Disclaimer: I do not own "Aquaman" or any of its characters or concepts. All characters in this story are property of DC Comics. No profit is being made from this story.

A plain, unmarked truck was driving along a cliff-side road. To the left was a beautiful view of the ocean, a deep blue beneath a cloudless sky. The driver of the truck ignored it. His thoughts were far too preoccupied with his cargo.

He knew it shouldn't bother him. After all he'd hauled questionable and dangerous cargoes before. This was different though. He shuddered as he recalled the glimpse he'd caught of the high-tech capsule and the thing inside it as they were loaded aboard. As if that wasn't enough he'd also overheard some workers muttering about an "Aqua-Marine prototype," "shark" and "unexpected mutation."

His job was to transport it to S.T.A.R. Labs for further study. They had assured him that the creature was completely unconscious and posed no danger to him. Despite that he couldn't help gripping the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles were white. Beads of sweat ran down his forehead and he reached up with one hand to wipe it.

Had he been paying attention to the road perhaps he would have noticed the glint of sunlight off of a broken bottle that an earlier driver had carelessly discarded. But he was not paying attention and so he did not notice until the truck drove over it.

BANG!

The right front tire burst. Ragged pieces of rubber went flying off and sparks flew as the cab dipped to the right and the bumper scraped against the asphalt. The driver tried to brake and swerve as he saw an upcoming turn in the road but it was too late. In desperation he leapt out of the cab just before the truck hit the rails. Metal tore away with a shriek and the vehicle went tumbling down the cliff. It hit the water with a loud splash and sank below the surface.

The capsule was flung around the inside of the trailer as the truck fell, but it was a sturdy piece of hardware and remained fully functional. It wasn't until water started flooding the trailer that its circuits finally shorted out. The screen displaying the vital signs of the capsule's occupant went dark and the faint beeping sound it had been emitting ceased.

With the capsule rendered non-functional the flow of anaesthetic gas keeping the creature comatose came to a halt. Before long it began to stir.

A single blow broke the capsule's lid off and the creature emerged, already recovering from the lingering effects of the gas. The darkness inside the trailer was no obstacle as it ripped the doors from their hinges and swam out. The creature felt neither joy or excitement at it's newfound freedom or at being back in its home environment. Its mind was consumed by only one impulse.

Hunger.

Sensing the electromagnetic fields of living organisms it dived for the sea bed and began digging up hidden halibut, camouflaged flounders and such, which it then crammed into its mouth and devoured.

With its hunger briefly dulled it resumed swimming, using the planet's geomagnetic field to orientate itself and head out towards open water where prey would be abundant. Before long it was hungry again but fortunately it sensed vibrations coming through the water. The vibrations indicated that there was much larger prey nearby. Delicious warm-blooded prey.

A dorsal fin broke the surface of the water as the creature accelerated towards its unsuspecting victims.

Miles away from Atlantis a pod of bottlenose dolphins were swimming across the sea surface, often leaping into the air and spinning or flipping end over end before plunging back down, sending up spray that cast iridescent rainbows in the sunlight. What really made it a curious sight though was the presence of a young woman with pure white hair swimming alongside the pod, easily keeping up with them and leaping out of the water just like they did. If that wasn't strange enough, her limbs were covered in blue scales while her hands and feet were webbed.

Dolphin smiled happily as she watched one of the pod's youngsters spin in the air before splashing down. Given the recent tumult her home of Atlantis had been through, what with the tyrant Corum Rath coming to power, the struggle to overthrow him and then Atlantis being raised to the surface, it was good to be able to enjoy some time out in the open sea away from everything.

And what better way to spend that time than by playing with the creatures she shared her name with? Her and the dolphins in the pod had been exploring a sunken ship until her friends need for air had forced them to the surface. Later she would go back and continue exploring but for now she was having fun racing the pod.

Looking in the other direction she spotted a human boat some distance away. It was white in colour and quite small with only a few people aboard, most of whom looked to be laying down and relaxing.

Dolphin was curious but decided not to take a closer look. While these particular people were probably no danger, she didn't want her bottlenose friends to get the wrong idea and start getting close to humans. Not all of them were harmless after all.

Just as she was about to swim off with the pod she noticed a large dorsal fin cutting through the water, heading right for the boat.

Shark!

But something felt amiss. She sensed that this was no ordinary shark. The people on the boat were in mortal danger.

She immediately started swimming towards it.

Aboard the yacht a young man had also spotted the approaching dorsal fin. Alarmed, he immediately called to some of his friends who were enjoying a swim.

"Get back on board! There's a shark coming."

As they hurriedly scrambled aboard he looked back at the dorsal fin. To his disbelief and dismay it was still coming towards them.

Before he could react something burst out of the water, sailed through the air and landed with a thud on the deck. Everyone screamed in terror as it turned to face them.

The creature stood over six feet tall and was built like an Olympic swimmer, lean but powerful. Although basically humanoid in shape its head was shark-like, with tiny black eyes, a pointed snout, a fin on the back of its head, gills on its neck and a huge mouth filled with large, sharp teeth. A large dorsal fin sprouted from its back, as did smaller fins on its forearms and lower legs. Its hands and feet ended in webbed claws and its scaly skin was coloured a light purplish-grey.

Even as the terrified people screamed and panicked they heard a chilling voice in their heads that seemed to come from all directions at once.

Shark… hungry. Eat… prey…

It began to approach them, mouth opening wide.

As she closed in on the boat Dolphin saw the creature jump aboard and heard the voice in her mind.

What is that? At first she'd thought it might be King Shark or a sea-changed Atlantean like her but this "Shark" seemed like something else entirely. One thing was certain though, she couldn't let him hurt innocent people.

With a burst of speed she leaped out of the water and tackled the Shark, her momentum sending them both over the railing and back into the sea with a splash! She continued swimming down, taking them deeper underwater. Recovering from his initial surprise her foe began to grapple with her, causing them to tumble through the water for a moment before they both broke away and moved back to reassess the situation.

The Shark slashed at her with his claws but Dolphin dodged each blow and countered with a knife-hand strike to his gills. He drifted back, gagging and putting a hand to his injury.

Before she could press the attack his eyes glowed yellow and she froze in place as a sudden paralysing fear gripped her. She couldn't move as he steadied himself and opened his jaws, ready to bite her head off.

With a desperate effort of will Dolphin used her bioluminescent power to create a blinding flash of light. The Shark covered his eyes and cried out in pain. At once the overwhelming fear disappeared and she could move again. She immediately landed a push kick that propelled him backwards through the water. Knowing that he would recover quickly she turned and dived.

With a low growl the Shark pursued her. He couldn't see but that meant little as long as he could still sense the electrical impulses of her nervous system.

As she swam Dolphin once again heard his cold voice in her mind.

Shark kill prey… Kill you…

She again felt the paralysing fear from before but this time she was able to push it aside and keep moving. In just a few second she reached the sea bed. She smiled as she spotted a large boulder precariously balanced on a rocky ledge.

Dolphin swam behind the boulder and the Shark, still blinded, charged right at her. He was caught completely unawares when she pushed the boulder off the ledge and it sank down right on top of him, pinning him to the sea bed. He growled in rage and struggled furiously but it was too heavy to lift.

Her smile widened in triumph but then disappeared as a yellow light began to glow from under the boulder. Realising what was about to happen she took cover behind another large rock just before the boulder exploded!

BUH-WHOOM!

The rock shielded her from the pressure wave of water generated by the explosion. Once it had passed she looked up to see the Shark rise up over the rock she hid behind. His eyes were again glowing and an orb of yellow light floated in front of his snout.

Dolphin dodged just in time as the energy bolt flew forwards and exploded upon striking the sand she had just been standing on. She swam off, twisting and turning as the Shark fired off a series of energy bolts that zipped past her.

She wasn't just swimming in any direction though. She knew exactly where she was going and before long she arrived at her destination, the sunken ship where she and her dolphin friends had been playing earlier.

Even derelict it was an impressive sight at over 250 feet in length and with an almost pristine white hull not yet marred by rust or bio-fouling. Right now though her focus was entirely on one of the portholes.

The Shark had ceased firing energy bolts in favour of pure speed and he was closing in on her, his powerful limbs driving him through the water like a torpedo. With a desperate burst of speed Dolphin swam through the porthole and into a corridor of the submerged vessel. She was slender enough to fit through the hole but the Shark was not. Unable to stop himself in time he slammed right into it and his head got jammed in the porthole. He growled in rage and thrashed about furiously, churning up a cloud of bubbles, but he couldn't get loose.

While he was immobilised Dolphin punched him in his gills was hard as she could. He uttered a low gurgling noise and finally went limp. He was out cold.

She leaned against a wall, breathing heavily as the adrenaline rush wore off. While regaining her breath she kept a wary eye on the Shark but he remained out. Now the question was what to do with him?

Just then she heard a familiar voice call her name.

"Dolphin!"

She smiled fondly as Aquaman came swimming in through a hole in the hull, trident at the ready and a concerned look on his face.

"Are you all right? A pod of bottlenoses told me you were fighting a monster."

She nodded and pointed to the still unconscious Shark. Aquaman frowned as he examined the creature.

"Well this is something unexpected. I'll contact the Drift and have them send a team to secure it. In the meantime the pod told me how you saved those people on the boat. You did great."

He put a hand on Dolphin's shoulder and she grinned happily.

Soon afterwards the Shark was swimming back and forth across a specially-made water-filled cell. Outside, Aquaman observed the creature curiously through an observation port while Vulko described the cell to him.

"The walls are lined with psychic baffles to prevent the creature from using its powers and the cell itself is constructed from dense alloys. It tried to bite through earlier and was completely unsuccessful. We'll maintain close observation of course but I'm confident we can keep it contained."

"Good" Aquaman replied. "Have we managed to find out anything about what this "Shark" is or where it came from?"

Vulko nodded. "We've analysed tissue samples and we've determined that it's a bio-engineered life-form. It seems that it was created using the same process as those Aqua-Marine soldiers the United States once sent in to assassinate you Arthur."

Aquaman frowned as he recalled the incident. "Is it sapient?"

"As far as we can tell yes, but it's extremely hostile. It's attacked everyone that even tried to reason with it." He paused for a moment before saying, "it might be better for us to simply destroy it…"

"No" said Aquaman firmly. "I won't let a living creature be destroyed just for trying to survive."

"So instead we keep it locked up here?"

"It's not an ideal scenario but we can't let it roam free either. We'll keep it here and look for a way to return it to normal."

"As you wish Arthur."

Aquaman turned and left. Just before following him out Vulko took one more look at the Shark. He couldn't help but shiver as his gaze was draw to the creature's cold, unfeeling eyes.

Steady on Vulko old boy he thought. That cell is fully secure. There's no way that monster can get out.

Isn't there?

He hurried away and did not look back.

Author's Note: The Shark is a DC comics villain that first appeared in "Green Lantern" #24 (October 1963). For this story I've reintroduced him to the "Rebirth" continuity with a revised origin and powers.