Everything I Am - Orm Marius/Ocean Master

Chapter Eleven - Rescue Mission

"AH!" Aurelia took a swing at the nearest stone structure - her punch made the whole thing tremble.  The others - Atlanna, Mera and Mera's father who had now joined them - watched her outburst gravely. 

There were tears streaming down her face but you couldn't tell due to the water. "I can't believe they did this! I knew they were bad but not like this! I can't believe they think this is gonna make me cooperate with them." She considered punching the stone again, but instead started swimming with purpose down the hall.

"Aurelia, where are you going?" her mother called from behind her. 

"I'm going - I'm gonna bust him out. I have to."

The remaining three exchanged a wary glance before following after her. 

They found her in the main administrative centre. "Aurelia, what are you doing?"

"I said I'm going after him." 

"That's not how this works, I'm afraid," her mother said. "With the Council and now other kingdoms involved."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't exactly gonna ask for permission."

Now Atlanna gawked back at her. "Aurelia, Atlantis cannot extract Orm from an allied nation - it would be seen as an act of war! They know this, that's why they did it this way!"

"They took him, Mum! If they didn't want war then they should never have come for my family. And besides, Atlantis isn't gonna do it - I'm going to break him out myself."

"Aurelia, Karshon is looking for an excuse to seize war powers - you will be nothing more than a figurehead if she does that."

"My place is out there, where I belong, where I'm actually good at what I do." She gestured wildly.  "I'm tired of nothing ever getting done and everyone always pushing me around! I've got to do this. And it won't be Atlantis it'll be me. Atlantis isn't going to march in there, I am. They took my husband and I'm going to get him back and the Council can suck it. And Poseidon help them, Aquawoman is coming."

King Nereus heaved a sigh. "If they find out, if you're caught, it will tear the kingdoms apart."

She glanced around at their little group.  "Then help me not get caught."

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"BOO!" 

"AH!"

Aurelia hooted with laughter when Mera's father nearly jumped out of his armour when she activated the invisibility mode on her blue stealth suit. Hey, this was a top secret mission, and Orm had built her the perfect suit. He had described it to her once as the chromatophores changing colour to camouflage her and make her undetectable to most sensors. Oh, her husband was so good. "Oh, I so got you! See, they'll never see me coming! Okay Ner, what've you got?"

He sighed but complied. "Xebelian intelligence tells us that he's being held on the surface in a one-of-a-kind secret underground facility. They're assuming no sea dweller would ever dare cross the desert."

"Huh, well then it's good I'm of both the land and sea then. What are we doing for comms?"

"Open comms are too risky, I'll be sending a cephalopod with you to act as a messenger," Atlanna said, now with a bright blue octopus floating beside her.

"That's an octopus."

"Tactical Observation and Pursuit Operative. TOPO, for short. But I believe you already know each other. "

"We sure do. Mr. genetically engineered intelligence, for infiltration and espionage. Thanks for helping out, Topo." She and Orm had met him as kids. 

"Blup, blup, blup," he responded. 

"Now in terms of the prison itself," Nereus continued.  "It is guarded by fearsome Deserter remnants."

"Yeah we saw them, they're freaky."

"Death-worshipping ascetics who survived when the Sahara went dry by turning to blood for sustenance. If they catch you, they'll bleed you dry."

"Vampires, great."

"When you find Orm he'll be weak - intelligence says the Deserters are weakening him by limiting his water supply just enough to keep him alive."

"Wait, you mean he could shrivel up and die?" She looked back and forth between her mother and Mera's father, who were nodding solemnly. 

Her heart ached. I'm coming Baby, just hold on.

The queen saving the king - it sounded like a fairy tale. A fairy tale she was so into. 

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The Sahara Desert, home of  the Deserter Kingdom. The Kingdom had settled here long before the desert was established.

It was a long swim, but with anger and determination spurring her on, it went by seemingly in a flash.

She and Topo both used their invisibility to sneak in - she hadn't seen any guards yet but she could hear their growls echoing throughout the cavernous space, so they were there alright. 

She stopped, deactivating the invisibility, waiting for Topo to catch up.  "Hey Topo, I really appreciate your help in all this, but could you try and keep up? Stealth and speed are our best mates here. And try and lay low once we get in there, okay? You may be invisible, but your hectocotylus is starting to smell like warm chum butter-"

She was cut off when water shot out of somewhere - she didn't know where, and probably didn't want to know - and he sprayed her right in the face.

"Oh gross! Where did that even come from? Is ink piss?"

He just chittered, which sounded suspiciously like mocking laughter, and slithered away, squeezing himself into a little crack and disappearing.

Now invisible once again she followed the growling to where she found a group of six guards from the Vampire Deserters - yeah, talk about creepy.  They had been creepy on screen but now in real life was something else entirely. She followed them deep into the prison and to a cell where they looked to be holding an old man. How many prisoners were they holding in here? She had passed several cells on her way in, and this place was cavernous, so it likely had the capacity for hundreds of prisoners at any given time. Yikes. 

From her perch she watched as they ganged up on the guy. Poor guy. He looked like he was going to whither away at any second. If they were treating this poor old man like this, what were they doing to Orm and the other prisoners?

And then they started beating him, torturing him, throwing kicks and punches and zapping him with a taser-like weapon, all while howling with their awful laughter.

That did it.

She didn't have time to wait for Agent Topo Bond to do whatever he was doing - it was now or never.

She activated the cloaking tech on her suit and then came smashing in - literally.

The guards didn't know what hit them, and didn't have long to ponder it before they all lay in a heap on the floor. 

"Leave that poor old man alone! Now where is my husband?" Maybe she should have asked this before beating them up to the point of unconsciousness. 

"Aurelia?" croaked the figure on the ground, the old man - or so she had thought.

She stepped closer, peering down at him. "Baby?"

(Haha, we all saw it coming, but she sure didn't! ;D

Topo is my new favourite sidekick! He's priceless! 

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))