Chapter : 55

The Fastest Man Alive

Chapter 55

Pandamonium

Nick Fury

Director of S.H.I.E.L.D

Nick Fury sat in his office, rubbing the bridge of his brow. It had been a few days since the metahuman world was launched into pandemonium. When something had happened to the moon, the first thing Fury thought was that the Earth was finally under attack. Hell, he wished they were under attack, because when his sister had called and informed him of what had happened, he didn’t know how in the fuck he was going to explain this situation to the World Security Council.

Fury wanted nothing else other than to shoot that overpowered nephew of his in the face. No one had told him, but Fury was certain that Ben could survive a nuke. And if he can survive something like that, then he could let his favorite uncle release some tension with a few rounds to the face.

Maybe he could get a hologram made of his nephew for his private shooting range. Today, Fury had been called to a joint meeting of the President and the World Security Council in order to discuss the “my nephew broke the moon” situation. Generally, he had better things to do, but it seemed this particular meeting was over the report he had filed the other day about the “the incident”. The world knew it as a stealth meteor impact, but SHIELD had satellites and eyes everywhere, so they knew better. Needless to say, he had plans to spin this to his benefit.

Brushing by the two guards at the door with barely a glance, Fury glided across a gorgeous blue carpet with a certain eagle embossed in its middle, moving with the silk-smooth grace of a professional spy.

Fury looked up at the wall of monitors showing various world leaders. Observing the British Prime Minister, Fury noticed the office in the background. That could only mean she was in the MI5 building, with Captain Britain somewhere in the room. The Russian Prime Minister was inside one of their safe houses, and Pierce was calling in from a certain bank under Washington D.C. Not saying anything, Fury placed the folder he was carrying on top of the table.

“Forget what the report says,” councilman Rockwell said from his monitor, “We must bring him in and have him answer for it.”. Several minutes passed as Fury violently clamped his jaw shut, an angry sort of mumbled growl-hiss leaving his mouth whenever a particularly stupid comment was made.

“I say we vote on declaring Jason Todd a threat to humanity.” The Korean Prime Minister spoke.

Sighing out loud, Fury once again regretted he was having world leaders involved in his job.

“We can’t do that.” Fury spoke up from his seat.

“Nice to see you Nick, but I don’t see why we should vote on this matter,” Pierce asked from his monitor.

Fury looked at those that were around the table before getting up from his seat. Pulling out a holo-table from the hidden “bag of holding” fitted into his “badass trenchcoat” (his nephew insisted on the names), Fury moved to the front of the room. “Because he isn’t a threat unless we make him one.”

“Well, with what has happened to the moon, it’s hard to see him another way.” Spoke the President of the United States.

“Yes, well, from what I have gathered from my sources someone decided to step on our asset’s toes,” Fury spoke, before an image sprang forth from his holo-tablet. “Magneto decided to do what I believe we are about to do and that is, make an enemy of Mr. Todd.”

“What does Magneto have to do with the moon’s situation, our satellites only picked up one anomaly in motion.” one of the World Security Council members said. The lower right corner of his screen changed to show a shirtless Benjamin flying through the air. Sighing inwards, Fury was at least partially happy that his now adult form resembled his Jason Todd persona.

“Well, it seems Magneto decided he wanted the throne of our asset.” Fury said as the image changed to a recent photograph of Magneto. Fury wanted to show a picture of Magneto’s current state, but he decided that he could use that later. It would have a far better impact.

“And that leads to thirty-eight percent of the moon being destroyed how?” The President of the United States asked.

“He was fighting against what we call an Omega class meta-human.” Fury said so seriously you could cut the tension in the air with a knife.

“So they had a little scuffle, that doesn’t explain the moon.” One of the Council Members spoke.

“No, this was not a scuffle as you would like to call it, this was a one-sided slaughter.” Fury spoke as the images he showed changed to the decimated form of Magneto and the rest of his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. “Todd is a king that doesn’t move unless he has to, but when Magneto invaded he sent the best of the best, and they did not survive the encounter.

“According to my source, the only reason why Todd fought on that moon was to not cause collateral damage to the earth. Hell, we had him classified as at least a class 10 with a “Do Not Disturb” tag attached to his name. We have no idea about the upper levels of Jason’s powers and I would rather keep him on our side instead of turning him into an enemy.”

Fury could see the contemplative looks on each of their faces, but of course, there had to be that one with far fewer brain cells than the rest.

“How large could his little nation be if none of us has ever heard of it.” the council member from Mumbai said.

“Well here is a little context of the matter.” Fury said, keeping his face neutral. “Our friend Mr. Todd here is a king of his own sovereign nation, Pandora, a nation that as of yesterday is in fact the largest on this planet.”

The image changed to a holographic globe which outlined the borders of each country, To the council’s shock, the oceans were covered by a great red swath. Mutterings went around the room, several declaring the map to be a fraud.

“I can assure you that this is the latest report I was able to receive this morning.” Fury spoke with such a deadly calm he had everyone on the edges of their seats. “It seems that Namor had aligned with Magneto and decided to participate in the attack as well. And let’s just say… he didn’t make it.”

The holo-image shifted to show the ripped in half form of Namor laying on the beach.

“Mr. Todd ripped through everything before battling another Omega-level mutant known as Exodus on the surface of the moon, in order to not do this“—the images shifted to a cracked lunar surface—”to the surface of the planet.”

“We must also remember, Mr. Todd has proven himself to be an ally to SHIELD and the WSC, providing us with massive upgrades in our weaponry. Hell, I had finally closed out a deal for the DELTA SIX accelerator suits. Additionally, in exchange for leaving his nation out of global politics, he has offered us Magneto and his ‘Brotherhood of Evil Mutants’, in addition to far more advanced weaponry.”

The image shifted once more to one of a sleek futurist gunmetal grey and black super suit. On one of the hands was a miniaturized mini-gun and on the other was hanging over the shoulder. Missile pods and other weapons festooned the surface of the armor and Fury swore one of the military leaders creamed his pants.

The Russian Prime Minister slammed his fist on the table.

“Enough of this! Regardless of his gifts, we can not let the damage to the moon stand!” The Russian Prime Minister spoke while slamming a fist down on his table.

The President of the United States countered: “I vote we have the United Nations extend an invite to Jason Todd, and to appoint his nation a representative in the UN in exchange for limited oversight on matters of planetary importance. “

“That will not work,” Fury said, trying to keep his voice as neutral as he could.

“Why not?” The Prime Minister of Britain asked.

“Okay, let me clear this up so that everyone can understand.” Fury spoke looking at the room. “The issue arises when you decide to try and sanction a nation that’s not apart of the world economy. He has no reason to listen to us: we have nothing he wants. Not to mention the fact that he is the leader of one of the world’s largest and most powerful militaries, if what we saw during Magneto’s invasion was an example… There is nothing we can do besides hearing out his offer”

“Thank you, Director, that will be all for now.” Alexander Pierce spoke, and Fury heard the dismissal in those words clear as day. Picking up his files, Fury turned around and left without a second glance backward. No one noticed the small RFID tag he had placed under the table. Strolling down the hall, Fury cut a path as his trench coat billowed behind him in a display of pure badassery.

Fury smirked at the last guard as he waited for the elevator to take him upwards and back to his vehicle. The set of doors opened with a “ping”, not paying anyone any mind, Fury got into the elevators and rode it back up. Fury raised a single eyebrow at the cart that waited on him as he arrived at the proper floor, where his sister sat, tapping their childhood code on the steering wheel.

Moving as if his driver was completely normal, Fury got onto the cart and rode it back into the underground garage. He waited for his sister to sign the cart back into the lock-up before she left, and was mildly unnerved when she came back around driving his SUV.

“Do I even want to know how you gained a copy of my keys, because I know I haven’t let them out of my sight, ever.” Fury spoke while settling into his seat.

“Nicky we both know I’m the better spy,” Judith answered with a snort. “So, what’s the verdict?”

“I was not told, I was dismissed by Pierce.”

Judith began to slowly nod her head, mumbling to herself.

“No, Judith,” he said, ” you can’t kill him. Remember that deal you have in play with the United Nations. You don’t kill highly placed officials and they won’t open your files again.”

“I wasn’t going to kill him! I have a daughter-in-law for that.”

“Yes, the Widow. How did that knucklehead even tame a woman like her?”

“I have no clue, to be honest,” Judith replied with a shake of her head. “Then again, I don’t think I want to know how my baby boy is keeping all his women happy. I’m his mother and I don’t plan to get involved in any of his bedroom activities.”

“Yeah, I know how you feel about that. Did I tell you how I almost shot that chicken winged fool Michelle brought home?” Fury asked his sister.

“Haha, I can only imagine,” Judith laughed as she turned onto the highway. They fell back into companionable silence as they drove.

“You know he isn’t going to agree with any deal they try and force him into?” Judith said, turning.

“I know.”

Judith released a sigh as she changed lanes.

“Then you should have said something.”

Fury shrugged.

“I was dismissed after trying to impress upon them how unlikely he is to accept someone else’s judgment.”

“What more do they want? I’ve already tempered his urge to bring the world to heel!”

Fury snorted.”Yeah, I could tell after he left Wakanda without doing to them as he did with Namor and Atlantis.”

This time, it was Judith’s turn to offer a detached shrug.

“That was a nasty bit of work.”

“Agreed.” Fury stated neutrally.

“You say that, but I heard you already marked Namor off your hit list. And there’s the little fact you were looking into recruiting one or two of Benjy’s people for the Avengers program.” Judith replied as she took a turn down the off-ramp.

Fury turned to look at his sister before releasing a huff of air. “Yeah, I want one of those kids working for me. I believe we can do a lot of good, but I don’t think they’re cut out for the lifestyle.”

Judith nodded. “No, the kids aren’t, but Natasha and I have evaluated a few of the older ones Benjy rescued, and they would make decent agents,” Judith replied as she came to a stop at the red light.

“Is he going to let me recruit them?” Fury asked eyes still on the road.

“Yeah, but he is going to have the island lawyers look it over. I did tell him not to rake you over the coals though, since you’re family and all.” Judith stated with clear mirth in her voice.

“He isn’t going to leave me much room to work with is he?” Fury asked.

“He’ll let them decide, since I asked him not to get involved. You’ll have to curb your propensity on giving it to people without lube, or he will withdraw his people.” Judith replied smoothly.

“Fine,” Fury replied with a snort of his own.

Judith let out a sigh”I will see what I can do to make sure you don’t get fleeced,” Judith replied as she pulled into the underground parking leading to the Triskelion.

“And I’ll see what I can do on my end.” Fury said, as he opened the door to the SUV and stepped out.

O.O.O.O

Benjamin Blake.

Island: Pandora

Father, King

August 21, 2010

For the first time in a while, I was feeling relaxed. I was sitting in my lab with the kids: Sophie sat on my leg, going over her flight harness, and Alfred was sitting in the chair beside me working on the chest piece to his Megaman-style armor. Magneto was sent off not too long ago, and Fury and the United Nations wanted to make a big show of catching him. I didn’t really care about it, to be honest, I was doing my own thing with my budding Empire.

Yeah, we were at Empire status now, especially when I conquered Atlantis. Sue wasn’t too happy when she heard about that, but it was better for Atlantis that I was in charge instead of the previous royal family. Granted, I wasn’t the best option, but at least I was going to take care of my people regardless of their station in life.

In total, Attilan added about five thousand to my population, but that wouldn’t be enough for an Empire. No, the real benefit came from Atlantis. Atlantis increased my population by about two million people, and damn was that an interesting surprise.

I now had millions of people relying on me to do the right thing, and I was far too stunned to do anything once that realization hit, I stood there in my throne room at the top of the heart tree until my father had found me.

We had stayed up there for the whole night, speaking about a man’s duty, and what he should do for his people. We talked about how I had first wanted to be a hero, and how things had gone so off the rails. Fuck, looking back at it all, there was no way I could have made it to where I was if I hadn’t adapted. Humming to myself about it all, I pushed that thought aside as I stopped my baby girl from connecting the power supply to her flight harness.

“Slow it down, Sophie,” I said as I held her little hand in my own. “Let’s plug it into the table’s power supply first, and then run a cold boot before we connect the one that will be seated inside.”

Sophie looked up at me with a hopeful twinkle in her eyes, before she saw my expression and her little shoulders slumped. Chuckling to myself, I placed a kiss on her forehead before activating the wireless power supply to the work table. Sophie looked at the universal plug I handed her with wide eyes, her face spreading into a wide smile.

She didn’t even bat an eye at me before she leapt up, taking the power leads and going directly for the harness. Before she could connect them I activated the table’s security field as a precautionary measure. I watched silently as Sophie stuck a tongue out at the side of her mouth as she focused intently on the controls to her flight harness. I almost chuckled as I watched the system to her harness gave her the all-clear.

Picking up the mini crown at the side, I placed it on top of her head and waited for her to activate the systems on her harness. Hard light projectors flared to life before sputtering out for after a blink, but slowly wings began to form`. I noted a bit of spark when it was booting up, but I had those wires replaced and fixed with some insulation before Sophie could tell I was doing it. I had them on the side to use as a learning tool, but I wanted her to succeed on her first attempt to repair her own tech,

After a few minutes, the system had finally run its diagnostics, and everything came back with an all clear. Picking Sophie up from my lap, I placed her on the table before me and helped her try on her new-and-improved flight harness.

Pulling up my omni-tool, I changed some settings and watched as Sophie started to sprout hard light constructs in the form of butterfly wings. Sophie gasped as the wings fluttered behind her, she then took to the sky.

“No, you don’t little lady,” I said, pulling her back down out of the air. “No flying around over the lab equipment.”

“But daaaaaaadddddyyyyy.” Sophie whined as I held her up by her harness. She then turned and attacked my heart with a completely unfair critical hit. The pouting face, trembling lips and red moist eyes almost had me caving as any father should. Unfortunately for her, I was made of sterner stuff, a quick flick to the forehead fixed that issue right up.

Laughing at her, I waited till she stopped rubbing her forehead before picking her back up and placing her to sit on my lap. I double-checked the harness and made sure everything reached my own standards before removing the lab power and replacing it with its own power supply. Once I was satisfied with the harness, I picked Sophie up before trans-locating us to the garden where her sisters were with the rest of her mothers. Before anyone could say anything, I was back in my labs building the improved flight harness for my other two girls.

At the speeds I was going, they were completed within mere nanoseconds before I appeared back outside with both of them in my hands. I handed the blue and white to Celeste, while the green and white went to her sister, Phoebe. Once I was certain the girls had their harnesses on safely, I watched them take off and fly around. A few minutes later, I decided it was best to head back into my lab and not leave Alfred alone, and gave Emma and Raven a kiss before heading back inside.

On the way, I noticed Tony trying to talk Peter into wearing one of his suits. Peter was being stubborn about it, but that was to be expected. He was known as Spider-Man, not Iron-Lad, after all.

This was going to be Tony’s learning moment: why should I stick my nose into it?

Walking back into my lab, I found Alfred trying on his chest plate, after adding a new lining of kinetic absorption fabric.

Walking over, I tapped my son on the shoulder, startling him.

“You do know all you have to do is ask for some help right?” I said before pulling up my chair.

“You were busy,” Alfred replied with a shrug as he put back down the chest piece.

“Fair enough I suppose,” I said with a sigh, before reaching over to tap on his omni-tool, changing his clothes into a bodysuit. Smiling at his red and black suit, I turned to pick up the chest piece he was having so many issues with.

With Alfred in the bodysuit, it wasn’t that hard to locate the issue with his new chest piece. When he wasn’t looking I pulled down the chest piece before taking a picture for his mothers. Alfred was suffering from a big man in little clothes syndrome and it was far too funny not to share. Flipping the photo around on my omni-tool, I showed it to Alfred after I sent it out. The crestfallen look on his face was almost too much, I wanted to give him a hug. Shaking my head at him, I was in motion again, before he knew what was happening. The chest piece he had on was removed and I was back out of sight moving at speeds no eye could keep track of.

Within moments, I had another set of armor made for Alfred, complete with a mega-buster and ability to self adjust to the wearer. This way he could wear it until he had his first growth spurt, if he didn’t decide to upgrade. Alfred had no chance to react before I had the new armor over his head.

Sitting in my chair, I returned to standard speeds before hitting the activation key in my omni-tool. Alfred jumped a little once he noticed that he was in a new set of armor with an improved chest piece. Shaking my head at his reaction, I watched as the armor moved like liquid metal, wrapping its way around his upper torso and arms.

“Thanks,” Alfred muttered.

“It’s alright to ask for help you know,” I said as I watched him examine his new armor.

“I know, it’s just,” Alfred spoke a little too low for me to hear.

“Hmm?”

I waited for him to put his thoughts together as he played with his armor, but I kept close so we could speak.

“This isn’t my original form, but I am trying. It’s just…

He sighed,”I didn’t think being human would be so hard.”

“Nothing is ever easy, but asking for help is just part of life,” I said. “Don’t ever be afraid to ask Alfred, Your mothers and I do it all the time, there’s absolutely no shame in it..”

“Yeah, okay dad,” Alfred answered me. I could only shake my head as I watched him play with his armor. Sighing, I picked him up and brought him to the training room Natasha was currently using. There was no way I was going to let him try out the mega buster in my lab.

Once I was certain that Natasha had the trouble maker under control, I made my way to the science department and took up in my more advanced lab there.

I entered my access codes into one of my more powerful vaults before taking out the runic keystone to the magical shield covering Atlantis and her sister cities. The keystone was shaped like an octagon, set inside a three by six-foot slab. On the top was a small entry port to insert more runic clusters programmed on smaller keystones. All along the main keystone were runic clusters numbered in the billions, if I wasn’t mistaken.

I’m shocked no one has ever thought about combining science and magic together

Runes couldn’t activate without magic being provided, so it was safe to use a laser etching tool to get them onto any surface you might want. That alone would revolutionize magic, but it wasn’t enough. I took that to the next level when I had my magicians write out thousands of sets of runes before sending them to a team of programmers. They then made a neural network to analyze and coordinate the runic clusters into something usable and then much much more.

This was Pandora’s trump card: one of the reasons why Magneto’s powers didn’t work on any of our weaponry, and why Otto’s reactor was so effective in its collection of solar energy.

Putting the main keystone down at my lab table, I opened up a new working project for what I wanted to accomplish. I pulled up the absorption and then isolation runes before the matter-to-energy and a few others I had in mind that could accomplish what I was looking for. The program went to work on sorting out the best way to organize them as I kept searching for the proper runes to handle the pollution under the ocean. The idea behind this keystone was to draw in and disintegrate pollution within one hundred meters of each pillar under the ocean. They would also work for underwater oil spills and so much more. The other keystone was going to have a mild effect I cribbed from none other than Professor Xavier: I knew no one ever noticed the man’s “trust me” aura.

I was going to take advantage of my understanding of the mind and create my own to bring the Atlanteans into the fold a lot quicker than a few years under my rule. I knew it was a moral grey area, but, hey, they still had free will, and I was only doing this to weed out the real diehard nationalists and opportunists. Once the first runic keystone was finished, I placed a fingertip to the top of the little two-by-three inch key and added a bit of charge, and then placed it inside the larger keystone that ran the magical force field construct. Lines of gold lit up along the side of the larger keystone as it absorbed its new programming. Once that was finished I went and did the same to the keystone that carried the Xavier field.

Since I didn’t want to be an outright bastard about it, I made it so the field only worked on those living inside the bounds of the cities. When I was certain that everything was set and programmed right, I added that to the main keystone too.

With that placed correctly, I transitioned to the wardroom, located in one of the underground floors of the heart tree Very few knew I had a wardroom, and even fewer had the correct access to even be in here: the moment I stepped into the room railgun styled cannons turned on a swivel to pin me in place.

I waited for the security bot to scan my face, DNA, and quantum and astral signatures. There was no such thing as overkill: not with how important this room was to the safety of my Empire. I waited for the scanners to finish their work before I walked towards the center of the room. As I walked, the floor beneath me started to descend downwards as the walls changed as if they were inside of a kaleidoscope. I didn’t give it any attention as the world around me shifted as if the room traveled through the fifth dimension. Anyone on the outside looking in would have noticed the roots leading from the wardroom looked like the depiction of Yggdrasil the mythical tree. Around the roots of the tree floated lights to make the surroundings appear to be suspended in space; there were stars as far as the eyes could see.

I walked past the world-tree to the center, where the socket for the main keystone sat waiting. Setting the keystone to float within the air beside me, I bent over to enter the last code. It wasn’t that hard, but the socket was something I pulled from my memories of Skyrim. For me it was an easy turn-style codex system, but for others, it was beyond complex. The rolodex coded system had over fifty rings sitting around the socket, and you had to get each one perfectly before the socket would accept any new inputs from the keystone. A flick of my finger had the rolodex spinning at unimaginable speeds.

Tock…

Tock…

Tock…

With rapid movements, the rolodex stopped perfectly with the code entered into the rings. The keystone floated from my side to hover over the socket and I waited for the power to build before slotting it in.

There was a sound of rushing water as the power I placed into the main keystone sent the updates into the ward scheme of Atlantis and her sister cities. I smiled as I watched the golden lightning travel along the roots and out into the wider world. Standing there, I took a moment to just take it all in.

The ping at my wrist drew me out of my moment of reverie, and so I turned around, and made my way back topside. Touching down at the entrance of the heart tree, I saw Natasha, Medusa, Namora and Andromeda waiting for me. Looking at them, I guess it was about that time we had that little talk about the plans I had for their people.

Nat pulled me in for a kiss (which I returned of course). She wrapped a leg around my waist, and I pulled her in by grabbing myself a hand full of ass. Picking her up, I turned and walked into the building as Natasha finished wrapping her other leg around me. I could feel the ladies behind me blush, trying to figure out if they should follow or not. Instead of breaking out of Natasha’s little hold, I gave a signal to one of my spartans before teleporting upwards to my conference room.

Since the conquest, my ladies had started to become a lot more affectionate: apparently, me standing tall over the corpses of my enemies spoke to some primal urge deep inside them. I sat Natasha on the table before me, then hooked my hands underneath her thighs and pulled her forward. My fingers dug into her beautiful curves as she attempted to taste my breakfast. Chuckling into the kiss, I moved my hands to her then took control. Nat smiled down at me as I moved her hands from around my neck, we were then embrawled in a battle of wills as I slowly moved her hands to her back.

For a split second, I growled at her as she bit into my bottom lip. Quirking an eyebrow at her, I sent a quick jolt of electricity into her system then pinch the nipple that rose to the occasion. Natasha yelped before sending her own bio-electric blast back at me. The blast of electricity washed over me, but I didn’t blink as I felt Natasha scooting her way off the conference table and into my lap. Shaking my head at her antics, I leaned back in my chair and we enjoyed this little moment of peace.

Roughly twenty minutes into our cuddling, we both received a message that their limited tour of the heart tree was over. Nat gave me one last peck on the lips before she got up off my lap.

Turning around once I heard the “ping” of the elevator doors, I input commands into the station before my chair, which had the delightful effect of raising some tasteful holograms before the other seats around the table. I was never one for opulence, but Emma insisted. The room was richly decorated with marble flooring, oak with ebony accents for the table and even the lights up above carried gravity-spun crystals in the fixtures. A quick command to both of our omni-tools had our UMF suits shift to something of a more light business instead of the yoga pants and dad slacks we were wearing before.

Natasha was in her Widows suit but without any of her weapons on display. She gave me a smirk and a once over, but the door opened before she had the chance to say anything. Medusa had a light blush once she caught sight of me while I could feel Andromeda sizing me up. Namora had her political face on but I could tell she had placed her interest in me to the side and was more concerned for what I could do for her people. Granted, I was already doing a lot more for the Atlanteans than Namor had done in his last hundred years on the throne.

“Ladies,” I said with a nod, pulling their attention from Natasha and back to myself.

Medusa took a pause for a moment and I could tell that she was gathering her thoughts.

“I would like to thank you for what you have already done for my people. I know that despite our King’s… less than stellar first impression, you chose to aid our people instead of subjugating them. You have my eternal gratitude. ” Medusa spoke with her head held high. “As the de facto leader of my people, I would like to extend a formal surrender and ask for an alliance with integration between our two people in mind.”

The smile on Natasha’s face vanished as she looked from me to Medusa. I was silent as I looked at Medusa, that was an interesting way to start this little meeting if any. I extended my hand out for her to take, we clasped hands and then I spoke.

“As the King of Pandora, I accept the formal surrender of the people of Attilan. Your people shall henceforth from this day onwards be my own. As their king it is my duty to protect them, to uplift them, to ensure their flourishing and prosperity. ” I spoke with solemn tones.

“Thank you, my king.” Medusa said, bowing. Andromeda and Namora shared a slight glance that I caught, but I ignored it as I took my seat at the head of the table. Natasha was on my right of course, with Medusa right beside her. On the other side of the table sat Andromeda on my left, with Namora completing the line right beside her.

Silence descended as I allowed them the time to digest what was on the screen before them. Andromeda and Medusa were the first to recover, I allowed Namora some more time as I sent off a message to Jean on the space station. While she was far too excited to visit the colony, in addition to dealing with a homesick eternal, I was positive that any civilization Titan had crumbled long ago. . Then again, with my luck some just might be alive. I grimaced, and quickly sent her a list of things to watch out for.

My attention shifted back upwards as I heard Namora clear her throat.

“Can you please explain your statements in regards to our pollution levels?” She asked diplomatically.

“Of course” I said with a winning smile, “1994, Namor scuttled a fresh and upcoming offshore drilling site, but not before they broke ground.” I told the table and as I spoke a holo-image popped up in the middle of the table for all to see. “He destroyed the drilling platform and then covered up the site. But things are never so simple, there was displacement of some tectonic plates due to an underground earthquake about three months after.”

The image shifted to show the reports and readings gathered at the time.

“It’s not enough for you to see the difference, but the main city of Atlantis has been in oil-filled waters for some time now.” I finished up before changing the image to the dome covering the city currently. “I have mechanical squids in the water now trying to plug these holes, but until then the dome will be filtering everything.”

“My king, should we not evacuate the populace until this is handled?” Andromeda asked, trying to keep up a façade of neutrality…

“No need, the magically constructed dome is taking care of the situation as we speak. Not only that, but I even worked in a minor healing into the dome. It’s only going to last over the next five days, but it will cure everything short of missing limbs.” I replied as the holo-image shifted once more. The image changed to show a white glow emitting from the dome over atlantis. The image shifted and the ladies at the table saw the same thing with the other cities. “Magic is a helluva thing isn’t it.”