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.

20. Ch: 20:Namor Hates Us, Well Mostly Me

Chapter 20: Namor Hates Us...Well, Mostly Me

I hate people. No, seriously, Namor just ruined it for everyone; I hate people. If it were up to me, i'd take my friends, my mom, go to some other dimension, and let the rest of humanity get stuffed. Ok, clearly I wouldn't do that, but it doesn't excuse the fact that Namor was the undisputed king of being a dick. I mean, me and my friends go out of our way, under the sea for crying out loud, to help him clean up his mess. We save his life and his kingdom from getting wasted, and this is what we get? I'm not askin' for a victory feast (although I was kinda hungry), but a goddamn thank you seems a bit appropriate, right? Also, king or not, nobody gets in my face like this, period.

"Guys?" I quickly thought to Grant and Allyson.

"We're fine, bro," Grant thought back to me. "Not even on their best day could these guys touch us!"

"Doesn't mean we need to fight!" Allyson quickly spoke up. "Think of it from his perspective. He clearly doesn't jive well with S.H.I.E.L.D., and we look like law enforcement here to take what belongs to them."

"But that's not why we're here!" I thought back to her, getting a bit agitated. "We came out of way to save him! Why doesn't he get that, is he bent in the head?!"

"Just try to calm the situation, Storm-Lord. Make him understand that we mean him no harm. You can start by doing as he says; give them the stone back."

"So I should just roll over for him?"

"It's not rolling over, it's showing a sign of good faith."

"Sounds a lot like rolling over," Grant thought to us.

"Shut up, GT," Allyson thought back. "We all know you want his autograph anyway."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

Allyson rolled her eyes and looked back at me. Yeah, while Namor was busy puffing his chest, me and my team had a full conversation in about a half second. I didn't like the thought of bending to this asshat, but if it meant not having to hurt any of the Atlanteans (they couldn't do squat to us), i'd roll with it. I shifted out of Speed Mode, and without breaking eye contact with Namor, took a stab at trying to get the stone out of me. I didn't exactly know what I was doing, but I started by putting a hand on my chest, and willing the stone to eject from it, and into my palm. Bolts of Sea Force discharge surged around my body violently, and it felt like I was ripping my heart out!. By the time it was over with, I was on my knees gasping and shaking violently, like a chihuahua. Without the stone in my chest, I felt my power drop like an anvil in free fall. At best, my Sea Sense (official) was good enough to cover about seven miles; ditto for my Thunder Sense. I could still sense my connection to the Sea Force, albeit microscopic compared to what it used to be. Also my waterbending was still a thing, but at best I could probably control enough water inside an Olympic-size swimming pool.

"I will take that," Namor said to me, reaching out his hand for the stone.

I handed it up at him, and tried to get up. Oh yeah, it was gonna take my body a little bit to adjust for the lack of strength.

"Don't get up," Namor talked down to me. "It is fitting that you bow to a king. In fact, you two, companions of this boy, on your knees as well."

Amazing how much pain you can ignore when you're pissed the f*(# off. I willed the water to swirl around me, and help me back to my feet. I looked Namor dead in his eyes again, my fists clenched for a fight. Namor smirked, like I was a puppy that did a cute trick for him. He clenched his right hand, and punched me hard in the gut. On a good day, my Speed Sense wouldn't let him get close enough to make impact, but this was a special case. My Speed Sense did go off, but my body was still adjusting from the power withdrawal. Namor's punch came at me at the speed of a fly in molasses, but I couldn't move out of the way. Hell, he had the stone locked away in his own trident, so the stone wasn't bolstering his strength (though I did notice he had glowing blue tattoos all over his face and exposed parts of his body). Still, the impact of his fist slamming into my gut was like a rhino had trucked into it. I keeled over, clutching my stomach, wheezing, and gasping for breath. I heard Grant shouting a slew of cuss words at Namor, sensed him barreling through dozens of Atlantean soldiers to get to him. Allyson kept putting up barrier after barrier to slow him down, shouting words of peace to both him and Namor. Yeah, peace was the last thing on my mind right now.

While I was bent over clutching my stomach, I made my insides vibrate for a good while, forcing my powers to balance themselves out. While my body was going through a heavy case of withdrawal, a lot of the imbalance was just my cells still trying to balance out my new set of powers with the old ones. Again, I wasn't as powerful without the stone, but it left me with one hell of a parting gift. I still had my waterbending powers, access to Sea Force, and above all else, enhanced strength and durability. I without a doubt knew that at least 60% of it was simply because of being underwater, but I felt like I could bench press a good 50 tons, so I must've had one hell of a swing. Still, as I got up, I forced myself to make one last effort for peace. I owed my friends and the Atlanteans at least that much. I summoned my trident, and banged the shaft on the ground, creating a small ripple of water through the area. It was a kinda sorta show of power (yeah right), but it was mostly just to get everyone's attention. Lucky me, it worked.

Again, every Atlantean that wasn't Namor, looked at me like I was Jesus. Oroco was damn near busting the seams. Hell, elf boy himself looked at my trident with a mix of curiosity and disgust. Odds were he knew what this meant, and it was making him look bad in front of his crew.

"Alright," I said through gritted teeth. Let's try this again, your highness. I'm Storm-Lord-"

"No," he interrupted me. "When you were birthed, your mother did not name you that. Real names only, or your words will fall on deaf ears."

Ok. He was getting dangerously close to the whole dead parents zone, but I could skirt around that.

"Pretty sure that's counter productive to the whole secret identity thing," I responded.

"Don't flatter yourself, boy" he clapped back. "I have enough responsibility and benign things to do than waste time and energy hunting for children surface dwellers. Besides, you are not superheroes. By the looks of it, you're S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. I don't like S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. So start again with real names, least you forfeit what goodwill you have."

"You'd think saving your kingdom, and your ass would actually build up a lotta good will. Whatever tho. Name's Jason Fuller. My friends are Grant Jackson, and Allyson Grace. Also, we're more like temporary interns; Fury kinda sorta kidnapped us for this team."

"That's an over exaggeration," Allyson thought to me at super speed. "Agent Hill was very kind and respectful to me and my parents."

"Did she come with a gun squad?" I asked her.

"No."

"Coulson came with a lie detector bracelet, two guards, and a gun squad set up around my house, all of which was after my mom fed him and his two Men in Black goons."

"Well….you did almost kill a guy."

"Am I ever gonna live that down?"

"Maybe in about five years," Grant chimed in. "Don't worry Storm-Lord, I got the gun squad, and got brought in by an Inhuman. Called herself Quake. She was hot."

"Then deal with that in your own way," I thought back to him. "Lemme keep talking to the royal pain in the neck. I really can't stand looking at his resting bitch face."

That earned a laugh from Grant. Even Allyson reluctantly chuckled.

"Just remember to use your nice words, Storm-Lord," she thought to me.

"Of course," I responded before shifting my perception down.

"All the more reason to be more suspicious," Namor said (slowpoke). "Indentured servants will do anything for their freedom."

"First, i'm nobody's servant, ok? We came here by choice to save your pointy ears."

"Your help was neither wanted nor needed."

"Not from where I was standing. If it wasn't for Grant, your army would've broken by now. If it wasn't for me, Attuma would've had you gutted. Besides, weren't you the one that sent Janus to find reinforcements?"

That struck a nerve. Hell, before I said that, Namor was striding over to give me the business. Afterwards, he paused for a second, then rushed at me with his trident. I'll give it to him, even with my Speed Sense kicking in he was still some kinda fast…...and bloodthirsty. He had his trident poised for a stab to my gut (dude always went for the gut), which was all kinds of not good for me. In response, I willed the water under his feet to form a current, twisting him upside down, and blasting him away with a water spiral. He managed to recover, avoiding spilling into a crowd of surrounding Atlanteans by propelling himself over them via small burst of water under his feet. Man oh man did he look ten flavors of pissed off! His teeth (he had fangs) were bared at me. His tattoos glowed brighter, and the water around him started to swirl violently. Looks like diplomacy failed. I gripped my trident harder, ready for a fight. In response to my adrenaline spike, my trident's etchings and patterns started to glow as well, earning a collective gasp from the surrounding Atlanteans.

"WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH ALL OF YOU?!" Namor thought to them (yup, now I was tuned in to elf boy radio). "WHAT THE HELL MAKES THIS LITTLE THING SO DAMN CAPTIVATING?!"

"Why don't you ask Oroco?!" I thought back to him and the other Atlanteans. "He blew a nut when I summoned this thing in front of him. Clearly it means something holyish to you lot."

"OROCO?!" Namor mentally yelled for him.

Oroco swam over the crowd of Atlanteans, approached, and bowed to Namor.

"My lord," he started. "He willed the power of the sea to defend us from the Nethertrench. His companions used the power of the sun and earth to assist him, his trident-"

"Bears the blessings of Poseidon," Namor interrupted him. "The sacred texts of the Ocean Chronicles."

"You doubt them, my king?"

Namor was silent for a moment, then started swimming towards me. His trident was upright at his side, so he wasn't gonna attack again, but I stayed ready to shank him if necessary.

"I don't doubt the texts," he said, sizing me up again. "But I do not believe for a second that the champion of Poseidon….that he would deem some plucky, random surface dweller-"

"I'm not plucky!" I cut him off aloud. "And as far as random goes, you don't get to choose your lineage, but i'm the X50th great grandson of Zeus! Oh, and i'm a descendant of Poseidon as well."

"How do you know that?" Namor asked me.

"When the stone flew into my mouth and gave me my sweet waterbending powers, Poseidon spoke to me; claimed me as his descendant. Gave me this awesome trident too."

I might as well have said that I was gonna give them eternal life or something, cuz the Atlanteans that heard that caused a wave of gasps, squeals, and swoons. Namor had to mentally roar "SILENCE!" to stop them from fangirling over me.

"I DON'T CARE WHO YOU ARE!" he yelled at me. "WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE! YOU HAVE NO CLAIM TO WHAT BELONGS TO ATLANTIS, THE STONE OF POSEIDON IS NOT YOURS TO TAKE!"

"Dude!" I snapped back. "I'm not trying to take anything from you! If you got such a hard on for the rock, you can keep it!"

"I DON'T NEED YOUR PERMISSION TO KEEP WHAT BELONGS TO ME!"

"YOU'RE MISSING THE POINT! DAMN, WITH EARS LIKE THAT YOU MUST BE ABLE TO HEAR ME; TRY AND LISTEN!"

Maybe it was the fact that I insulted his elf ears (and by extension all the Atlanteans), cuz suddenly everything got really quiet.

"In case you didn't realize, that rock isn't the only problem you'll have!" I continued. "Long story short, Doom's goin' after the Stones of Olympus, me and my team have spent the last few days trying to get them first. As of now, the score's tied up, leaving that one left. Again, we're not here to take anything from you, we just wanted to help. Still, I don't think Doom is afraid of getting wet. He'll come for the stone, so you best figure something out."

I must've been getting better at this, cuz this was the longest Namor ever went without yelling at me.

"So Doom is to blame for the stone going missing?" Namor rhetorically asked. "Humph. Feeding him to the ichthyocacerberi has always been on my to do list. I was aware of the massive chaos wave that returned the stone to the waters, probably due to Strange or Maximoff, but the damage was done by then. With the stone drifting in oceans, Attuma saw a golden opportunity to attack. He must've been planning this assault for some time, but with so many of my forces tasked with retrieving the stone, as well as defending our nation, Attuma had an easier time attacking us than he normally would've. Regardless of that, how did you know we were under siege?"

"I dreamt about it," I said unapologetically. "Lately I dream about bat$#!+ crazy god stuff to say the least. Last night you and yours was on the dream screen, so I made a special request to Fury to...assist you. I passed up getting Zeus' stone just for you. Still tho, didn't you send Janus for help?"

Ooooo. I done did it now. All the goodwill I had just built up with Namor? Mentioning Janus brought all that back to zero.

"Janus!?" Namor said sharply, his trident hand dipping a bit towards me. "What do you know of brother Janus!? What has become of him?!"

"Maybe I should tell him this part," Allyson thought to me. "A softer delivery might lessen the blow."

"Nah," I thought to her. "I got this, just be ready to give me the necklace when i'm ready for it."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Ok, just try not to….you know,"

"Screw it up? Don't worry, I think I can manage."

I shifted out of Speed Mode, and mustered up the courage to tell Namor that his friend was dead.

"Look, man," I started. "Like I told you, my dreams get a bit crazy. Last night I basically scryed the significant events of a lot of crucial factors in the battle; used them to help win the day. Whether you knew it or not, Janus went out to get whatever backup he could. Krang caught up to him though, and ganged him with a squad of piranhaoids. Dude, fought with heart, but he got overpowered bad. Krang messed him up in interrogation, but Janus refused to give that son of a bitch anything. I'm sorry, Janus is dead."

Namor's eyes went a bit wide. I noticed his breath hitch a bit, and his tattoos flared up.

"Uh-oh," Grant thought. "He's gonna lose it."

"Sunbird," I thought to her. "I could use that necklace right now!"

She did me one better. As she floated the necklace to me via light sphere, she sung a small bit of the chorus from Counting on You by my boys BTR (so hot). Whatever emotions had just riled up in Namor, Allyson's song basically sent a wave of calm that damn near rippled through the the entire area. One second I was ready to fight for my life, the next, I felt like a peaceful kitten on a rug. I took the necklace once the light sphere dissipated, and handed it to Namor. He didn't look like was gonna go all supernova, but his face drooped hard. Janus must've really been something of a brother to him, cuz his face resembled nothing short of the look of someone who lost their family (I can tell you allllll about that). He gripped the necklace hard, clenching his eyes shut trying to hide his grief. Again, I was a bit on the defensive side; people do drastic things when they hurt, like punching Jasons for example. Props to Namor for not going that route though. He put the necklace on, got his kingly composure back, and stared me down again.

"You say you scryed the death of my dear friend? he asked me.

"Yeah," I said tentatively. "Same goes for everything else. Krang's maneuvering plans, Llyra on your throne, the whole nine yards."

"Indeed. You seem to have known much about the plans of our enemies."

"I'm not one of theirs if that's what you mean."

"I'll be the judge of that. Soldiers! Seize the surface dwellers, escort them to the dungeons!"

Talk about goin from hero to zero real quick. Granted, the five guys who swarmed on me looked sorry about what they were doing; could've sworn elf boy told them to punch their grandmothers. Still, they followed orders, and grabbed my arms, shoulders, and started forcing me down. Oh, I wasn't taking that $#!+ lying down! I bucked and shoved a few of them off of me (apparently my new strength was common in an average Atlantean), trying not to bring in my powers unless necessary. Grant was having an easier time of it. The mother f*(#$* barely even have to move to casually shove his wanna be arrestors outta the way. Allyson was neither here nor there with her resistance. She just put up a light barrier around herself, while trying to reason with Namor.

"King Namor!" she shouted. "Please, don't do this, we're the good guys! We mean you, your people, and your kingdom no harm!"

"Then stop resisting!" he shouted back. "Submit yourselves to the judgement of the counsel, be honest, and you shall be set free in a matter of no more than three days. Continue to resist me as you do, and you will be executed!"

"Three days!" Grant shouted, still casually knocking away Atlantean soldiers. "Dude, we got $#!+ to do! Nobody tryna stay underwater for three days!"

"That is not for you to decide, boy! Your quest means nothing to me, only the security of my kingdom! Now submit!"

Namor was done with the requests. Around Grant, Allyson, and I, the water pressure picked up big time. For me, it felt like Luke Cage was pressing down on my shoulders, not to mention Namor upping the ante with pulses of water taking me out at the back of my knees. The impact and force was enough to even trip Grant up a significant bit. Allyson actually ended up getting the worst of it though. While Namor did the same thing to her (barrier or not, there was still water around her), she activated her Sun Form, using it for a body shield, but then had to deal with the increasing pressure Namor was piling on top of her shield. Yeah, forget this. I don't care if I had to punch a foreign monarch in the face, I was having none of this!

"LEAVE THEM ALONE, NAMOR!" I roared at him.

"No," he said plainly.

Well, I asked nicely. Let it be known that I tried being reasonable. Now it was time to open up a can of Bronx County Whup Ass.

I used my waterbending powers to divert the pressing water around, and away from my body. With the Stone of Poseidon in his trident (hope this wasn't gonna be a thing again), diverting Namor's power was like struggling against a constricting python, but I just barely had enough strength to pry the pressure away from me. Times like these really make me miss schoolyard fights. At least then I was certain my punches mattered without the need to enhance them with lightning. Anyway, I realized this would be another speed/maneuvering game if I wanted to win, and I wasted no time grabbing the advantage first. I went into my Sea Form, and rushed at Namor as little more than a swift current. Right before impact, I constructed myself into a giant fist, and rocked Namor with the force of a herd of rhinos. I will admit this was me being stupid. This was me acting without thinking. This was two grown men fighting like children over a toy truck. I have no f*(#$ to give about that. I'm not gonna say I was sorry for ringing his bell, that would be lying. Still, I had most definitely just sentenced my team to life in prison at the very least. I'd have to find the time between punches to convince Namor to do otherwise.

Back to the fight, I had just knocked Namor completely off the wall platform (give or take 50 ft), and was going to town on his ass. I split myself into three hammerhead shark constructs, and used him as a beach ball, hitting him higher and higher up. Bad guy or not, had to get the fight away from the city. I condensed back into my body after getting a good half a mile over the wall, and hit Namor with the mother of all lightning charged Vibration Punches. Again, I really miss the days where a regular cross punch would be enough to take down a person, cuz even with an impact that would put an eighteen wheeler in the scrap yard, Namor barely went "umph" before slashing at me with his trident. I summoned my shield, blocked the impact, but got bottle rocketed away. Less than a second later, my Speed and Sea Senses and were going off together to tell me how close I was to dying via shark construct frenzy. Yeah, Namor had created twenty Great White Shark constructs to try and make meal outta me. In response, I summoned my trident, doubling my control over the water, and while flying about in my Thunder Form, stabbed and blew apart Namor's constructs. He kept creating more to throw at me, but not even on his best day could Namor get something as big and slow as a giant shark to do me in.

"ATLANTEANS!" he mentally roared over the telepathic waves. "DO NOT INTERFERE, I WILL DISPATCH THIS SURFACE DWELLER FILTH ON MY OWN. MAKE SURE HIS COMPANIONS STAY AWAY FROM THIS BATTLE!"

Don't worry pal, I can do you one better.

"Guys!" I thought to Grant and Allyson. "In case you didn't hear that, Namor just ordered his people to stay outta the fight; that goes double for you two!"

"WHAT?!" they both mentally shouted at me.

"Dude, you're insane!" Grant thought to me. "You couldn't even put the squeeze on Attuma, now you think you all big and bad cuz you got your own shiny pitchfork?!"

"He's right, Storm-Lord!" Allyson chimed in. "You can't fight him alone! Let us help, maybe we can reason with him!"

"We tried reasoning! That didn't work. Sorry, but the only way we get out of this is if I fight for it! Namor won't respect us ganging up on him, so it has to be just me! I'll try and talk to him between punches, but I need you guys to promise me you won't get involved, no matter how bad it looks!"

There was a painfully long pause, and not just because I was still up to my neck in shark constructs.

"Give us a reason," Allyson thought to me.

"What?" I thought back to her.

"Show us you can handle yourself without dying, and we'll stay out of it."

"That work for you too, GT?"

"As long as you put on a good show," he responded. "Otherwise nothing will be able to stop me from comin' up and ending this right now."

"Too easy," I thought to both of them. "Just watch me work!"

I blew apart one last shark construct, used the Power Grid to sense where Namor was, and made the electrons around him give him a quick taser blast. I made sure to dial back on the voltage (didn't wanna kill him or nothin'), using just enough to break his concentration. After Shark Week was over, I put Namor through a wringer of his own. I willed the water around him to swirl at like 200 miles an hour, trapping him in a sphere of water about the size of a 8 ft jumbo beach ball. Namor barely had any room to work with, which was gonna be the least of his worries. I electrified the water, willed a spark of voltage to pelt him in the back, and send him crashing into the whirlwind. Long story short, Namor kept bouncing off the insides of the electrified circular hurricane for a good minute, in which I enjoyed every painful looking impact. I did eventually let him out, but it's not like he had all that much to look forward to outside his pain bubble. While he was spinning around in a glorious cycle of liquid/electric pain, I went to work creating a legion of electrified Wild Force blue ranger constructs (seemed right). As soon as I dropped the bubble, I let loose fifty kamikaze constructs to swarm Namor in explosion after explosion. I gotta hand it to this trident, it made adjusting to my waterbending powers a hell of a lot easier. I said this thing doubled my control over the water, but I was starting to wonder if it was even more than that. I say this because the first wave of kamikaze rangers was swiftly followed by another set, which took almost no effort to conjure up at all. Hell, I was basically rolling these things off the conveyor belt for a good 20 seconds (at least 1,000 kamikaze rangers in total), before Namor busted out via Sea Force explosive wave.

Before I could stop it, the water around me basically yanked me towards Namor, like I was fired out of a slingshot. I couldn't fight the propel of the water, Namor with the stone trumped just me and my trident, but that was the least of my worries. If it wasn't clear enough already, Namor wasn't taken prisoners anymore, cuz he threw his trident straight at my chest once I was in range! I phased through it of course (taking in some more of that sweet Sea Force energy), and used the momentum Namor gave me to try and get the drop on him. I gripped my trident, careful to make sure I was swinging with the flat, and took a swing at elf boy's head. Here's something i'm not used to saying, but Namor easily dodged my swing, and grabbed me by my right leg! First off, goddamn! I was still in my Thunder Form, and Namor was holding on to me as if I didn't have God knows how many volts of juice around me. Still, I wasn't in the mood to get swung around by my legs, so I kicked Namor in he face about 50 times per second for the next five seconds with my free leg, until he finally let go. I swung at him again with my trident, but it was painfully clear I had no idea how to use this thing other than a power booster (tridents handle WAY differently than regular spears). Namor caught it by the shaft, and grabbed the lower end with his free hand. We had a small tussle over my trident, in which I kneed him in the gut a few times, before Namor took a wild backhand swing for my head. I easily ducked under it, blasted him in the face with Thunder Vision, and created a Shao Kahn helmet construct over my head. Before Namor could get the memo, I slammed into him with a headbutt, making my construct explode upon impact. I thought I got a pretty good shot in, that I probably had elf boy seeing stars. Namor's hand gripping my throat like a vice said otherwise!

Ok. On top of being uber strong, durable, and pissed off, Namor had his own super speed thing goin on. No way for me to keep a hold on my trident now. I put it away….just in time to get a punch to the gut! My armor took may be 40% of that hit, meaning I felt almost completely like a bull had just done the electric slide on top of my intestines. I let out a noise that sounded like a constipated cat (believe me, I know what that sounds like), but worked through the pain enough to give Namor a voltage charged Vibration Punch across the jaw. I held nothing back this time, Namor could clearly take anything I was capable of dishing out. Me….not so much. I slammed into his face and chest left and right with the hardest Vibration Punches I could dish out, finally earning some grunts outta Namor. Still if there's anything i've learned from fighting people related to superheroes, it's that ten of my hits is barely one of theirs. As such, when Namor found enough speed to block one of my punches, I phased through his hand, and blasted him away with a Final Flash.

In the two seconds me and Namor spent apart, I jacked up big time for Round 2. I pumped my body with a heaping helping of voltage and Sea Force. I hardened my Thunder Form into a body shield, and willed the water around my immediate body area to swirl around and create another makeshift body shield around me. Let me be crystal clear about this, though. Juggling all these abilities around was about as hard as figuring out a maze on a T.G.I. Friday's kids meal. Unless Namor hit me especially hard (which he might), there was no way to easily break my offensive/defensive set up. Speaking of which, it was payback time for those gut punches!

I flew at Namor at like 100 mph, delivering a grand slam of a Vibration Punch to his jaw. This time, the set up paid off big time, as Namor finally exhibited the physical reaction that I was looking for. The punch basically sent him spinning, not to mention had him pitting up blood! Ok, maybe that last part isn't something to brag about, and in truth I was more than a little surprised by my own strength. I made a mental note to dial it back a little bit as I continued kicking Namor's ass across the ocean. I kept to my speed advantage, circling and punching Namor constantly from all angles 50 times per second. I kept this up for a good half a minute, attacking Namor's chest, throat, face, back, and occasionally, legs. I expected to beat him into unconsciousness relatively easy, but punching the dude was like attacking a brick wall. Hell, the longer I kept up my attack, the harder his skin seemed to feel. Still, I adjusted my attack strength accordingly, and kept up the speed thrashing. To give Namor credit, there were a few times where he managed to block a few punches here and there…..then a few more…..then a lot more…...then he got a punch to connect with my jaw! Ok, now this is just getting ridiculous! I get that the stones can enhance things like speed, strength, etc., but come on, why do they all have to be so fast?! In any case, I really should've seen that coming anyway. Namor's ever increasing durability and speed were directly related to his tattoos getting brighter; meaning more Sea Force intake. By the time another 30 seconds had passed, Namor was shining like a blue Christmas light bulb, and I was lucky if I could dodge his attacks, much less actually hit him. I made myself a promise that if I ever reached the surface alive, i'd take all the lessons on aerial combat from whoever I could. Yeah, at this moment, now that he had the advantage again, Namor was absolutely demolishing me in the melee department. He wasn't an exceptionally great fighter (though he definitely could hold his own in MMA tournaments), but used what he had, mixed with his swimming, kinda flying, and using the water to propel him around faster. He would more or less employ the same tactics I used (key strikes to the chest, face, throat, and back), but my body shields made sure I wasn't in too much danger, although i'd be lying if I said I didn't feel my fair share of pain. It wasn't all gloom and doom for me though. Just like my fight with Attuma, my brain was learning and adapting to Namor's fight style. I gradually started dodging, blocking, and countering more and more of his attack patterns; not to mention using sparks from the Power Grid, as well as giant voltage charged water constructs (fists, eels, stingrays, missiles, etc.,) to gain some necessary breathing room when needed. Basically, the first five minutes of the fight went back and forth constantly, neither of us able to maintain the upper hand for more than 30 seconds at a time.

"Y'know," I thought to Namor, making good on my promise to try and defuse the situation. "I really think we've been getting off on the wrong foot here, man! Lemme spell it out for you one more time! We are not your enemies, we just wanted to help! We have no intentions of taking the stone, nor do we wanna endanger your kingdom! We stopped the bad guys, the stone is safe, mission accomplished, just let us go home in peace!"

"Your mewling and graveling will not save you, boy!" he predictably responded. "In addition to not being worthy of my trust, you have committed the ultimate offense of striking the favorite son of Atlantis! I will see you broken for that!"

"Seriously, dude?! I tell you I mean you no harm, and all you can talk about is killing me?! No wonder you're a joke to all the other heroes!"

That one REALLY got under Namor's skin, and I ended up paying for it. Side note though, apparently Namor had some kinda animal adaptation power. After my last comment, he blasted me away with a spiral cannon (must've been a household favorite), and for a split second, had a shark hologram shimmering around him. By the time the hologram died down, he was….interesting to look at. His skin was a rough grey color, he had pure black eyes, a mouth full of shark teeth, and talons protruding for his fingers. If there was such a thing as underwater vampires, this guy would kick off a whole nother Twilight series. As freaky as he looked though, I wasn't all that scared of him….until he gave me a reason to be. First, his speed increased. It wasn't a major boost, and in truth it wasn't all that much to get worked up about, but it did make it a bit harder to land any punches on this guy. His strength tho, yeah that was a MAJOR problem. Again, I had two different body shields going on at the same time; by the time Namor was done, that would be so not a thing anymore. Every punch that connected went off with enough force to destroy a city block (my god, I hoped he wouldn't use whale power), completely rocking the foundations of my shields. I managed to avoid, and counter some of his attacks, but it was tragically clear I was out of my depth in this fight. My shields lasted for a total of 15 hits before Namor damn near punched me into the next century with the next one. Luckily, I was only just knocked out of my Thunder Form, though my Speed Sense told me I was in danger of losing my head as well. I summoned my Sky Shield just in time to block a speeding punch that would've definitely left me in pieces. I got shot upwards at like 150 mph, but managed to turn it into an advantage. I got my Thunder Form up and running again, and while steadily trying to fly ahead of him, I blasted Namor with all the Phantom Bolts, blindsided him with the usual hard water constructs, and if he did manage to catch up, I always had something special waiting for him. For starters, I always kept my shield up, which was constantly drinking the voltage I was emitting, meaning I always had an explosive wave up my sleeve. Also, I was juicing my arms with absurd amounts of voltage and Sea Force, up to the point to where it was almost painful, while keeping my free arm vibrating at top speed. In other words, when Namor got too close for comfort, I also had one hell of a Vibration Punch waiting for him. And believe me, there were times when he got too close for my liking. For example, after a minute of keeping my distance with Phantom Bolts and assortments of voltage charged mermaid warrior water constructs, Namor managed to do a speed blitz right through and entire battalion of said mermaid warriors, and made a beeline for me. He was coming in way too hot, with way too much momentum for me to try and backpedal out of his attack. Still, I kept up the illusion that I was trying to escape him, letting him get closer and closer. Once he was too close to even think about thinking of finding the time to stop, I halted in my tracks, braced for impact, and let Namor crash shoulder first into my shield.

As soon as he made impact, I willed all of the voltage built up around the shield to blast out in a pretty decent explosive wave (actually ended up blasting off Namor's shoulder guards and gauntlets completely). Elf boy got punted 100 ft down, and by the look on his face, he had gotten the water knocked right out of him! I mashed the gas, and flew straight at him as fast as I could, giving him another Vibration Punch upside his head, earning another stream of blood from his mouth. I quickly created a brick wall construct behind Namor, pinned him to it, and started wailing on him furiously with a Vibration Punch/shield bash combo. Because my shield was still charged, and because the razor edges were actually chipping away at Namor's armor, I took special care not to hit him across the face unless I could get him with an upswing or a backhand. Still, I was more than able to pound the $#!+ out of elf boy Captain America style, fueling all of my anger towards him in my punches for a full minute before he managed to recover. He caught my shield with both hands as it came in for another bash to the chest (most certainly cutting his palms in the process), quickly yanked it up, and gave me a front kick to the chest, separating me from my shield.

I'm pretty sure this is what it was like to get kicked by a horse, cuz my vision basically inverted in on itself, and i'd probably be feeling this one for weeks, healing factor or not. Namor barreled into my gut, almost knocking the water out of me, and I scrambled around for a bit, before phasing through him, and attacking him from behind. Yeah, I was keeping those teeth and claws as far away from me as possible. Namor managed flip over my flying Vibration Kick, and I had to react super fast to block his incoming talon lunge to my face! I managed to catch his wrists (I was still juicing on voltage and Sea Force), and leaned back, flipping him to where he was below me. Again, I got a kick in the chest, and before I could even get an "oomph" sound out, my Speed Sense triggered hard. My vision was still not all there, but my Sea Sense was telling me that Namor's talons were about half a second away from carving into my chest with a wide slash! I backpedaled away as fast as I could, while blasting him in the face with Thunder Vision. It was a close call for sure, but Namor only scratched the surface of my armor, though I was right to fear those claws; they were like knives through paper. Anyway, I took advantage of Namor's broken attack, and knocked him about 50 ft down by making a giant pool stick construct slam him in the chest. I followed that up by quickly summoning my shield, and ramming into him at 300 mph.

I'll give Namor this, cuz if nothing else, this guy was never gonna stop unless I physically beat him down, or the other way around. There was something that commanded respect from me about that, especially the fact that he was more inclined to use fists (and talons) more than anything else. We straight up brawled for another three minutes, neither of us giving the other inch to think. I slammed Namor with Vibration Punch after Vibration Punch, incorporating a few close range water constructs, like giant boxing gloves and baseball bats, to help me keep the edge. I made constant in and out use of my shield, using it to primarily block Namor's death talons from carving me like a Christmas ham, before slamming it into whatever part (mostly the face) of his body was in reach at the time. That's not to say that Namor didn't get any decent shots in. I got so many knees and punches to the gut, I ended up spitting up some blood of my own. Still, my instincts kicked in, and I managed to adapt and counter Namor's moves gradually. Most of my counter strategy involved circling Namor, attacking at key joints, faking and redirecting attacks, not to mention going back and forth between my physical body and Sea Form, to avoid and try out new attacks. Again, none of my strategies were foolproof, but they helped me stay in the fight.

"You fight well, boy," Namor thought to me. "If you weren't content with being Fury's lackey, you might actually be worthy of respect!"

By the way, if you're wondering why we were trash talking each other mentally only…..have you tried talking with an electric shield slamming into your face at 50 mph? How about when a you're always half a second away from getting your throat slit? Yeah, the only things that were being said aloud, were cries of pain, anger, frustration, and furious muttering of cuss words.

"First off," I responded. "I'm nobody's lackey-"

"Bull$#!+. Look at you! Your very shield has the symbol of your handlers! How desperate was Fury to call on children to carry out his errands?!"

"I'M NOT….just shut up! You don't know $#!+! Me and my team are busting our asses trying to keep the world safe, including you, you reject Santa's elf!"

Huh. Broke my rule about never calling him and elf to his face.

"Keeping the world safe?!" he somehow mentally roared in anger and amusement. "Boy, let me inform you, S.H.I.E.L.D. is just as bad of a place for The Stones of Olympus as the hands of Doom. Think of it, what will become of them once Fury has them all in his possession?"

"He'll get rid of them," I thought back, not sure if I believed myself. "He'll lock them up, send them back to the gods! He knows he can't control this power-"

"It won't stop him from trying. Prime example. You have the strength of the sky and sea, yet you are on the leash of an old man! You jest at me, yet you do tricks for a master you don't even know! You surface dwellers are all the same, believing you have the right to go anywhere, to do anything! Even without foreign threats, you have nearly destroyed your world, and your careless pollution has threatened mine! Hear me now, Jason, the sea belongs to King Namor The First, the favorite son, the protector of Atlantis, the-

"OH MY GOD, WHO THE HELL CARES?! Seriously, I don't give a mother f*(# about your pride, your kingdom, or even you for that matter! Yet I got nanites injected into my blood just to survive underwater, swam God knows how many miles across the sea, fought your war, and saved your ass from getting skewered by Attuma. That's right, "King" Namor, I saved you life, you owe me, YOU OWE ME! Hell, i've never so much as thrown a soda can in the Hudson, so you can't pin pollution solely on me! You know why you're a joke, Namor? It's because for all your posturing, you're nothing but a whiny brat that has to yell and scream for attention! You talk about your problems you have with the surface, how we're the bad guys, yet you've attacked us sometimes for almost no reason! You damn near flooded New York back in 1996 because of your beef with the Fantastic Four. You attacked and flooded Wakanda when you were hopped up on that Phoenix mess!"

"The X-Men and I did what your surface world governments could never do! We brought peace to the world; ended strife and hunger! Yet you accuse me, ME, of being vain, a tyrant?! Boy, i've been fighting against the forces of hatred and oppression since your great grandparents were in their diapers!"

"Punching a few Nazis in the face with Captain America way back when, does not equate to you being a saint! What else have you done to work with the surface, other than punching monsters in the face? Why not try diplomacy at the U.N.? A treaty to exchange resources? Ever heard of oil? That's why you'll never be truly respected Namor, that's why when it really counts, nobody will be tripping over themselves to save you! I practically had to beg Fury to let me come here and clean up your mess! You can't bully or threaten anyone to take you seriously, know why?! Cuz you suck! You look like a greasy, slick, eel faced, Lord of the Rings elf, who got upchucked half digested by an anaconda; and you're a dick! You- AGGGH!"

Yeah, I probably had way more on my mind to dish out at Namor, but all of that was brought to a screeching halt when elf boy literally morphed into a Great White Shark, barely a foot away from me. If I sound almost disinterested at this point, it's because I really have seen pretty much everything that's gonna push my boundaries at this point. Sure, I was about a foot away from being food for Jaws, but i've been face to face with so much $#!+ these last few days, you're gonna have to do much better than morphing to a shark to break my reality again. Still, it just goes to show how blood thirsty Namor really was. Sure, we weren't exactly playing kickball here, but he was legit ready to eat me! I guarantee I don't taste good, I got way too much salt inside; i'll give you high cholesterol out the wazoo.

In a panic, I shifted into Sea Form just before Namor's jaws came clamping down. On the bright side, I was alive. The down side? I was literally shark gargle. I spread my consciousness as far across the water as I could, spherically occupying a good five miles. I formed myself into a fist big enough to use fighter jets as bath toys, and slammed Namor across the side, sending him spinning like a trained SeaWorld Killer Whale. I followed that up by constructing 30 dolphin constructs (apparently they can put the beat down on sharks), charged them/me up with lightning, and rammed into Namor from all angles repeatedly for a good twenty seconds. After I got bored of that, I willed a part of my Sea Form to envelope Namor in a giant water sphere, turned on the voltage inside, and kept it going for as long as needed. Fun fact for those of you that don't know, most sharks (including Great Whites) have to keep swimming forward to keep the water flowing through their gills, or they'll drown. In the sphere I was keeping Namor in, the fool couldn't swim in circles, much less forward. He may have been holding up pretty well against a million volts, but I bet he still needed to breathe at some point. Namor quickly realized what was happening here, and reverted back to normal, though he quickly changed things up on me again. He did that whole animal spirit thing again, and even though I couldn't see the hologram, I felt a particular spike in the Sea Force, the specific animal he was calling out to. Namor was now channeling the power of an electric eel! Well, more electric eel power, I should say. From what I was sensing, Namor had a natural affinity for channeling eel power, and was doing it automatically (probably why he could get zapped underwater without his heart stopping). Now, he just went from a 5 to a 12. Anyway, Namor wasted no time absorbing, and redirecting the voltage back out in a violent explosive wave, freeing himself from my sphere. Didn't hurt me none, but if Namor was doing what I think he was doing, it was about to. Namor was making a mad dash downwards, which I first thought was him retreating, until I realized what he was going after. Barely a half mile below him, Namor's trident was casually adrift in the water, and if he got hold of it again, especially while I was in my Sea Form, he would wreck my $#!+ immediately. I was thinking that wasn't gonna happen.

I shot my consciousness straight down, and reformed my body just in time to grab the trident at the same time as Namor! There was that brief pause of tension, right before Namor threw the first punch at my face. I'll admit, it was kinda flattering to know that I was so good at just barely surviving fights, that Namor needed to rely on great whatever uncle Poseidon to bail him out of trouble. I leaned back, avoiding the punch by inches, and double kicked Namor in the chest Vibration style. The impact made elf boy buckle a bit, but he held onto the trident with an iron grip. He reached out with his left arm (still had his speed thing going), and managed to grab me by the neck. I phased through his hand before he could crush my throat, and threw a Vibration Punch at his face. Namor dodged it, and a sudden surge of Sea Force started emanating from the trident. Namor was trying to get me away from it via blast wave, and if it actually went off, it would've worked; my grip was too slack, and I had just threw a desperate punch, leaving me wide open. Still, I didn't want that blast wave to go off…..and it didn't. No, seriously, one second it looked like the trident was gonna go nuclear, but then, because I put the brakes on it, it didn't. Before you call B.S. though, the way I did it was by forcing the energy down through my willpower. Even further, when I did that, it felt like the biggest roller coaster drop in the pit of my stomach; I damn near got vertigo pulling that off. In all honesty though, it gave me one hell of a relief. Even if the stone was stuck in Namor's trident, it still chose me, and still answered mostly to me. I could sense Namor had a sizeable influence over it, but I still had him beat. In fact, now that I knew I could influence the stone from the back seat, I had an idea for how to take it back. Keep in mind, this wasn't me trying to steal the stone, I just needed the power boost to put this fool in sleep mode.

I let the trident go, still keeping up the energy suppression thing, propelled myself backwards in Thunder Form, and came back around with my wide slash from my Thunder Spear. Namor easily blocked it, while cutting back at my legs, and we did a bit of spear fighting. In case you're wondering, yes, Namor was easily the better spear fighter. I had to phase between his slashes and stabs constantly, and could never even make him so much as falter against my attacks. Still, that's not the point, this fight was just a smoke screen for my behind the scenes plan. See, these Atlantean tridents were really good conduits for energy. Whether this was magic or science, I don't care, because it seems like there was enough room in this world for both. Anyway, these things could absorb and streamline a lot of energy, but they had their limits. Specifically, if the energy runoff kept doubling back on itself, then exploded all at once, it would not only break the trident, but cause an explosive wave big enough to separate, maybe even knock Namor out. For the next four minutes, that was basically the story of my life (I hate that song). I mainly fell back on letting Namor lash at me, while I tried my best to block and dodge his attacks. Namor seemed frustrated that he couldn't waterbend all of a sudden, but his trident fighting more than made up for that. As we fought, I focused on moving the battle further and further up away for the city, not sure how big the overall blast was gonna end up being.. Oh, but get this. Around the two minute mark, Namor did that whole hybrid man beast thing with the power of an Ichthyocacerbeus; those giant dog things with bat wings, and tentacles coming out of their backs, that could also breathe green fire! His skin turned scaly and black, his eyes turned pupiless luminescent green, and the guy doubled to Brock Lesnar levels of beefcake, actually busting his armor in pieces from the torso up. He grew fangs, talons, goddamn dragon wings, and four octopus tentacles, big enough to crumple a Cadillac, out of his back. I'm certain demons in Hell, aren't this nightmare inducing!

Yeah, I bolted straight up. Forget trying to fight another mythological monstrosity, I was getting the hell outta dodge, until I could attack this from a better angle. I kept flying up and around for the remaining two minutes, maneuvering out of the way of Namor's fire streams and tentacle lashes. I did manage to give him a middle finger, by using the Power Grid to create quick slashes of lightning to slice of his wings and tentacles, before turning around and slamming him in the chest, shield bash style. At this point, Namor's trident was absolutely filled to the brim with the amount of Sea Force doubling back through it. Time to let this puppy blow! I backflipped off of Namor's chest, propelling myself as far back as I could (about 100 meters), before wrapping myself in a hard water safe construct, fueled with as much Sea Force as I could juice it with. Before Namor knew what was happening, I willed the built up power in his trident to go off like a car bomb, and OMFG what a spectacle! I am not $#!++*^$ you, the boomage was big enough to completely engulf the Empire State Building twice over, and completely obliterate at least half of Manhattan. The explosion completely decimated my construct, and sent me spiraling down towards the city. If we weren't fighting so high, the reverb waves might've ended up destroying the city. The extreme amount of Sea Force absolutely bombarding me, felt like getting dunked over and over again in a tub of ice cold water that was also electrified. Still, I should be thankful; without the constant shock to my system, I would've crash landed in what I presumed was supposed to be some sort of recreational park. That didn't happen, I recovered, and was zooming my way back up in no time.

I could sense the Stone of Poseidon adrift in the water, about 20 miles (yes really) above me. I cranked up the speed, and held my hand out, calling for the stone to fly back to me. It was a bit resistant at first, but I sensed the stone agreeing with me, complying with my wishes…...until it wasn't. About 15 miles and closing from the opposite direction, Namor was swimming towards the tone as fast as he could, his own hand reaching desperately to reclaim it! Ok, this was bull$#!+! I was the descendant, the stone chose me, why did elf boy get to have a claim to it (don't answer that)?! I poured on even more speed, trying desperately to keep up with Namor (how could he swim faster than I could fly?), keeping an iron grip on my...I guess telepathic hold over the stone. We were both closing in fast, him maybe a half a mile ahead of me, but neither of us could convince the stone to swing in our favor. I could feel the sense of confusion and unease around the stone. On one hand, it did indeed choose me, on the other hand, it spent a lot of time with Namor, and grew quite fond of him. Again, this is not some soap opera bull$#!+, this stone was some form of sentient, and was split on whether it liked me or Namor more! Personally, I couldn't blame it. Sure, Namor's an ass, but even I couldn't claim to be much better. Still, I needed it to swing in my favor. I couldn't afford to give Namor the power boost again. Jesus Christ, I feel like a politician.

"Come on, dude!" I thought to it. "Remember how we beat Attuma down?! How we saved the city from Llyra?! We make an awesome team, Poseidon kinda sorta said so! Come back to me, we can be a team again!"

I was pleading to a rock to take me back. God help me, I have truly fallen.

In any case, the stone wasn't exactly feeling me. Again, while it didn't exactly speak, its general feeling was something along the lines of "Dude, I get it, but this other guy wants me just as bad. We have history. I can't choose!". Yup, I was getting no special treatment here. Even worse, I couldn't just drop my hold over it, and focus more on upping my speed. Namor and I were pretty much equally matched in this tug of war, and if I let my hold over the stone go, it would fly to Namor, like a stupid girl (or boy) that goes back to their cheater boyfriend (or girlfriend, gotta be inclusive or the internet will have my ass). Still, I wasn't fast enough, Namor was closing in faster than I was. I was gonna lose!

All of a sudden (because why not), the stone started glowing like a lighthouse. The current around me started to increase, speeding me towards the stone, like I was in the Hulk roller coaster at Universal (Doris took me there when I was 11, it was fun). At first, I thought the stone had finally made up its mind, and chose me. That was until I realized, Namor was getting the exact same treatment, and we were both gonna crash into each other at like 200 mph! My first instinct was to start phasing, but before I could, a burst of energy, a lite version of an explosive wave, emanated from the stone, engulfing both me and Namor in a massive wave of Sea Force. I don't specifically remember going unconscious, but when I could see straight again, I got the feeling that I had missed a reel of something important, cuz all of a sudden I was somewhere else, and not physically.

Don't get me wrong, I was still in…..water I guess, but it had a completely different vibe to it than regular ocean water. It felt more pure, almost unnatural even, and it was the only thing here. I mean that in every sense of the word. My Sea Sense was a bit blurry, but in every conceivable direction, for as far as I could feel, there was not a single physical person, structure, or animal here; it was just pure water. I didn't panic. If i've learned anything this past few days, weird $#!+ ended up explaining itself sooner or later. Still, I found it very odd that when I tried to get a sense of my physical body…...it just wasn't there. I was very, very conscious, but I couldn't find or sense my body. At first, I allowed the possibility that I had accidentally slipped into my Sea Form, but when I tried to pull myself together, I couldn't! Ok, now I was starting to panic; either my powers were out of control, or I was some sorta dead. Ok, ok, ok, calm down, calm down, calm down, something has to happen, everything will work itself out! I kept telling, damn near chanting that in my head, looking around frantically for something, anything-oh look, something blue and shiny! It was little more than a wisp, or at least what I could see of it. It had a humanoid type of shape to it, maybe female, but it disappeared as soon as it formed. Still, it was something, and friendly or not, I wanted it back.

I focused on…..something. Can't exactly describe what it was in particular, but it felt like a mix of both concentrating and relaxing; like someone who was trying to meditate, but wasn't quite getting the hang of it. After about 20 seconds, a blue hologram of a shark (that'll do wonders for your heart rate) appeared, scaring the holy hell outta me. I sucked up the jump scare, and kept going; almost certain that the other side of whatever I was going through was at least something resembling good. As I…..meditated I guess is the right word, I started to notice a lot more details about my surroundings. First off, I was almost without a shadow of a doubt sure that I was in some sort of water spirit realm. What makes me think that? I dunno, maybe all of the water spirits coming out of the woodwork. Not counting the shark that almost gave me a heart attack, more and more spirits of varying animals, sea monsters, Atlanteans, and even human men and women, were starting to appear, as if they were always there, but beyond my vision. As hundreds turned into thousands, then millions, then way more, my head started filling with this buzzing. At first, I dismissed it as my telepathy acting up again, but this was different. The noise wasn't annoying. As it got louder and louder, I realized it was the voices of limitless spirits in this realm. It was like being a collective, a kind of hive mind that wasn't trying to absorb me. The thoughts, experiences, and emotions (which never drifted below base level happiness) of all these people, flooded my entire being, making me feel like I was having the best cup of hot caramel every single moment. Seriously, all at the same time, I was enjoying the life experiences of a dolphin that spent her life as a performer, a scuba diver named Steve Baker, who was also lighthouse guard, and one of the two Ichthyocacerberi that died defending fighting against Attuma's forces (the one from my dream). I was a bit confused as to why human souls were here, but it was still nice just to be amongst them. None of the soul were lamenting, or sad about their deaths. There was no regret, no fear, just one big group chat of a bunch of different souls having a good time. As the overall buzz continued, I started noticing music in the background. Beautiful orchestral, harmonic music, that was a symphony of both actual singing (probably from dead water nymphs), as well as beat better than any mix I could ever hope to find on YouTube. Whatever was making these sounds, no instrument or mixer back on the surface world could hold a candle to it. This was the type of music that grabbed you by the gut, and never let go until it was finished. Unfortunately for my gut, I didn't get the feeling that this music would stop anytime soon. I'll admit, I almost ended up losing myself in the merriment. This slice of peace on a stick was so good, I could've stayed here forever, forgetting pretty much everything I had every left behind. That was until I came across the memories of Janus.

His memories (beside being like one big action flick) sparked me back to my senses once I got to the part about him dying at the hands of Krang's hunting party. In a split second, I prioritized my mission and sense of self, before getting yanked somewhere else. My vision didn't exactly blur, but it was a pleasant little rush. Besides, when I arrived, it's not like I was anywhere relevant. Despite being in a spiritual community pool, it was still just a pool of I guess infinite water. The only things that were of relevance, were the two spirits floating in front of me. One was Janus himself, draped with a fancy cape over his bare chest, wearing a seashell necklace, casually holding a trident across his shoulder. The dude looked good, happy; I was glad to see that he was getting the VIP treatment in death. The other guy, much to my distaste, was king elf boy himself. Seeing him should've made some sorta furious, but being in this spirit water was like being on morphine all the time. I couldn't muster up the strength to frown at him (my body was starting to take form), much less try and kick him in the teeth. He looked at me with an almost dumb expression, like he couldn't so much as count to two, much less try and kick ME in the teeth. Then again, I was probably making the same expression, before I got snapped back to my senses. Speaking of which, Namor actually was starting to come back around, like he was slipping out of a hallucination.

"Welcome, my king," Janus addressed Namor, his voice sounding like it was being amplified with whatever commercials want people think is in Axe to make men chick magnets. "And a warm salutations to you, Jason Fuller; I welcome you both to the court of Poseidon!"

I wanted to ask "what court?", considering that we were in the middle of nothing but water…..then I looked around again.

Right behind Janus, was this palace, bigger than the entire island of Manhattan. It looked like the respective Greek, Roman, and Medieval architecture periods were smashed together until something presentable came out. To be fair, the castle, or multiple castles (and mansions), did look pretty dope. Starting off, it was little more than a giant blue hologram, but gradually started to come into form. The entire thing was made of white marble and gold, decorated out the same multicolored coral that was in the Atlantean gardens. Porticos, villas, elaborate bridges, statues of Poseidon holding his trident in various poses (what an attention whore), and hippodromes dotted the expanse of the palace in every direction. I could only imagine what it was like on the inside; i'd need a GPS just to find my way to a bathroom. And this castle was only the tip of the iceberg. The previously empty waters occupied with souls, were now dotted with elaborate Greco/Roman cities on floating platforms! Not just like a few cities, mind you, i'm talking about hundreds upon hundreds floating about in every direction. Directly below me was this city that consisted of ten rings, each getting bigger the further away from the center they were, that was easily bigger than most major worldwide cities. I noticed how the cities gradually became more real to me, taking on solid form; now that I mention it, I was starting to get the feeling back in my body, there seemed to be some form of shimmering sunlight several miles above me….

"Careful!" Janus warned me and Namor. "Already you start to tether to this world! Should the connection become too strong, you will lose your connection to the physical world."

"And you brought us here…..why?" I asked Janus. "I mean, that was you right?"

"Mind your tongue, boy!" Namor snapped at me (even in the afterlife he was a dick). "Janus is...was, a fine warrior of Atlantis, well deserving of his place here. You will show the proper respect!"

"I thank you for your kind words, my king," Janus responded. "But I do not bring happy tidings to you."

"What do you mean?"

"That the fight for the oceans are not yet done. That the key to victory only comes with the acceptance of what you know in your heart to be true about Jason."

"NO! It can't be true! I am the king of Atlantis, I served Poseidon faithfully, I-"

"Have never successfully bonded with his stone, despite your many attempts. You know the Atlantean Chronicles by heart, Namor. Only Poseidon's chosen can fully wield the stone's power."

"No, not a surface dweller; how can it be possible?!"

"Uh, guys?" I spoke up. "I'm floating right here. Anybody care about my two cents on the subject?"

"SHUT UP!" Namor roared at me.

"Namor!" Janus sternly responded. "Calm yourself! Can't you both see you are more alike than you know? You are both stubborn and proud, just as I was in life. You both contain a fire inside of you, one that burns to protect the ones you love and hold dear. Namor, I know you are hesitant to work with the surface dwellers; we have been wounded many times by their transgressions. Still, you have been among their greatest minds and heroes; you know there is nobility deep within them. In some cases, such Jason, the nobility is more prevalent than you are willing to admit. You both need to get out of your own way, and come together now. If the simple dissenting factor is mistrust, allow me to remedy that now."

He traced his finger across the water, each motion creating a line of blue energy, until a full sized trident (if I see one more trident, I swear to Zeus). This meant absolutely nothing to me, but Namor was basically beside himself with pissiness.

"Janus!" he almost squealed. "You can't be serious! The joining ritual….with him!"

"Joining?!" I responded. "That sounds an awful lot like marriage, and i'd feed myself to an Antarctic Levithan, before doing any kind of joining with this undersea-"

"Quiet, both of you!" Janus interrupted me. "To answer your question, Jason, yes this is a ritual often associated with Atlantean marriage, but it is the principal of the act that is significant. This ritual allows the participants to experience the lives of each other. No secrets or lies will omitted from the transfer. Whatever feelings you may still have about each other are still up for you to decide, but if the prime dissenting factor is lack of information, you will no longer be able to hide behind that veil."

Namor looked agitated by this, and I guarantee it was because of him being king. If there is anything that can be considered universal, it's the fact that long time political figures have more than their fair share of skeletons in the closest. There are things Namor's done that he'd rather me not know about. Tough squash.

"I'm in," I said. "At least then you might believe what i've been trying to get through your thick skull."

I could basically see the blood vessels popping in his forehead. He was struggling to keep his composure, his pride, together. That meant grabbing hold of the trident…..which he did! I held in the roaring desire to laugh in his face, and grabbed the trident as well. Yeah….I wasn't laughing anymore. First off, Janus forgot to mention the fact that this ritual pretty much made your entire life flash before your eyes in the span of maybe two seconds. More than that, it was like experiencing those events again for the first time. I remembered every second I ever spent with my parents to an almost painful level. From baking cookies and watching Spongebob with my mom, my dad teaching me how to ride a bike, every PTA meeting we ever went to…the moment my babysitter had to tell me they weren't coming home. I felt the pain and anger for their deaths cut through me like a cold knife. I experienced every wretched moment I spent in foster care, finally getting adopted by Doris, everything that came afterwards., all of it all over again. To be fair, it wasn't all bad. I got to feel every victory I nabbed against someone who was stupid enough to throw hands with me, Doris just being Doris, meeting Grant and Allyson…..last night with Allyson (God yes). I felt the thrill and the terror of fighting all those god powered super villains, my near death, the Shadow Gods, everything all over again. Even further, the ritual allowed me to feel everything from an outsider's perspective. It wasn't accusatory or anything, but i'd have to be pretty dense to not be able to see how much of a violent, selfish, sometimes apathetic, and angry dickbag I could really be. It made me feel all kinds of shame on top of the cascading waves of emotions rolling over me. Still, I had it easy compared to Namor.

First off, this guy was freaking ancient; born in like 1920! I experienced his entire childhood, him growing up with his mother, cousins, and learning about his powers. I experienced the fear he felt at the reality of so much pollution of the ocean (Atlantis wasn't always as deep as it was now), how it laid the groundwork for his mistrust of the surface. I experienced all of his battles with The Invaders, most of which was done to protect his kingdom from Nazis. This guy was no stranger to heartbreak though, as Atlantis has been attacked multiple times by the surface, other undersea kingdoms,and sometimes even earthquakes. Hell, this guy even had his memory wiped once, and spent the better part of 10 years not knowing who the hell he was. To add injury to insult, when he did get it back, his kingdom was in shambles, his people presumed ether scattered, or dead. You'd have to have no heart to not feel his grief like a freight train. Again, he wasn't all deserving of sympathy. He sided with villains against heroes and the surface multiple times (and also had a thing for Invisible Woman). He was part of some sorta superhero secret society that tried to end threats before they began (actually that doesn't sound half bad). He also looted and reverse engineered some Wakandan tech when he flooded it during his Phoenix Five days; that's how he managed to move the city deeper into the ocean. Dude, had a lot of failed relationships, was basically tricked by Llyra (his cousin) into conceiving an evil son named Llyron, and lost his kingdom more times than I could even count; one of which was because he destroyed it himself to kill his other terrorist son, Kamar. The guy wasn't without his good moments through. He fought and defended humanity with The Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men numerous times. He was against sending Hulk off the planet (cuz that was a thing); and of course, fought against Nethertrench breaches when they popped up. Almost 100 years of input and life experience crammed into maybe three seconds. I gotta say, Janus knew what he was talking about, cuz after all that, there was no way I could accuse Namor of just being unnecessarily angry all the time. If anything, I was the one in the wrong.

"Better?" Janus asked us.

Me and Namor kinda looked at each other with a dumbfounded expression. Empathy levels were obviously at an all time high, and for a good few seconds, we just didn't know what to do.

"So…." I started. "Are we good, we cool?"

"Your memories line up with your plea," he responded. "And you are, at your core, an honorable young man. Yes, we are, as you say, cool."

"Ditto. I mean about you being honorable. You've done a lot of stuff, but you're no bad guy; certainly not a joke. Sorry about the harsh words."

"As if your mere words could harm the Avenging Son of Atlantis! Nevertheless, you are forgiven."

We shook hands.

"So, Janus?" I asked him. "What was that about some other threat?"

Reality shifted around us, like we were passing through a kaleidoscope, and when things cleared up again, we were over the Nethertrench. I could tell we weren't physically here, we were kinda in limbo between the spirit and physical world. Still, being over this thing was just as terrifying. At first, I assumed it was just this, that Janus wanted us to go back and close the trench (somehow), but then the trench started to change. I couldn't make out the shape at first, just a bunch of darkness starting to rumble and rise into something. In less than a minute, the shape became definitive…...and I was still confused. Don't get me wrong, I could clearly tell what it was, a collage of Greek/Roman temples, villas, porticos, and mansions (God, I want one), about the size of Atlantis, made out of hardened shadows resembling solid obsidian/marble. I didn't get what was the big deal about it. Other than the fact that it was absolutely infested with trench monsters (that Minotaur/octopus thing had to die), I didn't see anything other than another potential attack force to put the brakes on. Namor on the other hand, looked like he was gonna pass out.

"Impossible," he said. "How can this be?"

"How can what be?" I asked him. "Look, i'm floating right here, fill me in!"

"Can't you see?! The trench is establishing a physical form!"

"Yeah, but it can already do that, i've seen it do that, so what's the big deal?"

"What you consider to be physical," Janus spoke up. "Is just the shadow taking on constructs, similar to what you do with your powers. It is true that this is not the first time such a large expanse of the Nethertrench has breached the physical world, but if Llyra has her way, it will take hold."

"Still lost here," I said.

"The castle you see rising," Namor said. "It is tangible the same way a building in your surface world cities are. When Nethertrench gains that much tangibility, it becomes an anchor, a gateway that will allow more of it to fester and spread across the sea. If left unchecked, the wave of evil could eventually take the surface as well."

"And Llyra is not content in dealing with eventual success," Janus said. "Observe."

I felt reality shift again (i'm starting to hate reality shifting), though this time, it just felt like my organs were trying themselves in knots, rather than the whole vision trip nonsense. When that settled down, my insides still felt like they were being liquefied. I don't know how, but I was sensing three points of concentrated….evil, I guess? Two points were at either side of the nation sized palace, the third being at the summit temple building. Directly below that, closer to the lower end of the castle, I sensed another pit of swirling evil, like someone had managed to keep a mini hurricane of emo locked in their Manhattan sized basement. If you can believe it, the base of this operation went even lower than that! I was sensing a long ethereal rod stretching down into raw Nethertrench energy. The rod was working as a transfer mechanism, taking energy, and dumping it into the mini hurricane; which was being used as the energy source to power whatever the three main points in the palace were supposed to do. Another interesting thing I noticed, was how these focal points, the mini hurricane and rod included, created a connect the dots sorta trident. I still had no idea what this was supposed to mean, but it was obviously nothing good (no $#!+).

"Ok," I spoke up. "I get that this is really bad, but what's happening here?"

"Llyra is using her magic to transfer Nethertrench energy through her anchor," Namor said. "I assume you can sense the trident rune she has manifested, which can be used as a symbol of magical power enhancement. She is the cause of this, no way could she manifest a rune that big without being bonded to the trench. The spell will take time, but once she has enough power, she will essentially activate a Nethertrench bomb that will permeate every inch of the ocean."

"How much time do we have?"

"At best….two hours."

"Any idea how to stop this thing from going off?"

"Not effectively, no. At best, we would have to make contact with the three spear tips of the trident rune. From there, we'd have to infect the dark energy with Sea Force, or any other sort of positive energy. When the spell goes off, the instability of mixing energies would blow that abomination of a palace out of the water, shattering Llyra's anchor.

Maybe the word effective meant something different to Atlanteans, but that sounded like a pretty solid plan to me. Yeah, it was easier said than done, but that was a good base level plan at the very least.

"That sounds pretty good to me," I said. "What's the problem?"

"The sheer amount of solidified Nethertrench being blown apart would still cause lasting damage," Namor responded. "It could lead to more frequent breaches, as well as ethereal pollution that could affect sea life on a wide scale."

"Okay…..but what if we pushed the fallout downwards?"

Namor turned to me, his face displaying hesitant optimism.

"Explain," he said.

"Assuming you're willing to let me borrow the stone for a little while longer," I started. "Once we get a time frame for when the explosion goes off, we can clear out of the immediate blast zone, and I can wrap a Sea Force charged barrier around it, and with a little help from my friends, we can force it it down into the trench."

"That's…..possible. But that will take an enormous amount of strength and willpower on your part. Even then, there aren't that many adept Sea Force users in Atlantis. We may not have enough positive energy to disrupt the spell."

"Well, as far as strength and willpower, trust me, I can do it. As for the other thing, now i'm almost certain you were knocked out for most of the last part of the battle. Long story short, Grant can use Geo-Force, which is positive, and Allyson's sun powers are also positive. Trust me, they've got enough fire power to make me look like a lightweight most of the time; we're all good on the positive energy aspect."

"Are you suggesting attacking the focal points one at a time?"

"Waste of effort. Three at once, teams of two. Namorita and Allyson seem like a good team, we'll send them to the left. I guess Grant and Oroco could be a good pair; they can take the right. You and me, we'll go to the top."

"Why the top?"

"Cuz that's where Llyra will be. Bad guys love being on top."

"You're forgetting something. Llyra will undoubtedly have legions of demons guarding her fortress. Are you suggesting the six of us can manage to wade past her forces."

"Of course not. But we can rally the remaining abled bodied soldiers you have left, as many sea creatures as we can get, and I don't suppose you can summon more sea monsters?"

Again, Namor perked up a little bit. Figures the way we made peace with each other was by preparing for war against someone else.

"I can access the Kraken Dimension-"

"The what?!"

"The Kraken Dimension. The realm of sea monsters. Ever present, but on a different vibrational frequency to this world. Occasionally some get out, but we round them back up if they become problematic for surface dwellers."

"Umm…..nah, I don't wanna know. But yeah, do that, bring out a lotta big guns, we'll use that as a distraction force for Llyra's first defense wave. Don't mean to make them sound expendable, but the sooner we give Llyra the business, the less lives will be lost."

Namor's face looked grim again, and I couldn't blame him. I was basically asking him to throw his people into the meat grinder, not even an hour after just barely managing to hold their own against Attuma.

"Don't worry," I tried to reassure him. "I'll keep up the water defenses in the background to help them. I won't abandon you and your people. Neither will my friends."

Namor seemed a bit taken aback by this (would've sworn he'd cry if he were the type), but clapped me on the shoulder. If not complete trust, I at least had his cooperation.

"We'll have to work out the details with the remaining soldiers," he said. "I'll also need the help of the elders, but we at least have a fighting chance. If only our numbers weren't so taxed-"

"Actually, King Namor," Janus spoke up (I half forgot he was here). "Numbers and power are the least of your worries."

Reality shifted again (cuz that wasn't getting old), and we were in the heart of Atlantis. Didn't seem like anything noteworthy; just a bunch of celebrating Atlanteans…..and now I get it. Namor and I were floating over a pretty large vantage point, so I couldn't exactly swear this was 100% true, but it seemed like we were above some sort of massive crypt. There were literally millions of graves, most of them old (they had elaborate golden tombstones), but a good handful very fresh and makeshift. Those graves, all of them, were exhumed forcibly; like they were blown apart from the inside out. I took me a few secs to get it, but I realized those Atlanteans swimming about and praising Poseidon, they were all resurrected from the dead! More than that, it seemed like they, and every other Atlantean had gotten a massive upgrade. I could feel the connection that every Atlantean in the nation had with the Sea Force, which was previously latent, had become active. As I watched the resurrected Atlanteans rejoicing, I noticed how their tattoos were glowing bright with Sea Force, the water around them swirling and changing rapidly. I think Namor and I had just given them superpowers.

"You see?" Janus said. "Continued exposure to Sea Force, not to mention being in Poseidon's good graces, has yielded tremendous results. Yet, as stated in the Chronicles, this was only possible-"

"When a son of the sea, and the chosen of Poseidon join hands in unity around the stone!" Namor finished.

"True. The Chronicles did not mention that you would join hands out of strife first, but perhaps that detail was lost in translation."

"Perhaps. And what of you, Janus? Will you not rejoin the living?"

"Alas, I cannot. The Sea Force cannot reconstruct a body from nothing. Even then, I am happy here, Namor. I have found my peace, you must go and find yours."

Namor looked more than a little disappointed, but managed to suck up his feels, and give Janus one last hug.

"Be well, my friend," he said. "Know that your death was not in vain, nor did it go unpunished."

Janus nodded, and I felt (you guessed it) reality shifting again. This time, though, the shifting was less obnoxious, as I felt my soul retethering to my body.

"You ready to kick some Nethertrench ass? I asked Namor.

"Hell yes." Namor responded, before my hearing and vision blacked out.

I woke up to Grant and Allyson trying to shake me awake (cuz that was gonna work), and almost passed out again, due to Allyson squeezing my lungs out with a massive bear hug.

"Are you ok?!" she almost shouted. "Please do me a solid, and be ok!"

"I'm fine, Sunbird," I said. "I….."

I felt strange. Stronger, more aware, powerful. It took me a while until I figured it out, but I looked down to find that the Stone of Poseidon was in my chest again! God, didn't know how much I missed it! I didn't celebrate though, cuz barely ten feet across from me, Namor was also conscious, and he didn't look too happy that the stone chose me again. Granted, the stone didn't leave him empty handed. His armor was completely repaired, as well as his trident. His tattoos were glowing brighter than ever, and the water around him was almost humming with power. Still, it probably wasn't the best thing to see his stone go back to the other guy. I gave him a "sorry, is this ok?" kinda look, and was all kinds of relieved when he gave me a nod.

"We have to make preparations," he thought to me. "Can you stand?"

"I'm good," I thought back. "Let's get to work!"

We both got up, and Namor started issuing a telepathic state address to his people.

"Good news, guys," I said to Grant and Allyson. "Namor and I finally came to an understanding! Also, look! Atlanteans raised from the dead, with powers! Pretty dope, right?!"

"What's the bad news?" Allyson asked me.

Killjoy.

"Why do you think there's bad news?" I responded.

"Dude," Grant said. "There's always bad news. It's part of the package deal."

"Ok, you got me," I said. "Way out in the distance, Llyra is building a Nethertrench anchor that'll blow really soon, flooding the sea, and eventually the world, with evil energy. Namor and I made a plan to stop it, and guess who's gonna be front and center of our battle plans?"

Grant sucked his teeth, while Allyson rolled her eyes.

"I know, I know," I said.

"No, it's fine, Storm-Lord," Grant said. "We're heroes, it's what we do. Besides, it's not like we got anything better to do."

"True," Allyson said. "But i'm gonna spend all day in the sun tomorrow. So, what's the plan, bolt boy?"