Ch 76 Fresh Air

Kaldur'ahm and his friends swam as quickly as they could to the S'atiroman cave, but their strength and energy being suppressed made it a slow and painful process. Once they came within sight of the cave entrance, they felt their strength return. Like the suppression spell just stopped or was interrupted. They redoubled their effort to get to the cave and prepared their weapons, but just before they entered the cave, they heard the voice of Queen Atlanna. "As Queen of the Seven Seas, I condemn you to death!" Followed by a Soul shattering scream.

As they entered, they saw Queen Atlanna holding a Trident that Kaldur had seen Ocean-Master carry, and it was glowing blue as she seemed to be attacking Orm who was wearing Ocean-Master's outfit.

Kaldur was shocked, "NO! Orm was Ocean-Master? It all makes sense now; how foolish I have been."

As the attack from the Queen continued, they noticed that what appeared to be lightning coming from the Trident was in actuality flowing toward the Queen and her belly was glowing from the inside. It appeared that two children in her womb were acting as a light source within the Queen making them easily visible. A frightening armored figure swam towards them causing much of the group to tense up until Logan resumed his natural shape they were used to.

Tula was the first to ask, "What is going on here?"

"Queen Atlanna is administering her justice to Orm who was Ocean-Master, he attempted a coupe of the Royal family. Apparently, he is the former king's illegitimate child." Logan explained the rest of Orm's speech to the group, making sure to include his plans for the future.

After everyone wrapped their heads around the malicious plan that had come dangerously close to coming to fruition, they made plans to bring the Purists to a holding cell until they could be dealt with.

Orm's screams died down after about 5 minutes, not because it hurt any less but because he had screamed so much, that he tore his voice box and now all the noise he could make were whimpers and gasps. Almost 20 minutes later he stopped all movement as he was drained dry of all his magic and life essence. Tula, who was close to the queen personally went to her and kept her from collapsing in exhaustion to the ground. The whole group formed up around her and escorted her back to the Palace.

Once the Palace was in sight, a group of Royal Guards swam towards them and tried to cut into their encirclement of the Queen. When they refused to allow them to get near the Queen, the Royal Guards drew their weapons in outrage.

Kaldur spoke in a commanding voice, "We are under direct orders that no one not of our group is to get near the Queen until she wakes, or her firstborn arrives." He failed to tell them that Logan gave those orders, but he was direct about them.

The head guard spoke with contempt in his voice "Your title of Aqualad may appear to give you rights peasant, but we of the Royal Guard serve a higher purpose. The Queen is our responsibility and standing in our way is a death sentence."

Tula had a worried look on her face, "He is right everyone. It is in the code they must adhere to. I am sure the Queen would understand."

Logan rolled his eyes at the girl's naivety, "No Tula, the fact that they were sitting on their ASSES here at the Palace instead of looking for the Queen puts their devotion to the code in doubt. {Remember, Orm was responsible for hiring many of the guards.} The last comment I made mentally to all our group.

Another guard was looking at Ronal who was missing his arm and being held by La'gann said, "You will release my nephew now and explain his injuries. His father, the Mayor of Poseidonis will want a thorough accounting of those that let him get into such a state."

M'gann was fed up and with her newfound confidence spoke, "Enough of this FARCE. You 5 are under arrest as Purists who were complacent in the abduction of your Queen and the death of her Prince Consort. I have read all your minds, and you are guilty with no doubt."

As soon as she said that all 5 guards reacted violently with two of them trying to swing their weapons directly at the Queen as she lay in Tula's arms. M'gann used her tail to smash two of the guards near her down towards the sea floor and everyone could hear the breaking of bones due to the impact. Logan rushed towards the leader of the guards and changed into the form of a large Electric Eel and then proceeded to shock the guard into unconsciousness.

Kaldur battled one of the Guards who tried to attack the Queen with his two water weapons and quickly overwhelmed him with his fighting experience. The last one was captured in a water cage created by Garth.

Kaldur went to the communications room of the Palace to inform the Watchtower of what happened here and to try and get word to Mera at Arthur's lighthouse. Logan recommended they not take the Queen to her chambers as it could affect her when she woke up in the room that Tom died in. Logan was sure they offended many innocent Atlanteans in their over-protectiveness, but they were taking no chance until Queen Atlanna woke up.

The first to arrive was Mera and Logan felt he had to apologize to her for not contacting her as soon as the Queen had been abducted but she understood that they had to react quickly and didn't have time to make a bunch of calls. In hindsight, it's possible any call going out while Orm was around wouldn't have reached her anyway. With her permission, he gave her his memory of their time here through his telepathy.

As soon as she finished going through my memory, Mera went through the halls of the Palace like a tornado. Everyone under even the slightest suspicion of working with Orm was contained and not allowed to communicate with anyone. No one was mistreated on suspicion alone, but Mera was insistent that no one would escape if involved.

M'gann volunteered to use her telepathy to help separate the guilty from the innocent and Mera was very thankful for the help. Later that evening Atlanna finally woke, and Mera stayed with her for comfort. Sometime during the night, Arthur arrived and he, Mera, and Atlanna stayed together and grieved. The next afternoon they held a ceremony for Thomas Curry. There weren't many people invited because he didn't have many friends in the sea. Arthur planned to take his father home to Samoa and have the traditional 2-week ceremony and songs for his father. Atlanna wanted to attend and asked Mera to continue the investigation with the full authority of the Throne.

M'gann asked Bio-Ship to take Logan home after the ceremony for Tom, as he wasn't much help there and wanted to breathe fresh air. Arthur thanked Logan for saving his mother and said Atlanna requested that he be there for the birth of the children if possible. Logan told Arthur to let him know when the time was near, and he would make every effort to be there. Tula brought Logan a plant in a ball of glass just like they had talked about on the first day here. She said it was a common house gift for Atlanteans and showed him how to care for it.

Everyone the group caught the day of the attack had their magic burnt out of them and their families were to be tested by M'gann for their involvement. Ronal was no different and his father was removed as Mayor of Poseidonis. Atlanna didn't care if he knew about his son's deeds or not, he should have. Logan was staying out of the whole thing as Atlantean law was not something he was interested in.

Bio-Ship was very easy to travel in, she was much like a very smart pet. She communicated with emotion and shape more than any language. It was a great trip back to dreary old Gotham. After dropping him off, Bio-Ship returned to M'gann. Superboy wasn't there when Logan got home, he assumed he was on a mission and wondered if he should join the Young Justice roster. It would give him some good experience and Logan would meet more young heroes, but his heart just wasn't in it.

The last few days had just been a bit of a drag for him. Logan didn't have the energy to do much, but sitting around irritated him further. Logan couldn't really concentrate on anything, almost like his head was filled with cotton that he had to push his thoughts through. Logan wasn't so dumb as to not realize that Tom Curry's death hit him quite hard. He didn't really know the guy, but his son earned Logan's respect quickly, and as much as he told himself there wasn't anything more he could have done, it didn't stop him from feeling down about it.

(I think it's time I spent some time thinking about what I want to be in this world, NO, this Universe.)