123. Fear the Black Tempest part 4
The old iron door to a dank cell opened.
Fryte dangled...chained to the wall. He gasped at the sliver of lantern light crossing his figure. His eyes were round and twitching under a dangling mat of damp, black hair. His lips quivered and he hyperventilated: "N-No.....No....please.....I can't.....I won't...."
Darkly robed Atlanteans shuffled inside, numbering four. They gripped Fryte's limbs and disentangled him from the rusty shackles. They dragged his weakly struggling figure out into the main corridor of the dark cave.
"Please....don't make me do it...," he sobbed. "I can't stand to see their faces....I can't stand to see their faces!!"
The Atlanteans were silent. They trudged him past cell after cell of wrought iron doors. Through the barred windows, moans of anguish drifted outward. Water dripped from the craggy, uneven ceiling and formed puddles in the corners of the ground. Slugs and dirty crawfish scurried from the advancing feet. Soon, the robed figures dragged Fryte into the round room with the four slabs. The violet orb in the center shimmered brightly.
SLUMP!!!
They tossed Fryte onto the hard floor before the orb.
He sat up on trembling knees. His teeth chattered. He held up hands with raw wrists from the shackles and breathed: "Please.....P-Please, Slizzath....grant me death....at least it would ease other people's suffering....."
The orb fluctuated. The temperature in the room dropped suddenly. Wisps of breath visibly emanated from the hoods of the robed figures.
A sickening voice slithered through the air like worms on bone marrow. "You are a child of the Black Tempest......your purpose is to serve me......death will not reward you until my bidding is done......"
"I won't give in anymore....," Fryte bravely uttered. He gulped and breathed erratically. "I am not afraid of you, Slizzath...."
The voice let out a shrill laugh. Then whispered: "Foolish boy....how can you possibly fear when you are fear itself?"
FLASH!!!!
Purple tendrils shot out and absorbed themselves into Fryte's chest. His torso shot up and his head marched back in a howl of pain. Soon, his dark brown eyes were replaced with a violet flicker. His fists clenched. Slowly, he angled his head back to the invisible horizon. His jaw set tight. He gradually stood up on numb legs.
"Go, my child......," the orb spoke. "Quelch the wretches who are doing the prince's bidding. Infinitesimal as they are, they still stand in the way of my eventual release. Nothing......absolutely nothing must stand up against the tide of the Black Tempest......"
In zombie fashion, Fryte lethargically slurred: "Yes......My Lord......"
The robed figures watched on.
Fryte marched into the pool of water that lead out into the Sea. As he stepped into the liquid, a purple shield of light enveloped his figure. Protecting his lungs with black magic. Crabs, fish, and crawfish scurried out of his way. A few of the creatures were unfortunate enough to brush up against his purple limbs...and immediately they turned over, twitched, and died....
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Say what?!?!"
"I'm not kidding, Cyborg. It's annoying me to no end. After we came all this way to help out Aqualad's very own people, they turn out to be a bunch of prune-fingers with seas sponges up their—"
"Ahem...," Raven cleared her throat. She looked across the Main Room from where she stood. "What exactly did they say?"
Cyborg glanced at her, then back at the computer station where he was sitting.
Robin's face displayed on the huge screen...staticky from the distance and oceanic interference.
"He didn't say much of anything! Praetor Ivan just simply said that the Idyllists couldn't be of help to our cause, and he marched out of the meeting room. Kinda rude, if you ask me."
"Kinda?" Cyborg smirked. "Robin...nobody can expect ocean-dwellers to be so happy to assist people like us."
"Tell me something I don't know."
"Aqualad is hiding something," Raven said.
".......???" Robin's eyemask raised.
Cyborg brought a hand over his face and sighed.
"You don't say......"
"I had a talk with him, and it confirmed my feelings," Raven droned. "There is something he is hesitant to tell us. Something he feels guilty for. And furthermore, it's something that deals heavily—if not directly—with the dual missions at hand."
"You said he feels guilty??" Robin asked.
"I'm sure he feels a lot of things, Raven," Cyborg spoke. He suddenly smiled evilly. "Was his emotions ALL you felt the last time you checked up on him?"
ZAP!!!
"Daah!!" THWAP!
"......," Raven held out a magically charged hand. "Right. As I was going to say....yes, Aqualad seems to be dealing with a sense of guilt or shame. He wasn't very happy the last time I checked. I feel that there's a major reason for his Expulsion that points at more than just Senator Chasma's apparent villainy."
"Because I swear......," Robin spoke, "Praetor Ivan looked very depressed and......I dunno......just plain 'down' when he walked out on us. I'm no empath, but I would say he seemed regretful too. I wonder if there's any connection with the eyes?"
"The Eyes?" Cyborg asked, struggling back up into the chair.
"They're the same type as Aqualad's. White irises on black cornea. No other Idyllists or Atlanteans that Starfire and I have seen so far possess the same type of eyes. It could be some sort of relation......"
"Yo, I thought Aqualad didn't have any family," Cyborg said. "I thought he was a loner."
"He's the ambassador of a whole group of people," Raven shrugged. "Surely there is more for us to expect or not to expect."
"Well, I'm not giving up. Not yet," Robin said. "I think we're in agreement when I say that Ivan is hiding something. I intend to persuade him towards his people's own good."
"And what about Aqualad?" Cyborg asked.
"How's he fairing?"
"Ever gradually better," Raven said. "But where the flesh is willing this time, the spirit is weak."
"See what you can do about that. In the meantime, check in every now and then on Team Archimedes. All eyes are on them......or at least, they shouldn't be......Robin out."
-blip-
The screen fizzed out.
Cyborg sighed and swiveled around to face Raven. "Now you've done it. By now, even ROBIN is asking you to be 'counselor'."
Raven adjusted her robe and headed for the elevators. "Come on...we're going to have another meeting with Aqualad. This time together. Come."
Cyborg nodded and followed her along.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Have you come to a decision?" Starfire inquired.
Across the guest room, Robin holstered his communicator and sighed. With a ruffle of his cape he turned about and gestured: "I have. We're going to bring this to Praetor Ivan."
"Again?" Starfire remarked. She clasped her hands together and leaned her head to the side. "But Robin, he seemed quite closed off from our proposals earlier. What makes you think he has the impulse to change now?"
"Then I'll give him an impulse," Robin grumbled as he sauntered across the room. A huge, curved window faced out towards the body of water that was the Hidden Valley. As typical, various submersibles and ocean-dwellers could be seen skirting about outside. "There is a real danger here for the entire culture of his people. Whether it be his nation or the Idolaters."
"Idyllists."
"Whatever," Robin wandered over to a sofa of sorts where his utility belt was draped over. He picked it up and attached it around his thin waist. "I eavesdropped on some of the guards in the corridors with my microphone half an hour ago. According to them, Praetor Ivan has hidden himself in his quarters and won't come out. Well, I'm not about to wait around while every justice-loving Atlantean on the frickin' planet sulks in some dark room, having a pity-party. If I don't contact Ivan and set things straight right this second, this mission is bust."
"I understand, Robin," Starfire nodded. "But...should you be successful in finding him—"
"And I will," Robin interjected.
".........," the Tamaranian continued: "I implore you not to use force of a malignant nature. In review of the political friction between the surface world and the ocean world of your planet, it would not be wise to incite panic or distrust."
"Hey...," Robin shrugged with a smile. "What's the worst I could do, Star?"
The Tamaranian girl bit her lip.
"........," Robin blinked behind his mask. He sighed. "Forget it. I"ll be careful."
There was a squishy....bouncing sound from the other side of the room.
"............." Both Titans glanced over.
Nova'm hopped on a plushy, vanilla-colored bed. "Hehehe!! Check it out!! I just KNEW that these people would have a waterbed! I just KNEW it!"
"................"
Nova'm came to a stop, sitting down. He blinked while his legs dangled. "What?"
Robin pointed with an exasperated look. "If you can, leash him."
Starfire blushed. "I-I'll see what I can do...," she smiled.
Nova'm pouted.
Robin turned, walked to the doors, opened them to the hallway outside, and---
ZZZZTT!!!!!
The Boy Wonder tilted his head back as two sparkling tridents were held up to his Adam's apple.
The guards outside frowned at the caped crusader. "Where do you think you're going, surface-dweller???"
"...............," Robin swallowed. "Um.....once around the park?"
"You must not leave your room," the guard firmly said. Glaring. "Not until Praetor Ivan bids you permission to exit our underwater domain."
Robin's jaw clenched. "And what if I want to have a word with your Praetor?"
"What of it??" the guard smirked.
SLAM!!!
The doors closed.
Silence.
Nova'm winced. "I guess the park's off limits...."
Robin spun around, his fists tight. He stormed past the water bed. "Did you have a love affair with Beast Boy while we weren't looking or something?"
"Hey?? What's that supposed to mean---"
Nova'm's exclamation was cut short when Starfire's hand rested on his shoulder.
The girl's eyes followed Robin. She uttered: "What are you travailing upon now??"
"Plan B," the Boy Wonder muttered. He approached the door to the lavatory in the rear. He pressed a console's button. The door slid open, revealing a small chamber with an even smaller (but identical) curved mirror like the one lining the 'bedroom'. Robin eyed the framing of the glass carefully. Water bubbled outside. The depths of the Ocean were very real just a half-meter away from where the viewer's nose resided. Robin then traced a glove along the edges of the frame. Next he looked over the huge basin, the sink, the floor, and finally the frame to the door he entered through. "Yup....all water type. These people live by the sea...and build by the sea."
Starfire and Nova'm wandered over and stood in the doorway.
"Um....any special reason besides the obvious reasons why everything here in this underwater city should be water type?" Nova'm asked.
"Mmmhmmm...," Robin nodded as he started drawing various instruments out of his utility belt: a strange mask, laser applicators, and red-colored cord. "Gotta make sure it can withstand a surge of liquid pressure."
"Why, whatever for, Robin?" Starfire asked.
"I'm gonna go for a little swim."
Starfire gasped. "But Robin, that is extremely dangerous!! Dangerous in so many degrees that one surely cannot begin to list them!! How do you plan to withstand the cold temperature and oxygen deprivation?!"
"I have tools and tricks of the trade, Star," Robin said. He started setting things up for his latest stunt. "And I plan to use them when I have to. And for the sake of Atlantis and all that Aqualad's people hold true and dear....I really have to."
"Then allow me to make the trip instead!" Starfire insisted. "Surely I can survived the peril of seeking an aquatic route to Praetor Ivan!"
"Yeah, man," Nova'm nodded. "You're only human."
The Boy Wonder merely smirked at that. "Thanks for reminding me....."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Far away in Atlantis, a crew of two was quickly setting up their cargo ship in a docking bay for exit from the domed, underwater city. The two Atlanteans—alone in the facility—were walking along the hull of the ship besides the metal platform attached to the rest of the hangar.
"I still can't believe we've got to shove off at a time like this. I wish I could stick around here. See what all the hubbub is about."
"Me too," the other seaman nodded. "But I promised my wife I'd be back in the Western Trench in two days. It's the anniversary of our youngest daughter's birth...and you know how that is."
"Heheh....not even Neptune could prevent you from meeting that appointment," the first patted the other's back. "Let's get a move on, then. We're the last people to pull out of here and the shipping magistrate wants to close this place down for inspection prior to the Senate debates."
"Gotta love our lord Orin's security," the other said.
The two were unaware of a lonely, dark figure until he was marching up their hull like he owned it.
The first man stood up from what he was doing. Blinking. "Ahoy there....can we help you?"
The figure kept on walking.
"Um....sir? We're about to shove off. If you wanted us to make any deliveries, you should have given us a fortnight's notice."
The stranger approached. His dark head of hair hanging. His limbs loose at his side.
The second crewman walked over. "Who is this guy??"
"I dunno," the first frowned suspiciously. "But I don't like the feeling I'm getting..." He marched over to the stranger and gripped his shoulder. "Hey! Kid! Can't you hear us?!"
".......," slowly, Fryte raised his head. Dark brown eyes glared.....then flickered a darkly-magical violet. FLASH!!!!!!
"!!!!!" the crewman stepped back. His eyes went as wide as saucers and he stared at his hand as if something was wrong with it. "I.....I-I'm on fire!!! Oh Poseidon help me!! I'm melting!!! Aaaaah!!! Put it out!!! PUT IT OUT!!!!" He stumbled madly backwards, flinging his arms and screaming in agony.
"Juvall!!!" the other crewman rushed towards him. He spun around with fists clenched and charged the dark stranger. "What have you done to him?!?!"
Fryte glared at him. His eyes flickered violet.
FLASH!!!!
The partner stumbled. He gasped. He felt his chest. "I....I think.....I think I swallowed something...." He started hyperventilating. His eyes twitched and sweat ran down, streaming over his hidden gills. "Oh dear god....Havael...did she poison me?!?! Havael, I'm so sorry.....please....I don't want to die!!! Oh Neptune, I don't want to die!!!" He fell to his knees and clenched his stomach, bending over in a fetal position and sobbing. "Aaaaaugh!!! I can already feel them bursting out of my chest!!! The worms!!! The worms!!!! Oh Neptune!!! Aaaaaugh!!!"
Fryte didn't so much as glance at him. He walked into the open hatch under the noises of the two howls of terror. The young man ducked down inside it with as similar a slow pace as he had ascended the hull and closed the doorway behind him.
Once inside the submersible, Fryte's zombielike figure marched into the cockpit. He sat down, swiftly adjusted a few controls, and set course for the Hidden Valley.
"For the Black Tempest....," he stoically hissed. His eyes flickered a gasp of violet as he sunk the craft and left the terrorized bodies of the Atlanteans to dangle in the salt water by the docks.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Okay....why do I suddenly feel like a goldfish?" uttered the exhausted marmoset into my ear.
I let out a sigh and wearily looked straight ahead of me under the hood of my cloak. The huge dome that was Atlantis stretched tall and majestic above me. Tiers of walkways and bridges wrapped around towering spires of coral-like colors. Below that, Atlanteans gathered on balconies on buildingsides and engaged in a merry fanfare that marked the beginning of the Junction's celebration of....er.....Renaissance or something.
For all I knew......Atlanteans were this 'happy' everyday......
In the shadowed street that I strolled in, ocean-dwellers walked past and alongside me at different rates of hastiness, and scattered amongst them was the occasional Renzukkan or two.
I looked all about the street.
"............"
I looked at the sheet of paper in my grasp.
"............"
I made a face.
"Are you behind or what, dude?" Beast Boy uttered into my ear with small primate breath. "We've been lost for two hours. I don't think we're ANYWHERE on that map where the red line is drawn."
I groaned. I adjusted my cloak and made sure that the hood staid over my head. I didn't want to suddenly bump into someone, have the cloth fall, and reveal to everyone my 'Aqualad face'.
Not yet at least......
"I don't get it....," the green changeling—now a gerbil—uttered as he read the sheet over my shoulder. "It's like the directions to the embassy are asking us to tunnel under the streets or something!! How can Tram—or anyone—expect us to do that anyways?! There's gotta be some secret that we're missing here!!"
SPLOOSH!!!!
Beast Boy and I jumped. I looked over with blinking, specked eyes.
An Atlantean had just hopped out of....a pool in the ground. He casually walked—dripping—across the street and dove straight into a pool on the other side.
SPLASH!!!!
".................," we both blinked.
"Um......," Beast Boy droned. He craned his furry neck. His beady eyes squinted towards the pool that the Atlantean came through. He switched into hawk and focused his sharp, avian eyes. His beak moved: "No way.....it's.....a channel."
I raised an eyebrow at him.
The bird of prey under the hood looked at me. "And it follows the map to a dime!"
SPLOOSH!!!!
An Atlantean mother and child jumped out of the pool. They smiled pleasantly, held hands, and trotted off down the street.
"..............," we both sighed.
"Well....hopefully it's not a long channel. Heheheh....," Beast Boy turned into a snapping turtle.
I gave him a jealous glare. I walked towards the edge of the pool, looked around, made sure nobody noticed me, and took a gigantic, mammalian breath. The green turtle's jaws held the rim of my hood down as I filled my lungs and dove in.
-T-T-T-T-T-
SPLASH!!!!!
The world turned into an ambient tunnel. I strained to keep my specked eyes open. A blurry haze of light flickered before me. But at least the light seemed reachable. I deemed the passageway not too long that I couldn't handle it. So I kicked my legs and pushed myself forward in a frog-like stroke towards the opposite side. A few tiny bubbles filtered through Beast Boy's reptilian nostrils and shimmied past my vision. I concentrated on preserving my breath as I pressed forward. We passed an Atlantean swimming in the other direction. As casual as ever, he smiled and saluted us. I smiled plastically under my hood and waved back...fighting the urge to burst. Once we passed each other, I kicked harder with my feet and shot for the wavering light....
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
SPLOOOSH!!!!
I emerged into dry air.
I was about to gasp deeply, when Aqualad's teachings shot into my brain.
I winced, struggled, but managed to meditate.
I breathed in slowly....filling the gap in my lungs.
Blood rushed to my head.
My vision blacked out.
Nevertheless, I stepped out of the pool as casually as I could....my entire outfit dripping.
Beast Boy shook the drops off him in Chihuahua form on my shoulder before morphing into an iguana. "You allright, dude?"
I nodded weakly...the strength slowly returning after the great exertion.
"Good," he simpered with scaley lips. "Cuz we got at least eight more to go."
".......," I glanced at the soggy map. I looked at where the Embassy was painted at. I glanced at our approximate location.
And he was right......
"Start breast stroking!"
I moaned...but tried not to show it. I walked casually past another Atlantean, approached a pool, and repeated the same process as before....hoping the tunnel wasn't too lengthy.
SPLOOOSH!!!
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Inside the embassy...on the third floor....
Princess Tula sat on a plush hair. She was reading over a recently-processed scroll bearing transcripts from recent Senate meetings.
There was a knock at the door to her lush chamber.
"Come....," she uttered.
The doors opened via guards outside.
A familiar, dark-clad elder marched in.
"You asked to see me, your highness?" Senator Chasma smiled.
Tula stood up. Frowning, she tossed the scroll to the ground and shuffled over to him. "You're quite the stuntman, Chasma."
"I do beg your pardon??"
"Attempting to put me on the spot earlier today in the Senate," she practically hissed up at him. "You know very well that I'm going to fight your appointing of a new Idyllist ambassador at all costs. Prince Garth cannot be replaced....because Prince Garth is not really dead."
"Well, you certainly made quick about garnering the Atlantean people on your side, your highness," the man slyly said. "Or is it rather ironic that you speak with such passion when we're in private and yet do little about barking off to the people whose votes will count?"
She clenched her fists and tried to remain calm. "If there's anything you've proven yourself to be, Chasma, it's that you're a man of most ruthless talents. If I were to defame you in front of everyone now for your crimes...I would be labeled as mad. You've made sure of that."
"Yes." He nodded firmly. "I have." A smile. A glare. Then: "For your sake, I suggest you be a good little tadpole and go with the flow. This revolution of Orin's is coming to a halt, your highness. And in its place there shall be a change of greater magnitude. Something that will grant Atlantis more power than it could ever dream of."
"Power???" Tula smirked. "Chasma, you are a fool to think that by serving Slizzath you are anything more than a mere puppet. You had your chance to listen to prince Garth's warnings about the wicked sorcerer...but you chose corruption as your path. Don't expect me to be merciful on you once the prince returns."
"If the prince returns...he'd be too smart to challenge the Black Tempest," Chasma grinned. "After all....he—more than anyone else—knows the true power of Slizzath."
Tula took a heated breath.
"Have I struck a bard cord?"
"You strike many mean things inside of me, Chasma....," Tula uttered angrily. "And one day, they will all strike you back."
"When will you realize it's hopeless?" Chasma paced around a fountain in the center of the lush chamber. "Garth is beyond finding. You have no major support in Atlantis except for the fleeting ambassadors of Poseidonis. And what's most important....my agents have begun to move into place. Soon, an operation will take place that will eliminate Garth just as he and his allies think he's going to make a comeback."
Tula's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean??"
"You should have faith in the right places," Chasma's eyes thinned as he reached a lustful hand and caressed the princess' chin. "I will be your future, Tula. In.....many ways."
"...................," Tula glared.
Chasma smiled. "Lemme guess....this is the part where you slap me, right princess?"
SMACK!!!!!
Tula's fist flew across Chasma's cheek. The man flew back five feet, collapsed through a coral piece of furniture, and tumbled among splinters across the floor.
The doors flew open and the two guards rushed in, concerned. They eyed the sprawled-out senator.
Tula cracked her knuckles and firmly spoke: "Guards....escort the Senator outside of the Embassy again. A man of his age and stature should know better than to nearly....trip to death."
Chasma glared. He rubbed his chin and stood up, eyeing her in a lingering fashion. "I'll show myself the way out...." He sauntered off. The guards followed him.
Tula smirked.
The doors closed behind them.
Tula's smile left her. She sighed and walked a few steps towards the window. She leaned against the chair that she was previously sitting in.
"............"
Her fists clinched. "By Poseidon...if I weren't wearing this damned dress, I'd shove my foot up his butt and out his gills..."
She stepped furiously forward, pushed the window-doors aside, and stood on the balcony. Leaning against the marble railing, she glanced out of the third floor towards the streets, canals, and fountains of the Atlantean courtyard below.
She moaned.
A beat.
There was a splashing sound.
The girl narrowed her eyes and looked across the street.
A strange figure had just jumped out of a pool and seemed to be....stumbling across the street. Low on air.
And it was a strange figure in a soaking wet cloak.
Tula's eyebrow raised.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Well, we're here...," Beast Boy murmured in my ear. A beat. "And we're dripping."
I clenched my teeth to keep from chattering. Atlantis suddenly felt very......cold.
I wonder if Atlanteans are cold-blooded?
I shrugged it off and took the time to look up...up....up....
The Embassy towered before us. A nine story thing that spoke volumes in its height alone. I wondered if such a politically charged structure had anything to risk in being.....so conspicuous.
I glanced down.
A wrought iron gate surrounded the Embassy. The front gate had two heavily-armed guards. Random citizens gathered in clusters in front of them. As if socially charged by the Junction about to take place.
"Something tells me that we have two options here...," Beast Boy said. "We reveal you as 'Aqualad' and try and walk through the front entrance freely. Or we do your cool-ass murk stuff and sneak in like all get out."
I nodded.
At the sound of a cry of distress, I sharply glanced to my left.
I saw two gangs of Atlanteans confronting each other for some reason. A woman had just been tossed to the floor. Angry ocean-dwellers on both sides started waving their fists.
The guards were growing anxious and citizens around us made double-glances of concern.
"Or....we could do both....," the furry creature on my shoulder sweatdropped.
I took a breath and marched over to the situation.
On one side of a dividing line of angry citizens, two people helped the woman up and barked: "How dare you push her around like that?!"
A bearded man on the other side merely folded his arms and frowned. "She was defiling the sacred name of Atlantis! She must learn proper respect!!"
"And how can she respect a nation where solving differences is shoving one another to the floor??" a man on the other side shouted back. "She was merely defending the Junction!"
"The Junction is an atrocity!" someone on the other side retorted. "Atlantis must remain true to its original ideals! King Orin is a radical nut to allow the Idyllists and the Posedonissians to join our Union!!"
"Don't defame the King!!" barked the other side as more and more people grew angry. "After all he's done to bring us peace and prosperity in the last civil war and the conflict with the surface world, you dare blaspheme his wisdom??"
"This Nation needs a new leader!" the bearded one on the other side exclaimed. "One not persuaded to follow worthless ideas of political renaissance!! Four thousand years have passed with nothing but prosperity in the way things have been! Why do we need to change?!?!"
"The way things have been?!?!" one on the other side snorted indignantly. "You want a life full of needless political friction with differing societies outside of our collective? The prosperity you so speak of has been an era of wars following war."
"Wars that we have WON!" cheered the opposite side. "We don't need sniveling neo-modernists telling us how the next millennium of future history must be written!"
A guard walked up. "All right, folks. The political debate will be at the SENATE building tomorrow. Not in a public square! Break it up!!"
"Did you not just see these conservative freaks?!?!" a young man exclaimed. "They just shoved this woman to the ground like she was some passing part of the scenery!!"
"And fighting is not going to make it any better, I assure you...," the guard frowned. "Now go back to your own business before—"
"You want to see a fight?? We can have one right now!" the bearded one faced the other side and shouted: "If you radicals aren't too cowardly to engage in true conflict!!!"
Angry shouts and bickering explosively ensued. The two lines of debaters surged towards each other. The hapless guard was caught in the middle.
The front of both lines met. And in a fit of fury, a fist from each side flew.
GRIP!!!
GRIP!!!
Both fists ended in mid-air, caught by a pair of blurring hands.
I stood in between the crowds.
"Huh???" one side's man uttered.
"Hey! Let go!" the other yanked his arm away. SWOOSH!!!
From the jolt, my hood fell down.
Both crowds sank back, gasping.
"Look!!"
"By Poseidon!!"
"It's.....It's....."
"It can't be....."
"He's alive!!"
I kept my eyes firm. My jaw set. I glared at the whole crowd as I slowly turned about in a circle. Portraying a righteously angry prince.
The looks in their eyes lost their fury, and instead I saw orbs of Atlantean shock and—yes—even fear.
The guard trembled and knelt before me. "Prince Garth....," he murmured. "We.....you...."
I stared down at him. My specked eyes blinking.
He looked up and uttered: "You are alive.....it is.....a miracle??" I saw his eyes fall down and meet my scar. He swallowed.
"It IS a miracle!!"
"The child of the Idyllists lives!"
"King Orin will be so pleased!!"
Then a strong, feminine voice uttered from the sidelines: "King Orin shall find out in due time."
Everyone turned and looked.
Myself included. I sensed a green lizard hidden in the neck of my shirt taking a peek.
Both of us seemed intrigued.
A dark-haired girl dressed in a regal gown of shimmering satin shuffled towards us, flanked by two guards who—at the sight of me—were starting to lose their stoical resoluteness. The girl held her hands to her side in a strong manner and looked at me.
"Though, if I had my way, King Orin would never have been told of Garth's supposed death to begin with. For Garth was never 'dead', no matter what Senator Chasma insisted. But Garth was in danger. A danger that he is out of now. And here he is...," the girl looked at me and smiled firmly. "For I have sent for him."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Dude....," the green reptile whispered from the neck of my shirt. "...do you remember Anne Hathaway giving you an invite??"
"But of course, your highness....," the guard in the street stood up and nodded. "And it is fortunate that he made it here in time. I could not control this crowd on my own."
The princess faced the group of people. "You are noble to have paid heed to the prince's presence. If only some of you were as resilient as him when it came to pursuing ocean wide peace, this near-violent situation would never have arisen. Let us not squabble over the past or the future, dear Atlanteans. Let us focus on the present. For if we do not make this very hour peaceful now...what can we hope for hours—or days—to come?"
Silence. A great deal of the crowd hung their head.
"Come, Garth...," the princess spun around and headed for the gates of the embassy. "Quickly. We must make like the thermal currents."
I nodded. I glanced at the crowd with my specked eyes, brought my hood back up, and followed after the young lady.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Outside the embassy...
To the side and near the rear...
Senator Chasma stood on a rise of concrete and marble.
From there, he had easily seen the entirety of the near-confrontation at hand.
More than that, he saw what was bound to be a rumored 'reappearance' on behalf of the missing Prince Garth.
And he smiled.
Turning briskly around, Chasma headed north through the under water dome...flanked by personal servants.
He spoke to one: "Send word ahead to the Protectors of the Orb. The first team of Titans are here. It's now time that we enact the second half of our plan...providing the right ones for the job are ready."
The servant nodded. "Acyd and Fraust will be in position within an hour, my lord."
"Excellent....," he smiled.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
After quickly ascending three sets of marble stairs and rushing down a hallway, we reached what must have been the girl's chambers. Everything was lush and ornate....truly spared no expense. Save for a smashed piece of furniture in the center of the room. Everything about the movement was rushed and panicky. As if invisible eyes were watching us, and the lady somehow knew it.
As soon as we were in the chambers and the doors behind us were closed, the girl spun around and uttered with glaring eyes: "Okay, punk. Who are you?"
I did a double-take. I put on my best royal smile and gestured at myself.
"Drop the act," she spat. "Tell me where Garth is."
I gulped...but I still tried to keep it up. I put on a look of confusion. Classic ignorance.
The girl folded her silken arms and smirked knowingly. "All right. I guess we'll have to do this the hard way.
Suddenly, she grabbed the front of my robe and--
THWUMP!!!!
The cloak came off. There I stood in Garth's jumpsuit.....with a green iguana clinging to my neck.
"...............," I blinked.
The iguana sweatdropped. It hopped off of me, landed on the floor, and morphed into a green elf.
"Boy, lady....," Beast Boy scratched his neck and simpered. "You sure don't miss a beat. Don't you?"
"So it IS you....," the girl remarked. She looked at Beast Boy strangely. "The green changeling that Garth spoke about. The Teen Titan."
"How'd you know that I was here??" Beast Boy uttered.
"Some of us Atlanteans are gifted," the girl said. She added: "....with the ability to communicate with animals."
Beast Boy blinked. "Oh yeah. That. Heheh....always thought it was a goofy power myself. No offense."
"An explanation would be nice right about now."
"Yeah....um.....," Beast Boy bit his lip and looked at me. He looked at the girl again. "And...um....funny that I should be here. You see, Garth—"he pointed at me "—or Aqualad as we like to call him is in real need of help. He was shot out of some Expulsor cannon thingy and had his throat damaged by shrapnel. So he can't talk. See the scar? Yeah...and...um....oh, his head's hurt too. So he can't do his mental telepathy thingy...."
I nodded and smiled bashfully.
".............," the girl stepped up and looked at me. A beat. She slowly shook her head. "You're not Garth....," she said quietly. "You've got his eyes...his hair...his body....but you're no more than a doppelganger are you?" She leaned her head to the side. "Strangely mysterious.....but not in the same way as him. I know Garth....and you're not him."
Beast Boy gulped. "S-Sure he is! I mean...look at him and try and pretend he's not the same Garth! I-I mean, how c-could you?? He's tall, dark, and badass."
The princess looked at Beast Boy. ".........." She looked at me. "..........." She suddenly and quite surprisingly grabbed my crotch.
GRIP!
I jolted and my eyes widened. "!!!!!!" I batted her hand away.
She chuckled as she stepped back. "Nope.....just as I thought." She winked. "You ain't him...."
I blushed furiously.
Beast Boy blinked. He looked at me...then her. He raised his hand, a little red: you check if I'm not the real Garth too?"
"Enough with the antics," she spoke. "I'd better introduce myself to you......foreigners. I'm Princess Tula of Poseidonis. I'm here as an ambassador to represent my people at the senate. Prince Garth and I are...."
"Friends?" Beast Boy smirked with a knowing raise of his eyebrows.
Tula smirked back. ".....political partners."
"Uh huh."
"We both met during our first trip here to Atlantis," she took a deep breath. "That was seven years ago. Since then, we've worked together on representing our separate peoples in scant political venues of Atlantean importance. Since King Orin came to power, we've had the chance to achieve that which our generation has been looking forward to over the last fifty years. Union with the rest of the Ocean. Because of our steady commitment to our dreams, the two of us became close. You see...I knew you weren't him from the get-go...," she faced me as she said, "...The two of us have a link. Something deeply rooted in the hearts and mind of Atlantean senses. That's how I knew he wasn't dead. He had departed from this realm on account of Senator Chasma. But if he had been killed, I would have known it. And I would have grieved accordingly."
She turned around and paced towards the windows with her back to us.
"But now is no time to grieve or worry," she spoke with a sudden energy. The sides of her lips curved upwards as she looked out onto the wavering ocean light of the Atlantean dome interior. "It was never a time to fret. I had always known that....and now your presence...." She spun around and smiled. "Your presence here confirms my hope. Garth has help....the Idyllists have help...and because of that, all of Atlantis has help."
Beast Boy smiled proudly. "That's what we're here for, heh...."
Tula looked from him to me. "You.....you don't speak much, do you?"
I shook my head. I pointed at my scar.
"He.....kinda sorta can't," Beast Boy simpered.
Tula's eyes narrowed. More out of confusion than disapproval. "And yet you stuck him in the act of playing out Prince Garth's role??"
"Aqualad was desperate at the time," Beast Boy said. "Heck, all of us Teen Titans were...and ARE. We're supposed to meet up with Team Nautilus."
"Team What?"
"Robin—our leader—and Starfire. They're taking some heirloom of Aqualad's to the Hidden Valley in hopes of coaxing them into coming here and defending the Junction until Aqualad himself is physically able to make his true debut. Until then...Noir's at the helm."
"Noir??"
"The guy who's crotch you just felt up. HIM!"
She looked at me. "Rather brave of you, Mr. Noir. But also rather headstrong. Thank goodness I'm here to set things straight."
I shifted where I sat and hesitantly nodded.
Her eyes fell to the floor. She sat in a chair with a sigh. "But for your other friends....I don't expect much success."
Beast Boy folded his arms. "Why not?"
"The Idyllists....those in charge at the Hidden Valley.....," Tula looked up. "They won't help us."
Beast Boy blinked. "They won't? How come?"
"Because they already sent help."
"And what's that?"
"Not 'what'.....'Who'," Tula corrected. She looked at me. "Garth."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Robin finished placing the last rotary laser against the glass of the lavatory via a suction cup. He backed up and examined his job. Five other rotary lasers were similarly placed across the glass in a spread-out fashion. In the center of the array, Robin attached a small explosive disc to the glass and set it for remote detonation.
"This should do it...," Robin said. He smirked at the other two. "And as for the rest of the task..." He pulled a mask over his head and hung it below his chin. "I'm gonna have to do some exercise. This thing will help me breathe underwater for a duration of twenty minutes....more than four times the length it'll likely take me to get to a cargo bay and then sneak through the building and into Ivan's chambers."
"And what're the red cords for?" Nova'm asked.
"Thermal wear. They respond to my body heat. The colder I get, the warmer they get. Very high-tech stuff...but basically, it'll prevent hypothermia at water this deep and remote."
"You will be....careful, Robin?" Starfire placed a hand on his shoulder.
He patted her fingers and nodded firmly. "I gotta do this, Star. Somebody's gotta talk some sense into the Praetor." He pointed at the door frame. "You just seal this place tight with your powers and everything will be peachy keen."
"What about me?" Nova'm asked.
"You wanna make yourself useful? Allright....distract the guards in case they get too suspicious or something. You seem to be good at....distractions."
"Hehehe...yup!" A beat. "W-Wait....were you flattering me or—"
"Time for me to get going," Robin said. He started taking deep, meditative breaths. He motioned out the door towards the bedroom. "Go on. I'll meet you soon. I promise."
Starfire slowly nodded. She took Nova'm by the shoulder. "Come, Nova'm...." The two quietly exited the lavatory and stood on the other side. They pressed a console on the wall and closed Robin in.
The boy took a few more deep breaths. Flexing his arms. Concentrating. He pulled out a remote. He pressed a yellow button on it.
With a whine, the lasers on all of the tiny rotary equipment glowed and came to life. Red streams of pin-thin energy started burrowing into the thick glass and piercing towards the other side.
Where the water was...
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
On the other side of the door, Starfire charged up her hands. She focused and—with Nova'm watching—fired a long stream of green starbolt energy at the frame of the door.
FLAAAAA-AAAAAAASH!!!!
The emerald heat started melting the material and welding it firmly shut and solid around the frame of the passageway.
Nova'm nervously glanced at the door to the bedroom where the guards were and then back at the Tamaranian Titan's task.
Starfire finished welding the last bit of surfacing and released her energy. She panted and held a hand to her heart. "I do hope that suffices."
"I'm sure it's okay, Kory."
She glanced down at him. "Y-Yes....but Robin?"
Nova'm was silent.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Back in the lavatory, Robin continued his steady....heavy breathing.
With the welding finished on the other side, all sounds from the rest of the building were cut off. The ambiance died out, and it suddenly felt hauntingly quiet and lonely in that Atlantean bathroom.
Robin took a deep breath. Through his eyemask he stared at the job of the tiny lasers.
The red energy seeped through the glass and towards the other side. Soon, six razor-sharp streams of water were shooting through. The glass started to crack in mighty spiderwebs. The window wouldn't last another ten minutes.
But Robin didn't need ten minutes.
"Okay......okay......," he whisperingly coached himself. He turned his body around...positioned his limbs to the wall, and wrapped the titanium alloy cape around his scrunched-up body protectively like a shell. He drew the breathing mask over his mouth. He gripped the trigger. His finger hovered over a red button.
The explosive on the wall blinked a steady crimson.
Robin eyed it.
He fingered the trigger.
The spiderweb cracks in the glass spread evenly throughout the window, no longer localizing the inward pressure in one spot.
Water started spraying in more and more.
Robin took a few sweet breaths from his breathing apparatus. Just as the water started spraying off his cape, he ducked his head safely behind it, hid in the dark, and jammed his gloved finger over the red button.
-click-
BOOOM!!!!
The glass chattered.
CRASH!!!!
The water rushed in.
PHOOOOOOM!!!
A wall of glass shards and salt water surged all over Robin's cape-laid body.
THWOOOOOSH!!!!
The liquid ferociously filled the lengths and breadths of the tiny compartment.
The water murderously surged back.
Robin anticipated it.
With a grunt, he undid his cape and kicked off the wall. He rode the outward surge and bolted through the water like a torpedo. It was numbingly cold. The red cords around his body glowed warmly and calibrated the temperature of his person.
It was a shuddering sensation at first, but Robin soon compensated. The Boy Wonder took a breath from his mask, smirked underneath it all, and swam a red and black streak forward...skimming the surface of the building.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Starfire and Nova'm bit their lips.
The jolt of the rushing water into the lavatory was louder and heavier than expected.
Naturally, the doors to the bedroom rushed in.
"What was that??" one of the two guards demanded.
Starfire instantly stood in front of the bathroom door, attempting to hide the welding job.
Nova'm swallowed and gestured: "What was what??"
"That shaking just now?"
"Oh....nothing important," the little redhead shrugged.
The guard's eyes narrowed. "Where is the human boy?"
"Huh?"
"The one with dark hair."
"Oh, you m-mean Robin?"
"Yes."
"He's in the bathroom," Nova'm pointed.
Starfire bit her lip.
The guard looked. "What's he doing in there?"
Nova'm made a dramatic face. "You don't want to know."
"He's planning something, isn't he?"
"Yeah, he's planning—no—hoping to live through the night."
".........," the guard stared.
Nova'm cupped a hand over his mouth and whispered: "Surface-dweller indigestion. Not a pleasant thing." He smirked. "I hope you have good janitors down this deep."
The guards raised their eyebrows...then seemed suddenly uncomfortable. They stepped back. "Well...we wish him......uhm.....better luck with his.....intestines."
"Yeah, we feel the same way. Don't we, Kory?"
"Erhm....oh yes....may Robin's entrails rejoice in glorious rapture after his present....um....battle with bowel iniquity."
The door closed.
The guards were gone.
Starfire sighed with relief.
"See?" Nova'm smiled. "Robin was flattering you!"
"Practically pulverizing....," Starfire hunched over and moaned.
Something swam unpleasantly close by from outside the window.
"Eeep!!" Starfire jumped and looked out with hands clasped together at a breast-stroking Robin. The masked Boy Wonder glanced in through the window and gave her a mute thumb's up. He continued swimming down the structure of the Idyllist building.
Nova'm stepped up, arms folded.
"I think they should have called him 'penguin' and stuck to it..."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Robin swam like a tiny frog at the bottom of a deep well. The ocean water appeared blacker and murkier when faced up against it. But the Boy Wonder's eyemask was water tight. His mysterious optics were rightly guarded and shaded just right so as to pierce through the confusion and give the caped crusader necessary bearings in navigating the haze and chaos of the ocean floor.
At one point, a pair of guards on submersible bikes streaked by.
Robin kicked his feet and dashed his body over so that he hid in a shadowed undercurve of the first 'floor' of the building. He breathed steadily through the mask, the plastic polymer fogging up with his exhalations. Bubbles rose above his wavy head of black hair. The red cords warmed his torso while his limbs clung nimbly to the buildingside.
The bikers passed.
Robin took a deep breath from his mask.
He kicked off the buildingside and skirted down and deep under the structure through the freezing water. He headed straight for a splotch of dancing light on the underside....a hint that there was a pool above that opened into a hangar bay.
Robin slowly swam his way up towards it...and broke the surface.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Robin was slow in his ascent. Water cascaded smoothly off his head as he treaded water and peered up into the dry air. His eyemask narrowed.
Footsteps.
He ducked with a tiny splash.
The ripples in the water's surface disappeared just as two Idyllist guards wandered the metal deck, talking hurried about something. They were gone just as quickly as they appeared.
Robin came up again. He slowly drifted towards the side—cautiously looked around—and then pulled his dripping body back up and onto the dock. He stripped his mask off and took a deep breath. He looked around again. He rushed—dripping—towards the side of the hangar and found a crate. He stuffed the mask and the cords inside. He then approached a door, and straightened his wet hair.
"Now for the real business....," the Boy Wonder smirked.
He slid the door open....and expertly crept through to the hallway beyond.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"And so Aqualad keeps yapping on about Senator Chasma and some conspiracy to stop the political Junction thingy of your people and all...and quite frankly, I think it's one really huge-ass mess," Beast Boy cackled as he paced the chambers before Princess Tula and I. He looked at the royal young lady and said: "But what matters to us is that this is very...very important to Aqualad. And the Titans and I owe the dude as much as he owes us. We're helping out to the best of our abilities. And about Robin and Starfire.....eheheh....I'm sure they'll pick up the pace. I mean...how hard can it be to convince the Idyllists about something really important?"
Tula took a deep breath. "Was Senator Chasma all that Garth talked about?"
I shook my head.
"What else did he mention?"
I glanced at Beast Boy.
"Oh yeah...," Beast Boy scratched his head. "Some 'Slizzath' the evil sorcerer stuff."
Tula stood up and paced slowly across the chambers. "So I wasn't alone in my suspicion. If Garth sensed the Black Tempest....then so did I...."
I leaned my head to the side.
"The Black Tempest???" Beast Boy blinked. "Erm.....wh-what's that?"
"Up till now...it was a rumor," Tula murmured. "The suspicion that somewhere....somehow....people are trying to resurrect Slizzath from his interdimensional imprisonment."
"And...I-I'm guessing that's a bad thing," Beast Boy remarked.
Tula gave him a glare. "It is the most horrific thing to happen to the world of the sea—and inevitably the world of the surface as well. Try to imagine...," she slowly stepped towards us and spoke with emphasis, "...the blackest of black evils. Like oil. Spreading through the water like some invisible monster's venom. It never mixes with the purity around us, but it's so invisible that it's impossible to notice. All it takes to make the ever-present evil malignant is a catalyst. A pulse of dark energy...combined at seven points. Slizzath was once locked away along with his mighty evil when King Thar eliminated him. But his magic remained. And it has spread its seed into seven distinct elements of darkness. Mist. Tempest. Fright. Plasma. Acid. Hate. And Frost. These are the abominations of the sea-world. And their manifestation—combined—is all that's needed to channel a force strong enough to rupture space and bring Slizzath back into our domain. Slizzath possessed the magical arts of old. And even King Orin in all of his strength cannot solely face against the obsidian wrath that such a sorcerer would harness."
"So...you get all of this from a hunch on Garth's part?" Beast Boy inquired.
"It is not a mere hunch....," Tula uttered. "It's far more complicated than that."
"Care to explain?"
A beat.
She looked at us and smirked. "There is something I wish to show you. We must make a trip." She turned around and walked off.
I scratched my head.
"What?!?!" Beast Boy cackled. "Now?!?! But...what about evil sorcerers and watery apocalypse and stuff??"
"I shall attempt to explain on the way...," Tula walked over to a fountain in a wall. She reached her hand underneath a shadowed crevice and hit a hidden switch. The water stopped trickling. With considerable force, the princess pushed at the fountain and it swiveled open like a door...revealing a concealed corridor with a ladder running down into darkness. "Come. It's a long journey...but I'm sure you men can handle it." She flippantly waved and shimmied down in unladylike fashion.
I shrugged and followed Beast Boy towards the passageway.
He bent over and stared down the dark descent. "Dude....," he whistled. "So I wonder if this is Victoria's Secret."
I kicked him in the rear.
"Waaa!!" He fell into the corridor.
I climbed down after him, sighing.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Two female figures stood in a dark alleyway.
The shadow of a tall building overhead cast a shroud over the two...hiding their figures.
They leaned on walls at opposite sides of the passage. Like dummies. Slowly breathing. Slowly.
A robed figure in black wandered suddenly into the alleyway. It came to a stop between the two and held out a crooked hand.
"Chasma orders you now. Enact Slizzath's plan immediately. In a matter of minutes...the targets will surely be traversing a half dozen meters below us. Remember...the princess must live. Kill the other two." With an eerie incantation, he hissed: "For the Black Tempest!"
Two sets of eyes appeared...glowing with slits of dark, flickering purple. The set of eyes on the right was laced with blue steam....like mist off of an iceberg.
The figure on the left glowed a bright violet. Green hair and a green jumpsuit momentarily could be seen before the girl stretched her hands down towards the floor. With concentration, a stream of oozing, green liquid trickled from her fingernails. As soon as it made contact with the cobblestone floor, a burning smell filled the air and the rock-hard ground started to be eaten away. Acid gradually bore a hole in the solidness, tunneling straight downwards.
The other figure watched. Sweating ice. Cold steam formed out of her panting mouth in a blue aura.
The black-clothed figure wandered away as silently as he arrived.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Back at Titan's Tower....
Aqualad stood limply in the center of a dark hallway. He leaned against a window looking out onto the Bay. The evening was gray with the approach of dull thunderclouds. Rain threatened to sweep the waters, forming a dismal mist.
"We're not trying to get on your back, dawg. We just want to help!"
Aqualad shuddered. With gritting teeth, he spun about and frowned at Raven and Cyborg.
"For the last time....I'm not concealing anything. I don't ask you about all the secrets of the surface-world. So don't try prying anything out of me!"
"Man, listen to yourself!" Cyborg pointed. "This ain't the normal you! At least...not the Aqualad that we know! You've always been trusting of us, and we've treated you the same way! Try and remember that, man! Remember that and ask yourself....are we really trying to drag something out of you that you wouldn't want from us?"
"I already talked this out with you, Raven," Aqualad said. "What more do you want from me?"
"It's not what we want that matters as much as what you want," the dark girl droned. "We're in on this mission with you, Aqualad. We know what Atlantis means to you. We know how important it is that—"
"You couldn't possibly know what's important to me!!" Aqualad frowned. "Why don't you just leave me alone?!?!"
"Yo, listen man," Cyborg frowned. "This is no reason to get all angsty and shit."
"You want to know a secret?! Fine...here it comes!" Aqualad barked. "I deserved to be shot here in that pod!! I deserved every bit of what that creep Chasma did to me!! I frankly can't stand it!! I am completely unfit to serve the Idyllists in the Junction!!"
"And why is that??"
"Because I am possessed!!!" Aqualad shouted, and his eyes suddenly flickered with a purple haze that startled the two Titans. "I'm possessed with a terrible, betraying evil that could only poison the ones I live my life to support!! This mission is bust from the start of my life—much less just yesterday!! How could you Titans POSSIBLY understand??"
Silence.
Cyborg and Raven were calm in their reaction.
"Listen, man....," Cyborg gently said. "It's cool."
"We can understand," Raven said.
Aqualad was flabbergasted. He narrowed his eyes in disbelief. "H-How....."
"What you see standing before you, Aqualad....," Raven held her arms out as if to embrace someone behind him. "....is a demon. A demon in waiting."
"...........," Aqualad blinked.
"My father....Trigon....," Raven gently spoke, "....he is an evil being from an alternate dimension. As much as I live my life for good and enforce justice for the sake of promoting peace....I cannot shake his evil essence from my soul. He is and shall always be a part of me. I must live with the fact that—some day—I could very much lose control."
Cyborg walked over to her side. "And that's why she has friends that she can trust. So that we'll be there to keep that from ever happening."
"Wouldn't it help you to trust us too, Aqualad?" Raven spoke.
The Atlantean took a deep breath. His dark eyes were rounder.....softer than before. He hugged himself and looked out into the grayness as the clouds drifted in closer and closer.
He hesitated....but only for a moment....
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
In the Hidden Valley capitol, Robin crept down a hallway in perfect stealth.
Every now and then he would find a shadowed crevice to hide in just as a guard crept past.
He eyed the passing Atlantean, took a deep breath, and wandered further down the hallway till he came to a turn. He slithered around the curved, ivory wall and took a careful look down the corridor.
A pair of double doors stood in the frame that led to Praetor Ivan's abode. Two guards stood at ready with tridents before it.
Robin reached into his utility belt and pulled out a small, silver pill. He flicked it down the corridor.
It landed in between the two guards and exploded in a puff of brilliant white steam.
"Aaaugh!!" one guard was engulfed in the smog.
The other jumped out of its cloud. "A raid!! Who is—"
SWOOOOSH-THWAP!!!!
Robin planted himself into the man's back from ten feet with his knee. He slammed the man into the ground, performed a hand-stand, and helicopter kicked the second Atlantean in the gut.
WHAP!!! THWAP!!!
"Ugh!!" the man bent over.
Robin somersaulted and vaulted himself upwards with an uppercut. "Yaaugh!!"
WHAM!!!
The guard flew back from the impact and landed on the floor cold.
Robin stood as the mist cleared. Two unconscious bodies lay beside him.
He cracked his knuckles.
He spun with a ruffle of his cape and faced the doors.
Slowly...he pushed one of them open and slipped inside.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
The room was dark. The only light that came in was pouring through the kaleidoscope of water hugging the contours of a huge, curving window of thick glass. A desk rested at the edge of the room. A figure sat in a chair. A pair of old hands gently cradled the golden starfish. The rest of Ivan's body could not be seen.
"Praetor....we need to talk," Robin firmly said—howbeit hushed—as he crept across the room and approached the desk. "Here're the facts, plain and simple. Aqualad was nearly killed by Senator Chasma and his followers. The Titans and I are nursing him back to health. In the meantime, we've split up into two teams sent to distract the Senate and get his Idyllist brethren into the position to stop what could be a highly dangerous conspiracy with many threats to the future of Atlantis. Now—as leader of your people—what are you going to do?"
Silence.
"Sir?!?" Robin frowned.
Sickeningly, Ivan's voice drifted from behind the chair and fell into the Boy Wonder's ears. "Those aren't all the facts....young Titan....."
Robin raised his eyebrow. "Praetor??"
Ivan slowly turned about in his chair. He had a look of sadness in his face. And his eyes....they were flickering violet.
Robin's lips parted.
"Prince Garth and I....we cannot do anything to help our people in the long run....," he spoke miserably. "For in the end...the worst enemies are not Chasma and his people. They are us......"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"I am a descendant of King Thar....," Aqualad quietly spoke.
Cyborg and Raven listened.
"Thar had many children. He and his wife raised quite a family. But he was gone most of the time in his many battles with the evil Slizzath."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"One day, King Thar was misinformed as to Slizzath's next plan of offensive," Princess Tula explained.
She led Beast Boy and I down a dark, dripping corridor that tunneled its way underneath the spread of Atlantis. Haphazardly-placed electric lights lined the corridor at the floor and ceiling.
"As it turns out, Slizzath was targeting Thar's very own palace. His wife and family weren't nearly as well guarded as they should have been for such a surprise attack."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Slizzath's dark minions outnumbered Thar's best guardians," Ivan explained.
He sat with his back to the Hidden Valley and turned the golden starfish over in his hand while Robin listened.
"Though the fight against the evil sorcerer was valiant, his evil could not be held back forever. His dark hand of ill-will reached in and tainted the occupants of the palace just as the queen and her and Thar's children were making their escape."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"They were cursed with Slizzath's essence," Aqualad sighed. His dark eyes narrowed. "The children had the warbling, violet pool of black magic in their heart. Though it was benign...it meant terrible destiny for the future."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Their descendants and their descendants' descendants would have to live with a great inevitability..."
"And what's that?" Beast Boy asked.
Tula replied over her shoulder. "That one day...at least one of them would be part of the key to resurrect Slizzath. Even if against their will."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Prince Garth and I are of that same, tainted bloodline," Ivan explained. His eyes sorrowfully focused on the Boy Wonder. "The only reason we were not killed off through our forefathers long ago is because the Idyllists adopted our strain into their society."
"Do they know about the essence of Slizzath in your blood?" Robin asked.
"Yes," Ivan nodded. "And their admiration for us is remarkable. They have pledged their lives to honor the purity we once were. As much as the Idyllists admire us and select us as our leaders...it still does not erase the darkness possessing our souls and threatening to burst."
"And that's why you think you're unfit to lead the Idyllists against this conspiracy??" Robin remarked. "You've had your entire life to deal with this! Why the sudden hesitancy now?"
"I've always hesitated," Ivan said. "It was Garth that was brave enough to fight against who and what he is to repay the Idyllists for their centuries of service to our royal kind. Even still...there's one great obstacle that stands even in Garth's way."
"And what's that?"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Atlantis....," Garth spoke. It pained him to do so. "The people of Atlantis don't know that the same authority leading the Idyllists into the Junction is directly linked to the sorcerer wanting to reclaim the land."
"Does King Orin even know?" Cyborg asaked.
Garth slowly shook his head. "No. The secret is mine. But.....n-not exactly mine alone...."
"Who else knows?" Raven asked.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Garth told me a long, long time ago about his and his family's 'curse'," Tula spoke. She smiled slightly. A weathered expression. "I think it's one reason I started to trust him so much. He told me the most painful thing about himself early. The thing that I would be most likely willing to detest him for. He didn't try to hide it from me, though he had to hide it from everyone else..."
I nodded, listening.
"What did you all plan to do about it?"
Tula glanced back at us. "I have a few secrets of my own. Which is partially what we're doing down here in these tunnels."
"Heh....good. Cuz I was wondering...."
"I pledged Garth to give him the support of Poseidonis," Tula said. She looked ahead firmly while she trudged us along. "At first, he was reluctant. He thought I was doing it for him. In a way, perhaps I am. How could I not? But more importantly, I'm doing it for his people."
"The Idyllists??"
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Ivan nodded. "They're all that matter to us now. Once this Junction is complete, Garth and I will step down from our rule and let their people lead democratically in the Atlantean Senate. And we will have made our peace." He lingered and looked out the grand window behind him.
"Or so you thought.....," Robin remarked.
Ivan sighed. "Senator Chasma......we've gravely underestimated him...."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"He is undoubtedly leading a cult," Aqualad explained. "Perhaps he's the leader of the Black Tempest itself."
"The Black Tempest?" Raven asked.
"Heh," Cyborg smirked and folded his arms. "Sounds like my mom's old protest group."
Aqualad gave him a wyrd look and said: "The Black Tempest seeks to unite the seven essences of Slizzath's evil magic. If Senator Chasma is responsible for triggering a resurrection of the evil sorcerer...then those seven essences must be alive and present today." A pause. Aqualad hesitantly added: "And I can vie for two of them...."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Say what?!?!" Beast Boy remarked. "You're saying that Aqualad—"
"—is one of the essences, yes," Tula nodded. "He cannot avoid it. The black magic of Slizzath has awakened inside of him. He was given it from birth. And now that Chasma is enacting the Black Tempest, Slizzath's power threatens to rupture its hold."
I blinked.
"But Aqualad is a good guy!!"
"Duh! Of course he is!" Tula barked. "But that still doesn't hold back a potential darkness residing inside of him."
"And just what is that?"
"Well....," Tula took a breath.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"I have been imbued with the power of Plasma," Ivan explained. His eyes flickered a bit. "I can control it now. The element bends to my power. But if all of the other essences of Chasma were to be combined in one place and at one time...I could not control myself. That is another reason why I'm hesitant to go to Atlantis...especially alongside Garth."
"Because he is an essence himself....," Robin remarked. "You two are as weak together as you are strong...."
"Exactly," the Praetor nodded.
"And what exactly is Aqualad?" Robin asked.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"I am Tempest itself...," Aqualad remarked. His fists were clenched...the only part of his body not weak and reeling still. "The demon essence of water. Chasma knows that my Tempest is part of what he needs to resurrect Slizzath along with Acid, Hate, Frost, Mist, Fright, and Plasma."
Cyborg rubbed the human side of his head. "Then if Chasma needed you there....why the heck did he shoot you in that pod thing way outside of Atlantis' boundaries?"
".........," Aqualad looked disturbed. He turned around and limped down the hallway. "I....I don't know. I just feel so helpless."
"Man....what you're telling us, we want to help you with it—"
"Just let me be..."
Cyborg stepped after him.
Raven held a hand out. "Let him be."
"But Rae, can't you see he—"
"—needs to be alone," the dark girl said. She looked up at Cyborg with lonely eyes that only Raven could afford. "Trust me."
The android was silent. He nodded in somber understanding.
The two walked the opposite way.
Outside the window, the rainclouds finally gathered over the Bay Waters. A curtain of rain formed a shadow over the rippling waves around the Tower's island. But there was one dark spot beneath the water that didn't belong...and it was heading like a silent, black head towards the rock bluffs.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
The tunnel Tula led us through opened up into a huge cavern. The water was ankle deep. For some reason, the princess didn't bother hiking up her skirt as she trudged through the stuff.
"I don't mean to sound wyrd...but....," Beast Boy held a finger up. "Why're you trusting us with all of this?"
Tula paused. She looked back at us. "Because....Garth trusted you with Trident, and now he's apparently trusting you with this mission. And when my boyfriend trusts somebody with the burden that he carries....he means business."
Beast Boy and I exchanged glances. We both looked at her.
"Boyfriend???"
"What, jealous?" she chuckled.
"Pfft. No. But believe me...there're these two girls at the Tower who'd go ga-ga over him."
"..........," Tula stared.
"Erm....," Beast Boy turned red and nervously scratched the back of his head. "Not that they've....um....gotten anywhere with him or anything...."
"My Garth? They wouldn't come close."
"Well....that's the best insurance policy I've ever heard of."
Tula smiled. She looked my way. "Though I must admit....his doppelganger is almost......convincing......"
I didn't know whether to blush or kill myself.
The three of us were oblivious to a burning circle of foam forming in the cavern ceiling directly over our heads.....
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"But it all doesn't add up!" Robin remarked. "If Chasma is trying to resurrect Slizzath...he's doing everything the wrong way. He should be doing stuff to bring all the essences to Atlantis! And—that begs the question—who besides you and Garth are the other five elements of black magic?"
Ivan took a deep breath. His eyes searched the ceiling aimlessly. He fingered the starfish pendant.
Silence....
"The children...."
Robin raised an eyebrow above his mask. "The children?"
Ivan stared at Robin. "Possessed by some dark vessel provided by Chasma himself to bridge the gap between this world and ours. The Children of the Black Tempest...."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Outside the buildings of the Hidden Valley, a guard rode patrol on his submersible bike.
He gripped tightly to his trident while scanning the land with his aquatic eyes. He caught sight of a dark shape approaching through the murky currents.
He throttled his bike into gear and cruised up and over a rise in the coral to meet a strange craft head on.
"You there!! Halt!!" he held a hand up.
No response. A submarine was barreling towards him. The speed stayed the same.
The guard charged up his trident with a threatening glow. He frowned. "Stop in the name of Neptune!!" He suddenly gasped.
He could see through the front windshield of the sleek craft.
He saw a dark-haired pilot.
He saw glaring, eyes.
Eyes that flared purple.
FLASH!!!!
Hissings sounds.
Red bubbles.
The guard looked down.
Ragged, green snakes were slithering out of his steering mechanisms and encircling his lower body...biting him everywhere with red teeth.
"AAAAAAH!!!" The Atlantean shrieked. Bubbles flew out from his mouth as he twitched and vaulted himself off from the bike. He strangled with the seasnakes. Burning from the inside out from their poison. Feeling his skin being ripped apart by their teeth. "Get them off me!!! GET THEM OFF!!! AAAAUGH!!!"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Fryte glared out of the windshield.
He saw the insane guard squirming about in the water, wrestling with nothing.
He paid him no more attention.
However, Fryte did steer the vehicle close to the bridge of ancient coral.
He held a hand out in zombie fashion. His eyes flickered purple as a violet aura covered his body.
An eerie hiss liken unto the voice of Slizzath himself wisped out of his lips...
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
As the submarine cruised down towards the structures of the Hidden Valley settlement, a purple haze stretched from the craft towards a huge hole in the coral...like a cave.
Silence.
A stirring.
Then.....
Sliiiruuuuuuuaaaath.........
A forest of pale tentacles emerged from the cave...followed by two bulbous bodies of pulsing flesh.
Two ivory colored giant squid swam alongside the submarine. Possessed by dark, Atlantean telepathy...they closed in on the capitol building of the Idyllists.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"It has begun, my Lord...," Chasma drunkenly smiled as he knelt before the purple orb in the center of the concrete slabs. Torchlight from the corners of the cave's central chamber danced off his dark figure. "The pathetic waifs from the surface world shall be eliminated. In the meantime, your faithful children shall retrieve the last two essences that belong to you. I have also given a command to have the upstart princess accosted. Perhaps she shall finally be persuaded to cease her foolish insolence."
"Your work is most calculated......," the orb 'spoke'. "I only hope your results are just as firm."
"My lord...," Chasma boasted. "This is the greatest time for our triumph. The Junction has casted confusion over our battlefront. And our opposition cannot face off against an attack from three sides at once."
"For your sake......I hope you are right, Chasma......I grow tired of this obscurity......I need to break through."
"And you shall, my lord...," Chasma nodded. "If even you must break through me..."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Outside of Titan's Tower, the dark shadow beneath the water broke the surface.
The sky seemed to suddenly turn grayer and wetter. The rain clouds collected over head and drizzled down on the rock bluffs, cascading into the surf as the haphazard, Renzukkan submersible bobbed up. A hatch open, and six dark figures with tridents nimbly leapt out. Following them was Miist. He looked up at the Tower, smirked evilly, and pointed straight towards it.
The figures rushed like amphibious ninjas. They approached six sides of the structure and started to climb, using the razor sharp teeth of their tridents to ascend.
Miist proudly cracked his knuckles, turned into steam, and blurred towards the center of the Tower.
All sounds from the inside of the hollow submarine were quiet...
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Where's Aqualad?" Cyborg asked.
Raven hovered in a lotus position at the end of the Main Room. She faced the rain-streaked windows with her eyes closed in meditation. "In the pool," she droned. "Having his alone time."
"Guess that's where I'd be if I were him," Cyborg spoke. "In my own element............" He winced at his own words.
"Why don't you go drink some lemonade....," Raven muttered.
Cyborg sighed and wandered towards the kitchen unit. "Something tells me this is gonna be a fun evening...."
Thunder rolled.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Ripples of water.
Splashes.
Gentle reflections against the walls of the indoor pool.
Aqualad slowly backstroked across the surface of the pool. He was shirtless and in swimming trunks. His body was limp and yet graceful. Like the streams of liquid themselves.
He shut his black eyes and focused on the drifting itself.
And the world seemed an ocean away.
And yet...he couldn't ignore the stirring in the corner of his mind. Like the rumbling of thunder outside the walls. He sighed. His drunken lips murmured: "I wished you were here, Tula..."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Praetor....," Robin stumbled to his feet and looked at the leader sideways. "Do you....sense something?"
Ivan shook in his seat, uneasy. "It's....it's a trap! Of course!" the man gasped. "He is extracting his opposition! He is sending us out so that he can gather us unaware!"
Robin stared at him, his mouth agape.
Ivan stood up on shaky legs. "Your friend....they are in trouble."
"Wh-Which ones?"
Ivan gulped. "All of them...."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Wait a second....," Beast Boy held a hand up and aimed his pointy ears towards the ceiling. "You hear that?"
Tula and I stopped on the far side of the cavern and looked his way.
"Hear what?" Tula remarked.
"...........," the changeling's green eyes narrowed. A beat. He gasped and looked up. "Look out---"
SSSSSSSSSSSSsssss!!!!!
A fountain of acid burned down through the rock and boiled the water between us and the green elf.
FLASH!!!!!!! CRKKKKKK!!!!!
A wall of solid ice suddenly shot down. Blue crystal separated Beast Boy and the other two of us in a torrent.
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"Noir!!!" Beast Boy shouted. He ran towards the ice wall.
SSSSSSS!!!!
He gasped and skidded to a splashing stop as a stream of green liquid fell down and burned a hole in the stony floor. The water spiraled down in a whirlpool to make up for the sudden, caustically-created depth.
Beast Boy looked up.
SWOOOOOSH-SPLASH!!!
A green-haired girl in an emerald jumpsuit landed in a crouch. She slowly stood up and glared at the changeling with purple-flickering eyes.
Beast Boy bit his lip. "Um....I suppose you're not a fan of mine."
"My Lord has a bone to pick with you....," Acyd murmured. She stretched a hand forward. "But there is an awful lot of flesh in the way...."
Beast Boy gasped and ducked as a glob of caustic juices was launched at him.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
I ran up to the sheet of ice and started ramming my shoulder into it.
WHAM!!! WHAM!!! WHAM!!!
I panted, seeing dancing, combating shadows on the other side of the cavern. I was just about to summon murk through my limbs to shove hard against the crystal when---
SMACK!!! "Ugh!!!" (from behind me)
I spun around.
Tula lay on the floor...seemingly out cold. A blonde figure stood above her. The pool of water around her feet turned solid outward from her in a ring of cold whiteness. She looked at me and her eyes danced purple while blue mist fell down her shoulders and glowed brightly around her wrists.
"You know that I must hurt you....r-right?" Fraust murmured.
I bit my lip and stepped back. I reached behind my shoulder, but Myrkblade wasn't there.
"Maybe....," Fraust held two misting hands up. "....maybe you can end my sorrow before I finish you."
I tensed my limbs.
She pointed her hands at me and a sapphire stream of snow surged at me.
FWOOOOOSH!!!!
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Raven's eyes popped open. She hovered around and dropped to her feet.
"Cyborg!"
The android Titan looked up from over the counter. "Rae?? What is it??"
"I don't know," she stammered. "Something's wrong."
"Wrong?"
"Very....very wrong..."
SHATTER!!!!!!
Raven cowered and covered her head as the window shattered completely behind her.
Six dark figures leapt up, whipped out tridents in mid-air, and stabbed down at the two Titans on dramatic descent.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Aqualad gasped. He treaded in water. His eyes streaked with purple.
"N-No....," he murmured. "It's....it's...."
"The Black Tempest, hot stuff."
Aqualad looked up.
A puff of steam materialized into a human figure perching on the rafters to the interior.
Miist smiled and winked. "Thanks for testing the water for me. Cannonball!!! Hehehe!!" He morphed his arms into two serrated 'blades' of steam and pounced down at the drifting Atlantean's figure. "YAAAAGH!!!"
Aqualad braced himself.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Robin and Ivan spun and faced the window.
Ivan gasped, his purple/dark eyes wide.
Robin rushed forward and froze.
A submarine was streaking straight towards them. There was less than thirty meters between it and the building.
"Who is that??" Robin murmured.
"Fear.....," Ivan slurred.
The submarine kept barreling in.
"Move...."
Robin looked up at the man.
The Atlantean spun around, grabbed the Boy Wonder, and shoved him towards the doors on the other side. "I said MOVE!!!!"
Fryte drove the submersible in.....and through the glass.
SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SPLOOOOOSH!!!!!
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Somewhere....
Deep underwater....
In a dark cavern...
Senator Chasma was laughing.