Jason had lost track of the days.
Time in Cadmus didn't flow like it had in the real world. There was no sun, no moon, only the sterile hum of artificial lights and the screech of metal instruments. His cell, ten by ten feet of reinforced metal and plasma barriers, had no windows. Meals came twice a day—if the goop they fed him could even be called that—and were usually accompanied by a guard and a new round of tests.
He had learned early on that screaming changed nothing. He had learned to go quiet. To observe. To adapt.
---
Doctor Ross continued his endless studies. Day after day, he ran blood tests, biopsies, exposure trials. One day, they stripped Jason down and placed him in a freezing chamber until his body temperature neared death. Another day, they lit his arms with controlled fire to study cellular regeneration.
The experiments were brutal. Precise. Efficient.
And Jason was changing.
His body had begun adapting in ways the scientists didn't expect. Muscles knit faster. Pain dulled more quickly. They noted it. Charted it. Grew eager to see how far he could go before breaking.
They didn't know it, but they were forging something new. The scared teenager from Earth was being melted down by suffering—and reforged into something far harder.
---
Jason no longer cried. He no longer begged. He counted.
Footsteps. Screams from other rooms. Guard rotations.
He scratched a list into the metal bedframe with a stolen shard from a broken scanner pad.
To Kill List:
Dr. Cayden Ross
Guards 1 through 4 (names pending)
Assistant Calla (the one who laughed during blood draws)
Each name carved with cold precision.
He also began observing patterns. Noting timings. Noticing when the plasma barrier flickered for 0.7 seconds during power transitions. When guard shifts overlapped by three minutes. When Dr. Ross stepped out to make secure calls Jason could almost hear through the vents.
He was still trapped.
But he was no longer helpless.
---
Justice League Watchtower - Surveillance Room
Batman stared at the frozen image on the screen. A boy—late teens, shirt torn, wandering alone in the middle of the Bialyan desert. Satellite footage caught a massive pulse of energy upon his arrival, enough to trip power grids as far away as Qurac.
Superman folded his arms. "He appeared out of nowhere. No boom tube, no zeta signature, no teleportation trace. Just... materialized."
"His biology?" Martian Manhunter asked.
"We haven't been able to scan him since the Cadmus retrieval team picked him up," Batman replied. "They covered it up—destroyed satellite images, erased military flight logs. But we still have fragments."
"Cadmus," Wonder Woman said, voice like flint. "That facility has always danced on the edge of legality."
"They're hiding something big," Batman said. "A new metahuman. Possibly alien. Possibly both."
"And if they're experimenting on him?" J'onn asked.
Superman's fists clenched. "Then we stop them."
---
LexCorp Tower - Metagene Research Division
Lex Luthor reviewed the latest report from Cadmus with cold amusement. His private Cadmus division, under the front of 'meta-threat neutralization,' had delivered promising results.
"Subject X234.001 displays exceptional physical enhancements. Preliminary testing shows strength levels 10x baseline human male. Speed reflexes border metahuman classification. Tissue recovery indicates low-tier regenerative factors. No metagene signature detected. Further analysis required."
Lex's eyes narrowed. "And yet no origin."
He flipped to a new page.
"Initial tests suggest an unknown energy surge accompanied his arrival—similar in structure to tachyon flux anomalies. Potential extra-dimensional displacement? Recommend containment. Subject's continued exposure to experimental stimuli accelerating mutation."
"Interesting," Lex murmured. "Very interesting."
He tapped his stylus against his desk. "Dr. Ross, accelerate psychological profiling. Push his limits. Let's see how far the human mind can be molded before it breaks—or evolves."
---
Cadmus Underground Facility - Jason's Cell
Jason sat in the dark, head bowed, body covered in faded scars and bruises that never quite lasted.
He could feel something under his skin. A hum, like static, like potential energy just waiting to explode outward.
That night, for the first time in weeks, a message appeared in his vision, flickering like a glitch in reality:
[SYSTEM INITIALIZED] Apologies for the delayed synchronization. Compensation granted.
Gift: VECTOR MANIPULATION
Jason's eyes widened. His heart thundered.
[Tutorial pending...]
He clenched his fists. Power pulsed faintly at his fingertips.
And for the first time since arriving in this hell...
He smiled.