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Attack on the Surface World1,826 words
Welcome to Atlantis2,502 words
The Ring of Fire3,756 words
The Kingdom of the Deserters2,600 words
The Black Manta3,962 words
Reinforcements from the Deep2,863 words
Escaping The Trench1,518 words
The Hidden Sea1,595 words
The War Between Two Kingdoms2,200 words
Aquaman vs. Ocean Master1,120 words
Protector of the Deep340 words
Epilogue465 words

The Kingdom of the Deserters

After evading Orm’s forces, the Turtle Sub swam safely from the border and hid somewhere safe until the Ninjas deactivated the Turtle Sub’s invisibility cloak.

“Well that was close,” Raph quipped.

“Tell me about it,” Rainbow replied.

“Is everyone alright?” Leo asked.

Everyone gave a confirmed look to Leo and they were all in one piece.

“So, what do we do now?” Sunset questioned Leo and Twilight.

Twilight explained, “For starters, Aquaman and Mera are going back to the surface world to find a trident. However, Orm is still at large and we have to stop him before he gains a powerful army to destroy us all.”

“In order to prevent that, we have to split up. One team should go up to the surface and help our Atlantean friends while the rest stays here in the Turtle Sub and find help to defeat Orm's army,” Leo continued. “Donnie, Raph, April, Sunset, Rainbow, Applejack, and Fluttershy will remain here while me, Mikey, Casey, Twilight, Spike, Rarity, and Pinkie will go up to the surface. Any more questions?”

Everyone stood quiet and shook their heads.

Leo nodded, “Alright then. We're good to go.”

“Then what are we all waiting for? Let's do this!” Rainbow exclaimed, feeling motivated.

Minutes later, the Ninjas caught up with Arthur and Mera, heading towards the hangar. After that, they all flew on a plane filled with farm animals over the Western Sahara.

Arthur paid the pilot some pirate coins and told him, “Thanks for the ride.” He then noticed his wife feeling nervous, “Are you okay?”

Mera answered, “I've never been so high up before. Or so far from home from our son.”

Rarity assured her, “Just try to relax until we arrive, dear.”

“At least you have a home,” Arthur said.

Mera replied, “Not anymore. I can never go back. We can never go back. I betrayed everything when I saved you from the coliseum.”

“Don't you think your dad would forgive you? You're family, after all.” Spike wondered.

“Atlanis is many wonderful things.” Mera continued, “But forgiving, it is not.”

Arthur stated, “But you're royalty.”

“So was your mother,” Mera fired back.

Mikey added, “Oooh, shouldn't have gone there.”

Mera continued, “If I went back now, I'd be sacrificed to the Trench. Even my own father wouldn't take me back.”

Arthur assured her, “Well, look on the bright side, you don't have to be around with that tool bag of a brother of mine.”

Mera told him, “But what about Arthur Jr.? I'm definitely worried about what would happen if Orm lays his hands on our son.”

“He's tough as nails. He can handle himself for a while,” Arthur assured her.

Mera continued in a sad tone, “Sometimes, you have to do what's right, even if your heart aches against it.”

While the surface team continued traveling by plane, the scene zoomed out and transitioned into Atlantis as one of Orm’s men located Mera.

“Your Highness, the tracker places Princess Mera here, in the Deserter Kingdom.”

Orm and Nereus looked at the map to see the location of Mera.

King Nereus told Orm in anger, “You said that she was dead.”

“Apparently not,” Orm replied.

“Then your brother still lives as well?” Nereus added.

“Not for long. Captain Murk, assemble a strike force immediately.”

Captain Murk nodded as King Nereus shouted, “No! Mera is to be arrested and safely returned to me.”

“She betrayed the throne.”

“She is the daughter of Xebel,” Nereus stated. “If any harm befalls her, our coalition is over.”

Vulko then entered the room and informed Orm, “Your Highness, we are entering the waters of the Fishermen Kingdom. Securing the alliance of the other two kingdoms should be our immediate concern.”

“My vizier is correct. As usual,” Orm replied before turning his attention to Nereus and Captain Murk. “Arrest them and bring back King Nereus' daughter unharmed.”

Orm looked through the window of his ship to see the fantastic view of the Fishermen Kingdom while theTurtle Sub followed it with its invisibility cloak. He then asked, “How's Arthur Jr. doing, Vulko?”

Vulko answered, “Good. I'm surprised you care about your half-nephew.”

“He's the only thing of my brother's that I care about,” Orm stated as he looked on.

Back in the plane, the heroes rested until Mera found a reading from her tracking device. She alerted everyone, “We're here.”

“Hey!” Arthur shouted in a tired state. “Is there anything nearby?”

“Nothing but desert for hundreds of K's, mate!” The pilot answered.

“Must be a malfunction. Let's wait until we arrive at a town to get information,” Twilight suggested.

“How about? No,” Mera told them while opening the door.

The pilot shouted, “Hey! What are you doing?”

“Wait! No! Oh…” Leo warned Mera, but she jumped out of the plane without a parachute anyway.

“She just jumped! She didn't have a parachute!” The pilot exclaimed.

“Redheads! Gotta love 'em.” Arthur said until he jumped out of the plane without a parachute. “WOOOOOOOOO!”

The teens looked on as the lamb baaed in curiosity.

Leo and his team jumped right after grabbing enough parachutes, following Arthur and Mera.

Seconds later, they all landed on the middle of the Sahara Desert.

“Wow. You're crazier than I thought,” Pinkie commented.

“A ha. This way,” Mera walked up north to follow the signal from her tracker.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Indian Ocean, a squad of Atlantean guards were carrying a chest to meet up with David Kane on a remote island. Then the squad of Atlantean guards halted as Captain Murk activated a hologram sequence to project a hologram of Orm.

“You were defeated the last time because your surface weapons failed you. Ours will not,” Orm explained as the guards opened the chest filled with Atlantean gear.

David walked towards the chest, passing through the hologram to take a look at the gear.

“It's prototype armor for the next generation Atlantean soldier. Revenge is something we Atlanteans understand,” While David tested out its sword, Orm continued, “You will lead my finest commandos as your personal army to hunt down the half-breed abomination. I cannot touch them, but you can. He's fled to your world. Kill him and their friends he's with, and you will be rewarded.”

David answered, “Killing him is my reward.” He then picked up an Atlantean plasma rifle and took a look at it.

Orm explained, “The crown jewel. Still experimental. Converts water into beams of energized plasma.”

While Captain Murk poured some water into the plasma rifle, David tested it out and fired its laser at a big rock, making it explode into a million pieces.

David loved what Orm offered and decided to work on a suit of his own back in his ship to matchup against his archnemesis. After modifying his suit and testing its laser out for minutes, the helmet exploded due to its power of the laser.

“Hmm, I think I'm going to need a bigger helmet.”

Meanwhile, Arthur and their friends continued to follow Mera throughout the Sahara Desert.

“Everyone handling the heat?” Leo asked everyone.

“Yeah,” Spike answered.

“I should've brought clothing for this environment,” Rarity said with her hat and sunglasses on while fanning herself with a fan.

Mera explained, “One of the tribes of Atlantis broke off and settled here when this region was still an inland sea. When the water dried up, they perished along with it.”

“P-p-perished?!” Rarity stuttered in fear.

Arthur answered, “Yep.”

Mikey commented, “Uh, way to darken the moment, yo.”

Mera informed everyone, “We're getting close now.”

“Oh yeah? Close to what? Dying to thirst?” Casey joked.

“Close to getting punched in the face,” Mera stopped him.

Arthur told Casey, “Okay. Settle down, big boy. Let me handle this.” He turned his attention to his wife, “Look, Fight Club, I know you're new to how things work up here. Why don't you look around? We are lost. You see that over there? Hey, what is that? Nada. This place is a wasteland.”

“You're the one who calls this wasteland a home,” Mera answered back.

“Oooooooooh,” The Ninjas reacted in unison.

Arthur argued, “This isn't my home! It's not like the whole surface looks like this!”

Mera continued explaining, “Oh, no, of course not. You've also got disgusting cities whose sewers empty into our ocean and whole mountains made out of trash. And, oh, you guys got great factories that do nothing but belch out filth and melt ice caps.”

The Ninjas and Arthur stopped Mera for a second.

“Okay, okay, you made your point, Mera. Listen,” Pinkie told her. “Yeah, we got some idiots running the story, but we've got some good things too. So let's turn that frown upside down, all right?”

Rarity agreed, “Pinkie's right. We got green forests, big mountains, and beautiful lakes. You'd love 'em. They're like little baby oceans.”

Mera asked them, “Are you trying to provoke me?”

Arthur explained to her, “We're just saying that you cannot judge a place before you've seen it.”

Leo agreed, “He's right. And yes, we've done some damage to the environment. But the good we've done outweighs and outnumbers the bad.”

Mera ignored them and walked right passed them. Arthur growled and immediately stopped his wife again. “No. Would you just stop it with that? No.” He swatted her tracking device and continued, “Your stupid Atlantean GPS just told you to jump out of an airplane over the middle of the desert, and now we are stranded.”

Suddenly, Arthur fell into a hole and screamed. The ninjas widened their eyes and gasped.

“Did that just happen, yo?!” Casey questioned.

“Freaky-deaky!” Pinkie said, while she was also defying gravity.

“By Neptune, help me,” Mera commented and followed her husband by jumping down the hole as well.

One by one, everyone started to follow the two Atlanteans.

Deep down below the desert, there was an underground that looked like waterslides and a maze combined together, except there’s sand and no water.

Seconds later, Mera fell out of the slide until her husband grabbed her arm while hanging on to a cliff and he pulled her up to safety. While Arthur pulled himself up, Pinkie and Rarity fell through as well until Rarity summoned a diamond platform to land on safely.

Pinkie thanked her, “Thanks for the save, Rarity.”

Spike yelled, “Incoming!”

The rest of the Ninjas landed on the diamond platform safely moments later.

“That was awesome,” Arthur laughed. He then found the entrance to a room in the Deserter Kingdom. “Oh, look what I found.”

“What you found?” Mera angrily asked him.

Arthur answered, “Yeah.”

He then kicked the rock blocking the entrance to a secret room where the Kingdom of Deserters once roamed. The Ninjas and Atlanteans entered the room to look around and investigate.

Casey whistled, “Check this place out.”

“This is awesome!” Mikey cheered, echoing throughout the room.

Mera informed everyone, “This is the Hall of Armory. Where the legends say Atlan's trident was forged.”

“I don't think they're legends anymore,” Arthur replied, looking around the ruins of the area.

Casey said, “Aw, man. Would've been cool to see this place in action.”

Rarity replied, “I know what you mean. It feels just... Sad now.”

Arthur and Mera then looked at the carving of a broken table. The carving even looked like a trident as well.

Mera commented in amazement, “Vulko was right. It's real.”

“Twilight, is archaeology a form of science right?” Leo asked her.

“No. Archaeology is not natural science.”

Leo replied, “Pity. I was actually starting to like it here.”

They then found something else within the room and it was a hologram projector, covered in sand. Arthur and Mera dusted it off and found a keyhole that looked like a device can fit in there. Mera realized that the recording device that Vulko gave them can fit in the keyhole. She grabbed it from her bag and placed the recording device on the keyhole, but nothing happened.

Mera deadpanned, “Huh. Nothing.”

Arthur scoffed, “Of course it's not working. It's been sitting there collecting dust since before the Sahara was a desert.” He turned around and exhaled in disappointment.

Mera then repeated his words, “"Since before the Sahara was a desert."”

Arthur sarcastically said, “Thank you for repeating what I just said.”

“It's completely dried out,” Mera explained as Arthur shrugged.

Leo added, “Of course, that's the reason why it's not working. Luckily, we packed water bottles in our bags.”

The Ninjas searched for a water bottle in each of their bags, but they were gone except Leo’s.

“Mine's okay. What about you, guys?” Leo asked.

Mikey answered, “I finished mine.”

“Me too,” Casey raised his hand.

“Me three!” Pinkie cheered.

“Did anyone else finished their water bottles?” Leo asked everyone.

Rarity exclaimed in worry, “The heat breaks me out in hives. What was I supposed to do?!”

Leo sighed until he looked at the remains of the water from the bottle. He then realized something and it hit him. “On second thought, let me do this.” Leo managed to gather up the remaining water droplets from the water bottles and formed them into one single droplet.

“Would this be enough?” Leo asked Mera.

“Perfect,” Mera answered as she and Leo worked together to levitate the water droplet and dropped it on the device. From there, the device was activated and the gears started moving as well.

Everyone gathered around to witness the device at the center of the keyhole and Arthur chuckled, “Show off.”

“How in Neptune's beard did you do that, Leo? I have never seen any creature do that before.” Mera asked the ninja turtle.

Leo answered, “It's called the Magic of Friendship.”

“The what now?” Mera asked.

Arthur explained to his wife, “Batman told me it's a little magic thing where they're from. And it's something more valuable than gold.”

Then, a hologram of an Atlantean king appeared, projecting from the mechanism.

Mera commented, “King Atlan.”

“In this trident resides the power of Atlantis. In the wrong hands, it would bring destruction. But in the hands of a true heir, it would unite all our kingdoms above and below. If you seek my power, you must prove your worth. Journey beyond the edge of the world to the Hidden Sea. Look inside the bottle for the charted path. Only in the hands of the true king can he truly see.”

After King Atlan recorded his message, the device and the mechanism was turned off. Mera grabbed the recording device and told everyone, “We can't let Orm find this.”

Everyone nodded and Mera decided it was best to destroy the device. As Mera was about to throw it down, Mikey shouted, “Hey! Wait!” It was too late however and Mera destroyed the recording device.

Mikey groaned, “Aww man.”

“What?”

“Shouldn't we written it down first?” Mikey suggested.

“I memorized it. Didn't you?” Mera questioned him.

Mikey thought about it. “Umm… Oh, yeah. Totally.”

“What'd he just say?”

“Something something trident,” Mikey guessed while Mera raised her eyebrow.

“Doesn't matter. We have the way to the Trident now.” Leo suggested until something opened from the ground where Mera was standing. Arthur took her hand and there was a bottle hidden underneath the ground.

“Look inside the bottle for the chartered path,” Arthur remembered as he grabbed the bottle and opened the cap to find what's inside. From there, he found a paper and unraveled it, revealing it to be a map.

“So, where to now?” Spike questioned.

“Our next stop,” Arthur pointed the map to their next destination, Sicily.

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