Alternative Rewritten

Chapter One: Escape From Cadmus

At his command, the monsters lunged at them with teeth bared and claws flying. Kid Flash gulped and grabbed his friend by the arm, dragging him away from the approaching fight and towards the elevator. Normally he would try to take these guys out, but they were obviously outnumbered. And they would most likely lose if they didn't come up with a strategy beforehand. "I think we should retreat!"

"I agree," the Atlantian mumbled as they entered the elevator. The doors closed just as their enemies came nearer. "Shouldn't we have been locked out?" The Atlantean asked once they were safe, staring at the metal doors. "It is strange, that these doors were conveniently left open when most elevator doors automatically close after a short amount of time."

"Maybe there was a glitch in the system." Wally shrugged nonchalantly, but he also felt that it was a little strange. But why get upset over something that benefited them? "I'm not complaining."

"...right." The Atlantian winced as the metal doors started rattling. The monsters seemed to have finally caught up and were banging on the doors to get in. If they stayed there, the doors would be yanked down and they'd be shredded to pieces. "Where should we go?"

"Let's get out of here, duh!" Wally snapped, looking at the buttons on the elevator panel. One of these had to bring them back to the ground floor, since they were obviously way out of their depth here. They were too outnumbered for this mission. If they went back and told the Justice League what they already found, that should be enough.

Apparently though, Aqualad didn't share his resignation for the matter. "I fear that Cadmus is hiding something much bigger downstairs. I don't know why...but I feel as though we should go down." He sighed. "If we leave now, Cadmus might find a way to cover up all of our discoveries by the time we make it back. If we must, we can use our signals to call the League, but I think for now we should continue our investigation."

Wally hesitantly nodded. He was right- if they left now, there was no guarantee that all of this would still be here when the League came. The people who ran Cadmus could just pack away their most important projects and disappear. "So, where are we going?"

There was a pause. "I don't-"

He was cut off when a loud laugh rang through the small space, and the elevator began to move on its own.

"Kid!" Aqualad snapped, shooting him a stern look.

"Not me!" Wally said defensively, holding his hands up in the universal sign of surrender. He looked at the control panel warily, watching the numbers count up until they were past sub level 50. If the enemy was responsible for the elevator moving, they could be met with a full army of those creatures as soon as the doors opened.

Kaldur seemed to come to the same conclusion. "Be ready to fight if need be," he said quietly, pulling out his water bearers. Wally nodded shortly and stretched out his legs real quick, knowing that if there was about to be a large scale fight, he would be running as fast as he could.

The elevator came to a halt at the lowest floor, sub level fifty two. Wally held his breath as the doors slowly opened, and released it in a sigh of relief when they weren't met with an ambush.

But... who brought them here?

The two heroes stepped out of the elevator and found themselves standing in a creepy looking crimson colored room, with two distinct paths going in seperate directions leading away from them. "Which way..." Aqualad mumbled, and Wally shrugged weakly in response. He had no idea what to do right now. This still felt like a trap to him. Both paths were looking more like awaiting death the longer he stared at them.

"Halt!" A new voice commanded, and another one of the strange creatures stepped out of the shadows. Wally and Aqualad simply glanced at each other before simultaneously sprinting, ignoring the objects that the creatures began to throw at them from behind. At the end of the hallway were large metal doors, which slid open as they approached. A young woman wearing a lab coat stepped out, then froze in her tracks, staring at the heroes in shock. Looking at the possible safe zone behind the woman, Wally sped up and grabbed the closest object to him and ran towards the door, shoving the woman aside as he used the canister to keep the metal doors open.