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, "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, "What is going on here?" 

Logan, "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 15 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 us and tried to cut into our encirclement of the Queen. When we refused to allow them to get near the Queen, they drew their weapons in outrage. 

Kaldur, "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. 

Guard, "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, "He is right everyone. It is in the code they must adhere to. I am sure the Queen would understand." 

Logan, "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, "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. I recommended we not take the Queen to her chambers as it could affect her when she woke up in the room that Tom died in. I am sure we offended many innocent Atlanteans in our over-protectiveness, but we were taking no chance until Queen Atlanna woke up. 

The first to arrive was Mera and I had to apologize to her for not contacting her as soon as the Queen had been abducted but she understood that we 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, I gave her my memory of our time here through my 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 we 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 me home after the ceremony for Tom, as I wasn't much help there and wanted to breathe fresh air. Arthur thanked me for saving his mother and said Atlanna requested that I be there for the birth of the children if possible. I told him to let me know when the time was near, and I would make every effort to be there. Tula brought me a plant in a ball of glass just like we had talked about on the first day here. She said it was a common house gift for Atlanteans and showed me how to care for it. 

Everyone we 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. I was staying out of the whole thing as Atlantean law was not something I 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 me off, Bio-Ship returned to M'gann. Superboy wasn't there when I got home, I assumed he was on a mission and wondered if I should join the Young Justice roster. It would give me some good experience and I would meet more young heroes, but my heart just wasn't in it. 

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