The alarms blared like a funeral dirge. Lights flickered across the cold metallic walls of Cadmus as containment doors slammed shut. Security teams scrambled in organized chaos. But it was already too late.
Jason moved like a phantom through the corridor. His breathing was calm, but inside, he was boiling. Every step was fueled by months of pain, agony, and betrayal. For thirty days, they had bled him, burned him, dissected his cells. He had begged them to stop. He had asked why.
Now he had only one question: how much destruction would it take before they truly regretted what they'd done?
A vector pulse shot from his hand, blowing apart the reinforced door ahead. Two guards rounded the corner—one was flung into the ceiling, the other pinned to a wall until his armor cracked. Jason didn't look back.
He reached the final security gate. A wall of steel, half a meter thick. His breath fogged the air. He closed his eyes, arms outstretched.
He twisted gravity sideways.
The steel bent, shrieked, and then cracked in half as if peeled open by invisible hands. Freedom lay beyond.
The desert wind hit him like a baptism. The full moon hung high above the rocky horizon. Jason stumbled forward, chest heaving.
But he wasn't alone.
Two shadows stepped forward.
The first was draped in black, a cape billowing behind him, eyes glowing white beneath pointed cowl.
The second hovered with arms crossed, cape fluttering, the red-and-yellow S iconic even in moonlight.
"Jason Barnes," Batman said. "We're here to get you out. You're safe now."
Jason stared at them, face expressionless. "You're too late."
Superman stepped forward. "We know what Cadmus did. We want to help—"
"Help?" Jason scoffed. "Where were you when they ripped me apart piece by piece? When they pumped me full of chemicals and called me an animal?"
Neither answered.
Jason stepped closer, shadows clinging to him. "Everyone who touched me, who laughed as they cut me open… will die."
Batman's voice was firm. "Revenge won't fix what they did."
"No," Jason said coldly. "But it'll make me feel something."
Superman raised a hand. "You don't have to walk this path. Let us help you find another way."
Jason's voice dropped, barely a whisper.
"If you get in my way... I apologize in advance for being rude."
Wind howled around them. Jason turned, walking into the desert's embrace.
He didn't look back.
That night, under the pale moonlight, he climbed to a cliff overlooking the facility. Bloodied. Broken. But free.
He raised his face to the stars.
And for the first time in months, he screamed—not in pain, but in triumph.
"I… AM… FREE!!"
His voice echoed through the canyons like a war cry.
And somewhere deep inside, the world trembled in anticipation.
------------------
The desert was vast and indifferent. Jason walked alone beneath the starlit sky, footsteps silent against the cracked earth. A storm churned inside him, but his body moved with mechanical precision. He couldn't afford to break down—not yet.
Every gust of wind reminded him of the Cadmus cell, of the electrodes and scalpels, of the voice that always smiled before asking, "How does this feel?" Jason clenched his fists, vectors bristling across his skin.
He needed time.
He needed power.
He needed vengeance.
---
Elsewhere, deep within a high-security meeting room in Washington D.C., Amanda Waller reviewed footage gathered by her intelligence operatives. Jason's face flickered across a wall-mounted screen, recorded from a satellite camera the moment he burst through Cadmus's final gate.
His body glowed with kinetic energy, his eyes unreadable.
"Any progress on tracking him?" Waller asked, tone as cold as the metal table.
One of her analysts nodded. "He went dark after an encounter with Superman and Batman. Satellite imagery lost him in the desert canyons."
Waller turned toward the monitor. "That boy is not just some lab rat. He's a walking weapon."
"Ma'am, Cadmus' final report before the breach shows something disturbing," said another tech. "Jason Barnes is ten times stronger and faster than a peak human, even without his vector ability. Preliminary blood samples taken during experimentation show that he also possesses low-tier regenerative properties."
Waller's eyes narrowed. "So we have a rogue meta with top-tier adaptability, severe psychological trauma, and the power to level a city block if provoked."
She stood.
"Prepare Task Force Shadow. I want eyes on him the moment he resurfaces."
---
In a hidden corner of Gotham, Jason crouched on the edge of an abandoned water tower, eyes scanning the quiet streets. He had stolen a change of clothes, ditched the medical garb, and covered his trail.
He wasn't foolish. The world was filled with metas, heroes, and tyrants. The Justice League might have offered mercy, but Cadmus proved that mercy was rare.
He needed more power before he could begin to strike back. And so, he began to train.
Manipulating vectors came instinctively, but refining them was like solving an endless puzzle. He could move objects, alter gravity, redirect kinetic force—but what about using vectors to fly? To pierce armor? To manipulate energy itself?
Day by day, he experimented in isolation, pushing his limits.
He created a list.
Names etched into his mind like scars:
Dr. Arlen Crest: Cadmus head scientist, last seen overseeing tissue harvest protocols.
Commander Holt: Lead security enforcer, laughed during every injection.
LexCorp Liaison #12: Face unknown, voice familiar. Authorized enhanced experiments.
Amanda Waller: She hadn't been in the lab, but he knew her presence lingered over Cadmus like a silent blade.
His "to-kill list".
Jason didn't write it down. He remembered.
---
In Metropolis, Lex Luthor reviewed similar files. A holographic model of Jason rotated slowly above his desk.
"The boy's physiology is fascinating," his chief scientist noted. "He adapts rapidly. Even under suppression, his cellular structure evolved to compensate. Cadmus may have unintentionally created the perfect genetic wildcard."
Luthor smiled thinly. "And now he's loose."
He pressed a button. A new directive was uploaded to a private LexCorp network.
"Find him. Study him. And if necessary… control him."
---
Jason stood on the roof of a tenement building, watching the sunrise. His body ached, but his mind was sharper than it had ever been.
He wouldn't be a pawn again.
Not for Cadmus. Not for the League. Not for anyone.
The world thought he was just a survivor.
But Jason Barnes was becoming a storm.
End of Chapter 5