Legends of Aquaman #6

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Written and illistrated by Scott D. L. Kruger
Edited by Daniel Dyer

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Legends of Aquaman #6:
Atlan’s Gift

The king had been absent for the better part of two weeks when word finally reached the throne room.

Long delayed shipments of much needed Vegetation from the Angola Plain prompted an expedition from Poseidonis to find the cause. What the expeditionary team found, they carried with them to their dying day… which, unfortunately for them, was not long.

The team was forced into quarantine when they returned… whatever the thick ooze had been that covered them seeped into their pores. They went mad… and eventually died.

Mera sent for Arthur right away. His educational journey into the history of Atlantis was over…

~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Arthur sat alone in the cave, closing the final book in the Chronicle’s of Atlantis… the volume that Hagen the mystic had given him almost two weeks before. It was the last of the known Atlantis Chronicle’s… and yet it was over 2,000 years old.

What does it take, I wonder, to “accept” my true name? Arthur thought to himself. Do I even want these powers?

“My lord?” came the voice of Duncan, the royal guard, from the cave’s entrance.

“Duncan? What is it, my friend…?” Arthur asked as he swam toward the entrance.

“My Lord, Queen Mera begs you come at once… There has been… a catastrophe.” But before Duncan could finish the sentence, Arthur was well on his way to Poseidonis… his beloved was in danger.

~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Arthur stood in the medical facility in Poseidonis. The quarantine room before him… the men inside… dead. Arthur ran his hands through his scruffy hair, how could he have been so selfish to leave Poseidonis? Vulko and Mera were at his side.

“…the doctors were able to isolate them in time.” Vulko continued, “It does not appear that it has spread through Poseidonis.”

“I immediately ordered the great gate sealed,” Mera added sadly, “to be sure it was not spread within the dome… but I fear, there may be others…”

“Doctor Marlena is running tests now on samples of their blood… If it has spread, she hopes their blood can be used for an antidote,” Vulko said skeptically.

“My dreams…or visions… the chronicles… the curse… Everything,” Arthur whispered to himself. He inhaled deeply, letting the sea water fill his lungs. “It seems to have led me here to this moment.”

“Sir?” Vulko asked.

“My visions, this Atlan… he says if I were to accept my true name, Orin, I will receive power that will help me defend our city.”

“My Lord… they were just dreams… you cannot seriously...” Vulko started, but Arthur held up a silencing hand.

“No Vulko… they were not just dreams. You have them for a while… please, I’d gladly pass them onto you. There’s more to them than that.” Arthur’s voice trailed off as he watched the doctor in the next room draw blood from one of the two corpses.

“Arthur…?” Mera asked.

He smiled and ran his hand across her soft cheek. “I missed you, Mera.”

“I missed you, too…” She smiled and clasped his hand.

“Please, forgive me, I must go again…” he wrapped his strong arms around her and squeezed gently.

“I know,” she said rubbing her belly. “Just come back to me safe, I don’t want our son to be raised fatherless.”

“I promise,” he replied with a wink.

“Vulko, contact Lord Kalandro in Tritonis,” Arthur commanded. “We’re going to the Angola Plain.”

~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

We always monitored ship-to-shore, communications, especially ones that included the Triangle. You never quite knew what treasures you would find down there. But the treasures we’d found, kept us… comfortable… and in business.

There had been a storm in the Triangle… one that happened to throw a LexCorp tanker off course. The ship was never found. The odd thing was, the ship was never meant to be there in the first place.

Another odd thing was the way we were paid… The payment came from an over-seas account, delivered directly into our account… just seconds after I said we’d take the job. You don’t get money like that for salvage missions. I never asked questions, especially since payment made in advance… it definitely beat trying to hock something on the black market.

LexCorp though… I had a feeling this mission would be a little more dangerous than the norm. But that didn’t matter… The Sea Devils were ready for anything.

~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

The current tugged at the protective gear that King Arthur, Lord Kalandro, Vulko & Prince Iqula wore. Before them, the bodies of one hundred and twenty three Atlantean farmers. Men, women and children of the small undersea village of Gandala, just south of the Angola Plain. The land that once supplied the majority of Atlantis with edible vegetation.

Those that did not die of the infection, were killed by one another, or had taken their own lives. It was not difficult to find the source of the problem in the plains, one only needed to follow the corpses of sea life. Yet, it was obvious that the problem did not stem in the plains. Of the Dolphin that brought the plague, only a blackened skeleton remained.

“This is not even the worst of it, I’m afraid,” said Vulko.

The men continued on their journey to the Angola plain.

I am Orin, King of Poseidonis… Lord of Atlantis. Arthur repeated in his head over & over again.

The decision was made.

~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

The remainder of the journey to the Angola Plain was one of horror. Life everywhere had been extinguished.

Orin stood on the outskirts of the plain, head in his hands. How could this have happened?

The thick, black & green ooze covered everything in the plain. Withered kelp, bones of small fish, the steadily dissolving flesh of Atlantean citizens and the predators. Sharks had come to the plain seeking nourishment from the dead. They had fared no better than anything else in the area. Were any of them able to get far enough away to spread the infection?

The area was a total loss… nothing would ever grow there again. He had to make sure the infection would die there too.

“Roduun! Duncan… Get your men to scour the area around the plain… if you find a body, bring it to the plain. Don’t touch them though, find another way to get them there,” Orin ordered.

“Yessir!” the guards said in unison and swam off.

“My Lord?” Vulko asked

“Do you trust me Vulko?” Orin asked.

“As long as it does not involve sword fighting, my Lord, then of course,” Vulko replied dryly.

“Then have faith, my friend,” Orin said. If only he had felt as confident as he sounded.

Within the hour, the task Roduun and Duncan set out to perform was completed. Orin ordered all clear of the desolated farmland, and swam to its geographical center. Hovering far above the ground, he slowly turned to see the devastation in its entirety. He floated there with his head bowed in a silent prayer to those that had fallen & for those infected with the disease.

“I will find a way to help you,” he vowed to himself. I am Orin, King of Poseidonis, Lord of Atlantis…

He removed his protective gloves & raised his head toward the surface, calling his newfound power forth. Orin clenched both hands into fists, and paused, concentrating on the farmland below. He then opened his left hand… a large dome of ‘hard water’ formed over the surface of the farmland, creating a tight seal. Taking a deep breath of sea water, his mighty chest heaved. With an exhale, he opened his right hand revealing a red glow in his palm.

Vulko and those gathered gasped at the sight.

“My Lord… it’s true,” Iqula whispered to Lord Kalandro. “Orm was right. He is cursed.”

Orin placed his glowing palm on the hard water dome and the sea water within began to bubble. As the light in his hand increased in intensity, the water inside the dome began to boil. The center of the farmland began to glow orange fading to a deep blood red as the oxygen particles in the water ignited. The diseased area was burned of all the contaminants, including the bodies of the farmers, and sea life.

The dome would remain until the super-heated water would cool.

Orin floated back down to where Vulko & Lord Kalandro stood, awestruck over the power their King held. Iqula eyed Orin with mistrust.

“My Lord, Orin…” Vulko began. “I don’t know what to say…”

“Just say a prayer for those poor souls and help me find a cure for this before everything is lost,” Orin replied as he strode past Vulko & Kalandro.

“What sorcery is this? When… how did he learn to do that?” Lord Kalandro demanded of Vulko.

“I’m not sure even he could answer those questions,” came Vulko’s response, “… he simply can.”

Orin wandered in the general direction of Poseidonis, lost in thought. He stared down at his hands… they still looked like normal hands. But the power he held in them said otherwise. My God… it was true. All of it. How did I know to do this? Is Atlan truly…

“My Lord,” Roduun bowed as he approached Orin. Orin quickly pulled his gloves back on. “My scouts found more of this destruction, south of here.”

“We go south!” Orin shouted to the men he left behind.

Iqula and Kalandro turned back toward the hard water dome. Kalandro pushed on it as hard as he could, but the dome was as strong as the great dome of Poseidonis. Not since Shalako had sorcery of this kind been seen by a Tritonian and it did not sit with them well at all.

~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Alone the boy sat, clutching the hand of his dead mother. He had tried to help her, tried to make her better, but she faded away. His father died when the madness struck… as did almost everyone else in his village. He was the only one left. Those that didn’t die from the madness took their own lives, or simply faded away.

His mother had taken her last breath days ago, but he had no where else to go. Everyone that ever cared for him was gone. He simply sat holding his mother’s hand. He closed his purple hued eyes and thought back to a happier time, waiting for the madness to come for him. Or waiting to simply fade away.

He sat, tearlessly weeping into the surrounding sea. For him the end would not come…

~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

“My God, Dane… look at all the death…” Judy Walton… my girl… always kept all the ‘Captain’ stuff up for the boys… makes me feel more official. She was none to pleased when I told her about the assignment… She thought Lex Luthor was a scum bag from the word go… Who was I to argue… but like I said… the money was good. “I’ve never seen anything like this…”

“What were they transportin’?” Biff Bailey. My right hand man… He was more like my muscle man… tougher than a bull, and almost as big.

“Ours is not to ask why… ours is to do the damn job we were hired to do. Nicky, Biff, get the pressure suits prepped, Judy keep us steady and prepare to extend the grappler.” I gotta get tough with the kids sometimes… kept them in line. I’d rather have turned the bastards that did this in myself, but again… the money.

“Aye Captain.” They were a good team.

30 minutes later, we’re in the air lock Biff and Nicky were suited up and ready to take the plunge… Judy at the controls of the Devil Ray. She wanted to come too… but something like this… The water was toxic. I didn’t want to risk it.

“Testing comm link 1,” I spoke into the microphone in my helmet… a necessary evil… had to keep communications up at all times. Biff & Nicky followed suit with Judy givin’ us the thumbs up.

“Suits are pressurized… Alright Judy, pop the hatch,” I ordered.

“Aye Captain…” Judy responded as she hit the switch… the air-lock filled with sea water and she blew me a kiss… embarrassing… but the guys were used to it.

~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Orin had performed the act over and over again, destroying anything that had come into contact with the black & green ooze. Unfortunately, no survivors were found, until...

“My Lord!” shouted Duncan, “We have found someone!”

Orin swam as fast as he could following Duncan. As they passed by the wreckage of what had been someone's home, they came across an awful site. Bodies littered the sea floor. In the center stood a boy, no older than 13, viciously attempting to defend the body of a female.

“Get Back!” the boy screamed swinging a sword in one hand and a spear in his other. “Get away from her!”

The Atlantean soldiers assigned to assist with recovery, backed away for fear that the boy may slash open their protective suits.

“Duncan…?” Orin asked.

“My Lord… it appears that the boy may be immune to whatever caused this catastrophe,” Duncan replied.

“Back away!” Orin ordered the soldiers.

As the soldiers obeyed Orin slowly approached the boy, hands open, showing the boy that he carried no weapons.

“Do you know who I am?” Orin asked the boy, to which the boy quickly shook his head no.

“I am a friend, child…” he replied. “Please, put down the weapons… we’ve come to help you.”

The boy shook his head no again.

“Is this your mother?” Orin asked sadly, the boy nodded biting his lower lip.

“I’m sorry, son…” Orin replied mournfully, “I lost my mother when I was your age too.”

The boy began lowering his weapons in response to the King’s revelation, his lip quivered.

“What’s your name, son?”

“G-G… Garth,” the boy answered, his voice breaking.

“Garth…” Orin repeated, “that’s a good name… a solid name. Garth, if you come with me, I promise, I will personally look after you. I also promise that your mother will be buried in a proper Atlantean manner, not burned like the others.”

The boy looked up into Orin's eyes and began sobbing. He dropped his weapons and fell to his knees. Orin wrapped his arms around the boy and tried to calm him down when something that had not happened in over two weeks occurred. A tiny clown fish swam up to Orin, braving the diseased water and spoke.

~~My Lord… Porm has found the cause of this evil… it is in the great ship grave yard.~~

>>Where?<< Orin telepathically asked. Garth looked up at the little fish.

~~Please follow, my King.~~

“Duncan!” Orin called out over his shoulder. “This boy is in my charge, take him back to the palace…”

“Sir?” Garth sniffed as he looked up into Orin’s eyes, “why did the little one call you ‘king’?”

“… Never mind Duncan…” Orin said looking astonished at the young boy. “He’s coming with me.”

~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

The Sea Devils went to work straight away attaching grappling cables to the tanker. I liked referring to us as ‘The Sea Devils’… made me feel more important in the grand scheme of things. Our orders were plain, make sure all identification on the ship has been removed, then raise it… if that failed, destroy it. Simple cut and dry orders… I liked those kind.

Then, why the heck was this job eatin’ at me like it was?

“Captain… this is… euchh…. Disgusting,” Nicky complained into his comm-link at me, like an amateur, as he tried to scrape the black & green goo off of his suit. “Can’t we just blow this heap and call it a day?”

“Yeah, Cap’n… these dead critters & this gunk is givin’ me the willies…” Biff echoed Nicky’s sentiment.

“Nick… one more time & I’m sending you back in with your sister to shine every bolt in the ship. And Biff… you’re supposed to be the tough one. Grow a spine, would ya?”

“Cap’n Dane… we’ve got incoming on radar…” Judy interrupted me… I hated being interrupted when I was starting a good tie-raid, “My God! I’ve never seen anything move this fast…”

“Biff, Nicky, back to the ship. Judy, prepare to start lifting… I want us on our way up before whatever it is gets close…”

“You don’t understand, sir… it’ll be on top of you in seconds!”

This is the part where things started getting really weird.

“What the hell is that???” Biff… eloquent as ever when things got hairy.

It had to be the largest undersea team I ever saw… Had to be at least 200 of them. They wore protective gear… but none like anything I’d ever seen before. It was paper thin… no way heat coulda been kept in, weird looking too, with a real ornate design. They didn’t wear fins of any type… except for the ones coming out of their calves. And they sure as Hell didn’t carry any regular guns... Matter a fact… the one at the head of the group was carrying a trident of all things. A trident!?

It was him… Blonde hair, blonde beard… just like you see on the television. I tell ya… it was something else. But the strangest thing was the small boy he had with him… the boy didn’t have a lick of gear on! Just regular clothes… if you can call ‘em regular.

Keep in mind this was the first time any of our kind ever saw one of his kind… We didn’t know what to expect.

“I am King Orin of Poseidonis, Lord of Atlantis! I command you to cease your operation & surrender for crimes against my land.” I shoulda known… always trust my gut… I could tell he meant business, so we did what any good honest scavenging folk would do… we surrendered.

Lucky for us & our paycheck... I already planted the explosive charge. As I raised my hands in surrender, Judy hit the detonator.

KRAKOOM!!!

To be continued...