JLU 2001 Fanfiction - Aquaman #17

	*King of the Seven Seas.....* Surface Election Days - part 1
Aquaman #17 - December, Year Four	by Mark "Puff" Anderson

Along the east shore of Manhattan;

In the East River, a trail of bubbles appeared near New York University Medical Center. The trail of bubbles built in size and intensity as it moved northward, passing under the Amtrak rails. Moving parallel to the FDR, the bubble trail slowed as it crossed under the 495 near the United Nations. Coming to a stop, the bubble trail disappeared.

SPLASH! A moment later, a metallic silver circular shape burst from the water. As the East River dripped from the globe, a blue-tinted windshield could be seen.

Through the windshield, the startled inhabitants of NYC could see Aquaman and another man. Aquaman’s hands flew over a control console as he drove the Transport Bubble toward their destination.

He brought the two-man Atlantean transport around the building and set it down on United Nations Plaza in the diplomatic receiving area.

A group of dignitaries stood nearby ready to receive them. The bubble hummed for a few moments as Aquaman shut down its motors. He was surprised to see who was standing at the head of the group of dignitaries who had come down to welcome him and Atlantis’s new UN Ambassador.

United Nations Secretary General Koffi Annan stepped forward, extending his hand. “So good to see you again,” he said as he shook Aquaman’s hand.

“And you,” Aquaman said shaking Annan’s proffered hand.

Gesturing, Aquaman said, “May I present Atlantis’s new UN Ambassador, Tiolus Brim.”[1]

Annan greeted Lord Brim. “Welcome to the UN, Mr. Ambassador,” he said formally.

Brim nodded. “I look forward to the experience,” he said.

“We are having quite the assemblage of Justice Leaguers come before the Assembly lately,” the Secretary General continued, glancing back to Arthur, referencing the recent address by Wonder Woman and Superman.[2]

“Yes,” Arthur agreed, aware that they had done so though not of the content. “But this isn’t about Justice League business. This is about Atlantis taking her place among the nations of the world. And about the shift in her political structure.”

He had noted the new island off of Staten as they had come upon it on their way past Rockaway Point into the Lower Bay. And while Diana hadn’t told him that Paradise Island was going to move into the sea here, the local sea life had certainly gossiped enough about it on the trip in that he had known it was there while he was still 250 miles out to sea.[3]

“We heard about the upcoming elections in Atlantis. Is it true that you, yourself, moved for the dissolution of the Monarchy?” Annan asked.

“Yes. It was the right time politically and the right move to keep Poseidonis from falling into anarchy after the events of the Shark’s reign,” Arthur responded.

“Mr. Secretary,” Lord Brim interjected, “one of the reasons that King Orin accompanied me today is to request UN observers for the election.”

“That would be within your rights as a member state in good standing,” Annan responded. “Though the logistics of such a thing…”

“Would be handled by the Atlanteans,” Arthur finished, nodding toward the Transport Bubble that had brought he and Brim to New York. “We are prepared to keep the observers as warm and as dry as they want to be. And to give them full access to anything they need to look at related to the election.”

“You will address the General Assembly?” Annan asked Arthur.

Arthur took the measure of the man. He was soft-spoken and polite. His smile belied the power that he had. He liked him. He got a bad rap many times due to the nature of some of the things that the member states got him involved in, but he seemed an honorable man.

Arthur shook his head. “No,” he said, “I won’t be. But I will be attending Brim’s first address as our ambassador.”

“So, you will be here for at least a day?” Annan asked.

“Or two,” Arthur said with a smile, glancing at Lord Brim, “depending on how long it takes for him to step to the podium and finish clearing his throat.”

Brim smiled at the tease. He had known Orin since he had first come to Atlantis, through all his travails. He was one of his best friends in the world. He would not fail him.

“Excellent, then I would very much enjoy it if you, both, would join me for dinner tonight?” the Secretary General asked. “Small. Non-formal at my residence.”

Arthur and Brim acquiesced.

Nodding, Annan said, “I will leave you to the staff to repair you to your offices,” taking his leave.

A whirlwind of bureaucracy took up the afternoon.

Across town;
The West 30th Street Helipad;

A man in a trenchcoat stood talking to a man in a black suit and black shades.

“You have all the information on the target?” the man in black asked.

The big man in the trenchcoat sighed deeply. “He is Aquaman. I’ve read all the news reports. I know. He’s tough. I came prepared,” he replied.

“If anything should go wrong…,” the first man said.

The trenchcoated figure smiled. “You would do well not to threaten me, little man. My only family could gut you before you even knew he was there. And if anything goes,” he made air quotes with his fingers, “wrong, he’ll be looking for you.”

The trenchcoat pointed at a nearby building, where a security camera hung slightly askew. “Wave, so that Saber knows everything is okay,” Cannon advised. “He insisted on us meeting at a place where he could get a good look at you before he’d sign off on the job going forward.”

Cannon’s cell phone rang. He answered. “Yes,” he said.

He smiled. “Yes,” his smile became bigger.

He nodded. “I love you too,” he said hanging up the phone.

“Saber said that you should really spend more on your shoes. Buying an expensive suit and then cheap shoes sort of defeats the purpose,” Cannon advised his handler from the ASA.

“Just do the job, Cannon. Do this job well and you are back in the good graces of the Agency. And there will be more work coming your and Saber’s way,” the man in black tossed a cigarette to the tarmac of the circle.

“Assassinating a JLA member,” Cannon said with a smile. “What could possibly go wrong?”

“He’ll be at The Davidson in the room we indicated,” the man in black said. He gestured toward a waiting helicopter. “The weapon you requested is onboard. The pilot is one of ours who has been properly sanitized. See that you don’t miss.”

The man in black turned and strode across the heliport tarmac and out of sight.

Cannon smiled pulling a shaped RPG shell from his trenchcoat. “Oh yeah, I’ve got a little something for the fishman,” he smirked. The wind blew his trenchcoat tighter about him as he walked toward the helicopter.[4]

The man in black raised a cell phone to his ear. “Director,” he said, “the operative is primed. The Op is a go.” He snapped the phone shut and continued walking away.

Manhattan;
The Davidson;

The Davidson was an older hotel, lots of grandeur and old money. Arthur felt at home here. Brim had wanted to stay closer to the UN. He had suggested the Lombardy.

But whenever Arthur was in New York, he liked to stay at the Davidson.

It stood just outside of the Financial District.

Arthur was freshly shaved. His chin rested in the palm of his hand, a pair of orange briefs all that he had on. He sat in his hotel room, looking out over NYC to the south.

Years ago, he had come to New York. He had been King of Atlantis for a year or two at that point and a superhero for just a few years more than that. That trip had ended with him and Batman teaming up to stop an assassin who had him in his sights.[5]

That trip, he had stayed in this same hotel… He had looked out at this same view…from a good 20 floors deeper in the hotel. He had looked out at a skyline dominated and dwarfed by the World Trade Center.

Now, he looked at the changed skyline of southern Manhattan from a good deal higher up. The buildings’ absence was sobering on their own. Added to his own broodings on events in Atlantis…the election, the shift from monarchy to democracy, the change of the economy from agrarian and mystical to technological and scientific.

Poseidonis and Atlantis, in general, had enemies. He stared hard toward Ground Zero wondering if they would go that far.

The answer left him cold.

He rested his forehead against the cool glass of the window.

“Vigilance is a necessary quotient in the future of the fledgling democracy being born beneath the waves…vigilance and…” he murmured lightly.

A flash of light caught his eye. He glanced toward the west. A trail of light seemed to be rising from one of the buildings in the distance.

KA-ROOM! An explosion rocked his window, shattering it inward. A small rocket propelled grenade had struck the glass. The shaped charge blew in the window expelling its force through the room.

Arthur stared at the building supports exposed in the now destroyed sheetrock walls of his room. Absently, he thought, “The explosive didn’t damage the building structurally.” He blinked. “That means it was only supposed to kill me and leave the building intact.”

He stepped to the blown open window. “How thoughtful of them,” he said as he looked out on the open New York skyline before him.

He wiped his forehead. His hand came away with blood on it. Shrapnel pierced his flesh in a number of places, none of them severe. In the distance, he could hear fire trucks and police cars approaching. Fire alarms were sounding in the building.

There was a pounding on his door.

On the street in front of The Davidson Hotel;

Lord Brim was standing with a crowd of people as the Emergency Medical Technicians lead Arthur from the building.

As his friend rushed up to him, Arthur raised his hand, “I’m fine, Triolus,” he said.

“You were lucky,” a deep voice said from nearby.

Turning, Aquaman saw a red, white, and blue-clad form striding toward him.

“Hello, Nation,” Arthur said. “You got here awfully fast.”

“Aquaman…Ambassador Brim,” the American Security Agency representative said. “The director had me in NYC checking on some things for him. I heard the report about the attack on my suit radio.”

Arthur gave him a hard appraising look, but seemed to accept his answer.

“The RPG put through your window was very sophisticated. No structural damage to the building from what I could see on my flyby,” the agent said. “If not for your body being acclimated to the high pressure, deep sea environment, you’d be dead. Someone tried to take out you, specifically you. The weapon was designed and targeted so well that the windows in the rooms on both sides of you didn’t shatter.”

“I don’t think it was supposed to kill me,” Aquaman responded as he pulled the blanket that the EMT’s had pushed on him off his shoulders. He stood on the street in NYC in a pair of orange-scaled swim trunks. The EMTs had hustled him out of the hotel room quick enough that he hadn’t had time to properly dress. He had grabbed a pair of sandals and here he stood. “I think this was the opening gambit by those who want to disrupt Atlantis.”

Nation nodded, pursing his lips. “Officially, the U.S. government would prefer that you keep your political fights in Atlantis,” he said.

He stepped closer and continued in a quieter voice, “Unofficially, if you need me or the Force, call us.”

Arthur smiled at the American agent. “I appreciate that,” he said as they shook hands.

Nation waved a NYPD officer over. “Officer Handy, would you show the King the spot where the RPG was launched from when you finish up here at the scene?” he asked.

“Yes sir,” the officer responded, nodding.

“I’ve got to file my report about this. Homeland Security is going to climb all over us on this one. Add to that the exotic anti-personnel nature of the explosive,” he shrugged. He waved as he activated his gravity repulsors and flew uptown.

“Brim,” Arthur said, “go back to your room. I’m going to grab some clothes and do a little superhero work.” He led Brim back into the Davidson.

Upstairs, he rummaged through the remains of his personal items that had been recovered from the destroyed room. His classic uniform was destroyed. The pants he had worn during the hook years were burnt. The only uniform that was complete and undamaged was the blue, white, and black camouflage wave pattern. Tempest’s red and black costume looked a lot like this uniform.[6]

Slipping on the pants and the tunic, he was surprised that they still fit.

“Okay, New York, here I come,” he said, glancing at his reflection in a nearby mirror.

On his way out, the hotel manager handed him the keycard to another room, promising that by the time he returned his undamaged belongings will have been cleaned and moved to his new room on a different floor.

Aquaman met Officer Handy at the hotel’s side entrance.

The police officer led Aquaman off into the New York night.

To be continued...

BACKSTORY:

1. Lord Brim is an Atlantean Merchants Guild leader and friend of Arthur and Vulko.

2. Superman and Wonder Woman appeared at and addressed the UN in recent issues of JLU-2001’s Wonder Woman by Matt Hrubey.

3. Again see recent issues of JLU-2001’s Wonder Woman.

4. Cannon last appeared battling the Adrian Chase-Vigilante in mainstream DCU’s Vigilante #7(1984).

5. This took place in mainstream DCU’s Aquaman, Volume 4, #8 (1992)

6. He wore this uniform during the mainstream DCU’s 1986 Aquaman 4-issue mini-series.