Post by HoM on Jul 27, 2017 13:04:09 GMT -5
Previously, in JUSTICE LEAGUE…
Minutes into joining the team, FIRESTORM received a first-hand look at the kinds of threats the Justice League confronted, as every body of water across the globe suddenly lost its surface tension!
FIRESTORM was able to restore the oceans to their previous cohesion, but she nearly burned out as a result. Before the team could begin coming up with a battle plan, MERA arrived on the scene and reactivated her team membership, bringing with her the much-needed intelligence to help figure out the cause of this catastrophe…
With thousands dead and more missing, it’s revealed the cause of this cataclysm is none other than OCEAN MASTER, the half-brother of AQUAMAN, who kidnapped the King of the Seven Seas to activate a magical weapon of mass destruction!
Meanwhile, BIG BARDA, CYBORG, MAJESTIC and MISTER MIRACLE-- along with Earth’s second GREEN LANTERN-- head out into space to investigate a strange celestial body that floated into their solar system’s vicinity.
The celestial body is literally that-- the corpse of a god!-- that came with its own set of problems, namely a legion of mythical carrion beasts whose lives are dedicated to devouring god-flesh! The team are able to turn the creatures back, but not before CYBORG is critically injured, his organic components devoured by the retreating creatures!
Finally, AQUAMAN tried to reason with his mad brother, but he soon found that OCEAN MASTER may not be as much to blame as he initially thought, as the puppet master behind it all showed his face-- none other than NEREUS, King of Xebel, the mysterious, water-logged prison dimension, and the man who claimed to be MERA’s true husband!
With all this in mind, please join us now for the continuing adventures of the JUSTICE LEAGUE--
Before the rise of man, Psang was a bustling pre-human city, with a thriving populace who were renowned throughout the ancient world for their charity, but after a mysterious catastrophe struck, it drowned beneath the waves, along with its people.
Now it was a haunted place, with empty structures covered in coral groping up at the ocean’s surface…
Sea-dwelling drifters, outcasts from cities like Poseidonis who had been purged during the Caste Purge had taken up residence in the tomb-like structures, and madness and superstition had seeped in somewhere along the way. Above them? An epic, oceanic anomaly… the Bermuda Triangle.
Strewn across the ocean floor, obscuring the sunken city beneath, were the carcasses of ghost ships and drowned freighters. Planes whose electronical equipment had shorted out in close proximity to the anomaly and whose pilots had no recourse but to crash land… sink… drown…
Orm Marius-- Chief Guard of Atlantis-- had heard strange rumours emerging from this place, and so against the wishes of his brother, Orin-- the King of Atlantis-- had journeyed there alone to investigate.
When asked why he didn’t take a platoon of guards with him on these somewhat risky investigations, Orm explained that he wouldn’t put any lives at risk until he knew the nature of whatever it was they were facing. It was a brave act, but perhaps a foolish one.
Even when Orin had insisted-- but never ordered!-- Orm refused, and they had been at loggerheads over this point for months now. But as he was the Chief, and the King’s brother, he had a level of autonomy and he was taking advantage of that fact at this very moment.
He’d found the entrance to the source of the strange, shrieking sound that had led to his investigation in the first place. There was a tunnel, about a metre in height and width, leading to the unknown, and so with his trident drawn, he swam inside.
Deep within the bowels of the cavern, a dirty, scab-like wound floated in the centre of a chamber. The walls, covered in hieroglyphics of a sort, were man-made, carved by hand however many thousands of years ago. Orm pressed his hand against the inscriptions and could make out some words.
The symbols were ancient Atlantean, and as royal blood he’d received the best of educations. He tried not to focus his gaze on the scab. Water seemed to seep inside its folds, then vanish. He picked up a small pebble from the floor and allowed it to drift inside, carried toward the hole in space by an invisible pull. It did not come out the other side.
“That noise… it’s coming from the hole… but where does it lead?” he wondered aloud.
“To hell and back.”
Cursing himself for not noticing he wasn’t alone, Orm turned, but it was too late. Nereus, a stranger to the chief of Atlantis’ security but known to the people of Xebel as their king, pounced, driving his fists into the back of the man’s head. Dazed but not down, Orm swung his trident back toward his attacker, but hands formed of solidified water wrapped their steel-strong fingers around his limbs, dragging him toward the ground.
“You and I are going to become very well acquainted, Atlantean,” said Nereus, as his own King’s Guard began to step out of the dark waters around them. In each gnarled, work-worn hand they carried large syringes with razor sharp tips, glass cylinders attached to each filled with a crimson liquid. “Shall we begin?
Angela Spica pressed her hands against the emerald construct that suspended Victor Stone’s bodily functions. He’d been shredded, his organic parts dealt a devastating blow, but his cybernetics were still functioning, albeit at a reduced capacity. His face was a mauled mess, and there wasn’t enough parts left for Green Lantern to reconstruct.
“What do you mean?” asked Angela, not fully understanding John Stewart’s words.
“I didn’t know… we didn’t know… but his body has been dead this entire time… the nanites have kept the piece preserved but… it’s… he’s…”
“Stop. I… I get it.”
He was more machine than man. Did Vic know? When he woke up in the morning, and looked at what was left of his face in the mirror, did he know he was wearing a mask of humanity? More dead than alive? More computer than soul?
“What can we do?” asked John.
“We need to repair the damage to his body… but that would mean… removing what’s left of his organic matter… it could be… traumatising for him.”
“We have to make a decision. Even keeping him suspended with the ring won’t stave off death. Just delay it. We have to decide.”
Angie nodded. She got it. She always understood it. Her father had made the decision, when she was a child, to take her mother off life support after the accident. She’d never forgiven him for making that decision. The hard choice, he’d called it. He’d made it easier for her to hate him, after he went insane and utilised his scientific talent to become the villain known as the Engineer. When he tried to kill her in the aftermath.
Palms down, mouth close to Vic’s ear, Angie began to whisper. “Victor… I don’t know if you can hear me… but… your organic parts… what was left of them… the damage is so severe… we can’t save them. Green Lantern could keep them in stasis, but… but it’s just… if we did that you wouldn’t wake up… so… I have… I…”
“…ddooooooo ittttttttt…”
Angela Spica clamped her hands over her mouth. His voice was so distorted but even then, she didn’t think he would be able to speak. His voice box was a mangled mess, his body was shutting down one system at a time-- but had he been awake this entire time?
“What do you want us to do, Doctor Spica?” asked one of the medical techs.
“John, can you please get him into the smart tube? We’ll be excising the damaged and dead organic matter. We’ll need to reprogram his cybernetics to compensate for the loss. I need everyone on their a-game for this. I’m not losing him!”
“…We need to confront this crisis on two fronts. Firstly, those who are still submerged need retrieving. I have the Atlantean military operating search and rescue missions across the globe. I’ve arranged for every one of our cities, no matter how big or small, to redirect their forces to the task.”
Mera had arrived and was leading the Justice League’s meeting with an impassioned intensity that reminded Wonder Woman of her mother when the council on Themyscira had been called to order. Soon after her entrance, she’d reinforced Diana’s findings-- those who had drowned weren’t dead, simply caught in a type of magically-induced suspended animation. If they were to fix this, first they would need to ensure that those who had been lost at sea were back on dry land, or they’d find themselves drowning-- for a second and all too real time.
Along with Hank Henshaw-- Green Lantern-- Big Barda and Majestic had remained on the edge of the solar system, guarding the corpse of the celestial giant that had drifted a little bit close for comfort.
Cyborg was currently undergoing emergency surgery, while Lorraine Reilly-- the host of Firestorm-- was recuperating in the medical wing. Mister Miracle had returned and was listening intently, along with the Guardian, Hawkman and Wonder Woman. Green Lantern entered soon enough, having done all he could in the medical lab.
“How is he?” asked Mister Miracle, looking at the Lantern.
“Angie’s working as hard as she can, and Vic’s deterioration has stopped, but it’s too soon to say,” said John.
“Seven Hells…” whispered Hawkman.
“Let’s make sure there’s a world for him to come back to, people,” said the Guardian. He turned his attention back to Mera. “And secondly?
“Locate my husband. Kamchatka’s Drowning is an Atlantean weapon of mass destruction with a safeguard that means it can only be activated by the one true king. Someone has clearly kidnapped him and used him to bring about this horror.”
Hawkman agreed. “So where do we start?”
“We have spent the last months hunting for my husband’s half-brother, after he went mad, declared himself the ‘Ocean Master’ and went into hiding after he failed to destroy the kingdom of Atlantis. We had him cornered yesterday before he exhibited previously unseen abilities and escaped, and our intelligence agency believes he’s utilised them to snatch Arthur. Our mages can detect no trace of him, or his brother.”
“I think… I think I can help,” said Lorraine Reilly, walking slowly into the meeting room, supported by Martin Stein, who held her arm as she hobbled inside.
“Who--?” started Mera.
“Meet Firestorm; she was the one who managed to reset the waters, so we could begin a rescue operation. It took a lot out of her, but we wouldn’t be where we are now if it wasn’t for her,” said the Hawkman.
“Then you saved countless lives,” replied Mera.
“I was just… doing my job…” stuttered Lorraine, blushing.
“You have an idea?” pressed the Guardian.
“An impression, actually. Uh… I said, when I reset the oceans, that I could hear a song, just in the background of what I was doing. I think it was whatever caused this, and now I can’t hear it at all like I did before, but it’s still there. And I think I can lead you to the source.”
The Guardian stood abruptly and then looked around the room. “We need to split our focus then. Lantern, Miracle, we got people in a bad situation and we need to coordinate with the Atlantean military and anyone who can swim to ensure as many bodies are out the water as possible. If what you’re all saying is true, loss of life is negligible, which isn’t perfect, but better than the alternative. Mera, can you give them the Atlantean comms codes so they can patch in and get to work?”
“Of course,” said Mera.
“We’ve got this,” said Mister Miracle, patting John on the shoulder.
“Then that’s you guys. The rest of us are going to find Aquaman and the sonofabitch who did all this. Good luck to you all.”
How had he ended up here? Aquaman ran through the mental checklist he’d been keeping, just to make sure he was on the right track. Ocean Master-- his brother Orm-- had been his kidnapper. Abducted him from the outskirts of Poseidonis, his kingdom’s capital, then whisked him away to wherever here was…
Upon Arthur’s awakening, Orm had used him to activate some kind of mystical weapon of mass destruction, but for some reason it had self-destructed after prolonged use… hopefully that meant that someone upstairs was fighting this war on a second front, and not that it had simply completed its function.
And now it seemed like Ocean Master might not be the warmonger he initially seemed… he’d experienced some kind of seizure, and his keepers had revealed themselves, along with the smug specimen who floated before him now.
“…You see, my name is Nereus, and this realm you find yourself a guest of right now? This is the kingdom of Xebel, and I am her rightful ruler. And between you and me… I hear that you’ve been sleeping with my wife.”
Arthur strained against the bonds that held him fast. They still wouldn’t give. He looked the red-haired man in the eye and then a smile crept across his face. “Nereus. I know the name. Mera-- you know, our wife, she’s mentioned you.”
Nereus pulled a face, disgusted at Orin’s choice of words, but he didn’t say anything to betray his feelings. Aquaman could feel his anger pulse into the waters around him, creating their own tidal pull…
He pressed on, a smile forming. “Yeah, she said some deranged, sweaty-palmed, small-dick piece of garbage was waiting for her back in her home dimension; apparently, he wanted her to kill me but was as bat-shit crazy as they come. She soon learned the world outside of Xebel wasn’t as bad as you made it out to be, and she got her happy ending… if you catch my drift.”
Nereus was flabbergasted and all semblance of calm evaporated. He’d never been spoken to in such a way. “Y-you dare?”
“Oh, sorry, not regal enough for you? I admit, a lot of that pomp and pageantry that comes with being king? That bores me to tears. But between you and me, I’m a Mainer, born and raised, and you look like the kind of person I haven’t got the patience for. So, c’mon, let’s get down to it. I’m chained to this chair, you’re bragging about some garbage, and all I can think is, huh, big man over there can’t do his own dirty work, so had to drag my brother into his schemes. What’s up with that?”
Screaming in anger, Nereus drove his harpoon into Arthur’s shoulder, gouging past the chainmail and into the meat of his arm. The King of Atlantis didn’t cry out, but he also didn’t break eye contact with his attacker. At the last minute, he’d shifted ever so slightly, and he felt one of the links in the chains that held him crack. Not much… but it was something. And he needed as much as he could get, considering the dire circumstances!
Angela slumped over and finally took a breath. Green Lantern had done his bit and was gone, back to flitting across the globe to find survivors. She’d done all she could, it was up to the smart tube to follow through now. The thick, gelatinous liquid inside the tube obscured her lover’s features, but she could see the movement of the tiny nano-strands as they whisked around his figure. They were doing what she’d told them to, she only hoped Victor could forgive her.
“We’re moving out in a minute, Angie; how’s he looking?” asked the Guardian.
His helmet was clipped at his belt and he looked tired, his scruffy beard an odd feature considering his usually regimented, military lifestyle. She’d not noticed it before, but how long had he been working? And what was his life like outside of the Justice League?
“Harp… he’s… he’s stable. We had to remove a lot of the damaged tissue, and I don’t… I don’t know what he’s going to be like when he wakes up… oh… oh, man… I’m scared.”
Angie threw her arms around Harper, and he embraced her tightly. They’d been close for years now, ever since they first met in his days as an elite operative in the Global Peace Agency. It was his invitation that led her to being part of the Justice League’s support staff.
“It’ll be okay. Vic’s a strong young man, and we’ll all be there to help him through whatever comes next.”
Angie managed a sad smile, then turned back to where Vic floated in the smart tube. Whatever would come next?
Meanwhile, Wonder Woman checked her breathing equipment while Mera made aggravated noises as she busied herself in the armoury, just out of site for the Queen of the Amazons.
“Firestorm is just readying herself, we’ll be on the move soon,” said Diana.
“I know, but the waiting… frustrates me,” said Mera.
Diana understood. “Arthur is alive. You know that, right?”
“I can’t feel him. Our bond is… when he was taken I felt his absence, and now that’s all there is. If he were dead, I wonder how that would feel… there’s a void in my stomach, but if he were dead, would there be a wound? Hmm. I’m ready.”
Mera emerged from the armoury and Diana was taken aback.
She wore a version of her husband’s costume, a high coloured, gold plate mail shirt and seaweed-green scaled trousers. In her hand, she gripped the Trident of Neptune, and her face was a mask of focus and determination.
“Let’s go find my husband then, eh?”
Nereus wrenched the harpoon out from Arthur’s shoulder, and the King of Atlantis gasped and slumped forward, breathing in sharply to deal with the pain. Nereus didn’t let up. He repeatedly punched Aquaman hard across the face, splitting his cheek, but was met by choked laughter, as the half-human, half-Atlantean regent looked up and spat blood in the Xebel’s face.
“That… all you’ve… got?” rasped Aquaman.
“hhff… hhff… you… you are a monster… hhff… just like your predecessors. Just like the kings of Atlantis before you. I thought it would be poetic to use your brother as a tool to drag you down into the depths, Orin. Time and again he failed to drown your kingdom with the help of your enemies, so I thought it best to use him to instigate this meeting.”
“What…” That hurt more than the hot scarlet pain currently screaming out from his shoulder. “What’re…. you saying…”
“Oh, yes. This meeting has been on the cards for years. The rise of the Ocean Master’s legend? The fall of Atlantis? The bombing of Poseidonis and your brother’s role in it all*? Well, I am a dastardly fellow, but I am exactly what your predecessors made me. A survivor.”
“What the hell are you talking about, you bastard? What did you do?”
“Regular blood transfusions from our slave caste have kept him docile, along with some sorcerous nudging from the wizarding council. You don’t know how many people down here want to see you and yours drown for what you’ve done to us. Unfortunately, the transfusion had the side effect of manifesting our hydrokinesis in your brother. Unexpected, but it does nothing to alter the programming installed within him.”
Aquaman grunted. Hydrokinesis? That tracked with what Garth had told him back before the king was kidnapped, but it was a horrifying thought. What if his brother wasn’t the evil monster he’d been portrayed as for the last few years? What if it was all Nereus’ doing?
“And now you’re here, in the hell dimension your ancestors sent mine down into. How poetic. Do you know what else lives in this dimensional rift? Countless horrors. Countless weapons. But there’s one I’ve been waiting so long to use… one I need your imprint to activate, like the others. It’s an escape hatch. An artefact that will swap Xebel’s position with your capital’s. Your people will be trapped down here, in the dark, like mine have been for eons. Who will they blame? You.”
“You’ll… be stopped…” growled Aquaman.
Nereus laughed and solidified the water around Arthur’s throat, dragging the chained liege up painfully. “I’ll never stop. Not until everything you love is a dashed across the seafloor.”
With the Guardian in the pilot seat of the Javelin, one of the Justice League’s jumpships, Firestorm had led the team of Justice Leaguers on an erratic flightpath as she gleaned information from the invisible signals that drifted through the molecules of the world. Mera and Wonder Woman sat together, while Hawkman was standing by the rear doors, flexing his wings, checking his breathing equipment repeatedly.
Lorraine noticed that there was an odd taste to the skies, something she couldn’t place. Did the sky have a flavour? The additional senses provided to her by the Firestorm Matrix were beyond what she wielded when she was Firehawk, and it was still taking some getting used to.
Martin looked up from where he was scrawling on the chalkboard within the Firestorm Matrix, inside Lorraine’s head. “You’re not wrong. There seems to be an odd imbalance to the atmospheric make-up. Perhaps Ronald and I had become so used to it, or a change had been subtle over a period of time… I wonder…”
“Are you okay? You’re muttering to yourself… or is it a Firestorm thing?” asked Hawkman.
Lorraine pulled herself out of her head and looked over to the Winged Avenger. “Yeah, yes, sorry. But… does the sky feel weird to you?”
“Not as weird as the water has felt over the last 24 hours,” he replied.
Mera leaned forward in her seat and peered out of her window. “I know this place, don’t I?”
“We’re currently above the North Atlantic, just outside the Caribbean sea,” replied the Guardian.
Mera repeated the words to herself silently, trying to figure out why it rang so many bells in her head.
“The energy signature I’ve been sensing terminates here, under the sea,” said Firestorm.
“Okay, activating shields, ready for submergence,” said the Guardian.
The Javelin pierced the surface of the sea and descended, and soon enough they had reached the ocean floor. They followed Firestorm’s directions exactly, and when they arrived at the source--
“Nothing,” said Hawkman.
“But I can feel…” started Firestorm.
Mera cursed under her breath. “Damnation, I know where we are! I know! And the reason we’re not at the source is because we didn’t sink!”
With a swift motion of her wrist, a column of solid water shoved the Javelin upwards, sending the engines into a frenzy. Then, with another flick of her hand, lances of water punctured the hull, though no water came in thanks to the pressured gaps sealed by Mera’s powers.
“What’s she doing?!” barked the Guardian.
“She’s sinking us,” said Wonder Woman, calmly.
“But-- why--?” started Hawkman.
Firestorm clicked her fingers. “Oh, God! I get where we are! This isn’t just the ocean floor-- we’re above the Bermuda Tria--”
The Javelin erupted in light and then vanished from sight, fading into nothingness beneath the waves…
Still bound by the enchanted chains that kept him somewhat docile, Aquaman was dragged through the haunted ruins of the Xebel colony. They’d left the sphere that contained the souls of all of Kamchatka’s Drowning’s victims behind in the cell where the worst damage had been done to the king, and this next journey would inevitably lead to something much worse.
As they went, dozens of her residents watched, Aquaman’s gold and green uniform marking him as the cause of their isolation and poverty. There were whispers to begin with, then hisses and jeers.
He ignored them. If there was something he could do, he would do it once he managed to escape. He rolled his injured shoulder slowly, and found that the chains gave. If he could find the strength in himself to give it one last go, one last escape attempt, he was confident he could manage it. But he needed to get away from the crowds first.
He didn’t know how much the exertion would take out of him, so he needed there to be as few people around as possible. Wherever Nereus was taking him, that would be where he’d stage his escape.
With some effort, he craned his neck back, and saw that Orm’s keepers were dragging him along, though they’d not bothered chaining him up. He was unconscious still, blood trailing consistently from his lips. He was damaged internally by whatever they’d done to him, and so it was not only an escape attempt for the King of the Seven Seas… it would be one of rescue as well.
“Where are you taking us?” he asked.
“Heh. I wanted to show you something. Come. Higher!”
The group reached the tallest, most battered pinnacle in the colony and landed on a platform; above them the ocean roiled, as if thunder and lightning were crackling beneath the sea. Arthur noted the other towers that surrounded the city, each of them covered in ancient-looking Atlantean technology. Energy casters, fire cannons, countless other weapons that had long since been abandoned by his people. A security net?
Nereus picked Aquaman up by the chains on his back and held him up, dangling him above the city below. The chains began to grow heavy, and tighter, and he was unsure of his ability to swim if he was released. He’d drop like an acme safe off a mountain, and the landing might leave him crippled, or dead.
Below, the shattered colony of Xebel resided. Arching, cobbled-together arches intertwined with each other, though Aquaman could see that parts of the city were seemingly melded with the sunken wrecks of numerous ships. Submarines, planes, cargo liners, countless boats that had drowned and ended up in this graveyard. There were craters around the edges of the city where ships had bounced off the arches and landed away from the populated areas… it looked like an underwater, urban hellscape.
“Your people gave Xebel its name. A name with meaning. Old Atlantean for ‘prison’. But that’s just one name for this place. Purgatory. Limbo. Whatever you can imagine, this place has probably been called that. Regardless, above us is an interdimensional rift that connects us with your dimension. Back in the darker days of your history, prisoners, the worst of the worst, would be cast down in weighted chains, like the ones you’re covered in now. You’d sink, and that would activate the portal. You’d be spat out here, and begin a life sentence. We survived. We thrived. Even though, across the years, the humans would litter our city with their wrecks.”
“And what was done to your people was a crime but these actions do not make it right!” growled Aquaman. He strained against his chains. Yes, if he gave it one last effort…
Behind him, the attendants began to operate heavy, clunking machinery. An eight-foot-tall slab raised up from the floor of the platform, revealing a clockwork contraption made from volcanic glass. The mechanism began to activate, and Aquaman could see that there was a place for a man in the middle of the device. The symbols in the space were old Atlantean, and he recognised the markings as identifying royalty. Was this the machine Nereus had mentioned? The one that would allow Xebel to swap places with Poseidonis?
“So our forbearers built the arches, to displace any wrecks that would seek to crush us in our sleep. We couldn’t leave this place because the dark waters around our home hold more horrors than you could imagine. Trapped on this patch of unsafe land, with metallic ruins falling on our heads… did we deserve that, your majesty? Did we?”
“No, you did not, and if you’d come to me instead of sending an assassin to murder me in my sleep, if you’d communicated with us rather than brainwashing my brother, then we might have reached a compact-- and if you could have escaped at any time, then we could have found a place for you in the ocean! You managed to master small-scale transport, but you used it to spite me, but your--”
Nereus slapped Arthur. “Everything I’ve done has been to prepare for this moment! This citadel is the final weapon I will use to stab at you! All I need is insert you into the mechanism and your body will be plugged in, the royal engine that drives the transference engine! I hold onto the lever, focus on your capital and it will swap places with Xebel and this tower will remain, a monument to your failure to save Poseidonis! Your people will be trapped here, and we will be free to take our place out in the world, and the Atlanteans will blame you for their exile!”
Enough was enough. Aquaman roared, and with an immense act of strength shattered the damaged, enchanted chains that bound him, then kicked the rogue king backwards toward the device. The weight of the chains immediately caused Orin to sink, but he grabbed the edge of the platform and cast off the weights that held him, then sprang onto the platform and into action.
He immediately saw that he was surrounded, and Nereus had quickly retreated behind his royal guard.
“You speak peace but your actions are those of war,” spat the rogue king.
“You’re a madman and I will put an end to you. And when all is said and done, I will lead your people back home, something you’ve refused to even attempt, you bastard,” growled Aquaman.
“Then I guess we have no choice,” said Nereus.
The King of Xebel pulled Ocean Master’s head up, took a knife out from his belt and violently slit the man’s throat. Orm cried out mutely, clutched at the wound, then slumped down as blood filled the water.
“No!” screamed Aquaman, just as the oceanic skies above exploded with light--
--And for a long, hanging moment nothing appeared--
--But the skies roared--
--And the Justice League’s Javelin finally materialised!
Without warning, barrages of energy shot out from the platforms that surrounded the colony, and the salvos tore into the ship and ripped it to shreds. The debris cascaded down toward the city, but before the wrecked hull could bounce off the arches, the metallic chunks dissolved into the waters as a transformative energy washed over them… and then there was silence, and Aquaman watched with wide eyes and a shocked expression.
“Were those your rescuers?” asked Nereus, chuckling. “Pathetic!”
Kneeling on the platform, caught up for a moment in the shock of what he had just witnessed, Aquaman turned away from the cataclysm below toward his fallen brother, then returned his gaze to Nereus.
“Why-- why are you grinning like that? Your friends are dead!” said the Xebel king.
The towers around the city began to shake. Aquaman stood and shook his head. “Or that ship was empty, and served as a really convincing distraction. But what do I know? It’s not like the nanotelepathic link that connects all us Justice Leaguers didn’t just come online. Oh. Wait. Don’t turn around.”
“Can’t tell if it’s the damage done by Mera’s little sinking trick, or the dimensional rift we clearly just got sucked through, but the Javelin’s engines are dead!” said the Guardian, as he slammed his fists into the controls.
“Then be glad we put our breathing equipment on before we sank,” said Hawkman. He checked his mace and tapped it against the side of the ship, then grabbed the release handle for the back doors of the ship.
“Wait! We have a few moments before we’re spat out on the other side. We’re about to enter Xebel, my home dimension. Long story short, the perimeter of the portal is surrounded by ancient weapons capable of destroying us on arrival. So we need to play this smart. Firestorm, can you surround us in a sphere of something reflective?”
“Sure, yeah!”
“We exit now, get some distance between us and the Javelin, and arrive first. They don’t see us, they don’t fire. The Javelin will materialise and draw their fire. Firestorm can transmute the towers into nothingness. We locate Aquaman-- using the nanotelepathic link we all share-- and take the fight to him.”
“Sounds like a solid plan,” said the Guardian.
Wonder Woman agreed and Hawkman simply grinned, baring his teeth as he checked the assortment of weapons latched to his belt.
“Let’s do this then!” said Mera, gripping the Trident of Neptune.
The towers riddled with ancient weapons fell thanks to the transmutation performed by Firestorm around their bases, and as they toppled down toward the edges of the city, away from the colony itself, Nereus turned when he sensed a presence behind him-- only to be met by a punch from a woman dressed in the same suit of armour that the King of the Seven Seas wore.
“You didn’t take the hint, did you?” spat Mera, kicking Nereus in the stomach as the Guardian, Hawkman and Wonder Woman sprang into action to take out his royal guard. While they wielded hydrokinesis, the lightning-fast attack from the Justice League meant they were overcome in moments, knocked unconscious with the fight beaten out of them nearly immediately.
The fight was over quickly, and Aquaman didn’t even have to throw a punch. He barged through the crowd of soldiers that floated nearby and went to his brother’s side, who was desperately clutching his sliced throat. “Orm, I’m here, it’s okay, I’m here!”
“Hhhhkkkk…” drawled the Ocean Master as the life drained from him. “I… can feel… myself… returning…” he managed. “Bled… dry… of their… poison…”
Even restrained by Diana’s lasso, Nereus refused to give up. “No! No, it’s never as easy as that! I’ll watch this all fall before I let you win! It’ll-- all-- fall!”
Blood vessels popped in his eyes and blood streamed out of his ears and nose as he strained, but before he could claim victory, Hawkman planted him with the butt of his mace, knocking him out immediately.
{That was anti-climactic,} he said, simply.
{What was he doing?} asked the Guardian.
A shadow began to spread over them. They looked toward the source, past the boundary between the edge of the colony and the dark waters beyond, and realised that whatever invisible barrier had kept the two separate had now become porous. Whatever was lurking behind the black water veil had begun to stir, and it was coming closer and closer--
Aquaman stood and floated toward his wife. “What is that?”
Fear-filled eyes met his own, as Mera quickly explained. “Xebel was a dumping ground for artefacts and weapons, but before all of that… Vulko said it was where the ancient Atlanteans sent the monsters that once roamed the seven seas… Têmtum… Lotan… Yammu… Leviathan… they couldn’t hope to defeat those creatures so they were banished. Banished here. Why do you think we evolved the ability to control water? It was always to keep them out-- and as king, Nereus just removed the shield-- they can get in--”
Out there, in the dark, something shrieked, and the buildings that made up the main body of the Xebel colony shook. The husks of sunken ships creaked, and movements within the dark waters began to intensify.
{Sea monsters. Biblical horrors. Okay. That’s Justice League work,} said the Guardian.. He glanced over to Hawkman, who’d already extended a bladed weapon to the gold-clad soldier, who gladly accepted. {Thanks, Katar.}
{Thank me if we survive this.}.
Tens of thousands of translucent tentacles shot toward the only tower left standing where the Justice League stood, faster than they could think to react, but the attack shattered across a wall of hardened water, projected by Mera. The impact rocked her, and blood began to form at the corner of her nose, but she held her hands out.
“W-we… n-need… t-to evacuate…” she said.
{How?} asked Wonder Woman.
Another attack careened toward them from the dark waters, but this time Mera’s shield was reinforced by Firestorm’s own powers, as she erected a massive promethium wall between that part of the city and the invading creatures.
{We’ve got your back!} said Lorraine.
“nnnnn what’re you doinggggg?”
Aquaman turned at Nereus’ voice and saw his brother Orm locking the rogue king in the transference engine’s mechanisms. With one hand clamped across his cut throat, Ocean Master pulled down the lever that activated its intricate circuitries and then gave his half-brother a sad look. “Always… for… family…”
“Orm, no--!” cried out Aquaman, reaching out as--
--The prison colony of Xebel crashed loudly at the edge of Poseidonis’ border, the wreckage of countless empty ships scattering out toward the protective shield they’d erected in the capital months prior and bouncing off onto the arches that kept the colony protected. The Justice League found themselves floating high above it all as the sands shifted-- the tower they’d been standing upon not making the transition from the Xebel reality to this one.
“Orm…” whispered Arthur.
“What… did he do…?” asked Mera.
“I guess he… he triggered the transference engine using Nereus… he was the king of that realm, so it made sense it… it would work… He sent Xebel here, to the… to the edge of the capital… sent us all to safety… but where… where is he?”
{The tower stayed,} said Wonder Woman. {Perhaps…}
“Maybe he sacrificed himself for his brother, one last time,” said Mera, cradling her distraught husband.
Orin’s brother was gone, his final act as his protector banishing him even further from the lights and sights of Poseidonis.
“It was him. It was really him, one last time,” replied Arthur.
{I’m so sorry for your loss, Arthur, but we need to find the artefact that caused the sinking-- Kamchatka’s Drowning? We need to undo the damage,} said the Guardian.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. This way.”
Aquaman led the others through Xebel, back the way he had come earlier, to where he had initially been held. The citizens of the colony were hiding on the fringes of the streets, hidden in their homes, even as the Atlantean Royal Guard arrived, led by Tempest.
“You made it back!”
“This isn’t over yet, Garth,” said Arthur, and without another word, his guard followed, even as the Justice League neared where they needed to be
Beneath the ruined colony of Xebel resided the cell in which Arthur had been kept, and with it, the glowing orb that contained the souls stolen from the victims of Kamchatka’s Drowning. Thanks to it, the old stone room was illuminated with bright lights, shifting and changing like the tides.
{Whoa, I’m getting… all kinds of… just whoa,} said Firestorm.
“There is life energy here, so much of it. This is where all the souls of the weapon were taken?” asked Wonder Woman, gesturing to the sphere.
The Guardian turned away from the group and put a finger to his ear, an old habit now unnecessary thanks to the nanotelepathic link that was directly plugged into his brain.. {This is the Guardian. We found the life energies of those who drowned. GL, how are we looking with the rescue efforts?}
{My ring can’t detect anyone else submerged. I’ve asked others to verify, it looks like we’ve fished out as many bodies as we can. If you have the life energies, I recommend you release them!}
Aquaman looked around at the others, then to his wife. The orb throbbed, wave upon wave of life energy brushing up against the surface of itself. “I don’t know how I can release them…”
“How did they activate the Drowning in the first place, my love?” asked Mera.
Connecting the mental dots, Arthur extended a hand toward the orb and placed his palm across the surface of it. The room was suddenly filled with the kind of light that blinded, and everything went white. Of all of the Justice League, it was Firestorm who didn’t turn away, her elemental powers allowing her to process the view of countless souls emerging from the sphere and shooting outwards.
Aquaman held his palm fast against the surface, he too unable to look away.
{That light-- is-- is it working?} asked Hawkman.
{It’s beautiful,} replied Firestorm.
Normalcy returned to the room a second later and the sphere was gone. Aquaman staggered back but steadied himself with help from Mera. The Guardian checked with the rest of the team, above water-- and the news was flooding in-- people were returning to life! Whatever arcane stasis they’d been stricken with had been removed, and their life forces were now returned!
{They’re back,} he said, {they’re all back.}
Aquaman nodded. “There’s more work to be done and the day isn’t over yet..."
The massive crowd of water-breathers that had assembled from across the seven seas in the capital of Atlantis’ vast kingdom applauded as King Orin, accompanied by Queen Mera and their young child Prince Arthur, floated into view.
The king stood before the people of his capital, crown resting across his temples, and looked over at his family with utter love and devotion. The shell systems that lined the streets and connected every city in the sprawling underwater nation released a small stream of bubbles as they activated, and Orin raised his hands to silence the cheering crowds as he cleared his throat, and began to speak.
“Today is a day of great change. A terrible tragedy was averted, and in the wake of it all, we now have an opportunity to become something greater than our selves. An ancient mistake was righted-- the lost colony of Xebel has been returned to us today, and now we begin restitution.”
Across the border of the capital, the Xebel colony listened to what was being said. They gathered in their huddled masses around the shell systems that the Atlanteans had set up, and wondered what their future would bring. Throughout the seven seas, King Orin’s voice boomed across the cities that existed beneath the waves, and they all knew a change was coming.
“You did not deserve the lives you have had to suffer through. Through it all, you survived, but now we all have an opportunity to thrive. You have a home here, and will always have a home. There will be elections held to elect a Xebel representative to the oceanic council. You will have a voice. If it is within my power to allow, you will have it. This is a new world. This is what Atlantis should always have been-- a place of opportunity, or change… a place where we can meet the future head on, and ride the wave of progress to the heights we all deserve..”
Dressed in the regalia befitting a royal event and standing next to the Guardian, Wonder Woman leaned over to Mera, who held Arthur Jr’s hand as the toddler watched his father in awe. {Through it all, he can still find hope.}
“That’s what kings do,” replied Mera.
Arthur continued. “It is time for us to reclaim our seat at the world’s table. As such, I will be reopening full diplomatic ties with the surface world. We should not be an isolationist people. We should push forward toward expansion, toward a better world for all. We are the citizens of the oceans, and I believe we have a wider responsibility to the world. For too long we have preferred to remain under the sea rather than building bridges with the surface world. As your king, it is time to decide the future of the seven seas, and all those kingdoms that fall under my leadership. To that end, Queen Mera and myself will be collaborating full-time with the Justice League and the United Nations to create links between the surface nations and our own. This has been in the pipeline for some time, and I have made a decision regarding who will be regent in my absence.”
Arthur turned, and gestured for Garth to join him. The young man pointed at himself, confused, then stepped forward, looking back at Tula who smiled warmly as the events unfolded.
“For years, as you all know, Garth has been my brother and confidante. My wife informed me that it was his insight into the history of our peoples that led to yesterday’s cataclysm coming to an end. It was his knowledge and wisdom that allowed those we thought lost to the waves to come back to us. Ever since I met this young man, I foresaw great things. With the council’s support and the continued wisdom provided by the chief royal advisor Vulko, Garth will lead the kingdom when my duty to bridging the surface and the oceans take me away from the throne. He is my brother, and it is time we formalise that relationship. Before, you knew him as simply Garth, but from this point forward, know him as Regent Garth Marinus, Tempest of Atlantis and brother of the king!”
The crowds roared in celebration as Aquaman raised Tempest’s arm in victory, and Mera took the opportunity to make her presence known, and address the crowd. “Today is a great day for our people! Now let us celebrate! Music! Dance! This is the start of the future of Atlantis!”
As the people in the capital continued their celebrations, Garth leaned over to Arthur, and whispered, “This is what this whole thing’s been about? All those lessons with Vulko, all the meetings you’ve had me shadow you in?”
Arthur nodded. “I had a realisation during the restoration of the capital in the wake of my brother’s… treachery. When he is of age, my son will be king-- if that’s what he wants. Now, I know that without Vulko’s wisdom, without your support, without Mera’s love, I wouldn’t be half the king I am. Now… I’ll follow my own father’s example, and be the best parent to Arthur Jr as possible, and that’s one thing, but I want him to have all the opportunities I had when I became king. I want you to be the royal advisor when he assumes the throne. I want you to provide the same wisdom Vulko could provide me. And I think that kind of wisdom comes with not only reading all the books, knowing the ins and outs of the kingdom, but also ruling. So yeah, I may have strung you along a bit, kept you in the dark for longer than I should’ve, but I also know you well enough that if I’d told you what I was thinking you would have scared yourself out of it. You’re the best brother I have, Garth. The competition is slim, but you’re the best. So… yeah. Welcome to the family.”
“Victor? Victor, can you hear me?”
The world was distorted. Electronic input overload. Light hit optical sensors and fed into a computer, and shapes began to form. The shapes were fuzzy at the edges, silouettes highlighted in a neon green against a pitch-black background. The human brain interprets images that the eye sees in just 13 milliseconds. But as the moment stretched on-- and it was only a moment, barely a moment, 3 milliseconds in fact-- the world became clear like crystal, and Victor Stone, aka Cyborg, saw the face of Angela Spica.
“Aaaangie,” he said, his voice distorted, not his own.
“Try not to move. You experienced a severe trauma, you barely made it,” she said.
He could see her pulse through her neck. Micro expressions on her face screamed at him-- she was scared, she was sad, she loved him so much, she was ashamed, she was on the verge of tears. What had happened?
“Dif difc difficult to access memory files. We were in space?”
Trauma caused blockages in his central memory processors. Just as severe trauma might cause temporary amnesia in everyone else, he was having trouble getting to the root of the situation. His mind kept drawing a blank, but his brain felt… alive. Hyper-sensitive. Hyper-conductive to information. He pushed ahead, even as Angie gripped the square thing in her hands. It was as big as an A3 sheet of paper, wooden frame. A picture?
She tried to answer his question. “You were, and you were attacked. You--”
Something struck Vic and he swallowed hard, though the sensation didn’t feel right.
“My voice why is my voice not my--”
Panic was audible, even travelling through the high-tech vocaliser built into his throat.
And then he went quiet, his memories of the last six hours returning. Space. The dead god. The carnivorous beings that swarmed the body-- and him.
“Oh,” he said, finally.
“Oh?” repeated Angie, her knuckles whitening as she gripped the frame tighter.
“I remember. The Throshti tore me to shreds. Ravaged my organics. You had to make a decision. I told you to do it. I’m-- oh, no.”
“Vic…” her voice was barely a whisper.
“Is there… anything left?” he asked. Internal diagnostics were running faster than usual, unencumbered by the usual… organic element…
“Any…” she repeated, unsure.
The volume of his voice increased. “Any of my body? My heart? My face?”
She slumped forward, her eyes hidden by her fringe. “…No. There’s not. They destroyed it all. You’re…”
“I’m here,” he said, with a sense of finality.
She looked up. “Pardon?”
“I’m here. I’m not dead. I’m here. I survived. And… and… how do I look?”
“You’re as handsome as the day I met you,” said Angie.
Not a life, according to the biometric data being fed into his brain, but tinged with something else, with--
“Angie… c’mon…”
She sighed then lifted up the frame she’d been holding, then flipped it around to show the mirrored side at its front. She lifted it to eye level, and Victor Stone saw his new face.
The Boom Tube opened up in silence as the void of space beckoned, and Wonder Woman drifted out to meet Big Barda, Green Lantern and Majestic, who guarded the celestial body of a dead god.
{How’s Victor?} asked Majestic.
Diana shook her head. {Angela said he was awake, but the damage was severe. He no longer has any of his old body left. He’s entirely cybernetic now.}
{I should have been faster… damnation…} said Majestic, floating away from the others.
{I’m sorry to pull you aware from Earth, but… when it comes to this kind of thing, I think you’re the expert, Diana… do you know who this is?} asked Big Barda.
Still dressed as an ambassador, Wonder Woman floated in the void, amazed at the immense sight before her, though her amazement was tinged with the sadness of seeing a celestial being dead. She cast her eyes over his face; not one she recognised, but it was most definitely alien. An alien god.
Her mother had once told her tales of such beings, immense, fractal things that didn’t adhere to the laws of humanity-- be it back in ancient times or even the present. She had once journeyed to their council, centuries ago, on a mission for the Greek pantheon, and the sights she had seen…
{Is that ice in his mouth…?} asked Diana.
{ Iceberg, more accurately… it goes all the way down into his lungs,} replied Green Lantern.
Henshaw tapped his ring, and a small scale map of the celestial’s body formed, showing immense ice shards that went down the throat all the way into his godly gullet. A sad sight, and even more chilling, considering the potential identity of the victim.
Barda shook her head. {So he was drowned?}
{And then cast out into space, where the waters froze inside him. All his light… gone…} said Diana.
{How is that possible?} asked Barda.
{There are places and times a god can die. Moments when even immortals are susceptible to the whims of Hades, or… their gatekeeper to their nether realm. All it took to kill Baldur was a sprig of mistletoe.}
{But this?} pressed Green Lantern.
{He looks familiar. My mother told me tales of beings of this scale, who did good work across the cosmos. In fact…} she hesitated, memories from her childhood on Themyscira flashing before her eyes.
{What?} asked Barda, recognising the look on her friend’s face-- realisation, the kind that weighed heavy.
For Diana, there was a familiarity here. The curve of the being’s immense nose. The way his large cheeks appeared ready to accommodate a smile, if not for the death mask of ice that shrouded his features. Countless eyes from sockets all the way around the being’s skull, from temple to temple, and then…
Wonder Woman floated toward the celestial and knelt upon his chest, above where his heart should be. She began to pray for him, a devout and reverential prayer to the pantheon she suspected him of belonging to, to where he had once belonged. There were rituals of worship, or respect, that all beings followed, be them from this solar system or twenty dimensions up. It just depended on your perspective. And with perspective…
The celestial’s body began to shrink down. Gravity didn’t cause an issue, magic didn’t observe those kinds of laws, and soon the god’s body was small enough that Diana could reach into his belt pouch, and withdraw a wrapped token.
{What is that?} asked Green Lantern.
{I know this god.}
Majestic joined the others. {Who is it then?}
{No… I misspoke… I know of this god. It was my mother who knew him…}
She unwrapped the token, and held up a familiar tiara. Like her own, but more ornate, and older than anything other than the god that had now dissipated back into the ether of its creation, or the god-given tokens she herself wore.
{This god was one of words and structure. My mother met him some time ago at the celestial court, far, far away from here. They helped save the universe together, and she gave him this as thanks… and now he’s dead. Who… who could have done this?}
{You said that even the smallest thing can kill a god when the time is right, but what if it’s the other thing, Diana? Who better to kill a god… than a god? And what better way to send a message, than with the body of a legend?} posited Barda.
{…Something’s coming, then. Something big. And this was a shot across the bow. We need to get home. We need to prepare…}
NEXT TIME: Before the adventures of the Justice League continue, a presence from the past returns to the universe and seeks to regain his identity… when a lost soul arrives in the Celestial Court to face the Trial of the Gods, what will the end result be? And what does the legacy of Wonder Woman have to do with it, as a deadly threat visits Wonder Girl, Troia and Zenobia? Find out in JUSTICE LEAGUE SPECIAL: THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Minutes into joining the team, FIRESTORM received a first-hand look at the kinds of threats the Justice League confronted, as every body of water across the globe suddenly lost its surface tension!
FIRESTORM was able to restore the oceans to their previous cohesion, but she nearly burned out as a result. Before the team could begin coming up with a battle plan, MERA arrived on the scene and reactivated her team membership, bringing with her the much-needed intelligence to help figure out the cause of this catastrophe…
With thousands dead and more missing, it’s revealed the cause of this cataclysm is none other than OCEAN MASTER, the half-brother of AQUAMAN, who kidnapped the King of the Seven Seas to activate a magical weapon of mass destruction!
Meanwhile, BIG BARDA, CYBORG, MAJESTIC and MISTER MIRACLE-- along with Earth’s second GREEN LANTERN-- head out into space to investigate a strange celestial body that floated into their solar system’s vicinity.
The celestial body is literally that-- the corpse of a god!-- that came with its own set of problems, namely a legion of mythical carrion beasts whose lives are dedicated to devouring god-flesh! The team are able to turn the creatures back, but not before CYBORG is critically injured, his organic components devoured by the retreating creatures!
Finally, AQUAMAN tried to reason with his mad brother, but he soon found that OCEAN MASTER may not be as much to blame as he initially thought, as the puppet master behind it all showed his face-- none other than NEREUS, King of Xebel, the mysterious, water-logged prison dimension, and the man who claimed to be MERA’s true husband!
With all this in mind, please join us now for the continuing adventures of the JUSTICE LEAGUE--
Before the rise of man, Psang was a bustling pre-human city, with a thriving populace who were renowned throughout the ancient world for their charity, but after a mysterious catastrophe struck, it drowned beneath the waves, along with its people.
Now it was a haunted place, with empty structures covered in coral groping up at the ocean’s surface…
Sea-dwelling drifters, outcasts from cities like Poseidonis who had been purged during the Caste Purge had taken up residence in the tomb-like structures, and madness and superstition had seeped in somewhere along the way. Above them? An epic, oceanic anomaly… the Bermuda Triangle.
Strewn across the ocean floor, obscuring the sunken city beneath, were the carcasses of ghost ships and drowned freighters. Planes whose electronical equipment had shorted out in close proximity to the anomaly and whose pilots had no recourse but to crash land… sink… drown…
Orm Marius-- Chief Guard of Atlantis-- had heard strange rumours emerging from this place, and so against the wishes of his brother, Orin-- the King of Atlantis-- had journeyed there alone to investigate.
When asked why he didn’t take a platoon of guards with him on these somewhat risky investigations, Orm explained that he wouldn’t put any lives at risk until he knew the nature of whatever it was they were facing. It was a brave act, but perhaps a foolish one.
Even when Orin had insisted-- but never ordered!-- Orm refused, and they had been at loggerheads over this point for months now. But as he was the Chief, and the King’s brother, he had a level of autonomy and he was taking advantage of that fact at this very moment.
He’d found the entrance to the source of the strange, shrieking sound that had led to his investigation in the first place. There was a tunnel, about a metre in height and width, leading to the unknown, and so with his trident drawn, he swam inside.
Deep within the bowels of the cavern, a dirty, scab-like wound floated in the centre of a chamber. The walls, covered in hieroglyphics of a sort, were man-made, carved by hand however many thousands of years ago. Orm pressed his hand against the inscriptions and could make out some words.
The symbols were ancient Atlantean, and as royal blood he’d received the best of educations. He tried not to focus his gaze on the scab. Water seemed to seep inside its folds, then vanish. He picked up a small pebble from the floor and allowed it to drift inside, carried toward the hole in space by an invisible pull. It did not come out the other side.
“That noise… it’s coming from the hole… but where does it lead?” he wondered aloud.
“To hell and back.”
Cursing himself for not noticing he wasn’t alone, Orm turned, but it was too late. Nereus, a stranger to the chief of Atlantis’ security but known to the people of Xebel as their king, pounced, driving his fists into the back of the man’s head. Dazed but not down, Orm swung his trident back toward his attacker, but hands formed of solidified water wrapped their steel-strong fingers around his limbs, dragging him toward the ground.
“You and I are going to become very well acquainted, Atlantean,” said Nereus, as his own King’s Guard began to step out of the dark waters around them. In each gnarled, work-worn hand they carried large syringes with razor sharp tips, glass cylinders attached to each filled with a crimson liquid. “Shall we begin?
Issue Sixty-Six: “Blood Thicker”
HoM / FLINCHUM / BOWERS
LAPUTA:
Angela Spica pressed her hands against the emerald construct that suspended Victor Stone’s bodily functions. He’d been shredded, his organic parts dealt a devastating blow, but his cybernetics were still functioning, albeit at a reduced capacity. His face was a mauled mess, and there wasn’t enough parts left for Green Lantern to reconstruct.
“What do you mean?” asked Angela, not fully understanding John Stewart’s words.
“I didn’t know… we didn’t know… but his body has been dead this entire time… the nanites have kept the piece preserved but… it’s… he’s…”
“Stop. I… I get it.”
He was more machine than man. Did Vic know? When he woke up in the morning, and looked at what was left of his face in the mirror, did he know he was wearing a mask of humanity? More dead than alive? More computer than soul?
“What can we do?” asked John.
“We need to repair the damage to his body… but that would mean… removing what’s left of his organic matter… it could be… traumatising for him.”
“We have to make a decision. Even keeping him suspended with the ring won’t stave off death. Just delay it. We have to decide.”
Angie nodded. She got it. She always understood it. Her father had made the decision, when she was a child, to take her mother off life support after the accident. She’d never forgiven him for making that decision. The hard choice, he’d called it. He’d made it easier for her to hate him, after he went insane and utilised his scientific talent to become the villain known as the Engineer. When he tried to kill her in the aftermath.
Palms down, mouth close to Vic’s ear, Angie began to whisper. “Victor… I don’t know if you can hear me… but… your organic parts… what was left of them… the damage is so severe… we can’t save them. Green Lantern could keep them in stasis, but… but it’s just… if we did that you wouldn’t wake up… so… I have… I…”
“…ddooooooo ittttttttt…”
Angela Spica clamped her hands over her mouth. His voice was so distorted but even then, she didn’t think he would be able to speak. His voice box was a mangled mess, his body was shutting down one system at a time-- but had he been awake this entire time?
“What do you want us to do, Doctor Spica?” asked one of the medical techs.
“John, can you please get him into the smart tube? We’ll be excising the damaged and dead organic matter. We’ll need to reprogram his cybernetics to compensate for the loss. I need everyone on their a-game for this. I’m not losing him!”
LAPUTA:
“…We need to confront this crisis on two fronts. Firstly, those who are still submerged need retrieving. I have the Atlantean military operating search and rescue missions across the globe. I’ve arranged for every one of our cities, no matter how big or small, to redirect their forces to the task.”
Mera had arrived and was leading the Justice League’s meeting with an impassioned intensity that reminded Wonder Woman of her mother when the council on Themyscira had been called to order. Soon after her entrance, she’d reinforced Diana’s findings-- those who had drowned weren’t dead, simply caught in a type of magically-induced suspended animation. If they were to fix this, first they would need to ensure that those who had been lost at sea were back on dry land, or they’d find themselves drowning-- for a second and all too real time.
Along with Hank Henshaw-- Green Lantern-- Big Barda and Majestic had remained on the edge of the solar system, guarding the corpse of the celestial giant that had drifted a little bit close for comfort.
Cyborg was currently undergoing emergency surgery, while Lorraine Reilly-- the host of Firestorm-- was recuperating in the medical wing. Mister Miracle had returned and was listening intently, along with the Guardian, Hawkman and Wonder Woman. Green Lantern entered soon enough, having done all he could in the medical lab.
“How is he?” asked Mister Miracle, looking at the Lantern.
“Angie’s working as hard as she can, and Vic’s deterioration has stopped, but it’s too soon to say,” said John.
“Seven Hells…” whispered Hawkman.
“Let’s make sure there’s a world for him to come back to, people,” said the Guardian. He turned his attention back to Mera. “And secondly?
“Locate my husband. Kamchatka’s Drowning is an Atlantean weapon of mass destruction with a safeguard that means it can only be activated by the one true king. Someone has clearly kidnapped him and used him to bring about this horror.”
Hawkman agreed. “So where do we start?”
“We have spent the last months hunting for my husband’s half-brother, after he went mad, declared himself the ‘Ocean Master’ and went into hiding after he failed to destroy the kingdom of Atlantis. We had him cornered yesterday before he exhibited previously unseen abilities and escaped, and our intelligence agency believes he’s utilised them to snatch Arthur. Our mages can detect no trace of him, or his brother.”
“I think… I think I can help,” said Lorraine Reilly, walking slowly into the meeting room, supported by Martin Stein, who held her arm as she hobbled inside.
“Who--?” started Mera.
“Meet Firestorm; she was the one who managed to reset the waters, so we could begin a rescue operation. It took a lot out of her, but we wouldn’t be where we are now if it wasn’t for her,” said the Hawkman.
“Then you saved countless lives,” replied Mera.
“I was just… doing my job…” stuttered Lorraine, blushing.
“You have an idea?” pressed the Guardian.
“An impression, actually. Uh… I said, when I reset the oceans, that I could hear a song, just in the background of what I was doing. I think it was whatever caused this, and now I can’t hear it at all like I did before, but it’s still there. And I think I can lead you to the source.”
The Guardian stood abruptly and then looked around the room. “We need to split our focus then. Lantern, Miracle, we got people in a bad situation and we need to coordinate with the Atlantean military and anyone who can swim to ensure as many bodies are out the water as possible. If what you’re all saying is true, loss of life is negligible, which isn’t perfect, but better than the alternative. Mera, can you give them the Atlantean comms codes so they can patch in and get to work?”
“Of course,” said Mera.
“We’ve got this,” said Mister Miracle, patting John on the shoulder.
“Then that’s you guys. The rest of us are going to find Aquaman and the sonofabitch who did all this. Good luck to you all.”
XEBEL:
How had he ended up here? Aquaman ran through the mental checklist he’d been keeping, just to make sure he was on the right track. Ocean Master-- his brother Orm-- had been his kidnapper. Abducted him from the outskirts of Poseidonis, his kingdom’s capital, then whisked him away to wherever here was…
Upon Arthur’s awakening, Orm had used him to activate some kind of mystical weapon of mass destruction, but for some reason it had self-destructed after prolonged use… hopefully that meant that someone upstairs was fighting this war on a second front, and not that it had simply completed its function.
And now it seemed like Ocean Master might not be the warmonger he initially seemed… he’d experienced some kind of seizure, and his keepers had revealed themselves, along with the smug specimen who floated before him now.
“…You see, my name is Nereus, and this realm you find yourself a guest of right now? This is the kingdom of Xebel, and I am her rightful ruler. And between you and me… I hear that you’ve been sleeping with my wife.”
Arthur strained against the bonds that held him fast. They still wouldn’t give. He looked the red-haired man in the eye and then a smile crept across his face. “Nereus. I know the name. Mera-- you know, our wife, she’s mentioned you.”
Nereus pulled a face, disgusted at Orin’s choice of words, but he didn’t say anything to betray his feelings. Aquaman could feel his anger pulse into the waters around him, creating their own tidal pull…
He pressed on, a smile forming. “Yeah, she said some deranged, sweaty-palmed, small-dick piece of garbage was waiting for her back in her home dimension; apparently, he wanted her to kill me but was as bat-shit crazy as they come. She soon learned the world outside of Xebel wasn’t as bad as you made it out to be, and she got her happy ending… if you catch my drift.”
Nereus was flabbergasted and all semblance of calm evaporated. He’d never been spoken to in such a way. “Y-you dare?”
“Oh, sorry, not regal enough for you? I admit, a lot of that pomp and pageantry that comes with being king? That bores me to tears. But between you and me, I’m a Mainer, born and raised, and you look like the kind of person I haven’t got the patience for. So, c’mon, let’s get down to it. I’m chained to this chair, you’re bragging about some garbage, and all I can think is, huh, big man over there can’t do his own dirty work, so had to drag my brother into his schemes. What’s up with that?”
Screaming in anger, Nereus drove his harpoon into Arthur’s shoulder, gouging past the chainmail and into the meat of his arm. The King of Atlantis didn’t cry out, but he also didn’t break eye contact with his attacker. At the last minute, he’d shifted ever so slightly, and he felt one of the links in the chains that held him crack. Not much… but it was something. And he needed as much as he could get, considering the dire circumstances!
LAPUTA:
Angela slumped over and finally took a breath. Green Lantern had done his bit and was gone, back to flitting across the globe to find survivors. She’d done all she could, it was up to the smart tube to follow through now. The thick, gelatinous liquid inside the tube obscured her lover’s features, but she could see the movement of the tiny nano-strands as they whisked around his figure. They were doing what she’d told them to, she only hoped Victor could forgive her.
“We’re moving out in a minute, Angie; how’s he looking?” asked the Guardian.
His helmet was clipped at his belt and he looked tired, his scruffy beard an odd feature considering his usually regimented, military lifestyle. She’d not noticed it before, but how long had he been working? And what was his life like outside of the Justice League?
“Harp… he’s… he’s stable. We had to remove a lot of the damaged tissue, and I don’t… I don’t know what he’s going to be like when he wakes up… oh… oh, man… I’m scared.”
Angie threw her arms around Harper, and he embraced her tightly. They’d been close for years now, ever since they first met in his days as an elite operative in the Global Peace Agency. It was his invitation that led her to being part of the Justice League’s support staff.
“It’ll be okay. Vic’s a strong young man, and we’ll all be there to help him through whatever comes next.”
Angie managed a sad smile, then turned back to where Vic floated in the smart tube. Whatever would come next?
Meanwhile, Wonder Woman checked her breathing equipment while Mera made aggravated noises as she busied herself in the armoury, just out of site for the Queen of the Amazons.
“Firestorm is just readying herself, we’ll be on the move soon,” said Diana.
“I know, but the waiting… frustrates me,” said Mera.
Diana understood. “Arthur is alive. You know that, right?”
“I can’t feel him. Our bond is… when he was taken I felt his absence, and now that’s all there is. If he were dead, I wonder how that would feel… there’s a void in my stomach, but if he were dead, would there be a wound? Hmm. I’m ready.”
Mera emerged from the armoury and Diana was taken aback.
She wore a version of her husband’s costume, a high coloured, gold plate mail shirt and seaweed-green scaled trousers. In her hand, she gripped the Trident of Neptune, and her face was a mask of focus and determination.
“Let’s go find my husband then, eh?”
XEBEL:
Nereus wrenched the harpoon out from Arthur’s shoulder, and the King of Atlantis gasped and slumped forward, breathing in sharply to deal with the pain. Nereus didn’t let up. He repeatedly punched Aquaman hard across the face, splitting his cheek, but was met by choked laughter, as the half-human, half-Atlantean regent looked up and spat blood in the Xebel’s face.
“That… all you’ve… got?” rasped Aquaman.
“hhff… hhff… you… you are a monster… hhff… just like your predecessors. Just like the kings of Atlantis before you. I thought it would be poetic to use your brother as a tool to drag you down into the depths, Orin. Time and again he failed to drown your kingdom with the help of your enemies, so I thought it best to use him to instigate this meeting.”
“What…” That hurt more than the hot scarlet pain currently screaming out from his shoulder. “What’re…. you saying…”
“Oh, yes. This meeting has been on the cards for years. The rise of the Ocean Master’s legend? The fall of Atlantis? The bombing of Poseidonis and your brother’s role in it all*? Well, I am a dastardly fellow, but I am exactly what your predecessors made me. A survivor.”
* Aquaman #21-25, the epic “King’s Reign”
“What the hell are you talking about, you bastard? What did you do?”
“Regular blood transfusions from our slave caste have kept him docile, along with some sorcerous nudging from the wizarding council. You don’t know how many people down here want to see you and yours drown for what you’ve done to us. Unfortunately, the transfusion had the side effect of manifesting our hydrokinesis in your brother. Unexpected, but it does nothing to alter the programming installed within him.”
Aquaman grunted. Hydrokinesis? That tracked with what Garth had told him back before the king was kidnapped, but it was a horrifying thought. What if his brother wasn’t the evil monster he’d been portrayed as for the last few years? What if it was all Nereus’ doing?
“And now you’re here, in the hell dimension your ancestors sent mine down into. How poetic. Do you know what else lives in this dimensional rift? Countless horrors. Countless weapons. But there’s one I’ve been waiting so long to use… one I need your imprint to activate, like the others. It’s an escape hatch. An artefact that will swap Xebel’s position with your capital’s. Your people will be trapped down here, in the dark, like mine have been for eons. Who will they blame? You.”
“You’ll… be stopped…” growled Aquaman.
Nereus laughed and solidified the water around Arthur’s throat, dragging the chained liege up painfully. “I’ll never stop. Not until everything you love is a dashed across the seafloor.”
NEARING LATITUDE: 27.132481 NORTH / LONGITUDE: 73.086548 WEST:
With the Guardian in the pilot seat of the Javelin, one of the Justice League’s jumpships, Firestorm had led the team of Justice Leaguers on an erratic flightpath as she gleaned information from the invisible signals that drifted through the molecules of the world. Mera and Wonder Woman sat together, while Hawkman was standing by the rear doors, flexing his wings, checking his breathing equipment repeatedly.
Lorraine noticed that there was an odd taste to the skies, something she couldn’t place. Did the sky have a flavour? The additional senses provided to her by the Firestorm Matrix were beyond what she wielded when she was Firehawk, and it was still taking some getting used to.
Martin looked up from where he was scrawling on the chalkboard within the Firestorm Matrix, inside Lorraine’s head. “You’re not wrong. There seems to be an odd imbalance to the atmospheric make-up. Perhaps Ronald and I had become so used to it, or a change had been subtle over a period of time… I wonder…”
“Are you okay? You’re muttering to yourself… or is it a Firestorm thing?” asked Hawkman.
Lorraine pulled herself out of her head and looked over to the Winged Avenger. “Yeah, yes, sorry. But… does the sky feel weird to you?”
“Not as weird as the water has felt over the last 24 hours,” he replied.
Mera leaned forward in her seat and peered out of her window. “I know this place, don’t I?”
“We’re currently above the North Atlantic, just outside the Caribbean sea,” replied the Guardian.
Mera repeated the words to herself silently, trying to figure out why it rang so many bells in her head.
“The energy signature I’ve been sensing terminates here, under the sea,” said Firestorm.
“Okay, activating shields, ready for submergence,” said the Guardian.
The Javelin pierced the surface of the sea and descended, and soon enough they had reached the ocean floor. They followed Firestorm’s directions exactly, and when they arrived at the source--
“Nothing,” said Hawkman.
“But I can feel…” started Firestorm.
Mera cursed under her breath. “Damnation, I know where we are! I know! And the reason we’re not at the source is because we didn’t sink!”
With a swift motion of her wrist, a column of solid water shoved the Javelin upwards, sending the engines into a frenzy. Then, with another flick of her hand, lances of water punctured the hull, though no water came in thanks to the pressured gaps sealed by Mera’s powers.
“What’s she doing?!” barked the Guardian.
“She’s sinking us,” said Wonder Woman, calmly.
“But-- why--?” started Hawkman.
Firestorm clicked her fingers. “Oh, God! I get where we are! This isn’t just the ocean floor-- we’re above the Bermuda Tria--”
The Javelin erupted in light and then vanished from sight, fading into nothingness beneath the waves…
XEBEL:
Still bound by the enchanted chains that kept him somewhat docile, Aquaman was dragged through the haunted ruins of the Xebel colony. They’d left the sphere that contained the souls of all of Kamchatka’s Drowning’s victims behind in the cell where the worst damage had been done to the king, and this next journey would inevitably lead to something much worse.
As they went, dozens of her residents watched, Aquaman’s gold and green uniform marking him as the cause of their isolation and poverty. There were whispers to begin with, then hisses and jeers.
He ignored them. If there was something he could do, he would do it once he managed to escape. He rolled his injured shoulder slowly, and found that the chains gave. If he could find the strength in himself to give it one last go, one last escape attempt, he was confident he could manage it. But he needed to get away from the crowds first.
He didn’t know how much the exertion would take out of him, so he needed there to be as few people around as possible. Wherever Nereus was taking him, that would be where he’d stage his escape.
With some effort, he craned his neck back, and saw that Orm’s keepers were dragging him along, though they’d not bothered chaining him up. He was unconscious still, blood trailing consistently from his lips. He was damaged internally by whatever they’d done to him, and so it was not only an escape attempt for the King of the Seven Seas… it would be one of rescue as well.
“Where are you taking us?” he asked.
“Heh. I wanted to show you something. Come. Higher!”
The group reached the tallest, most battered pinnacle in the colony and landed on a platform; above them the ocean roiled, as if thunder and lightning were crackling beneath the sea. Arthur noted the other towers that surrounded the city, each of them covered in ancient-looking Atlantean technology. Energy casters, fire cannons, countless other weapons that had long since been abandoned by his people. A security net?
Nereus picked Aquaman up by the chains on his back and held him up, dangling him above the city below. The chains began to grow heavy, and tighter, and he was unsure of his ability to swim if he was released. He’d drop like an acme safe off a mountain, and the landing might leave him crippled, or dead.
Below, the shattered colony of Xebel resided. Arching, cobbled-together arches intertwined with each other, though Aquaman could see that parts of the city were seemingly melded with the sunken wrecks of numerous ships. Submarines, planes, cargo liners, countless boats that had drowned and ended up in this graveyard. There were craters around the edges of the city where ships had bounced off the arches and landed away from the populated areas… it looked like an underwater, urban hellscape.
“Your people gave Xebel its name. A name with meaning. Old Atlantean for ‘prison’. But that’s just one name for this place. Purgatory. Limbo. Whatever you can imagine, this place has probably been called that. Regardless, above us is an interdimensional rift that connects us with your dimension. Back in the darker days of your history, prisoners, the worst of the worst, would be cast down in weighted chains, like the ones you’re covered in now. You’d sink, and that would activate the portal. You’d be spat out here, and begin a life sentence. We survived. We thrived. Even though, across the years, the humans would litter our city with their wrecks.”
“And what was done to your people was a crime but these actions do not make it right!” growled Aquaman. He strained against his chains. Yes, if he gave it one last effort…
Behind him, the attendants began to operate heavy, clunking machinery. An eight-foot-tall slab raised up from the floor of the platform, revealing a clockwork contraption made from volcanic glass. The mechanism began to activate, and Aquaman could see that there was a place for a man in the middle of the device. The symbols in the space were old Atlantean, and he recognised the markings as identifying royalty. Was this the machine Nereus had mentioned? The one that would allow Xebel to swap places with Poseidonis?
“So our forbearers built the arches, to displace any wrecks that would seek to crush us in our sleep. We couldn’t leave this place because the dark waters around our home hold more horrors than you could imagine. Trapped on this patch of unsafe land, with metallic ruins falling on our heads… did we deserve that, your majesty? Did we?”
“No, you did not, and if you’d come to me instead of sending an assassin to murder me in my sleep, if you’d communicated with us rather than brainwashing my brother, then we might have reached a compact-- and if you could have escaped at any time, then we could have found a place for you in the ocean! You managed to master small-scale transport, but you used it to spite me, but your--”
Nereus slapped Arthur. “Everything I’ve done has been to prepare for this moment! This citadel is the final weapon I will use to stab at you! All I need is insert you into the mechanism and your body will be plugged in, the royal engine that drives the transference engine! I hold onto the lever, focus on your capital and it will swap places with Xebel and this tower will remain, a monument to your failure to save Poseidonis! Your people will be trapped here, and we will be free to take our place out in the world, and the Atlanteans will blame you for their exile!”
Enough was enough. Aquaman roared, and with an immense act of strength shattered the damaged, enchanted chains that bound him, then kicked the rogue king backwards toward the device. The weight of the chains immediately caused Orin to sink, but he grabbed the edge of the platform and cast off the weights that held him, then sprang onto the platform and into action.
He immediately saw that he was surrounded, and Nereus had quickly retreated behind his royal guard.
“You speak peace but your actions are those of war,” spat the rogue king.
“You’re a madman and I will put an end to you. And when all is said and done, I will lead your people back home, something you’ve refused to even attempt, you bastard,” growled Aquaman.
“Then I guess we have no choice,” said Nereus.
The King of Xebel pulled Ocean Master’s head up, took a knife out from his belt and violently slit the man’s throat. Orm cried out mutely, clutched at the wound, then slumped down as blood filled the water.
“No!” screamed Aquaman, just as the oceanic skies above exploded with light--
--And for a long, hanging moment nothing appeared--
--But the skies roared--
--And the Justice League’s Javelin finally materialised!
Without warning, barrages of energy shot out from the platforms that surrounded the colony, and the salvos tore into the ship and ripped it to shreds. The debris cascaded down toward the city, but before the wrecked hull could bounce off the arches, the metallic chunks dissolved into the waters as a transformative energy washed over them… and then there was silence, and Aquaman watched with wide eyes and a shocked expression.
“Were those your rescuers?” asked Nereus, chuckling. “Pathetic!”
Kneeling on the platform, caught up for a moment in the shock of what he had just witnessed, Aquaman turned away from the cataclysm below toward his fallen brother, then returned his gaze to Nereus.
“Why-- why are you grinning like that? Your friends are dead!” said the Xebel king.
The towers around the city began to shake. Aquaman stood and shook his head. “Or that ship was empty, and served as a really convincing distraction. But what do I know? It’s not like the nanotelepathic link that connects all us Justice Leaguers didn’t just come online. Oh. Wait. Don’t turn around.”
MOMENTS BEFORE:
“Can’t tell if it’s the damage done by Mera’s little sinking trick, or the dimensional rift we clearly just got sucked through, but the Javelin’s engines are dead!” said the Guardian, as he slammed his fists into the controls.
“Then be glad we put our breathing equipment on before we sank,” said Hawkman. He checked his mace and tapped it against the side of the ship, then grabbed the release handle for the back doors of the ship.
“Wait! We have a few moments before we’re spat out on the other side. We’re about to enter Xebel, my home dimension. Long story short, the perimeter of the portal is surrounded by ancient weapons capable of destroying us on arrival. So we need to play this smart. Firestorm, can you surround us in a sphere of something reflective?”
“Sure, yeah!”
“We exit now, get some distance between us and the Javelin, and arrive first. They don’t see us, they don’t fire. The Javelin will materialise and draw their fire. Firestorm can transmute the towers into nothingness. We locate Aquaman-- using the nanotelepathic link we all share-- and take the fight to him.”
“Sounds like a solid plan,” said the Guardian.
Wonder Woman agreed and Hawkman simply grinned, baring his teeth as he checked the assortment of weapons latched to his belt.
“Let’s do this then!” said Mera, gripping the Trident of Neptune.
NOW:
The towers riddled with ancient weapons fell thanks to the transmutation performed by Firestorm around their bases, and as they toppled down toward the edges of the city, away from the colony itself, Nereus turned when he sensed a presence behind him-- only to be met by a punch from a woman dressed in the same suit of armour that the King of the Seven Seas wore.
“You didn’t take the hint, did you?” spat Mera, kicking Nereus in the stomach as the Guardian, Hawkman and Wonder Woman sprang into action to take out his royal guard. While they wielded hydrokinesis, the lightning-fast attack from the Justice League meant they were overcome in moments, knocked unconscious with the fight beaten out of them nearly immediately.
The fight was over quickly, and Aquaman didn’t even have to throw a punch. He barged through the crowd of soldiers that floated nearby and went to his brother’s side, who was desperately clutching his sliced throat. “Orm, I’m here, it’s okay, I’m here!”
“Hhhhkkkk…” drawled the Ocean Master as the life drained from him. “I… can feel… myself… returning…” he managed. “Bled… dry… of their… poison…”
Even restrained by Diana’s lasso, Nereus refused to give up. “No! No, it’s never as easy as that! I’ll watch this all fall before I let you win! It’ll-- all-- fall!”
Blood vessels popped in his eyes and blood streamed out of his ears and nose as he strained, but before he could claim victory, Hawkman planted him with the butt of his mace, knocking him out immediately.
{That was anti-climactic,} he said, simply.
{What was he doing?} asked the Guardian.
A shadow began to spread over them. They looked toward the source, past the boundary between the edge of the colony and the dark waters beyond, and realised that whatever invisible barrier had kept the two separate had now become porous. Whatever was lurking behind the black water veil had begun to stir, and it was coming closer and closer--
Aquaman stood and floated toward his wife. “What is that?”
Fear-filled eyes met his own, as Mera quickly explained. “Xebel was a dumping ground for artefacts and weapons, but before all of that… Vulko said it was where the ancient Atlanteans sent the monsters that once roamed the seven seas… Têmtum… Lotan… Yammu… Leviathan… they couldn’t hope to defeat those creatures so they were banished. Banished here. Why do you think we evolved the ability to control water? It was always to keep them out-- and as king, Nereus just removed the shield-- they can get in--”
Out there, in the dark, something shrieked, and the buildings that made up the main body of the Xebel colony shook. The husks of sunken ships creaked, and movements within the dark waters began to intensify.
{Sea monsters. Biblical horrors. Okay. That’s Justice League work,} said the Guardian.. He glanced over to Hawkman, who’d already extended a bladed weapon to the gold-clad soldier, who gladly accepted. {Thanks, Katar.}
{Thank me if we survive this.}.
Tens of thousands of translucent tentacles shot toward the only tower left standing where the Justice League stood, faster than they could think to react, but the attack shattered across a wall of hardened water, projected by Mera. The impact rocked her, and blood began to form at the corner of her nose, but she held her hands out.
“W-we… n-need… t-to evacuate…” she said.
{How?} asked Wonder Woman.
Another attack careened toward them from the dark waters, but this time Mera’s shield was reinforced by Firestorm’s own powers, as she erected a massive promethium wall between that part of the city and the invading creatures.
{We’ve got your back!} said Lorraine.
“nnnnn what’re you doinggggg?”
Aquaman turned at Nereus’ voice and saw his brother Orm locking the rogue king in the transference engine’s mechanisms. With one hand clamped across his cut throat, Ocean Master pulled down the lever that activated its intricate circuitries and then gave his half-brother a sad look. “Always… for… family…”
“Orm, no--!” cried out Aquaman, reaching out as--
--The prison colony of Xebel crashed loudly at the edge of Poseidonis’ border, the wreckage of countless empty ships scattering out toward the protective shield they’d erected in the capital months prior and bouncing off onto the arches that kept the colony protected. The Justice League found themselves floating high above it all as the sands shifted-- the tower they’d been standing upon not making the transition from the Xebel reality to this one.
“Orm…” whispered Arthur.
“What… did he do…?” asked Mera.
“I guess he… he triggered the transference engine using Nereus… he was the king of that realm, so it made sense it… it would work… He sent Xebel here, to the… to the edge of the capital… sent us all to safety… but where… where is he?”
{The tower stayed,} said Wonder Woman. {Perhaps…}
“Maybe he sacrificed himself for his brother, one last time,” said Mera, cradling her distraught husband.
Orin’s brother was gone, his final act as his protector banishing him even further from the lights and sights of Poseidonis.
“It was him. It was really him, one last time,” replied Arthur.
{I’m so sorry for your loss, Arthur, but we need to find the artefact that caused the sinking-- Kamchatka’s Drowning? We need to undo the damage,} said the Guardian.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. This way.”
Aquaman led the others through Xebel, back the way he had come earlier, to where he had initially been held. The citizens of the colony were hiding on the fringes of the streets, hidden in their homes, even as the Atlantean Royal Guard arrived, led by Tempest.
“You made it back!”
“This isn’t over yet, Garth,” said Arthur, and without another word, his guard followed, even as the Justice League neared where they needed to be
Beneath the ruined colony of Xebel resided the cell in which Arthur had been kept, and with it, the glowing orb that contained the souls stolen from the victims of Kamchatka’s Drowning. Thanks to it, the old stone room was illuminated with bright lights, shifting and changing like the tides.
{Whoa, I’m getting… all kinds of… just whoa,} said Firestorm.
“There is life energy here, so much of it. This is where all the souls of the weapon were taken?” asked Wonder Woman, gesturing to the sphere.
The Guardian turned away from the group and put a finger to his ear, an old habit now unnecessary thanks to the nanotelepathic link that was directly plugged into his brain.. {This is the Guardian. We found the life energies of those who drowned. GL, how are we looking with the rescue efforts?}
{My ring can’t detect anyone else submerged. I’ve asked others to verify, it looks like we’ve fished out as many bodies as we can. If you have the life energies, I recommend you release them!}
Aquaman looked around at the others, then to his wife. The orb throbbed, wave upon wave of life energy brushing up against the surface of itself. “I don’t know how I can release them…”
“How did they activate the Drowning in the first place, my love?” asked Mera.
Connecting the mental dots, Arthur extended a hand toward the orb and placed his palm across the surface of it. The room was suddenly filled with the kind of light that blinded, and everything went white. Of all of the Justice League, it was Firestorm who didn’t turn away, her elemental powers allowing her to process the view of countless souls emerging from the sphere and shooting outwards.
Aquaman held his palm fast against the surface, he too unable to look away.
{That light-- is-- is it working?} asked Hawkman.
{It’s beautiful,} replied Firestorm.
Normalcy returned to the room a second later and the sphere was gone. Aquaman staggered back but steadied himself with help from Mera. The Guardian checked with the rest of the team, above water-- and the news was flooding in-- people were returning to life! Whatever arcane stasis they’d been stricken with had been removed, and their life forces were now returned!
{They’re back,} he said, {they’re all back.}
Aquaman nodded. “There’s more work to be done and the day isn’t over yet..."
POSEIDONIS
LATER:
LATER:
The massive crowd of water-breathers that had assembled from across the seven seas in the capital of Atlantis’ vast kingdom applauded as King Orin, accompanied by Queen Mera and their young child Prince Arthur, floated into view.
The king stood before the people of his capital, crown resting across his temples, and looked over at his family with utter love and devotion. The shell systems that lined the streets and connected every city in the sprawling underwater nation released a small stream of bubbles as they activated, and Orin raised his hands to silence the cheering crowds as he cleared his throat, and began to speak.
“Today is a day of great change. A terrible tragedy was averted, and in the wake of it all, we now have an opportunity to become something greater than our selves. An ancient mistake was righted-- the lost colony of Xebel has been returned to us today, and now we begin restitution.”
Across the border of the capital, the Xebel colony listened to what was being said. They gathered in their huddled masses around the shell systems that the Atlanteans had set up, and wondered what their future would bring. Throughout the seven seas, King Orin’s voice boomed across the cities that existed beneath the waves, and they all knew a change was coming.
“You did not deserve the lives you have had to suffer through. Through it all, you survived, but now we all have an opportunity to thrive. You have a home here, and will always have a home. There will be elections held to elect a Xebel representative to the oceanic council. You will have a voice. If it is within my power to allow, you will have it. This is a new world. This is what Atlantis should always have been-- a place of opportunity, or change… a place where we can meet the future head on, and ride the wave of progress to the heights we all deserve..”
Dressed in the regalia befitting a royal event and standing next to the Guardian, Wonder Woman leaned over to Mera, who held Arthur Jr’s hand as the toddler watched his father in awe. {Through it all, he can still find hope.}
“That’s what kings do,” replied Mera.
Arthur continued. “It is time for us to reclaim our seat at the world’s table. As such, I will be reopening full diplomatic ties with the surface world. We should not be an isolationist people. We should push forward toward expansion, toward a better world for all. We are the citizens of the oceans, and I believe we have a wider responsibility to the world. For too long we have preferred to remain under the sea rather than building bridges with the surface world. As your king, it is time to decide the future of the seven seas, and all those kingdoms that fall under my leadership. To that end, Queen Mera and myself will be collaborating full-time with the Justice League and the United Nations to create links between the surface nations and our own. This has been in the pipeline for some time, and I have made a decision regarding who will be regent in my absence.”
Arthur turned, and gestured for Garth to join him. The young man pointed at himself, confused, then stepped forward, looking back at Tula who smiled warmly as the events unfolded.
“For years, as you all know, Garth has been my brother and confidante. My wife informed me that it was his insight into the history of our peoples that led to yesterday’s cataclysm coming to an end. It was his knowledge and wisdom that allowed those we thought lost to the waves to come back to us. Ever since I met this young man, I foresaw great things. With the council’s support and the continued wisdom provided by the chief royal advisor Vulko, Garth will lead the kingdom when my duty to bridging the surface and the oceans take me away from the throne. He is my brother, and it is time we formalise that relationship. Before, you knew him as simply Garth, but from this point forward, know him as Regent Garth Marinus, Tempest of Atlantis and brother of the king!”
The crowds roared in celebration as Aquaman raised Tempest’s arm in victory, and Mera took the opportunity to make her presence known, and address the crowd. “Today is a great day for our people! Now let us celebrate! Music! Dance! This is the start of the future of Atlantis!”
As the people in the capital continued their celebrations, Garth leaned over to Arthur, and whispered, “This is what this whole thing’s been about? All those lessons with Vulko, all the meetings you’ve had me shadow you in?”
Arthur nodded. “I had a realisation during the restoration of the capital in the wake of my brother’s… treachery. When he is of age, my son will be king-- if that’s what he wants. Now, I know that without Vulko’s wisdom, without your support, without Mera’s love, I wouldn’t be half the king I am. Now… I’ll follow my own father’s example, and be the best parent to Arthur Jr as possible, and that’s one thing, but I want him to have all the opportunities I had when I became king. I want you to be the royal advisor when he assumes the throne. I want you to provide the same wisdom Vulko could provide me. And I think that kind of wisdom comes with not only reading all the books, knowing the ins and outs of the kingdom, but also ruling. So yeah, I may have strung you along a bit, kept you in the dark for longer than I should’ve, but I also know you well enough that if I’d told you what I was thinking you would have scared yourself out of it. You’re the best brother I have, Garth. The competition is slim, but you’re the best. So… yeah. Welcome to the family.”
LAPUTA:
“Victor? Victor, can you hear me?”
The world was distorted. Electronic input overload. Light hit optical sensors and fed into a computer, and shapes began to form. The shapes were fuzzy at the edges, silouettes highlighted in a neon green against a pitch-black background. The human brain interprets images that the eye sees in just 13 milliseconds. But as the moment stretched on-- and it was only a moment, barely a moment, 3 milliseconds in fact-- the world became clear like crystal, and Victor Stone, aka Cyborg, saw the face of Angela Spica.
“Aaaangie,” he said, his voice distorted, not his own.
“Try not to move. You experienced a severe trauma, you barely made it,” she said.
He could see her pulse through her neck. Micro expressions on her face screamed at him-- she was scared, she was sad, she loved him so much, she was ashamed, she was on the verge of tears. What had happened?
“Dif difc difficult to access memory files. We were in space?”
Trauma caused blockages in his central memory processors. Just as severe trauma might cause temporary amnesia in everyone else, he was having trouble getting to the root of the situation. His mind kept drawing a blank, but his brain felt… alive. Hyper-sensitive. Hyper-conductive to information. He pushed ahead, even as Angie gripped the square thing in her hands. It was as big as an A3 sheet of paper, wooden frame. A picture?
She tried to answer his question. “You were, and you were attacked. You--”
Something struck Vic and he swallowed hard, though the sensation didn’t feel right.
“My voice why is my voice not my--”
Panic was audible, even travelling through the high-tech vocaliser built into his throat.
And then he went quiet, his memories of the last six hours returning. Space. The dead god. The carnivorous beings that swarmed the body-- and him.
“Oh,” he said, finally.
“Oh?” repeated Angie, her knuckles whitening as she gripped the frame tighter.
“I remember. The Throshti tore me to shreds. Ravaged my organics. You had to make a decision. I told you to do it. I’m-- oh, no.”
“Vic…” her voice was barely a whisper.
“Is there… anything left?” he asked. Internal diagnostics were running faster than usual, unencumbered by the usual… organic element…
“Any…” she repeated, unsure.
The volume of his voice increased. “Any of my body? My heart? My face?”
She slumped forward, her eyes hidden by her fringe. “…No. There’s not. They destroyed it all. You’re…”
“I’m here,” he said, with a sense of finality.
She looked up. “Pardon?”
“I’m here. I’m not dead. I’m here. I survived. And… and… how do I look?”
“You’re as handsome as the day I met you,” said Angie.
Not a life, according to the biometric data being fed into his brain, but tinged with something else, with--
“Angie… c’mon…”
She sighed then lifted up the frame she’d been holding, then flipped it around to show the mirrored side at its front. She lifted it to eye level, and Victor Stone saw his new face.
THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM:
The Boom Tube opened up in silence as the void of space beckoned, and Wonder Woman drifted out to meet Big Barda, Green Lantern and Majestic, who guarded the celestial body of a dead god.
{How’s Victor?} asked Majestic.
Diana shook her head. {Angela said he was awake, but the damage was severe. He no longer has any of his old body left. He’s entirely cybernetic now.}
{I should have been faster… damnation…} said Majestic, floating away from the others.
{I’m sorry to pull you aware from Earth, but… when it comes to this kind of thing, I think you’re the expert, Diana… do you know who this is?} asked Big Barda.
Still dressed as an ambassador, Wonder Woman floated in the void, amazed at the immense sight before her, though her amazement was tinged with the sadness of seeing a celestial being dead. She cast her eyes over his face; not one she recognised, but it was most definitely alien. An alien god.
Her mother had once told her tales of such beings, immense, fractal things that didn’t adhere to the laws of humanity-- be it back in ancient times or even the present. She had once journeyed to their council, centuries ago, on a mission for the Greek pantheon, and the sights she had seen…
{Is that ice in his mouth…?} asked Diana.
{ Iceberg, more accurately… it goes all the way down into his lungs,} replied Green Lantern.
Henshaw tapped his ring, and a small scale map of the celestial’s body formed, showing immense ice shards that went down the throat all the way into his godly gullet. A sad sight, and even more chilling, considering the potential identity of the victim.
Barda shook her head. {So he was drowned?}
{And then cast out into space, where the waters froze inside him. All his light… gone…} said Diana.
{How is that possible?} asked Barda.
{There are places and times a god can die. Moments when even immortals are susceptible to the whims of Hades, or… their gatekeeper to their nether realm. All it took to kill Baldur was a sprig of mistletoe.}
{But this?} pressed Green Lantern.
{He looks familiar. My mother told me tales of beings of this scale, who did good work across the cosmos. In fact…} she hesitated, memories from her childhood on Themyscira flashing before her eyes.
{What?} asked Barda, recognising the look on her friend’s face-- realisation, the kind that weighed heavy.
For Diana, there was a familiarity here. The curve of the being’s immense nose. The way his large cheeks appeared ready to accommodate a smile, if not for the death mask of ice that shrouded his features. Countless eyes from sockets all the way around the being’s skull, from temple to temple, and then…
Wonder Woman floated toward the celestial and knelt upon his chest, above where his heart should be. She began to pray for him, a devout and reverential prayer to the pantheon she suspected him of belonging to, to where he had once belonged. There were rituals of worship, or respect, that all beings followed, be them from this solar system or twenty dimensions up. It just depended on your perspective. And with perspective…
The celestial’s body began to shrink down. Gravity didn’t cause an issue, magic didn’t observe those kinds of laws, and soon the god’s body was small enough that Diana could reach into his belt pouch, and withdraw a wrapped token.
{What is that?} asked Green Lantern.
{I know this god.}
Majestic joined the others. {Who is it then?}
{No… I misspoke… I know of this god. It was my mother who knew him…}
She unwrapped the token, and held up a familiar tiara. Like her own, but more ornate, and older than anything other than the god that had now dissipated back into the ether of its creation, or the god-given tokens she herself wore.
{This god was one of words and structure. My mother met him some time ago at the celestial court, far, far away from here. They helped save the universe together, and she gave him this as thanks… and now he’s dead. Who… who could have done this?}
{You said that even the smallest thing can kill a god when the time is right, but what if it’s the other thing, Diana? Who better to kill a god… than a god? And what better way to send a message, than with the body of a legend?} posited Barda.
{…Something’s coming, then. Something big. And this was a shot across the bow. We need to get home. We need to prepare…}
NEVER THE END..?
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NEXT TIME: Before the adventures of the Justice League continue, a presence from the past returns to the universe and seeks to regain his identity… when a lost soul arrives in the Celestial Court to face the Trial of the Gods, what will the end result be? And what does the legacy of Wonder Woman have to do with it, as a deadly threat visits Wonder Girl, Troia and Zenobia? Find out in JUSTICE LEAGUE SPECIAL: THE BEGINNING OF THE END