Chapitre 53: I
Young Justice: Poseidonis
August 27th, 2010
I really wasn't sure what this whole giant ice cube thing was about, but if Black Manta had decided to stage an attack on an entire city to get it, then it was probably important, valuable, or dangerous. Whichever was the case, it was probably best he didn't succeed in obtaining it. The man was a terrorist with a strong dislike for Atlantis, a Kingdom I currently had a vested interest in supporting. How else was I supposed to learn their magic?
Unfortunately the grunt I'd interrogated knew basically nothing useful. Black Manta ran a tight ship and made sure to compartmentalize important information. I'd actually gotten lucky with the man I'd chosen to interrogate. He only knew about the target of the attack because he'd overheard something from a higher-ranked grunt who was organizing transportation for the object in question.
I returned to the cluster of damaged buildings to find that most of the civilians had been herded into cover, the killed and wounded moved somewhere out of the way, and the handful of remaining guards vigilantly watching the waters with their bidents and other weapons held close at hand.
I waved as I approached and the guard––the same one who I'd spoken with earlier––saluted me. "The reinforcements are all taken care of," I told her as I approached, and she sighed in relief, bubbles rising up from her mouth.
"That's good to hear. Thank you, sir."
I smiled at her tightly. "Good work getting people to safety. I don't sense anyone else inside." My revealing spell had mostly faded by now, but some awareness of the people I'd initially detected remained on the edge of my mind. Blue mana was very good at augmenting that sort of magic, I'd found. Too good, even, in some cases. My one and only time trying to use a supersensory charm with a mote of blue mana in it had left me with a raging headache that neither occlumency nor muggle medicine could abate.
She nodded sharply. "Just doing our jobs. It's good to know we didn't miss anyone. Thank you for the confirmation."
"I'm just glad I was here in time to help."
She clapped a hand against her chest. "We certainly appreciate it. My men and I won't forget what you've done for us today."
Something clicked inside me and I felt a new blueprint lock into place, but I didn't have time to consider it right now, nor the implications of how I'd gotten it. "Right. Well, the attack isn't over yet. The men I incapacitated are that way, about two-hundred yards between two buildings. They're encased in stone and unconscious, but otherwise unhurt. You'll probably want someone to move them to prison or whatever later. I interrogated one of them and it looks like their goal is the Science Center. Some kind of big hunk of ice they're researching? I'm going to go see if I can help over there."
"Understood. Do what you need to do, sir. I'll pass the information along to my superiors."
"Good. Then I'll be off. Farewell."
And then I swam off towards where I could feel Zatanna. She was next to one of the damaged buildings, using her logomancy to repair a damaged column that looked like it might give way at any moment.
"Zee," I called out as I approached, not wanting to startle her right now.
She turned around. "Hydrys! Did you get them?"
"All taken care of, and I found their real target. They're trying to steal some kind of ice block from the Science Center. I'm going to go try and help."
"I'm coming with you," she told me immediately, but this time I was much less willing to budge.
I shook my head. "They need you here, Zee. There's like a half-dozen guards left and ten times that many people to protect. What will happen if more of Black Manta's men show up and neither of us is around? They'll get massacred." It was mostly an excuse to keep her from coming with me. Zee was a powerful witch, but her magic was slower than mine and she still needed a lot more practice before I was willing to see her risk her life in a fight.
Zatanna cared about people. A lot more than I did, certainly. As long as I pitched things as helping people and not leaving her behind because I wanted to coddle her, she'd maybe understand.
Zatanna squeezed her eyes shut and I pounced. "Please, Zee. I'd feel a lot better leaving if I knew someone was here to take care of these people. They need a hero right now, and you're the best option they have."
"I don't want you to go off alone," Zatanna said softly. "What if you get hurt?"
"I'll be fine," I promised. "Whatever happens, I'm pretty sure I can at least get away. My shield is really good against those weapons they're using, and I can always apparate or portkey away if I get in over my head."
Zatanna swam forward and hugged me tightly. "If you get hurt, I'll never forgive you, or myself."
"Then I better not get hurt. Sounds easy enough."
"Fine. Go, I'll stay here." She turned away and I just barely heard her final words, barely more than a whisper amplified by the charms on her rings. "I guess that's something I should start getting used to."
I pursed my lips. That…was not ideal. Then I sighed. "I'll be back soon, Zee. I still owe you a round from this morning and there's no way some stupid criminals will keep me from paying you back."
Zatanna laughed and I smiled. Hopefully that was one issue at least moderately averted. Now on to saving the giant ice cube. I twisted and vanished, reappearing a moment later inside my dorm room. A flick of my wand summoned my broom and then I was off, racing out of the dorm and towards the distant dome of the Science Center.
I'd never been inside the building, but we'd passed it during the tour that Garth and Tula had given Zatanna and I. It was in the same general part of the city as the Conservatory, but on the far end of the district. Swimming manually, it would have taken me twenty minutes to get there. With hydromancy, I could probably cut that down to four or five minutes, but I'd arrive rather exhausted and in no shape to fight. With my seventh-generation underwater broom? I made the trip in three, zooming through the water like a torpedo.
I arrived to find a black submarine floating over the top of the science center, a large hole melted into the great glass dome that separated the top section of the building from the surrounding waters. There were dozens of Atlantean bodies floating through the water around the building, but I saw no other signs of Manta's men.
There was something hanging down from the bottom of the manta-ray shaped vehicle, a cable leading down through the hole and into the Science Center. How big was this ice cube anyway? Were they planning to haul it away like a carriage hanging from the claws of a dragon?
I swam towards the dome, intent on assessing the situation at hand before getting involved, when suddenly the inside of the dome was illuminated by orange light. My eyes widened and I slashed my wand through the air on instinct alone. "Protego horribilis!"
The spherical shield, barely big enough to fit me and my broom, snapped into place in the nick of time. A powerful shockwave slammed into the shield, sending it and me careening through the water wildly. The remaining glass covering the half-melted dome shattered, sending spinning chunks of razor-sharp debris flying in all directions.
The stabilizing charms on my broom steadied us before we could fly too far, and I watched as a black-armored figure wearing an oversized helmet shot up from the dome and swam rapidly towards the submarine.
Had they already retrieved the ice block and stored it away inside the sub? Had something gone wrong? What was that explosion?
A concealed door on the submarine opened and the man vanished through it. That helmet wasn't like what the other men had been wearing, marking whoever that was as someone special. Perhaps even Black Manta himself. Letting him and whoever, or whatever, else was in that submarine get away seemed like a bad idea.
Single-handedly capturing the architect of this attack…now that sounded like the sort of thing that got a wizard unrestricted access to the really good stuff at the bottom of the Conservatory library.
I smiled. That certainly sounded like a fabulous idea to me.
Unfortunately, I didn't really know too much magic that would help me out right now. A volley of bombardment spells or exploding charms would probably disable the ship, but neither spell worked underwater. It was too big to transfigure and I doubted any barricade I could conjure or create would be large enough to stop it either.
There was however one spell that would probably do the trick. One spell I'd been working on a lot in the past two months. One spell that was actually easier to work with underwater.
Perhaps it wasn't the best idea. Perhaps it wasn't the safest idea. Perhaps it would be better to try and come up with another plan. But it was a plan and it certainly seemed like a good way to cement my standing as a powerful wizard and valuable ally.
I took a deep breath. When the Atlanteans thought of pyromancy, they thought of spells that controlled heat. After all, fire could not burn in the depths of the sea, right? Well. Most fires couldn't.
When I thought of pyromancy, I thought of just one spell. I extended the tip of my wand out through the dome of my shield. Protego horribilis was very useful because it was selectively permeable to magic. With focus, it could let your spells through, but stop the spells of others. Very, very useful in a duel or battle.
Sometimes though, it was better to avoid accidentally damaging your best protective spell. "Pestis Incendium," I declared gleefully. It was so rare that a good opportunity to use a spell like this arose.
A scarlet droplet bloomed from the tip of my wand, then another, and another. I swiftly withdrew my wand and narrowed my eyes, my mind utterly focused on the nascent flames. Between one moment and the next, three drops became six, then twelve, then twenty four, and then they were no longer droplets at all but tiny sparks of flame rapidly swelling as they burned the water and magic around them for sustenance.
I fed more magic into the spell, both accelerating its growth and binding it more closely to me at the same time. That was one of the things you really had to be careful about with fiendfyre. You had to balance how much it fed and how much control you had over it. If it slipped for even an instant, you could be dead and reduced to nothing but more fuel before you had a chance to flee or regain control.
The cursed flames writhed and grew. In a handful of seconds, they went from a few drops to a roaring firestorm, the bodies and faces of magical creatures lurking in the depths of the fire. I pointed my wand at the submarine and gave the flames a single command, the only one they truly understood.
"Burn," I whispered softly, and the fiendfyre jumped to obey.
Before my spark ignited, I never would have dared to use fiendfyre like this. Even now, I was slightly leary of the spell and I certainly would never fuel it with mana if I had a choice. It was simply too dangerous to everyone to use on a whim.
However, since I'd become a planeswalker, my control over my own magic had grown by leaps and bounds. Plus, while fiendfyre could burn water, it was far worse at doing so than burning most other things. Even if my control slipped, the flames wouldn't go fully out of control and would eventually be smothered by the cold, dark waters.
Furthermore, Mera was here somewhere––a witch who I was fully confident could extinguish any blaze I could create even if I was unable to manage the feat myself. I'd tested it already and hydromancy absolutely could be used to extinguish the flames, though I'd only experimented with a tiny amount of the cursed fire, nothing like the storm I was using now.
The fiendfyre raced through the water, leaving clouds of steam and an empty vacuum of burnt nothingness in its wake as it consumed everything in its path. Water rushed in to replace what had been burned away, but my shield and ring protected me from the sudden currents and pressure.
It swelled as it moved, transforming from a loose cloud of white-hot flames into a roaring dragon soaring through the ocean. Then it reached the submarine and fell upon it with a vengeance. It wrapped around the submarine and began to burn it from the outside in, stripping away the armored plating and everything else it touched.
Through it all, I kept my mind firm and my control utter. I burnt away the surface of the submarine and nothing more, leaving the people and cargo inside undamaged. As soon as I was sure that the vehicle wouldn't be going anywhere, I forced my fiendfyre back, crushing its every effort to break free and creating a cage around the remains of the submarine.
Several of Black Manta's men poured out from the submarine and tried to escape from the cage, but their attempts were utterly futile. Their weapons had no effect on the flames and the gaps between the bars were too small to swim through. The one man who tried anyway was consumed in an instant, reducing his body to ashes and then not even that. The fiendfyre's nascent will crashed against mine, the flames hungry for more, more, more, but I would not give in. I would not be bested by my own magic.
Eventually, Aqualad and Garth arrived, both dressed in the same armor as Black Manta's men but without the helmets. Soon after, a large force of Atlantean guards arrived, these ones clearly better armed and armored then the usual men I'd seen so far. I created an opening in the fiendfyre cage for them, and they swiftly entered the submarine and began carrying out prisoners.
Last to emerge was Black Manta himself, the man I'd seen with the weird helmet earlier. He was bound hand and foot by cords of silvery water and flanked by four soldiers.
Aqualad swam over to me. "It is done. You may release your spell now."
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. My mind ached from the strain of controlling fiendfyre for so long, but I would not be denied. Bar by bar, flame by flame, the fiendfyre flickered and died. The last flames were the hardest to dispel, the ones most fed on life and magic to extinguish without a fight.
I raised my hand, the one without a wand in it, and squeezed it shut. The water around the remaining flames mimicked my action, hydromantically enhanced water snuffing out the final embers.
I released a huge breath of air and sagged. Maybe fiendfyre hadn't been the ideal tool here. That had been…a lot longer than I'd been expecting to need to control the flames. I was…very tired. Very, very tired.
Well. At least I knew I could do it now? That had been…how long? Minutes. Many minutes? I wasn't really sure. But it had been a lot longer than any of my previous experiments with the cursed flames, that was for certain.
Eighteen years old and more proficient with fiendfyre than any wizard five times my age should be. Damn I was good.
Damn I needed a nap. Like, right now.
And so Black Manta and many of his men have been captured, but the big ice cube was still destroyed in the explosion Black Manta caused. I rolled a few dice for this chapter and unfortunately Hydrys just wasn't fast enough to get here in time to change things too much. But, Black Manta is now a captive of Atlantis, and I have a feeling they'll be a slightly tougher nut to crack than Belle Reve.
In any case, Hydrys is clearly quite a hero, and he has a few days left in Poseidonis. Is there anything specific he'd like to ask for? You can vote for multiple options, higher voted options will get more weight but not all options are equally hard to get/might have different rewards based on priority.
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."
"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.
And so ends the Atlantis arc. Or maybe the first Atlantis arc? In any case, its just about time for Hydrys to finally go off and begin exploring the multiverse for real. He has a few things to take care of first, but next chapter we'll be getting our next Planeswalk vote. Now, what is Hydrys thinking as he goes into his first attempt to leave this plane? This isn't locked in stone assuming something happens in the first location, but just a general sense of what he's interested in and what he'll tell people before he leaves.
[] Its best to start things off with a short trip. Just a few days. Hopefully that will be enough time to get the lay of the land, bind a new land so you can return to that plane in the future, and then head back home to recover and consider what you've learned.
[] A short trip is just not long enough to really know what you're getting into. It took about a week to figure out what was going on in this world, and that seems like a good amount of time to you.
[] You don't want to be gone for too long, but you really do want the time to explore. A month seems like a good bet. Not too long, not too short.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone