Dubbilex smiled. “Don’t worry brother, I have spoken with Kara and Batman, there is still much to be done before we’re ready to move. When the time comes, I know you will be ready.”
Kon-El nodded. His shoulders relaxed as they got into the car.
Dubbilex kept the image of the woman until he stepped into the Zeta-Tube that delivered him to CADMUS’s door. Finally, he dispersed it and simply made himself invisible to anyone looking his way, trusting Kara’s tech to keep his image from any cameras.
Once inside, he relaxed his control and felt at home, surrounded by his family. He nodded towards Beth as she stepped out of her power generator and stretched her limbs, electricity leaving her body until she was no longer shining with power.
“Going to the Cafeteria?” He connected to her mind and asked.
“Yes, just finished a shift.” Beth flicked all her limbs, getting rid of the last sparks of electricity. “Want to come? Benny and Karen will be joining me there.”
“Yes, I haven’t eaten anything yet.” He decided to take some time before starting to organize CADMUS’s latest reports. He was eternally thankful for Kara’s help but, since a little over a week now, it had been nearly impossible to get her away from her workshop.
“You work too much, should I have a talk with the boss lady? Kryptonians aren’t immune to lightning, I could give her a lesson.” Dubbilex snorted, no genomorph would hurt Kara Zor-El, of that he was certain, but Beth liked to joke about it.
“No need, it shouldn’t be much longer before we have things in order.” He dismissed her concern. It wasn’t the time to be slowing down.
Eating a nice meal at the cafeteria, Dubbilex smiled as he saw the genomorphs and human researchers interacting as if it was normal. The human’s G-gnome handlers didn’t even have to do anything.
At the beginning, the human workers had found it strange to see the genomorphs free, walking around, having breaks and eating amongst them but ultimately, the G-gnomes only had to interfere a few times, and that interference was minimal.
Instead of mind controlling the humans, which many of them, including Dubbilex himself, were loathe to do, they just used their telepathy to inform Dubbilex, and he pretended to be their superior, berating them for releasing company secrets and reminding them of their work contracts.
Kara’s tech intercepted any electronic report, and, since they still believed the genomorphs were under their control, the humans adapted quickly. Not to say there weren’t some unpleasant individuals, but they were few and far between.
Sitting down at his desk, Dubbilex relaxed his body on the comfortable chair and used his telekinesis to lift the physical reports he had to sign. He read them one after another, and signed them with only a minor effort of will, his pen moving in the air with incredible skill.
Since finding out his own… origin, Dubbilex had been using his powers more and more. Ace had been able to grow from only being able to alter the perception of those who met her eyes, to warping reality in an area around herself.
Dubbilex doubted he could reach that level of power, and he certainly didn’t want to share her fate, but he was being careful and already noticed a large growth of his abilities, telekinesis came easier and with more skill. His telepathy was already effortless and now it grew in range and finesse every day.
He felt nearly twice as strong as he was before Kara had freed him, and that was far from his limit. Never again would he be unable to help his people. He refused to stand by once more.
Dubbilex was a natural pacifist, he did not wish for conflict and, more importantly, he would not start conflict. But, he wouldn’t stay quiet if his family was attacked or enslaved, not again.
Leaning forward, Dubbilex opened his own laptop, one given to him by Kara so nobody could hack it, typing his password, he waited until the computer finished scanning him, reading his fingerprints, retina, body shape and even his temperature, then started working on his CEO responsibilities, making sure the factory would be able to produce their first prototype on time.
Suddenly, his screen flashes red and the notebook starts releasing an incredibly annoying noise, a single click later and Dubbilex was redirected to the cameras outside CADMUS. For a moment, he couldn’t see anything, then Kara’s tech changed to heat signals revealing several assailants.
Reacting immediately, Dubbilex stretched his power, connecting to several people inside the facility. “Guardian, this is an emergency, start the evacuation procedures, abandon the upper floors and focus on the remaining genomorphs. Erin, make sure to retrieve everything and destroy any information on our creation or other sensitive projects. All others, start making your way to the genomorph cave.”
He didn’t wait for their answer and cut the connection, focusing back on the cameras. He recognized a few of their hidden enemies from Kara’s documentation, while most of them were too well hidden, Hook and Black Spider weren’t as skilled as the others.
The League of Shadows was here.
From the main road, a black car arrived and parked right in front of CADMUS, Lex Luthor himself stepped out of the vehicle, pulling something from inside his suit, he pressed a button and Dubbilex saw CADMUS’ own security be completely disabled, every camera stopped working at the same time.
Thankfully, Kara had long since provided an alternative surveillance system in the form of her drones. Some of the genomorphs had also disconnected a few of the security features from the central CADMUS’ system, making them work independently. Then a small, cylindrical robot with a brain appeared from the other side of the car, a large gorilla with a red beret following closely behind.
The gorilla was carrying a large metal pole on his shoulder, with a grunt, he drove it into the ground and the entire thing unfolded, revealing some kind of antenna. Dubbilex ordered a few of the drones to come closer for a better look.
The drones registered a pulse as it was released from the device, several warnings started activating on his screen and, before he could react, a bullet hit the closest drone. In quick succession, all the drones on the outside of the building were disabled.
Pressing a button, Dubbilex ordered them to self-destruct. Unfortunately, at least a dozen of the devices had completely stopped responding before he did. Kara still had incorporated defenses against tampering on every device but, with so many spares, they would have far too many tries to break through her defenses.
The drones weren’t actually that important, but Kara absolutely hated losing any advantage she had, and Dubbilex could already see the young Kryptonian becoming paranoid of her own tech being used against her allies.
A few seconds later, he found out what went wrong. While Brain’s device couldn’t destroy Kara’s drones, or even disable them. It could disrupt their stealth, making them easy pickings for the trained assassins.
Ordering the remaining devices to hide themselves in the ventilation or any other tight space, Dubbilex reprogrammed them so that any movement less than a meter from them would trigger their self-destruct. This way he’d be able to keep an eye on the Light’s progress while minimizing the chances that they could capture more of the devices.
Grabbing a tablet, Dubbilex got up from his chair and almost ran from the room. Hopefully, they could all be out of this place soon, leaving the Light empty handed.
The first five floors were completely evacuated before the Light even entered the building. Some data and experiments were left behind, but really, the upper floors were left for anything they did not mind leaving behind anyway.
All their personnel started gathering beneath the last floor of the facility, where the genomorphs had opened a large cavern they could use to escape.
Around him, Genomorphs lead humans towards the evacuation area, taking the humans away was a risk, but there was no way to know if the Light wouldn’t kill them and blame his family as a power play.
Checking his tablet, Dubbilex finally had the names of the entire raid team.
Leading from the front was Lady Shiva. He had disabled the elevator so the assassin and martial artist was running down the stairs with astonishing speed, followed closely behind by Cheshire.
Behind them, and running much slower, were Ubu, Hook and Black Spider. They tried to keep up, but the two females were just too fast.
Lex Luthor seemed to have decided to wait outside, Dubbilex managed to send one of the surviving drones outside to watch him, but the man rested calmly against the car, messing with his own cell phone.
Brain, Ra’s al Ghul and Ocean-Master walked calmly around the facility, as if they didn’t have a worry in the world. Dubbilex made sure to save the footage of it. At least he could prove they were working together.
Now, Dubbilex just had to survive this.
CapitaoCaverna
f you enjoy my work take a look at my other fics: Dungeon Delving is Damn HARD (SFW) / Reincarnated into a H World (VERY NSFW).
Also, think about giving me a tip if you have some spare change by supporting me on patreon, ko-fi with the buttons bellow the chapter, or just a one time donation directly to PayPal. All my content is free and you can support me for a single dollar.
A shout to Xhaustedhero, AkumaSmaG, Iori Daemona Angel, AlliterativeArts (Eric Faust), Icewing, Comics, DERMONIAN, Davvy chappie, Banh Bao, Ian Michael, WanderingDaemon, Scott, Tony Martinez, Travis cox, Chaos, Rootbeerguy and High Priest of Torga for supporting my work!
Thanks again for Eric Faust for helping out with the chapter.
Dubbilex stared at the grave with an impassive face. He was currently wearing the guise of a young woman, unwilling to connect his Donavan disguise with this particular trip.
He really didn’t know how he should be feeling right now.
In front of him rested his… mother? Sister? DNA donor? He supposes the third option was probably the most accurate. The others implied an emotional or familial connection that just wasn’t there. They had never even met after all.
Ace had been a little over twice his age when she died and, according to the documents he read, her powers had been what caused her death. Dubbilex had since gotten all the genomorphs a new medical check. The results weren’t good.
It seemed like his entire race had an expiration date, a little over twenty years with the proper care. He really didn’t know what to think about that.
Most humans lived about seventy to eighty years these days, but there were alien races that lived much longer… and much shorter lives.
Shaking his head, Dubbilex kneeled in front of the grave and deposited the flowers he had been holding. It had been… interesting to meet Ace, in a manner of speaking, but it didn’t really change his life.
No, it was important to remember her, but his focus should be on his still living brothers and sisters. Discovering just how short their lives would be gave him a new drive. He couldn’t keep wasting time anymore.
“Thank you brother.” He nodded towards Kon-El, the young man who had volunteered to accompany him, and he appreciated the gesture. “Let us return, I still have much to do.”
“Kara’s keeping you busy?” Kon-El asked with some interest.
“Indeed, managing both CADMUS and her company is difficult, I do hope she will find a new CEO soon.” Dubbilex said as they left the cemetery.
“Starfire is starting to talk about organizing an intervention.” Kon-El grimaced. “I don’t think Kara’s gonna react well to that.”
“No, I suppose not.” Dubbilex smiled thinking about his employer’s continued efforts to escape her therapist. “I’ll warn her that her time is running out.”
“How’s Kraig doing?”
“He still misses you, but he’s adjusting well to the outside world.” Dubbilex told him. The little G-gnome had been one of the first to volunteer at Kara’s new factory. “I dream of the day we can walk freely but, clearly, that is still a work in progress.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Kon-El asked, feeling Dubbilex’s frustration.
“For the moment? No.” Dubbilex shook his head and turned towards his brother. “However, when the time comes, I hope you can stand with us as we reveal ourselves.”
“I… of course.” Kon-El said with some hesitation.
Dubbilex could see his brother wanted to fit in, that he was willing to give it up for the sake of their race spoke well of his character. Laying a hand on his shoulder, Dubbilex smiled. “Don’t worry brother, I have spoken with Kara and Batman, there is still much to be done before we’re ready to move. When the time comes, I know you will be ready.”
Kon-El nodded. His shoulders relaxed as they got into the car.
Dubbilex kept the image of the woman until he stepped into the Zeta-Tube that delivered him to CADMUS’s door. Finally, he dispersed it and simply made himself invisible to anyone looking his way, trusting Kara’s tech to keep his image from any cameras.
Once inside, he relaxed his control and felt at home, surrounded by his family. He nodded towards Beth as she stepped out of her power generator and stretched her limbs, electricity leaving her body until she was no longer shining with power.
“Going to the Cafeteria?” He connected to her mind and asked.
“Yes, just finished a shift.” Beth flicked all her limbs, getting rid of the last sparks of electricity. “Want to come? Benny and Karen will be joining me there.”
“Yes, I haven’t eaten anything yet.” He decided to take some time before starting to organize CADMUS’s latest reports. He was eternally thankful for Kara’s help but, since a little over a week now, it had been nearly impossible to get her away from her workshop.
“You work too much, should I have a talk with the boss lady? Kryptonians aren’t immune to lightning, I could give her a lesson.” Dubbilex snorted, no genomorph would hurt Kara Zor-El, of that he was certain, but Beth liked to joke about it.
“No need, it shouldn’t be much longer before we have things in order.” He dismissed her concern. It wasn’t the time to be slowing down.
Eating a nice meal at the cafeteria, Dubbilex smiled as he saw the genomorphs and human researchers interacting as if it was normal. The human’s G-gnome handlers didn’t even have to do anything.
At the beginning, the human workers had found it strange to see the genomorphs free, walking around, having breaks and eating amongst them but ultimately, the G-gnomes only had to interfere a few times, and that interference was minimal.
Instead of mind controlling the humans, which many of them, including Dubbilex himself, were loathe to do, they just used their telepathy to inform Dubbilex, and he pretended to be their superior, berating them for releasing company secrets and reminding them of their work contracts.
Kara’s tech intercepted any electronic report, and, since they still believed the genomorphs were under their control, the humans adapted quickly. Not to say there weren’t some unpleasant individuals, but they were few and far between.
Sitting down at his desk, Dubbilex relaxed his body on the comfortable chair and used his telekinesis to lift the physical reports he had to sign. He read them one after another, and signed them with only a minor effort of will, his pen moving in the air with incredible skill.
Since finding out his own… origin, Dubbilex had been using his powers more and more. Ace had been able to grow from only being able to alter the perception of those who met her eyes, to warping reality in an area around herself.
Dubbilex doubted he could reach that level of power, and he certainly didn’t want to share her fate, but he was being careful and already noticed a large growth of his abilities, telekinesis came easier and with more skill. His telepathy was already effortless and now it grew in range and finesse every day.
He felt nearly twice as strong as he was before Kara had freed him, and that was far from his limit. Never again would he be unable to help his people. He refused to stand by once more.
Dubbilex was a natural pacifist, he did not wish for conflict and, more importantly, he would not start conflict. But, he wouldn’t stay quiet if his family was attacked or enslaved, not again.
Leaning forward, Dubbilex opened his own laptop, one given to him by Kara so nobody could hack it, typing his password, he waited until the computer finished scanning him, reading his fingerprints, retina, body shape and even his temperature, then started working on his CEO responsibilities, making sure the factory would be able to produce their first prototype on time.
Suddenly, his screen flashes red and the notebook starts releasing an incredibly annoying noise, a single click later and Dubbilex was redirected to the cameras outside CADMUS. For a moment, he couldn’t see anything, then Kara’s tech changed to heat signals revealing several assailants.
Reacting immediately, Dubbilex stretched his power, connecting to several people inside the facility. “Guardian, this is an emergency, start the evacuation procedures, abandon the upper floors and focus on the remaining genomorphs. Erin, make sure to retrieve everything and destroy any information on our creation or other sensitive projects. All others, start making your way to the genomorph cave.”
He didn’t wait for their answer and cut the connection, focusing back on the cameras. He recognized a few of their hidden enemies from Kara’s documentation, while most of them were too well hidden, Hook and Black Spider weren’t as skilled as the others.
The League of Shadows was here.
From the main road, a black car arrived and parked right in front of CADMUS, Lex Luthor himself stepped out of the vehicle, pulling something from inside his suit, he pressed a button and Dubbilex saw CADMUS’ own security be completely disabled, every camera stopped working at the same time.
Thankfully, Kara had long since provided an alternative surveillance system in the form of her drones. Some of the genomorphs had also disconnected a few of the security features from the central CADMUS’ system, making them work independently. Then a small, cylindrical robot with a brain appeared from the other side of the car, a large gorilla with a red beret following closely behind.
The gorilla was carrying a large metal pole on his shoulder, with a grunt, he drove it into the ground and the entire thing unfolded, revealing some kind of antenna. Dubbilex ordered a few of the drones to come closer for a better look.
The drones registered a pulse as it was released from the device, several warnings started activating on his screen and, before he could react, a bullet hit the closest drone. In quick succession, all the drones on the outside of the building were disabled.
Pressing a button, Dubbilex ordered them to self-destruct. Unfortunately, at least a dozen of the devices had completely stopped responding before he did. Kara still had incorporated defenses against tampering on every device but, with so many spares, they would have far too many tries to break through her defenses.
The drones weren’t actually that important, but Kara absolutely hated losing any advantage she had, and Dubbilex could already see the young Kryptonian becoming paranoid of her own tech being used against her allies.
A few seconds later, he found out what went wrong. While Brain’s device couldn’t destroy Kara’s drones, or even disable them. It could disrupt their stealth, making them easy pickings for the trained assassins.
Ordering the remaining devices to hide themselves in the ventilation or any other tight space, Dubbilex reprogrammed them so that any movement less than a meter from them would trigger their self-destruct. This way he’d be able to keep an eye on the Light’s progress while minimizing the chances that they could capture more of the devices.
Grabbing a tablet, Dubbilex got up from his chair and almost ran from the room. Hopefully, they could all be out of this place soon, leaving the Light empty handed.
The first five floors were completely evacuated before the Light even entered the building. Some data and experiments were left behind, but really, the upper floors were left for anything they did not mind leaving behind anyway.
All their personnel started gathering beneath the last floor of the facility, where the genomorphs had opened a large cavern they could use to escape.
Around him, Genomorphs lead humans towards the evacuation area, taking the humans away was a risk, but there was no way to know if the Light wouldn’t kill them and blame his family as a power play.
Checking his tablet, Dubbilex finally had the names of the entire raid team.
Leading from the front was Lady Shiva. He had disabled the elevator so the assassin and martial artist was running down the stairs with astonishing speed, followed closely behind by Cheshire.
Behind them, and running much slower, were Ubu, Hook and Black Spider. They tried to keep up, but the two females were just too fast.
Lex Luthor seemed to have decided to wait outside, Dubbilex managed to send one of the surviving drones outside to watch him, but the man rested calmly against the car, messing with his own cell phone.
Brain, Ra’s al Ghul and Ocean-Master walked calmly around the facility, as if they didn’t have a worry in the world. Dubbilex made sure to save the footage of it. At least he could prove they were working together.
Now, Dubbilex just had to survive this.
CapitaoCaverna
f you enjoy my work take a look at my other fics: Dungeon Delving is Damn HARD (SFW) / Reincarnated into a H World (VERY NSFW).
Also, think about giving me a tip if you have some spare change by supporting me on patreon, ko-fi with the buttons bellow the chapter, or just a one time donation directly to PayPal. All my content is free and you can support me for a single dollar.
A shout to Xhaustedhero, AkumaSmaG, Iori Daemona Angel, AlliterativeArts (Eric Faust), Icewing, Comics, DERMONIAN, Davvy chappie, Banh Bao, Ian Michael, WanderingDaemon, Scott, Tony Martinez, Travis cox, Chaos, Rootbeerguy and High Priest of Torga for supporting my work!
Thanks again for Eric Faust for helping out with the chapter.
