Superman and Aquaman

Wham

Arthur was hurled from the hulking leviathan by a blow that would have taken the head off of an elephant. Thankfully, Arthur was far stronger and possessed much thicker skin. Half way through his collision course with an undersea reef, teeming with life, Arthur flipped himself, counteracted his velocity with a few sound stokes, and swam back towards whichever monstrosity the Bermuda Triangle had spat out this particular week. It wasn't any more difficult than swimming up Niagara Falls. He didn't even drop his trident.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Arthur felt a collective sigh of relief from three million minuscule yet sentient reef inhabitants. He smiled to himself, ignoring the pain in his shoulder where the creature had struck him, and not getting too cocky. They weren't all out of danger yet.

Then he looked up.

Damn, Arthur cursed to himself, as a cruise ship blocked the sunlight overhead. The Bermuda Triangle was a truly horrible place to sail. Or live, for that matter, but there was no land in the trans-dimensional breach which characterized the Triangle and water-breathers were smart enough to stay away. Well, aside from the tiny civilizations which lived on the reefs, but they were immobile and could hardly be blamed for being born within a monster infested area.

Indeed, Old-Atlantis had spent a good amount of magic, centuries earlier, quelling the winds within the Triangle, hoping to dissuade land-dweller ships. It was magnanimous, magically taxing, and, in the wake of steam and motor boats, completely irrelevant. The Triangle was one of the most traveled shipping routs in the modern world.

Land-dwellers, Arthur thought to himself and grimaced, the blind stupidity of some people would never stop surprising him.

The leviathan roared a roar which would tear out a normal person's eardrums, or would have if a normal person could hear subsonic frequencies such as those, and swam up towards the enormous cruise vessel, broadcasting a rapacious desire to feast.

Arthur was faster; much, much faster.

Overtaking it and doubling back, Arthur cut off the creature's assent. Not wasting a moment, Arthur plunged his trident into one of the beast's seven eyes in the hope it would at least that slow the thing.

It did. For a moment. The creature spasmed and roared a second subsonic roar which would cause a good number of tidal waves which Arthur would need to deal with afterward. Black blood poured and then clouded from the deflated pouch which had once been an eye.

However, just as quickly, the beast recovered and resumed his assent. Arthur felt a bit slighted, but it was a eighty-foot, bipedal Kraken-Fiend; how else would one treat a minnow with a spear? Swat and resume. Arthur couldn't even call on any whales or sharks to help. They wouldn't be fast enough and he only would have been putting more lives in harm's way. That was not something Arthur was prepared to do.

No, this would take –

Suddenly, the shadow of the ship vanished. Arthur stopped and looked up. Gone.

Ah, he thought, this had gotten simpler if also inconvenient.

The beast stopped, Arthur felt the slow, creeping confusion in the beast's mind, too large to control but too loud to tune out. Arthur didn't share it. He knew what would happen next. He waited.

Four seconds later, a blue blur plunged into the ocean and delivered a punch that was too fast for normal eyes to see into the face of the creature. Too stunned to howl, the creature recoiled backwards.

"There's a portal approximately three miles to the south. It glows a bright ultraviolet, I expect you can see on that wavelength," Arthur murmured, softly, knowing that the blue blur would hear regardless of his volume.

The blur grabbed hold of the enormous monster and dragged it south. Arthur sighed and waited until he didn't hear the creature's brain anymore. It was in this dimension no longer.

Superman was floating next to him three seconds later.

"Hello, Arthur," Superman said. Ignoring that it should be impossible for a land-dweller to communicate underwater verbally.

"Hello, Superman," Arthur replied, "there should be some -"

"Tidal waves hitting Cuba, I know," Superman finished for him, "I saw those and counteracted the frequencies. Should be fine, though I didn't see. Stayed underwater, out of sight. Best to avoid another international incident."

"Oh, is that island another – what was the word? – county?" Arthur asked, almost amused.

"Country," Superman corrected, seriously, "you should really take more -"

"If they're going to treat all of the world's oceans as one giant communal pool to exploit," Arthur retorted, "I'm not going to bother learning all their petty-"

"It's not petty, Arthur," Superman said, warningly, "it's their world."

"And what about my world?" Arthur said, angry about the subject and that he was getting cross with Superman who definitely didn't deserve it.

"Do you really think I'm trying to say your world isn't important?" Superman looked at him pleadingly. Arthur sighed, letting some of his tension fade. But only some.

"No," Arthur said, "I know you would never think that. You're one of the good -"

"They can all be 'good ones,' Arthur," Superman cut him off, again, "but not unless we give them something to believe in."

"So this is about the Titans," Arthur said. Superman smiled. Arthur didn't.

"We're not calling it 'The Titans' anymore," Superman said, "Diana thinks it's disrespectful. I think it's a tad presumptuous. Bruce just grimaces at the mention of anything colorful and dramatic as if he's not dressed up like a giant bat. Barry and Hal like it, but I think they would be happy with anything. Vic still likes the name. I think he's going to use it for that youth outreach project he was talking about."

"The Young Titans?" Arthur smirked.

"The Teen Titans," Superman smiled in a completely un-ironic manner, as if the idea filled him with optimism.

"So Victor is out already," Arthur said.

"No, he's going to do both," Superman gave Arthur a look, "I know what you're trying to do. No one has turned me down. You're the last one left from September."

"You decided to come to me last?" Arthur grimaced. Fully aware he was going to need to do something about that chip on his shoulder one day but not entirely caring at the moment.

"I knew it was going to take everyone else signing up to get you involved," Superman countered, not having any of it.

"Look, if we're ever invaded by Apokolips again," Arthur began. He waved his hand to indicate he's be willing to help out but didn't feel like using words.

This was not what he wanted to deal with today. Hulking monsters, sure. Inter-dimensional attacks, why not? But this was worse than those New-Atlanean extremists who suddenly wanted to declare him a god-king after years of calling for his death. Well, not that bad, but still not what he wanted to be doing today.

"We won't be," Superman asserted, "Diana is consulting with the Gods of New Genesis. Hal is alerting the Guardians of the Universe. Bruce and Vic are building a satellite early warning system for future invasions from anywhere."

"The Deep Six stayed behind," Arthur countered. Superman looked surprised.

"They did?" he asked, "you found them?"

"Yes," Arthur said, "they were trying to strong arm their way into ruling a small undersea village in the Arctic. I threw them into the inter-dimensional rift. Which is why I was here when that," Arthur gestured in the direction of the rift, "came out. Still, it was quite pathetic. You should have seen them, all ragged and confused. I don't think Darkseid chose his minions on their individual ambition."

"I don't think so either," Superman said.

"It's a good sign," Arthur said, "it means there probably weren't many others that didn't get forced down the Boom Tube. Not that the Six knew about, at the least."

"Barry found a Parademon in Africa," Superman said, offhand, moving to a sitting position while still eye level with Arthur. For a moment Arthur wonder whether Superman was flying or swimming. Then he shook the question off.

"What was Barry doing in Africa?" he asked.

"Apparently there's a secret civilization of Super-Intelligent Gorillas somewhere in-"

"The Congo," Arthur finished, finding a bit of pleasure in knowing something about the surface world that Superman didn't, "Gorilla City, yes. Atlantis does a lot of trade with them."

"I thought you were an exile," Superman said.

"Things change. It's been a busy few months," Arthur said, "I'm even married now." Superman brightened at that, resuming a vertical stance and patting Arthur on the back just the tiniest bit too hard. He grimaced.

"Congratulations!" Superman laughed, "what's her name?"

"Mera," Arthur said, smiling at the thought but also not exactly wanted to get off topic. Superman was too nice to stay cross with very long and he certainly didn't want to join this – whatever it was – of his.

"Is she nice?" Superman asked, oblivious to the naivety of the question.

"She's like Diana," Arthur said before realizing how true it was, "but – he almost said 'scarier' – more so," he finished. Superman whistled. Underwater. How was that even – never mind.

"Lucky man," Superman grinned. Arthur couldn't help grinning back.

"I'm not joining your team," he said, still grinning.

"You are, though," Superman's smile didn't break, "Look at you. You couldn't even let that reef get trampled." Arthur wondered exactly how long Superman had been watching him before getting involved. It was vaguely disquieting but Superman didn't like stepping on anyone's toes. Arthur decided to take the compliment and not feel infantilized.

"There is no one I know, aside from maybe this plant... thing in Louisiana," Superman went on, "who is more attuned to life on this planet than you."

"Have you looked in the mirror?" Arthur was incredulous and wasn't even going to ask about the swamp-thing. Superman waved his comment away.

"I just have big ears," he said, "you can feel life. All of it."

"Only water-based life," Arthur corrected.

"All life here is water-based life," Superman countered. Arthur sighed and knew it was true. So much for that argument. "And this isn't about fighting monsters or throwing people in jail. If something like that happens and more than one of us are around. We'll deal with it. That's how it has always worked. But. This is about creating something that people can believe in. So we don't have to hide or run anymore once the danger is over. We can be a symbol for people. People on land and, if you'll allow it, people below sea-level. They can be so much better if only they have people to show them the way. This about providing a network which will allow us to deal with huge threats, not to one country or another, not tethered to any governmental authority on Earth, but one that protects all life on -"

"What's it called?" Arthur broke, knowing he'd lost.

"Wait, I have a lot more things to say," Superman said and held out a forestalling hand, oblivious for a moment that he'd won. When it hit him, he smiled.

"You're in?" he asked, elated.

"With a few conditions," Arthur warned.

"Everyone has conditions. Victor wants to build us a base on the moon as one of his. Batman tried to get his protegee on the team," Superman said.

"You didn't let him," Arthur said, shocked.

"Of course not," Superman assured him, "But he's heading out the Teen Titans initiative. Barry's nephew too. Fully supervised," Superman added.

"Well, I suppose that's alright," Arthur grumbled, not one bit pleased with dragging children into this. Of all the things for Bruce to ask for.

"So what are your conditions?" Superman said the last word teasingly.

"One, I don't want to be called Aquaman," Arthur started. Superman winced.

"It might be a little late for that," he said, nervously.

"Is this about that horrible Lois Lane woman?" Arthur asked wearily.

"The article won a Pulitzer," Superman said, "everyone has read it. Everyone knows you as Aquaman."

"Well that's terrible," Arthur grimaced, glad he hadn't been on the surface lately.

"They love you," Superman tried to console, "you're on T-shirts and everything. All over Cape Cod, they have banners declaring themselves the Home Town of Aquaman. You're a hero. We all are. That's what Lois' article made sure of. People know who were are now. That's why this is viable. That's why we can make a real change."

"It's degrading," Arthur insisted.

"You're just going to have to own it, Arthur," Superman said, and shrugged. "I didn't choose my name. Neither did Diana. Bruce is annoyed that people have started leaving off the 'the' in his name. It's fun to tease him about it." Superman's eyes smiled but his face was pleading.

"Fine," Arthur sighed, not wanting to be more difficult than Bruce. If it weren't for the fact that Superman didn't lie, he would have treated the claim that Bruce was in as manipulation. But then, Bruce had gotten them all together.

"Good," Superman said, affirmatively.

"My second condition," Arthur reminded him.

"Ah," Superman said, and waited.

"We're going to be for the whole world," Arthur stated.

"I already said that," Superman retorted.

"I know what you said," Arthur replied, "but I need to know that means something. I don't want to throw into this and then we can't help people in a certain part of the world because of these stupid, arbitrary lines you land-dwellers draw in the sand. I don't care about the current socioeconomic power structure or your squabbling politics. I don't even care about Homo Sapiens. We are for Humans and Atlaneans and Sentient Gorillas and Cosmic Dolphins and Robots and Refugee Martians -"

"Do those exist?" Superman asked, puzzled.

"There are a few who live in New-Atlantis," Arthur said, "a few more in Poseidonis. They're old and psychic and they taught me everything I know about my telepathic abilities. They're peaceful and they know what losing a planet teaches you about life. I won't give them any less protections than -"

"Neither would I," Superman said, not smiling. His eyes were heavy and his brow furrowed. This was a man who would protect anyone and everyone. No matter what. Arthur let his inhibitions lax. It wasn't going to be a problem. This was Superman. Arthur marveled at how that name had come to mean so much in the few months since he had surfaced. It was quite a thing. Nonetheless, he wasn't perfect. For someone who was the greatest protector of life on this planet, Arthur thought, Superman was sometimes ignorant of just how wonderful and intricate that life could be. They'd work on that.

"I'd love to meet them," Superman said, at last. Arthur smiled.

"We can arrange that," he said, "there are probably some on the surface as well. Shape-shifters. I doubt they would be very open. You land-dwellers aren't a cosmopolitan sort."

"Yet," Superman smiled.

"Yet," Arthur agreed and shrugged.

"Any more conditions?" Superman asked.

"Well, first I want to hear the name," Arthur started, "if not 'The Titans' what?" Superman paused for effect.

"The Justice League," Superman said and let it hang in the water for a moment.

"And you thought that was less presumptuous than 'The Titans'?" Arthur raised and eyebrow.

"Yes," Superman said, earnestly, "Titans implies that we're born different, better. That we're more powerful and elite than the common man. I don't like that. Furthermore, it puts focus on what we are. We need to be about what we do. Our actions define us, not our status. We protect. We equalize. We're for everyone. More than that, it advertises that we're a group that others can participate with; join even. It's fluid, not something anyone is born into, but something everyone can aspire to." Arthur nodded. That was a good pitch.

"Okay," Arthur said at last, "I'll ask her."

"Ask who?" Superman cocked his head.

"Oh, didn't I mention?" Arthur said, casually, "my third condition. My wife is on the team as well."

Superman grinned ear to ear.

"I can't wait to meet her," he said, "you won't believe what happens next. This is only the beginning."

Aquaman smiled despite himself.

Maybe it was a good day after all.