Amnesty Bay, Maine - 2018

"Hey, I heard you were back in town."

"Hey Squirt!" Arthur leapt off the bar stool and engulfed Claudia in a hug. When they had been kids, there was a sweet moment of her being taller than him. Then, when his growth spurt had hit, it had hit, and now he was a giant, and how he loved to tease her about it, and endlessly. "How you been?"

"Good, and yourself."

"Can't complain. How's your family?"

"Good. And how's Tom?"

Tom raised his glass. "Fine, thanks Claudia."

"Can I buy you a drink?" Arthur asked her.

"Yes please." She slid onto the stool next to the Currys.

As soon as her beer was in hand, they toasted.

"Hey Buddy-" Suddenly, a group of guys had approached Arthur. "Are you that Fish Boy from TV?"

"Oh, great." Tom winked, playing along.

Arthur stood up to face the newcomers. "It's Fish Man, actually. What do you want?"

"I'll tell you what we want-" The guy reached into his vest - and pulled out a phone. "Can we get a picture? You're like our local hero, man."

Arthur grumbled, while Tom and Claudia laughed.

In the end they racked up a high tab and drank way too much. Arthur had said he would give her a ride back to the boat that she called home, where she ran her underwater photography.

She left the washroom and the bar to find Tom already in the beat up old truck and Arthur standing by the docks. There was a flash of green and red, but it might have just been her tipsy brain playing tricks on her. "Hey, was that a mermaid?"

"Something like that." He turned away from the rippling water and back to the truck. "Come on Squirt, let's get you home."

It was a short drive down to her end of the docks and it was good she was home because the beers were really settling in now. "Thanks for the ride."

"Anytime."

"And hey, don't be such a stranger around here."

He nodded and waved. "Night, Claudie."

"Night, Arthur. Night, Tom," she called, but Tom was snoozing away in the passenger seat. She waved until the truck disappeared down the drive before stepping aboard her boat, Melody, after her mother.

She was just checking on things above decks before heading down for the night, when the squawking of seagulls and the rushing of water struck her still hazy brain. A flock of gulls was flying rapidly overhead, and as for the water-

She turned away from the docks to look out a the ocean.

A terrifying sight met her eyes.

A tidal wave had struck. And not just in Amnesty Bay, but all over the world. Ships and decades worth of trash had been shoved out of the water and back onto the surface, leaving catastrophic damage and intense fear.

"Claudie!" There was Arthur running down the docks towards where she and the other boat owners were trying to clean things up. "You okay? What's the damage?"

"It's pretty ugly," she admitted. "See for yourself."

"You're not hurt are you?"

"Amazingly not, we were lucky. Can't say the same about the boat, though."

He gritted his teeth. "I'm so sorry."

She nodded. "Thank God I share my files so I didn't lose my latest batch of photos."

He stared out at the open ocean. "This was my brother."

"Wait really?" Arthur knew very little about his younger half-brother, and she knew even less.

"Apparently."

"Shit."

"Yeah. Apparently he wants to wage war on the Surface, and to stop him I need to challenge him for the throne before he attacks for real next time."

"That's intense. Don't let the Atlanteans bait you into something you don't want to do."

"Thanks Claudie, I'll try. Check in on my Dad for me while I'm gone?"

"Of course. Good luck."

"Thanks. Where I'm going, I'm gonna need it. All of it. "

Arthur's brother, Orm, did not have his war. He didn't have his throne anymore either. Arthur had succeeded, and entertained Claudia and Tom with stories of his quest, alongside his new girlfriend, Mera, and his Mom.

Yeah, as it turned out, his mother had been exiled, and while thought to be dead, she was in fact alive. Claudia loved her, Atlanna, instantly.

"Thank you for looking out for Arthur as kids," she told Claudia warmly.

"We make a good team."

Arthur came over, looking more serious. "Mom, it's time to say goodbye." Apparently he had worked his charm and before his brother was sent off to prison, he was allowed to see his mother once more. "We have to be quick though."

"I'll leave you to it," Claudia said, turning to leave.

"You can stay."

"This is a family thing."

"You are family."

And so she stayed. Orm was not at all what she expected. She knew that he and Arthur only shared the same mother, but she had always pictured the brother looking somewhat like Arthur. He didn't. He was fair-skinned like Atlanna, and shared her blond hair and bright blue eyes. He was wearing a tight black suit and had chains wrapped around him, the ends held by guards, who were shocking all on their own. His face was set into a firm scowl, but softened slightly when he saw his mother.

"Goodbye Mother."

"It's not forever, my son."

When they had said their goodbyes, Orm turned back to Arthur and his expression hardened once more. "You will not succeed as King."

Arthur shrugged. "We'll see."

Claudia was never one to hold back, especially with bullies. "So this is the guy who wrecked my boat, huh?"

"The one and only," Arthur confirmed.

The brother's scowl seemed to deepen even further when he looked at her, if that were even possible. "Who are you?"

SLAP!

She struck him across the face.

Arthur snickered. "She's Claudia."

"And she's pissed at you," she added. "You destroyed my home!"

After that, the guards led the chained ex-king back out into the water and after the tide came in, they were gone.

"Hey, speaking of the boat," Arthur said. "Come on, I want to show you something."

Melody sat there, bobbing in its usual spot at the docks.

"What?" she gawked. "How?! It was thousands of dollars worth of damage! And I know for a fact you have no job."

"Well I do now: I'm the king of freaking Atlantis now, so I've got unlimited funds!"

"Not really," Mera corrected.

Claudia still couldn't believe it. "I thought I'd lost it all."

"Want to take her out for a test spin?"

"Hell yeah I do!"

"Then let's go!"

I still love the first Aquaman so much! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this first chapter! :)