Young Justice: Poseidonis
August 31st, 2010
Despite what had happened, the next few days were surprisingly normal. In the wake of Black Manta’s capture, I offered to assist with further cleanup and hunting down the remaining groups of Black Manta’s men still lurkinging throughout the city, but was politely turned down by the heavily armed and armored group of elite soldiers. I was told that someone would come speak to me about what had happened soon and then Aqualad escorted both Garth and I back to the Conservatory.
Along the way, Aqualad and Garth took turns filling me in on what had happened. Apparently Tula and Aqualad had both been at a dinner with the royal family when the attack had started, which explained why Tula hadn’t been at dinner earlier. Towards the end of the meal, Aquaman had been called away to deal with an emergency on the surface, which was why the kingdom’s greatest defender had been absent during the attack.
Black Manta’s attack had begun soon after. I was unsurprised to hear that a force had decided to attack the royal palace, nor that Queen Mera had essentially single-handedly defeated the entire small army that had laid siege to her home. However, apparently the Queen was pregnant, so when Aqualad discovered that the men were after something at the Science Center, the Queen’s brother-in-law had refused to allow her to risk herself and her child by going after the terrorist personally.
Before Aqualad could leave, Garth––who had beelined from dinner to the royal palace––arrived and ended up joining him. Apparently Tula had been injured protecting her fellow apprentice but Mera had immediately begun to tend to the young woman's injuries and Garth claimed she’d make a full recovery. That was good to hear––I’d grown somewhat fond of both of my temporary guards and it would be a tragedy to lose such a promising young witch before she had a chance to continue her family line, particularly at the hands of muggle terrorists of all things.
In any case, Aqualad and Garth had reached the Science Center some time before me and had found the building crawling with Manta’s thugs. They’d infiltrated the building, disabled several of the men, and disguised themselves using their armor in a bid to reach Manta himself and stop his plan.
It sort of worked. They did reach Manta, but the man immediately identified Aqualad as not being one of his men and a fight had broken out. Garth and Aqualad managed to fight Manta to a standstill and damaged both the equipment needed to transport his target and the block of ice itself, at which point he’d decided that it was a lost cause and blown up the machine holding it.
That was when I had arrived, just in time to witness the explosion first hand. Black Manta tried to flee, I burned his submarine, and that was about the end of things. Garth spent the rest of the trip back to the Conservatory pestering me with excited questions about the nature of fiendfyre and how it could burn water, and I did my best to answer what questions I could without revealing too much about the spell’s nature.
Zatanna was still where I’d left her, guarding the group of injured civilians closest to the Conservatory. As soon as I returned she excused herself and swam over to me, swiftly checking me over for injuries and generally being relieved when she found none. At that point, the two of us left Aqualad and Garth behind and headed right for our room. The two looked like they could use some privacy and I really, really wanted to lie down.
I didn’t really have the energy to do much when we finally made it to bed, but I still did my best to turn Zatanna into a thoroughly satisfied puddle of gorgeous witch. I wanted her to know just how much I appreciated her and valued her presence and I think she got the message somewhere around the fourth time she screamed my name as she climaxed. Or maybe the fifth. Or sixth. Or possibly the seventh. That might have been it. Needless to say, we both slept very deeply after that, our bodies intertwined beneath the sheets.
The next day was Saturday, the Atlantean’s weekly day of rest, but this time unfortunately Zatanna and I were unable to spend the morning furthering our understanding of each other’s bodies as we had the week before. Sure we did a little of that, but before we could go too far we were interrupted by a knock on the door.
When I was finally presentable, I found a royal messenger waiting for me outside the door, summoning the two of us to meet with the Queen at our ‘earliest convenience’. I knew enough about how important people communicated to understand that ‘your earliest convenience’ meant right now, so Zatanna and I quickly got dressed and headed over to the Queen’s office at the Conservatory.
We arrived to find nearly two-dozen people bustling in and out of the office and a pair of no-nonsense looking guards––a human-looking dark-skinned Atlantean with gills on his neck and an enormous sharkman with endless rows of gleaming white teeth––flanking the doorway with their weapons held at the ready.
We joined the queue and about fifteen minutes later were finally allowed in to meet with the queen. Despite the early hour, Mera looked exhausted. She hid it well, but I could see the signs clear as day. I knew what a missed night of sleep combined with magical exhaustion looked like and she bore most of the signs I’d seen more than once in a mirror or on the faces of my classmates before an important exam.
She looked up as we swam into the room and her expression brightened slightly. “Ah, Hydrys, Zatanna, just who I was hoping to see. Thank you for coming.”
I bowed my head. “Fair morning, Headmistress. It seems as though you’ve had a long night.”
She smiled tightly. “And an even longer morning, unfortunately. Things are finally starting to settle down, thankfully, particularly now that my husband has finally returned. You’d think that with how concerned Orm was about my health last night he’d be happy to take some of this,” she gestured to the piles of ‘paperwork’ scattered across her desk, “off my hands, but alas.”
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” I quoted softly.
“Indeed. Something I oft wish my husband took to heart, but alas.”
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“I’m sure he’s doing his best,” Zatanna tried diplomatically. “I know from my dad how hard all the members of the Justice League work.”
Mera sighed. “He certainly works hard, that is not in question. I just wish at times that he put his crown ahead of his other responsibilities. Atlantis needs its High King, and yet––” she cut herself off and shook her head. “Now is not the time for that.” She closed her eyes, sighed heavily, then straightened slightly, some of the exhaustion in her features washed away by years of training.
“Hydrys Black, Zatanna Zatara,” she addressed us each in turn, “On behalf of myself, my husband, High King Orin of Atlantis, and all the peoples of this city, I would like to formally thank you for your efforts last night. I have spoken at length with members of the Poseidonis Guard, the Royal Army, and my husband’s protégé Kaldur'ahm, and they have all praised your heroism, hard work, and quick thinking. Without your efforts, many more lives would have been lost and the architect of this horrific attack would have escaped to further plot against our fair Kingdom.”
She folded both of her hands over her belly and bowed her head briefly, then straightened. Her words and gratitude both sounded completely sincere, even with all the training I’d gone through to help me learn when someone was trying to deceive me. I was honestly somewhat surprised by the show of respect, though from what I knew of Atlantean culture it was greatly lessened by the fact that I was speaking to the Queen and not the High King and his court, but I appreciated it nonetheless. Assuming the news of what I’d done was allowed to spread, it seemed as though my actions had paid off in terms of reputation if nothing else.
“Thank you, your majesty,” I replied after a moment, bowing to the same depth as she had. I wasn’t completely certain that was right, but it lined up with what I knew from my own lessons and I was pretty sure any minor mistakes I made would be excused for lack of knowledge. “You and your people have been very kind and welcoming to us these past days. How could I do otherwise in good conscience?”
Mera smiled. “Your words reflect well on you, Hydrys. And yet, how could we not reward such heroism? Atlantis is generous to those who aid us in our hour of need and merciless to those who cross us. I have seen your voracious appetite for knowledge since you’ve arrived in my Conservatory. What more does your heart and mind desire that we can provide?”
Her words were formal, but there was a hint of real warmth in her voice. She really did believe that we, I, deserved something for my efforts. I’d need to be careful to avoid asking for too much, but I had a feeling that I could get some really good things from her, particularly if they didn’t require too much money or effort on her part.
Still, there was a way these things were done. We didn’t have much of an audience right now, just Zatanna, the Queen’s guards, and two scribes working near the back of the room, but appearances had to be kept. “Heroism is its own reward. Every life saved from Black Manta’s heartless acts is a priceless treasure.”
“I could not agree more. Unfortunately, I fear Atlantis can not offer you anything worth as much as the lives you’ve preserved, but I am certain there is something you desire that we possess.”
Mera tilted her head to the side and I got the message. She was tired and just wanted to get this figured out so she could go take care of the million and one other things on her plate right now. “Well, if you insist––”
“We do. It would shame us to not reward such valiant efforts”
“Then I can probably think of a few things…”
We didn’t speak for much longer after that. I floated a few ideas and Mera told me that she’d look into it and that we should meet again once things had settled down. After that, she dismissed the two of us and we were quickly replaced by a group of three self-important looking Atlanteans that Mera seemed thoroughly annoyed to see.
‘Once things had settled down’ ended up being two days later, the second to last day Zatanna and I had at the Conservatory. I met with the Queen in her office at the Conservatory once again and we spent about an hour hammering out details. The first thing I asked for was future access to the Conservatory, something that she was more than happy to give me. My temporary pass was replaced by a proper student identification and I would be forever welcome to visit the library or attend classes here.
Other requests were slightly more complicated, but something she was still willing to agree to. One-on-one lessons with her were on the table, but they would have to wait for some time. Access to the restricted parts of the Conservatory library was also possible, but only to the first two restricted floors, which was plenty enough in my eyes. My request for a path to acquiring property in the city was answered by a firm ‘probably’ and a request to give her some time to get things settled. She was happy to find me something, but it would have to wait until crucial infrastructure was rebuilt.
Some of the other ideas I floated similarly would take time to arrange. For instance, I asked for the opportunity to examine some of the kingdom’s magical artifacts so that I could potentially gain their blueprints. That would however require all sorts of authorizations and considerations that she just couldn’t give me right away but would consider and look into for me.
Finally we came to what was probably my biggest request. I wanted Mera to take on another student, at least on a temporary basis. Zatanna. Mera tentatively agreed, but told me she’d need to figure things out with Giovanni directly, something that would also take time. Still, she did agree, so I considered that a win, even if it would take time for her to arrange everything.
I thanked her profusely and left things there, not wanting to push too far past the limits of her generosity. I’d gotten what I really wanted and more, everything else was just icing on the cake. With a teacher as talented and powerful as Mera, I was certain that Zatanna’s skills would progress by leaps and bounds, and I was confident Mera wouldn’t coddle her the way her father and Kent insisted on doing. Zatanna would finally learn the skills she needed to protect herself, something that took a great weight off my back. If I wasn’t here to protect her, I wanted to make sure Zatanna would be okay.
When I told Zatanna about what I’d asked the Queen for, she hugged me tightly enough to make my back creak, then physically dragged me to our bed and thanked me. Thoroughly. With her tongue. And breasts. And several other parts of her anatomy as well. She was confident she’d be able to make her father see things her way and was very excited to learn from the experienced witch,
The rest of our time at the Conservatory passed with little fanfare. Zatanna’s school had already started and she’d missed the first few days of classes, but was unable to buy any more time from her father. We wished our new friends goodbye, promised to visit, and then on the evening of the thirty-first, we met up with Kent and he escorted us back to the surface.
Well, he escorted Zatanna at least. I took a portkey back home because I knew Giovanni was waiting for his daughter at the Zeta Tube and I really didn’t want to run into him right now. I didn’t think he’d be able to immediately realize what the two of us had been up to for the past two weeks, but I also didn’t want to risk getting murdered by an enraged father. I would miss Zatanna’s nightly company, but I’m certain she’d be happy to make it up to me whenever we did have the time to meet up.
And that was that. It was lonely going to bed alone. It had only been two weeks, but I’d grown used to having a warm body beside me as I drifted off to sleep. Well, hopefully we'll be able to figure out a way to return to our prior sleeping arrangements soon. Something to think about.