Like an Acorn

Five felt like a wool sock had been shoved down her throat and a hammer had been taken to the back of her head. A disorienting nausea filled the clone as she tried to process the scattered thoughts from the back of her pounding mind. Her heart beat thumped loudly in her chest. Swallowing, Five let out a slight groan, her cheek pressed annoyingly against a cool surface.

She didn’t need to open her eyes to know she wasn’t in the pod. The twitch of her back muscles and the awkward positioning of her body made that crystal-clear. On the plus side, Five did note she wasn’t dead yet- not dying was always a bonus. On the other hand, if she was dead she also wouldn’t be handcuffed to a table and a dark metal brace around her neck.

Five knew her genes weren’t encrypted with superstrength but she pulled roughly on the metal chains nonetheless. Her hands frantically trying to reach for the metal surrounding her throat, but to no prevail. It was annoyingly out of grasp, and as the realization of her situation hit her, Five found herself jerking upwards forgetting about her shackled wrists as she inspected the room for possible threats. Five’s eyes soaked in her environment with predatory speed.

The room was all white, like her lab had once been; white walls, white floor, white ceiling, white chairs, and white desk. The only color in her vision was from the whipping of her now loose brown hair as she turned her head from side to side. Her wrists dug angrily into the metal of the handcuffs that attached each wrist to a section of the nailed-down desk.

Having control over plants was useless inside, having control over pheromones was pointless in an empty room. If she got out of this alive, Five fully intended recommending superstrength, or laser vision to the doctors. It was quite ridiculous, what was the point of having powers if she didn’t have the opportunity to use them? This was the ultimate opportunity to display her worth in a real life situation, and she couldn’t even escape from a locked room. There wasn’t even a solemn potted plant most rooms had to appear friendly before the psychotic interrogators ripped you apart. At least a plant would give her a means of escape. Preferably a cactus, those things were very useful, better than air vents. Five considered for a moment that perhaps air vents weren’t her thing. Simulations were far more appealing. Maybe simulated cactus were the same way?

Letting out a deep breath, Five acknowledged the fact that she might never see a cactus in real life, in fact, she might not see a lot of things in real life. If it wasn’t because she was most likely going to die, she wouldn’t be too upset about that, the scenarios were adventurous enough for her. This was dangerous. The outside world was full of problematic things that she did not enjoy. Like pain, pain downright sucked. This whole day-(night?) trip to who-knew where totally 100% sucked. Big time.

Looking around quietly Five still hadn’t said a word, even though the girl knew she was being watched. The floor-to-ceiling mirror against the right wall wasn’t just for decoration; it never was. She was still trying to piece together the situation she was in. Ivy and the clown did not seem the type to capture people. The blood coated walls from the G-Gnomes had shown how they thought about prisoners.

The boys were an unknown factor, it was improbable that two separate groups would attack the same place at the same time. Five doubted that there was a sign in front of the lab that shouted the hidden treasures on her level, (of course having never gone outside, she wasn’t too sure on that one) but still, it seemed unlikely.

Yet, here she was, chained to a desk in some unknown hiding place. Five had no idea if she was still on Cadmus property. It was strange, she’d never thought about leaving before. She was born in the lab, she assumed she would be terminated there as well after she performed her duty. As strange as it may sound, that was alright with her. Thinking was tiring and she was not proficient in doing what was asked of her. Five had no energy for the work that her scientists asked of her, the jobs she was assigned in simulations itched at her, and while she was loyal to her purpose of helping those who’d created her, she did not feel particularly motivated when it came to finishing her job. Simulation was the farthest she’d gone from her level, the realization that she could be halfway around the world, was frightening and at the same time… Exciting?

No, exciting wasn’t the correct word, that obviously was just a jumbled thought from the head wound. The one she’d gotten from the boy with the staff when he’d almost knocked her head off. This was a serious situation and not the time for excitement, only logic. Logical people survived after all.

At the same time Five couldn’t help but notice that there was nothing logical about this experience. In her short time interacting with the real world she was realizing nothing in life was as logical as the scenarios promised it to be. In all accounts she should be dead. If you failed you died. It was simple, like 1+1=2, except more strangulation. The boy should have killed her, or brought her to Ivy to be tortured-- another unfortunate outcome of simulations, quite unpleasant all around really. While the migraine and handcuffs rang true to the torture theory, Five’s bandaged shoulder wound did not.

It was illogical to fix up someone you planned on killing. Even more so, pointless to help someone intended to be tortured. Basically Five was confused… Confused, grateful, and excited?

Fear and excitement were close feelings, and as they flowed through Five’s body she wondered if she was crazy to feel such things. How were people supposed to feel in this situation? Better yet, how were clones supposed to feel? Her training didn’t cover this, emotional response was to be limited not explored. Yet, like a nagging undertide it snipped at her pulling at her lagging mind.

There was no more running. Even if her body craved it, strapped to the table Five had no choice but to push it back. She had no more tricks up her sleeves, no bobby pins stuck in her hair, no strategic plan which would insure her safety. Even as the voice in the back of her mind screamed at her to fight, to figure out a way out, she ignored it. She was strapped to a table and out of options.

Out of options and out of energy. Even if she did escape the probability she was somewhere in the lab was near to zero. So instead of causing a scene Five did her best to appear calm, even with the waterfall of emotion bubbling behind her eyes. Straightening her back Five took deep breaths as she stared quietly at the door waiting for it to open and the people who were watching her from behind the window to appear.

It took what seemed like an eternity for the door to open. At first Five wondered if she was imagining the creaking of the metal door as it took almost an entire minute for the large white structure to open and show the unexpected frame of the girl behind it. The girl was physically only a few years older than Five appeared herself, the clone was curious as she had not been with the boys at Cadmus. This girl had reddish-brown hair, and a soft look about her. Unlike the harsh expressions of the other women, the pity displayed upon her face as she entered the room seemed genuine enough. Unlike the cynical face of the boy who followed her.

His scowl almost as familiar as the red ‘S’ printed across his black T-shirt. Five wished the girl had come alone, girls were usually more sympathetic, and did not typically require any powers to manipulate. So Five kept a weary gaze upon the guy who was out of range, even with her charms.

His back pressed against the far wall lazily, as if guard duty was the last thing he wanted to do. The ‘S’ on his shirt was annoyingly familiar, yet she could not place it, some studies stuck better than others, and this symbol was obviously from one she could have cared less about.

“I am sorry about the chains, but you attacked my friend,” the redhead explained her pale hands motioning to the cuffs around Five’s wrists. Her voice soft upon the air, making Five realize how tired she really was. She didn’t answer her, there was nothing to say to that. Five knew she was apologizing, but the idea of acknowledging understanding for her current state seemed wrong. She was chained to a table and not in her pod, it was not her fault. Most likely it was theirs.

“FYI, there’s an inhibitor collar around your neck. We may not know who you are yet, but shock someone hard enough and it doesn’t matter what you can do. So I wouldn’t suggest trying anything,” the boy threatened his voice coming out gruff as he flipped a small remote in his hands.

“Con-Superboy, a little delicacy please,” The girl laughed awkwardly, rubbing her fingers against the bridge of her nose.

The girl did not seem to notice Five’s silence as she pulled a chair out from across the table, her body perching lightly upon the seat as if she weighed nothing at all. “Do you know why you are here?” The girl asked carefully as if speaking to a child, Five was no child. At the same time she couldn’t answer, she didn’t know why she was there, she didn’t feel like she knew anything.

Five’s silence didn’t seem to faze the girl, another question ringing out as quickly as the first. “What are you?” Five still refused to answer her, “Who are you?” the girl tried again in vein, the smooth white desk top suddenly became shockingly interesting as Five stared blankly at its surface. “What do they call you? Do you have a name?” The girl asked again, this time her words dug deep, startling the clone for a moment, it was almost like… “Your name is Five? Like the number?” The girl answered, causing Five to jerk up, her eyes popping as she stared at the girl for a long moment.

“That’s a number, not a name,” The boy protested as if the idea of Five’s name was infuriating to him on some personal level.

Deep down, this amused Five, but she was more troubled by the fact that the girl had figured this out on her own. A half-baked word rose to the surface before she could stop it, “H-How?” the stutter left her lips before she could control the anxious pitch in her voice.

“They call me Miss Martian, I’m Martian Manhunter’s niece, do you know who he is? Do you know who the Justice League is?” Miss Martian probed, causing panic to slice through Five’s system as the girl’s pale skin shifted into a dark green shade.

“I-I do not understand,” Five started, her face pinching into a pained expression.

“The Justice League, the world’s greatest heroes,” Miss Martian started only for Five to shake her head.

“No, I know what the Justice League is, it’s just... you’re green?” Five asked staring shocked at the green skinned girl with slight wonder. She’d never seen a Martian in a simulation before let alone real life. Her classes had hardly discussed them, well- besides on how to kill one, but as it wasn’t too complicated she didn’t need to spend much time on it.

“Yes, I’m green, but it’s more important that you tell me what you know of the Justice League…” Miss Martian asked, her questions irritatingly serious, it was obvious the girl was wanting information from her. The real question was what would happen to Five once she got it?

“First, why did they make you? What are you programmed to do?” Superboy probed dismissing Miss Martian’s question.

Five’s eyes shot into a glare as she looked back at him. “You are rude,” She shot out with venom her face turning deadly serious in an instant, “Social pleasantries must be difficult for you,” she observed, amused with his twitch of agitation.

“Listen you-” Superboy started only to be cut off by a frantic Miss Martian.

“Superboy! Remember what we talked about,” the girl hinted now faking a calm exterior. This obviously was not what she had planned the conversation to go as. Five could work with that, distraction would buy her more time; for what, she didn’t know yet.

“Are all Martians green?” She started asking her own questions as she noticed the girl’s nose crinkle with annoyance as if the question stung. “Why do you keep asking about the Justice League, I am a clone, shouldn’t you know more about them than I do? You said you were related to Martian Manhunter, couldn’t he answer your questions? Can he read minds too, or is that just something you do?” Five rambled throwing back questions quickly to the girl. In reality she knew the answer to the questions already. They were generic but confused Miss Martian enough that she didn’t seem to catch on at first that Five was leading her on.

“Uh, no.. Some are white, but um…” Miss Martian paused looking back at the boy long enough to show that she was stuck. Stuck on what Five didn’t know.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out they were communicating, or at least she was reading his thoughts. “We need to get back on track, Who are you?” Miss Martian asked now, her voice straining as she tried to slide back into Five’s brain.

Swallowing, Five could feel her tugging at the edges of her mind, sliding under her defenses like a warm knife through butter. “I’m Five, that’s all,” She sputtered shaking her head as if that would get the girl out of her mind. “Don’t do that!” Five growled suddenly jumping out of her chair, a gasp escaping from her throat as an electrical charge surged down her body. Five’s muscles contracted violently for a moment as she felt the small shock travel down her body, jerking her awkwardly in multiple directions. Her wrists straining as they were still connected to the desk. Dropping to her knees Five pressed her forehead against the edge of the desk her arms still laying over the top as she caught her breath. Her chest pounded as she pulled in air, a dirty look slid over to the boy and his evil remote.

“She wasn’t going to do anything,” Miss Martian sighed seeming to be as annoyed as Five with Superboy.

“No risks to the team,” he shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. Five doubted he’d be so calm if it was his neck in the collar.

“That’s not fair, I thought you of all people would be more supportive,” Miss Martian added in her soft voice causing his body to relax at least a fraction of a second before a glare was shot Five’s way. “This is different, we already lost… She acted like a criminal so I treated her like one.”

“Critical- Super, totally hypocritical,” offered a random voice out of the doorway, causing all three of the heads to turn with mild surprise, and a dose of agitation on Superboy’s part.

“Taking a vacation requires taking a vacation, Nightwing,” Superboy grumbled like a child caught doing something he shouldn’t have.

“When the Bat calls you answer,” The guy in dark sunglasses started. With a nod in her direction as he walked into the room. Five’s head just span.

“Who are you people?” She asked out of exasperation. Her head resting against the cool desk surface as she tried to pull herself back into her chair.

“Just a few members of the Young Justice League of America,” Nightwing said stepping farther into the room.

“T-The Sidekicks?” Five’s head tilted to the side, their appearances clicking suddenly in her mind. She had been taught about various heroes to help with her simulations, but besides that she hadn’t paid any particular attention. It hadn’t interested her. Had she known this would happen, she might have paid more attention in class.

Or at least understood why the word was treated with such apprehension, “We aren’t sidekicks,” hissed Superboy. Five started to wonder if he was always so moody.

“Yes, because I doubt if Superman was running the show I would have been fried,” Five spat at him. “American way and all that stuff right?” She accused becoming surprisingly bold for her taste, but she definitely did not like this boy.

“Last time I checked you were made in a lab, so you’re not an American,” he shot back just as quickly, breaking the distance quickly, as if he would plow her over.

“Dude, last time I checked so were you,” the boy in sunglasses reprimanded Superboy without hesitation.

“She doesn’t even have a name,” Superboy argued, as if that made Five less of a person than he was.

“I told you my name is Five,” She explained again to the thickheaded boy.

“Five is a number not a name,” “Neither is Superboy,” she retorted.

“Will you both shut up?!” Sunglasses yelled stopping both fighting clones in their tracks. Silence filled the room as Five realized how dangerous her arguing might have been. She wasn’t safe, arguing with the person holding the weapon was not wise. At the same time though, it was difficult not to. That’s when it clicked.

“Lab… Wait? You’re Kr, oh my gosh, that is really hypocritical!” Five started in new outrage.

Miss Martian’s head hit the table with an exasperated groan, “and here we go again,” she huffed arms raised in the air for emphasis.

“As much as it would be aster to talk about the hypocrisy of it all right now, I thought I would tell you why I came?” Nightwing said with an amused smirk in his teammate’s direction.

“Oh, so there was a reason, besides mocking me?” Superboy asked sarcastically towards his friend.

“The batcave got a match on the DNA test,” He said with a shrug, “Robin had P.E. soo.. I offered to bring you the Springer-like news,” he chuckled for a moment before handing the sheet to Superboy,

“We sent it out an hour ago,” Superboy rebuffed as he accepted the sheets, reading them silently to himself.

“You did hear me say the word batcave, right?”

“Wait you mean Maury? Maury does the paternity tests,” Miss Martian smiled softly correcting Nightwing.

“So you’re not going to kill me?” Five asked with disbelief for a moment, completely confused. For one thing she had no clue who Maury or Springer was. She didn’t have a clue what was going on. It just wasn’t right. This wasn’t what should have happened.

“What part of superheroes don’t you understand? If I was going to kill you I would’ve already, but don’t cross out Belle Reve,” Superboy snapped his eyes jumping back to Nightwing, “Did you read this?” He asked quickly before crossing the room, passing the sheet to an awaiting Miss Martian.

From the look on her face she’d already read his mind, but continued to scan the document anyways.

“Batman briefed me on the way out,” Nightwing shrugged, with a small smirk on his lips.

“Batman, I’ve actually heard of him, he’s a real hero right? Why isn’t he here?” Five demanded suddenly, the gears in her mind turning.

“We’re real heroes, we save people too,” Superboy argued, Five could see his shoulders tighten once again. He was interesting, her mind processed the fact that he was the same as she was. Although he was Kryptonian, they both had Cadmus in common. Five watched carefully as he pulled out the chair next to Miss Martian, spinning it around so his arms could rest against the tall back as he sat.

“Do I look saved to you?” she questioned holding up her shackled wrists, annoyance clearly presented in her voice.

“You did not play well with others,” Nightwing offered breaking into the glaring match between the two clones.

“My objective was not to play well with others,” Five corrected letting out a frustrated sigh as she collapsed back into her chair, eyes rolling with irritation towards the ceiling. This was going nowhere, they did not understand her. Kr, should’ve been able to recognize her thought process, he was like her once. Now he was as clueless as other two.

“What was your objective then?” Nightwing asked with less force surprising Five, as she was expecting another rough tongued question. It was obvious that all three of them were there to confuse her, their changing personalities and comments directed to make her more forthcoming. She was warned about this, they were after information. The only difference between this setting and torture was pain, yet because the question was not too private Five had no problem answering it.

“Survival,” she said simply looking back towards them, they were silent for a moment. For some unknown reason, the silence bothered Five.

“So they were trying to kill you?” Miss Martian asked breaking the silence, which Five was strangely grateful for.

“I don’t know, not at first I think, Ivy and the clown, they wanted to… oh how did she put it? Liberate me? Or something, she was angry they stole something from her,” Five answered truthfully, now leaning over the desk, her hands rubbed her temples with exasperation.

“You mean they stole you, or the DNA they created you from, right?” Nightwing clarified.

“Obviously, they were crazy though, and I wasn’t going with them. So I turned down her offer.”

“You mean, you broke her arm and ran away,” Superboy corrected.

“Did you see the scientist, the G-Gnomes? My options were limited, plus incapacitating Ivy enhanced my probability of successfully escaping.”

“How exactly did you do that?” Nightwing interjected again.

“I told her what she wanted to hear, it was logical,”

“like you did to Blue Beetle in the airshaft,” Superboy accused.

“Yes. I calculated it was unlikely two different groups both broke into the facility.”

“So that justifies attacking us first?”

“Yes. He’s perfectly fine though, I didn’t need to inflict permanent damage.”

“Because we weren’t attacking you.”

“No, his armor was too bulky for him to follow me, statisti-”

“You’re a clone not a robot, leave statistics and probabilities out of it,” Superboy complained suddenly.

“What he means to say is you have options,” Miss Martian intercepted.

“Options?” Five whispered, the word rolling around in her brain. “Like going back?” she asked hopefully.

“Back? You want to go back!” Superboy yelled in surprise, the table shaking as his combat boot made contact with the leg.

“Superboy,” Miss Martian hissed, her eyes turning sharp for the briefest of seconds.

“It’s less stressful, and I’m not handcuffed to a table,” Five sighed before rolling her eyes.

“No, you’re just frozen in a pod,” he hissed.

“I want to go back, I haven’t done anything to warrant this treatment.” Five demanded her voice raising an octave.

“No, she hasn’t,” Five’s head flew up, as a gruff voice sounded from the door.

“What is it with you guys? Does everyone do that?! It’s called knocking, you know letting people know you are in a room before scaring them!” She yelled a sob escaping her throat as a man in all black entered the room.

“Batman, I thought you were busy,” Nightwing grimaced, as if he wasn’t expecting the hero.

“Checking our ground with Amanda Waller,” He stated crossing his arms across his chest as if surveying the situation. “I just got off the phone with her,” he continued before reaching for his utility belt. An uneasy feeling filled her stomach as she watched him move. This was the Superhero she’d been asking for only minutes before, now though, now Five wasn’t sure. It was one thing to throw a biting remark Superboy’s way, he wasn’t horribly scary, but this guy was.

“You spoke to Waller?” Five asked tentatively, wondering what object the hero held in his hands. Five knew he was named a hero, but there were other more questionable allegations Five had heard about in her class. Things that Five wondered were true as Batman stepped closer than she would have preferred. His silence was not comforting. “What are you doing?” She asked apprehensively, as the dark dressed man grabbed for her wrist.

“Removing the cuffs and collar, unless you’d like to keep them?” He questioned a serious look still upon his face. Five couldn’t tell if he was joking.

“No I would not,” she finally laughed uneasily.