Ch 73 Attack on the Palace
Ocean-Master continued to speak to those gathered in front of him, "The hour is close at hand, the Prince is away and by the time he returns, Poseidonis will be purged of the Impure. Since he will be King and is pure himself, he will recognize the Wisdom in what we do tonight. Our actions are for the betterment of Atlantis as a whole."
Ronel asked, "What of Kaldur'ahm and his surface dwellers?"
Ocean-Master waved his hand dismissively, "With a group this size do you need to fear a magic school dropout and two surface dwellers? You are PURE Atlanteans! DEPART!"
Using the shadows of the night the group of Purists approach the east side of the Palace. Ronel took out a small square and flooded it with his magic. He then waved it in the direction of the two guards at the palace entrance. One of the guards sees the light only one with a specific tattoo can see and wiped his hand across his chest in acknowledgment.
The guard looked at his beak-faced fellow guard and slowly swims in his direction. "Kaloon, what is that in the shadow of the wall?" He pointed over the shoulder of his partner who turned to see what his partner pointed at. As his back is turned, he is easily struck at the base of his neck with the Morningstar wielded by his fellow guard.
His uniform is roughly stripped away from his lifeless body and put on by a Purist who then enters the Palace to lead his group toward the royal bed chambers. With this subterfuge, they made it with no one able to raise the alarm.
Ocean-Master advised his group, "In the Palace no offensive magics can be used by anyone but the King and Queen, but with your help I can use a potent sleeping spell on the Queen." He used his trident to draw out a bit of magic from all 30 of the Purists in the hall and built his spell so it could be unleashed at will.
Everyone clutched their chests and groaned in pain as their magic was taken but they stayed quiet as they could, to not wake the occupants in the room. Slowly Ocean-Master and 5 others entered the room as quietly as they could.
As they approached the bed, they did not count on Queen Atlanna's awareness she had built living for years in the treacherous trenches. The very quietness woke her, and she called out in her mind to any guard with the royal symbol on them.
Ocean-Master sneered, "Sweet dreams my Queen!" He released the spell as two other Purists held down a panicked Tom. His human strength is no match for even the weakest Atlantean.
As her eyes glazed over, the three other Purists grabbed her from the bed and started to leave the room with her. Ocean-Master placed his trident on the chest of Tom and said, "You two leave us as I give this Earther his instructions." They quickly left the room as instructed.
Tom stayed calm, "Who are you and what do you want?"
Removing his mask Chancellor Orm looked at Tom and said, "I want to be King, now for your instructions lightkeeper." Ocean-Master shoved his trident into Tom's chest piercing his heart. "Die!"
Putting his mask back on and cleaning his trident on the bed, Ocean-Master left the room and closed the door. "He took to his instructions rather well. Let's go." He told the Purists, and they made their way out of the Palace as quickly as they could.
(Scene Shift) *
After the dinner with the Queen and her prince consort was over Kaldur showed Logan and M'gann to their rooms but all three gathered in Logan's room to talk for a while before going to bed for the night. As they were discussing Kaldur's childhood, he suddenly looked up and shouted, "MY QUEEN!"
"What is it Kaldur?" M'gann asked
"The Queen is under attack here in the palace. We must help her."
Charging out of the guest wing of the palace the two follow Kaldur and saw a group of at least 30 people come out of the hallway to the royal residents. Kaldur called out, "There, they have the Queen." Logan and M'gann followed where he was pointing and saw two figures holding the Queen, one on either side as she was unconscious.
Kaldur shouted in fury, "Hold their Traitors!"
Three figures rushed towards us, but Kaldur took out his water weapons and slammed one figure into the wall with a Morningstar he created. M'gann grabbed one with her telekinesis and banged his body into the ceiling again and again until there was no movement from him. Logan used the martial arts he had learned and punched the joints of the figure that tried to stop him. In five swings he separated both arms from his opponent's shoulder and popped the thighs from his hips. Leaving him floating limply in the hallway as Logan brushed past him.
A figure wearing purple and black carrying a fierce-looking trident shouted "DELAY THEM!" as he swam away with the ones carrying Atlanna. Seven of the group turned and faced the trio at the urging of the one with the trident in an attempt to delay them. Not willing to take the time to battle them Logan turned into an octopus and grabbed the seven with a tentacle each, then he used his last one to start hitting their head until they were unconscious. Kaldur and M'gann started to pummel them as well, once they were all unconscious, Logan changed back to the form he was using and all three of them charged out of the palace.
Kaldur shouted as soon as he saw them, "You will stop and release my Queen!"
Ocean-Master, "You know what to do, give me your power!" He sucked in a mass of energy from the remaining twenty people, and it gathered in his trident. "So now a fishhead issues commands?"
Kaldur looked for a path around this purple armored figure and now that Logan was out of the confining palace walls, he started thinking about going big.
Ocean-Master continued his taunt, "A little time among Royalty, and you believe yourself worthy to give orders to me? The OCEAN-MASTER! Well, proximity does not create Majesty, Fish-Head. Nor apparently wisdom, son of the Devil-Ray. The Royal Palace has spells in place allowing only the use of defensive magic's!" A chain of lightning lashes out from his trident at each of us and we all lose consciousness. "But outside the palace is quite a different story!"
Ocean-Master slowly moved towards the three limp bodies gripping his trident in both hands but noises from the palace corridors alerted him that more were coming. He turned to follow after his Purists but saw a group of guards between him and them. Cursing, he quickly swam toward a servant's corridor and disappeared into the palace.
Logan jerked awake all at once grabbing his chest where the lightning spell hit him and groaned in pain. "Fuck, magic hurts!" He looked around to see M'gann rubbing her head with a pained expression on her face. "Where is Atlanna?"
A guard took offense to his words, "Do not speak the Queen's name with such familiarity Earther."
Logan looked at him with a hard glair, "I will tell her that a simple guard's command supersedes hers, how about you give me a name to report to her, so she knows the chain of command better next time."
"We have bigger things to figure out than your pride boy." This came from Orm who appeared from the hallway of the palace.
Logan recognized Chancellor Orm who was standing near Kaldur's prone figure and nodded his acceptance of his words. Suddenly Kaldur jerked awake and yelled "THE QUEEN!"
A short time later they were in a briefing room and M'gann was crying at the loss of Tom. She didn't know him long, but his devotion to the Queen and his son was unquestioned. His loss would hit Arthur particularly hard.
Chancellor Orm took charge, "I have sent word to Prince Arthur, but I understand he is off-world on a Justice League mission and cannot be reached. So, it is up to us to save the Queen."
Kaldur asked, "And the Heir she carries."
Chancellor Orm nodded, "Of Course. Now, my sources inform me that there are two possible Purist strongholds. The issue is, we don't know if the Royal Guard was infiltrated, they were far too complicit at the time of the abduction. So, I will have to investigate one location with people I trust implicitly, while you and your two surface friends investigate the other.
Kaldur was happy just to be able to act, "Swim carefully Chancellor Orm. This Ocean-Master is formidable and dangerous!" He then motioned Logan and M'gann to follow him out of the Palace.
Orm looked on with a smile, "I'm sure he is."
Once Kaldur and his friends left the confines of the Palace, Kaldur pulled an object from his weapon pack and whispered for a moment before swimming in the direction he was told by Orm.