Young Justice: Poseidonis

August 27th, 2010

A loud scream tore through the water, the voice filled with pain and anguish. It came from just outside the Conservatory’s wards where I could see a four-story building––a store catering to students––slowly toppling onto the street below.

Zatanna squeezed my hand. “We need to go help!” she exclaimed, “People are in trouble!”

My first instinct was to do the exact opposite. A big, prosperous city like Poseidonis didn’t just explode randomly, particularly since it sounded like the explosions had come from at least two different directions. This was no tragic accident, but likely some sort of attack or terrorist action.

If that was the case, then it was entirely possible a follow up attack could happen at any moment. I was pretty sure that none of the explosions had occurred within the Conservatory itself and I doubted that attackers would find the school an easy nut to crack, so staying here, maybe hunkering down in our dorms or an out-of-the-way building, was probably the safest option.

Unfortunately there was absolutely no way Zatanna would ever do that. Nor would she accept taking a portkey to the surface and coming back in a few hours or days once everything was dealt with. That was the actual safest option, but it came with a few downsides of its own, namely making the two of us look insanely guilty. I had no idea what was going on out there, but if the perpetrators weren’t obvious at first glance then I wouldn’t be surprised if suspicion quickly fell on the two foreigners who had temporarily disappeared at the time of the attack.

My mind raced. That was a worrying prospect. There were very few outsiders in all of Poseidonis, and Zatanna and I had both been seen publicly all over the city. Our clothing and our air bubbles made us stand out and I really didn’t want an angry populace calling for our heads.

We needed to do something. We needed to be seen doing something. Plus, that would only improve our reputation with the Queen and others, as well as my own with Zatanna.

I nodded sharply. “Keep your eyes peeled. Let’s move.” I wished I had our brooms with me, but they were unfortunately back in our room and a detour would take too long right now.

We were not the first to reach the site of the explosion. A half-dozen guards in blue armor were swarming around the damaged buildings, clearing away rubble and hurriedly helping civilians trapped inside. The explosion seemed to have gone off at the center of a small cluster of buildings, the store, two three-story residential buildings built side by side, and a warehouse. There was also a fifth building, a domed temple-like structure perched on top of the two apartment buildings.

The explosion had completely destroyed the bottom floor of the store, causing it to collapse and seriously damaging the buildings beside it. One of the residential buildings was rapidly being evacuated, one of the outer walls badly damaged and looking like it could give way at any moment. If that happened, the building above it would also be in grave danger.

I waved my wand and swiftly levitated a precariously perched hunk of debris away from the guard desperately keeping it from falling onto the already half-obstructed doorway below. I vanished a shattered chunk of column, allowing the man trapped beneath it to swim away, then turned to the guard that I’d just freed.

“What happened?” I asked the guard.

“I don’t know!” he replied, “I was just––”

My shield snapped into place just in time to block a streak of orange light that vanished against my spell. Zatanna’s triggered a moment later, three more streaks vanishing as they crashed against the charmed barrier. The guard wasn’t so lucky and lightning crackled around his body as two bolts impacted against his side in as many seconds. He thrashed once, then slumped and began to float away.

I whirled around, searching the dark water for the source of the attack. Below me I could see more of the guards going down, as well as a number of civilians, as a volley of those same beams scythed through them.

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There! More streaks of orange shot towards us and the handful of guards that had avoided the initial barrage went down hard. More than a dozen shots were directed at Zatanna and I as well, but our protego shields barely seemed to feel the impact.

I could just barely make out the source in the distance. A small group of men were floating behind cover, their dark suits blending into the water except for small red marks on their armor and helmets. The only reason I could see them at all from this distance was the bright flares of light as shots flew from their weapons.

I scowled. The nerve of some people! Attacking men just trying to assist non-combatants. Attacking me. Attacking Zatanna!

I’d found over the past week-and-a-half that many of my usual spells did not work underwater the way I’d want them too. Most spells were designed to fly through air and ‘go off’ when they hit something, but in many cases water was a sufficiently ‘solid’ object that the spell just fizzled out after a few inches.

Irritatingly enough, that included the majority of my favorite combat magic. Fortunately, being underwater did mean that some other spells were made far more useful. For instance, the water-heating charm. A classic third-year spell mostly used for making tea. It was a wonderfully simple and versatile spell, able to heat water across a range of temperatures and volumes. It could be used to brew a single teacup of delicate green tea or an entire samovar of black tea.

It could also, with some minor adjustment, do a lot more than that. Some of the lessons I’d attended here at the Conservatory had given me some unorthodox ideas for how to use my magic. “Të cha!” I barked, brandishing my wand in a way I rarely did when using the spell for its intended purpose and pouring magic into the spell.

Just over a thousand gallons of water around men went from just above freezing––it really was impressive how well the Atlanteans had adapted to living in the ocean’s depths––to boiling in an instant. Liquid water turned instantly into steam, great gouts of it billowed and bubbled through the cold water around it rapidly cooling back into liquid, but the damage had been done. The spell might not work on living flesh, but being submerged in scalding steam was plenty dangerous as it was.

“Zatanna, check on the guards and keep your eyes peeled!” I ordered, “I got this.”

The water around me lit up and I shot towards the reeling group of burnt men. It wasn’t a sustainable way of swimming with hydromancy, but for a short burst it was faster than just boosting myself forward a little.

The attackers were well organized and disciplined. Their armor had mostly protected them from the heat and the least affected men on the outskirts of my spell were already pointing their weapons––dull black guns with red markings––at me once more. Another one had a hand pressed against the side of his helmet and I could just barely hear him shouting, “Epsilon squad requesting reinforcements!”

None of it would be enough to save them. I waved my wand above my head in a wide, zig-zagging circle. The moment I was close enough for my spell to work, I slashed my wand down and across, black mana from Slaughter Swamp flowing into my spell.

Crimson lightning poured from my wand like a crackling river of death. It completely ignored the water around it and, when my target tried to dodge out of the way using some sort of jet shooting from his armored back, followed him through the water.

My spell crashed into the first man and he froze in place, twitching as sparks of lighting seemed to pool around his entire body. A moment later, a fresh torrent of lightning shot out from his body towards his closest ally, who didn’t even have a chance to scream before it was on him. The cursed lightning chained from one man to another, leaving each one a twitching, silent body floating aimlessly through the water.

I stopped myself before I could get too close. The cursed chain lightning was relatively short-range, but there was no reason to risk things unnecessarily and I didn’t want to dispel it just yet. I’d choose the spell I had specifically since I’d heard the man requesting reinforcements. If those reinforcements got just a little bit too close then the lightning still lurking around the disabled attackers would fry them too.

I dispassionately scanned the group. They looked almost military with their matching uniforms and weapons. I didn’t recognize the armor, but that wasn’t much of a surprise. Hopefully someone else would. Until then, I was pretty sure none of these men would be doing much of anything in the near future.

I turned around and swam back to where Zatanna and two uninjured guards were tending to some of the other Atlaneans who hadn’t been so lucky. “I took care of the attackers, but they called for reinforcements,” I called out as I approached.

One of the guards straightened and turned to look at me. “Thank you. Your assistance was greatly appreciated, hero. We will be better prepared if they attempt to attack us again.”

I waved away the niceties. “The men were wearing black and red armor and carrying matching weapons. Do you know anything about that?”

She nodded. “That sounds like Black Manta’s men, but they’ve never done anything nearly this bold before. To attack the capital like this…” she shook her head slowly. “So much needless pain and bloodshed. That terrorist has a lot to answer for.”

Why would Black Manta do something like this? It was going to cause a lot of damage and hurt a lot of people, but that couldn’t be it, right?