Jason Fuller & The Elementals: The Stones Of Olympus (Book 1)

by Andarion The Storyteller

This story is about the adventures of a young mutant named Jason Fuller and his friends as they embark on a journey to save the world from Doctor Doom and the Masters of Evil. Lives will be changed, destinies will be fought, ancient magic will resurface, and for Jason, a question that has plagued him since his parents death, about what it truly means to be a hero, will be answered.

17. Chapter 17: We Go Deep Sea Diving

Chapter 17: We Go Deep Sea Diving

(Jason's Perspective)

I'm getting tired of this sudden teleportation nonsense. It's jarring, annoying, and if we didn't get up as early as we did, Allyson and I would've been in a mission briefing half naked. S.H.I.E.L.D. should really get on this new thing called intercoms, they're a lot better than the system they're using now. Anyway, after my vision righted itself, I noticed that this was not the war room from a couple of days ago. There were no drones, missiles, other things you'd see in a Black Ops game, but the scenery was still freaky enough. In front of Allyson and I, was this RIDICULOUSLY huge glass table, that looked like it was mixed with every piece of technology ever. The glass itself was inside by this really thick rectangle of some type of metal; the thing was about as high as my waist. Four thick tubes, all of which were channeling some type of energy, were plugged into each side, and were snaking all though the infrastructure of the entire room, which was about the size of a school gym. Didn't know what the hell this was, but since it was new, big, and weird looking (like most of the new things i've been exposed to recently), I got the feeling that i'd be doing something that would get me dangerously close to death…..again. On the opposite side of the table, Fury and Kennedy were waiting. Kennedy and Hill looked absolutely horrible, like they haven't been near a bed in forever. Fury, who probably didn't even need to sleep, had a different vibe altogether. He looked furious (heh, accidental pun, but kinda funny)! No, not in an "I was doing something fun, and now I have to deal with this $#!+" type of way, but more of a "I'm mad at something someone did" type of way. Seriously, if the guy had laser vision, i'm pretty sure the Helicarrier wouldn't survive the day.

"YOU!" he shouted, surprising me.

Usually when that word is shouted, it's directed at me, but Fury was not looking in my direction. His vision was to my right, so he obviously wasn't looking at Allyson (she's too much of a teacher's pet to get yelled at anyway); and that's when it hit me. I wasn't paying attention, and I was so distracted by the scenery, blaring alarms, and weird $#!+ in front of me, that I didn't realize Grant was literally right beside me! The dude looked….well, kinda not all there. Oh, he had put on some extra muscle, and his workout clothes clung to his body with sweat, but his eyes were blank as hell. He just looked absolutely done with everything, like he simply had no more f*(#$ to give. Don't get me wrong, I trusted Grant (as much as you can trust someone you just met), but I suddenly felt a shiver of fear crawl up my spine. If this guy ever snapped, decided to turn to the dark side, he'd be a pretty dangerous enemy for ANY hero. I secretly gave Grant quite a bit of $#!+ for his super friendly, hyper excited, unbearably heroic nature, but right now, I was missing that quite a lot. Anyway, as you can imagine, it wasn't me or Allyson that Fury had a problem with (cuz in all honesty, we punished each other enough); but Grant had a lot of explaining to do.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!" he continued, either forgetting or not caring about the fact that he was yelling at a guy who could tear through steel. "WHERE DO YOU GET THE GALL TO JUST FLY OFF OF MY SHIP?! YOU KNOW, I COULD HAVE YOU HANGING UPSIDE DOWN IN A CELL ON ANOTHER DIMENSION IF I WANTED TO! WHAT THE ACTUAL-"

Grant leaned on the weird table, tapped a finger on the glass….and it turned to sand! I. Am. Not. Kidding. Grant tapped a finger once on the table, and after a quick wave of green energy, it all fell to the floor as sand. Yeah, i've never seen anyone stop their words to a grinding halt as fast as Fury did. Allyson actually jumped a bit, and I had to put my hand over my mouth to stifle a scream. When did Grant become a discount King Midas?! So yeah, Fury, Hill, and Kennedy were extremely silent (probably not wanting Grant to do that to their faces), but Grant wasn't exactly done being scary. He snapped his fingers, and the sand started to move together, converging into the shape of the space where the glass on the table used to be. He snapped his fingers again, and the sand quite literally changed into a thin sheet of gold (now he really was King Midas), probably worth more than my house. The gold levitated back to center of the empty table, and after it was in place, Grant tapped it again, turning it back to glass. Dude, where's a mike when you need one, cuz Grant didn't just drop it, he straight up shattered it!

"I was out," Grant said plainly, not the least bit abashed. "Went to catch up with a friend, kinda lost track of the time. I saved the world, AGAIN, while I was out, no thanks necessary. Now, if were done pretending like you can actually step up to me, can you get on with the mission explaining here?"

And I thought I was rebellious. Seriously, Grant straight up lost his $#!+; what the hell happened to him last night?

"Don't think we're done here, Jackson," Fury still glared Grant down (gotta admire that bravery). "You still got a lot of questions to answer, assuming you live long enough to answer them."

"Lookin' forward to it," Grant not even half heartedly responded.

Fury tapped his edge of the table, and I could see some type of touch screen keyboard looking thing come to life. He started typing frantically, and the table hummed to life, projecting a huge display of the earth. He moved his fingers the same way a person does when they zoom into a picture on their phone (unless you have the ones that suck), and the picture adjusted as such. The image zoomed over an area about 200 miles off the coast of New Zealand, and boy was it a doozy! As someone who's literally been an F5 tornado, i've gotta say that this storm made me look like a panzie. A single storm cloud was stretching out, and cycling a 100 mile radius. Lightning was flashing every half second, and if there was any audio, i'd imagine all we'd be able to hear was BOOM! BOOM! CRACK! BOOM! But that wasn't even the biggest thing. Obviously this was the stone of Zeus (thanks gramps), and currently speaking, it was responsible for at least a dozen tornados going off at once. They weren't terribly big (F3s at the most), but there were so many, spread out so far, I softly sighed in relief; if this was even 50 miles in the direction of any civilization, so many people would've died. Still, I couldn't count my blessings just yet. Just off to the side (this was some really on point live feed), Doom's ship, quite literally flashed into existence, in a huge wave of green, similar to the way Dr. Strange transported the Helicarrier to the zombie battle. Doom's ship was….impressive I guess. It had the same type of look to it as the Helicarrier, but made entirely of what I assume was Titanium. It was bigger, bulkier, had Doom's f*(#!^& face as the ship head. Seriously, his entire face, was the whole front of the ship! As soon as it appeared, dozens of flares of yellow and orange flew off the ship, and straight into the storm. The image zoomed onto those figures (I seriously needed this thing for watching movies), and I recognized them as Doctor Doom, Executioner, Fin Fang Foom (big green dragon), and Radioactive Man (glowing green bald Chinese man, with the body of Brock Lesnar); the rest of the assaulting force was Doombot fodder. No sooner than they entered the fray, the clouds surrounding the bulk of the storm started to change and malform. The process took a good couple of seconds, but man was it worth the payoff! I recognized them from The Lost Hero (love that book); Venti. They were mostly humanoid shaped, just made of lightning charged cloud, exactly like my Storm Form. The only noticeable differences was the lack of dreads, talons on their hands, and evil cannibalistic faces that would give a small child nightmares. Dooms lackeys flew straight into the storm, which was followed by massive flares of golden fire, lightning, and an increase in the swirling of the winds. Fury only kept the image up for a few more seconds, but by the looks of it, Doom and his crew were holding their own pretty good. Fury swept his hand through the air, and the image compartmentalized into a cube, and placed itself on the side of the table.

"So that's our next mission?" Grant asked him. "Looks easy enough."

"Are you kidding?!" Allyson almost shrieked at him. "When's the last time you fought a hurricane, Grant?"

"Last night."

"Regardless of what you spent your night doing," Fury chimed in (although he looked a little stunned too). "We still have another problem on our hands."

He tapped his keypad a few more times (bet he missed his clicker), and the globe zoomed in over the area of the Atlantic Ocean. I already knew what was up here, and based on the quick glance she gave me, so did Allyson. A blue dot, showed up in the middle of the holographic sea, and my breath clenched a bit.

"In addition to the storm, God I miss Thor, the EM sensor, this entire room, picked a massive, BEYOND massive, energy signature deep in the middle of the Atlantic. We don't have eyes under the sea, but we can put two and two together."

"The stone of Poseidon," I spoke up.

"Indeed, Fuller. Looks like it's crunch time."

"Then let's hop to it," Grant said. "Obviously scuba diving is out, so let's just catch up to Doom, and nab the stone of Zeus before-"

"No!" I blurted out, surprising the hell out of Fury and Grant.

P.S. You know you're about to say something ridiculous, when Grant and Fury are teaming up to give you a "da f*(#?!" look.

"What do you mean, "no"?" Fury asked me (I could practically see a vein throbbing on his head). "In case it's not clear, Doom is on the verge of getting the stone of your great whatever times granddaddy. Plus, it's a giant storm, this is right up your alley!"

"Look," I responded, really hoping the words coming out of my mouth would make sense. "First of all, that storm is way too close to New Zealand, and it's getting closer every second. Whether Doom knows it or not, he's saving a lot of lives right now, by trying to neutralize it. If we try to fight him, AND the storm, we're just putting a lot of people in danger. As much as it's gonna kill you to do it, we gotta let Doom have this one."

"What are you suggesting, Mr. Fuller? That we just take the day off, send Doom a thank you card?"

"I'm suggesting we go after the stone of Poseidon."

Again, all eyes (except Allyson's) were on me, and they were not very approving. Hell, I could practically see Fury struggling not to face palm me.

"Now, here me out," I quickly started again, knowing i'd never get the floor again if I stopped. "Normally, i'd be all for trying to get the more obvious, less impossibly dangerous to retrieve stone, but in addition to the obvious reasons not to, I also kinda sorta had a dream last night."

I quickly recounted the main points of my dream; you know, the parts with the warlord trying to take over Atlantis. As I talked, Fury's attitude of not having any of me, started to dull at the edges. He may not have been all for my plan, but he at least considered the logic.

"Ok," Fury said. "Let's hypothetically say that I was to agree to send you into an underwater war. How would you even turn the tides? Atlantis has to be outnumbered 10 to 1 based on how you described it."

"Dude," Grant spoke up. "Numbers mean jack squat to us. Heck, if you wanna get the best of both, why don't we split up. Jas-"

"No." I interrupted Grant (the glares were real). "For the third time, we gotta let Doom have the sky. Besides, we need to stay together. Sure we can definitely wreak some havoc as solo fighters, but we're gonna need to pull a billion aces out of our sleeves to turn the battle for Atlantis around. It's gotta be all hands on deck for this one."

"Is it really worth letting Doom get another stone?" Mrs. Kennedy asked me.

"For the billionth time," I responded. "He's doing something good, let's give him a freebie. Besides, Attuma and Namor are currently fighting over Atlantis AND the stone of Poseidon; do you really want him to get a hold of either?"

"Pause," Allyson spoke up. "Who exactly is this Attuma guy anyway?"

"Atlantean warlord," Fury said. "Namor's rival and enemy. He's been trying to take the throne of Atlantis for years, been gettin' pretty damn close sometimes."

"So if he gets the stone? If he takes over Atlantis?"

"First thing he'd do is probably attack the surface; he's tried it before."

"Didn't The Avengers, and Fantastic Four always stonewall him though?" Grant asked.

"Very true," Fury said. "But The Avengers, the main ones, are off world, and The Fantastic Four are in another dimension; i'm stuck with you three."

"Then let's prioritize," I urged Fury. "If Doom gets another stone, it's no big deal. He obviously needs the full set to do whatever he needs to do; and if that's the case, rather by a deal or by force, the stone of Poseidon will get in his hands."

"You think he's in cahoots with a Attuma?" Fury asked me.

"I think it's way too much of a coincidence that Doom would be getting a stone in one place, while someone just as bad is trying to get another; on top of control of an entire underwater nation."

"I agree with Jason," Allyson spoke up (thank God). "Aside from getting the stone, we have to help Atlantis; A place I didn't think was actually real, but still full of innocent people that need some assistance."

I expected a response similar to "Aww, aren't you cute, thinking we care about other people." Instead, Fury and Kennedy actually took her seriously for a second. How come I never get that benefit?

"Even if you pull this off," Fury started. "Namor is a stubborn son of a bitch. If he even believes he has a small claim to the stone, he'll fight for its custody harder than a divorced couple."

"We'll persuade him," I said. "Or else, we might just have to take it."

"It's like you want to start a war."

"What else are we supposed to do?"

"We negotiate," Allyson said, clearly seeing my deteriorating pitch. "If we can get him to let us take the stone, fine. If not, well, Namor's had the stone this long. If we warn him about Doom's plan, tell him to keep his defenses up, is it really all that devastating if he has it; I can't vouch for him, but i'm pretty sure there are worse people than Namor."

Fury thought on that for a bit.

"Allyson?" he asked her. "Why are you not the leader again?"

"Diplomacy," she responded. "Plus, I really just don't want to be."

"A shame, I actually like you."

Fury turned his attention back to me.

"You understand I can't just LET Doom win, right?" he asked me.

"One round isn't the whole fight, man," I responded.

"Nevertheless, i'll do what has to be done. If you feel you can help in Atlantis, be my guest, but I have a job to do."

"Speaking of Atlantis," Grant said. "You know, that UNDERWATER city? How are we supposed to get there?"

"I know the way," I said. "Dreams. But I don't suppose you have something that can help non water breathers survive the depths of the sea, Fury?"

"It's like you have no idea what S.H.I.E.L.D. is." Fury said.

He pulled out a walkie talkie, and activated it.

"Mr. Wingfoot," he spoke into it.

"Sir?" a voice spoke back.

"Prepare a Quinjet, plot a course for S.H.I.E.L.D. outpost A-311-QN."

"The Atlantis observation outpost? I assume this is a special occasion?"

"Understatement. Send authorization credentials to the outpost: Fuller, Jason T. Jackson, Grant U. Grace, Allyson T."

"Got it sir, Quinjet will be ready in two minutes, send passengers to the deck of the ship."

Fury put the walkie talkie up.

"Well?" he asked us. "What are you waiting for?"

"Morphin time?" Allyson asked me and Grant.

"Oh, not yet!" Grant said.

He quickly changed his code name setting from Super-G, to Geo-Titan. Usually he'd be ecstatic about this. Sure, he had a bit of amusement in him, but his signature fanboy attitude was severely cut in half. Ugh, it's really sad when I actually WANT my teammates to be annoyingly cheerful! After we morphed, we got teleported to the deck of the Helicarrier (who controls that?), and waited for our ride. As we waited, I heard Grant's communicator go off.

"Yeah?" Grant responded.

"Mr. Jackson," Fury spoke out of it. "Just for future reference, mind your manners."

Grant suddenly clutched the side of his head, and dropped to a knee screaming.

"GEO-TITAN!" Allyson and I screamed, as we rushed to help him.

"FURY, STOP!" Allyson screamed into her communicator. "YOU'RE HURTING HIM, PLEASE!"

Grant stopped screaming, but was still clutching his head, as if getting over a wicked brain freeze.

"A reminder," Fury said through Grant's communicator. "I may not be able to lift battleships, but I can still keep you all in line."

Grant's eyes went green with Geo-Force (he told everyone what it was), and looked like he wanted to go down and smash Fury himself.

"No, dude!" I said, grabbing his shoulder. "Fury is not the enemy. He's a total tool, but we've got bigger fish to fry, pun unintended. Save that rage for the people who deserve it."

Technically, Fury would land in that department too, but hopefully, Grant would still keep it together. He stood up, and activated his communicator.

"Understood, sir," he said, struggling to keep his voice in check.

Fury didn't respond, but the message was pretty clear. He could end us, but we could end him too. In other words, it was a good thing we were on the same side. About a minute later, a hangar door opened up, and a weird looking jet came rolling out. It's thrusters were bigger than any of the standard jets on the ship, and its wings were folded. I couldn't tell much about planes and stuff, but i'm pretty sure this thing could easily outstrip any other jet on the planet. The jet rolled out to us, and opened its rear door. Unlike any of the other ones, there was only one seat in the cockpit (no shotgun for Grant), and that was already taken by our pilot. He was a buff Native American (I think), with short black hair, wearing a red T-Shirt and jeans. He had a friendly demeanor, and even went out of his way to come and shake our hands.

"Hey, guys," he said in a gruff voice. "Wyatt Wingfoot. It's an honor to meet you. The reputation you've already built for yourselves is impressive."

"Thanks," I said, cuz Allyson and Grant were to busy blushing and cheesing to say anything. "So, we ready to go?"

"Yup, just get strapped in, and we'll be on our way."

"Wait," Grant said. "Aren't we going underwater?"

Wyatt laughed.

"Don't worry about it kid," Wyatt said. "The Quinjet can handle it, trust me. Now if there are no more questions, we can get started."

Grant, Allyson and I quickly walked inside, and took our seats. Since Grant couldn't have shotgun, he settled for sitting on his own, just across from Allyson and I. Dude looked so emo, it was actually almost painful to watch.

"You ok, Geo-Titan?" Allyson asked him.

"Peachy," he thought back to her. "Lemme know when it's time to punch stuff."

He ducked his head, stretched out his feet, and tried to pretend he was sleeping (I always used the same trick to get out of talks about my day with my mom).

"What's his deal?" I thought to Allyson. "How come he's so pissy?"

"He's adjusting," Allyson thought back to me. "I dunno what he did last night, or how he got his new powers, but he obviously saw/did some pretty extreme stuff. We'll talk to him. After the mission, we'll help him through it. Besides, you're one to talk about being pissy."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"You're literally brooding and scowling with folded arms, right now."

"Huh?"

I looked down, and quickly unfolded my arms.

"That...I mean...shut up!"

Allyson smiled, and tried hard to not bust out laughing.

"Alright, guys!" Wyatt called back to us. "We're ready to go!"

I relaxed a bit in my seat, bracing myself for what was to be (in my perception) a long ride. I braced myself for the whole jet running down a runway thing, but it never came. This jet simply floated in the air, and took off. Points for style, I guess.

9:00 A.M. December 17, 2014, Somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean

Gotta admit, the jet was pretty damn fast. Obviously not faster than me, but fast enough to where I didn't get too bored. Seriously, this thing was going at Mach 3. After a certain point, I felt the speed of the jet decrease drastically, and I had to steady my breathing, knowing what was coming next.

"Brace yourself, guys!" Wyatt said over the intercom. "We're going down!"

The jet started to veer forward in an angle, and before I knew it (I had my eyes closed), we hit the water. Ok, let's get this straight. I. AM. NOT. AFRAID. OF. WATER. However, I do have a fear of suffocation (I almost drowned when I was eight, and almost suffocated while playing in a trash bag when I was ten). Descending deeper and deeper into the ocean, all I could think of was how I hoped this thing could survive the pressure, and how i'd survive if it didn't. Personally, I thought I did a good job of masking my fear.

"You're afraid of water, aren't you, Jason?" Allyson asked me (I did not do a good job of masking my fear).

"Not water," I responded. "Just drowning and/or suffocating; it's a child phobia. What tipped you off?"

"You're eyes have been closed shut since we hit the water. Plus, you actually bent the edge of your seat."

I opened my eyes, and examined my chair. Huh, guess it's hard to remember, or at least by comparison to Grant and Allyson, but I was pretty strong now. I was just glad this wasn't some poor schmuck's hand.

"Just be calm, Jason," Allyson tried to assure me. "I'll save you if the ship implodes."

"Stop playing!" I almost yelled into her head.

She smiled deviously at me, as the ship descended deeper into the ocean.

It took us about ten more minutes to actually get to the outpost, which still didn't make me any less anxious. It was pretty plain looking. Just a huge metal rectangular building, with some type of tube that traveled to a smaller, square shaped building; gee, wonder what that was for? Wyatt, steered the ship into a hangar type entrance to the outpost, and settled the plane down for a landing. As soon as we touched down, the water drained from the landing area, and Wyatt opened the back door for Grant, Allyson, and I to get out. We quickly unbuckled, got out, and climbed the ladder up to the main floor. Now, I didn't exactly know what to expect in the waiting area of an undersea bunker, but it sure as hell wasn't this. The place was decked out with black furniture, a high tech computer bay that was displaying live feed from the perimeter, a plasma screen propped on the wall, and a kitchen area that had a fridge, stove, microwave, and tons of cabinets, probably stacked with snacks and cooking food.

"Seriously?" Grant asked, once he got a look at the place. "You're just gonna eat snacks and watch Netflix while we go to war?"

"Hey," said Wyatt. "Gotta pass the time somehow."

He walked the kitchen, put his hand on the wall, and after entering in a code on a holographic keyboard, the wall opened up, revealing that long tube that connected this part of the outpost to the other.

"Just head to the end of the tube, and wait for the sensors to scan you," Wyatt said. "After you're inside, Agent Kennedy will brief you with further instructions; good luck."

We told him thanks, shook his hand, and walked down the tube. As soon as we reached the end of the hallway, a ray of blue slight scanned us from head to toe, and after a bit of rumbling, the door opened for us. Inside was this kind of dive chamber, but different. For starters, instead of being tube-like, it was shaped like a square. There were high tech devices racked on the walls (jet packs, rebreather masks, etc), a TV screen propped up on the wall, and four tubes, big enough for a person to stand in, at every corner of the chamber. Also, the floor had a zig zag pattern going down the middle of a square-like opening; that made me all the more anxious. A few seconds later, the screen buzzed to life, and Mrs. Kennedy's face popped up.

"Ok, Delta Force," she said. "Listen up. The four tubes you see lined in the room, are nanite dispensers. Once inside your bloodstream, the nanites will adjust your lungs to be able to breathe water, the same way Atlanteans do, as well as adjust your body density, to be able to withstand the pressure and cold of the ocean floor. These nanites will last for a 24 hour period before collectively dying in your digestive tract, after which they will exit your body via a date with the toilet. However, seeing as it probably WON'T take you an entire day to do whatever it is you think you have to do down there, the nanites can be ejected from your body via the tubes. Any questions?"

"Can we talk to fish too?" Grant asked her (actually had to hide a snigger).

"Just get in the tubes," Mrs. Kennedy said, absolutely and completely done with him. "After the gas fills them, breathe in as deeply as you can five times. Once the appropriate amount of nanite are in your bloodstream, the tube will let you out."

I looked at my teammates, and after a few collective "meh" shrugs, we all walked towards a tube. The tube I went to made a small entry for me (looked like melting tartar sauce from that Spongebob episode with Man-Ray), and closed back up once I was inside. As soon as it closed, a weird white puff of gas completely filled the tube in one blast. It was jarring, but I did as I was instructed, and breathed in as deep as I could five times. The smoke tasted horrible, and the skin on my face crawled like hell, but after a good thirty seconds, I heard a ping, and the tube let me out. I felt incomplete, like my body was ready to shift its structure at any moment. Grant and Allyson were also done with the nanite ingesting, and joined me just outside the opening floor area.

"Ok," said Mrs. Kennedy. "Everything looks all set. I'll open the dive chamber; good luck."

The floor started to rumble and open, revealing a pool sized section of dark black looking water. At that moment, it really dawned on me….I was putting a lot of trust into the supposed nanites that were gonna somehow just "give" me the ability to survive a million miles underwater. Since when did I start to trust people? What the hell was I becoming? For a moment, I almost backed out, but I felt Allyson grab my hand. I was gonna pull away, simply because I didn't wanna make Grant a third wheel (plus I didn't wanna look weak in front of the team), but when I looked over, Allyson was holding his hand too. His "da f*(#?" face was so real, I almost laughed.

"We're a team," Allyson said, not even remotely ashamed. "We do this together."

She looked at me as she said that last line, giving me a quick wink. It was all I could do to not hug her. She knew how scared I was, and was determined to not let me do this alone. Even better, she wasn't gonna embarrass me, or let Grant be alone either (seriously, what was up with him?). Yeah, at this point, even I was wondering why she wasn't team leader. Grant kinda shrugged, and I went along with it too.

"On three?" I asked her.

"Nope," she said, as she jumped into the water, dragging me and Grant with her.

The first thing that hit me like a punch to the gut, was the cold. It was like 30 degrees down here. As a New Yorker, i'm used to that; but even then, New Yorkers (or at least normal ones) don't go to swimming at the beach during December. The freezing water was such a shock to my system (puns), I accidentally gasped, taking in a good mouthful of seawater. All of a sudden, then cold wasn't so bad; now I was drowning! I was actually drowning! I tried to cut off the flow, but I had already swallowed too much water, it was no good. Hell, now that I mention it, the pressure was pretty much like being compacted between two busses. If not for the armor, plus my enhanced durability, i'd already be dead. I struggled for maybe a good ten seconds before my suffering came to an end; as in 10 to zero, in 0.5 seconds. Seriously, whatever those nanites were did, they did them really freaking well (took them long enough). One second, I was drowning, the next, my body couldn't tell the difference between water and air. The same principles applied for the pressure and cold. I may as well have been swimming in room temperature, and the pressure from being so deep underwater may as well have been non existent. Also, the darkness was slowly starting to illuminate. Just like my dream, my eyes seemed to be adjusting to the pitch black. Now everything was more of a really dark greyish blue. I quickly looked over at Grant and Allyson. Thankfully, the nanites were working for them too (it would suck if these things ever malfunctioned). They looked a little shaken, but after a few moments of getting their bearings, they seemed ok.

"Well that sucked," Grant helpfully said. "Now what, Storm-Lord? Where to now?"

At first, I didn't really have an answer. Sure, we could survive the trip now, but as far as destination went, nobody drew up a map, and winging it wasn't exactly gonna fly underwater (don't worry, i'll facepalm myself for that one). Still, the stone was calling out to me. Wait! Now before you give me a "bull$#!+" gesture, just hear me out on this one. It was basically like the stone of Ares; just without the urge for blood. The power of the stone of Poseidon was resonating through the water, even from God knows how many miles away. It wasn't exactly a focused point of energy, but it was coming from a general direction. If I could could correlate the energy signature with the landmarks (the trench, Janus' battlefield, etc.) it would most likely lead us to Atlantis. That's if the deadly carnivorous sea monsters didn't kill us first.

"We go that way," I thought to Grant, pointing east of the bunker.

"That way?" Allyson thought to me, trying hard to mask her doubt. "Why that way?"

"I can feel the stone's energy resonating through the water," I thought back to her. "Just like back with the stone of Ares; just without the urge for blood. Wait, don't you guys feel it?"

Grant and Allyson shook their heads. Weird. We all felt the effects of the Ares stone, why was this any different?

"Okaaaay," I thought to them. "That's kinda awkward. How much do you trust me?"

"You've been mostly ok at this," Allyson started. "So i'll give you the benefit of the doubt."

"Yeah, i'll go along with it too," Grant thought to me. "Let's go find Nemo."

Well, at least he still had his bad sense of humor. After agreeing on that course of action, we started heading towards Atlantis. Can't believe i'm saying those words.

Starting out, the journey to Atlantis was very boring. Oh, don't get me wrong, I was breathing underwater, swimming on the ocean floor, and being completely unaffected by it; I was silently flipping my $#!+! Still, swimming, even at super speed, was kinda boring. Oh yeah, for those of you that wondered how I would get along without running, the truth was, pretty damn good. While Grant and Allyson were flying (lazy), Allyson actually illuminating everything within a ten foot radius, I was kicking my legs, and moving my arms fast enough to swim at a good 100 mph. Don't worry, while the effort was a considerable step up from running, my body was more than up to the task; besides, if I used my Thunder Form, I might accidentally fry my teammates. So yeah, the first leg of the journey was pretty boring. The only upside was the fact that the underwater scenery was pretty dope. Different coral reefs, schools of interesting looking fish, and some unsavory looking ocean predators (Grant had to punch out a few mutated looking sharks). Still, we were on the right track. Thanks to my photographic memory, I remembered certain landmarks on the way to the trench. It was slow work to get there, but thankfully, nothing overly weird tried to kill us. Once we got there though, I ordered the team to halt.

"Alright guys," I thought to them. "We're on the right track. We swim straight through this thing, we get to where Janus died, then it's a hundred mile swim to the second leg of the swim to Atlantis."

"Second leg?" Grant asked me.

"Big deep chasm; goes deeper than any documented diver ever has. From there, it'll be a straight shot to the city; albeit, littered with sea monsters."

"What about Janus?" Allyson asked me. "I mean, we don't know him, but maybe we should take his body back to his people."

"And lug the extra, literal dead weight?" Grant asked. "Not exactly a smart idea. But, if you wanna get all sentimental, I can sense a dead body a hundred miles out, somewhere under some….really tall rocks; like underwater mountains. I can mark it, make sure his friends know where to find him."

"Couldn't you just use your portal thing you did last night, and transport him to Atlantis?"

"Hold up!" I interrupted them. "Sunbird, you're a genius! Geo-Titan, how about you just portal us to Atlantis?!"

"Well….." Grant thought for a while. "Yeah, I kinda can't."

"How come?"

"Well, I just ran the idea by Gaea, and the thing is, if the portal isn't made on solid ground, one earth plane to another, the molecules will get way too distorted and mixed up. The only thing it'd be worth is turning us into soup."

"Oh, well that sucks," Allyson stated. "Guess we're doing it hitchhiker style."

"Guess so," I said. "Still, we gotta pick up the pace. Let's go at half Mach 1. Geo-Titan, you're our eyes. If you detect any enemies, warn us ahead of time. I'll fly behind you guys, and at a good space away; don't wanna electrocute anyone. Ok, we all set?"

"Yeah," they both thought to me.

"Alright, let's do it."

Flying through the trench, I could really feel the tension build up. Not just with the pressure (thank God the nanites adjusted for the pressure as we went deeper), or the resonating power of the stone of Poseidon, but with the eerie feeling that the trench was giving me. This is one of those instances where i'd totally swim over the trench, not through it. I flew a good 50 meters behind Grant and Allyson. Grant was flying high, using his enhanced vision, hearing, and X-Ray vision, to scope out any potential enemies. Allyson was flying low (we didn't want her shine to give away our position). At half Mach 1, flying through the trench was easy (especially with no monsters). For me, this was the equivalent of a light jog. Nothing too strenuous, but it was obvious that I needed a bit more endurance practice with flight. Anyway, I was just starting to see the edge of the trench, when Grant stopped me and Allyson suddenly.

"Hold guys!" he thought urgently to us, forcing us to slam on the brakes (especially me).

"What's up?" Allyson thought to him.

"Fish guys?" he uncertainty thought to us. "Like, fifty of them with sharp teeth."

"Piranhaoids," I thought to him. "Bad guys."

"Okaaay. We also got fifty eel guys, and two….sea serpents?"

"Yeah. Krang suggested that Attuma break off a small squadron for guard duty."

"He knew we were coming?" Allyson asked me.

"Not exactly," I thought to her. "But he found it suspicious that Janus would be away from the main battle."

"Speaking of him," Grant thought to us. "His body is literally below us. Right at the base of this rock. I can….oh, $#!+"

"What's up?" I asked him.

"The sea monsters, they're spreading out, trying to out maneuver us; they know we're here!"

"Should we attack?" Allyon asked him.

"No need," Grant responded. "They've got the bad luck of being near too many solid rock formations. Just give me a sec."

Grant clenched his fist, and his face squinted in concentration. A second later, I heard multiple breaks, like chipping stone, followed by multiple whizzing sounds. Even underwater, I could hear the THUDS, THUCKS, and THUMPS of rock piercing flesh. I couldn't see them, but the poor bastards were probably in disarray, struggling to get their bearings for even a moment. The sounds of death echoed on for a good ten seconds before Grant let up.

"The little guys are dead," he thought to us. "All that's left is the two sea serpents; and that's soon to be one."

Grant summoned his axe, and shot off the the far left.

"That dude has no respect for authority," I thought to Allyson.

"Oh, hush," she thought back to me. "Let him vent a little."

She flew off to the right, and I followed.

Finding a giant Cretan Sea Serpent is not hard; especially from a high view. However, I could see how one might be taken off guard by one. The thing was low, near dirt level. It's dark green skin actually camouflaged well in dark crevices. From what I could tell, this thing couldn't breathe fire (or whatever it is sea monsters use for mouth blasts), but it's perfectly good set of razor sharp teeth compensated for that. Oh, and the thing was wicked fast. It darted straight up at me and Allyson, thinking it had the element of surprise; luckily, my Speed Sense still seemed to work, and Allyson's reaction time was on point as well.

"I got it!" I thought to her. "Get clear!"

She veered upwards in a diagonal line, as I shot a huge bolt of lightning into the serpent's mouth. The good news was, as long as I used in responsibly, I had more of an advantage down here in the water than I ever did on solid ground. I could feel the bolt of lightning crackle and fry everything in a straight line, even before the serpent ate it; hell, I probably vaporized millions of bacteria. Once hitting its intended target, the bolt fried the monster from the inside out. The kill was almost instant, but i'd be lying if I said that it didn't convulse and shriek for a couple of seconds. Still, I imagine it was a kinder fate than what his friend got. Grant was regrouping with me and Allyson, and even the rushing water couldn't hide the red inky cloud rising in the distance; not to mention the lingering stuff on his axe and armor.

"Had fun?" Allyson asked him. "Looks like it was one heck of a paintball party."

"Tons of fun," Grant thought back to her. "By the way, make sure you close your mouths when you slice through anything big; otherwise you'll get a good swallow of monster blood."

"Won't that poison you or something?" I asked him.

"Nah, my immune system is pretty legit. Anyway, I sense another party just another hundred miles out. There's only thirty piranhaoids, and two neon lights dragons? What? Really tho? Anyway, they're too busy eating what's left of some dead Atlanteans to be of any real threat. As long as we strike hard and fast, we can get past them with no problem."

"Cool. What about Janus' body?"

"It's back at the base of the mountain, I got a lock on it."

I was satisfied with that answer; no need to slow down now. Still, Allyson flew back to the mountain, and straight down. Grant and I gave each other a worried look, and flew after her.

We found her a good ten feet away from Janus' body, and man was it rougher on the heartstrings in person. The holes were protruding with blood, guts, and bile, oozing from it like sweat. His body was mangled, almost unrecognizable. Hell, his skin looked more black than blue; a parting gift from Attuma. The worst thing though, was his head. His eyes were open, and even though they were already white, they looked hollower than a log. Krang's arrow in his head was just icing on the crap cupcake. I couldn't see Allyson's face, but her hands were covering her mouth, her breathing was unusually calm and tight. She created two small hand constructs, flew them over to Janus' eyes, and closed them shut. Then she took the arrow out of his head, and the trident necklace he had around his neck, before washing Janus with a wave of golden fire. I almost stopped her, but then I realized that this was the best case scenario. It was a decent send off for Janus, plus she had something to give the Atlanteans as condolences for his death. Allyson tied the arrow to the necklace, put it around her neck, and stuffed it in her armor. Her hands were clenched, and I could practically see the rage and grief making her shake. What was it with her? Why did she care so much? Sure, this guy deserved better. Bad things happen to good people, but how could she take it so personal? She didn't even know the guy.

"You said Krang did this to him?" Allyson asked me, her voice echoing with dry anger. "Some guy dressed in golden armor?"

"Yeah," I tentatively thought to her.

She turned around, and faced me and Grant.

"He's mine," she thought to us, leaving no room for debate. "If he's not already dead, he's mine."

"Okay," I thought to her, hopping she didn't go supernova on me. "But first, we gotta get there; Grant?"

"I got the lookout," he quickly thought to us. "Let's just keep moving."

We assumed our previous positions, and continued flying.

We only flew for a good ten minutes before Grant brought us to another halt. Allyson and I powered down out of our respective flying forms, and Grant was studying the distance ahead like a map.

"Yo, Storm-Lord?" he asked me. "Your super vision still working?"

I almost slapped myself in the face; I totally forgot about it. I concentrated on the distance ahead of me, and sure enough, my enhanced vision was still a thing, even at the bottom of the sea. I saw the same area that was in my dream. A valley of wrecked ships among the rocks. The area stretched out about the size of three football fields, and was teeming with piranhaoids. I could see the Roman Sea Dragons (should've corrected Grant on that), circling the area like guard dogs; which was way more than what I could give the piranhaoids. They were scurring around, either chomping on dead Atlantean carcasss, dead shark carcass, or fighting each other for dead Atlantean/shark carcass. There was no structure to their movements, which was more troublesome for us; if there was no system to break down, we might get overwhelmed by the chaos.

"Yeah," I thought back to Grant. "I can see them."

"Me too," Allyson thought to us.

"What?!" Grant and I thought to her in disbelief.

Yeah, that sounds slightly sexist, but Allyson's power set didn't include enhanced vision as far as we knew. I turned to her in shock, and-ooooohhhh. I get it now. Remember when Allyson and I were….wrestling? Remember how she suddenly got a burst of strength, highlighted by solar energy coursing through her veins? Well, imagine, the same thing, just with the veins in her head, and around her eyes, lit up with solar energy. She looked slightly uncomfortable, and this was obviously a product of intense concentration. Still, for what it's worth, I could definitely believe her vision was 20/20.

"Uhh, Sunbird?" Grant thought to her. "Why does your face look like a light bulb?"

Allyson shot him a dirty look.

"It's a trick I learned last ni- erm….a while ago." she thought back to him (terrible save). "It takes a lot of focus, but if I channel the solar energy in my body, make it intensify in certain areas, I can improve my basic abilities."

"You found all of that out while you were gettin' busy with Storm-Lord?" Grant asked her.

"SHUT UP!"

"Focus, guys!" I thought to both of them. "We gotta get through this shipyard. Here's the plan. Sunbird, once we get close enough, You fly to the center of the shipyard as fast as you can, give the piranhaoids something to focus on."

"You're using me as a decoy?" Allyson asked me.

"Sorta. Just attract as many of them as you can, and torch them with a mini-sun; you can still make those don't here, right?"

She held out her hand, and a basketball sized sun roared to life, boiling the surrounding water to only slightly higher than scalding (I tried hard not to cry out).

"Seems like it," she thought back to me.

"Cool, or hot, I guess." I responded. "While you do that, Geo-Titan and I will take out the Roman Sea Dragons."

"That's what you call em'?!" Grant asked me. "What are you, a mythological oceanographer?"

"No, just dreams," I responded. "But that sounds fun, maybe I can major in that if I live long enough to go to college. Anyway, you take the one on the left, i'll go for the one on the right. The piranhaoids shouldn't give us too much trouble. After we take the dragons down, assuming Sunbird hasn't torched them all, we'll help with cleanup. Everybody good with the plan?"

Grant and Allyson nodded.

"Wait!" Grant suddenly thought to us (perfect timing). "I assume this is a stealth plan, so how are we supposed to sneak up on them, with you two basically being living giveaway beacons. Hell, that's the reason Sunbird is first up to bat."

Putting aside the murder face Allyson was giving Grant (he was coming for her more often than usual), he did have a point.

"Well," I started. "I could swim at super speed, and if Sunbird uses her solar steroids to enhance her legs, she could probably do the same thing."

"But we need to be faster than 100mph," Grant said. "By the way, Sunbird, that new thing you do, it's Solar Steroids now, that's what we're calling it."

Again, Allyson looked like she wanted to strangle Grant, but she bit her frustration down.

"Why don't you just carry us?" I asked Grant. "I mean, you can carry us, right?"

"You can carry a pillow, right?" Grant sarcastically thought back to me. "Yeah, I can carry you two, provided Sunbird's cool with it."

That had to be like the fourth time he straight up attacked her existence.

"What?! He thought to her, trying to stave off her death glare. "Every time the subject of lifting you comes into play, you get aggressive; like, mother bear level aggressive."

"Whatever," Allyson thought to him, reining herself in again. "If we have to do that, that's fine. Still, stop being so snippy, Geo-Titan, that's my job."

"Girls!" I thought to them. "You're both beautiful human beings; now can we get back to business, please?"

We all laughed a bit (got a good chuckle out of Grant), before getting ready to fly. I got to the right of Grant, and Allyson got on his left. He grabbed us by our sides, we put an arm around his shoulder for support, and Grant took off. The good news was, since I had some small experience with flying, I didn't get whiplash from the takeoff. We soared around the mountains, and through a large expanse of empty ocean for about five minutes, before stopping, and taking cover behind a huge rock just 800 meters away from the enemy camp. We peered over the edge, used our respective enhanced vision, and scoped out the enemy. The layout changed a little bit. The piranhaoids were pretty much done with their dead meat (what an awful thing to say, I hate that I said that), and were starting to get antsy. The dragons were just completing another cycle, so they were still in perfect position to get wrecked.

"Ready, Sunbird?" I asked her.

"Yup, I always wanted to be live bait," she thought back to me.

"We're right behind you, Solar Steroids," Grant thought to her. "We won't let anything happen to you."

"Sweet," she thought to him. "But i'm not the one who's gonna need saving."

She activated her Sun Form, and took off as fast as she could into the fray. Just like I thought, the piranhaoids swam after her, like moths to flame. So much for helping with cleanup; Allyson had them all in the palm of her hand, even before she busted out the mini-sun.

Without talking to each other, I activated my Thunder Form, and flew to my target dragon, while Grant did the same. The dragon was was a bit distracted from the sudden blaze of Allyson's mini-sun, so by the time it spotted me, it was already too late. I wrapped myself in a giant arrow construct, and flew straight through it's neck. To be honest, I actually felt bad about it. Sure this thing might be a vicious predator, but it was so beautiful; probably even tameable. I have a soft spot for animals, and while I held no guilt for killing the piranhaoids, I wished I didn't have to be enemies with these beautiful dragons. Hell, when Grant killed his, via throwing his Geo-Force charged axe at it, exploding it into burger chunks, I actually felt a little sick.

"Well, that was a nice warm-up," Allyson thought to me. "Where to now?"

"Just a short 30 miles, give or take, forward." I thought to her and Grant. "Then we go straight down the edge of a dark, scary, absolutely terrifying to look at chasm. From there, it's a straight swim to Atlantis; although expect the monster resistance to go up about 90%."

"Sounds fun," Grant thought to me. "Let's get going."

We continued flying (i'm pretty sure it was flying. Can you fly underwater?) for another five minutes, before coming to another stop at the chasm. Looking at in person, was absolutely heart stopping. It wasn't as bad as the Nethertrench, which was basically a living blob of evil and malice, but it was still a very close second.

"Ok, guys," Grant thought to us. "It's about thirty miles down to the bottom, or what qualifies for a bottom."

"What does that mean?" Allyson asked him.

"Plates," I thought to her. "The bottom is a collection of plates that just barely hold together. Same as Atlantis, except they use some kind of tech, or maybe magic, to keep the city together."

"What he said," Grant thought to us. "Also, Storm-Lord, you were right about monster resistance. We gotta swim straight down, with no lights, cuz i'm seeing about 1,000 more piranhaoids and eel men, two more of those sea serpents, glow in the dark dragons, and four….Storm-Lord, what the hell are those blimp sized monster fish?

"Antarctic Leviathans," I thought to him. "Yeah, we need to take those things out first."

"Hold up," Allyson thought to us. "If this set up is as bad as you guys say it is, why don't we just fly over it?"

"There is no 'over it'," Grant thought to her. "The blockade literally goes on for miles, and leads right into a brawl happening about a mile away from Atlantis' borders. If we fly over this one, we'll just end up in the middle of a bigger fight; even worse, the Atlanteans won't know we're the good guys."

"Good point," I thought to him and Allyson. "Besides, we might as well take out the stragglers; better than leaving potential reinforcements alive."

"Alright," Allyson thought to me and Grant, after thinking on it. "Sounds reasonable enough."

"We're gonna have to go stealth again," Grant thought to us. "You guys ready?"

Allyson and I assumed our positions, grabbed on to Grant, and were rocketing down the scary trench of doom in no time.

On the bright side, the further we went down, the more my eyes adjusted to the darkness (again, thank God my body was adapting to the pressure too). By the time we hit the kinda sorta bottom, I still saw the environment in a dark hazy blue light. Grant didn't stop, and after taking a sharp 90 degree turn forward, we torpedoed through the water. Thanks to Grant's crazy flying speed (just over Mach 1), we were within a mile away from the monster swarm, after which I ordered him to bring us to a halt. I took a quick nanosec to study the layout of the blockade. As far as I could see, while there wasn't any semblance of organization, most of the small fries were scurrying around in one place, so at least we'd get a decent chunk of kills in the first few seconds. I couldn't see any of the sea serpents (must've been hovering low), but the dragons were as clear as day. Also, even though you'd have to be blind to miss them, I was only spotting two Antarctic Leviathans.

"Geo-Titan?" I asked Grant. "Where are the others?"

"Swimming low," he thought back to me. "Either these things are hunters, or have really good trainers. This is an obvious trap. They expect a head on attack; the remaining Serpents and Leviathans are ready to take us by surprise."

"So we need to draw them out," Allyson thought to us.

"Exactly," I thought back to her. "Ok, here's what we do. Sunbird-"

A flash of golden fire erupted in the middle of the enemy's set up, burning maybe a good 50 piranhaoids/eel men, before taking the form of a huge mini-sun (I could feel the heat even from a mile away. Allyson held it up for a good ten seconds, occasionally making solar flares radiate off of it, killing the remainder of the piranhaoids and eel men. Still, that was just the beginning. Apparently, big sea monsters love big shiny things, cuz out of the depths of even this deep in the ocean, I could see the hidden Leviathans and Serpents rising up. As soon as they were within distance, Allyson literally split her sun into to smaller ones, and shot them down the maws of those oversized piranha, trout, shark things. She snapped her fingers, and they exploded into red fish paste (seriously, it was like a tomato juice factory just exploded). Allyson, Grant, and I rushed forward, now only having to deal with six more sea monsters.

"I got the serpents!" she thought to us. "You guys get the rest!"

"Sunbird, you are so badass!" Grant screamed in her head.

"I know!"

I took the left, while Grant went right. Taking out the dragon was easy. All it took was one huge blast of lightning, and it was down for the count. The Leviathan however, was a bit more resilient. I tried shooting in in the mouth with another lightning blast, but I only succeeded in making his gums bleed. He was hurt sure, but now he was pissed. He locked onto me with those beady black eyes, and made a wild lunge at me, and pretty much 90% of the space I was occupying. Instead of flying away from it, I did something stupid (like,Grant level stupid), and flew straight into his mouth. I tapped into Speed Mode (yeah, I could still do that while flying), and started to build up power. I used my fear, and desperation as motivation. I was inside of something! I did not wanna be digested! The power built up in me so fast, even I was taken off guard. Still, I didn't try to control it, I just let it go! I didn't know what this thing looked like from the outside, but I imagine he was seriously wishing he was anybody else. Lightning exploded from my body, big enough to cut water towers in half. I screamed as the power continued to leave me, not letting up for a single second. It took maybe a good 7 seconds to kill the beast, and boy was it not pretty. I could see my lightning blastwave put holes through its hide, and i'm pretty sure I heard ribs being broken in half. I didn't exactly blow it to chunks, but by the time I was done, along with the holes peppered along the Leviathan's body, there was no way this thing could be alive; his innards were way too f*(#$ up. I swam through one of the holes I put in it, and surveyed my handy work. Yup, missing eyeballs, oozing blood, monster floating lifelessly in the ocean; he was so dead. I regrouped with Grant and Allyson, shortly afterwards.

"Took you long enough," Grant thought to me.

"Like you did any better?" I snapped at him.

"I one-shot my monster, and that was me just half assing it."

"Humph."

"Yup. Anyway, we got another battle just a mile out."

"How do we convince the Atlanteans we're on their side?" Allyson asked me.

"We make a good first impression," I thought back to her. "Kill as many monsters as you can, help out the good guys, hope for the best."

"Works for me," Grant thought to us. "Let's go!"

There was no more use for stealth anymore, and we just hightailed it to the battle.. It took us less than 4 seconds to get in the fray, and like I said, we made a big splash (no pun intended). Grant engulfed his body in G-Force, summoned his axe, and flew around frantically, chopping any non Atlantean to bits. Allyson created multiple Sun Swords, and willed them to fly into about 30 piranhaoid heads. As for me, I created a ball of electricity in my hands, broke it up into paper clip sized arrowhead constructs, and flung them into the water, willing them to fly through another 50 monster heads. The look on the Atlanteans' face was priceless. These guys (and girls), were decked out in battle gear, and fighting their asses off, just to get shown up by some mystery teenage super team. Hell, you could see the look of mistrust and disbelief on their faces. Still, my team and I came to play, and boy did we rip these f*(#%$ a new $$#^!$! I couldn't see Grant or Allyson too much during the fight, but I did catch some glimpses of them blasting monsters away with their powers, or slicing them to bits with their weapons. As for me, well….I got by. Again, using electricity underwater can be a huge advantage for fighting your enemies, but if you have too many allies around, who will get affected by the lightning just the same, you lose your advantage. Still, I had my Storm Sword (yeah, i'm using the name), and that was good enough. I tapped into Speed Mode, and started swimming and slashing like a warrior Michael Phelps. I can't say that I was the most graceful thing in the sea, but I was getting the job done. Eel Men and Piranhaoids swam up to me, only to end up missing heads, arms, and other essential body parts. I slashed and hacked my way through dozens of them, occasionally grabbing them by the throat, and going all Raiden on them. To be honest, I was actually enjoying myself. Sure, I was killing living things, but they weren't people (horrible way to think about it), just disgusting creatures of the sea (God, I am a horrible human being). Anyway, the starstruck Atlanteans quickly got over their disbelief. Either because we had proved our worth, or they were so damn desperate to hold on (probably the latter), the Atlanteans re entered the fight, and resumed killing everything that wasn't us. In other words, they knew we were on their side. One of em' in particular, a big bulky guy with a long black cape, a crew cut, and golden finned helmet (imagine Thor's helmet, it it had fish fins in place of the wings), barreled straight into battle next to me. He fought kinda like Grant, a controlled brutish rush; like a bull who learned how to strategize, or a super smart gorilla. He mostly fought with his hands (he was wearing golden spike gauntlets), but occasionally busted out his trident,and began harpooning monsters by the dozens. Over the course of the battle, we ended up fighting back to back, as the piranhaoids and eel men started to surround us. Fun fact, the eel men could actually spit voltage from their mouths. Hell, if I hadn't quickly absorbed the electric volley, old mystery man would've been fried. As was such, we teamed up, killed our assailants in a glorious hack n' slash manor, and continued our efforts to save what was left of his army (seriously, these guys were getting their asses handed to them) As we fought, I heard him ask me something; or at least I assumed it was a question. It sounded like pops, clicks, and dolphin sounds. He could've been insulting my hair for all I could understand him. When I didn't respond, he tried again, this time with more biting sounds, pings, and bloop noises. Still couldn't understand what the hell he was trying to say, but now I knew that there were different Atlantean languages.

"English, dude!" I yelled aloud, my voice working surprisingly well underwater.

"Surface dweller!" he yelled back at me, not in a very grateful way. "How dare you interfere! How dare you-"

"I assume that's Atlantean for "thanks for saving our asses"," I interrupted him.

Mystery warrior guy roared, and jammed his trident through two more eel men.

"Tell me, impudent whelp," he continued, while we kept up our fight against the enemy. "Why should I not kill you and your allies right this very moment?"

No matter how many people I fight, no matter how many battles I have to endure, my greatest challenge has, is, and probably will be dealing with people. Seriously, we only exchanged three sentences between each other, and I already f*(#!^% hated this guy! Hell, I almost told him to go and f*(# himself, but I remembered it wasn't just me at stake here. I had my friends to worry about, the overall mission, and yes, the well being of Atlantis and the entire world. As much as I wanted to tell this guy off, as much as I wanted to cut him down to size (figuratively of course), I had to bite down my frustration, and be all diplomatic. It's times like these when I REALLY miss and appreciate Allyson.

"Because," I responded to him, focusing on killing monsters to ebb off the extra anger. "In case you haven't noticed, we're here to help you. We got a tip that Attuma was attacking Atlantis; wanted to come down and provide some assistance."

"Likely story," the warrior (i'll call him Kraken for now) said. "Surface dwellers have no business in Atlantis."

"Well, we're with S.H.I.E.L.D.; handling this kinda stuff is what we do."

"S.H.I.E.L.D.!? NOW I KNOW YOU ARE HERE FOR PERSONAL BENEFIT! YOU COME FOR THE STONE, DON'T YOU?! YOU COME FOR THE HOLY STONE OF THE SEA GOD!"

"PIPE DOWN, OVERKILL! Look, i'm not gonna lie to you! For the past few days, my team and I have been collecting the Stones of Olympus; they've been popping up all over the world like weeds! But we're not the only ones playing scavenger hunt for them. Doctor Doom's set up his own team to get the stones too; he's probably already got his hands on the Stone of Zeus as we speak. Attuma attacking Atlantis, I assume no more than a week ago, him being prepared to absorb the stone's energy? That's not a coincidence. He's gotta be in cahoots with Doom, and if he gets the stone, you can bet your ass Doom will have it on the express. Yeah, we're here to get the stone, or at the least, make sure Doom dosen't get his hands on it. If that means saving Atlantis from getting wrecked, you can count on me and my team for support. So what do you say, big guy? Want some help?"

Kraken went silent for a moment, as we killed some more monsters, while he thought on it. Finally,after a good ten seconds of thinking it over, he gave me his answer.

"WARRIORS!" he bellowed "DEFENDERS OF ATLANTIS! AS OF NOW, THE SURFACE DWELLERS ARE OUR ALLIES; TREAT THEM AS SUCH!

Whew! Maybe i'm better at this whole diplomatic thing than I thought.

"My name is Oroco," he said afterwards. "Do not betray us."

"Storm-Lord," I responded. "Wouldn't dream of it. So what's up with the battle? I mean, how did enemy forces get around Atlantis?"

"The sea is big, and creatures surround Atlantis from all sides. Attuma took advantage of this, and organized the savage creatures into a double sided attack; we were fortunate enough to catch on to his plan before he overwhelmed us. Still, it is a dark day for Atlantis. The throne-"

"Has been taken over by Krang and Byrrah. Llyra's sitting on the throne, controlling all the savage sea life, and and upcoming wave of actual sea demons. I take it you guys are trying to take the palace back?"

"You seem to know a great deal about our enemy's tactics, boy."

"Like I said, I got good info sources. Now, if we're done pointing fingers, let's get serious about killing stuff!"

Ok, that may have come off as a little more ruthless than I meant. Anyway, with our combined efforts (meaning Grant, Allyson, and I did most of the heavy lifting), we pushed through a good chunk of ground pretty quickly. Most of the effort can definitely be attributed to Grant and Allyson, though I put in a decent amount of work. Grant didn't use G-Force blasts or constructs, (his fire/lightning energy could've accidentally killed friendlies), but since he could fly underwater, and because he had an axe, 40% of enemy forces were getting butchered by him alone. The other 40% was all Allyson. Unlike me and Grant, Allyson could use her heavy hitter powers, without being a danger to our allies around her. How'd she do this? By using her hard light blasts and constructs, instead of her golden fire. And when I say she was kicking some serious ass, I mean she was kicking some SERIOUS ASS! Like Grant, she could move gracefully in the water, but one could argue (probably thanks to having her powers for over a year), she moved with more fiese and fluidity. Her combat was just as good. Like I said, since she could use hard light constructs, her overall effectiveness in the water was not hindered at all. Whenever I caught some sparring glimpses at her in action, she was either throwing a knife construct through an enemy soldier, blasting a bullet-like ray of light through and enemy soldier, or getting up close, and gutting them with her Sun Knives (the actual metal ones). Hell, to add insult to injury, she created a school of ten sharks, and without missing a beat with the close quarters combat (seriously, she was controlling ten constructs, and still had enough skill leftover to make piranha/eel sushi wither her swords), willed them to swim back and forth across the battlefield, chomping any poor enemy soul that was in their paths. I didn't get an exact estimate on how much her kill count was, but let's just say the distant water had a slightly reddish tinge to it (before it diluted out that is). Like I said, I pretty much did my part here and there. A good chunk of chopped off heads here, occasional cooked sea food there, but it was no contest; Grant and Allyson were carrying this army on their backs (not to put the Atlanteans down or anything, they fought hard).

As we fought on, our ranks slowly but surely swelled. Attuma's forces were pretty much owning Atlantis', and as we collected more fighters, it was obvious that Atlantis was the underdog by a mile. More and more piranhaoids and eel men were piling up; hell, I actually had to summon my shield, charge it with a small amount of voltage, and use it as a buffer. Thanks to Grant and Allyson, when we hit this huge swell, all the Atlanteans and I had to do, was hold our own, while they bulldozed 80% of the conflict; still it was disheartening to know how far in the hole Atlantis really was. We fought hard on our way to the city, probably clocking in at about and hour of straight combat, before seeing the blue lights of the city limits. Still, that's when $#!+ got really real! See, up until now, we were fighting a series of small skirmishes, collecting as many allies as we could, while simultaneously moving forward. Up until then, the battles were very straightforward; the fight was very condensed and focused. Now, out in this big open space, about a mile below the castle, and just outside Atlantis' city limits? Yeah, this battle was ANYTHING but straightforward. For an entire miles worth, in every conceivable direction a huge battle for the palace. On initial sight, I counted over 500 soldiers (collectively); once getting a full scope estimate, I was almost certain that there was close to (if not more than) 10,000 combatants in this one area alone. As what seemed to be tradition, the Atlanteans were kinda losing this fight. It wasn't a one sided fight, but you could say they held about 40% of the water, while the enemy forces held the remaining 60%.Hell, with all of the extra enemies floating about, I could probably get away with using a bit of my lightning powers.

"Sunbird, Geo-Titan," I thought to them. "It's up to you guys; turn this fight around."

"No problem, bro," Grant thought to me.

"Yeah," Sunbird thought to me too. "We got this."

"Still a stupid battle cry."

"I know."

"Guys?" I thought to them. "I can still hear you; shut it."

Starting out, the battle was a little mixed. Sure, thanks to the extra 2,000 Atlanteans we managed to collect on the way here, the fight took a slight upswing for our side, but we still had a lot of killing to do. I saw even less of Grant and Allyson in this fight; just flashes of light, a few solar constructs here and there, as well multiple (like hundreds) of spears whizzing in every direction. The spears would peg a monster in the chest or head, and either stop, and change direction, or keep flying straight into another target. Also, and this is me just nitpicking here, but why were those spears…..multi colored? Seriously, I was picking up gold, bronze, silver, and small flecks of different colored metals, I guess. Again, not a big deal, but if this was Grant's doing (it was totally Grant's doing), then what the hell did he spend his night doing? Anyway, it was just another rinse and repeat. Grant and Allyon got to be full fledged badasses (understatement), while I was kind of a junior badass. Again, I had a bit more leg room to work with, but outside of a few instances where I killed a good 300 monsters with controlled area lightning blasts, I was stuck with my sword and shield. Hell, I was so out of my element (literally) in this fight, my Speed Sense was going off every other ten seconds. Seriously, without the electrons in the air, I was virtually blind down here. Still, for what it was worth, I did ok.

We fought for a good thirty minutes (somehow Oroco and I managed to stay together the entire time), before something actually interesting happened. Oh, fighting for my life, and the fate of an entire nation was thrilling enough, but this just cranked the dial up to 11. Suddenly, piranhaoids and eel men were getting stabbed, gutted, even blown apart by the dozens. And I don't mean that in a gradual sense; dozens of monsters, even if they were far apart, were being killed simultaneously, every second. Hell, with Grant and Allyson still doing their thing, the eel men and piranhaoids had to fall back to the palace (they must've really had that place on lock if that was their campsite). A second later, the water next to me shimmered (freaking me the hell out), and I summoned my shield while backtracking. As it turns out, that was highly unnecessary, as the invisible woman (no, not the from the Fantastic Four) showed herself. She was basically what you'd imagine from another female Atlantean, but with a few noticeable differences. Blue skin, pupiless white eyes, tattoos snaking all over her body, strong arms and legs; all typical Atlantean traits. In addition to that, she had all white hair, elf ears, and had wings on her heels, just like Namor. She was wearing green full body battle armor, and was toting a golden trident (seriously, if I snuck one of them out as a souvenir, would anybody miss any of these things?). Usually, she'd be the kinda hero that might be vaguely familiar, but forgettable to me. Thanks to my enhanced brain, all of my memories as clear as if it happened a minute ago; I knew exactly who this was.

"Namorita!" Oroco shouted, damn near impaling himself on his own trident, trying to get down to a knee. "Your presence is most welcome, my liege!"

"Rise, Oroco," she said to him, not taking her eyes off of me. "Explain to me why we this surface dweller fights among us."

Oroco quickly rose to a standing position (we were in water, so we couldn't really stand on anything), and started talking quickly.

"He calls himself Storm-Lord," Oroco said. "He and his comrades apparently come to aid Atlantis against Attuma's onslaught. While their motives are not entirely altruistic, they are mighty warriors, and have proven themselves to be worthy of an at least temporary partnership."

Namorita's eyes were practically boring into my head. Because of her pupil less eyes, I had a hard time judging exactly what her overall verdict was, but her crossed arms were not exactly a sign of optimism. After five seconds of sizing me up, Namorita looked up, and shouted really loud in Atlantean. Couldn't understand what she was saying (probably could take it up as a second language), but due to the Atlantean army falling back, apparently going to the city, I guess it was a call to retreat and regroup. She looked back at me, still unrelentingly cynical to my presence.

"For now," she started. "We are in no position to refuse your help; do not mistake that for goodwill. Follow us."

She turned around, and started swimming after her soldiers. Hell, her cold shoulder was so bad, even Oroco gave me a kinda sorta sympathetic look.

"Storm-Lord," Allyson thought to me. "What's happening?"

"Looks like we're regrouping," I thought back to her. "Probably to strategize our next move."

"Was that Namorita?" Grant asked me. "Thought she was dead."

"You know how many heroes "die", but come back?" I asked him, as I started following the swimming soldiers. "Still, don't bring that up; she's not exactly ecstatic about help from surface dwellers. Also, do not ask for her autograph until we've finished the job."

"I wasn't gonna!"

"Yeah you were." Allyson and I thought to him.

We followed the soldiers inside the city (it was cooler in person), and after swimming about a mile or so through it, entered a greek temple-like building, elaborately decorated with glowing corals and trident holding statutes, the size of the Coliseum. Inside, was either the most bizarre thing ever, or right up the alley of an underwater nation. Aside from the hundreds of Atlantean soldiers shuffling around, exchanging weapons, and getting orders from various commanders (not to mention the giant sharks swimming close to the ceiling), this place was technologically legit. Seriously, I was seeing holographic touch screens, real time battle mimicry simulations, even a few working teleporters. As Namorita swam through the crowd, to the center of the temple, which had its own amphitheater, the soldiers stood at attention and shouted something in Atlantean; probably something along the lines of: WE LIVE TO KISS YOUR BACKSIDE! Namorita pounded her trident on the floor, creating a light wave that rippled across the floor, and the soldiers resumed their duties. She beckoned me, Grant, Allyson, and Oroco to the center of the amphitheater, where a huge map was lying, or should I say a part of the floor. I'll give credit where credit is due; this map was the $#!+. If any of you have every seen the third Narnia movie (wasn't bad, wasn't great), the map on this floor, operated the same way the way Corikan's map did. I was seeing shockingly realistic miniature soldiers doing battle in what was definitely a huge expanse of land and sea. Granted, most of it was incoherent mess, but one thing was painfully clear; Atlantis was losing big time. Attuma's forces were overwhelming Namor's by almost half. The crescent was so big, it was practically circling Namor's army. The sea creatures (mostly sharks, swordfish, octopi, and Sea Dogs), the ones that were still alive, were getting mauled by piranhaoids, Serpents, Dragons, and even Leviathans. There were some blue lasers flying from Atlantis' armored wall, but the only things they were effective at killing, were the Serpents were way too slender, and the Leviathans just shrugged the blasts off. The real show however, was Namor's battle with Attuma. Agaim, it was nothing short of a clash of gods, but after over 6 hours of constant battle (props on the effort), it was obvious Namor was a bit on the losing end. For starters, while Namor's power wasn't exactly draining, Attuma's power just kept rising; the guy was absorbing energy just by being near the stone. Also, while Namor was definitely putting up a good fight, Attuma was getting more, and harder hits in; not to mention the blasts, and water constructs he was pouring on. By my estimate, Namor probably had another hour in him at best, before Attuma took the W.

"He's losing," I said aloud.

"HOLD YOUR TONGUE, SURFACE DWELLER!" Oroco bellowed at me. "DO NOT DARE SPEAK WORDS OF MISFORTUNE AGAINST OU-"

"Enough, Oroco!" Namorita interrupted him. "He is right. Somehow, Attuma is siphoning the power of the stone; Namor engaging in close combat with him has only increased the process."

"It's Llyra," I spoke up again, earning some surprised looks from Namorita and Oroco. "She's using some kind of magic to transfer the stone's energy to Attuma's armor; I mean, you guys probably don't know what Tron is, so I doubt his armor is glowing for aesthetic purposes."

"How do you-" Namorita started.

"Dreams," Grant, Allyson and I stopped her.

Namorita looked a bit flustered, but managed to hide it pretty well.

"Alright," she cautiously continued. "As you can see, we are desperate to reclaim the palace. We had no idea how so many savage sea creatures could be coordinated into fighting formations; now we know."

"So why not try another assault?" Allyson asked her. "With the three of us fighting you, we could get through their defenses."

"Why don't you just blow up the whole palace? Grant asked Namorita. "Problem solved."

Namorita and Oroco looked like he just threatened to kill their grandmothers.

"I cannot even begin to describe how ignorant, and downright insulting your common surface world suggestion was." Namorita started, her words like bullet out of a machine gun. "The palace, the throne of Atlantis, is the crown jewel of our city. Every since its creation, it has endured countless wars, trials, and tribulations. If it was ever to be destroyed, the people of Atlantis would lose all hope, their morality and spirits would be irreparably crushed; even now, they begin to despair we will never reclaim it. On another note, the palace has a magnetic core that keeps the rock it's on in one piece. If it is ruptured, the explosion would level everything within a thousand mile radius."

Yikes. Guess blowing up the palace (I wasn't on board with that anyway) was out of the question.

"Ok then," I said. "Well, is there a way to take back the throne in a more tactical way?"

"Not without taking more soldiers from the battlefield," Namorita responded. "Thanks to your earlier efforts, we can scrape together one last, albeit sub-par, assault force."

"I can help," Allyson spoke up.

Based off of the looks she was getting from Oroco and Namorita, the vote of confidence wasn't all that high.

"What?" she asked us all. "You don't think I can hold my own?"

"That is not what I am trying to convey," Oroco said. "You are a strong warrior, but alone-"

"She still kicks ass." Grant interrupted him. "Trust me, dude, if Sunbird's on your team, you're in good hands."

"I doubt she can defeat Krang or Byrrah in combat."

"Wanna bet?" Allyson asked him.

"Moving on," Namorita stopped the potential feud. "Our biggest problem with another full assault, is that Krang has now has control of the palace defenses. Even if we manage to repel his forces again, the turrets and mines will lay waste to whatever is left of our assault."

"Don't you have a backdoor of sorts," Allyson asked her. "I mean, I can see you guys are a proud race, but you must have been smart enough to have a palace escape route."

"As a matter of fact, we do."

Namorita waved her hand over the map, and the image went from an overhead battle survey, to a close up of Atlantis'' palace. She waved her hand again, and green highlights flashed in four places in the rock foundation.

"These are actually deploy vents," Namorita started. "We use them for shift changes in the royal palace guard, but they can function as escape routes if necessary."

"Then why not enter through those?" I asked her.

"As I said, Krang has taken control of the palace defense grid. These points will not open for us, and even if they could, we'd find ourselves swimming into a thousand piranhaoid claws."

In theory, I should've prepared for, if not thought of this myself. Seriously, I had just enough time to see the quizzical look on Grant's face, followed by a snap of his fingers, before the image on the map had four green explosions billowing out of its entrance points. Namorita and Oroco acted in the exact manner you'd think they would; pure unchecked confusion, followed by death glares at Grant.

"Wait!" Grant started. "First off, I could kick all of your butts within a half of a millisecond. Second, I analyzed the palace's structure, and took account of the magnetic core before blowing apart the entrances. Plus, that thousand monster set up you were talking about? Trashed em'."

"Krang will still have a secondary force set up." Namorita retorted (and I thought I was skeptical).

"Do you have enough soldiers to put up a fight?"

"Barely."

"With Sunbird, you're golden; pun not intended. I'd take advantage of this while it's fresh."

Namorita thought on it for a second (so slow), before nodding her head in agreement, and calling her forces to arms.

"We still need to reclaim the battlefield," Namorita said, as she got her weapons ready.

"I can handle that," Grant said.

"Me too," I spoke up.

"What?!" Namorita and Oroco almost shrieked.

"You're getting devoured by a crescent formation," I started. "You need to focus your efforts of reclaiming the outside advantage, while simultaneously pushing your central forces forward."

"I can do that," Grant said. "How? I'll explain later; all you need to know is that I learned how to singlehandedly repel and army last night."

"Okaay. Cool. Anyway, we also need to get those sea monsters off of our backs. While Geo-Titan is helping you get a foundation back, i'll snipe the enemy sea creatures out of the water, while someone coordinates the troops in formation."

"Oroco will do that," Namorita quickly said, obviously antsy to get back to the battle.

"But," he started. "I am-"

"Promoted to Supreme Commander. I trust you, Oroco; go and save Atlantis."

Oroco looked like his head was gonna explode. He pounded his chest, stood at attention, and after a faint blue glow engulfed him for a quick second, took a knee to Namorita.

"I swear, my liege," he spoke up. "I will not rest until the enemies of Atlantis are broken mangled corpses beneath my boot!"

"Rise, Oroco," Namorita said.

Oroco stood straight up, and motioned for me and Grant to follow him.

"To the teleporter!" he shouted. "We have no time to waste!"

He didn't give us much of a choice, and I swam off with him and Grant; not even getting a chance to look at Allyson.

"Good luck, you guys!" she thought to us. "And don't worry about me, i'll be fine!"

"It's Krang who should be worried," Grant thought to her. "Kick his ass something fierce Sunbird!"

With those parting words of encouragement, Grant and I stepped onto the teleporter with Oroco, and dematerialized in a ray of light.